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johnmuffus · 5 years ago

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eCom Accelerators 0-100 Review

eCom Accelerators 0-100 Review (Jordan Welch Course)

If you’re here, you’ve probably stumbled across Jordan’s YouTube channel; it’s a common sight for people interested in eCommerce. His channel has gained quite the following, and looks like he released a course to celebrate it.

We’ll go through his eCom Accelerators and take a look at the knowledge presented in it.

Right now, you can pay $497 one time for the course or pay 2 monthly fees of $250. That means it’s almost doubling one of my favorite courses, eCom Elites.

Let’s find out if it’s really worth it.

Who’s the author?

He’s a young entrepreneur (20 years old) and internet marketer, and he’s been focusing on dropshipping since he created his YouTube channel back in 2017’s June.

He took a short hiatus, seemingly while developing this course, but he came back recently with new videos. He’s grown his YouTube channel well over the 25,000 subscribers mark and over a million views on his videos.

While he offers a bit of everything, he still sticks to the usual content provided by other YouTubers: challenges, what you should avoid, marketing tips, mindset, and motivation.

He steers clear from going too deep with his topics, since his knowledge is mostly kept for his course.

The sales page for that course also gives us a look into his personal story and his path. It’s your standard “from nothing to everything” story, so it’s up to you whether you believe him. I really hope the story is true, but once you reach a certain number, you stop believing most of them.

One of his statements is that his personal values include providing value for others out of pure will, yet he’s still charging almost double as many good courses available.

Reviewing eCom Accelerators 0-100

eComm Accelerators is how Jordan calls his personal brand, but the name of the course itself is the 0-100 at the end.

The name implies that you’re going to learn everything you need to start your eCommerce from scratch and scale it all the way to success, or “from zero to 100%”. Just remember that you shouldn’t limit yourself and your business since you can scale it for as much as you want; there’s not something as “100%” with a long-term venture.

The main focus of this course is Shopify and marketing through Facebook Ads and emailing. There are 13 modules in total, but 2 are the introduction and some resources, and the entire course spans 90 videos.

It’s hosted on Teachables, so that’s a nice plus since you’re accessing an intuitive and responsive platform on all devices. You can access it wherever you are, but you can’t download videos.

Module 1

This is just a video introducing you to the course and what you can expect from it. It’s just 2 minutes long.

Module 2

This second module doesn’t have any videos, but instead, it gives you 2 files for downloading. The first file is a list of books Jordan recommends to shape your mindset into a more strategic and businessy way of thinking.

It’s a good read, even if it won’t turn you into a success. It’s good for motivation in any case.

The last file is a “bonus” from this course, and it comes with a few additional strategies you can implement. It builds on Jordan’s content on YouTube.

Module 3

This is the first actual module in this course regarding actually learning something about the business.

The first video is about dismissing common dropshipping myths people might believe, and apart from maybe a couple, you probably already know this stuff if you signed up for the course.

The next video is a business model explanation, which is also the knowledge you already have. At least, I hope so, because I wouldn’t recommend you spend $500 on a course about a business model you have no idea of.

There’s a lesson about creating your business plan. You also learn about a few fundamental concepts like customer psychology, the transition towards shopping online, and an explanation of the ideal mindset.

The last video offers a case study of a store built by Jordan himself. It’s an entertaining video, as always, but it’s mostly for inspiration and a general grasp on the business principles instead of actually learning something useful.

Module 4

The 4th module centers on product research, and it aims at equipping you with different strategies and approaches for finding and validating products. You also get a checklist to follow before going through the topics.

Among the videos, we have the products you should avoid, recommended tools, spying tools, using Facebook, eBay and Amazon to find products, stealing the top products from your competitors, trend tracking, and a final tool recommended by Jordan, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary.

Most strategies have already been considered by beginners with a grasp on the business model, but it’s a good overview on how to execute these tactics. The video on stealing top products is a rare sight, so it’s an interesting addition, ethics aside.

Also, keep in mind most tools will have a price tag.

Module 5

This module is an outline of the step for building your store, and the first video explains why you want your store to look good, for it seems people don’t know why.

After that filler video, you have your standard process explanation: store naming, selecting a plan with Shopify, finding the inspiration for your site, choosing the best theme for you (with an interesting bit on color psychology), setting up a domain and logo, and building your social media presence.

This course has a lot of content about psychology when compared to your standard eCommerce course. Regardless of Jordan’s expertise, it’s mostly knowledge you can find online, but it’s certainly a neat addition if you didn’t know these topics.

Other videos explain which pages and apps you should include in your store. Again, most of the apps will cost you extra. I’ll give props to Jordan for not going the usual way: telling you to get a free (or low-quality) theme and recommend apps to offset everything. However, I’d go a bit over his recommendation and just tell you to look for a theme with the features and price of eCom Turbo.

The last videos are about product pricing, optimizing your product pages for conversions, store settings, your home page, and how to use Oberlo to import products into your store.

Module 6

This module is about using a “hybrid” store; this means using different elements combined for improving your store’s success. It’s mostly about optimizing your store with different tweaks. Jordan focuses on using lading pages for turning your store into a hybrid and getting leads from visitors. Then, you can use the email list to sell your products.

The module starts with a mentality video before going into a complete explanation of how a hybrid store looks; among the features, we have the use of additional pages like bridges. He also explains the reasons why you want to use a hybrid store.

Finally, you also learn about store optimization in general, product testing straight from your site, and how you want your landing page to look after it’s done.

Module 7

Module 7 is about how to create “viral” content that will entice viewers to share it and increase your reach and cost-efficiency.

It starts off with a blueprint you can follow to create your ads, and you then get to see Jordan himself creating his ads with Adobe Premiere and Animoto. Again, keep in mind that these tools carry an additional cost: $40 and $30 each month, respectively.

The next lesson is how you can create your ads by using slideshows, which works as an alternative (and free) alternative to the other methods he recommended.

It closes with a guide about creating good and attractive thumbnails and the importance of offering unique content to get more interactions from viewers.

Module 8

Facebook Ads is the focus marketing approach in this course, and it’s the only one you’re going to find. It starts with a module on the basics, called the 0-60, and it closes with a more advanced module, appropriately called 60-100.

I’ll admit I found it a bit amusing.

The fundamentals section goes into how to get started: setting up your accounts and platforms, a PDF on the terminology used in FB Ads, setting up your pixel, explaining the platform’s policies, a blueprint of how your ad copy should look, a branding technique called “dark posts”, an explanation of how targeting works, a couple of strategies for testing products and how to analyze these tests, retargeting, and solving inconsistencies.

This is one of the best modules in my opinion. Sure, there are a few basic concepts that you can learn from video tutorials and Facebook’s own articles, but Jordan does offer some good content and insight here. He goes into enough detail when explaining, and you’ll leave this module with a good grasp on Facebook Ads.

Module 9

The 60-100 part of the Facebook Ads class is about scaling your ads and building on the success you found using the first part’s strategies and tips.

The first video goes into Jordan’s method for scaling before explaining the standard vertical and horizontal methods. Don’t fall for the fancy words, it’s a good explanation, but the concepts are basic.

Basically, horizontal scaling translates into adding more targeted audiences into a campaign, and vertical scaling translates into increasing your ad budget and spending.

The other videos focus on your standard scaling content: lookalike audiences, manual bidding, how to maintain your campaign, how to revive campaigns with bad performance, and small scaling techniques to increase your return on investment.

Module 10

This module is a bit similar to the previous module about hybrid stores, as both are focused on optimizing your store. However, the 10th module focuses on the more common approaches.

You learn about how you can optimize the loading speed in your store to increase your customer’s shopping experience and make them more likely to buy something.

After that, you go into using sequences like product bundles and upsells. They work to increase the average value your clients spend on each order, but try not to overdo it since upsells can greatly effect your customer experience.

The last lesson is about tracking your profits, and it’s mostly an explanation of how you can keep track of all expenses and revenues to determine your real profit and focusing on it.

It’s not a bad module by any means, but a lot of these tips can be skipped (or done automatically) by getting a premium theme that’s focused on increasing conversions like eCom Turbo. It helps you save a lot of time and money, but I guess these methods also work.

Module 11

Email marketing is explained as an additional strategy to Facebook ads, but there isn’t any depth offered about this approach.

You first learn about why email marketing is important. It basically lets you collect the email addresses from your customers and visitors; you can then use them for sending communications and updates that might make them prone to purchase (discounts, upcoming releases, special offers, etc.).

The other videos are about setting up an email marketing strategy for a general store, how to make it easier to build your emails list, how you should format your email to increase conversion chances, and how you can automate emails for abandoned carts.

The module closes with a few sequences you can copy paste for yourself, but I’ll advise you to use them as reference and inspiration for you to develop your own –or at least adapt these to your style.

Module 12

The next module is about how to run your business in general and the daily tasks you need to perform to keep it healthy.

The videos go through different topics, including the usual problems you can expect while scaling your store and how you can solve them. Then, there are more standard lessons like how to manage and fulfill your orders, using a third-party center for your fulfillments, when you want to set up your LLC, how to keep your finances in check, and how to keep your customers satisfied.

It’s a good module overall, and many courses skip these types of tips, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect or that it covers all the variables.

Module 13

The last module provides a brief overview of how to build your store brand.

You have a video about a few branding techniques for you to grow a general store and another one explaining the steps you must take to implement those strategies. Focus on the “general” part of that sentence, by the way; this is a course oriented towards general stores. Don’t expect to learn about running a niche store.

The module (and the course) closes with a bit of a filler video with Jordan providing his own predictions of what’s in the future for eCommerce. It’s nothing really valuable, but it’s a nice way to close the course, and it makes for an entertaining watch nonetheless.

Refunds

The policy is quite clear: since it’s a digital product, you must only watch under 35% of its entire content. You must also have bought it at its full price, and you have 30 days to ask for a refund.

It’s a clear and understandable policy, but given the course’s distribution and length, it can be easy for you to pass that 35% without noticing.

Consider the content size in the modules about the fundamentals and researching products; if you watch all the videos in these two sections, then you might not be eligible for a refund, so keep track of your consumption in case you’re feeling the course is letting you down.

Final Verdict

Jordan Welch’s 0-100 course from the eCom Accelerator is a good course overall. It’s comprehensive, covers a lot of ground, and you’ll definitely learn how to build your store before optimizing it and running a marketing campaigns focused on Facebook Ads and supported with email marketing.

That’s not the problem. The problem is the asking price of nearly $500. Remember that’s not the only expense: you also need to pay for your Shopify plan, domain, theme, recommended apps, and all the programs used by Jordan of which he fails to mention any pricing.

In other words, it’s an expensive course, and if you follow it to the letter, you’re going to end up spending almost double (if not more, I’m doing quick mental math) on all the programs and apps he recommends.

That’s why I was a bit disappointed about him failing to recommend any fully featured premium theme like eCom Turbo, which can save you a lot of time and money optimizing and automating your store.

Finally, his Facebook Ads centered approach is also a bit of a problem. There are many methods you can use for a more effective marketing campaign, and Facebook Ads alone isn’t the answer to your needs; it’s one of the most important ones, but you can do a lot more.

You can pay less for other courses that also cover topics like getting free traffic through SEO, using Twitter and Instagram, LinkedIn, and even chat bots.

All in all, this is a course with good content, and it’ll teach you exactly what Jordan claims you’re going to learn. However, that doesn’t make it a complete course, let alone the best one you can get for your money’s worth.

Better Alternative

If you really want to find all the knowledge necessary to find success with your eCommerce (be it drophipping or any other approach), then you want to learn everything you can about marketing, scaling, and the different paths you can take to different types of ventures.

When it comes to learning everything about eCommerce, then I’ll always recommend eCom Elites. It’s over 180 videos covering everything you need to know to grow your store. You learn about Facebook Ads at the same level of depth, and you get more depth on email marketing before learning the in’s and out’s of all the other relevant platforms you can use.

Besides, it’s just $197 ($297 for the premium package), so you can just buy it, get a theme like eCom Turbo for less than $100, and save some money for your marketing campaign!

I hope you found this review useful and if you have any questions, please comment down below. I’ll be more than happy to assist you.

Once again, thanks for reading my eCom Accelerators 0-100 Review and I wish you the best of luck.

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topicprinter · 6 years ago

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Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Corey Rust of Envi Adventures, an air tours business.Some stats:Product: Air toursRevenue/mo: $15,000Profit margin: 32.16%Started: April 2017Location: Portland, ORFounders: 1Employees: 3Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?If you have ever met me (which is pretty unlikely), then you probably learned relatively quickly that I’m really into airplanes. And by ‘really’ I mean borderline obsessed. My name is Corey Rust, and I own the Troutdale, Oregon based air tour business Envi Adventures.What we do hasn’t changed the world, we haven’t developed some incredible time saving app, or a revolutionary device that helps anyone make a perfect piece of toast (still waiting). But we have created an experience that provides a 360º scenic view for people from all over the world in an area that we consider pretty special.With millions of visitors each year, Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge is considered the most visited spot in the state of Oregon. Huge numbers like that means huge crowds, and with huge crowds comes unavoidable traffic on the roads.I was convinced that we could tap into that massive crowd and create a solid business. While that quest has been slower than I unrealistically dreamed, we have continued to grow with more and more people flying with us year over year.I remember our first BIG month when we made a ‘mind blowing’ amount of almost $7,000. I was astonished by that simply because people, that weren’t my mother, were actually paying me money for something that they wanted! That was an exciting realization. It was people that I didn’t know, from all over the world, who found me on the internet. That was pretty cool.Now, our best month was over $30,000 in revenue, and that is only in our second year. For a dumb guy like me, it makes me happy to know that I’m providing a service that people from all over the world are interested in. Not only that, but we have been able to generate a brand that people are beginning to recognize and connect with on a different level. Personally, I think that’s the most exciting part.What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?Growing up in Troutdale and learning how to fly in Troutdale, I always loved to fly in the Gorge past all of the waterfalls. I’d hiked the trails by the waterfalls countless times and knew what it was like first hand, but the aerial perspective was always one I enjoyed. Since I loved it, surely everyone else would love it to– right?My quest to start an aviation-themed business started about seven years before I actually did. Back in 2010, I was working full-time, going to school full-time, and engaged to be married. So to make things more stressful in my life, I also decided to start a shoe company.Now, before we go further, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with a flying business. Not a lot, but it’s a short back story, so keep reading.I started the shoe business and called it Envi Footwear (Ah, see? The connection). I’m often asked where the name Envi Adventures comes from. At this point, you’re probably hoping for some deep, symbolic, soul searching reason, but frankly, it was the only thing that wasn’t trademarked.Time went on, school got busier, I got married, work was work, but my ability to manage everything was starting to get ridiculous and something had to go. As I surveyed my life, I knew I couldn’t quit school, most definitely wasn’t going to quit the marriage, and quitting my job wouldn’t be the most fiscally responsible thing to do as tempting as it was. So away went Envi Footwear in late summer 2012. But my desire to have my own business was always on my mind.Years went on, and the idea was still there bouncing around my otherwise empty head. I never invested too much thought into it other than the periodic ‘wouldn’t that be a cool business to have’ thought. Until August 2015.My wife and I took a quick trip to Iceland. As most know, it’s a country with an economy built heavily on tourism. It’s often cold and gray, but unbelievably beautiful and rugged. I loved everything about it. So we flew 8 hours to this awesome little rock in the north Atlantic, and hopped in a car to drive to a waterfall called Seljalandsfoss where we hiked around a little bit. Next stop was another waterfall with a hike, then another waterfall and a hike, and so on. At that point, I thought ‘Let me get this straight; we flew 8 hours to hike by waterfalls with a bunch of other tourists? Something we try and time just right to avoid back home?’Yes.Whilst driving along Route 36 back to Reykjavik, I remember spotting a small airplane flying above and thinking that this would be an excellent place to fly around.Ping! Lightbulb.At the time, I was employed at a place that I was less than excited about, and financially wasn’t hurting, but I also wasn’t blowing my nose with $100 bills. We were getting by. That being said, I knew I didn’t have the funds to go buy an airplane. I had enough room to spare financially to incorporate the business and to build a website. That’s about it. Hard to start an airplane business with just that.But as the persistent, annoying individual that I am, I wasn’t going to let that halt my idea from happening.Describe the process of launching the business.I think it goes without saying that in order to have a scenic flight business, you need some sort of method of providing said flight. Humbly knowing that I couldn’t purchase, finance, or lease an airplane, I had to figure out another way.Meanwhile, I decided to play pretend like I had an airplane, and I had the proper authority to operate the flights. Even though realistically, I wasn’t nearly close to being at that point. So I simply opened a Gmail ([email protected]), threw together a logo, made a very basic website without any booking functions and hardly any information, and opened an Instagram account.More than a year before the first flight with paying customers took off, I posted a picture on the newly opened Envi Adventures Instagram. It was a crappy picture of Mount Hood that I took from a viewpoint on a hike. It wasn’t even remotely aviation related, but it got the ball rolling.I continued to seldomly post on Instagram while I continued my search for an airplane. The Catch 22 was that I needed an airplane before I could get operating authority from the Federal Aviation Administration. I also needed to get that before I could get the appropriate insurance, and permission from the airport to operate. Everything, unsurprisingly, was contingent on finding that airplane.The airplane search struggle continued.I frequented Craigslist searching for airplanes that were for sale, I went to other airplane websites with planes for sale trying to convince the seller to lease it instead of sell it. No luck.I perused the FAA’s public database of airplanes for weeks. I narrowed down searches by airplane type, location, even engine type. I had spreadsheets saved all over the place with this information. Now, the FAA doesn’t give email addresses or phone numbers of the owners of the airplanes. Rightfully so, because they’d have people like me bugging them to fly their airplane. But in today’s modern world, there was a loophole...social media.I went down the list name by name searching for these people on LinkedIn. Any of them that I found, I’d send them a message asking if I could essentially have their airplane. Believe it or not, few were interested in the idea. This went on for what seemed like forever.In between searches, I started to contact flight schools to maybe contract out their airplanes. Had a few meetings that went nowhere, was told the idea had been tried before (like 30 years ago) and it didn’t work so I should just forget about it and give up, and had a lot of unreturned phone calls. No bother, I pressed on.After several weeks, I finally received a response. Like an actual, respectful, considerate response from someone. It read something like, ”Dear Corey, thank you for your offer, and your email about my airplane. Unfortunately, the FAA is a little slow to update their database and that airplane was destroyed in a storm up in Canada. I have another airplane now that I fly periodically. Best of luck in your search.”Hope, diminished.I kept making phone calls, then three weeks after that first email, I received another one from the destroyed airplane owner. It read “Dear Corey, after thinking about it, my work schedule isn’t going to allow me to fly as much as I’d like. If you’d like to use my airplane for your tours, I’m sure we could work something out.”What?!? Finally, I found an airplane! So we talked about my idea, my plans, and for some reason he was convinced. Surely there was divine intervention. He flew it to Troutdale, handed me the keys, and off he went. The airplane was far from perfect to most, but it worked, and to me, it was absolutely perfect.Now the real process of getting approval began. It took months to get it, but I got it, then I got the insurance, and the airport's permission. With a website updated and tours loaded into our reservation system, I kept pushing it on social media and I waited.Then sometime in December of 2016, I get an email from Viator (now TripAdvisor Experiences) saying someone bought a tour. Surely it was spam? It wasn’t!Not only did someone buy a tour, but they were from England. I couldn’t believe it. My first reservation was from England of all places. A testament to the power of the internet.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?Before our first official flight, I relied very heavily on Instagram to market the business– still do. At first, I’d go up in the plane and take pictures from my phone and pretend like they were really good.Then I made connections with ‘Influencers’ by offering them free flights in exchange for photos and that made me realize what good pictures actually looked like. As a very visual business, it was the best platform to show off where we fly, and what we do. It worked great.Our first flight was actually with people who found us on Instagram. He wanted to propose to his girlfriend, so we made it happen. The weather was crap, but it was a special day for them, and hopefully still is.We were in the thick of winter, so I pushed the official start date to April 1st. This gave me some time to do some pre-launch marketing. As the social media accounts grew, I started to get in touch with local media to come out and do a story.A couple took the bait and then things started to grow a bit faster. The phone wasn’t ringing off the hook or anything, but we started to see organic growth and reservations started to come in a little more regularly.In Portland, the tourist season is mid-March to mid-October. Knowing this, I knew I needed to push it heavily on whatever medium I could. We were active on all of the social media channels but I lacked a lot of quality content.I made contact with and was contacted by several photographers and videographers who promised the world for a free flight, but only delivered lackluster results. As annoying as that was, I used their content to promote the brand. Eventually, I found someone who was serious about doing a good job and being forthright with his intentions. To this day, I consider him the ‘In House” photographer.But in spite of the quality content, the one element essential to our growth would be our interactions with people. If customers showed up for a flight and we had nasty attitudes or demeanors, we’d be done. It’s an obvious piece of advice, but if you want to survive, you absolutely have to be good at customer service. And I think we are good at it. We do everything possible to make the experience from start to finish the best it could be by personalizing each tour. One way we do that is the pilots don’t read from a script and I don’t tell them where or what to point out. They say what they want to say making it a very interactive experience between pilot and guest. If they want them to shut up so they can just enjoy the view, that’s fine too. Each flight experience is different group to group and that makes it special.But regardless of everything you do to make it unique, stuff happens, and sometimes it sucks. Like when you have eight flights on a Saturday and something on the airplane needs to be fixed. What do you do when you only have one airplane? How do you deal with all of those customers? Rather than coming up with some ridiculous excuse why we were needing to cancel all of the flights on a perfect 80º day, I contacted each of them individually and explained the situation immediately. Were they bummed, of course. Was I more bummed? I think so. I hate cancelling flights, but not a single one requested a refund, and they all rescheduled. They knew it was out of my hands, and that to be safe stuff needs to get fixed. Had I just cancelled it and not spoken with them, the situation would have been worse, I’m certain.As the first year in business went on, we kept getting reservations through our website, which was great, but I knew I needed additional streams. I kept looking for partnerships and affiliations that would make sense.There are a lot of travel websites out there that you can partner with. Some work for us really well, others don’t. Mostly because of our location. I think the best partnership we have is with Airbnb Experiences. This huge platform of world travellers has opened up new doorways in 2018 that were otherwise shut in 2017. Remember how excited I was when I got a reservation from England? That was a highlight.With Airbnb, we started to get visitors from every single continent (excluding Antarctica of course). The obvious places were dotted on the map from countries like Canada, Ireland, Germany, but when I got a reservation from Egypt, or South Africa, or Kuwait, I was blown away and extremely humbled.As you look for affiliates, even though some probably won’t perform well for you, sign up anyway, because you never know. Plus, it expands your reach and helps in website rankings. Also, provide solid content. Nobody likes minimal effort from a business. It just screams lazy.While things got busier and busier in the first year, some adjustments were needed to reflect what we were and who were. In addition, from the start I liked to pretend I was bigger than I was, and that is still true to this day. I figure if I act bigger and busier, then people are more interested in checking us out. Does it work? I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s hurt us. Of the changes we made, we did some rebranding, cleaned up the website again, and made our airplane look consistent with our brand. This was a game changer. Not only were people immediately able to recognize what airplane they would fly in, but from the ground it was identifiable, which was important too.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?It’s well known that aviation is an expensive industry. The unexpected will happen and it can either make or break you as a business. Knowing that and already being a penny pincher, I made very calculated decisions before spending any money on what I considered non-essentials like little marketing materials such as banners for event (we didn’t go to any), personal business cards (I already had company business cards), or stupid branded ballpoint pens. I didn’t buy that stuff so that there would be a little extra funds available for the essentials i.e. maintenance, fuel, etc.Now, if you’re into all that promotional stuff, then by all means, go for it. For me, they just didn’t serve much purpose at the time. They do now, but when I was first starting out, I didn’t know how things would go and I didn’t want to blow money on stuff I didn’t absolutely need.By the end of the first year (2017), we had money left over. I don’t know how, exactly, but we did. In 2017, there was a profit margin of 8.59%. Not great, but I didn’t lose money. But, something of more value was that I had a better idea of what my costs were and would be for 2018. Knowing that, I increased my prices which not made for greater profits, but also allowed me more freedom to have sales that would actually be profitable while still being very attractive.In 2018, margins nearly quadrupled to 32.16%. Our flight count went from 250 to 570, and the number of passengers we flew went from 589 in 2017 to 1319 in 2018. Needless to say, it’s growing, it’s not losing money, and people still love it.The future is exciting with new tour options, new partnerships, and potentially new aircraft, including helicopters. I’m excited about how this brand has grown and I know it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of a lot of people. We have also moved into our own dedicated terminal and will be hiring a full time pilot beginning this spring!Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?For the most part, I try to accept as many offers to collaborate or partner that I reasonably can. I’ve discovered that partnering with other small/startup businesses and brands is beyond vital. Not only is it great to work with like minded people who share a common goal to succeed, but it expands your businesses reach and exposure.Sometimes stuff happens completely out of your control. In our case, September 2017 proved to be one of those situations when a wildfire started in the Columbia River Gorge and the FAA shut down the airspace. What does that mean? We were grounded for about 3 weeks. 80% of our flights are in the Gorge, so that was a big hit. Had that not happened, September would have been our best month of 2017. Nevertheless, it worked out for all in the end and we survived.But, it was a good lesson to be prepared for the unexpected be it a wildfire, terrible weather, a broken airplane, or whatever...and there’s a lot of whatever’s in business.What platform/tools do you use for your business?We love using FareHarbor, which is our reservation system. This company has built a platform specifically for tour operators and it allows us to scale accordingly with great support. In addition, we use PicThrive to sell photos and videos using our 360º camera.With so many tools out there, I’m learning about new ones all of the time. Some I have no use for, but others just make it so much easier to grow our brand and expand our business.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?I know people love to use Stephen Covey or Richard Branson as influences in their business or success, and I find great value in their lessons and writings. But as weird as this may seem, I find great inspiration from comedians.I wouldn’t know this first hand, because I’m not funny, but the career of a comedian is full of rejection and struggle. From the beginning, they’re heckled on stage. They have what they think is a great set, but when they get on stage and bomb, they’re forced to rethink that. Comedians have a long road to success and the ones that are persistent and just keep at it, find that success.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?A year ago, comedian Larry David provided a list of “10 Rules of Success”. I recommend the read. I think you’ll find that most, if not all, of these items will apply to you.If you think you’ll start a business and be a smashing financial success right off the bat because you think you’re idea is amazing, more likely than not you won’t be. If you are, then awesome. Send me an email and tell me how you did it. But for people like me who didn’t have any outside investment at all, and every effort has been bootstrapped from the beginning, it’s been a very slow, often frustrating climb.I can’t say what success is for you. I know for me, success came at the end of the first year. I had so many people say to me that this wouldn’t work. Because I ignored that and made my best effort to make it work, I’ve proven every single one of those people wrong. For me, that’s success. I’m not financially richer, but I set out to do something and I did. Maybe it’s a little snooty or prideful, but who is anyone to say you can’t do something? If you want to do it, then do it.I knew what I wanted to accomplish, so I heard a lot of “no” answers, but that was just an unfinished sentence of “no, not me.” So I went to the next person. I learned what being resourceful meant, even if that meant being a little (or a lot) annoying to some.If you fail, embrace it. If you succeed, be humble about it.All in all, keep your head up and don’t listen to the cynics. They’re usually just jealous or grumpy.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?While I’m not officially hiring for any positions outside of qualified pilot positions, I am always looking for help with marketing and sales. I know a little bit about digital advertising i.e. Google Ads, Facebook Ads, but I have so many other things that I’m focusing on that the advertising efforts on those platforms often gets neglected. Ideally, a college student looking for marketing experience would be perfect for that slot.Where can we go to learn more?Website: www.enviadventures.comInstagram: @enviadventuresEmail: [email protected] you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

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harborcode · 7 years ago

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#3 | Ch. 1

With her secret identity established, she felt more confident about jogging into the next hallway, even if there was a camera staring her dead in the eye only a couple feet away. She still kept her eyes locked down and away, however, instead of up into the lens. As tempting as it might have been to smile into the camera and flash it a peace sign or stick her tongue out at it, May didn’t want to tempt fate more than absolutely necessary. So, instead of getting a headshot done by campus security, she buried one hand in her pocket and began to page through the other apps on her phone. She wouldn’t have all day to get this done, after all, that TA would start to ask questions if she stayed “in the bathroom” for too long. The last thing she wanted to do was have to hold a straight face and fabricate a story about food poisoning.

She let out a small sigh of relief when she passed over the threshold of the next door, making sure to take a furtive glance from side to side before striding in. May was more than capable of defending herself if things came to blows, but she’d prefer not to escalate this fun little hack into something more serious. Confident that she was now away from listening ears, she broke out into a cautious jog, jumping a handrail and landing on a subsequent flight of stairs that she took two at a time. Her eyes weren’t focused ahead though. Instead, her brown irises were glinting with amusement as she pulled up her email client, and began composing a new message. She scrolled through the list of potential recipients until she landed on the one that she wanted: [email protected].

Campus security was littered absolutely everywhere around her university, and to keep a network like that functional, a lot of resources went into overhead and infrastructure. Part of that was a dedicated network of computers that were constantly monitoring for incoming requests from a central dispatch, telling guards about a potential suspect or patrol reassignment. However, these computers didn’t just take incoming emails, they also controlled things like the electronic locks or the camera system for their building. In an ideal environment, two totally different computers would have controlled each of these functions, but colleges are nothing if not underfunded, so they had decided to cut corners and simply combine the two uses onto one machine. May shook her head sarcastically as she loaded in the email for the stadium’s controlling security computer. She was about to teach them an important lesson about network consolidation.

With the email set up, all that she had left to do was type out the body of the message. She began entering keystrokes as she reached the top of the flight of stairs. May took a hard right, but immediately encountered a rather serious looking metal door that was clearly designed to keep her out. She’d never let that stop her before. Propping one foot up against the wall, May caught her breath as she typed out her payload, the magic message that would bring the whole system to its knees. The best part was that it was only one character long. There was a tiny, quiet, almost unknown suburb of Unicode that was marked as private use by a small business conglomerate out in Japan. There were plenty of small character sets out there that were similar to this one, but this one was special. It had the distinction of occupying the very last segment of standard Unicode. In other words, if you lined every letter, emoji, and other character up in a row, their piece of the pie held the very last slot. This wasn’t interesting in and of itself… until you realized its true potential as a ticking time bomb. May copied the character into her email, and quickly signed the message with a devious grin, typing out her pseudonym in the last line.

-Aut0matic

May wished more than anything that she could see the face of the guy who realized that their security system had been taken down with an obscure emoji. She sighed with a self-satisfied smile, hitting send. Leaning back against the wall, she counted backwards in her head, waiting for that magic moment when the door’s lock would go…

Click.

May laughed to herself, stowing her phone away and striding into the secure section of the arena as casually as she would the restroom. Sometimes, this was just too easy. The time bomb character was special because, when their email scanned messages and loaded them into the inbox, it would shift characters up and down that long lineup of letters as a way of conserving space. In other words, if you sent the letter b in an email to your buddy, the school’s automated systems would sometimes temporarily turn that letter into an a or c, so that the email could compress better and take up less space. Normally this wasn’t an issue, because in the middle of the lineup, there was always some room to fudge the details without any consequences. However, she wasn’t working in the middle of the queue. She’d picked the last character in the lineup. That meant that when you moved it up in the line, it just fell off the edge into nothingness. The security computer, obviously, didn’t handle that very well. That little character crashed the entire system, bringing down the security system with it, and giving her free reign of the building. At least, until somebody noticed.

#fiction #technology #writing #hacking

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sublimedeal · 8 years ago

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Asianefficiency – Finisher’s Fastlane Corporate

How to Finish Everything You Start, So You Can Finally Achieve Your Most Important Goals This New System Lets You Focus on What Matters — Even If You’re Overwhelmed and Don’t Know Where to Start

Something was seriously wrong. Mike was living the good life. Every day, he was making a difference in the world – he was the CEO of a company that builds educational software for schools with children who have disabilities. His work made him happy, and the value he provided to big clients was huge. Past clients he hadn’t heard from in months would regularly email him out of the blue just to say how awesome his software was and how much it was helping them serve their community. So what was the problem? Mike was frustrated, every single day, because there was a huge gulf between his dream version of himself and where he actually was. From the outside, Mike looked successful. He had a beautiful wife, 4 boys and big, beautiful home. But he’d look around at others on Facebook and Twitter — see them giving keynotes, appearing on podcasts, and landing huge clients, and think, “That should be me.” This gulf between dream and reality showed up in other ways too. Mike wanted revenue to be 5x time what it was. He wanted to write a book. He wanted to be the devoted Dad he didn’t have as a kid, but he was barely eating dinner with his kids 1 or 2 times a week.

And like many people, Mike knew logically what he should do to achieve those things. He’d spent hours and hours researching the perfect way to write a book, the perfect time management system to end every day exactly at 5pm, the perfect mindsets for achieving work-life balance. Yet somehow, none of it ever happened. Why? Let me ask you: have you ever been in Mike’s position? I know I have. Back when I was in college, I was full of dreams. I’d envision my future, write out affirmations, lay out the perfect to-do list, plot out the ideal calendar. You name it, I did it. Yet month after month, I was the same unfulfilled, frustrated person. Here’s the problem I had, and the problem Mike had too. Maybe it sounds familiar to you. Like me, Mike had a total inability to focus. He’d sit at his computer and get ready to buckle down on his book, and then somehow, someway, the news would appear on his browser… 15 new tabs would suddenly appear, full of top 10 lists on the best books for entrepreneurs to read, the best to-do list apps, the best way to block out your calendar… Then he’d spend an hour or more flipping through all these distractions, close the tabs one by one, and eventually get back to his book. Then he’d look at his to-do list, sigh, close Byword, and get back to the urgent business of the day: answering emails, making phone calls, etc. You see, Mike was great at getting those things done, things he had to do, like client meetings — which he was a pro at. But then after the important or urgent obligations were over for the day, all his energy would vanish. He might get one or two other things done in a day, but he just couldn’t find the focus to get more than the absolute essentials done. (And that was just work — he also had a backlog of personal stuff to do: small projects around the house, plans with his family, decluttering, updating his computer.) What little focus he could muster was sucked away by interruptions — people calling him, emailing him, client emergencies. He’d forget stuff, get stressed out, and snap at his team members. Mike could never summon the focus to do the real things that would get him to where he really wanted to be: a published thought leader and a devoted father. And because he could only focus on “small fires,” as he called them, he never invested time in his real goals: making more money, becoming a thought leader in his field, and being an amazing dad. He kept trying the same things: different productivity apps, accountability buddies, reading books, tinkering with his calendar. But it was like being stuck in quicksand. The more he struggled, the more he seemed to get sucked back in, never able to reach stable ground. Focus was always just out of reach. Distractions kept him stuck in the quicksand of stagnation. He’d go on Instagram and see people on amazing vacations with their families, building their dream homes, presenting at TED Talks…and feel the envy like a gut punch. Those were his dreams, too. Then he’d just sigh, close the tabs, and think, “Wish I could do that.” Once you stop making progress, you’re declining. And that was true for Mike. He couldn’t break through to real growth, because distractions held him back. Mike knew he was capable of so much more. He was coming up on 15 years since graduating college, and thinking back on his dreams at 22 versus his life at 37…he knew he’d fallen short. And this knowledge was eating him up inside. He felt less confident about what he could do as a person. It seemed like his future would just happen to him…like he didn’t have control over it. 8 years ago, every day felt like a new opportunity to disappoint myself. I was doing fine in classes, but I had this vision of myself as a successful entrepreneur, someone who helped others and made a difference in the world. Yet every day, I couldn’t focus long enough to even write a blog post. I kept getting distracted before I could ever really concentrate. Facebook, the news, TV shows, doing laundry…I’d do anything but focus on working towards my goals. I didn’t know it at the time, but I lacked the ability to do Deep Work. And it was only when I went through a phase of productivity experiments that I discovered the seeds of the system I’ve now grown into a full-blown way to live a driven, focused life. A friend and I dove head first into the productivity literature. We read every book we could get our hands on, we went to seminars around the world with experts like Tony Robbins, and we spent thousands of hours testing techniques out and refining them. All to close the gap between where we were, and where we wanted to be. Over a period of months, I developed a system that worked for me. I finally got clarity on my most important goal. I discovered how to jump start myself into focus, no matter how distracted I was. I developed a foolproof way to find the ONE thing I needed to work on whenever I felt lost during the day. I set up systems for addressing the “small fires” in my life: the phone calls, emails, and meetings that had to get take care of but that would destroy by ability to do Deep Work if I let them. I systemized how to deal with incoming requests, so that every email and “Got a minute?” didn’t become a time debt sucking me away from real productivity. I found a way to banish distractions, so I no longer felt compelled to open Facebook or Reddit every 5 minutes. And I discovered easy ways to find the time for Deep Work, no matter how busy I was. And in the 8 years since, I’ve taught this system to thousands of people, who have paid millions of dollars combined for the information. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First… What Is Deep Work? I’ve mentioned Deep Work several times now, so you may be wondering what I mean by that. Is it just another word for focus? Nope. You see, you can focus on anything. You can focus on a grocery list. You can focus on finding the perfect show to watch next on Netflix. But that’s not Deep Work. Deep Work is a flow state in which you do your most creative work. It’s when your brain starts making connections between different concepts, when inspired ideas come into your head, when the words flow out of your fingers and onto the keyboard. It’s when you’re tackling a hard problem and instead of immediately doing something else when you get frustrated, you stick with it, until you push through to the other side. Here’s how it can look. Picture this scene: you sit down at your keyboard for your early-morning writing session. The house is quiet — not a sound. You’ve got your cup of fresh hot coffee or tea steaming beside you. Your Moleskine journal is next to you, fresh from the journalling session you just completed. You sit up straight in your chair, click on your monitor, and settle your hands over the keyboard. You know exactly what to do. You have the ONE THING you need to do now. You start typing, and the ideas start flowing out. Distractions are the furthest thing from your mind. As you type, your mind zeroes in more and more on what you’re doing. No willpower. No internal friction. No nagging little voice in your head. Just a state of flow. Deep Work. After an hour has passed, you push back your chair, stand up and stretch, smile, and walk over to the kitchen to start making breakfast. Your day has started with a win, and it’s only going to get better from here. Later, a friend asks why you’re so happy, and you tell them you’ve been getting up early to write the book you’ve been talking about for years. And that you’ve already written 50 pages. “ Wow,” your friend says. “You’re really doing it. That’s awesome.” Does this sound like a pipe dream? Or something only a super-disciplined Zen monk could ever hope to achieve? I want to tell you this: I get Deep Work like that done every single day. And if it’s possible for me, it’s possible for you. It doesn’t require willpower. It doesn’t require working 12-hour days. It doesn’t require yelling at yourself in your head about what a lazy underachiever you are. It doesn’t require any of that. Deep Work is something that makes you feel better about yourself, because you get real work accomplished every time you do it. Work that lets you achieve your goals and be the person you know you’re capable of being. Deep Work is something Mike had never experienced. No wonder he couldn’t write his book. His book wasn’t just a simple “open Byword and write” plan. It was a systematic way to take write the book, get it published and a marketing plan so it would be seen by millions of people across the world. To get his book out there, he needed to level up his life, his skills, his approach, the entire way he thought of himself. He needed to get himself from here to there. But at that moment, as he had been for the past 5 years, he was too overwhelmed to even start. Picture that — you’re fired up for a new project, you get ready to start, and you come across folder after folder of unfinished projects. Projects you were just as excited about as this one. “What makes you think you’ll finish this one?” you ask yourself. “Why is this time any different? You never finish anything.” It’s a horrible negative cycle, when you consistently start things and can’t finish them. Mike wasn’t just frustrated, he was angry at himself. Angry that his company wasn’t growing. Angry that he couldn’t even start — much less finish — his most important project (his book). Angry that all the creative ideas swirling around in his head never went anywhere. What’s the point of having amazing ideas if you can’t start and finish them? What’s the point of working if it’s just, essentially, busy work? Mike would sit at his desk at 7pm every evening, look back on another mostly wasted day, and think, “This isn’t what I got into business for.” When your focus suffers death by a thousand papercuts, what really dies is 2 things: 1 Your ability to achieve your vision for yourself by following through on your goals. 2 Your self-respect and confidence that you’ll ever make your goals happen. What makes it so hard for people like you, me, and Mike is that we’re not lazy. We work hard. But working hard isn’t enough. As Tony Robbins has said, “One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power.” To achieve your important goals in life, you must concentrate your power and direct your focus. That starts with building focus, and knowing where to focus. Being smart isn’t enough. The poet Thomas Grey wrote a famous poem where he looks on gravestones in a country churchyard and thinks about the unknown Miltons and Cromwells that could be there. People who could have been famous figures in history, but weren’t. They just never had the opportunity. Similarly, think about the Tony Robbins, Benjamin Franklins, and Steve Jobs who never were. Who could have been — who were on par in intelligence, ideas, and creativity — but could never focus and make their ideas happen. Think about reaching the end of your life, looking back, and seeing what you could have been — what you could have achieved — but didn’t. Not because of a lack of intelligence or work ethic, but a simple inability to do Deep Work. To truly focus on important work. That future loomed over Mike. He saw the huge gap between what he could be and what he was. And it was his lack of focus standing in the way. Are You Stuck in “Putting Out Small Fires” Mode?

Have you tried using GTD, task apps, OmniFocus, Spotify playlists, and other productivity tools — and still find you can’t focus? Do you still find yourself overwhelmed with distractions, open loops in your head, ideas, and your backlog of tasks? It might surprise you to know that a lot of our clients have this problem. They’re excellent at their work. They rarely fail to deliver on things that have to get done. But when it comes to achieving their goals — the goals that keep them up at night — that’s where they fall short. And that’s because they’re stuck in “putting out small fires” mode and managing the urgent — but neglecting the non-urgent and important. Over the past 7+ years, we’ve helped hundreds of clients get better focus. So when Mike came to me for help, I knew what to do. I guided him through the focus system we’ve developed, and that I use personally to stay focused in my life. I gave him quick wins to instantly boost his productivity. Then I guided him through the myths holding him back from focusing, helped him develop new mindsets, and gave him real-world ways to handle the emergencies that pop up and threaten to destroy focus. We also worked together to define his One Thing to work on — out of the 300+ on his list. This gave Mike a clear plan for how to prioritize and where to start. Before, Mike used to do maybe 20 minutes here and there of focused work. Within a week, he was doing 2 hours of focused work a day. Within a month, he’d handled his entire backlog and was able to do 4 hours of focused, high-value work every workday. He wrote eight chapters in one week. The daily energy boosts Mike got from accomplishing important, focused work every day gave him the confidence he needed to approach the big, intimidating publishers he knew he could land — but was too scared to contact before. His employees noticed the difference. He was calmer, more on top of things, and handling all his responsibilities with minimal stress. His wife and kids saw a happy daddy. He was there every morning to get the kids ready for school and at 5pm ready for dinner time. After seeing Mike’s results, I started thinking: I love working with clients one on one, but I wanted more people to see these results for their own focus. Plus, focus is one of the #1 topics people ask us about. Questions like: “How do I stay focused and motivated long enough to finish what I started?” “How do I focus while allowing for open communication so my staff can easily ask me questions?” “I have a million ideas and tasks. How do I know the best one to start with?” “I work in a large bureaucracy with multiple meetings called per week, and each meeting interrupts my focus for 3+ hours. What do I do?” “ What if I miss something important when I go offline for deep work mode?” “How do I make myself do something that doesn’t have a deadline?” “How do I get more than a week ahead, so I’m not always putting out fires?” The antidote to feeling overwhelmed is knowing where to start. And the antidote to a lack of focus is the ability to do Deep Work so you finish what you start. 18 months ago, the Asian Efficiency team and I started developing a course to distill all our knowledge about focus and Deep Work in one place. First, we sent out surveys to tens of thousands of people. Then we followed up with over 100 hours of one-on-one interviews to better understand the problems people were having with focus. We then tested dozens of new ideas with beta testers. We adapted tactics based on their feedback and iterated techniques until our testers achieved the increased focus they were looking for. Then we met as a team and spent days reading interview transcripts and hashing out the outline of our course. After that we spent weeks shooting all-new videos, putting together the course material, and organizing it all into a flow that takes you from zero focus to superhuman focus. Tens of thousands of dollars went into creating this course. We knew we had to make the best focus course available so other people could have the same level of success Mike and our other clients were seeing. And along the way, during all that research and work…

Asianefficiency – Finisher’s Fastlane Corporate published first on http://ift.tt/2qxBbOD

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realitycrazy2017-blog · 8 years ago

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Top 4 Small Business Mobile Apps

New Post has been published on https://realitycrazy.com/top-4-small-business-mobile-apps/

Top 4 Small Business Mobile Apps

As we discussed in a post not long ago, more than 50% of America are now smartphone owners. This growing trend of on-the-go consumers makes it incredibly important for small businesses to continue to reach them. Not only is marketing towards these mobile customers critical, but so is making sure you can operate your own business on the go.

As this trend continues to grow, and mobile phones play a larger role in our lives, so to will their integration with business. If you don’t have a smartphone, now just might be the time. Personally, I waited quite a while before getting one, and now I both don’t know what I was thinking or how I can ever go back.

If you are a small business and smartphone owner, there are likely apps you use regularly to keep things going on the move. Mail, web browser, etc. are all pretty standard, but here are a few you might be missing out on. I have used each extensively and without going overboard on how many to review, I found these to be essential.

These 4 applications make organizing your thoughts, finances, and marketing easier to deal with away from the computer or office.

1. Evernote (Free, iPhone / iPad / Android / Mac / PC)

Developed by Apple for integration with their operating systems, it has since come to Windows computers. Evernote is the quintessential note taking and storing app. It allows you to keep every thought you have written down and saved properly.

You can create different folders so your business and personal notes are kept separate, as well as tags for easy identification. Newly added, the app now features reminders that can be added onto each note you take so you never forget to do exactly what you wrote down.

In fact, I’m writing this article with Evernote as we speak. It essentially saved my from getting the Microsoft Office Suite, or just Word on its own. I think I like it better as a writing tool since it just feels so much more casual, which is my approach to writing. Word reminds me of writing a paper for finals in college.

Formatting text is a breeze like you can in other text editors. Sharing to social networks is also directly integrated. So if you put together something you’d like to share on your Twitter or Facebook page, you can do it directly from the app.

The computer version of the app also allows for seamless, easy synching of all your notes. This way anything you wrote on your phone will be updated on your computer, and vice versa. Now you’ll never skip a beat or need to copy already written notes over.

The bottom line is it makes things easier. Something any small business owner could use. Many people use Post-It notes to control the constant stream of thoughts they have every day when it comes to managing a business. Evernote makes it convenient for you to store those in an organized fashion for the long haul.

2. Wunderlist ($Free, iPhone / iPad / Android / Mac / PC / Web)

This app is about as handy and no frills as a to-do list app should be. I will be the first to say that an app which keeps track of things you need to do seems a bit frivolous. But after going some time without it and trying to use other apps like Evernote to do the trick, I find this much better.

All Wunderlist enables you to do is create a running to-do list of all your tasks. And it works quite perfectly for just this. You can make certain tasks a priority and keep them atop the list. Likewise, you can set reminders or due dates, so you won’t forget. The app will send you a push notification ensuring you really remember to do that thing you wrote down last week so you wouldn’t forget for the third consecutive week straight.

I find that pretty handy with so much going on between life and business.

Naturally, you can add longer descriptions to tasks and include details if need be. You can even share lists directly or over email with others who might need some guidance. For example, making a to-do list for an intern or employee might be helpful if you’re away or forgot your computer.

It helps keep me on track and organized, which is something I try to not take for granted. To mark tasks as done, just check their corresponding box and off they go. It’s kind of gratifying like crossing off something on paper you needed to do.

Once again, this app has the synching ability from smartphone to computer, so you’re always updated across the board. The great part I find is that it is designed to help you on-the-go, and it does that perfectly.

3. Mint (Free, iPhone / iPad / Android / Web)

Finances in a quandary? No ideas where your spending is going? Can’t understand your bank’s outdated web dashboard? Then Mint is for you.

Mint is a simple and secure application that connects directly to your bank account to monitor its activity. It produces these nifty, straightforward charts and graphs at the end or each month, or whenever you want, so you can visualize your business’ spending.

It really makes things crystal clear when it comes to tracking revenue and expenses. Sure your bank probably has a way of giving you reports and showing what’s coming and going, but nothing like this I can assure you.

Mint is widely trusted among people and businesses to track their money, so it’s incredibly secure. You can even setup a pass lock before gaining access to the app. Just sign up, link your account with it, and Mint will start tracking the numbers.

With a much clearer view of how your money os being spent, you can fine tune your budget and allocations to work better for your business. Expenses can be grouped into categories and allotted a monthly limit. Going over this will prompt an alert so you can keep a close eye one exactly what is happening with your money.

The app’s sleek design combined with insightful metrics make it a win-win for small business owners.

4. Facebook

A little more than six months ago and this app would not have been included in this list. It took the developers at Facebook far too long to get an app right. Not only was it’s designed clunky for years, but it didn’t encourage users to keep using Facebook on their phones.

I doubt they truly realized the importance of this fact until it was completely updated and turned into the app we have today. Right around the time of this redesign, they saw a big boost in mobile users. Today a huge portion of their traffic come from people using the app, and it’s pretty clear why.

Anyways, you should be using the app for your business’ own page. Just how simple it is to post to your personal account from your phone, they have made it easy as ever to do for your own page.

Simply log in and add a post, picture, or video, and share away. The mobile friendly nature of the app now encourages business owners to keep their audience in the loop no matter where they are.

Events, news, or spontaneous updates now have no trouble being shared immediately with your following from the app. No longer is it actually easier to wait until you are at a computer to tell the word. Now there should be no hesitation or delay if you want to get something posted.

You can view your page either as an Admin or as the public, so you know exactly how your page looks, and what you can do to update it. There are a bunch of other helpful features added in that makes the experience much easier and seamless to use now.

Plain and simple, if you a manager or contribute to a Facebook page for your small business, get the app.

5. Bonus – Gmail (iPhone / iPad / Android / Web)

This one is added as an extra since not everyone uses Google’s email platform for their business. Personally, I have 3 Gmail accounts and keep tabs on them all on my smartphone so this app is essential.

Even if you just use Gmail for personal email, I would recommend trying this app out. They redesigned it completely not long ago and it really excels. The design and layout are nearly flawless now in my opinion. Plus multiple account integration is a breeze.

If you didn’t know, for only $5 per month, you can use Gmail as your mail provider with a specific domain address. Your email can still remain

[email protected], but instead of using the regular client, you can use Gmail.Not worth it to everyone, but for lovers of Gmail on mobile and the web, it’s definitely an option worth considering.

So there you go, those are our 4 (or 5) best smartphone apps for helping your run your small business. Nothing fancy or intricate about any of them, just good solid apps to make your day to day business tasks easier. Got suggestions for additional ones? Let us know!

To learn more and get a copy of our Free Small Business Marketing eBook,

Kevin Gaertner is Co-Owner of Cyclone Strategies, a marketing agency which helps small and medium-sized businesses create and implement online marketing strategies.

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jpweb12 · 8 years ago

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Landing Page Design Inspiration. 20 Absolutely Stunning Landing Page Designs

Actually, designing a successful landing page that converts requires few steps, from deciding to which stage of your buyer’s journey it is addressing, to planning, designing testing, and of course, a lot of landing page inspiration

Of course, there are many elements that you should consider if you want to have a top-notch landing page. And often the goals of the landing page are the starting point for making those elements the “best” key for you. Therefore, seeing what goes into an effective landing page and few examples of these nuances in action will help you rise up the bar in terms of this game.

Regardless of what your business is selling or the conversion action you intend to get, it’s always useful to get some landing page inspiration by seeing how other great landing pages look like. Even if there are some best practices for designing a landing page, there is not a right or a wrong way for doing this. And for sure, by seeing a few examples of landing pages that are designed for different stages of the buying process will inspire you.

When I started doing my research for this article, I found lots of websites that have modern and, impressive landing pages, which are more than just simple sign-up forms. Therefore, we decided to put together a list of 20 landing page designs that we love.

1. Wistia

On the landing page for Free Wistia Account, you’ll notice the one-form field for creating your account. The light blue with minimally pattern background contrasts nicely with the bright white form field, making obvious the goal of the landing page: signing up for a free account. The length of the form, combined with the central placement, almost makes it effortlessly. But if you have any doubt, you may scroll below and find the answer to your question on the FAQ section. As those two sections are separate by the stark color contrast, focusing on converting is much easier.

2. Basecamp

Setted up also as their home page, Basecamp has a really long, in-depth landing page, with lots of information below the form. In terms of design, the funny cartoon at the top informing me “2017 is the year to get it together” that spruces somehow this minimal page won me immediately. I also love the placement of the sign-up form in the top part of the page, directing the visitor’s attention to it straight away. Can’t get much better than that. But if you are not so sure about signing up, you also can read few testimonials from paying customers and some data related to the increasing number of the signed- up accounts.

3. Zendesk

I just love the simplicity and the minimalism style both in design and copy of the Zendesk’s Free Trial landing page. The only things that matter here are the two CTA buttons. If you pay enough attention, you’ll also notice the egg drawing at the top, which wiggles as though it’s about to crack open.

The form itself it’s simple and easy, requiring just a work email address and a password to create an account. Or, you can just use your Google Apps login, shortening the conversion path even further.

4. IMPACT Branding & Design

For sure, IMPACT’s landing page could be a great source of inspiration. I like the simplicity of this layout, from the big and bold copy and detailed feature image, to the outline that surrounds the form and the contrasting colors and fonts that are pleasing to the visitor’s eyes.

I have to notice the field check box for subscribing to their blog, which is also a great way for increasing the subscribers. But it’s also better to leave it unchecked and let the users opt in. Otherwise, you may risk adding many low quality subscribers to your contact base.

5. WebDAM

Even if the WebDAM’s landing page has not many features, my favorite (by far) is the form. The little stars behind of the text are all indicative of the information you need to put in. The form also has a blue background that stands out from the hero image behind it. And for a customized and compelling copy, the Download now button features on a sparkly dark pink background, which is a complementary color to light blue.

6. Unbounce

It’s not a surprise that Unbounce’s landing page is so great. They’ve actually written a book about creating high-converting landing pages. Even if there are many amazing things about this landing page design, the two that caught my attention are: 1) The directional cue from the supporting images to the CTA button, and 2) the detailed – but well packaged – information below the form. The first helps direct your attention to the goal of the page – filling out the form. In addition, the second one gives this page a SEO boost, because the search engines will have more content to crawl.

7. Squarespace

Unlike the landing pages presented above, Squarespace opted for a landing page that makes use of one giant background image, showing the product in action. Landing pages like this — ones that keep the design simple and without any form to fill out — can work really well when done effectively, and Squarespace have kept theirs beautiful, simple and easy to use.

8. H. Bloom

Sometimes, we have just to stop and admire a landing page for being beautiful. Using high-resolution photography and lots of white space, H.BLOOM’s landing page is a pleasure to look at. Aside from its beauty, the page has some great conversions elements: an above-the-fold form, clear and concise description of what’ll happen when you fill out the form, and even the bright red “Submit” button.

9. Velaro Live Chat

Sometimes the smallest details make the biggest difference and for sure, they make Velaro Live Chat’s landing page awesome. That small PDF symbol over the feature image helps set expectations for the format of the download. The arrow in front of each subheading helps further direct the audience’s attention to important copy they want visitors to read.

Like IMPACT, they also have an auto-checked box for subscribing to their newsletter on their form. This can be a great way for increasing subscribers. All of these small, seemingly insignificant details help bring together a solid, admirable landing page design.

10. Shopify

Like many of the other landing pages, Shopify’s trial landing page keeps it simple. The user-oriented headline is just a few words, and the page relies on simple paragraphs, to communicate the trial’s details and benefits. There are only a few fields you need to fill out before you get started. All of this makes it easier for you to get to the point: selling online using Shopify’s tool. And thanks to its responsive design, this landing page looks awesome and is functional on any device.

11. Conversion Lab

Even if, normally, I shouldn’t include a home page in an article about landing pages, this layout is special. It’s a one-page website, while the navigation just send you to the information below.

When you click “Get Help With Landing Pages”, the form appears from the right side. You’ll notice you don’t have to leave the page to fill out the form, and also the form won’t feel intrusive to you – if you want to scroll for more information – or to casual website visitors.

Below is what it looks like after you click that CTA:

12. Startup Institute

I like the simplicity and the clarity of Startup Institute landing page. Taking into consideration that no one is willing to give personal information without knowing what they’re going to get in return, Startup Institute used this landing page to set expectation upfront. On Full and Part-Time Application landing page, they make abundantly clear what will happen after the visitor applies, by listing a Q&A right beside the form. That clears the air, and can also weed out the people who don’t take their services seriously.

13.Breather

This is another example of clever and delightful design of a landing page. As soon as you visit breather.com, there’s an instant call to action, that let the website’s visitors indicate where they want to find a space.

It’s interesting how Breather used simple, to-the-point copy to let the visitor know what the company does, followed immediately by the CTA to select a city. And if you need to scroll down for more information, you can see how they played with cony and design to bring us closer to the brand. The negative space and soothing color scheme are also aligned with the product.

14. Lyft

I love the Lyft’s landing page because it shows us how we can address to two different types of people in their conversion paths: those who are ready to make a decision and those who still need more information before they convert. The first ones are the drivers who will fill the Apply Now form (which, by the way, stands out because of the contrast between the form and the background). But when the visitors just want to know how much money they can make, they fill out that information and press “Calculate”. Instead of directing to a new page, the visitors will see a dollar amount followed by a new call-to-action button to “Apply Now” (which, once clicked, takes drivers up to the form).

15. Trulia

Trulia’s landing page is a great example of a company giving value to their visitors from the get-go, while setting visitors’ expectations about what will happen as a result. It starts simple with a simple form asking for “an address”. Below this simple form field is a bright orange button that contrasts well with the hero image behind the form, and emphasizes that the estimate will be personalized to your home. On the next page, after answering to more questions related to your property, you’ll see the copy “Tell us where to send the report”. By entering this information, you’re agreeing to connect with a real estate agent.

16. University of California, Davis

In the UC Davis’ case, the beautiful website design extends to their landing page for free sample lesson on the art of making sparkling wine. In terms of design, the opaque blue background of the form is an extension of the hero image at the top, which draws the eye downward toward the form. Although they have an arrow, on the “Watch the Sample Lesson” CTA at the bottom of the form, the design is also a great directional cue.

17. Khan Academy

The hard part about using your homepage as a landing page is that you have to address to several different types of audiences. Khan Academy’s homepage does that very well. This page is clearly designed for three different types of visitors: those who want to learn something, those who want to teach, and parents who are interested in using Khan Academy for their kids.

18. Instapaper

Instapaper, one of the most successful of the read-it-later apps, is known for having a simple, minimalist app interface. Its landing page follows suit, with an incredibly heavy-on-the-white space approach that has everything you need, with none of the cruft.

19. Intercom

The Intercom’s landing page takes a reasonably complex idea and makes it easy to understand how the product works, and why it might be beneficial. One thing I really like about this design is the illustration of the old way of working, versus Intercom’s simple approach.

20.Campaign Monitor

Creating a simple and elegant landing page isn’t easy, but Campaign Monitor has done an astonishing job. This is one of the simplest, but most beautiful pages I’ve seen. It ticks all the right boxes too: it has a strong headline, a well-written introduction that lets you know the benefits of using the software and a very obvious and impossible-to-miss call to action.

Read More at Landing Page Design Inspiration. 20 Absolutely Stunning Landing Page Designs

from IT Feed https://webdesignledger.com/landing-page-design-inspiration-20-examples/

#IT Feed

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regulardomainname · 8 years ago

Text

Landing Page Design Inspiration. 20 Absolutely Stunning Landing Page Designs

By definition, the landing pages exist to serve one and sole purpose: getting your website visitors to convert to the next stage in their buyer journey. Although their purpose is simple enough in theory, in practice, things are just a little bit different.☺ And putting together an A+ landing page could be tricky. Actually, designing a successful landing page that converts requires few steps, from deciding to which stage of your buyer’s journey it is addressing, to planning, designing testing, and of course, a lot of landing page inspiration Of course, there are many elements that you should consider if you want to have a top-notch landing page. And often the goals of the landing page are the starting point for making those elements the “best” key for you. Therefore, seeing what goes into an effective landing page and few examples of these nuances in action will help you rise up the bar in terms of this game. Regardless of what your business is selling or the conversion action you intend to get, it’s always useful to get some landing page inspiration by seeing how other great landing pages look like. Even if there are some best practices for designing a landing page, there is not a right or a wrong way for doing this. And for sure, by seeing a few examples of landing pages that are designed for different stages of the buying process will inspire you. When I started doing my research for this article, I found lots of websites that have modern and, impressive landing pages, which are more than just simple sign-up forms. Therefore, we decided to put together a list of 20 landing page designs that we love. 1. Wistia On the landing page for Free Wistia Account, you’ll notice the one-form field for creating your account. The light blue with minimally pattern background contrasts nicely with the bright white form field, making obvious the goal of the landing page: signing up for a free account. The length of the form, combined with the central placement, almost makes it effortlessly. But if you have any doubt, you may scroll below and find the answer to your question on the FAQ section. As those two sections are separate by the stark color contrast, focusing on converting is much easier. 2. Basecamp Setted up also as their home page, Basecamp has a really long, in-depth landing page, with lots of information below the form. In terms of design, the funny cartoon at the top informing me “2017 is the year to get it together” that spruces somehow this minimal page won me immediately. I also love the placement of the sign-up form in the top part of the page, directing the visitor’s attention to it straight away. Can’t get much better than that. But if you are not so sure about signing up, you also can read few testimonials from paying customers and some data related to the increasing number of the signed- up accounts. 3. Zendesk I just love the simplicity and the minimalism style both in design and copy of the Zendesk’s Free Trial landing page. The only things that matter here are the two CTA buttons. If you pay enough attention, you’ll also notice the egg drawing at the top, which wiggles as though it’s about to crack open. The form itself it’s simple and easy, requiring just a work email address and a password to create an account. Or, you can just use your Google Apps login, shortening the conversion path even further. 4. IMPACT Branding & Design For sure, IMPACT’s landing page could be a great source of inspiration. I like the simplicity of this layout, from the big and bold copy and detailed feature image, to the outline that surrounds the form and the contrasting colors and fonts that are pleasing to the visitor’s eyes. I have to notice the field check box for subscribing to their blog, which is also a great way for increasing the subscribers. But it’s also better to leave it unchecked and let the users opt in. Otherwise, you may risk adding many low quality subscribers to your contact base. 5. WebDAM Even if the WebDAM’s landing page has not many features, my favorite (by far) is the form. The little stars behind of the text are all indicative of the information you need to put in. The form also has a blue background that stands out from the hero image behind it. And for a customized and compelling copy, the Download now button features on a sparkly dark pink background, which is a complementary color to light blue. 6. Unbounce It’s not a surprise that Unbounce’s landing page is so great. They’ve actually written a book about creating high-converting landing pages. Even if there are many amazing things about this landing page design, the two that caught my attention are: 1) The directional cue from the supporting images to the CTA button, and 2) the detailed – but well packaged – information below the form. The first helps direct your attention to the goal of the page – filling out the form. In addition, the second one gives this page a SEO boost, because the search engines will have more content to crawl. 7. Squarespace Unlike the landing pages presented above, Squarespace opted for a landing page that makes use of one giant background image, showing the product in action. Landing pages like this — ones that keep the design simple and without any form to fill out — can work really well when done effectively, and Squarespace have kept theirs beautiful, simple and easy to use. 8. H. Bloom Sometimes, we have just to stop and admire a landing page for being beautiful. Using high-resolution photography and lots of white space, H.BLOOM’s landing page is a pleasure to look at. Aside from its beauty, the page has some great conversions elements: an above-the-fold form, clear and concise description of what’ll happen when you fill out the form, and even the bright red “Submit” button. 9. Velaro Live Chat Sometimes the smallest details make the biggest difference and for sure, they make Velaro Live Chat’s landing page awesome. That small PDF symbol over the feature image helps set expectations for the format of the download. The arrow in front of each subheading helps further direct the audience’s attention to important copy they want visitors to read. Like IMPACT, they also have an auto-checked box for subscribing to their newsletter on their form. This can be a great way for increasing subscribers. All of these small, seemingly insignificant details help bring together a solid, admirable landing page design. 10. Shopify Like many of the other landing pages, Shopify’s trial landing page keeps it simple. The user-oriented headline is just a few words, and the page relies on simple paragraphs, to communicate the trial’s details and benefits. There are only a few fields you need to fill out before you get started. All of this makes it easier for you to get to the point: selling online using Shopify’s tool. And thanks to its responsive design, this landing page looks awesome and is functional on any device. 11. Conversion Lab Even if, normally, I shouldn’t include a home page in an article about landing pages, this layout is special. It’s a one-page website, while the navigation just send you to the information below. When you click “Get Help With Landing Pages”, the form appears from the right side. You’ll notice you don’t have to leave the page to fill out the form, and also the form won’t feel intrusive to you – if you want to scroll for more information – or to casual website visitors. Below is what it looks like after you click that CTA: 12. Startup Institute I like the simplicity and the clarity of Startup Institute landing page. Taking into consideration that no one is willing to give personal information without knowing what they’re going to get in return, Startup Institute used this landing page to set expectation upfront. On Full and Part-Time Application landing page, they make abundantly clear what will happen after the visitor applies, by listing a Q&A right beside the form. That clears the air, and can also weed out the people who don’t take their services seriously. 13.Breather This is another example of clever and delightful design of a landing page. As soon as you visit breather.com, there’s an instant call to action, that let the website’s visitors indicate where they want to find a space. It’s interesting how Breather used simple, to-the-point copy to let the visitor know what the company does, followed immediately by the CTA to select a city. And if you need to scroll down for more information, you can see how they played with cony and design to bring us closer to the brand. The negative space and soothing color scheme are also aligned with the product. 14. Lyft I love the Lyft’s landing page because it shows us how we can address to two different types of people in their conversion paths: those who are ready to make a decision and those who still need more information before they convert. The first ones are the drivers who will fill the Apply Now form (which, by the way, stands out because of the contrast between the form and the background). But when the visitors just want to know how much money they can make, they fill out that information and press “Calculate”. Instead of directing to a new page, the visitors will see a dollar amount followed by a new call-to-action button to “Apply Now” (which, once clicked, takes drivers up to the form). 15. Trulia Trulia’s landing page is a great example of a company giving value to their visitors from the get-go, while setting visitors’ expectations about what will happen as a result. It starts simple with a simple form asking for “an address”. Below this simple form field is a bright orange button that contrasts well with the hero image behind the form, and emphasizes that the estimate will be personalized to your home. On the next page, after answering to more questions related to your property, you’ll see the copy “Tell us where to send the report”. By entering this information, you’re agreeing to connect with a real estate agent. 16. University of California, Davis In the UC Davis’ case, the beautiful website design extends to their landing page for free sample lesson on the art of making sparkling wine. In terms of design, the opaque blue background of the form is an extension of the hero image at the top, which draws the eye downward toward the form. Although they have an arrow, on the “Watch the Sample Lesson” CTA at the bottom of the form, the design is also a great directional cue. 17. Khan Academy The hard part about using your homepage as a landing page is that you have to address to several different types of audiences. Khan Academy’s homepage does that very well. This page is clearly designed for three different types of visitors: those who want to learn something, those who want to teach, and parents who are interested in using Khan Academy for their kids. 18. Instapaper Instapaper, one of the most successful of the read-it-later apps, is known for having a simple, minimalist app interface. Its landing page follows suit, with an incredibly heavy-on-the-white space approach that has everything you need, with none of the cruft. 19. Intercom The Intercom’s landing page takes a reasonably complex idea and makes it easy to understand how the product works, and why it might be beneficial. One thing I really like about this design is the illustration of the old way of working, versus Intercom’s simple approach. 20.Campaign Monitor Creating a simple and elegant landing page isn’t easy, but Campaign Monitor has done an astonishing job. This is one of the simplest, but most beautiful pages I’ve seen. It ticks all the right boxes too: it has a strong headline, a well-written introduction that lets you know the benefits of using the software and a very obvious and impossible-to-miss call to action. Read More at Landing Page Design Inspiration. 20 Absolutely Stunning Landing Page Designs http://dlvr.it/PB0SBq www.regulardomainname.com

#Editors Pick #Featured #Inspiration #Resources #Trends

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myupdatesystems-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Small Business Mobile Apps

New Post has been published on https://myupdatesystems.com/small-business-mobile-apps/

Small Business Mobile Apps

These 4 applications make organizing your thoughts, finances, and marketing easier to deal with away from the computer or office.

1. Evernote (Free, iPhone / iPad / Android / Mac / PC)

2. Wunderlist ($Free, iPhone / iPad / Android / Mac / PC / Web)

I find that pretty handy with so much going on between life and business.

3. Mint (Free, iPhone / iPad / Android / Web)

Finances in a quandary? No ideas where your spending is going? Can’t understand your bank’s outdated web dashboard? Then Mint is for you.

The app’s sleek design combined with insightful metrics make it a win-win for small business owners.

4. Facebook

Anyways, you should be using the app for your business’ own page. Just how simple it is to post to your personal account from your phone, they have made it easy as ever to do for your own page.

Simply log in and add a post, picture, or video, and share away. The mobile friendly nature of the app now encourages business owners to keep their audience in the loop no matter where they are.

Plain and simple, if you a manage or contribute to a Facebook page for your small business, get the app.

5. Bonus – Gmail (iPhone / iPad / Android / Web)

If you didn’t know, for only $5 per month, you can use Gmail as your mail provider with a specific domain address. Your email can still remain

[email protected], but instead of using the regular client, you can use Gmail.

Not worth it to everyone, but for lovers of Gmail on mobile and the web, it’s definitely an option worth considering.

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char27martin · 8 years ago

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Brainstorming for Story Ideas

The best beginnings are based on strong story ideas that immediately set the book apart from all others of its ilk. If you have a bad feeling that your story idea is not compelling or unique enough to hook agents or editors, much less readers, then this post is just for you. Because all other things being equal, the lack of a strong story idea is the biggest problem I see in manuscripts by writers trying to break into the business—or break out of the midlist onto the best-seller list.

Some of these tricks and techniques may seem a little offbeat to you, but give them a try anyway. Many are aimed at seducing your subconscious, a critical if obstinate ally in your quest to tell a good story. So give me the benefit of the doubt regarding these tried-and-true brainstorming and idea-capturing methods. To discover more brainstorming ideas, check out The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings.

In The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings, author and literary agent Paula Munier shows you how to craft flawless beginnings that impress agents, engage editors, and captivate readers. You’ll learn how to develop the big idea of your story and introduce it on page one, structure opening scenes that encompass their own story arc, kickstart your writing with effective brainstorming techniques, and introduce a compelling cast of characters that drive the plot. You’ll also examine best-selling novels from different genres to learn the secrets that experienced writers use to dive straight into a story.

With thorough examinations of voice, point of view, setting, dialogue, and conflict, this book is a must-have tool for luring your readers in with your opening pages—and convincing them to stick around for the ride.

Pay Attention

Paying attention is perhaps the most obvious and difficult way to generate ideas. Ideas are everywhere if you know where to look and remember to look there. In a world where we are continually bombarded by sounds and images, overstimulated by everything from traffic to texts, and distracted from the minute we open our eyes in the morning to the last flicker of the screen before our weary eyes finally surrender to sleep, the gentle art of observation often goes unpracticed. Yet observation is one of the writer’s keenest tools—one that cannot be replicated by technology. It’s on you to observe the world around you—people, places, and things, from local flora and fauna to conversations overheard on the subway. The world is the writer’s oyster, so put that smartphone and those earbuds in your pocket; go out into the world, and take note(s).

Always Have a Notebook Nearby

Ideas can strike at any time—when you’re in the shower, in line at the grocery store, drifting off for a nap. But like lightning, they come and go in a flash. So be ready to capture them. Keep a pen and a notebook in your pocket or purse, and failing that, you can always email yourself notes or use the voice recorder app on your phone. I have sticky notes and index cards all over the house. I even sneak a pencil and paper into yoga class because doing yoga, like meditating, often acts like an idea faucet. One downward dog and the faucet goes on—the ideas flow.

Get Silly

Being funny is, by definition, a creative act. That’s because humor often stems from making unexpected connections. The best punchline is a surprise—and we laugh at the novelty of the connection. Putting together familiar things in an unfamiliar way—that’s idea generation.

Whenever the ideas aren’t flowing, use humor to get your juices flowing again. If you’re stuck on your beginning, rewrite it as a funny scene. See the humor in something, and the whole world may open up around it. That’s where the space is, the room you need to root around for a new approach.

Keep an Idea Box

This may seem simplistic, but this practice really works. Every writer should have a physical place, be it a box under the bed, a file cabinet in the corner, or a bulletin board on the wall, to keep anything and everything that might prove useful for a story someday. Maps, postcards, souvenirs, slogans, affirmations, news clippings, photos, illustrations, magazine articles—collect them all. Think of the box as your secret treasure, and whenever you find yourself at a loss for a good idea, rummage through it.

I have an idea box, but I rarely go through it. Out of sight, out of mind—that’s truer for me than it should be. Recognizing this about myself, I’ve designed a better way to display images and ideas that resonate with me. Instead, I have covered the fronts of two cabinet doors with cork. Door #1 is my Plot Door, where I pin the index cards I use to plot my work in progress—a scene for each card. On Door #2, I tack reminders of elements I might use in a story someday: photos of interesting places, snippets of dialogue, pictures of people who’d make good characters, sticky notes (right now there’s one that says, “Read more John Cheever”), artwork that somehow evokes the themes that preoccupy me, etc. Every time I look at it, I can almost feel my little grey cells start firing.

Granted, my approach is that of a Luddite. If you’re an early-adopter type, use technology to jump-start your creativity. Some writers swear by Scrivener; others use Pinterest. Find what works for you, and get your own synapses firing.

Do Something Else

Agatha Christie, whose diabolically clever ideas for mysteries still engross audiences nearly a hundred years later, used to say that the best time to plot a novel was while washing the dishes. At more than two billion—yes, you read that right—copies sold, Christie is ranked by the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling novelist of all time. Which is enough to make me consider giving up my dishwasher permanently. Almost.

The point is that sometimes the best thing to do when you think you’ll never have another good idea again is to abandon your desk and do something else entirely. Preferably something that occupies your conscious mind, letting your subconscious mind out to play. Chores are good—mopping the floor, folding the laundry, polishing the silver, chopping wood, weeding the garden, ironing shirts, raking leaves—and they offer the added benefit of providing a sense of accomplishment and an orderly environment in which the chaos of your own creativity can hold court. Just be prepared to stop mid-chore to run to your desk and capture all the great ideas prompted by that homely art of housekeeping.

Be Happy

Keeping a positive mindset is important, but being positive is only part of being happy. To be truly happy, you need to go deeper than a positive outlook. You need to believe that you are leading a meaningful life (or, failing that, a life at least worth living). Fortunately for writers, writing is a way of creating meaning out of what for many can feel like an existential void. That void is a source of sorrow, and sadness, like stress, is the enemy of creativity.

Unhappiness impedes the creation of new ideas, according to researchers at Penn State University. People suffering from even a mild case of the blues tend to hold back, wary of making mistakes and cautious to the point of inhibiting creative work. Moreover, people in sunny moods outperform those in sad or neutral moods in all kinds of divergent thinking, from word association to story ideas. Seriously.

Happiness is not just good for your personal life; it’s good for your professional life as well, not to mention your writer’s soul. So don’t worry; be happy, and keep writing.

Think of your favorite story—the one that kept you turning pages late into the night, the one with a plot so compelling, so multilayered, so perfect that you couldn’t put it down. How can you make your own plots—in your novels, short stories, memoirs, or screenplays—just as irresistible?

Plot Perfect provides the answer. This one-of-a-kind plotting primer reveals the secrets of creating a story structure that works—no matter what your genre. It gives you the strategies you need to build a scene-by-scene blueprint that will help elevate your fiction and earn the attention of agents and editors.

Inside, literary agent, editor, and author Paula Munier shows you how to:

Devise powerful plots and subplots and weave them together seamlessly

Organize your scenes for the greatest impact

Develop captivating protagonists and worthy antagonists

Use dialogue, setting, tone, and voice to enhance your plot

Layer, refine, and polish your storyline

About the Author:

Paula Munier is Senior Literary Agent and Content Strategist at Talcott Notch Literary Services. She began her career as a journalist, and along the way added editor, acquisitions specialist, digital content manager, publishing executive, author, and writing teacher to her repertoire. Paula is the author of several books, including Plot Perfect: How to Build Unforgettable Stories Scene by Scene. Her first mystery series debuts with Spare These Stones in 2018 (St. Martin’s Press).

The post Brainstorming for Story Ideas appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/excerpts/brainstorming-story-ideas

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richardrobertsimsuccessblog · 8 years ago

Text

New Year Reboot: Make More Time to Write

2017 is your year! If you’re thinking of starting a blog, levelling up on your blog, or are looking to take your blog in a new direction, we are deep-diving into our content archives this week for the best posts to help you do just that.

As bloggers, we know that posts don’t write themselves – not by a long shot. And time doesn’t just fall out of the sky! We have to make time to create the best content we can on our blogs.

If you need extra help, you might like to check out our Creating Content Archives.

Follow These Six Steps to Make Plenty of Time to Write (and Enjoy it Too) by Ali Luke from Aliventures first appeared on June 5, 2015.

Here’s a safe bet:

You’re struggling to find enough time to write.

Virtually every blogger and entrepreneur has the same problem.

Maybe you want to write great content to build your business – but there are so many other things you have to do too.

I know first-hand how much of a challenge this can be. I started out writing around a full-time day job; today, I juggle work around my two year old daughter and baby son.

I don’t know your personal situation. But I can take some guesses:

You have a lot on your plate – sometimes you feel overwhelmed.

Big writing projects get shunted to the end of your to-do list.

When you do have some time to write, you never seem to get far.

Sound familiar?

Here’s how to turn things around, in six straightforward steps:

Step #1: Come Up With a Bunch of Ideas for Your Blog

Since you’re reading ProBlogger, it’s a pretty safe bet that you have a blog (or you’re about to start one). Do you ever find it hard to come up with enough ideas for it? Maybe you’re managing to keep up a regularly posting schedule – but you know you should be doing some guest posting, and you never seem to get round to it.

The easiest way to make faster progress on any writing project is to set aside dedicated brainstorming (or, if you like, daydreaming) time.

Grab a notebook or a bit of scrap paper, and jot down as many ideas as you can in fifteen minutes. Don’t judge your ideas, just write everything down.

Try This:

Schedule 15 minutes, once per week, for brainstorming. You’ll soon have a stockpile of ideas that you can turn to whenever you need one.

Further Reading:

How to Consistently Come Up With Great Post Ideas for Your Blog, Stacey Roberts, ProBlogger

Step #2: Create a Clear Plan Before You Start Writing

When you don’t have much time to write, you don’t want to waste a single minute.

If you find yourself getting stuck and giving up part-way, or if you often have to scrap huge chunks of your blog posts because you went off on a long tangent, then you need to get to grips with planning.

Your plan doesn’t need to be complicated. A few bullet points jotted on the back of an envelope is fine. For maximum effect, though, set aside dedicated time to plan out several posts at once.

Your plan helps you spot any problems before you spend hours writing, and it helps you shape your material into a logical structure: easier for you to write, and easier for your audience to read.

It’s also a great way to blast through any blank page wobbles at the start of a writing session. If you’ve got a plan, you can just copy or type it into your document … and you’re already part-way there.

Try This:

Give different planning methods a go – you don’t have to stick with a linear outline each time. Maybe a mindmap, a set of ideas on index cards, or even a spreadsheet would suit your project better.

Further Reading:

A 5-Step Plan to Improve Every Blog Post You Write, Ali Luke, Copyblogger

Step #3: Use the First Hour of Your Day for Your Main Writing Project

Sometimes, the real problem with finding time to write isn’t that there’s no time at all – it’s that our writing time is scheduled for the wrong part of the day.

If your aim is to “finish the ten things on this list then work on the ebook” … it’s all too easy to let those ten things fill your day. Even if you have a little time left at the end of the day, you’ll probably be creatively frazzled.

The best solution I’ve found is to put writing first. Ideally, set aside an hour – but if that’s just not practical, 15 minutes is fine.

Putting writing first could mean:

You use the first hour of your work day for your project … trust me, Twitter and Facebook can wait for an hour.

You get up an hour earlier (not my favorite solution – but I did it for eight months when I had a day job, and it let me build my career to the point where I could quit and write full time).

You shuffle around some other activities: if you currently head to the gym at 6am, could you go at lunchtime or in the evening instead?

Try This:

For this week only, commit to spending the first 15 minutes of your day (either when you get up or when you start work) on your current writing project. Put a check on the calendar each day you manage it. Next week, aim for 20 minutes per day, and/or more checks.

Further Reading:

Why You Should Get Serious About Your Writing Schedule, Kari, Men with Pens

Step #4: Cut Out or Cut Back

Your time is full already, but at least some of your activities could go in a pinch. This is always going to be a personal decision – something that I might consider essential could be on your list for ditching when life gets hectic, and vice versa.

Here are just a few ideas you might want to consider.

Cut out…

Voluntary commitments you don’t enjoy and wish you’d never signed up for. Resign in writing, and don’t leave any room for ambiguity or argument.

Time-wasting activities that don’t add much to your life – do you really need to take another Buzzfeed quiz? Try RescueTime to track your computer activity.

Cut down…

TV watching. Of course, keep up any must-sees (mine are Game of Thrones and Doctor Who) … but if you’re binging on whole seasons of shows on Netflix, cut back to an hour every evening.

Even if money’s tight, can you get a maid service once or twice a month? If that’s not an option, can you delegate to your spouse or kids?

Try This:

Look at your non-writing activities and save some time there too:

10 minutes per day on Twitter and Facebook, instead of 30, could well get you the same results.

Template emails will save you time answering common questions, dealing with routine enquiries, and so on.

Further Reading:

Why You Should Flush 90% of Your To-Do List Down the Toilet, Michael Hyatt, MichaelHyatt.com

Step #5: Keep a Time Log

If you’re still struggling, keep a time diary for a week to find out exactly where your time goes.

(If you’ve ever kept a food diary while on a diet, or a spending diary while getting out of debt, you’ll have some idea of how powerful this can be.)

You could use a spreadsheet, a physical notebook, or an app like Toggl. While entering data manually can be a pain, it does make you very aware of how you’re using your time.

Try This:

Be prepared for your time log to throw up some negative emotions – maybe you’re not working as efficiently as you thought. Go easy on yourself, and look for ways to win back just 5 or 10 minutes of productive time each day.

Further Reading:

Why You Really Don’t Have a Time Management Problem, Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing

Step #6: When You’re Writing, Write!

If you’ve set aside 30 minutes to work on a post for your blog, you need to actually write.

That means not stopping after five minutes to check if anything new’s happening on Facebook. It means jotting down any distracting thoughts like “Email John” rather than stopping writing to do them straight away.

When you’re writing (or engaged in any creative activity), you can get into a state of “flow” – you might describe it as “being on a roll” or even “losing track of time”. This is what you’re aiming for, and constantly interrupting yourself will stop you getting there.

Try This:

Work in short bursts. I find that 20 – 45 minutes is about right. If you know you only have to write for another 15 minutes, not for another hour, it’s easier to push yourself to keep going.

Further Reading:

How to Maintain Focus when Writing, Mary Jaksch, Write to Done

You won’t miraculously “find” a few spare hours to write.

You need to make that time – by finding more efficient ways to work and by restructuring other elements of your life to allow your writing to be a priority.

So here’s your first step again: find fifteen minutes, either today or tomorrow, to brainstorm some ideas for one of your current projects.

Get up early, use the ad breaks on TV, write in your notebook on the bus, or whatever it takes. Drop a comment below to tell us what you’ll be doing, and when.

Ali Luke blogs about the art, craft and business of writing at Aliventures. She has two free ebooks on blogging, Ten Powerful Ways to Make Your Blog Posts Stronger and Ten Easy Ways to Attract Readers to Your Blog … And Keep Them There: to get your copies of those, just sign up for her weekly e-newsletter (also free!) here.

The post New Year Reboot: Make More Time to Write appeared first on ProBlogger.

New Year Reboot: Make More Time to Write

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kristinejrosario · 8 years ago

Text

New Year Reboot: Make More Time to Write

As bloggers, we know that posts don’t write themselves – not by a long shot. And time doesn’t just fall out of the sky! We have to make time to create the best content we can on our blogs.

If you need extra help, you might like to check out our Creating Content Archives.

Follow These Six Steps to Make Plenty of Time to Write (and Enjoy it Too) by Ali Luke from Aliventures first appeared on June 5, 2015.

Here’s a safe bet:

You’re struggling to find enough time to write.

Virtually every blogger and entrepreneur has the same problem.

Maybe you want to write great content to build your business – but there are so many other things you have to do too.

I know first-hand how much of a challenge this can be. I started out writing around a full-time day job; today, I juggle work around my two year old daughter and baby son.

I don’t know your personal situation. But I can take some guesses:

You have a lot on your plate – sometimes you feel overwhelmed.

Big writing projects get shunted to the end of your to-do list.

When you do have some time to write, you never seem to get far.

Sound familiar?

Here’s how to turn things around, in six straightforward steps:

Step #1: Come Up With a Bunch of Ideas for Your Blog

The easiest way to make faster progress on any writing project is to set aside dedicated brainstorming (or, if you like, daydreaming) time.

Grab a notebook or a bit of scrap paper, and jot down as many ideas as you can in fifteen minutes. Don’t judge your ideas, just write everything down.

Try This:

Schedule 15 minutes, once per week, for brainstorming. You’ll soon have a stockpile of ideas that you can turn to whenever you need one.

Further Reading:

How to Consistently Come Up With Great Post Ideas for Your Blog, Stacey Roberts, ProBlogger

Step #2: Create a Clear Plan Before You Start Writing

When you don’t have much time to write, you don’t want to waste a single minute.

Your plan doesn’t need to be complicated. A few bullet points jotted on the back of an envelope is fine. For maximum effect, though, set aside dedicated time to plan out several posts at once.

Your plan helps you spot any problems before you spend hours writing, and it helps you shape your material into a logical structure: easier for you to write, and easier for your audience to read.

Try This:

Further Reading:

A 5-Step Plan to Improve Every Blog Post You Write, Ali Luke, Copyblogger

Step #3: Use the First Hour of Your Day for Your Main Writing Project

Sometimes, the real problem with finding time to write isn’t that there’s no time at all – it’s that our writing time is scheduled for the wrong part of the day.

The best solution I’ve found is to put writing first. Ideally, set aside an hour – but if that’s just not practical, 15 minutes is fine.

Putting writing first could mean:

You use the first hour of your work day for your project … trust me, Twitter and Facebook can wait for an hour.

You get up an hour earlier (not my favorite solution – but I did it for eight months when I had a day job, and it let me build my career to the point where I could quit and write full time).

You shuffle around some other activities: if you currently head to the gym at 6am, could you go at lunchtime or in the evening instead?

Try This:

Further Reading:

Why You Should Get Serious About Your Writing Schedule, Kari, Men with Pens

Step #4: Cut Out or Cut Back

Here are just a few ideas you might want to consider.

Cut out…

Voluntary commitments you don’t enjoy and wish you’d never signed up for. Resign in writing, and don’t leave any room for ambiguity or argument.

Time-wasting activities that don’t add much to your life – do you really need to take another Buzzfeed quiz? Try RescueTime to track your computer activity.

Cut down…

TV watching. Of course, keep up any must-sees (mine are Game of Thrones and Doctor Who) … but if you’re binging on whole seasons of shows on Netflix, cut back to an hour every evening.

Even if money’s tight, can you get a maid service once or twice a month? If that’s not an option, can you delegate to your spouse or kids?

Try This:

Look at your non-writing activities and save some time there too:

10 minutes per day on Twitter and Facebook, instead of 30, could well get you the same results.

Template emails will save you time answering common questions, dealing with routine enquiries, and so on.

Further Reading:

Why You Should Flush 90% of Your To-Do List Down the Toilet, Michael Hyatt, MichaelHyatt.com

Step #5: Keep a Time Log

If you’re still struggling, keep a time diary for a week to find out exactly where your time goes.

(If you’ve ever kept a food diary while on a diet, or a spending diary while getting out of debt, you’ll have some idea of how powerful this can be.)

You could use a spreadsheet, a physical notebook, or an app like Toggl. While entering data manually can be a pain, it does make you very aware of how you’re using your time.

Try This:

Further Reading:

Why You Really Don’t Have a Time Management Problem, Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing

Step #6: When You’re Writing, Write!

If you’ve set aside 30 minutes to work on a post for your blog, you need to actually write.

Try This:

Work in short bursts. I find that 20 – 45 minutes is about right. If you know you only have to write for another 15 minutes, not for another hour, it’s easier to push yourself to keep going.

Further Reading:

How to Maintain Focus when Writing, Mary Jaksch, Write to Done

You won’t miraculously “find” a few spare hours to write.

You need to make that time – by finding more efficient ways to work and by restructuring other elements of your life to allow your writing to be a priority.

So here’s your first step again: find fifteen minutes, either today or tomorrow, to brainstorm some ideas for one of your current projects.

Get up early, use the ad breaks on TV, write in your notebook on the bus, or whatever it takes. Drop a comment below to tell us what you’ll be doing, and when.

The post New Year Reboot: Make More Time to Write appeared first on ProBlogger.

from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/JEkOZZOu8l0/

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silvino32mills · 8 years ago

Text

New Year Reboot: Make More Time to Write

As bloggers, we know that posts don’t write themselves – not by a long shot. And time doesn’t just fall out of the sky! We have to make time to create the best content we can on our blogs.

If you need extra help, you might like to check out our Creating Content Archives.

Follow These Six Steps to Make Plenty of Time to Write (and Enjoy it Too) by Ali Luke from Aliventures first appeared on June 5, 2015.

Here’s a safe bet:

You’re struggling to find enough time to write.

Virtually every blogger and entrepreneur has the same problem.

Maybe you want to write great content to build your business – but there are so many other things you have to do too.

I know first-hand how much of a challenge this can be. I started out writing around a full-time day job; today, I juggle work around my two year old daughter and baby son.

I don’t know your personal situation. But I can take some guesses:

You have a lot on your plate – sometimes you feel overwhelmed.

Big writing projects get shunted to the end of your to-do list.

When you do have some time to write, you never seem to get far.

Sound familiar?

Here’s how to turn things around, in six straightforward steps:

Step #1: Come Up With a Bunch of Ideas for Your Blog

The easiest way to make faster progress on any writing project is to set aside dedicated brainstorming (or, if you like, daydreaming) time.

Grab a notebook or a bit of scrap paper, and jot down as many ideas as you can in fifteen minutes. Don’t judge your ideas, just write everything down.

Try This:

Schedule 15 minutes, once per week, for brainstorming. You’ll soon have a stockpile of ideas that you can turn to whenever you need one.

Further Reading:

How to Consistently Come Up With Great Post Ideas for Your Blog, Stacey Roberts, ProBlogger

Step #2: Create a Clear Plan Before You Start Writing

When you don’t have much time to write, you don’t want to waste a single minute.

Your plan doesn’t need to be complicated. A few bullet points jotted on the back of an envelope is fine. For maximum effect, though, set aside dedicated time to plan out several posts at once.

Your plan helps you spot any problems before you spend hours writing, and it helps you shape your material into a logical structure: easier for you to write, and easier for your audience to read.

Try This:

Further Reading:

A 5-Step Plan to Improve Every Blog Post You Write, Ali Luke, Copyblogger

Step #3: Use the First Hour of Your Day for Your Main Writing Project

Sometimes, the real problem with finding time to write isn’t that there’s no time at all – it’s that our writing time is scheduled for the wrong part of the day.

The best solution I’ve found is to put writing first. Ideally, set aside an hour – but if that’s just not practical, 15 minutes is fine.

Putting writing first could mean:

You use the first hour of your work day for your project … trust me, Twitter and Facebook can wait for an hour.

You get up an hour earlier (not my favorite solution – but I did it for eight months when I had a day job, and it let me build my career to the point where I could quit and write full time).

You shuffle around some other activities: if you currently head to the gym at 6am, could you go at lunchtime or in the evening instead?

Try This:

Further Reading:

Why You Should Get Serious About Your Writing Schedule, Kari, Men with Pens

Step #4: Cut Out or Cut Back

Here are just a few ideas you might want to consider.

Cut out…

Voluntary commitments you don’t enjoy and wish you’d never signed up for. Resign in writing, and don’t leave any room for ambiguity or argument.

Time-wasting activities that don’t add much to your life – do you really need to take another Buzzfeed quiz? Try RescueTime to track your computer activity.

Cut down…

TV watching. Of course, keep up any must-sees (mine are Game of Thrones and Doctor Who) … but if you’re binging on whole seasons of shows on Netflix, cut back to an hour every evening.

Even if money’s tight, can you get a maid service once or twice a month? If that’s not an option, can you delegate to your spouse or kids?

Try This:

Look at your non-writing activities and save some time there too:

10 minutes per day on Twitter and Facebook, instead of 30, could well get you the same results.

Template emails will save you time answering common questions, dealing with routine enquiries, and so on.

Further Reading:

Why You Should Flush 90% of Your To-Do List Down the Toilet, Michael Hyatt, MichaelHyatt.com

Step #5: Keep a Time Log

If you’re still struggling, keep a time diary for a week to find out exactly where your time goes.

(If you’ve ever kept a food diary while on a diet, or a spending diary while getting out of debt, you’ll have some idea of how powerful this can be.)

You could use a spreadsheet, a physical notebook, or an app like Toggl. While entering data manually can be a pain, it does make you very aware of how you’re using your time.

Try This:

Further Reading:

Why You Really Don’t Have a Time Management Problem, Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing

Step #6: When You’re Writing, Write!

If you’ve set aside 30 minutes to work on a post for your blog, you need to actually write.

Try This:

Work in short bursts. I find that 20 – 45 minutes is about right. If you know you only have to write for another 15 minutes, not for another hour, it’s easier to push yourself to keep going.

Further Reading:

How to Maintain Focus when Writing, Mary Jaksch, Write to Done

You won’t miraculously “find” a few spare hours to write.

You need to make that time – by finding more efficient ways to work and by restructuring other elements of your life to allow your writing to be a priority.

So here’s your first step again: find fifteen minutes, either today or tomorrow, to brainstorm some ideas for one of your current projects.

Get up early, use the ad breaks on TV, write in your notebook on the bus, or whatever it takes. Drop a comment below to tell us what you’ll be doing, and when.

The post New Year Reboot: Make More Time to Write appeared first on ProBlogger.

from ProBlogger http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/zMXdWfOdOgg/

0 notes

marketingplaybook · 8 years ago

Text

New Year Reboot: Make More Time to Write

As bloggers, we know that posts don’t write themselves – not by a long shot. And time doesn’t just fall out of the sky! We have to make time to create the best content we can on our blogs.

If you need extra help, you might like to check out our Creating Content Archives.

Follow These Six Steps to Make Plenty of Time to Write (and Enjoy it Too) by Ali Luke from Aliventures first appeared on June 5, 2015.

Here’s a safe bet:

You’re struggling to find enough time to write.

Virtually every blogger and entrepreneur has the same problem.

Maybe you want to write great content to build your business – but there are so many other things you have to do too.

I know first-hand how much of a challenge this can be. I started out writing around a full-time day job; today, I juggle work around my two year old daughter and baby son.

I don’t know your personal situation. But I can take some guesses:

You have a lot on your plate – sometimes you feel overwhelmed.

Big writing projects get shunted to the end of your to-do list.

When you do have some time to write, you never seem to get far.

Sound familiar?

Here’s how to turn things around, in six straightforward steps:

Step #1: Come Up With a Bunch of Ideas for Your Blog

The easiest way to make faster progress on any writing project is to set aside dedicated brainstorming (or, if you like, daydreaming) time.

Grab a notebook or a bit of scrap paper, and jot down as many ideas as you can in fifteen minutes. Don’t judge your ideas, just write everything down.

Try This:

Schedule 15 minutes, once per week, for brainstorming. You’ll soon have a stockpile of ideas that you can turn to whenever you need one.

Further Reading:

How to Consistently Come Up With Great Post Ideas for Your Blog, Stacey Roberts, ProBlogger

Step #2: Create a Clear Plan Before You Start Writing

When you don’t have much time to write, you don’t want to waste a single minute.

Your plan doesn’t need to be complicated. A few bullet points jotted on the back of an envelope is fine. For maximum effect, though, set aside dedicated time to plan out several posts at once.

Your plan helps you spot any problems before you spend hours writing, and it helps you shape your material into a logical structure: easier for you to write, and easier for your audience to read.

Try This:

Further Reading:

A 5-Step Plan to Improve Every Blog Post You Write, Ali Luke, Copyblogger

Step #3: Use the First Hour of Your Day for Your Main Writing Project

Sometimes, the real problem with finding time to write isn’t that there’s no time at all – it’s that our writing time is scheduled for the wrong part of the day.

The best solution I’ve found is to put writing first. Ideally, set aside an hour – but if that’s just not practical, 15 minutes is fine.

Putting writing first could mean:

You use the first hour of your work day for your project … trust me, Twitter and Facebook can wait for an hour.

You get up an hour earlier (not my favorite solution – but I did it for eight months when I had a day job, and it let me build my career to the point where I could quit and write full time).

You shuffle around some other activities: if you currently head to the gym at 6am, could you go at lunchtime or in the evening instead?

Try This:

Further Reading:

Why You Should Get Serious About Your Writing Schedule, Kari, Men with Pens

Step #4: Cut Out or Cut Back

Here are just a few ideas you might want to consider.

Cut out…

Voluntary commitments you don’t enjoy and wish you’d never signed up for. Resign in writing, and don’t leave any room for ambiguity or argument.

Time-wasting activities that don’t add much to your life – do you really need to take another Buzzfeed quiz? Try RescueTime to track your computer activity.

Cut down…

TV watching. Of course, keep up any must-sees (mine are Game of Thrones and Doctor Who) … but if you’re binging on whole seasons of shows on Netflix, cut back to an hour every evening.

Even if money’s tight, can you get a maid service once or twice a month? If that’s not an option, can you delegate to your spouse or kids?

Try This:

Look at your non-writing activities and save some time there too:

10 minutes per day on Twitter and Facebook, instead of 30, could well get you the same results.

Template emails will save you time answering common questions, dealing with routine enquiries, and so on.

Further Reading:

Why You Should Flush 90% of Your To-Do List Down the Toilet, Michael Hyatt, MichaelHyatt.com

Step #5: Keep a Time Log

If you’re still struggling, keep a time diary for a week to find out exactly where your time goes.

(If you’ve ever kept a food diary while on a diet, or a spending diary while getting out of debt, you’ll have some idea of how powerful this can be.)

You could use a spreadsheet, a physical notebook, or an app like Toggl. While entering data manually can be a pain, it does make you very aware of how you’re using your time.

Try This:

Further Reading:

Why You Really Don’t Have a Time Management Problem, Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing

Step #6: When You’re Writing, Write!

If you’ve set aside 30 minutes to work on a post for your blog, you need to actually write.

Try This:

Work in short bursts. I find that 20 – 45 minutes is about right. If you know you only have to write for another 15 minutes, not for another hour, it’s easier to push yourself to keep going.

Further Reading:

How to Maintain Focus when Writing, Mary Jaksch, Write to Done

You won’t miraculously “find” a few spare hours to write.

You need to make that time – by finding more efficient ways to work and by restructuring other elements of your life to allow your writing to be a priority.

So here’s your first step again: find fifteen minutes, either today or tomorrow, to brainstorm some ideas for one of your current projects.

Get up early, use the ad breaks on TV, write in your notebook on the bus, or whatever it takes. Drop a comment below to tell us what you’ll be doing, and when.

The post New Year Reboot: Make More Time to Write appeared first on ProBlogger.

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