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18.8.08 - Rage Against The Machine

If you understand how people tick – how they respond to certain ideas, how they act in certain environments – if you understand the basics, you can, theoretically speaking, affect the way people think around you in a deliberate, pre-determined fashion.

And if you do this in a specific way, you can get people to buy from you.

The system for influencing people is a tool, just like you’d call a knife a tool or a screwdriver a tool. Just like you can use a screwdriver to help you build something or hit someone on the head (might need a big screwdriver if you want that one to be effective), you can influence people to do a variety of things, some that your internal moral compass will consider good and others that it will consider bad.

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9.8.08 - Manage Your Expectations

david v goliath 150x150 Manage Your ExpectationsUsually our expectations are based on what we want to happen. On the other hand, what actually happens depends on what we do, or if your expectations are from other people, what they do.

Clearly there’s something wrong with this world since it doesn’t exactly conform to our expectations – however there’s always something to be done to a) align your expectations to match reality and b) align reality to better match your expectations. It’s a two-way street, and all you need is a better understanding of how people tick.

Let’s start with what we know:

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4.7.08 - The 2 Types Of Successful Linkbaiters

There are two types of successful linkbaiters:

  • Hustlers
  • Spin Doctors

Hustlers are successful because they can mobilise a lot of resources to get the necessary social votes required to get their linkbait to the front page. They will spend money, use leverage, call in favors and generally ask, ask, ask for social votes until they get them and get to the top. These are the people who lead the herd, so to speak, through leverage.

Spin Doctors are successful because they know – either by experience or intuition – how to tap into basic emotions on a mass level. They pull at heart strings, challenge your mind and provoke / evoke action. These are the people who can take the most boring content and give it a fresh and interesting twist.

Which one are you?

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2.7.08 - The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun

Watch the video.

Why? I could have written the 8 principles down and shared them here, but as with any essential-to-life message, the delivery method is as important as the points made themselves.

So go ahead, watch it. Because you need to do it right now.

And remember to share it – social media, email, chat, or just call over anyone who is nearby and get them to watch it.

Watch. Then share.

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11.6.08 - How to get your website listed in Google News

google news logo How to get your website listed in Google NewsGetting your blog listed in Google News is a straightforward step-by-step process for serious news bloggers.

If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can read the whole Google News publishers’ help section and get information on all the above plus answers to more specific questions, such as how sites are ranked in Google News, how to setup Google News sitemaps and lots more.

But if you want the 5-step process of what you need to do to have your blog accepted for inclusion in Google News, read on:

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20.4.08 - 8 Tips For Business Success

A few ideas I jotted down earlier this month – I’ll be adding to this list in the future (feel free to leave your additions in the comments):

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17.4.08 - 5 ways your business can make more money

To paraphrase a famous author:

Consider any businessman at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his profits.

Making more money starts with intelligent financial management – and in this article you’ll read 5 steps for your business to make more money:

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14.4.08 - AdSense is not evil

Many people have criticised AdSense for encouraging lazy monetization (at best) and splogs (at worst). I respect these people, I just don’t respect this opinion that much.

Taking any monetization method to its extremes will produce a lopsided business that is overly dependent on one form of conversions. AdSense = niche search traffic. Now you can get that traffic all on one site, or you could be smart and spread the load across several sites and niches. When this is taken too far in the direction of “increasing your options”, it turns your work into below-par cow dung. If you rely too much on AdSense, you become lazy and don’t maximise your revenues / your site’s value in case you want to sell it later on. If you focus too much on AdSense monetization, you put yourself at the risk of depending solely on search traffic. Lose that, and everything else is lost.

Over-dependence on any one thing is stupid. Why blame the tool when the TOOL who’s using it isn’t making the right choices?

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Filed under: Blogging - 2 Comments

12.4.08 - 4 reasons to beat your ego with a big stick

Self-respect is a good thing. A positive sense of self-esteem gives you the confidence to handle difficult moments in life, and also acts as an attracting force in bringing you closer to others and to your personal goals.

There are times though, when believing in yourself turns into rigidity and a blanket refusal to change your way of thinking despite mounting evidence to the contrary right in front of you.

We’ve been right before, so why can’t we be right this time?

Change is the only constant, and as the environment changes around you, you need to adapt ahead of time to take advantage of it.

I attribute this stubbornness to excess self-importance, or in other words, an ego that’s out of control.

A few mistakes I’ve made that can be blamed on this:

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29.3.08 - Value Yourself

What value do you place on your time?

You will find different methods to reach this value but ultimately the only valuation that matters is the absolute minimum you are willing to accept and perhaps more importantly, how you live up to this valuation 24 hours a day (and not just when you are getting paid for working).

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