Do You Have Commitment Issues?

Ask anyone who is married or has been in a long-term relationship for a significant stretch of time and they’ll tell you that these kinds of relationships take a lot of work. The initial courting and dating period can be all kinds of lovey-dovey, because it’s all so exciting and new.

Then she notices that he chews with his mouth open. And he sees her without her makeup on for the first time. And they get into their first fight over something that is decidedly trivial, like forgetting to put the toilet seat back down. Relationships take work. After that honeymoon period is over, you come to realize that the other person is only human with all sorts of flaws and shortcomings. It’s when you’re going through a rough patch that you need to work the most on your relationship. That can be uncomfortable.

Some people might struggle with these kinds of relationships and they start to retreat. They become more distant and despondent until they finally break up. It’s not that they’re incompatible with their partner; it’s that they have commitment issues. They’re too afraid of leaving behind all the other fish in the sea. They’re too afraid of what else they could be missing out on. What if she isn’t the one? What if there’s someone better?

Your relationship with your online business works in much the same way. It takes work. There are going to be rough patches when you’ll question whether it’s worth all this effort. You’ll be tempted to just drop it all and walk away out of anger or resentment or frustration, because your online business isn’t living up to your expectations. The honeymoon period is over and you start to notice some of the other opportunities out there. Maybe they’re more attractive. Maybe they’re better. But maybe they’re not.

If you want to be successful in business, just as if you want to be successful with your personal relationships, you have to be willing to stick with it, work for it, and see it through. Yes, it is absolutely true that some of these relationships can be toxic and it’s best if you walk away. But it’s also absolutely true that even the best relationships (and businesses) aren’t always going to come up rainbows and unicorns.

Working on your online business, whether that’s e-commerce, blogging, affiliate marketing or anything else, can start to feel less enjoyable over time, because it’s starts to feel like an obligation rather than a passion. It can start to feel like a burden when you lose sight of why you’re doing this in the first place and you lose the kind of passion and enthusiasm you had when you first started.

But this is the most important time for you to stick with it, because that’s the only way that you’ll be able to reap the reward. If you give up, you’ll just feel resentful and neglected, like you wasted the best years of your life. It doesn’t have to be this way.

To be successful in business, to be successful in your personal relationships, you have to be willing to give it your all. You have to be truly committed to its success, and not put in only a half-hearted effort. If you only half commit to something, you can expect to reap absolutely zero of the promised rewards and benefits. You have to commit yourself fully and make it a habit.

If you don’t take your goal seriously and you let your efforts slip here and there, you’ll ultimately fall down a very slippery slope where this online venture dissipates entirely. Let’s say that you want to put up a new blog post every day. You keep this up for the first week or two, but then you have one especially tiring day or you’re feeling especially uninspired.

You rationalize to yourself that letting this habit slip for just one day really isn’t going to make that much of a difference. Except you’ve now set a precedent and you let the next day slip too. And the next. And the next. All of a sudden, you’re only blogging once a month at best… and you wonder why your blog isn’t as successful as you’d hoped it would be.

If you find yourself questioning why you haven’t achieved your online goals, you’ve got to ask: Do you have commitment issues? Are you unwilling to put the whole of yourself into something worthwhile?

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End of School Party At Monarch Bay Club

It’s the end of the school year and that mean it’s time to party! And what better place to celebrate end of school than at the private beach of the Monarch Bay Club, where membership starts at $1,500 per month.

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Maximizing Your YouTube Videos – Part 2

You are now reading Part 2 of the series and we’ll be going over the last two important factors when maximizing your YouTube.com videos. This is important because we all know how important YouTube is when building brand awareness and this can be huge for someone starting out in the industry. The next two I’ll be discussing are very important and many people don’t take these seriously, but they need to be considered so you can maximize the return on your videos. Let’s jump right in and your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Inner Linking

YouTube allows bloggers to flourish and has a system in place to create playlists and channels. It’s a good practice for bloggers to create videos within the same niche and around the same topic so you can inner-link them all. However, you have to make sure you know what you are doing so it’s important to educate yourself about the entire process. For example, from my experience, there are two cool ways you can internally link videos.

First, you can link by adding text within the video and have the user click through to another video. This is very simple to do and YouTube provides you with the complete interface to get all this done. Next, you can direct people to your personal channel, which will have all your other videos listed. However, if you have multiple channels, then it’s important to send them to relevant channels with related videos. I like creating multiple channels around “1” topic and send people to a corresponding channel if I feel it will provide them with additional information.

Average Time Watched

I was watching a video by Brian Dean from Backlinko.com and he mentioned something very interesting about YouTube videos in reference to ranking them. For example, it’s one thing to have views, but a completely different element is average time watched. The longer a video is watched, the better because this means you are providing more value than your competitors. Many people often use manipulative software to increase the views and time watched, but YouTube has a sophisticated algorithm in place to make sure the views are quality. For example,

First, how many times a person comes back and watches the video is a great way to show you provide value. I have gone back and watched a video 1-3 times when I really enjoyed it. Secondly, the commands of stop, pause, and play all have a very important part because this is natural human behavior. Think about how many times you pause and rewind to go over some information you missed the first time around when you are watching a video. This is all natural human behavior and YouTube is aware of this so use it within their algorithm. Third, interacting with videos while watching and some of these include reading comments, clicking on text, and advertisements within the video at different times.

Wrapping it up…

YouTube is a video sharing platform that has been growing each year and is huge for bloggers looking to expand their brand. I’ll admit I don’t use it as much as I should be, however, I do have some videos that have not only converted into profits, but also send relevant people to my blog. The easy part is uploading your video and the MOST difficult is getting started with research, creating, and editing. The good news about this process is that once you have created a video, then, going forward, you won’t have as much trouble as before. You’ll get use to creating videos just like you have with writing content for your blog.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Average time matters
• Link content
• Find the right video creation tool
• Tweak and test because some videos will work better than others to promote content and products. This applies to anything, like split testing landing pages.

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When Saving Money Actually Costs You More

Most of the personal finance experts out there will tell you that the first step to getting a handle over your money situation is to curb your unnecessary spending. Sure, getting a fancy drink at the local Starbucks might only cost you a few bucks and, in the grand scheme of things a few bucks is hardly going to make a difference in your life. But your daily latte habit can add up awfully quickly. Five bucks a day, every day of the year, is creeping up to almost $2,000.

That’s enough money to pick up a new iPhone outright, possibly with enough left over to cover your monthly plan for the year too. It’s nothing to sneeze at, so this kind of advice of getting your spending under control is generally sound… but it’s incomplete. Because cutting corners (and cutting costs) purely for the sake of saving money could actually end up costing you more in the long run. Let me illustrate with a few examples.

Free WordPress Themes

WordPress is one of the greatest gifts bestowed upon man since sliced bread. It can be used most commonly to run a blog or other content-based site, but it is equally adaptable to power any number of other types of websites, including forums, business pages and online stores. It’s great and it’s got a huge, supportive community. And best of all, it’s free.

This doesn’t mean that you should necessarily be using it right out of the box, however. If you use the default theme that comes with WordPress, your site is going to look really generic and first impressions matter. And while there is a huge directory of free WordPress themes, you may not want to use those either.

The allure of free is certainly enticing, but unless you are already skilled and knowledgeable in how to adapt and customize these themes, you’re just going to end up spending more time (and money) in turning that theme into something you can really call your own. And even then, many of these free themes do not come with the cleanest of code and you could open up the floodgates to all sorts of other complications and frustrations that just end up costing you more in the long run anyway.

When you invest in a premium theme with strong support or, better still, you invest in a completely custom theme developed by a professional, you get a better end product right out of the gate and you position yourself with a much better shot at success.

The Bulk Buying Binge

I’ll admit that I’ve fallen into this trap more times than I care to recall. Let’s say that you go to your local grocery store to pick up a few things for the week. You’re living on your own, so you don’t actually need that much. When you go to grab your one-liter carton of milk for $2, you notice that the four-liter jug is only $4. On a per-liter basis, the larger jug is half the price, because you’re getting four times as much for only twice as much. It’s the better deal.

So, you decide to pick up the four-liter jug instead… but as mentioned, you live alone. Inevitably, you get closer to the expiration date and you find yourself trying to come up with creative ways to use up all that milk. This is upsetting and you’re certainly not enjoying yourself. In the end, you end up dumping half the jug down the drain anyways because it expired.

You thought you were getting the better deal, because it worked out that way on a per-unit basis, but you ultimately spent $2 more than you probably should have in the first place. Like the latte effect described above, that $2 isn’t going to make a big difference in the grand scheme of things, but all of these little habits and decisions add up. When you think you’re getting a “good deal” on something, you have to ask whether you’re actually getting what you need out of it.

Entry-Level Equipment

Not everyone needs top-of-the-line equipment for everything that they do. Let’s just make this clear. The average person will only use a fraction of the horsepower found under the hood of the top-tier iMac Pro, which costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $17,000. That’s enough money to buy a decent commuter car.

At the same time, you don’t want to cut corners where corners probably shouldn’t be cut. Let’s say that you want to get into vlogging, but your budget is decidedly modest. You get the cheapest camera you can find, you pick up a really cheap Chromebook, and you have the bottom level plan from your ISP. You think you’re saving money.

On the one hand, it’s great that you want to get started. On the other hand, your efforts to save money are ultimately going to cost you in the long run. The cheap camera isn’t going to produce the kind of quality you want to have if you want to be a successful vlogger. The cheap Chromebook can’t run proper video editing software, so you’re stuck using less than ideal web-based applications that are severely limited. And then your cheap Internet plan means your upload speeds are abysmal and your computer is rendered useless for hours at a time.

I’m not saying you should always splurge for the best of the best, but you do want to be strategic with where you spend your money. Upgrading to a more powerful computer and a faster Internet connection could be among the best investments you can make in your online business.

Not All Spending Is Equal

The key takehome lesson here is that you shouldn’t be trying to save money purely for the sake of saving money. If you spend hours on end with compulsive coupon clipping, not only are you wasting your time doing something with minimal ROI (you could be working on your business instead), but you could end up buying things that you don’t actually need. You’re getting them because they’re on sale and that’s it.

Money is a tool. And like any other tool, you have to learn how to use it wisely and for maximum benefit. Oftentimes, it’s worth spending a little more upfront, because it’ll save you from a lot more frustration and expense down the road.

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Maximizing Your YouTube Videos – Part 1

YouTube.com is amazing to promote your blog and content. It has been used by millions to generate niche relevant traffic to their blog and even generate money. YouTube.com does pay when views hit a certain threshold, however, the EXACT value is known to me. What I can tell you is YouTube.com can be amazing to drive traffic and maximize your results. For those of you new to YouTube, you should take some time and learn what’s important, however, it doesn’t take much because of the resources available to you. If you are serious about blogging and building a brand, videos are definitely important. I believe they are the best to engage readers while building brand awareness because they resonate with everyone all over the world.

I’ve created this two part series to explore how YouTube can be used to maximize your potential, but it’s important you have some of the fundamentals down.

Let’s explore the following:

• Views
• Description
• Comments

Views

This is something that is very true and should not be avoided. Becoming popular on YouTube is distinguished by views and they have to be legitimate. YouTube will rank your videos depending on the amount of views you are getting because it gives them a good idea of the quality. The longer the audience watches your video, the more value it must be providing…right? However, it’s important not to invest any money in buying views because they are NOT relevant and the likelihood of them watching for a long period of time is very slim.

To achieve this without any issues, I encourage all of you to take the time and create something special from the start. There is no substitute for quality, even if you publish after 2 months.

Description

Just like when doing SEO on your content pages, it’s important to optimize your videos, too, because this will help you rank within YouTube. They provide you with a description area, which will allow you to put a couple of hundred words together and it’s important you make them as targeted as possible. You want to make sure you include your target keywords within your title and description. YouTube also allows you to link out from this section to any URL and I would encourage you to link to your website.

The good news is, you have several resources available to you to do the right type of research. For example, keyword research is the most important and you can use tools like Keyword Planner to perform research. However, I recommend you pay close attention to your competitors because you can learn a lot from them. They have been in the industry for a while and have done all the research, so you can collect a lot of data from them.

Comments or Votes

Comments have been huge for bloggers because they provide a lot of information. You can get feedback or even content ideas from what others have to say. However, YouTube uses them as a ranking factor by understanding that votes and comments mean value. The more value your video provides, the higher the votes and interaction among users, which are all good signs.

What can you do on your part?

Make sure you reply to comments just like you would on your personal blogs. This will help people understand what your video is about if they have trouble. This will also encourage people to vote up, which is very important to maximize your video and increase rankings. However,

Never ask people for votes because YouTube will catch on to this and ban your video or account from their platform. There is NO substitute for value.

In part 2, we’ll be going over some other elements that are important to build and maximize your videos.

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How to Invest in Your Happiness

Perhaps second only to love, money is probably one of the most popular subjects when it comes to quotable quotes. We love to talk about it, because money makes the world go around. It’s with money that we can aspire to live better lives filled with massive mansions, fast sports cars, and the fanciest new toys and gadgets on the block.

A common turn of phrase that you’ve likely heard before is that “money is the root of all evil.” In the movie Boiler Room, we’re told that “anybody tells you money is the root of all evil doesn’t [expletive] have any. They say money can’t buy happiness? Look at the [expletive] smile on my face. Ear to ear, baby. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What’s up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.”

You know the popular saying that money can’t buy happiness? Actor and comedian Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

Some people will tell you that money (and the pursuit of money) is a necessary evil, one that we need to keep a roof over a heads, food on the table, and a big screen TV in the living room for binging on Netflix original programming. A joke that I once heard was that while money itself may not be able to buy you happiness, it can certainly buy you the expansive oceanfront property with unobstructed happiness views.

But I digress.

And all kidding aside, I don’t think anyone reading this blog is taking on any sort of “greater than thou” perspective on the subject of money. We want it and we want all the things it can buy and we shouldn’t feel ashamed for desiring wealth. We just need to think about money in a slightly different kind of way.

The way that money can be used to buy happiness, so to speak, is that it can provide you with the freedom to no longer worry about money. And this can easily be applied on a number of different levels, each of which is unlocked as you accumulate varying levels of wealth and earn varying levels of income. If you’re struggling and living to paycheck to paycheck, you probably should avoid eating out too often, for example. By contrast, if you are reasonably financially secure and have enough of a buffer, you can probably eat out as often as you’d like.

And when you get to the restaurant, you can order the steak if that’s what you want to eat. It’s not about the money, per se, as much as eliminating (or at least minimizing) the impact that money has on your decision making process. If you want the latest iPhone and you know that you can easily afford it, then you won’t give a second thought about ordering it. If you’re still saddled with student loans and credit card debt, that’s probably not the wisest solution.

To this end, there are effectively two very big ways that you can invest in your happiness. First, you want to reduce (or eliminate) the burden of debt. If you know that you owe money, that’s always going to sit in the back of your head and it should have an impact on your decision making process. That’s only responsible. That’s why you should never pay for something on a credit card that you couldn’t have afforded to pay for in cash. We’ll ignore the tangential topic of “smart debt” for the sake of simplicity, at least for now.

As an extension of this, after you’ve eliminated the burden of debt, you should get to the point where you are not only accumulating wealth, but the money should be working for you. Depending on your level of risk tolerance, this could take on all sorts of different forms and it’s probably something you should discuss with your financial advisor (or similar professional). When you invest in your child’s college fund or your retirement fund, you are providing a greater sense of financial stability and financial independence, because you won’t have to worry about paying for little Timmy’s education or funding your later years (if you ever retire at all).

The second way to invest in your happiness is to invest in yourself. If you feel like you are progressing and growing as a person, you’re going to be happier. These could be professional development programs, personal coaching programmings, fitness courses, or any number of other possibilities. This is going to vary considerably from individual to individual. Learning and exploring your interests and hobbies, professional or not, helps to bolster your internal sense of self-worth and how much you value yourself.

This is very different from the fleeting joy you may experience when you buy “things.” It’s certainly exciting when you get your hands on the newest iPhone, for example, but that sense of joy fades quickly as it just becomes another part of your day-to-day life. But investing in yourself is something that pays dividends for years to come. And investing in your financial independence and security is something that can alleviate you from worrying about money, which in turn leads to more sustained happiness too.

Money can buy happiness. You just have to know how to spend it.

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What is the Future of Blogging? Exploring Some Ideas

With blogging being such a vast industry, it’s important that you stay ahead of the curve. This means to think about the future and start making the tweaks right now instead of later. This is how some of the MOST successful people in the world started because they visualized the world now and where they think it’s heading. With that said,

You have to explore and understand what direction blogging is going toward. For example, if many of us would have visualized mobile usage then we would have made mobile-friendly tweaks earlier on instead of waiting last minute…right? I’ve worked with many bloggers over the years, all with several different years of experience. Here’s what I noticed happening and what you can do to better equip yourself going forward. Let’s look at blogging and where it is heading…

Brand Awareness

Have you noticed many of the top bloggers are focusing more on brand, which is mainly their personal names? Here are some of the MOST popular blogs I can think of from the top of my head: JohnChow.com, ZacJohnson.com, NeilPatel.com and MatthewWoodward.co.uk. It’s not as valuable as to use a keyword as your domain like SEO.com, etc., because people still find it hard to identify with the author. However, by building your brand around your personal name, it means more when people throw around your name in forums, content, and other communities.

In the future, more focus will be given to your brand equalling your personal name because it’s this aspect that will build your credibility as someone valuable within your niche.

SEO

Over the years, we have seen enormous changes within Google and this has been catered toward the user experience. Search engines are all about the user experience and making sure people find what they are looking for. However, this is not enough because searchers have to find valuable content and one that provides a complete solution so it’s up to search engines to provide this. Google has already announced changes like LSI keywords, valuable content, freshness, “target” keywords, and mobile-optimized. What’s next?

Keep focusing on SEO and make sure you add a combination of different keywords within your content. For example, long-tail keywords, LSI keywords, and those that are highly targeted. Next, make sure you use a combination of different anchors to build links to cover all the different keywords you have within your content. This will help your page rank for different more “targeted” keywords, increasing the user experience.

Content = Value

It’s all about value because something has to separate the best from the mediocre…right? Google has invested a lot of resources into finding out which sites and content is providing the best value. For example, they look at things like activity, bounce rate, links, DA, and PA to establish some sort of value bar. Going forward, you should be focusing on writing the best content for your readers even if this means cutting down the frequency at which you’re posting. Nothing can replace value, no matter what niche you’re in, so follow these steps before you write:

• Research
• Outline
• Write
• Edit
• Share
• Tweak

This will allow you to have enough information to find out when you have created something special or simply mediocre.

Relevance

How do you stop websites from manipulative link building? You can give people control over links pointing to their website like the introduction of Disavow. You can also strategically make sure it’s difficult for them to build unnatural links by focusing on things that really matter. Google has put enormous value on relevance because this shows the right intent. For example, websites will only link to relevant websites when the value is there…right? Why else would anyone link unless they are trying to manipulate the search engines? Going forward, relevance matters and will continue to grow in importance, but there is a great way to make sure you find value in this. How? Write the best content because then people have no choice but to link to you.

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