Robert Plank

I can't begin to calculate how much money I lost for years just because I didn't put a single optin page online.

Email Optin Page

Simple "piece of paper" web page, headline describing what my free gift was, three bullet points going into very QUICK detail of each one, call to action telling people to fill in the form below, and an email optin web form.

Set it to redirect to a page offering a free gift. Easy way to offer a free gift? Go to EzineArticles, search your niche, grab 3 articles that look good, copy them out leaving names and resource boxes intact, add the link to your website. Paste into Microsoft Word and save as a PDF file.

• Do you have articles or blog posts of your own? Even better. Put 3 of your own articles into that PDF.
• Do you already have an information product? Pull out one of the bonuses or one chapter  and that's your free gift.
• Do you run free 1-hour pitch webinars? Take your most recent one and put the video behind that optin page.

I don't know why, but I used to think it was "a lot of work" setting up a simple optin page using this exact process. It's not work! You're sitting in a chair, not even really thinking too much, taking 5 minutes on this total.

Webinar Optin Page

For some reason I fell into the same pattern when it came to running webinars. You might have noticed that early on, many of our webinars had a "fancy" optin page. Meaning, when you signed up for one of our webinars, it wasn't the usual ugly GoToWebinar screen.

It used our template. We could embed an autoplay audio or video on the signup form. Even auto-signup any of our subscribers with one click. (This is all possible using our "Webinar Optin" plugin.)

But you know what happened for years? I was lazy. I right click and copied the webinar link and sent it to my list that way. I still do many times.

Login to GoToWebinar, find upcoming webinar, right click webinar link and "Copy Link Location" ... go to template, paste in webinar link, change headline and bullet points... save and email. Once again, 5 minutes tops.

Affiliate Optin Page

Here's a technique Lance and I have been using for years. An affiliate wants to promote us, we setup an optin page just for them, once again using Webinar Optin. We setup an optin page just for the affiliate, which tags any subscribers they send into our affiliate program.We setup a page for them such as www.example.com/lance. The page registers that subscriber to our pre-sell list for that product, and registers them for the webinar.

I record the webinar as we run it, where we have some teaching and pitch the offer at the end. I save and produce the recording in Camtasia, and throw it online behind the optin page. That affiliate can still send traffic, get tagged, show people the replay, and there's now a button under the replay for people to buy.

Why did I used to think this was "a lot of work?" And it's all possible using ONE simple piece of free software...

The Secret: EditPlus

I've used the same text editor for over 12 years now and it's called EditPlus. I started using it back in high school when I became tired of... downloading a file from my web server, editing that file, then uploading it back up and checking to see what changes had occured on the website.

EditPlus has a built-in FTP client. Which means you can login to FTP and access your files right within the program, open a file, edit it, hit the save button... and it "magically" saves it without you having to do any extra uploading and downloading.

Here's where it saves me tons of time setting up optin pages, webinar pages, and affiliate pages. I just find one of my optin pages laying around, open it in EditPlus... and just re-save the template with the new changes in the new location.

What It All Means

The next time you're putting off setting up an optin page, signing up to an affiliate system like Clickbank, throwing some solo ads onto an "affiliate toolbox" page for your affiliates, heck, even sending out a quick email to your list... just ask yourself, why? It's won't even take 5 minutes.

And if you just re-use the last template you used, and use EditPlus to quickly open and re-save... you can do it even faster.

Here's something else to think about: If you really can't bring yourself to do it, could you record your screen using Camtasia Recorder and record yourself doing it, so that you HAVE to do it?

And what about this: Could you find a way to provide this as a service, and get paid to setup an optin page? Get paid to setup an affiliate program? Get paid to setup a 1-click webinar optin page... for people who don't want to do it?

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Strategy: Do you want to know what works when you're building a real business and making real money online?

A. Create an information product and a download area for people to get it after they buy
B. Make a sales letter that explains why it's so great
C. Get traffic to it and build a list of prospects and buyers

That's it. List, traffic, and offers -- this worked back in 1997 when all you needed was a website to get traffic, in 1999 when all you needed was an affiliate program to get traffic, in 2002 when all you needed was search engine listings to get traffic, in 2005 when all you needed was a list to get traffic, and even in 2007 and beyond when all you need are joint venture partners to get massive traffic.

Tactics: Do you want to know what doesn't work?

1. Free for all link pages
2. Doorway pages & search engine cloaking
3. Safelists
4. Email co-registration
5. Traffic exchanges
6. Paid leads
7. Guaranteed optins
8. Tell-a-friend
9. JV giveaways
10. Ad swaps
11. Warrior special offers
12. Auto-bloggers
13. Traffic loopholes
14. Social media
15. "Traffic getting" software

What's funny is that even if you haven't heard of every single one of these so-called "business models" -- they're the same traffic technique (which doesn't work, or only works for a couple months) -- then a year later it comes back under a different name...

Funny, right?

I know it's easy to get distracted by all these fancy terms and techniques but this is what you REALLY need to do:

A. Make a Product & Put It In a Membership Site

1. Run a 4-week webinar class (using GoToWebinar) solving a problem in your niche
2. Put those recording into a membership site (using Wishlist Member) and get them transcribed into reports
3. Create a piece of software (using WP Notepad) or buy resale rights (Master-Resale-Rights.com) that solves your problem in a "push button" way and add it to that site

B. Build a List & Send Them to Your Sales Letter

1. Capture the buyers of your membership site into a mailing list using Aweber
2. Pull out ONE module or ONE bonus of your paid course, give it away for free and create a landing page where people can sign up and upgrade to the paid version
3. Email your list every day

C. Drive Traffic to Increase Your List Size

1. Setup an affiliate program and link to it in your product and in your membership site to recruit your buyers into affiliates
2. Make at least 1 forum post every day and post at least 1 article every day until you have 100 articles and 1,000 forum posts
3. Pay for at least 1 source of paid advertising even if it's just an email solo ad or a banner ad on a blog

That's what works for me, now YOU tell me... what works for you? What was your biggest breakthrough when it came to making a product, building a list, getting traffic, and making money? Go ahead and tell me in the comments below.

Is it okay if I share with you the ONE formula that appears everywhere, again and again... and if you keep it in your back pocket every time you assemble a sales letter, create a blog post, make a product, send an email, and even deal with everyday relationships, you'll always win?

If I share this formula with you, will you check and make sure your web pages pass the test so you can convert as many people as possible?

I hope you've heard of this formula, and it's this: attention, interest, desire, action...

Every time you put out any piece of writing, video, or even live presentation -- run it through this filter. Here's what I mean...

1. Get someone's attention using a shocking statement or headline
2. Build interest by agitating your problem or setting up a question
3. Setup the desire for your solution by revealing it and explaining it
4. Tell people what to do now by telling them to take action

If you've even given (or read) a course, presentation, sales letter, or any other message that was missing an opening, seemed to "linger" too much on a problem, jump into a solution without addressing it, or had everything right except the end -- it was probably neglecting one or all of the above steps.

And I want to multiply your conversion rates by making sure you follow these simple rules. You can get as creative as you want as long as you follow this four step formula. Check it out...

ATTENTION:
Sales Letter Headline or Blog Post Title

When I write blog posts, I like to split the title into two parts: what I'm talking about (the feature), and the result of it (the benefit)... just look at my last few blog post titles here:

• Specialized Knowledge: How to Make $50 (or More) Every 5 Minutes, All Day Long, By Clicking a Few Buttons (Just Like I Did at Age 17)
• Speed Copywriting Explained (Assemble a Web Page That Gets People to Buy From You In the Next Few Minutes)
• It's Simple, So It Must Not Work: How You Too Can Make Several Thousand Dollars in a Weekend
• Website Backup: Keep Your Site Safe, Instantly Clone Your Blog, and Get Things Done Anywhere
• The Accordion Method (And Now You Never Run Out of Content Ever Again)

Now I have blog post titles that are both short, and long!

With sales letters, it's even simpler. The headline isn't necessarily the title of the web page we're on, it's just the HEADER that gets us to continue reading...

Think about the first thing you want to say to your visitor to keep them alert, on your web page, and hungry for more. Whatever you say should answer "most" of these questions:

1. What's in it for me? (promises a clear benefit)
2. What's my problem or solution? (without giving away your product yet)
3. Why should I even listen to you? (get attention either with a question, challenge, or shocking statement)
   
4. Is this newsworthy? (something new and unique that's worth reading about)
5. Do I have a reason to continue reading? (does it lead to another thought?)

Yes, I'm saying that your headline should contain all of these items...

More often than not I'll have that headline big, red, centered, bolded, and in quotes at the top of that web page, but what's more important than the formatting is that the WORDS are impossible to ignore. For example:

• "How I Made an Extra $101,934.10 In 80 Days From 4 Low Ticket Products (With Zero Traffic and a Tiny List) Using One Very Special Piece of Affiliate Software..."
• Backup, Clone, Protect... WordPress Plugin Makes It Simple For You To Backup, Restore And Protect Your WordPress Blogs And Sites Anytime You Want With Just A Few Easy Clicks...
• "How Would You Like My Instant Formula For Creating High-Impact, Persuasive, Converting Sales Letters in the Next Few Minutes?"
• "If You're Feeling Completely Overloaded, Unorganized and Feel Like You're Always Running Out of Time..." You Need to Get a Grip on (and Control of) Your Time Management Skills!

And I'll usually add a subheadline that COMPLETES the thought that the headline first created. Why? Because it gets people reading further down, and then further, until the next thing you know, they've read the whole sales letter all the way down to the buy button.

INTEREST:
Problem or Big Picture

You've got my attention, but I'm not ready to buy your product yet. And even if I was, I need to know you can actually UNDERSTAND and SOLVE my problem... which is why you need to tell me what problem I'm having and how can you really help me solve it...

I need to stress here that we're not introducing your product yet. I see too many sales letters start off with, "I want you to buy my product right now." You're jumping the gun.

This is the STORYTELLING section. Introduce the problem so that I have to find out how it ends -- with the introduction of your product.

You should probably answer these questions:

1. Who are you and why are you qualified to help me?
2. What exactly is my problem and what's the "difficult" solution?
3. What do I need to know and what issues did I not even consider yet?
4. Why are you better than anyone else?

Check out the deck copy for "Membership Cube" to see what I mean...

For the last several years internet marketers have told you how easy it is to setup your membership site and get a flood of people paying you every month for your services, your expertise, and your information. But there are just a few problems...

It's Not As Easy As "They" Say It Is...
These Are The Same People That Told You
"All You Need Is a Website"

• Where will you get the content for this membership site?
• How will you get people into it, and keep them from dropping out?
• What software will you use for the membership, and what plugins?
• What the heck will you do next?

How Did That Work Out For You?
I Can Tell You From My Own Personal Experience:
Membership Sites Are The Best Thing
To Ever Happen To Me!

It IS possible to profit from a membership site as long as you make the right decisions. But don't worry, we've already made the tough decisions for you in our simple step by step system.

I'm confident in those steps because these are the same steps Lance and I have implemented to create 20 membership sites -- 19 of those sites were created in the past 12 months. And guess what, they've all made money: some as little as $2,000 and some well over $100,000.

Do you see what we're doing? We're educating our prospect about why membership sites are so valuable and differentiating from the competition (especially membership software that doesn't come without training) and saying, you need to listen to us.

One reason I really like telling a story in copy is that it doesn't feel like an ad. But far too many copywriters get stuck on the story, the whole sales letter is one long story, and people still don't know what they're buying. That's why you need to get to the third stage WELL BEFORE the halfway point in your copy...

DESIRE:
Solution or Exact Offer

At this point, you'll reveal YOUR product in that sales letter, meaning a huge headline with the name of the course or item, and a graphical representation, it's just that simple. If I can't easily tell that you're selling an ebook, or video course, or membership site, or physical seminar, or physical item -- in under a minute just by scrolling through -- then you need to make it clearer.

In the "interest" stage you've already done the clever storytelling... now you need to tell me what it is you want me to buy:

1. What's the exact name of your product and what's in it?
2. What's in each module, why is each module important and why is it given in the order you show it?
3. What bonuses are you giving me?
4. What is each component worth on its own? (dollar value)
5. What is the total value of this product you're about to give me? (total up the dollar values)
6. What actual price is it going to cost today? (much lower than the total value)

You'll want to end the "desire" stage by listing everything people get in a two-column table... first column, the name of the module they're getting; second column, the price tag on it.

It may seem tedious to total up each $197 or $297 price tag on your individual modules to get a total of $2,217.00, but believe me, it'll look way more impressive when you then DROP the price to $97 or $47 or $27. Very few people do this on sales letters, but they need to!!!

It's super important that you lay out the ENTIRE offer in the "desire" section. Yes, even the bonuses. Lay out the ENTIRE offer before you ask for the sale, including bonuses.

Have you ever noticed that on some sales letters, you scroll to the bottom, then scroll back up to look at something, then back down? That's not good and when I do that, I notice it's usually because someone got my attention, laid out the story, the entire offer, even showed the guarantee and asked for the sale -- and THEN introduced bonuses! Big mistake.

Now people know we relate to their problem and have the credibility to solve it, we've revealed that product and explained our offer -- and at the end, listed everything in the package and revealed the price... what's left? People will know to order on their own, right?

Wrong! Every time I specifically tell people reading a blog post, sales letter, or email optin form -- to fill out the form, conversion rates go up. We can never make it OBVIOUS enough...

ACTION:
Why To Buy (or Comment) Now

This is probably the most cookie-cutter part of any sales letter, but it's still important. You need to tell me:

1. What's your guarantee? (30 days or 60 days? Can I get my money back for any reason?)
2. What price are you charging? (state it again, make it as simple and clear as possible)
3. How do I order? (i.e., "click on the button and pay $97 to JumpX LLC")
4. What are the technical requirements to run your product? (i.e., Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, WordPress)
5. How soon until I receive your product after downloading? (i.e., instant delivery)

In an optin form we're asking for their name and email address, in a blog post we're asking for a comment (easy to get if you ask a question at the end of your blog post), and on a sales letter we're asking for people to buy.

The Entire Formula Revealed

I know that was a lot to take in, but here's the whole AIDA formula laid out for you:

1. A1: What's in it for me? (promises a clear benefit)
2. A2: What's my problem or solution? (without giving away your product yet)
3. A3: Why should I even listen to you? (get attention either with a question, challenge, or shocking statement)
4. A4: Is this newsworthy? (something new and unique that's worth reading about)
5. A5: Do I have a reason to continue reading? (does it lead to another thought?)
6. I1: Who are you and why are you qualified to help me?
7. I2: What exactly is my problem and what's the "difficult" solution?
8. I3: What do I need to know and what issues did I not even consider yet?
9. I4: Why are you better than anyone else?
10. D1: What's the exact name of your product and what's in it?
11. D2: What's in each module, why is each module important and why is it given in the order you show it?
12. D3: What bonuses are you giving me?
13. D4: What is each component worth on its own? (dollar value)
14. D5: What is the total value of this product you're about to give me? (total up the dollar values)
15. D6: What actual price is it going to cost today? (much lower than the total value)
16. A1: What's your guarantee? (30 days or 60 days? Can I get my money back for any reason?)
17. A2: What price are you charging? (state it again, make it as simple and clear as possible)
18. A3: How do I order? (i.e., "click on the button and pay $97 to JumpX LLC")
19. A4: What are the technical requirements to run your product? (i.e., Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, WordPress)
20. A5: How soon until I receive your product after downloading? (i.e., instant delivery)

I hope that pushes you in the right direction with your...

• Sales Letters: Attention-grabbing headline, interesting story, desirable offer, and order button as the call-to-action
• Webinar Pitches: Start with a big promise (attention), demonstrate something live on the call (interest), explain your offer (desire), and tell them where to buy (action)
• Email Marketing: Send an "attention" email hinting at a problem, an "interest" email agitating that problem, a "desire" email introducing your solution and URL, an "action" email with just your URL... and repeat the process
• Information Products: Start each chapter of your report with a bold claim (attention), give them the big picture (interest), explain the step by step process (desire), and end with an assignment (action)

So what's the verdict, does your sales letter pass this 20-point checklist? (It's okay if it doesn't yet.) What's the URL to it? Go ahead and respond with your answer below.

Let me tell you something.

Do you want to know the first time I saw a balance of 1000 bucks in my PayPal account?

It was 2002... geez, a decade ago now, I was 17 years old. I was a senior in high school. I lived with my parents. And you know what I was doing to make my money?

Installing a link tracker plugin. I had programmed it, and people could buy it for 67 bucks (I think)... I would get 1/3rd of that money. Better than working at McDonald's at that age, right?

But the big bucks came in when someone bought that plugin... many people wanted "someone else" to install it.

5 Minutes = 50 Dollars

The price was $50 bucks per install. What they didn't know is it took me about 5 minutes to FTP up files, chmod files, create a database, import that database, create a cron job, edit a config file... in other words, my "specialized knowledge" was worth every penny to them even though I could do it fast.

As you can imagine, it didn't take long to fill up to 1k...

And that paid for college. I'll admit I needed help from my parents for the first year living alone, but never fully. They gave me "some" money for rent. I paid the rest of my rent, plus school, plus food, cable, internet, clothing, all that good stuff...

Why am I telling you all this?

1. Because I still believe that if you're starting out, the fastest way to make money is freelancing: performing a service in exchange for pay.
2. You can get paid more per hour if you do whatever it is you do FAST
3. You get paid even MORE than that if you have a SPECIALIZED SKILL and differentiate yourself

What's a specialized skill? Let's think about this...

Scenario #1: WordPress Installer

How much would someone charge you to install WordPress? 10 bucks? But what if...

• You installed WordPress on their domain
• You loaded it up with a beautiful looking WordPress theme
• You customized it with all the SEO, social media, discussion, and traffic plugins they need
• You setup their blog to retweet and post to their fan page every time you made a post
• You loaded up the blog with YouTube videos, EzineArticles and PLR articles
• You contacted 25 professionals in their niche asking for guest blog content
• You brought people to the site to leave comments
• You setup their autoresponder, optin form, and popup on that blog

Now how much is that worth? 100 bucks MINIMUM... and it still takes you under an hour of work.

Scenario #2: Offline Business Setup

A few months ago I had dinner with a small business who was getting his website setup. His "coder" gave him...

• A professional design (magazine style WordPress theme)
• "About Us" and "Photos" pages (content supplied by the business owner)
• A Facebook Like button (installed a plugin)
• Business information and a Google Map to the location (installed a plugin)
• Coupon and QR code  (installed a plugin)

That took even less time and the business owner was happy to pay over 1000 dollars for it. Just something to think about... but what about this?

Scenario #3: Membership Site Ninja

I know a couple of people who are the "modern day equivalent" of what I used to do. They are membership site installers. Their full-time living consists of:

• Installing WordPress
• Adding a good looking theme
• Setting up membership site software
• Add a simple sales letter with a payment button
• Setup "free" and "paid" levels
• Install a forum
• Install backup and monitoring plugins

Average price these people ask for membership site installations: $4000. For MAYBE an hour of work if you're slow and a riveting, action-packed re-run of "Mama's Family" is playing on your TV in the background?

My head is spinning right now with so many ways you can look at what freelance services other people are providing, and put your own "twist" on it. Here are some more examples...

• Article writer: in addition to writing the articles, you could submit the article to 20 article sites, AND login to their blog once per day to post the articles they hired you to write
• Copywriter: in addition to writing their sales letter, you could write and schedule the autoresponder emails, setup the thank you page offer and upsell, setup the affiliate program, and contact 20 joint venture partners
• Graphic Designer: in addition to creating someone's logo, you could create their 3D cover, affiliate banner graphics, sales letter "doodles" and minisite design
• Product Ghostwriter: in addition to writing someone's product, you could put it on Kindle and CreateSpace for them
• Resale Rights Seller: in addition to selling resale rights to your report or membership site, you could install the sales letter and download page on their site for them

And how do you get these jobs? Easy... contact anyone who sells a WordPress plugin, WordPress theme, article creation course, graphic creation course, copywriting course... get yourself listed in their product and download page.

Remember, that's how I got all my "$50 installation in 5 minutes" jobs came from... someone bought the link tracking plugin, and they had all the instructions to install it themselves, but that download page said: contact this guy if you want to pay 50 bucks to get it installed.

Quick question: What have you done, heard of, or plan to do to make more money with freelancing and done-for-you services?

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Let me tell you how my weekend went.

We made 8 sales of $97 Newbie Crusher, 3 subscriptions into $97/month Membership Cube, 1 signup to $97/month Webinar Crusher, a sale of a $49.95 product I haven't promoted in years, a couple of $7 products sold, a few $47 copies of Action PopUp, a few $47 modules of Double Agent Marketing also sold, a $197 product sold...

And a bunch of recurring subscription payments to take up the slack!

I'm saying this not to brag or make you jealous but to tell you how I did it...

Step 1: Setup a membership site to deliver the download

Step 2: Setup a sales letter to explain the offer and take payments

Step 3: Setup a page giving away a free gift upselling to the paid product

Step 4: Sent an email to my list telling them to click on a link

That's it. It really is that simple, and most of the time I even skip step three to make it even easier.

But most people won't do it, because it's too easy... what's the loophole?

"It's Simple, So It Must Not Work!"

It must not work. You must not be doing what you teach. Let me apply my own "twist" to this system. Let me try re-teaching it to others without actually doing it.

I see the same thing when it comes to "four daily tasks."

At one point I averaged how many things I really accomplished in one day. Some days it was 10 things, some days 0, some days 2, some days 5.

But on average -- I completed FOUR sixty minute tasks.

On days I completed more than four things, guess what?

• I didn't actually COMPLETE four things
• I cut up my tasks into "too small" chunks
• I was tired the next day and didn't get anything done

I've tried using fancy to-do lists, software, timers, and schedules. The only thing that will work LONG TERM for you is to do four things a day.

And if you don't know what four things you should be doing today, then:

1. Setup a membership site
2. Setup a SIMPLE sales letter that takes payments
3. Create an optin page
4. Send an email to your list

Finish four things today. Not 6, not 2, not 3, not 7, not 100... four. Then tomorrow, finish four more things, and so on. On average you'll get more things COMPLETED than those people who do 22 things one day, and 0 the next.

You only need to know (and implement) four things in order to overcome procrastination... so that you can take action, get results, make money, repeat it, and make it last.

First, we need to pick some simple task that you know you need to do, but aren't doing. For some of you it's quitting your day job. For others it's putting an information product out there. Maybe for you it's something as simple as writing (or dictating) one article every day.

Step 1: Side-by-Side "Ben Franklin" Comparison

The "Ben Franklin" comparison is where you have two columns. In one column you list your reasons for doing something, and in the other you list your reasons NOT to do something.

Most people do it wrong. They try to see HOW MANY things they can list in each column, and the column with the most things is the winner.

Instead, set a timer for 4 minutes and ist the "top four reasons" to do it and the "top four reasons" not to do it. That's it. If you list more than four, cross out some so you get the 4 most important, and if you have trouble thinking of four then any four will do.

I'll give you a couple examples...

• Quit Day Job: reasons to stay (reliable income, social interaction, daily routine, health insurance) vs. reasons to quit (more income, more fun, more freedom to travel, more free time)
• Launch Infoproduct: reasons not to launch (safer, no work, easier to stay anonymous, no risk of refunds) vs. reasons to launch (money, fun, growth, contribution)
• Getting Joint Ventures: reasons not to contact people (no chance of rejection, people are awkward, it's easier, ) vs. reasons to contact people (it's what successful people do, it doesn't take too much time, there are huge rewards, it's always good just to keep in touch)

Look at that, when you list things side by side it seems ridiculous to keep a job. It seems ridiculous to stay in a stay job, to not launch an information product, and makes it a necessity to get JVs.

When I was thinking about quitting my day job, both sides were pretty even for me, so I had to tip the scales in one direction or another... and once it was out of balance... I quit. But the key was chunking it down and focusing on just one specific thing.

Now you've measured the risk vs. the reward and you have a logical bird's eye view of WHY are you doing this that you can fall back on later.

Step 2: Pattern Interrupt to Minimize Bad Habits

You know what you need to be doing, now to get some kind of instant change you need to STOP one bad habit that keeps you from your goal. Back when I had my day job, and I was doing internet marketing, I was day trading stocks on my phone. I was always stressed out and sometimes it took effort to go even 10 minutes without checking my stocks.

Here's how I fixed the problem: I put a rubber band on my wrist. Every time I was about to check my stocks, I would snap that rubber band and move it to the other wrist.

I know that the reason most of you aren't productive is because you have that habit to check emails, check forums, check Facebook, check your stats or play computer games. Whenever you're about to do it, do the rubber band trick until you've accomplished your tasks for today.

Step 3: Conditioning & Anchoring

You'll start to notice that you'll start to associate pain with whatever bad habit you're getting rid of (let's say checking email) because every time you want to do it, it hurts.

Replace that old "checking your email" task with something productive. Let's say it's creating a report. Open your Word document or whatever tool you use to create a product, and the whole time you're working on it, force yourself to smile.

This does something really weird. Your brain is used to being happy, and then smiling. But it works in the other direction too. When you smile, you become happy.

When you continuously smile while typing and working on your product, then working on your product will make you happy.

If it makes you happy, then you'll want to do it more!

This is the same reason why physiologist Ivan Pavlov could ring a bell every time he fed a dog... and then eventually, just ringing the bell would get the dog to salivate. Because you're much smarter than a dog, you'll use this strategy to reward your good habits and get out of your comfort zone.

Step 4: Consistent Action (4DT)

Now that you'll have something that works, you'll want to repeat it, right?

That's where you'll use the same productivity advice I've given on every interview for year and probably will continue to give for the rest of my life...

Four Daily Tasks: At the beginning of the day, choose just four tasks you'll complete that day to move you in the right direction.

Accountability Partner: Tell someone (whether it's a business partner, spouse, parent, child, friend, neighbor, roommate) what your four tasks are, and at the end of the day, report back to them and tell them what you did or didn't finish, and why.

Time Boxing: Figure out how long a task will take you (for example, if finishing that report will take you 60 minutes), time it with a timer, and when that timer goes off, then put it online and step away from the computer. This ensures you'll stay focused and get that task completed QUICKLY.

And that's how you overcome procrastination: figure out what you want to do and Ben Franklin it, pattern interrupt whatever normally distracts you from making progress, condition yourself to enjoy it and use Four Daily Tasks to keep taking consistent action.

I understand if you need to post your comment below under a "fake" name (but I will still be proud of you when you use your real name)...

But I have a very simple 2-part question for you today:

Part #1: What's one thing you know you should have done today, yesterday, this week, last month... that you didn't do? (you can be as detailed or vague about this as you want)

Part #2: What's your excuse, reason, or story for not doing it yet?

I'll explain why I'm asking this question and what I'm going to do with your answers in the next blog post... what's important is you quickly answer both of those questions below and I'll talk to you very soon.