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Explode Your Productivity in 3 Simple Steps
It does not matter what profession you have, if you are self employed or employed by someone else, you need some way to stay motivated. On the other hand, if you really are self employed you probably have a difficult time every now and then to keep performing tasks that make you money, day in and day out.
If you want to stay productive for as long as possible, keep in mind the 24-48 Hour Rule. Also make that extra effort to improve your typing speed, and do everything you can to put yourself in the right mindset.
The 24-48 Hour Rule came about when I realized that whenever I work on an article writing campaign, create a video product, or write a report or e-book, 80% of the work is completed within a 24 to 48 hour period. If I take any longer, my productivity declines considerably. Even if it takes me 3 to 7 days to write a book, I tend to drag my feet or focus on other tasks during that time.
You need to work inside a 24 to 48 hour box where you are not distracted by anything else. Stay up all night, wake up early, decline an invitation to hang out with friends, do whatever it takes during that time to finish. I say 24 to 48 hour box because I tell myself I am going to finish in exactly 24 hours, and end up going to 48. You need to set that 24 hour goal, and end up finishing within 48 hours.
Another bottleneck you are going to run across is your typing speed. You need to learn how to touch type using programs such as "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing." You might type a little slower the first few weeks, but if you can bring your typing speed up to 50 to 120 words per minute... any programming, copywriting, e-mail marketing, forum posting, or article writing you do will take a lot less time.
Finally there is the mindset factor. You need to be in the right mindset and train your brain to hate being poor or not having products completed. You also need to reward yourself after you have finished a job, so your brain associates your success with happiness.
Those are the three easy steps to exploding your productivity and getting a lot more accomplished.
Double Your Prices!
Hey guys, I'm back from AM 2.0 in Dallas and I'm still getting caught up on customer support issues.
I talked to Ryan Deiss the first day (I saw him speak in Dallas last year but I never got a chance to say hi). He said, "How business?" I said great, that I just had my first $30K month in February and that I quit my day job of three years (first and only job out of college) to attend the event.
Later that night, Armand Morin was talking to a group of people so on my way out to dinner, I fist-bumped him (my standard greeting) and he said: "Robert, double your prices. You'll double your income instantly." Basically, if you wanted to buy all of Armand's products it would cost you $15K. To buy all my stuff (not including webinars), probably about $1K. He gave the same advice to the rest of the group the following morning.
You got it, Armand. The first product I'm doing that with is Action PopUp. The price was $27 for the last several months, it's now $37 and it will be $47 before the end of this month once I wrap-up my new popup training course that'll go along with it.
1. This weekend was one of the best events I've ever attended. Armand mentioned Action PopUp onstage and Ray Edwards mentioned WordPress Letter to a bunch of people. I didn't get to meet Michel Fortin... maybe next time!
2. My goal was to have 10 webinars scheduled by the end, I left with 5. I'm still happy.
3. March 2009 was my SECOND consecutive $30K month (actually it was slightly over $32,000). February's goal was $30K, March goal was $31K, so now my goal for April is $32K.
4. I launched Enhanced Sales Letters and WordPress Letter just before leaving. The night I left for the airport, I cleaned out my PayPal account and came back to an $11,000 balance. Not bad for my first week of full-time self-employment.
5. I joined AM 2.0 Gold, the $500/month program that gets you into these seminars. My goal is to upgrade to AM 2.0 Platinum within 10 days. All you need to do is prove you made $100K last year (done -- in fact I've made about $80K just in 2009), and complete a 100-point checklist that all "professional" web sites satisfy. I knocked out 58 of those 100 points in about 20 minutes this morning.
6. Armand showed a super-secret AdWords technique that my business partner is already implementing. At the bar, DJ Dave Bernstein shared six networking strategies that made the whole trip worthwhile. The following night I used just ONE of those techniques to pay $46 for $120 of alcohol. Good stuff.
Bottom line: Go to seminars, know what you want out of a seminar before you go, actually make mistakes and use the stuff you learn, and most importantly... hang out at the bar every night even if you don't drink. You'll make some connections and have a heck of a lot more fun sitting at the computer in your hotel room.
What networking events are you attending this year?
Improve Your Speaking Skills on Video?
Do you want to speak on stage someday or host your own seminars? You can use the power of screen capture software (like Jing or Camtasia) to create your products faster and improve your public speaking skills.
My formula: record a video for a paid product, if I don't have time for that, keep the video rolling while I do something to improve my business... and don't stop the camera until I'm done. (This REALLY keeps me on task.) If that fails, open up Notepad and go over what I did that day. I plan for 5 minutes and that usually ends up taking 20 minutes.
Then, watch that video you just recorded from start to finish.
This is what professional actors and public speakers do to train themselves to actually look presentable.
You would be surprised at how many people DON'T do this. Just look at how many chipmunk-infested Camtasia videos are floating around out there.
There are so-called "experts" at video who are hard to watch.
When you talk with your hands, it's distracting and you look like an idiot! There is absolutely NO REASON for you to use 2-3 different nervous hand gestures with every sentence.
When you talk for 2 minutes before you start to say anything new, you have lost my interest. Do you have a lame video with flashy graphics than says nothing but, "Welcome to my web site?" Get rid of it! If someone missed the first 2 minutes of your video, would it still make sense? Then start at that 2 minute point next time.
The point of video is so you can communicate more information in less time, and hold someone's attention better than plain text can. That should be your goal as a public speaker as well. If you can master the art of keeping yourself entertained, you can become a great public speaker, or at least produce amazing videos.
Bring Numbers to the Seminar
Hey guys, I'm still at AM 2.0 in Dallas. It turns out Michel Fortin and Stu McLaren didn't make it. But I did get to meet Armand Morin, Ray Edwards, Ryan Deiss, and a chunk-load of other people.
Last night we did a networking event, everyone in the room rotates and you get to spend a few minutes explaining yourself, what your biggest problem is, and what you get out of the seminar.
Hardly anyone shared their numbers which sucks. I want to know how much your last product launch was even if it only make $100 or how much you made last month online even if it was only $50.
It's all 80/20 rule... 80% of the stuff in your business usually is a waste. But if we're listening to you explain your business we don't know what 20% is making you the most money... if you don't share numbers!
I shared a couple of income numbers during the session but since no one else was doing it, it felt like bragging, so I stopped.
If you're at these seminars and you haven't make any money online, freaking tell us that too so the people you talk to can get you on track. Share income numbers if you're trying to get advice, because that's the most important thing.
Work: My Most Hated Word!
You guys had a ton of good guesses about my most hated word... but the word I'm trying to get rid of is: WORK!
No one wants to do work. My girlfriend always says, "I have to go back to work after lunch" or "I got to work at 10 o'clock." I keep correcting her... you aren't going to work, you're going back to the rehab center to help old people and make a difference.
- When Jason and I hold e-classes, he always gives out "homework" and I get him to rename it to that week's "challenge."
- Jason never says he is "sick" ... instead, he has the flu or has a virus he needs to get rid of.
- When I get off the phone with business partners, I've stopped saying, "Get back to work." Instead, I say things like, "Get back to having fun building your business."
Finally, when I get an angry customer, his e-mail usually says a PHP script didn't "work" ... what a waste of time, because I always have to reply and say, "How did it not 'work?' Was there an error message, did you try anything?"
Even when something "works" in a positive way, it's still not specific enough... it needs to be benefit-oriented. (The script didn't just "work" ... it showed up on the page and gathered opt-ins!)
Look at how many of you took time of your day to answer the previous post... you were escaping your "work!" (Ironically enough, the very FIRST answer within 10 seconds was the correct guess.) You need to find a way to make your so-called "work" enjoyable... turn it into a game:
- Friendly competition: Get an accountability partner and try to earn more money than him.
- More output: If you wrote 10 articles last week, write 12 articles this week.
- Less time: If you spent 20 hours building your business last week, do those same tasks this week in 15 hours and take Friday off.
Many people ask me and Jason how we get more done in a week than most people do in a year, how we can work for long stretches of time without burnout and always stay motivated... it's because we don't WORK! We have fun writing copy and creating video products.
For the rest of the day today, count the number of times you say the word "work." If you said it 10 times today, then make it a goal to say it 9 times or less tomorrow. After that, only say it 8 times in a day... until you stop using the word "work" altogether.
80% of getting things accomplished and making money is just having the right mindstate, not necessarily the best skills... that's why so many people went ga-ga- over Time Management on Crack.
At the very least, catch yourself whenever you say this bad word. That's a step in the right direction.
Guess the Word I Hate the Most?
There's one word that most people use that KILLS you every day. The sooner you realize HOW often you use this word, the sooner you can stop saying it. You'll also notice how often you hear it from other people, so you can tune this word out.
Once you've done both those things, you'll have a better mindstate about everything you do, and you'll be more productive... and therefore make more money.
So what is the word? Comment below with your guess and in a few days, I'll total up your guesses. Here are a few hints.
- It's a FOUR letter word.
- It can be used as a verb (an action word, like "run" or "jump")
- I heard it 10 times in 10 minutes today (5 times in 2 minutes)
- It's not a curse word -- although it might as well be in my book.
- My angriest and most frustrated customers who flip out at the smallest inconveniences (they are a minority) use this word in most e-mails.
- Copywriters will tell you to remove this word from your sales copy.
- It is not the word "wait" or "stop" or "can't."
What do you think this word is? Comment below with your best guess!
How to Build a Mailing List with WordPress
There are three ways I use a WordPress blog to build my e-mail opt-in mailing list: comments, a sidebar widget, and an opt-in popup. You can get all three of these plugins in one convenient bundle, for just 27 dollars now 47 dollars.
Question of the day: Do you have any really cool ways to build a list, that I haven't thought of?
How to Get a Lot Accomplished Even If You Don’t Have Time
For years I told myself that if I only had enough free time, I would get a lot more accomplished. If I quit my job and finished school, I would have all the time in the world to work on my internet business, launch one new product every day and write 10 articles per day. Unfortunately, that kind of assumption could not be further from the truth.
If you are working on a hobby or trying to sustain a business while you still have a day job or go to school, you can do it if you budget your time. The best thing you can do is take your lack of time and turn it into a positive thing: tell yourself, I only have an hour to work on my business before I have to do this assignment. I only have an hour for my lunch break.
You can also turn this around and say: I need to finish my homework in the next 30 minutes so I can start working on my business.
As soon as you learn how to work smarter instead of longer or harder, you will experience a big productivity boost. Can you go to sleep a couple hours early, so that you can wake up a couple hours early and work free from distraction? Are you willing to give up television, at least during the week? Can you limit your social life to one night a week?
I began working on my internet business when I was 15, began doing a lot of freelance work at 16 and made my first product at 17. I finished high school and college while working full time, so it is possible.
During school I finished assignments the same day they were assigned, if possible, even if they were due weeks later. I worked on homework on the bus, during lunch, and after school, because I knew it meant more time to work for myself. I noticed a big boost when I left my work at school... meaning I would finish all my work in the school library and not even think about school after I got home.
Today, I still work at a day job full-time and find time to create products, write articles and blog posts, even market to my list... during my lunch break, 15 minute breaks, before and after work, and on weekends.
You might want "more time" to get your work done, but if you had more free time and your entire life was dedicated to your business, you would be unhappy and unmotivated. Instead, use that time crunch to stay super-focused on finishing your tasks so you can make room for new ones. My time management report can help you with that.
$30K Month: Success!
Some of you guys have been asking how I did on the $30K month for February... the answer is: I passed with flying colors!
I made it past $30K on Thursday the 26th, with two days to spare. Here's a breakdown of it:
- Day job: $2,500.00
- Launches and trickle sales: $22,207.03
- Affiliates: $4,846.44
- Membership site: $869.06
- Webinar future payments: $2,000
- Total: $32,422.53
Affiliate sales are way up, just about quadrupled. I planned to a product launch, resale rights offer, price increase, and e-class per week... but the two product launches went very well and I took a little bit of Eric Holmlund's advice and focused devoting 80% of my time to marketing.
I hit $30K with just two product launches that went VERY well, two resale rights offers that went VERY well, and one e-class. Here's a list of my accomplishments for the month:
- Made 986 sales.
- Wrote 5 sales letters.
- Wrote 6 blog posts.
- Sent 33 e-mails to my list.
- Paid nearly $1000 in PayPal fees!
- Recorded 50 videos on one Sunday.
- Wrote 2 guest posts, a 9-part guest video series, hosted a 90-minute webinar with a stranger and appeared on 2 interviews.
Tell me why I work a day job again? When I just made more in one MONTH from internet marketing than I make a whole year the day job? Oh right, "health insurance." (rolls eyes)
Instead of going on and on about myself, I'll leave you with a few lessons I learned from the $30K month that you can apply in your business right now:
Lesson #1: Focus on what makes money first. If freelance makes you the most money, freelance first to hit your daily goals and then work on long-term stuff like product creation or joint ventures when you're ahead. Personally, I got a product launch out of the way and then I was free to go about promoting it.
Lesson #2: Have a weekly goal. $30K broken down into 4 weeks is $7500 per week. So each week, all I had to do was think, what did I need to do to get that $7500? Usually a couple of product launches and affiliate sales. $7500 in a week is much less intimidating to me than $30K in a month. If you're not on that level yet, try for even $750 in a week.
Lesson #3: Have an accountability partner. I couldn't have made it this far without Jason kicking my butt every step of the way, and Jason couldn't have made it to $20K without me asking him why he hadn't launched anything that day.
Lesson #4: Never complain. Another big timewaster and a great way to waste the entire week feeling bad about yourself. If you have time to complain, you're not busy enough. This doesn't mean giving up your personal life or anything like that. But if you sit at the computer 3 hours a day, you had better be working on internet marketing all 3 hours instead of complaining!
Lesson #5: Do as much with the time you have as you possibly can. Get an early start to the day if possible, and NEVER EVER do any internet marketing work at your day job unless it's before, after, during lunch or on breaks. My girlfriend wakes up at 5 AM most mornings to babysit, so I got her to wake me up before she left so I could work without any distractions.
What did you think? Do you have close-ended monetary goals for each month and each week? An accountability partner? If not, maybe you need my Time Management on Crack productivity report and videos to get you where you NEED to go.
What's my goal for March 2009? $31K. What's your goal for this month? Please comment below with your goal and how you plan on getting there.
