100 Tips On How To Write Huge List Posts

So far I wrote 4 “100 ways to” kind of list posts: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life, 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life, 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog and 100 Things I Did In 2009. All of them got featured on delicious, stumbleupon, hackernews, reddit or other popular places on the internet. They still bring in tons of traffic. No, I lied. They bring in tens of tons of traffic. Crafting such a list post is not an easy task. So I thought to put together 100 tips on how to create a “100 ways to” kind of list. Expect some disguised humor along more serious tips and, generally speaking, do take this list with a little bit of salt…

1. Become Immune To Rejection

List posts are cool. but list posts are also way too common nowadays. If you truly want to write a successful “100 ways to” post then prepare to face some rejection. Primarily, from yourself. Unconsciously, if you’re an experienced blogger, you hate lists. So work out this fear and start working.

2. Split It Into Smaller Tasks

Fundamental: work your list post in smaller steps, by writing every day several items. You’ll hopefully avoid some blocking episodes and you could also assess progress over several days (or weeks). After all, even a million dollars is made by adding 10 chunks of 100.000…

3. Use Mind Mapping

Start with some general notions about your list and take it from there. From my experience, after the mind map gets bigger than 30-40 branches, you need to transfer it on a text editor. But it gives you a pretty good start.

4. Chose A Rich Topic

If you want to make a “100 ways of chopping potatoes” list post, chances are that you will never get to finish it. The topic is too narrow. It’s almost impossible to find 100 different ways to chop potatoes. Try to go for wider topics, like carrots (joking of course, now serious), blogging, motivation or inspiration.

5. Prepare To Read More

If you are going to write a “100 ways to” list post, you are also going to read it, adjust it, correct it and proof read it. Meaning you’re going to read much more than you’re used to. If you do try to write your list post without reading it after, the results may be totally unpredictable.

6. Write Short Explanations

Don’t go for a dry bullet list, take the time to write something for every item. But keep the explanation short. Like this one.

7. Flip A Coin

Whenever you hesitate to add another item to the list post, kill the suspense with a coin. Flip it fast, possibly while you’re smiling. If you win, add the item, if you lose, rephrase and still add the item. It’s a “100 ways to” list, goddamit, we need every frigging thing we can imagine, can’t afford playing stupid games with items and coins.

8. Link To Yourself

A “100 ways to” list post will surely bring in more traffic than a usual post. So, it’s a very good place to insert links to some of your most interesting articles. Just make sure the links actually have something in common with the main topic.

9. Be Patient

Don’t expect a “100 ways to” list to be baked in the same amount of time you spend for a regular blog post. It could take many days, or even weeks. The trick is to be patient here and don’t lose the magic final number (that would be the 100th tip) from your sight. It will pay off.

10. If You Write It, They Will Bookmark It

A “100 ways to” list post takes much longer to be read than a usual post. Initially, people will just bookmark it and never get back to it until the common fear of reading something for more than 15 seconds is gone. Some will never get back to read it (that fear is pretty nasty) but they will bookmark it for sure.

11. Start More Than One “100 ways to” List Post

Switching from one list post to another will be good for your focus. If the lists are on slightly different topics, it will be even better, because you will most likely avoid writer block totally by constantly challenging your creativity in different areas.

12. Make a Table Of Contents Out Of It

If at the current moment you have written more than 100 posts, have a good topic distribution and your list of “100 ways to” is close enough to what you’re usually writing, it will act also as a Table Of Contents of your blog, so link to yourself. The first links will get more visibility so think twice which items are you putting in the first third of your list post.

13. Brainstorm It

Let some of your friends or your colleagues in. Make it sound like fun and start writing down ideas. Brainstorming will not only give your more material but it will also have this decluttering effect on your mind. You’ll actually start to see more ideas and you’ll do that much faster. It’s like cleaning up your lenses.

14. Play With Words

Start playing with the words. If it’s a list post about motivation, start writing down motivation synonyms. If it’s about entrepreneurship, start writing down synonyms for entrepreneurship. Seeing the same thing from different perspective will reveal new ideas. This technique is especially useful in the late stage, when you already had a lot of the items nailed down.

15. Call A Random Phone Number And Ask For Advice

Not to be repeated more than once per list. Chances that you will actually bump into the same person you called last time are incredibly high. If you can hide after a fat fingering mistake for the first one, doing the same thing twice will put you in a very favorable position to receive a police inquiry for harassment.

16. Try To Insert A Random, Not Related Item

But do it only while you’re working on it. If you let it slip into the real list post, sooner or later they’ll catch you. But having a ghost in your draft will make things so much interesting. I guarantee that from a certain level you won’t know for sure which one is the ghost and which one is the real one. Annoying, but funny. Somehow.

17. Re-read Your Past 100 List Posts

Not only as a source of inspiration, but especially useful to avoid repetition. 100 pieces of a puzzle is a big number and it’s pretty easy to get caught in a writing routine. Keeping an eye on your older list posts will raise your awareness and hopefully will also boost your self-esteem to the point that you’re actually finishing your current list post.

18. Be Useful

If your list post will hugely benefit the green little men from Mars and no one on Earth will find any immediate use for it, don’t expect to become popular. Getting in touch first with the green little men and nicely asking if they really need such a list will surely help. More than once, the answer will be that you need to be really useful.

19. Chop It Off

Make it a list of 77 tips if you can’t find more items. Or a list of 33 ways. Or even 7 traits. At least you tried. Be proud. It’s your list post.

20. Read Other List Posts

Especially in completely different niches than yours. It will help remove your unconscious blocks and refresh your perspective. Ideas are everywhere, it’s your focus which is not trained enough to spot them.

21. Inhale. Exhale

I know you’re focused and you’re chasing that idea at full speed. That’s not a reason to forgot breathing.

22. Re-read Your 3rd Grade Diary

If you had one. Meeting a younger you is always enlightening, You have no idea how many things you forgot you know, how many dreams you had and how many skills you developed. If don’t had a journal in the 3rd grade maybe it’s time to start one now, isn’t it?

23. Knock On A Stranger’s Door

Risky. But fun. Try knocking at someone else’s door and ask for some advice. You may end up writing a list post about 100 ways to escape after knocking on a complete stranger’s door. That counts too, right?

24. Twitter Is Your Friend

Look for quotes, sayings, conversations or interesting links. Twitter has a fairly high noise to signal ratio, but with some patience you can still isolate a few ideas. Or, at least, you’ll procrastinate in a very trendy way.

25. Isolate From Distractions

Close the doors, the windows, the cell phone. Close the TV, the radio, close your eyes (just for a few seconds, to get in the mood) and your mouth. The only things still running should be your laptop and your brains. Now unleash your inspiration and start writing.

26. Let It Cook For A While

Don’t try to publish the list post immediately. Let it cook for a while. Re-read it in a few days. It’s not that you will make it better, that’s a pretty obvious effect. But you may get a few new ideas for some future “100 items” list posts too.

27. Establish A Reasonably High Daily Batch Of Items

Try to write at least 5 to 10 items per day. In my experience, if you write less than 5 per day you will actually kill the list post. The effort of re-reading your last days work will be higher than what you need for those 3 items. Establish a reasonably high batch and stick with it.

28. Sing A Song

Like in trying to remembering one, not just humming wordless. Your creative mind is highly associative, so every time you get it out of the comfort zone, it will bring up new connections. Now, what song was that? Humm, ta, ri, ra… yeah, I got it .

29. Be One Of Your Readers

Try to impersonate one of your readers. What exactly would somebody expect to read on your blog? What are his expectations? Wear his shoes for a few minutes. That will surely open a flow of new ideas. You write for them, in the end, not for you.

30. Watch The News

Use it for its reverse effect. I usually watch the news only to be completely turned off by all the violence, stupidity and shallowness that exudes from TV news nowadays. After a few minutes, I am so happy to return to my list post.

31. Play With Your Kids

If you have kids, of course. If not, observe some in the park. I am always amazed by how easily kids are creating new worlds around them. It seems that someway along the way we lost this ability.

32. Play Monopoly

Or any other game, as long as you’re playing it with your friends. When they lose, propose to exchange roles (as in you becoming the loser) if they can give you several ideas for your blog post. You’ll be surprised how many of your friends hate to lose at games.

33. Ride The Subway And Ask Everybody What Time Is It

The first 4-5 people will try to be honest with you and tell the exact time. But when the rest of them will see you asking the same question over and over, will want to know you why you’re doing it. That will force your mind to find some really, really creative answers.

34. Listen To A Completely Different Kind Of Music

If you’re into rock, go symphonic. If you’re into symphonic, go for country. If you’re country, go for pop. You got the idea, something completely out of your audible comfort zone. Don’t stop it until you find at least 10 new ideas. Which usually happens in the first 3 minutes.

35. Walk Barefoot Around Your House

Well, this may not bring you ideas about how to write a “100 ways to” list post, but it will cool you off for sure. Especially during winter.

36. Practice Your Lists

You can keep writing smaller lists just for keeping yourself pumped up. Small lists, but somehow related. For instance, I wrote a list of 7 Ways To Say No, followed by a list of 14 Ways To Say Yes. It’s much easier to start something bigger after that.

37. Try It In Different Languages

If you’re writing a list about cooking, look up the word “cooking” in a dictionary. In how many ways people are able to say “cooking” around the world? I bet in at least 120. Well, what stops you to find 100 ways to say it too?

38. Make A Plan

And what I mean by a plan is to establish a clear deadline and reachable milestones. Start with a target of 2 weeks, writing at least 5 new items each working day. In 20 days, you’ll have 100 items. That’s what I call a plan.

39. Set A Posting Frequency

In my experience, “100 ways to” lists are pretty time intensive. Not only for you, but for your readers too. So, I would never schedule more than 1 huge list each month. It’s not only taking a lot of energy, but it will also scare your readers away if you do it more often.

40. Chose A Topic You’re Comfortable With

Write about something you really know or heavily experienced lately. If you chose a spectacular topic, but you don’t have any idea what is all about in that niche, you won’t be able to deliver, even if you do all the research and planning in the world.

41. Brag About It

Talk to your friends about your intentions, tweet it or post it to your wall on Facebook. Up to the point you’re getting really uncomfortable with the potential feeling of rejection you’d get if you don’t put your arse to work and deliver that damn list.

42. Make A Challenge Out Of It

This is how I started, by being challenged by one of my blogger friends. First, it seemed impossible to write a 100 items list. The, it started to feel plausible. Then I started to work and it became real.

43. Improvise

Write whatever comes to your mind, even if it’s not related to your list. Put it into bullets, to make it look like a list. And once you’re on a roll, writing on topic, just delete the garbage.

44. Go From A To B In 5 Steps

That’s a great exercise to fuel your creativity. Open a dictionary and pick word, let’s say word “A”. Write it down. Then open it again and pick word “B”. Write it down. Then make up a story to go from word “A” to word “B” in 5 steps. Here is a detailed post describing the process.

45. Break The Main Topic In Subtopics

If the topic allows that, try to break the list into chapters. I did it with my 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog list, where I split it into content, promotion, layout areas. It will speed up things considerably.

46. Keep It In A Fixed Form

Try to write a fixed number of words for each explanation. Although it seems more difficult, it actually forces you to maintain a writing discipline. Break it only when it helps the item being more visible, like item number 6.

47. Go For The Smallest Denominator

With this pompous title I only mean that you should break processes in smaller parts and write an item for each part. If what you think is: “be creative”, break it into specific techniques, like item number 44 or 46 in this very list. A generalist “Be creative” has no value in a list, go into details.

48. Be Honest With Yourself

If you can’t make a list of 100 items, that’s ok. Better be happy you tried and failed than to concoct a fake list which will be spotted instantly and make you more harm than good. The opposite is also true: if you honestly feel you can deliver, go all the way to the top.

49. Count To 100 In Your Head

It will make the whole task easier to understand and it will give you a bird-view of what are you are trying to accomplish. Provided you’re able to reach to 100 and don’t fall asleep, as I usually do, somewhere between 77 and 85. Your mileage may vary.

50. Celebrate The First Half

That would be number 50, if you didn’t get it . Once you’re here, your job is half done. Praise this. Have a drink. Take a break. From now on, your number of finished items can only be greater than the number of items waiting to be finished. You’re almost there.

51. Don’t Lose Focus

it’s very easy to be distracted and move your focus on other tasks. Don’t do it. Force yourself into making this list happening. Put a post it on your computer screen. Glue a piece of paper on the ceiling, so it would be the first thing you’ll see in the morning. Stay there.

52. Enjoy The Process

If you don’t find a way to actually take pleasure in writing this list, it would be extremely difficult. Feel good about what you write, feel relaxed and at ease. Try to visualize yourself as an A-list blogger if this will make things easier. Do whatever it takes to enjoy the process.

53. Bribe Yourself

Put small incentives at the end of a writing task to mark the victory. Don’t get them until you finish what you planned to. If there’s little or no motivation, maybe a plain and consistent bribe would act as an incentive. Think at something you just couldn’t resist .

54. Bribe Others To Support You

Bring in some other people and promise you will do something for them if they’ll support you in any way you chose: from cheering up to forcing you. It’s surprising how many people you’ll find around, ready to help you for a small service from your part.

55. Start A Conversation About It

It may be on a forum, on other social media website or at the office. Don’t do a full brainstorming, just ask around other people about their opinion. That enough will bring you a lot of unexpected inspiration.

56. Write The Numbers First

Like empty placeholders for your items. It will help you visualize how many things you still have to write and give you a subtle sense of accomplishment. One by one, you’re getting there. Isn’t that wonderful? (Start this after you’re passed number 50, otherwise it can get pretty depressing).

57. Ask Your Boss For Advice

I don’t think you’ll get a meaningful answer, but it will make your adrenaline level go up for sure. Alternatively, if you don’t have a boss, you can try asking your spouse for the same advice. If you’re not married, well… why on Earth are you losing time writing stupid lists of “100 ways to”, when you should be out, partying?

58. Do It On The Road

Have a smartphone with you and stop whenever you seem to have an idea: write it down, email it to yourself, or just record it if your phone uses a voice recorder. On a side note, I do this on a regular basis to capture ideas for my blog posts.

59. Don’t Write Ideas On A Napkin

While you’re having a romantic dinner, for instance. Even if your brain is so excited that it seem to come up with a new idea every 10 seconds. It’s rude, totally disrespectful and extremely non-ecological. Use a phone instead.

60. Scrabble It

If you know scrabble, you know what I mean. If you don’t, go out and buy one, it’s pretty cheap and it will pay out well in the future. Even if you don’t come up with a decent list of items after you played some serious scrabble, at least you had a really good time.

61. Don’t Take It Too Serious

It will burn you out. A list of “100 ways to” is not an easy task (I have the feeling I said that before) but it’s not something impossible either. You’ll make till the end, so you’d better try to keep an open and light attitude. Even if the list won’t be spectacular, you still did it big time.

62. Journal While Writing It

Journaling in itself is a powerful self-discovery tool, so using it while you’re on a list of “100 ways to” seems pretty logical. What I noticed in my personal history is that the first 30-40 items are the most easy to write, while the last 10 are the most rewarding.

63. Start A Facebook Fan Page Before You Publish It

Just in case you hit big, you know. By the time you wake up from all that Digg or Delicious or StumbleUpon euphoria, somebody else may take your post name, start a group, do a few live workshops on the topic and even launch a book. You’ve been warned!

64. Make A Drawing Of It

This is not mind mapping, it’s drawing. One of the simplest creativity enhancement techniques: draw a representation of your object. In whatever form you want. Do it until your mental flow is unblocked and you can find at least 3-4 new ideas.

65. Don’t Fake It

Don’t mix various pieces of floating info from the internet hoping they will eventually glue together in a balanced product. Because they won’t. Write your list item by item, be inspired by others and creative, but don’t fake it. Generally speaking, faking is a huge waste of time.

66. Read Riddles

Two reasons: have fun and push your mind to think more and in unusual ways. I’m reading riddles every time I have a little bit of a block (fortunately, this is extremely rare) and every time works like a charm. What is black and white and read all over? Your “100 ways to” list, of course

67. Pick A Random Word, From A Random Page, From A Random Book

Close your eyes, pick a book, open it and put your finger on a random page. Ignore “and”, “or”, “to” and alike. See what you get. If you’re a normal, balanced and aware person, I bet you’re going to get just a… random word. Isn’t that wonderful? Now back to work on your list, you lazy player!

68. Make A Twitter List

And add random people to it up to 100. It shouldn’t take more than 2 minutes. Use the public timeline, not yours. Then read their tweets one by one, up to 100. If your list feels like what you just read, that means you still have work to do: just make another list.

69. Read The Comments On Your Blog

No, you’re not going to get some miraculous idea by reading your blog comments, but at least you’re going to realize that some people genuinely care about you. Even if their comments are angry, they do care about you. There’s still hope. Keep on writing.

70. Try To Do 100 Pushups

If you’re a normal, average person, you may stop around 30 or 35. That will show you what your brains endures while you’re stressing it so much with your list. But if you do all 100 pushups, it means  you don’t really need to write a “100 ways to” list. You’re ok, chicks are going to dig you anyway.

71. Wear Sunglasses In Your Room For Half An Hour

Also wear some soft but solid clothes, just in case you’re going to hit some furniture. I guarantee you won’t have any significant breakthrough during this half an hour, but the second you’ll remove the sunglasses, everything will be enlightening. Seriously.

72. Call Your Ex

Tell him/her this is a matter of life and death and if he/she will help you just this time, you’re going to finally respect that restriction order. If he/she didn’t have the time to change phone number since your last “100 ways to” list, I guarantee this will work.

73. Call A Pizza Delivery Service

And tell them you’re on the roof, ready to jump, if you don’t get a free large pepperoni pizza in the next 30 minutes. This is what I call a win-win situation: you either get tons of brilliant ideas to go on with your life (pizza delivery boys are really good at that), either a free pizza.

74. Write 100 Different Names

That’s one of the simplest creativity exercises ever. Hint: you can go alphabetically and write a few names for each letter. Finishing such a list will somehow boost your confidence or at least make you believe that there really are “100 things” lists out there.

75. Train By Solving A Puzzle First

A 50 pieces puzzle will be enough for starters, but once you get good at it, start on 100 or 200 pieces. Seriously, writing a huge list post is very similar with solving a 100 pieces puzzle: you have the picture in your head, but it will take like forever to match all the pieces together.

76. Prepare A List Of Excuses

Like real life excuses for all the social events you’re going to miss and all the meetings you’ll never attend to, because you’re busy writing. Alternatively, you could start writing a “100 ways to excuse yourself when you’re late because you’re writing a ’100 ways to’ list post” kind of list. Makes sense?

77. Think Lateral

If your list is going to have 100 items, you better make it THE list in that niche. So think outside of the box. Go lateral, go vertical or oblique if this is opening new perspectives on your topic. After all, you don’t want to make a silly list about how to write lists, right?

78. Solve A Problem With Your List

Your list must solve a real life problem, otherwise, no matter how well written is, how hilarious the description are or how good your SEO strategy is implemented, it will not live. It will not even take off. Solve a real problem. For instance, genuinely try to help people write huge lists.

79. Mix In Some Humor

Joking will always draw people in. Being funny and entertaining is a key element in making such a list popular. Even if your topic is serious, if you don’t mix some humor in, surprising your readers, the list will be dull and gloomy. Dull and gloomy does not sell. Humor sells.

80. Stop Asking Yourself: “Why 100?”

We don’t ask that. We take that for granted. For starters, 100 is a pretty cool number. Sounds round and unabridged. It exhales a sensation of purity and completeness. (See how I desperately try to concoct some reasons? That’s because there aren’t really any).

81. Meditate On It

If you practice meditation on a regular basis, this shouldn’t be difficult. If you don’t, try to empty your mind and focus only on the topic of the list. Don’t try to find answers or ideas, just focus on the topic. Breathe in, breathe out. And, by all means, try not to levitate, you have work to do!

82. Watch For Coincidences

This long writing process will span over a few days or weeks and I advise that during this time span you should be extremely aware of any coincidences occurring around. Follow them. You’ll be surprised to find out that there aren’t really any coincidences, there are only signs.

83. Think SEO

This is a very important step. Target your keywords and place them in the first third of your post. I don’t really know why the first third, but it seems to work. Now, can you count how many times I had “100 ways to” keywords in this post? Write the answer in the comments.

84. Get A New Haircut

You’re going to be a completely different person after you finish this list. Literally. So change your look too. Your friends will never buy it and secretly think you just broke up with your girlfriend. Make that the beginning of a wonderful new list: “100 secret thoughts generated by a new haircut”.

85. Drive Far Away From Home Until You Get Lost

When you’re sure you’re absolutely lost, get your GPS from the trunk and head back home. Now you know there are worse things out there than running out of ideas for your list. And don’t you dare starting a list about “100 ways to get lost”. Seriously, buddy, nobody wants to know that.

86. Fake A “100 Things” Shopping At The Supermarket

Go to the supermarket, pick 100 different things and put them in your trolley. You don’t have to really buy all 100 items, unless you really want to. This exercise is intended to make you understand you have virtually unlimited options, not to get you broke.

87. Try Guessing Names Of Totally Unknown People

Would that be a “Jane”? Hmm, nope, maybe “Angela”, looks more like an “Angela”. Never try to verify your assumptions, or prepare for this answer: “Get a life! I’m doing an exercise to write a “100 ways to” list?, that’s the worst pick up line I ever heard!”.

88. Clean Up Your Garage

Or, if you don’t have a garage, clean up your room. Or at least the shelves in your office. Shovel those receipts, old files, photos, notes, post-its and wrecked pens. Feels so much better than writing stupid items on a “100 ways to” list, isn’t it? Again, that’s another win-win: if not a huge list, at least a clean house.

89. Send An Email To Some Random Customer Service

Chose whatever business you like and then send an email to their customer service, asking for advice on how to write  a “100 ways to” list post. Most of the answers will be automated, but once you get pass this, you’ll have the time of your life. I’m telling you.

90. Don’t Stop At Number 90

In my experience, number 90 is the most dangerous number to reach when you’re writing such a list. It’s only 10 items away from finish and the mirage of actually getting this done can easily get you off the track. Write something fast at your number 90 and then move on.

91. Walk 100 Steps On A Crowded Street

And I mean count those 100 steps. If you made it without restarting the counting, be assured you’re going to make that list too. Now try it again on a large public square, making a perfect circle, step 100 overlapping step 1. Now you should stop walking in circles and start writing.

92. Send Yourself 100 Emails

Containing the same question: “did you finished item number x?”. After each finished item on your list, delete one of the emails. If you really send yourself 100 emails, I bet you won’t face any difficulty at all in writing your list. It’s hard to send 100 emails to yourself…

93. Name 100 Things You See From Your Window

Another unblocking exercise and a pretty effective one. No need to go up to 100 if you feel you’re pass the block. But it would be a pretty interesting task in any context. It will enlarge your perception and enhance your observation sense.

94. Blend Your Senses

Close your eyes, imagine a fruit and then try to feel its taste. Alternatively, put some music and imagine how each musical instrument will feel in your hand. It’s amazing how effective this is in fostering new ideas or perspectives.

95. Read Motivational/Inspirational Quotes

You have all this wisdom available, floating around, so why don’t just use it? If you don’t have your own quotes repository on file, do a Google search. Reading quotes is like having a sparring partner for your mind.

96. Work It Live

Like not in an offline editor, edit it in your wordpress dashboard and watch the preview every time you add a new item. I find it very motivating to watch the list growing and looking exactly as is going to be.

97. Be Proud Of It

The more you write, the closer you are to finish a great piece of work. Be proud of it. Even if it’s a simple “100 ways to” grow apples in your backyard, it will be useful for somebody. And you’re doing it right now. It’s not the regular blog post you do every day. It’s a huge list.

98. See The Items Like Chapters Of A Bigger Book

Be prepared to detail on all the items on your list. So make it consistent, ready to be developed into something bigger. I did it twice with my previous ones: 100 Ways To Improve Your Life and 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life. Both lists grew into fully fledged books, available now on Amazon.com.

99. Anticipate The Celebration

The closer you get to the finish, the closer the final gala will be. Anticipate the reward. This time it’s not about the bribe, incentive or motivation. You’re almost done. You’re one tip away. You did it. Step back, take a deep breath and write the last one. And then go out to celebrate.

100. Don’t Give Up

Writing such a huge list is a very important challenge. It cannot be done in only one move, it takes persistence and dedication. But the benefits are huge. And I mean it. So, if you ever planned to start one, don’t stop until you actually publish it. In a few days, or in a few weeks. Just finish it.

44 Tips for Traveling Long Distance

Last year I traveled more than I traveled in my entire life. I’ve been on 4 continents and circled the Earth 2 times by plane. It was an exciting time, knowing my propensity for travel as a personal development tool, but it was also pretty draining. Never having long distance trips until that was definitely a huge roadblock for me. I had to learn on the fly (sometimes, literally on the fly). Somewhere between my 2nd and 3rd trip I started to write down some simple steps I should follow, sort of self directed tutorial. For your information, long distance traveling means for me one to two weeks trips which includes at least a transcontinental flight longer than 7-8 hours.

Here is a (hopefully incomplete) list of tips I gathered last year. Looking at it, I just know there is so much more to be explored, but I can’t avoid a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment for already being in all the beautiful places I’ve been so far. If you’re an experienced traveler, this list will look like common sense, but if you’re just starting out you may find out some simple, practical, yet most of the time underrated advice.

Packing

If possible, you should automate as much as you can. I’m easily bored, so packing is just not my stuff. Whenever I can put this on auto-pilot, I put it.

1. Make A Standard Packing List

And refine it every trip. I do have a minimal packing routine and I always start by getting it done first. After my minimum is done, I try to figure out what exactly I need in rapport to that specific destination: is it going to be clothing? Or maybe some specific medicines I should carry on? Sun glasses and sunscreen? I’m usually done in one hour, regardless of the final destination.

2. Pack Light

Especially when you’re going long distance try to understand that you can’t really take with you everything. Packing light means to have a bare minimum and then a little bit of extra. But not more. Most of the stuff you’ll need in case of an emergency will be available at the destination too, so instead of carrying too much with you, better have a little more cash.

3. Have At Least 5 Kilos Less Than The Airplane Limit

Usually, the maximum accepted weight for a bag is 20 kilos. So, instead of trying to figure out how to reach that limit with more stuff from home, try to go with at least 5 kilos less. You will badly need those kilos for stuff you’ll got home from the destination. On my first trip I had to actually leave some clothes to my friends to make room for some presents.

4. Load Your Digital Companion

I use my iPhone as my travel mate. So, I make sure I load it with everything I need just as I pack my bag with clothes and personal hygiene stuff. I put maps on the GPS app, audiobooks for the plane, make sure that I have enough space for photos and even load 1 or 2 movies just in case I get bored by the inflight entertainment system.

5. Take Some Meds

It’s a good idea to have some light meds with you. Depending on where you go, taking some prophylactic shots in advance is also a very good idea. I usually carry some antibiotics, some bandaids and some digestive pills. I stick them in a pocket of my personal hygiene bag and I only verify the expiration date each time I get on a new trip.

6. Have And Use A Local Dictionary

Again, I use my iPhone for that and it does a great job. I have a number of dictionaries, especially for exotic countries, like Japan, or Thailand. Whenever I get the chance I exercise my language skills with locals. It’s one of the best parts of my long distance travels. And since I’m not a native English speaker, I can also use a plain English dictionary as well.

7. Get An Universal Plug Adapter

They have different plugs in Europe, United States, Oceania or parts of Asia. It’s better to get an universal kit that would become part of your standard list above, especially if you’re part of the digital nomads tribe, as I am. You can get adapters for free during your stay in hotels but form the 3rd or 4th travel it’s easier to just make it part of your baggage.

Planning

I like the feeling of randomly putting my finger on an Earth map, making that spot my destination. But between that gesture and the actual plane take-off there’s a little bit of extra action. It’s important and it’s about planning.

1. Book Your Flight And Hotel Together

You will get some discounts if you do that and it’s also easier to maintain the necessary documents. Having all the reservations in one plastic envelope makes it easier to access them on crowded and / or hectic airports . If your trip has multiple segments (flights + hotels) keep them in a separate plastic envelope.

2. Don’t Create A Fixed Itinerary

Most of my long distance trips have been one week long. It’s a shame to stick into such a limited time as many attractions as you can even before landing there. I usually go with my intuition and try to book some guided tours on the spot, if need will be. But most of the time I’m on myself. It’s far more flexible and much more fun.

3. Plan Your Transfer From Airport To Hotel In Advance

It’s very important to solve your transportation from airport to the hotel (or your accommodation of choice) in advance. Some of the airports can be pretty far (Narita is 1 and a half hour to center Tokyo by train, for instance) while others can offer limited on the spot transportation. A smooth transition to the hotel will also have a positive effect on your entire trip.

4. Don’t Plan Anything Important In The First 36 Hours

You’ll be pretty tired after a 9+ hours flight, not to mention that jetlag will most likely give you a hard time. I usually spend the first day and a half walking around the hotel, knowing the environment, finding local stores and transportation. Once I know my way around the hotel and I have a decent amount of food supplies in my room, I can go out and experience more.

5. Get Roaming On Your Phone

It’s far more convenient than buying local calling cards. I use it because it helps me keep all the data in a central point, not mangling with several phones at once and also keeps me for making long, unnecessary calls. On the other hand, when there’s a need to make a call, I can do it instantly.

6. Budget Your Local Currency Leftovers

You will have local currency leftovers. Meaning the small notes you end up with at the airport, when you’re ready to leave that country and don’t know when you’ll going to be back again. During my first long travels those leftovers were in the 70-80 USD range. Quite a lot. After a little bit of exercise I reduced them at around 15-25 USD, which is basically a decent meal at any airport restaurant.

7. Identify Human Connections At Destinations

Find them on the Internet, on discussion groups, on blogs. Find some people you know in advance and try establish a connection with them. Not only they will become useful guides but they will also enhance your overall experience of traveling. It’s not as much about visiting places as it is about making friends.

Destination

Knowing where you go is important, although keeping a little bit of mystery around is also pretty exciting. But there are several things I learned to do before and sometimes right after I get to my destination of choice.

1. Get Info About The Food

If you’re on a special diet, as I was back when I was a raw foodist, get as much information as you can in advance. I overlooked this step only once, during my trip to Japan, and incidentally Japan is one of the most unsuitable places for a raw vegan to be. I actually had to break my diet during that visit and even after, so now I’m a little bit cautious on this one.

2. Assess Political Situation

I don’t travel in hot areas of the world, but even if you don’t do this on purpose, traveling long distance can get you close to hot areas (if your plane has been rescheduled for instance and you have to connect on a different airport in a different country). Assessing the political situation of the closest countries on your itinerary is a good idea.

3. Read Reviews On Travel Sites

But take them with a little bit of salt. I use only a few of travel sites, wikitravel being the most important one. Most of the time I’m just trying to get in the vibe, know the local habits, the local geography and cultural norms, letting the actual discovery to occur once I’m there.

4. Look Up The Itinerary on Google Maps

Especially on long distance trips this could be a very interesting activity. When I first come to New Zealand I actually didn’t realize that I would have 2 10+ hours long flights. The segment between Bangkok and Auckland seemed like a few hours, when in reality was 10 hours. That made me a very loyal client to Google Maps ever since.

5. Follow Your Intuition

Don’t always go for the famous places. Risk your time a little. The very best moments of my travels were the unexpected ones. I searched for a floating market in Bangkok (while the real floating market was 150 km away), got lost on some mountain roads while driving in Alps and got lost in a park near Danube Tower in Vienna.

6. Search For The High Points

Literally. Every big city has a high point. I’ve been on Eiffel Tour in Paris, France, on Sky Tour in Auckland, New Zealand, on Danube Tower in Venna, Austria, on Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, Japan and so on. There’s something really special about climbing on those high points and see the city unfolding under your feet.

Flying

A big part of your long distance trip will be on a plane. Don’t overlook this because you can’t really sleep all the time. Besides, there are a lot of interesting things you can do on a long distance plane if only to make sure you’ll arrive at your destination in the best possible shape.

1. Request An Aisle Seat

Even if you’re going to be bothered by other passengers to get up and down, it will be good for your body. Not to mention that you have the freedom to get up and walk whenever you want. Unless you really want to look at the Earth from 10.000 meters every minute of your 10+ hours flight, take an aisle seat.

2. Don’t Oversleep

It’s not good for your body. Out of 9-10 hours of an average transcontinental flight, I found that maximum 3 hours of sleep are the best you can get. Oversleeping will have a very strange effect on your body and will make your jetlag fighting a little bit difficult. Try some light conversation instead.

3. Don’t Abuse The Inflight Entertainment System

Every transcontinental plane has what they call an inflight entertainment system: movies, tv shows, documentaries, music or games. From my experience one of the best combos is maximum 2 movies and 1 documentary per flight. More than that is going to have quite an adverse effect on your brain. Balance the entertainment flight with some sleep, light conversation and discrete physical exercise.

4. Exercise Your Muscles And Joints

Doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to run to the restroom and back every 15 minutes (your flight attendants could be especially upset by such a behavior) but do try to activate some groups of muscles every half an hour. Your legs especially must be worked out, in a very discrete and effective way, but don’t forget your shoulders and neck.

5. Get On The New Local Time

Once you’re on the plane, set up your clock to the local time at the destination. If you had at least 3 weeks between your trips, it’s a good idea to get on the local time with 1-2 days in advance, in order to reduce some of the jetlag. Regardless of that, once you are on the plane, think and live by the new time at the destination.

6. Prepare For Glitches

Flying is by far one of the safest and best organized ways of traveling, but this doesn’t makes it perfect. Even flights can be delayed, or technical problems may postpone your flight with several hours or days, or you can jump into a bird. Be ready to face those situations and don’t get panicked. Eventually, you’ll get there, that’s all that counts.

7. Fully Recharge All Electronic Devices Before Getting On Board

You will need your kindle, your iPod or your laptop. During the flight, your electronic devices can be a very good replacement of the inflight entertainment system, if you can’t find something you like. Not to mention that you will need them functioning at your destination. Of course, you must switch them off during landing and taking off.

8. Take Off Your Shoes

This is not a joke. First time I saw some of my flight colleagues doing that I was quite surprised. But after 3 hours of hurting feet I finally understand. Don’t worry about walking in your socks on the plane, it’s much cleaner than you think and you’ll get rid of those socks anyway. Having healthy feet once you get down from the plane is so often underrated.

9. Keep Your Tickets And Passports Handy

Don’t stick them to the bottom of your backpack or handbag. Always keep them at hand especially when in the airport. You will need them at security checkpoints, at boarding and sometimes during the flight when you will complete arriving cards (various countries need some of those cards completed when you enter them).

10. Keep Your Tickets And Vouchers Available

I book electronically most of the time so I don’t really have tickets but receipts and itineraries. I print them and I also print all the vouchers (most of the time for airport to hotel transportation). Don’t underestimate the stress you’ll experience in a foreign airport. Make sure you can react fast to any request regarding your tickets or vouchers.

11. Get A Name Tag For Your Bags

Many airlines are providing this at the check-out desks, but many still aren’t. A name tag will have your exact name and address on it, gets attached to the bag handle and makes it much more easier to identify your baggage at the carousels.Your bag may look very much like another bag and in this case the name tag is the only distinctive element.

12. Keep The Flight Timetable Available

Again, I use my iPhone Notes app for that. For each long segment I write down my flight number, my plane type and the expected duration of the flight. It helps me gain a feeling of clarity in the middle of unknown surroundings. You may put it in a notebook or on a piece of paper. For me, it worked with the iPhone and helped me keep my head clear during 20.000+ km long flights.

13. Airports Are Part Of The Trip

I always enjoy walking inside airports, watching people and trying to get a glimpse of the local lifestyle. I don’t take airports as transitory, tasteless points in my journey. Whenever I can, I try to connect with people, to visit interesting places, to get in airport lounges or to capture beautiful pictures of planes taking off or landing.

14. Hunt For Power Outlets

Some airports have designated places for charging electronic devices, some not. Whenever I am at a coffee shop or in a waiting room, I hunt for the closest place to a power outlet. And take it.

15. Take An Extra Sweater On Board

Although many airplanes are providing light blankets, on long flights the temperature can get pretty low. Better be prepared with an extra sweater. When flying at 10.000 meters for more than 9 hours, the cold combined with the lack of humidity can be pretty nasty.

16. Get Hydrated

The air in the plane cabin is extremely dry, due to the pressuring conditions. It’s very easy to get dehydrated but it’s also very easy to avoid it. Be sure to tell to flight attendants to get you water or juice every time you need it. Some prefer to take some moisturing creme for the hands or face, I’ve been ok without it, but your mileage may vary.

Accommodation

This is something really personal, so your choice may be different than mine, Regardless of the quality of the accommodations, and of the main goal of your trip, I found out that you will always need at least those 3 simple tips.

1. Look For Basic Hygiene

I usually book hotels when I know in advance where I’m going. In 99% of the cases hotels are clean and safe. But depending on the trip, budget and local context, I can book some bed and breakfast or even a backpackers hostel. Whenever I have to choose on the spot, I usually ask to see the room in advance. Saved a lot of frustration, many times.

2. Sleep Well

Don’t overextend yourself by staying late, especially when you’ve been jetlagged. Sleep as much as you want, because you don’t want to be hit by an unbearable need to sleep in the middle of a visit to some important attraction, or even when you’re in a public spot, like a restaurant or coffee shop. Assess the room in advance and ask if it’s quiet and / or sleep friendly.

3. Make Human Connections

I split my accommodation between hotels, hostels and bed and breakfast facilities. Every time I try to make some human connection with somebody there, being the concierge, the owner of the house or just some random sleeping colleagues in a backpackers hostel. The next step for this will be of course coach surfing but I’m not sure I’m ready for it. Yet.

Field Activities

This is what you’re actually doing, the core of your trip. Of course, it’s entirely personal so the only tips here are related to your interaction with the world, and how to streamline it as much as possible.

1. Get Local Currency As Fast As You Can

If you can get it with you in advance, that’s even better. I travel mostly with EUROs and US dollars and that covers pretty much every part of the world. Be aware that exchange offices in the airports are usually much more expensive than the bank offices in the town, or have some huge commission. From my experience, it’s always better to get local currencies at a local bank.

2. Update Your Itinerary Frequently

And by that I mean let your friends and followers in the digital world knowing where you are. I am a digital media citizen and I do update my itineraries as often as I can (meaning when I get some free wifi spots, data roaming being horrendously expensive everywhere in the world). It’s good not only for letting your closest ones that you’re safe and sane, but also for personal branding. I got a few interesting followers from each country I visited after some of my long distance travel tweets.

3. Know Your Surroundings

That goes hand in hand with the planning activity which says not to do anything important in the first 36 hours. I use those hours to know: shops around, restaurants around, walking areas and public transportation areas. If there’s internet in my hotel room (99% of the cases, that is) I’m also browsing some Google Maps around my accommodation address to see the big picture.

4. Buy Day Or Week Long Public Transportation Tickets

If your planning was good, you should know in advance the costs of public transportation. In almost any of the cases, buying day long passes or even week long passes proved to be an incredible money (and time) saver. Depending on the local context you may use some exotic transportation, like Thailand tuk-tuk’s but don’t rely on them for getting fast and safe at a certain destination.

5. You Can’t Have Enough Photos

Never. Traveling long distance is such an eye opening experience, in every way you look at it. I never know when I’m going to be back there, so keeping a strong visual record will always help me remember the best I can. Most of the time I use – again – my iPhone, but recently I took the habit of carrying with me a brand new Canon 450D.

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That’s it, I hope you found it useful. If you have more, feel free to add them in the comments. Living life as a holiday is one of the best ways to live life, after all.

Start Your Day in 33 Different Ways

Mornings are underrated. I consider them fundamental for the whole diurnal experience. What you do in the very first moments of your morning will fundamentally and inexorably shape your entire day. Most of the time you spend your mornings by routinely performing some habits, on auto pilot. Hence, your days will routinely unfold towards you, the same way day after day, on auto pilot.

Consciously inserting your intentions in these very first moments will have a huge effect. Taking charge of those moments it’s like activating some subtle, unconscious triggers which will ultimately determine your whole daily experience, exactly the way you want. Mornings are fundamental. This is why I experimented a lot with my very first moments of the day.

Here are at least 33 ways in which you can transform your days by only spending 5 minutes every morning.

1. Write In Your Journal

I love the morning stillness and the unspoken promise of something ready to start. Mornings are fantastic for journaling. Whenever I do it, I feel like I already consumed several hours from that day and yet I’m only at the very beginning of it. Journaling acts like a mind emptier and out of nowhere I feel energized and ready to go. Not to mention that in the morning I have less inhibitors and my journaling is far more authentic.

2. Enjoy The Morning Silence

And do nothing. Just feel the silence and let it spread over your mind and body. I’m fascinated by all the little noises that are born from that morning silence: from my familiar house noises (wife and daughter waking up, steps, windows, doors) up to the neighborhood noises (car engines, low voices, small buzz). Everything starts in that silence and sometimes I think that if I focus enough on it I could actually predict, or even create all those little noises.

3. Be Grateful For Something 5 Minutes

Point your mind to something you’re really grateful for and stay there. Might be your family, your wealth, your health or just your present moment. Feel grateful for it. There’s nobody between you and that thing, there’s nobody watching or listening. You’re free to feel grateful and happy. And then start your day as usual. It’s only 5 minutes, yet the impact of such a day starter is overwhelming: whenever I’m doing it I feel like walking 2 centimeters above the road for the entire day.

4. Open Windows

Regardless of the current season. If it’s cold outside, even better. Open your bedroom windows, your living room windows, your kitchen windows. Let the fresh air inside, welcome the small buzz of the city waking up, silently watch the last forces of the night walking away. Let yourself be refreshed. The yesterday you is no longer there and the today you is slowly getting in shape. Those open windows will unconsciously allow you to receive change and novelty with much more ease during the day.

5. Throw Away A Useless Object

You’re going to spot it pretty easily if you put your mind to it. It often happens to me to stumble upon unneeded stuff in my house during the early morning. If it’s a chair staying in my way, maybe its place is not in my house. Maybe it’s a piece of paper or a wrecked device. I find joy and a subtle enthusiasm in throwing away things that are only cluttering my space, and doing it first thing in the morning makes it even more powerful.

6. Help Somebody

Write an answer to an old question, do part of a small chore, move an object out of somebody’s way. No need to be huge or visible. Just keep in mind the intention of being helpful immediately to somebody else. During the morning your mind is far more clear and you have access to more energy than usual. Hence, your helping activities will be much more effective if you decide to do them as the first thing after you wake up.

7. Meditate For 5 Minutes

Empty  your mind and isolate from your environment. Focus on your breathe. If there are thoughts coming in your way, acknowledge their presence and then kindly ask them to go away. Meditating in the morning is easier, there are fewer perturbing factors. Even after a good sleep, your mind is still trying to find answers, to solve problems, to fight or resist. Do yourself a simple, yet solid service and pack your morning time with an extra meditation on top.

8. Think How To Help Somebody During The Day

This is different from number 6 in terms of the actual time of the helping act. Now you’re planing how to help somebody during the day, you’re visualizing the context and try to find a specific time in your schedule for this helping act. Again, doesn’t have to be huge, a piece of advice, facilitating something or a small gift. The mere act of planing how to help somebody will change the course of your entire day.

9. Exercise

Like in getting physical. I’m not doing this every single day, but I’m doing it often enough. A part from your brain there’s a body, too. A collection of joints, muscles and bones. And in order to be balanced you have to take care of those too. The good news is that your body has a feedback mechanism for the good things you do to it: it’s called “endorphins”. Every time you start your day with a decent workout, you’ll be blessed with a decent rush of endorphins. Usually, it lasts until evening.

10. Spend 5 Minutes In The Garden

Alternatively, spend some times near your flowers. Or your terrace. Just be outside in the first minutes of the day, trying to breathe the fresh air and feel the vibe of the green life. Clear you mind and open your senses. Let your awaken body to synchronize with this frequency and don’t start the day until you completely immersed in this flow for at least 5 minutes. I seldom run into a fight or even got closer to some aggressive scene when I start my day like this.

11. Forgive Somebody

Let go. Forgive and forget. Morning are very good for that because you have so little inference from the outside world, only your own mind and personal history. Does it really matter that much? Feeling that grudge and anger towards somebody who hurt you? Yes, he hurt you, but it really matter that much? Forgiving somebody as the first thing in the morning makes me want to conquer the world the very next minutes. And it works really well with forgiving yourself too.

12. Think For 5 Minutes At Someone You Love

Again, that person may be your family, someone you loved at some point in your life or someone who just appeared. Keep that person in mind, imagine having a conversation or doing something together. Create an internal representation of a desired bond. Not only it will actually attract that person towards you (somehow) during the day, but what you think in those moments will add up to the relationship in a very mysterious way. It’s like what you think it’s already happening.

13. Read A Poem

Poetry, or any form of art, talks to your irrational mind. Usually, your morning is cluttered with rational thoughts and activities: get up and ready for the job, prepare the kids, get the morning tasks solved. Talking to your irrational mind will break this circuit, but it will do it creatively. For instance, my favorite morning poem is “If”, by Rudyard Kipling. Every time I read it, even if the day is packed with difficult tasks, somehow, I find the energy and right attitude to get over them. Totally irrational.

14. Make Coffee or Tea For Your Partner

I like this whole beverage ritual in the morning, I think it has something to do with deeply buried recollections of religious rituals we humans, as a species, performed during the history. There’s something sacramental about preparing the water, making fire, putting the right amount of tea or coffee. It’s like asking gods for benevolence. Only this time is not about gods, it’s about your partner. Paving your road through today with your partner blessing.

15. Write A Thank You Letter

You don’t have to send it, just write it. When I first experienced this I had a little bit of a shock. I realized I don’t know how to do it. And for whom. That was a sad shock. Not having somebody to say “thank you” in your life can bring in quite a sorrow. So, be sure to start at least one of your mornings with a “thank you” letter. Bring to the light people or events you are thankful for. If you say “thank you” to something first thing in the morning, you’re inviting those specific type of events into your life.

16. Take A Day Off From Your Job

And use the rest of the day for yourself. Even if you’re self employed, or especially if you’re self employed, take a day off. And start it clean, from the early morning. Those free days are somehow bigger when I decide to have them unexpectedly. If I start my morning with the clear decision to take the day off, something very strange will happen: my businesses will run smoother without me. My blog traffic will spike. It’s like too much work means getting in the way of your own success.

17. Do Some Crafting For 5 Minutes

If you’re a man, fix something, replace a light bulb or use your screwdriver to harden some piece of furniture. If you’re a woman, modify some clothes. (Later update: You can do it the other way around, if you really think this is a sexist approach – read the related comments below. And please, get over it it’s just a simple example, I never thought, nor do I will, that because you’re a woman or a man you should do ONLY a certain type of things. Are we cool now?) Just do something with your hands, without any preparation, in the morning silence. In a very surprising way, this morning crafting will unfold some new opportunities. You can find a solution to an old problem or you will solve something for somebody else. It’s like this morning crafting will actually make you craft the rest of your entire day.

18. Learn A New Word In A Foreign Language

Just one word. Every morning, for several weeks. I used to learn some hiragana and katakana only in the morning (and that proved really interesting during my first trip to Japan). It forces your brain to find parallel ways to solve problems and your body to stay focused on a small problem from the very beginning of the day. Again, in a very strange way, learning a new foreign word each morning makes me dream about foreign lands. Which is quite a way to start your day.

19. Imagine Your Morning in a New Country

How your morning will be in New Zealand? Or in Thailand? Or in Austria? If you’ve ever been there, try to remember the smells, the air, the noises. Waking up in a different country every morning might be a fantastic experience (I might do this one day, by the way). If you’ve never been there, just try to imagine your morning there. After spending 5 minutes in a distant country, getting back to your actual day will feel like coming home from a long trip. Which is, partially, true.

20. Go For A Short Walk

Like the first thing in the morning, before even having breakfast. Breathe the air, look at the neighborhood. Watch the morning light and hear the noises. Move around. When you got home, your day will be different. This short walk often acts like setting up the scene for something I want to happen. Walking around alone, before igniting the day, makes me feel like a director inspecting the stage. Everything looks cool, let’s make a great film today.

21. Write A Powerful Goal

Mornings are very good for writing goals. I especially like that time of the day for writing goals because I have very few interference from the outside world. Which makes me much more authentic. I value more the goals written in the morning because I am less influenced. I know for sure that during the morning I don’t have to prove anything to anyone, I’m just me and what I want. Some of my best health decisions are picked up during the morning.

22. Clean Your Desk

Again, this must be done before having breakfast, or before any other domestic task (and this also assumes you work from home, at some point). Put things in order, wipe the dust, prepare your working setup. And then start the day as usual. After having breakfast, interacting with your family or just finishing your morning routine, come back to your office. A shiny, fresh and neat vibration will welcome you. A short sign of appreciation from yourself.

23. Sing a Song

I do this all the time in the shower. And I highly recommend it. Despite what your neighbors may say (or even some of your early riser family members). Singing a song goes hand in hand with reading a poem. Doesn’t matter if you know how to sing. just go ahead and knock some “Let It Be” as loud as you can (“Let It Be” is my favorite shower song, by the way). If you hear me humming some tunes in my beard that’s a good sign I started with a loud song in the shower.

24. Read and Evaluate your Morning Phrase

Do you have a morning phrase? Craft one, it’s easy. Starting a day with a morning phrase it’s like a mental programming exercise for maximizing your potential. It may take even less than 5 minutes and it’s a powerful tool for energy channeling. The trick is to keep it for at least several weeks. But the advantage is that this exercise is very powerful. Wanna setup a millionaire mindset? Or just planning or quitting smoking? Put it in a morning phrase and use it.

25. Delete Some Email

Or some old, unneeded files. That’s the mirror in the virtual world of number 5. Remove the clutter. Get rid of old messages, logs or files. Be in the flow. They say you have to let go the current you in order to become who you really want. I used to be a packer. Making folders and packing and storing everything in my computer. Now I start my mornings every now and then with a refreshing session of file deletion. Making room for what the day may bring in.

26. Watch The Sunrise

Easiest of all and yet so underrated. There’s so much power and simplicity in watching the sunrise, connecting to the light and actually feeling how the Sun will start another day. And you’re there witnessing this cosmic process. Every time I watch the sunrise, being it at my home or in a foreign country, I have a subtle feeling of responsibility. This huge cosmic mechanism is turning around me as my playground: what am I going to do in it today?

27. Read Your Yesterday Journal

If you keep a journal, of course. Look at yesterday from the very first moment of your new day. What do you love about yesterday? What do you don’t like about it? Now you have the chance to change those things. Reading your journal first thing in the morning is a surprising experience. Seeing what you wrote without any noise and with a clear mind will reveal things that you didn’t noticed. Maybe because you didn’t like them?

28. Do A Short Yoga Session

You don’t have to be an expert yogi to start your day with a mild yoga session. I often find myself lighter and more flexible when starting the day with a short suite of Surya Namaskara, or Sun Salutation. It stretches your body and calm your mind. I once did this for more than 6 months, every single morning. It was perhaps the most calm and balanced period of my life. And besides calm and balance, what else do you need when you start your day?

29. Visualize 3 Moments From Yesterday

Keep your eyes closed and try to remember 3 moments from yesterday. It’s not reading about them in your journal, it’s trying to visualize them in your mind. First of all, the very selection of those 3 moments will tell you something about your current state. Are those moments embarrassing or happy? Second, keeping them live in your head will help you find a solution or a sequel to them. It will help you keep yesterday linked to today. Some people call this flow.

30. Visualize 3 Moments From Today

Can be practiced in tandem with the one above, or separately. Visualizing 3 moments from today means actually create those 3 moments. See yourself performing those actions, attending those meetings, saying those words or writing those sentences. It’s early in the morning and nobody is pressuring. You have the freedom to see yourself exactly as you want to be. In my experience, almost any of these “predicted” moments are actually happening during the day.

31. Take A Picture Of Yourself

I started this as a technical challenge a few years ago (trying to automate my Mac PhotoBooth) and proved to be enlightening. Not the actual process of taking a photo of myself each morning, but seeing those photos in a fast moving sequence months after. You can’t fool the camera in the morning. All your problems, joys, frustrations or thrills are so transparent in a photo taken in the first moment of the day. It’s like a message you send to your future self without even knowing the message.

32. Identify One Task To Be Canceled

It must be one. Out of your entire to do list for today there must be one task which can be canceled. Sometimes I wake up with the only thought of identifying my canceled task for the day. I usually chose this approach after a very intense and tiring yesterday. It give me a sense of freedom and flexibility. And most of the time the freed time will make room for something interesting, or at least surprising. It’s like opening your door to the unexpected.

33. Chose A Theme Of The Day

This works in tandem with your personal mission (if you don’t have a personal mission maybe it’s time to find one). Find one red stripe which will go through your entire day. Like making this day “the productivity day”. Or “the observation day”. Or “the money day”. This will be the dominant vibe of your entire day. By setting course in the very first moments of the morning you will maximize your chances to actually create your day on that exact theme.

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Already picked one? Great, now go ahead and pick one way to end your day.

33 Ways To Get And Maintain Motivation

This post is available in audio format.

Being motivated is a wonderful state of your being. In that state your body leverages huge amounts of energy. Your emotional field is totally balanced, physically you’re able to climb the Everest and mentally you understand the whole Universe in a split of a second. I know you know the feeling. The good news is that you can re-create this state pretty much whenever you want. Here are 33 tips to help you get and stay motivated. By the way, if you’re into long lists, you may also check this one: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life.

1. Ignore The Unimportant

Learning to ignore is a fantastic lesson. Much more rewarding than you think. There must be an art of ignoring and they should teach it in universities. Spanning your focus in so many areas will only weaken you. Ignoring what’s unimportant will free up energy, foster motivation and help you stay focused and productive.

2. Understand What Makes You Bored

And avoid it. Boredom is a nasty place to be. But as any other state of your being can be understood and you can identify the triggers. Once you understand that, you can safely go away from the gray zone. Takes some time but it really worth the effort.

3. Laugh More Often

Watch comedies, read comics. Throw away that ugly seriousness form your face. Laughing is a safety valve for your stress relief mechanism. It actually let it out from your body in bursts. And while you’re laughing you can still learn new stuff, like personal development lessons from Dumbo.

4. Keep A Log Of Your Breakthroughs

Do you remember when you had the first major success of your life? No? I thought so. We tend to overlook this simple habit of writing down our feelings every time we have a major breakthrough in our lives. If you want the shortest path to motivation, just keep a log of your successes. And get inspired by it.

5. Exercise

This is one the easiest and simplest way to summon motivation. Just walk out from the office, start doing some pushups or just go for a short run around the house. It will instantly declutter your physical body. Every time you exercise, you produce endorphins. Endorphins are good.

6. Create A Custom Environment

You can’t be motivated if you work in an environment which does not represent you. Make changes, adjust, improve. Doesn’t matter if it’s about your job office or your home. Whatever the space you work in, make it yours somehow, that will lower your unconscious adaptation efforts and you’ll have more time dedicated to the actual tasks.

7. Read Success Stories

Like in other people success stories. Get inspired. Admire them (with caution, but do admire them). Reading about success will make it more available to you and will fuel your efforts towards its achievement. And of course, you can learn how to be successful too.

8. Switch Tasks

You will get bored if you work on the same projects for too long. Boredom kills motivation. Try having several small projects that you can land on whenever you feel you’re on the verge of a burn out. Not to mention that switching tasks will instantly create fresh perspectives, helping you solve problems faster.

9. Assess Your Progress

If you work constantly you will make some progress, that’s a rule. You may have the impression that you’re not going anywhere but that’s because you’re skipping all those little milestones you go through every day. Watching back with satisfaction at what you created will surely boost your energy.

10. Talk About Your Projects

With your friends or family. Let the people know you’re doing stuff. That will often make yourself aware of the fact that you’re actually doing stuff and enjoy doing it. It will also create a certain level of accountability that will most likely push you forward.

11. Avoid Energy Vampires

Naysayers, pessimists, braggers they all are sucking up your energy. Don’t get caught in such power games, avoid at all costs those energy leaks. Even if that means you’ll isolate more often. It’s better to do work in your own secluded realm than to try to resist to a diminisihing environment.

12. Write Clear Goals

Most of the time that translates to actually write down your goals, you already have them clear in your mind. But take them out of your mind, put them in a trusted system and move on. Your mind works better when it knows what it has to do not when it spends time figuring what it has to do.

13. Exercise Satisfaction

Once you finished some task, reward yourself. Give yourself a prize. No need to be a huge one, but just enough to create the habit. Look forward to it while you’re working, wait for it, praise for it. In time you’ll become addicted to this fulfillment satisfaction and you won’t stop until you reach it.

14. Accept Failure

As part of the game. Failure, like success, is just a result of your actions, nothing more. One of the biggest motivation enemies is fear of failure. Fear that your outcome will turn bad. Accept it. It may turn bad, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop doing what you’re doing. Give your best and hope for the best.

15. Use Affirmations

Like writing down your intentions, your goals, your current status. Affirmations are a very powerful tool, hugely underrated. People find it awkward to write self-directed messages and read them out loud. News flash: you’re doing this all the time, unconsciously. So why not doing it consciously? Start with a morning phrase.

16. Play Games

Impersonate people. Imitate animals. Pretend you’re Sindbad the Sailor. Playing challenging games will relax your mind and at the same time will gather more resources from secret sources. A good motivation is always blended with joy. You can start with a simple game like how to get from a to b in 5 random steps.

17. Say “No”

Say “no” to distractions, to trolls, to depression. Exercising “no”’s is liberating. Too often too many commitments are making your life a continuous chore. Limit your promises and only get into things you really want to finish. Once you do that, go to a mirror, smile and start to politely exercise your “no”‘s.

18. Look For Positive People

Sadness, whining and complaining doesn’t play well with motivation. On the contrary. But positive, optimistic, energetic people will always shift your vibration in the right direction. Search them, find them and become their friend. Sometimes all you need to get motivated is to be surrounded by shiny happy people.

19. Difficulty Is Part Of The Game

Learn to work under pressure. Some things are more difficult than other. Accept that fact and focus on doing what you have to do not on your feelings of dissatisfaction. Difficulty is often what makes things worth  doing. No sweat, no glory. Whenever I feel something is going to be tough, I’m usually more motivated to do it. The reward will be higher.

20. Create Personal Challenges

Personal challenges are short term goals, usually from 15 to 90 days. Like starting to exercise, or creating a habit from scratch in 15 days. Using personal challenges strengthen your inner power the same way exercising is strengthening your muscles. The more you do, the more motivated you feel to do even more.

21. Chose Positive Motivation

Whenever you lock in your motivation, do your best to keep it on the positive side, which is rooted in service. As opposed to the negative motivation, which is basically rooted in fear. Negative motivation works just the same, only it lasts significantly less than positive motivation.

22. Release Your Guardians

You do have guardians and some of them are pretty nasty. They won’t let you do your stuff. The bad thing about your guardians is that most of the time they’re working at the unconscious level, really difficult to interact with. Just accept, acknowledge and let them go. You will be much better off.

23. Enforce Your Personal Mission

You gotta have a personal mission. If you don’t, go find one fast. Reinforcing your personal mission at certain intervals is surely one of the greatest motivators of all. It’s like looking on a map and seeing at any moment where you are, how much do you have to go and which path you have to chose.

24. Spend Time Outside

If you can do something creative, like gardening or landscaping, even better. But it’s ok even if you don’t. Spending time outside of your box will clear the air inside. When you get back, everything will be fresher and shinier. And something fresher is always a nice motivator.

25. Keep A Clean Inbox

That’s one of the few GTD concepts I still use and it proves to be a great motivator. A clean inbox helps a smooth thoughts flow. A smooth thoughts flow let me be in the moment without any hidden burdens. Being in the moment is usually all I need to actually start doing things.

26. Don’t Aim For Perfection

It will soon drain you out. Aiming to be better is the real game. Perfection is a dead end, nothing really  happens after you reached to it. Accepting that you can be better instead of perfect leaves some room for growth. And that means you have a reason to do more. And that’s what we usually call motivation, right?

27. Do One Thing At A Time

Multitasking is a myth. Even computers processors aren’t really doing multi-tasking, that’s what we perceive. Instead they have a single frequency and several parallel buses managing information, faking a multi-tasking activity. Multitasking is creating internal conflicts, both in humans and in computers. You end up spending more time solving those conflicts than actually working.

28. Keep A Source Of Inspiring Readings

You’re not always completely down, most of the time you’re just averagish, just one sentence away from your best shape. Be sure to keep around a list of inspiring readings. Quotes, blog posts, ebooks, whatever works for you. You can start with 100 ways to live a better life, for instance.

29. Put On Some Good Music

Just let it there, floating around, don’t turn the volume knob. Just enough to recreate a pleasant atmosphere. Music speaks to areas you can’t control with logical tools, yet is so powerful that can completely shift your mood in a second. The only thing better than silence is good music.

30. Don’t Fall Into The Productivity Trap

It’s not how much you do, but how much of it really matters. Doing stuff just for filling up notebooks with tasks won’t make you feel motivated. On the other side, whenever you’re doing something that matters, your planing and organizing activities will just flow.

31. Keep Your Life Lenses Clean

Your camera objective may be blurred but you don’t know. This is why you get the same picture again and again, this is why feel stuck and can’t seem to see any progress. Sometimes all you have to do is to clean up your lenses. It takes a little bit of courage but it’s worth the trouble.

32. Clean Up Your House

I know you need motivation for that too, but believe me, it’s a fantastic way to clean up your internal garbage. Cleaning up your house is not a chore, it’s a necessity. Your action paths may be clogged the same way your floor is sticky. And most of the time unsticking the floor will open your mind again.

33. Stop Reading This And Get To Work

It was fun reading it, I’m sure. But it won’t get things done in your place. Inspiration is a good motivator, but don’t abuse it. Now, that you are all energized, it’s time for you to get back to work. Of course, you can bookmark this post for future motivation sessions, but for now, just go back to work.

(Oh, but if it happens to still have some free time – and a hard time getting up in the morning – you can try this one: 33 Ways to Start your Day. )

77 Business Tips For An Online Entrepreneur

I had an online business for 10 years. I made a successful exit a year ago and I still keep an active eye on the market. The following tips are actually pieces of my own experience, broken down in several areas: projects, strategy, team, money and partnerships. Feel free to add your own in the comments, if you feel like. Oh, and if you’re into big lists, you may also enjoy 100 Ways To Live A Better Life and 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog.

Projects

This is what you are actually doing, the results of your activities. Most of the time, those will be websites with various degrees of complexity. Creating, managing and improving services is the core of your online business.

1. A Brilliant Idea Worth Nothing

I can have 100 brilliant ideas per minute. And I’m not joking. I know a guy who can have his brilliant ideas in his sleep. Guess what: he’s not an entrepreneur. An idea without action worth nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Focus on your immediate resources to make something plausible working as fast as you can rather than waiting for something allegedly brilliant to grow by itself. It never happened and it will never happen.

2. You Sell Processes, Not Products

In the online business, what you are selling is not a product, nor even a service. It’s a process. You sell an entire experience, regardless of your niche. From a personal blog up to a link directory, what you are offering is not atomically identified as one single product or service but as a unique process. Is this unique combination which creates the value behind the business, not the parts. Look at the whole experience, not only at the most visible pieces of the puzzle.

3. If They Copy You, You’re Good

One of the most accurate proofs that you’re doing a great job, is your clone trend. If your site / product gets cloned, you are in for something. If you’re not cloned at all, something must be wrong. Many young entrepreneur have this fear of not being copied. In fact, being copied is the only surefire sign that you’re good. Of course, you WILL have to deal with all the legal hassles of content theft or copyright infringement, that’s for sure, and I’m not advising in any way to ignore that. I’m just telling you this is a sign of success and should be treated like this.

4. Don’t Look For Traffic, Look For Trends

One of the most present obsession among online entrepreneurs is related to traffic. How much traffic I could generate with this project? In my opinion, traffic is overrated. At the speed of the Internet, traffic is becoming really volatile, users are bombed with loads of information each hour, so rough numbers are not a reliable way to judge your product impact. Instead of numbers of visitors, look for trends: how fast is the site growing / slowing down? Think in percentages, not in thousands of users.

5. The Network Effect

If you want to launch an online business, think twice. It may be worth to launch 5 online businesses at the same time and link them in a network. Maybe your flagship idea will consume most of your focus and resources, but having 2-3 satellite websites / projects orbiting the main product will have a bigger impact. Not to mention the learning advantage: you will incorporate much more knowledge from a network, than from a single product.

6. If You Don’t Like It, It Usually Won’t Work

If you don’t like your idea, but you ”feel“ it will generate lots of money, usually it will won’t work. It might generate lots of money, if it exploits some market uncovered niche, but without your enthusiasm fuel, it won’t be there for long. It will be extinct faster than a passion fueled idea. A good project must give you the thrills, not the only the money as empty numbers.

7. Fall In Love With Your Project

If you experience familiar sensations, like chills and butterflies in the stomach, whenever you’re thinking at your project, that’s a sign you’re falling in love with it. No, it’s not awkward. No, you don’t have to block those feelings. Let them express and treat your project like you would treat your beloved half. I’m not joking.

8. Measure, Measure, Measure

Always use all the available metrics to see where you are with your project. Don’t be fooled by your imagination nor let those wishful thinking episodes get in your way. Measure your impact. Watch your money, trends, team, partners and see what’s happening. Keep your eyes opened and be ready to cut if things are not looking as you would expect. Better sooner than later.

9. Manage The Break Up

Sometimes, your projects won’t work. Accept it. Even more, manage them carefully. Closing a project is a skill in itself, a skill that you’ll have to master. Each closed project may (and it should) give you resources for the next one. Just leaving debris floating around in the web universe will not make you popular, on the contrary. Not to mention the hidden costs of keeping those projects around.

10. Build A Community First

Your product (or process) will be useless without a backing community. It might be the next best thing since sliced bread, but if you don’t have a reasonable pack of people vouching for it by using it and promoting it every day, that product is as good as dead. Building a community first is one of the awkwardness of the online field, when you have to build a positive reaction around your product even before launching it for real.

11. Be Curious

Don’t assume you know everything. Allow yourself to be curious about stuff that looks interesting or intriguing. Creating good online products (or processes) is often the result of an unstoppable curiosity about ”why is this like this and not the other way around?“. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but that really has nothing to do with your projects. Really.

12. Your Projects Are Your Teachers

You learn by trial and error. There are no foolproof books on how to build a successful online business. Even this list is the result of my personal experience and believe me, it isn’t foolproof at all. It may or it may not work for you. And you will never know until you go out and start doing stuff. Don’t search for the perfect recipe of a successful online business because you will never find it. Just do stuff and you’ll learn how to do it by yourself.

13. Plan, Plan, Plan

Carefully write down every step you need for your project. Create milestones. Respect them. Try to predict any potential danger and take it into account. Planning thoroughly your projects will be the best service you can make to yourself and to your team. Sometimes you’ll realize the project is simply not worth doing, when you realize how much work really is involved. Sometimes you’ll realize you need fewer resources than you initially thought.

14. Build Discipline

You already have high goals, all you need is some discipline. The bigger your internal discipline, the higher your chances to respond well to market changes. Being disciplined won’t make the field less hectic, you’ll still be walking on very thin ice, but you’ll be able to react faster to external change.

15. The Excitement Stage

Each project has an excitement stage. It’s the beginning, the novelty, the thrills of making something happening. It will not be like this for ever. Many entrepreneurs are abandoning projects after this initial stage, and that’s a pity. Just use the fuel you get from this enthusiasm but still walk the path when the thrill is gone.

16. The Involvement Stage

After the excitement come the real action. This is where you actually start to implement the processes in your business. It’s a long and sometimes tedious interval. In my experience, the involvement is the most expensive part, in terms of time consumed, skills and money. This is where you build your business, stay there.

17.  The Measuring Stage

This is where you start drawing lines and do the math. This is most of the time the moment you know if the investment was good or bad. It’s fundamental and you should not skip this under any circumstances. Be sure any project have a measuring stage, in which you can decide the resource allocation.

Strategy

You will need to do things in a certain way to maximize your chances to succeed. This “certain way” is what we call strategy, from the general business attitude to specific approaches.

1. Fail Often

Good judgment come form experience but experience come from bad judgment, Not entirely true, I know, but enough to make you think. Don’t be afraid to fail. Kill all your ”brilliant“ ideas by making them real first. 99.99% of the genial ideas don’t survive after you make them real. 99.99% is a big number. Prepare to fail for 99.99% of your time. The 0.01% is really worth.

2. Fast Is The New Slow

If you really want a piece of the online cake you have to think super fast. If you think fast, you’re slow. Technology is evolving at such a rate that you can almost hear it growing. The adoption of the phenomenon is the fastest in the whole humankind history. You’re doing business during a revolution. And, usually, during revolutions they get rid of the old / slow stuff pretty fast (think head chopping and you’ll have an idea).

3. If You Don’t Blog, You Don’t Exist

The old days of anonymous business presence on the Internet are over. You need an identity. Preferably, your own identity. And the easiest way to establish, maintain and promote an identity is having a blog. Blogging has become an internal part of the online business process, much like a domain name: without it, you don’t really exist.

4. Be Informed

Stay on top of the news but filter the information. Being informed is a balanced attitude. Don’t rush to become a hype whore, praising every single ”next boom“ idea, but don’t get too skeptical also. Watching the trends in the online business can be a business in itself, though you need a really good filter and a cold judgement in order to take only what’s really useful for you or your business niche.

5. Social Media Works

It might be overrated lately, I agree, but social media really works. As an observer of the online phenomenon in the last ten years I can tell you for sure that this IS a revolution. Much slower than it’s perceived or presented, but there is a real shift from consuming information to interacting in larger communities. Social media is a place where you really want to be if you want to do business on the internet.

6. Praise Your Success

I really don’t see any reason whatsoever you shouldn’t be proud of what you did. If you’re successful, let the world know. Being shy will not help you here. You’re acting on a field so crowded with information that even your own identity is difficult to persist, if you don’t actively work at it. Just because your clients know your name that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re perceived as an expert in your niche.

7. Don’t Focus On The Competition

But don’t ignore it either. This business field is so crowded that you’re surely having a lot of competition. Focusing on it will most likely drain all your resources. Instead, focus on your resources, on your projects and on your clients. Pure ranking (like I’m #1 and you’re #2) doesn’t really work in the online, but identity does. Work to establish an identity rather than engaging in competition wars.

8. Is This Really Useful?

Before starting to actually build your project make sure you’re able to respond a big, capital letters, no hesitation, out loud ”YES“ to that question. If you have the slightest hesitation, start the analyse over. If you will build something that wouldn’t make a difference (but it will just look good or shiny) you will lose. Your business must solve a problem. Period.

9. What Brain Real Estate Do You Own?

I usually describe branding as the real estate property you own in people’s brains. The ”shoes“ land is owned by Nike, the ”luxury car“ is owned by Ferrari, the ”classy watch“ is owned by Rolex, and ”mobile phone“ tends to be owned by Apple, lately. Almost every human concept can be defined as a real estate property in one’s brain. And a brand is actually the connection between that brain land and a specific product . Once you succeed in owning a pice of real estate in people’s brains, you’re set.

10. Don’t Listen To Them

Listen to you. Don’t listen to those who are telling you’re making a big mistake by quitting your daily job and starting a new business. You know better. They’ll praise you in a few years. So go for it.

11. Don’t Be Afraid

Yes it’s risky. Yes, nobody can guarantee total success. Yes, you may fail. So what? Being afraid will only amplify those possibilities. Accept that you can fail or succeed and move on. The beauty of the journey will soon make those fear fade like they never existed.

12. No Risk It, No Biscuit

Learn how to deal with risk and how to embrace it. There is no such business with “zero” risk. If it is, it isn’t worth the trouble. The bigger the risk, the bigger the payout of the business. And the online field is one of the riskier business fields you can imagine.

13. If It Was Never Done, Look Twice

Most of the time, an idea nobody had until you is worth the trouble. But if nobody implemented it so far, there must also be a reason. The “first of its kind” ideas are not always a sure win, look twice. This is not meant to inhibit your creativity, but to ground you more and avoid seeking novelty just for the sake of it.

14. When It’s Cooking, It’s Cooking

If your idea is starting to take off, don’t stop. You may be surprised how high you can go. Don’t just stop when your initial goal has been met. More often than you think, this initial success is only the gate to something bigger than you ever imagined. Don’t let yourself out of this bigger picture by remaining stuck in an initial, comfy, small success.

15. Seek For Advice

You don’t know everything. Fortunately. Because if you would know everything you’ll miss all that thrill of discovering the unknown. Just ask for advice when in trouble, don’t assume you know everything. Or do an online search. Chances are that somebody had the same problem before and the answer is out there.

16. Do Whatever It Takes

if you have to convince 100 people to make your project alive, do it. If you have to walk 1000 miles, do it. Do whatever it takes to make your idea real. Don’t think: “but this is too hard”. It isn’t. It’s your idea and you’ll be so happy when you’re going to see it live. So, do whatever it takes for that.

17. Trust Your Intuition

There are no schools for that, so it cannot be learned. Intuition is that instant light shed on a subject only for a split of a second, just enough for you to think it was there. Things are different in that light. Whenever you see it, trust it. Intuition can often draw the line between a “correct” entrepreneur and a brilliant one.

18. Practice Courage

This one can be learned, so do your best to learn it. Courage means doing stuff regardless of the context.  Act with all your power towards making things happening. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to be afraid from time to time, it means you’re going to pursue your goal regardless of those fears.

19. Maintain Enthusiasm

This one can also be learned. If courage is the action, enthusiasm is the fuel for that action. Make sure you always have enough of that fuel. Seal your doors in such a way that depression will never make an entrance. In my opinion, enthusiasm is an asset bigger than any financial support you can get.

20. Do It For Yourself

Entrepreneurship is a fantastic personal development tool []. Regardless of the outcome of your business you will learn tremendously out of this. Do it for yourself, not for the money (although money is pretty good, also). Whatever you do, keep in mind that there aren’t really failures or successes, there are only results.

21. Be Self Sustainable Before Asking For Money

Going around and asking for funding while you’re still on negative cash-flow will create more harm than good. At this eraly stage – which is most of the time unavoidable – all the funding you can find is either angel investors, either the 3 ”F“: family, friends and fools. I gladly recommend the 3 ”F“ anytime, an angel will put a lot of pressure on your development and strategy. Once you have a constant, positive cash-flow, go out and shout for funding, they’ll line up at your door office.

22. Balance Your Expectations With The Market Status

When establishing strategic (and financial) goals pay attention to the market conditions. Always balance your own ambitions and expectations with real numbers from the market. If you don’t do that you’ll end up either aiming unrealistically high, either going under your true potential. If you’re that good, those realistic expectations will be surpassed by your results anyway.

23. Brand Yourself

In the online field, more than in any other I know, personal branding is compulsory. And by that I mean absolutely unavoidable. Your online presence will work while you’re asleep, while you’re on holiday, while you’re working hard on a new secret feature. Maintaining a solid, persistent online presence is the key ingredient to a successful personal branding. Don’t assume people knows everything about you, constantly reinforce what YOU want them to know about you.

24. Watch For Your Break Even

But don’t consider it a success in itself. That’s what a business have to do in the first place: pays the money invested in it. A common strategy mistake is to slow down after the break-even, considering that the simple fact of reaching it will further endorse the business. On the contrary, it’s only after the break-even that you’ll see how much your project really worths in terms of profit.

25. Network, Network, Network

Go out and meet new people. Clearly state your expertise and and ask the same from your peers. Let them know why you’re doing business and how. Join professional organizations and attend to informal meetings. There is no such thing as an upper limit to your connections in the online field.

26. Don’t Fall Into The Productivity Trap

Sometimes you get so caught in a productivity trap that you lose sight of the long term goals. You work so hard and so organized that you can’t see where you’re heading anymore. If you reached this level, it’s time for you to hire a manager. You’re en entrepreneur, you have to see the road and lead your people there.

27. Don’t Let It Eat You

A business is just a business, not your life. Took me years to understand that. Too much of an implication in your own business is not good. At some point, you’ll be burned out. Be sure to build some fences between your private life and your professional life.

28. Boredom Is Bankruptcy

If you get bored about your business it’s time to get out of it. Quick. Out of any imaginable dangers of a business, I cannot think of a one more powerful than boredom. The second you feel you got bored, make whatever you can to leave it. Otherwise you’ll end up having the worst job ever: being a bored employee (you) working for a bored boss (you again).

Team

You can’t do it by yourself. Especially in the online field when the skill distribution is so wide and competences are so different. Creating a solid, articulated team around your projects is usually half way through success.

1. Hire For Attitude, Train For Skills

The first thing you should spot on a potential employee is the attitude. Then comes skills. And the reason for that is: attitude is really hard to change, but skills are easy to acquire. Look for a specific attitude, and then do your best to teach them the required skills.

2. Surround Yourself By Better Skilled People Than You

If you are going to build something from scratch don’t do everything by yourself, just because “you know better”. You may know where you want to go, but others know how to get you there. Don’t assume you know better, because you really don’t. Accept that others may have a better answer and find them.

3. Anyone Can Fail Once, But Nobody Can Repeat The Same Mistake

One of the best rules for human resources I ever had. Everybody is entitled to make a mistake. Even more, as long as they aren’t repeating the same mistake. Making mistakes is one of the safest sources of learning. Repeating the same mistake is a sign that the learning didn’t occur.

4. Ask For Feed-Back

Don’t expect your employees to know everything that has to be done, especially in the early days of a new business. There’s a lot of unknown floating around and they don’t always know exactly what you expect from them. Make a habit from asking for feed-back. Ask questions. Pay attention to the answers. They’re the people who are building your business, make sure they know how to do it.

5. Don’t Expect Respect If You Don’t Show It

Treating your employees like resources is not productive. They may have goals and milestones, but they’re human beings, just like you and they have human beings problems, just like you. Don’t expect respect if you don’t show it first. Of course, they may work without respecting you, that’s for sure, especially if they work because they are afraid of you. In my experience, a happy and respected employee is 100% more productive than a scared and humiliated one.

6. You Have More Employees Than You Think

In the online business, more than in any other type of business, your clients often become your employees. Online businesses are most of the times services and communities centered around those services. From those communities will rise your supporters and fans. Even if you don’t pay them directly, they are still supporting your business. They promote your business for free and they deserve a great service from you. And respect.

7. Accept That Some Of Your Employees May Have Bigger Salaries Than You

Another common mistake of young entrepreneurs is to consider their founder role is enough to get them the biggest salary in the company. Salary has nothing to do with that. It’s a reward for skills invested in the company. You should be happy when you find people capable to provide you more skills than you are able to provide. Remember, you own the whole thing, so the more value in it, the better for you in the long run.

8. It’s a Rental, Not Your Property

When you’re getting employees, be sure you understand that you’re renting their skills and time, you’re not owning them. At some point, they will find some other guy who’s offering something better than you, and they’ll leave. It’s natural. Don’t even dare to think your employees are your sole property, even if you trained and helped them. All people are equally free.

9. Challenge Your Team

Change goals often. Insert new metrics. Create evaluation programs. Don’t let your employees get bored. Challenge them with new ideas, projects or internal programs. You may offering a great long term package, a great salary and a comfortable working environment, but if you don’t properly challenge your employees, they’ll simply get bored. Boredom is not good for business.

10. Unplug Them From Time To Time

Everyone needs a break every once in a while. Make sure you create enough escape valves in your working environment. Also make sure to let them know about that. Especially in the early stages of a business, when the workload is bigger than you know, offering some unexpected free time gifts will have surprisingly productive effects.

11. Blend Their Responsibilities

This may go against what you know about specialization, but I had good results with it, at least at the experimental level. Make them switch roles (if they have enough skills for that, of course). create special events in which the managers are employees or the software architect will have to take care about the company’s hardware. They’ll suddenly have a much better understanding of the big picture of the company.

12. Give Up Reading CV’s – Meet People

I give up reading CV’s after the first 5-6 years and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Instead, I started to go out, meet new people, attend to professional events. When I was hiring something, usually it was by word of mouth. CV’s are good, but they can only tell you something about one people skills, you have to “read” the man alive to understand his attitude.

Money

From how to monetize your services, up to how to budget your expenses, money is the fundamental resource in any company. Especially in the online field, money is extremely important: the field is so volatile that you will need a lot of money skills to keep it stable.

1. Investors and angels

An investor will most likely buy your clients, contracts and market share. You will provide support for a limited time and then you’ll be out. In exchange, you’ll get money. It may take 1 to 3 years, and the you’re out. An angel will most likely buy your brains and work power for several years. In exchange he will provide money and possibly know how. Those 2 categories may have very different denominations, but never mistake their role in your business. Different insertion points, different roles.

2. Cash-flow Is King

Keep a good eye on your money, because in the online field, more than any other business area, budgets are volatile. They can disappear in a second. There is a tremendous pressure on your money from any possible direction you can imagine. Watching carefully your cashflow and doing whatever it takes to remain on top of it is the cornerstone of a successful online business.

3. Money Is Hot

Don’t let your money pile, move it around, buy more resources, start new projects but don’t let it sit. The temptations of accumulating money for “the bad days” is so high especially because the field is so unstable. But money is hot and if you stay too much in direct contact, it will burn you.

4. Services Are The New Ads

If you want to monetize your project go for services, not ads. Ads are deprecated. While they will still bring some cash in for a long time, they performance versus cost metric is rapidly decreasing. Ads takes too much space, their content is out of your control and the generated revenue is lower and lower.

5. Delegate Your Money Technicalities To A Professional

Hire a good accountant and make sure you understand what he tells you. Your role is to grow a business not to fill in tax papers or invoices. Because money is one of the most precious resources in a business, many entrepreneurs are trying to manage them directly. This is a scarcity mindset, rooted in something like: “if I’m not taking care directly of this money thing, it will go bad”. No, it won’t. Find somebody you trust and constantly ask him where your money is.

6. Shoot For Long Term Deals

Sacrifice some of the immediate profits for some long term relationships with your clients. Especially in the early stages of a business, finding and maintaining a pool of stable clients is crucial. Having a constant, predictable cash-flow is a fantastic relief when you have to build a whole new project from scratch.

7. Don’t Be Cheap

Doing online business is not cheap. At all. It might be easier to do some of the things you do in the real life on the internet, but it won’t be cheaper than in real life. Buy the best servers you can afford, the best laptops for your employees, the best software tools you can find. The speed of this medium is absolutely incredible, and if you won’t buy the best you can afford today, tomorrow you’ll be pretty much 10 years back.

8. The Two And A Half Rule

This was one of the most precious budgeting rules I ever learned while I was doing online business. Here’s how it works. First of all, be generous when you budget your project. Put slightly more money than you need in every area (development, hardware, etc). Once you reached a satisfying total, multiply it by two. And then add another half. So, the final budget will be two and a half bigger than the initial evaluation. This is a statistic based result. It just works.

9. Be Prepared To Lose

Some projects will work, some not. You will lose money at some point. Be prepared, it’s part of the game. If it’s not working, it’s not working. Don’t get stuck in patterns like: “I have to recover my loss”, or “let’s find who’s responsible about that, I want my money back”. You’re responsible. And money is just a resource. Don’t get stuck, because, as I already said it, the speed of the medium will simply let you behind if you don’t move.

10. Learn To Write, Understand And Sign Contracts

They’re good. Trust is even better the contracts, I agree, but before you reach the trust level, make sure you have your butt covered. Learning to understand contracts is also useful in order to know what are you really offering and what are you really getting. Even if you have a crystal clear understanding with your client in talking, put it on the paper. It’s safer for both parts.

11. Authority Is The New Currency

By that, I understand that you won’t always be able to monetize some of your projects, despite their obvious success. In this case, what you are getting back in exchange of the broadcasted value is called authority. It’s much more precious than money, because it’s much more solvable than money. You can only buy with money what money can buy, but with authority you can do so much more than buying things.

12. Money Is A Resource, Not A Goal

Too often money is seen as a goal. Everybody asks you: “how much money do you make?”. In my experience, when seeing money as a goal, you have a hard time working with it. When you look at it like a resource for building more value, it become much more manageable. It’s a resource, like any other one: time, people, tools.

Partnerships

This is about your partnerships both as an investor and at the company level. Partners are great motivators and more than often great businesses are started and made popular by a successful partnership.

1. Assess The Big Picture

Partnerships are based on trust. No trust, no partnership. Quite difficult to assess, because what you may perceive as lack of honesty or deception is most of the time the result of incidental misunderstandings. Real trust must overcome these. A real partnership works not without misunderstandings, but despite of them.

2. What You Get Is What You Give

Don’t expect partnerships to become rescue vessels for you. In a partnership there must be an equal amount of value provided by each part. Don’t hunt for partnerships as a substitute for your own work, or as safety nets when you feel you will fall. It doesn’t work like this.  Be sure to provide at least the same amount of value you receive from the other part.

3. Look For Alternate Skills

When building a partnership, look for something you don’t really have. People often forget this simple rule and start searching for “like-minded” people. They are good to mastermind, to brainstorm, but a partnership must cover a part of your business or process you don’t handle directly. If you go for similar skills, you’ll basically create internal competition, not a partnership.

4. Keep It Alive

A partnership is like any other relationship. It needs a sparkle from time to time in order to keep it alive. Partnerships are made by humans and maintained by humans. Be sure to check in every once in a while and see if everything is ok. You’ll be surprised how many partnerships ended because of a simple, yet so often neglected cause like… boredom.

5. The Similar Size Principle

If you are small and partner with the big guys, prepare for war. If you are big, and small guys want to partner with you, you’ll want to eat them alive, at some point. This is how things work and size does matter. More often you’ll be wearing the small guy clothes, trying to make your way up to the giants. In my experience, this is extremely time consuming and the final gain is not that big. Find partners of your own size.

6. “No” Is Still A Word In The Dictionary

Learn how to say “no” to your partners. Don’t expect them to be always in line with what you think. Make your point clearly but keep in mind you’ll still need them. Saying “no”, generally speaking, is an art in itself, and one must master this art before entering any serious partnerships. Disagreement is normal, and out of disagreement brilliant solutions can rise. Don’t fool yourself with an idyllic idea of a perfect partner, they have yet to invent this species.

7. Who’s Carrying Who?

At some point, any partnership will become obsolete. Be very careful who’s carrying who. If a partnership is slowly becoming a burden instead of a competitive advantage just go away. Do it in a transparent yet pretty firm way. If you agree to carry unnecessary weight, you’ll end up moving slower. The same goes for you, if you’re the one who’s lagging behind. Extra weight in partnership gets quickly thrown overboard.

8. Each Partnership Has A Goal

If you start a new partnership just because it’s cool or you feel the need to have some company, better don’t. Each partnership must have a clear goal in order to succeed. It’s very easy for any of the parts to hijack the resources of the partnerships later on, if the direction is unclear.

Blog Like A Pro With 100 Tips

This post is a follow-up of my first “100 things” attempt, 100 Ways To Live A Better Life, which was absolutely a blast. This time, for your convenience, I grouped the tips into several areas: content, layout, plugins, promotion, networking and money. And if you’re into big lists, you may be interested in this one too 77 Tips For Starting An Online Business.

Content

Your blog content is the cornerstone of your activity. You can’t have a blog without producing good, constant, quality content. Of all the other activities related to blogging, like promotion or networking, I consider content production to be by far the most important.

1. Keep An Idea Incubator

Don’t take it easy, take it as it comes. Find a place where you store your ideas. Writing only from instant inspiration is totally unproductive. Besides, chances are that your most valuables ideas will come when you’re not able to blog them. So, create an incubator and let them grow.

2. Make A Mindmap Of Your Blog

Keep a bird-eye of your articles. Putting your blog into a mind-map, with posts, categories, promotion and income sources proved to be an enlightening exercise for me. Not only it offered a totally different image of my blog but gave me a lot of ideas for overall improving.

3. Write Timeless Content

Don’t be caught in the “right now” trap. Writing about hot topics will last as much as the hot topics last. And we all know what’s hot is short. Try to write content that will be easily read in several months or years from now. Even if it’s about a hot topic, put something timeless in it.

4. Use Explicit Headlines

Headlines are the first thing your users are seeing. They are like a bait. If the bait is good, they’ll eventually bite the blog post too, if the headline is boring, common, predictable or not intriguing, they will most likely skip the whole paragraph.

5. Be Specific

Don’t go too far from the specific of your blog. If you do have different skills try to accommodate them on a tight topic. Widening your blog in an uncontrolled way will eventually dissolve your brand and even if you’ll have readers interested in different topics, you’ll be harder to recognize as a monolithic brand.

6. Be Constant

Be there constantly. Create a habit not only for you, but for your readers. Once you establish a connection with them, they will expect you to be there. Whenever you feel the need to give up, remember you will going to disappoint more then yourself.

7. Create And Maintain A Posting Routine

This will need a lot of self-discipline but it’s the cornerstone of your blog. If you won’t update it constantly, there will be no blog. Experiment until you find your pace. Some bloggers are posting 2-3 articles per day, some one per week. I find it easily to do around 2-3 posts per week.

8. Find Your Own Size

Find a post size which fits your habits and skills. Don’t do it like other successful bloggers, don’t copy, do it by trial and error. Seth Godin writes about 6-700 words pe entry, Steve Pavlina does more than 2-3000. My own ballpark is in the 1000-1200 words per post. Find your own.

9. Write From Your Own Experience

Show openly what you know and what you can say about something, without being afraid that you’re wrong. It’s much worse to blindly copy the experts than to assume your own mistakes and publicly learn from them. Your own experience is the most valuable blogging asset you have.

10. Be Authentic

Don’t play the mister know it all, dare to be personal and transparent. Always. A blog is the ultimate expression of an individual. Don’t waste time trying to be perfect, just be better[]. If you’re wrong, so be it. Remember, you’re unique. Nobody can be you.

11. Write For Your Readers

A blog is a personal matter, but if you want to have more than 2 visitors (including your mom) do yourself a service and write for your readers too. Think how your readers will benefit from what your write. If you want to be the only beneficiary of this process, you can safely start a private journal.

12. Create A Blogging Setup

You don’t just write. You must have a strategy, goals, evaluations. You need to have a place in which you can focus on the main goal. Since I created my blogging setup, GTD style, the whole idea of blogging has changed for me. Pick your own specific type of setup, even pen and paper, but do make one.

13. Ask The Readers

Interact. Don’t just assume you know what the readers want from your blog, go ahead and ask them. You can do that in comments, via email, on twitter. Or you can use online communities. Or you can write a specific post in which you ask them. There are ways. Just go ahead and ask.

14. Post In Advance

Don’t be shy about that, or think that it will ruin your authenticity. As long as you’re the author and you do write timeless content, there will be no problem. Posting in advance is a very good strategy exercise, not to mention the relief of always being covered.

15. Your Blog Post Is A Traveler

Once you hit publish, your blog post will live a life of its own. Your blog post will be a traveler. Be sure to give it the needed equipment to survive in harsh conditions and also enough instructions to find his way in this world. Take of him properly.

16. Your Blog Is Beyond Your Blog

Your blog is far more than your posts. You think it’s just a collection of articles, but it isn’t. In order to be successful, your blog must be a presence. It’s made by your posts, comments, your comments on other blogs, your tweets, your stumbles. Make a presence out of your blog, not just a list of topics.

17. Break Your Post Into Edible Chunks

One of the easiest yet most ignored practices in the blogging business. Don’t write like you’re running a marathon. Break the posts in smaller chunks. It will not only help your SEO, but it will create a much more clear writing approach. You’ll actually think better.

18. Link To Yourself

Don’t be shy about what you write and don’t wait for ever that your posts will be discovered by others. Link to yourself as often as you can. This practice, also known as interlinking, is also good for SEO, but its main advantage will be to create a greater awareness of your content. Even for you.

19. Do Writing Challenges

Push yourself into writing exercises. Establish a number of words per each post. Write personal stories. Write a how to. Write a 100 list, like this one. Try to write a specific number of posts in a specific period of time. Try to expand your skills beyond what you already have.

20. Engage In Group Projects

Try to do collaborative writing challenges. I participated in several collaborative projects, for blogs or ebooks, and it was a very productive experience. It will be extremely good for promotion, of course, but it will primarily help you try different writing styles.

21. Use A Dictionary

There are a lot of online or desktop based dictionaries. I find this extremely useful when I search for synonyms or related words. Yes, English is not my primary language, but I think a dictionary would benefit even if you’re born as an English speaker.

22. Create A Publishing Filter

Don’t just let the blog posts flow away. Create a publishing filter and apply it every time your write. I have my own filter made up by 7 questions to answer before publishing and so far it worked great. Find your own, based on why and what you are writing. It’s a good thing, trust me.

23. Create Alternative Content

Your blog can contain so much more than just text. Create podcasts, video content, or just apply alternative ways to your creativity, like mind maps, PDF based booklets or templates. A while ago I added Downloads page to my blog and I must tell you this page is pretty busy with clicks.

24. Link To Authorities

If there are authorities in your blog niche, link to them. That will help your readers understand your preferences and orientation, it will help them identify you better. Linking to somebody else it’s a statement in itself. As always, be constant and specific.

25. Openly Present Yourself

Write an About Me page with whatever type of information you want in it, as long as you feel it represents you. Subsequently, write About Me pages for any other media you are active on. For instance, I created an About Me page for my Twitter presence.

26. Keep It Simple

Blogging is not philosophy. Even if you are trying to explain complicated concepts, do your best to keep them simple. Your blog is competing with a gazillion other information sources, so be sure you’re giving something at least easy to understand.

27. Read Your Own Blog

Too often ignored. You must be your first reader. Whenever I have some free time I read some of my older posts. There’s nothing narcissistic in it, on the contrary, most of the time I dislike what I wrote, and think I could have done it so much better.

28. Balance Your Category Distribution

This is one of the 4 important metric I follow and which is tracked by the blog audit plugin. Keeping a balanced category will help not only in writing but it will improve your rankings in search engine. Too much content under one category will end up with a lot of duplicate content in your blog archives.

29. Create A Mailing List

This wasn’t yet applied to this blog, at the moment of writing this article, because I think it’s a little bit too early. But I successfully created and used mailing lists before, on niche websites, with tens of thousands of users. I mean it, tens of thousands. I know it’s doable.

30. Use Brainstorming Techniques

One of the most simplest – although pretty scary at the first sight – is this very blog exercise: a list of 100. If you are hit by the writer’s block, just sit down and try to find 100 ways to solve that problem. If you think it’s not possible, you’re completely wrong. You’re actually reading the result of such an exercise.

31. Don’t Quit

The most important tip of all. Don’t quit. Breaking through gets harder and harder, and in the first 6 months you can barely scratch the surface. Stay there and do your daily job even the results are so slow to show. At some point, you’ll be successful. But if you quit, you won’t. That’s for sure.

Layout

The way your content is perceived is fundamental. You may create good and engaging content, but if you don’t lay it out in a pleasant way, it will not be read. People like to see beautiful things first, and then read beautiful blog posts.

32. Buy A Professional Theme

I cannot stress enough on this one. Maybe you already know that I’m behind one of the most comprehensive wordpress frameworks out there now, WPSumo. It’s a framework built by bloggers, for bloggers. It has everything you need, from SEO, mobile themes and advanced style editor, to incredibly detailed content and advertising layouts. Not to mention the priceless and unique blog audit feature. Take it for a drive and see for yourself.

33. Create A Different Home Page For Your Blog

If you use an out of the box setup from a vanilla wordpress installation, you end up with a home page made by your latest blog posts. Replacing this list with a home page is usually a good idea, especially since your posts will be visited most of the time directly from search engines or other links. A home page can tell a completely different story.

34. Use Excerpts Or Features On The Blog Home Page

If you created a different home page for your site, doesn’t mean you won’t have a list of posts. That’s what I call a “blog home page”. Using just one or two full posts in that list is a good thing: usually, it keeps the reader focused. For the other posts I suggest using excerpts to declutter.

35. Enable Threaded Comments

Latest WordPress version have this cool option in the setting: enable threaded comments. You can even chose the depth of the threaded comments, standard (and what I recommend) is 5. In the old days, you had to look for a plugin to make that happen. Threaded comments are a great visual enhancement, not to mention the conversation boost.

36. Identify Your Blog Hotspots

Hotspots are places on your blog more visible than others. Depending on the reader’s habits and your own layout, you can use those places for various incentives, from subscribing reminders to advertising or premium content. The following 4 tips are examples of hotspots in my blog.

37. Use A Greeting Before The Content

Based on their referrer. Just before the content I have this sentence which welcome my users, based on their referrer and give them specific incentives. I created a thesis hook for those of you who are running thesis, but I’m sure you can find a plugin for that, if you don’t.

38. Keep Them Reading Your Articles After They Finished Your Post

After the post area I set up a retention zone. It features related posts (there is a plugin for that) and link for some strategic posts. After they finish your post, keeping them around is a very good idea, and that hotspot seems the best place to do it.

39. Put Short But Relevant Content Near The Linkbar

Another hotspot is at the link bar level. I chose to put there the total number of subscriber I get via FeedBurner. For my experience, link bar is not as hot as the beginning or the end of the post, so I just use it as an overall subscribing incentive.

40. Use A Tabbed Zone For Recommended Articles

The last important hotspot is just before the sidebars. I used it for a custom tabbed zone holding the most important articles in the most relevant categories. It gives a bird-eye on what it can be found and it dramatically increase the click rate for the selected articles.

41. Your Blog Header Is Your Identity

Pay attention to your header, that’s where the title is usually placed. People will remember your blog by visually recreating that zone. If it’s too crowded it will be hard to memorize. I Always recommend to keep your header as clean as possible, in order to be easily remembered.

42. Add A Top Posts Page To Your Linkbar

And subsequently create a top posts page. I don’t recommend to have it automatically generated based on the popularity of your articles. Tweaking it according to your own perspective of what’s good is much better.

43. Add A Downloads Page

If you followed tips number 23, Create Alternative Content, having a separate Downloads page for that is compulsory. If properly promoted, many people will land to that page directly, without seeing your home page or any of your posts.

44. Use Full Feeds

People have the freedom to chose which way they are going to read you: via web or via an RSS reader. Keeping partial feeds on the RSS part used to be a common tip for making people visit your site for the full content. I don’t buy it. I have full feeds: as long as they read me, it’s their choice how they do it.

45. Mix Your Twitter Timeline Into Your Blog

Put your latest 5-7 tweets in the sidebar or even in the footer, but do let them know that you have a twitter timeline. Will talk about how Twitter can enhance your presence from a promotion point of view a little later, but from a layout perspective, publicizing your current tweets will make your blog feel much more alive.

46. Focus On The Content

Whatever you do or add to your general layout, keep in mind this simple question: will this help my content to reach my users faster? If you answer “no”, or “maybe” to this question, usually the add-on doesn’t worth the time.

47. Use Excerpts On Archives Pages

First of all, make sure you add or enable the standard archives pages in every wordpress theme. And then, be sure to make the archives displaying only excerpts of your posts, this will create a better user experience and possibly increase the time you readers are spending on your articles.

Plugins

Plugins are for your blogging what chip tuning is for a street car. The right combination is hard to find, but once you find it, not only it will make your work much easier, but it will also make you look awesome! Or at least it will make your blog look awesome, which is what are we talking about in this post.

48. Akismet Spam Protection

You can’t really do it without this one. Or, you can blog but you would have to completely turn off your comments. Which is not blogging anymore, right? Activating akismet requires a key, but you can easily generate one in seconds. Once you install it, you’ll forget about it. That’s how a decent plugin should behave, anyway.

49. Google Sitemap

Another must have and also a quiet one. Once you install it, you don’t know it exists anymore, but it does work heavily in the background. The plugin does exactly what it says, it creates a sitemap of your blog in XML format and automatically submit it to Google every time you post. Pretty convenient, huh? (download here)

50. Recent Comments

A very useful addition and one that your commenters will heavily appreciate it. The plugin is easy to install, comes as a widget and is also quite configurable. Highlighting comments usually enhance the conversation, or at least this is what happened to me. (download here)

51. WordPress Download Monitor

If you’re going to have alternative content, like mindmaps, free or paid ebooks, templates or audio / video material, you should consider using this. It will help you organize your downloadables by category, show number of downloads and you can even create new posts inspired by those results, like my most downloaded mindmaps.

52. Blog Audit

This is a shameless self promotion. Blog Audit is a simple plugin I wrote, which lets you etablish blogging goals and measure your progress. You can set a posting routine, a comment density, even a pingback volume and then watch live how you’re doing with it. Download it here Blog Audit Wordpress Plugin (1004).

53. CommentLuv

This will also make your commenters shine with happiness. If your commenters enter a web address in the designated field, CommentLuv will go there and extract your latest post link. If you sign up for CommentLuv at their site, you can even customize which post you will want featured. Neat!

54. Recent Posts

Great way to showcase your latest articles in the sidebar. Readers are curious, they want to know what’s on your mind lately and if they are really interested in what you write, they will always want to be updated. It’s simple and good blog real estate use. Download here.

55. Similar Posts

I use this plugin to show a list of (possibly) related posts after each article. It’s not always matching the main idea and sometimes it gives weird results, but even that is much better than manually compiling a list of links each time I publish. Great time saver and good retention tool. Download here.

56. Woopra

Woopra is a new analytics tool and I’m kinda fond to it. Tracking your website is done by installing a simple wordpress plugin, which, a part from helping Woopra gather all sort of data, doesn’t do much. But will talk about Woopra as ana analytics service a little bit later. Download here.

57. WordPress Automatic Upgrade

Saves me the trouble of doing it manually. I reckon I struggled for years with manual upgrades of WordPress, and even if I got really skilled at some point, I can’t avoid the fact that this is just plain boring. Not to mention is time consuming. Better automate the process. Download here.

58. Twitter Tools

Twitter Tools can do a lot of nice tricks for you. It shows your latest tweets in the sidebar, automatically tweet when you publish a new post and can even let you tweet from your own public interface (don’t know who uses this, but it’s kinda cool). Download here.

59. Avoid The Plugin Hysteria

No plugin can write content in your place. No plugin can make you authentic. Spending too much time hunting, installing and testing new plugins will shift your focus from your most important task: to produce and maintain a constant flow of quality content. That would make you famous, not the plugins.

Promotion

You will have to make yourself known. You will have to get out and let the world you’re there and you are writing something important. Not promoting your work would be like projecting fabulously creative commercials in Sahara. The ads may be fantastic, but if there’s nobody to see them, it’s useless.

60. Don’t Be Shy About Your Blog

If you really know you wrote good stuff, go out and spread the word. Unless you hired a PR company to handle this you gotta take care of your own promotion, at least until it takes off. And even after. Accept the idea and make time for it in your schedule.

61. Tweet Your Blog

Sign up for Twitter and start to promote your posts there. Already mentioned a plugin which will automatically do most of the hard work for you, but you can also do it manually. Used properly, Twitter can bring in hundreds or thousands of visitors per day. As in every other social media space, the thumb rule is to be constantly there. Somehow.

62. Stumble Upon

That would be the StumbleUpon website, a community which aims to make the internet content relevant, by using a human powered algorithm. That sounds far more complicated than it really is. In StumbleUpon you must first contribute a lot of new discoveries until you really get the benefits of the game.

63. Reddit Your Posts

Go on and try Reddit, one of the simplest, yet most crowded user generated content places on the net. Usually, Reddit users are in the geeky zone of the internet specter, but if you carefully chose your subreddits (that would be special communities inside the main Reddit) you can have pretty good results.

64. Digg It!

Although I haven’t been very successful with Digg, I recommend it. I personally know bloggers who benefited enormously from it. Digg traffic seems to be the most volatile among all the communities I mentioned so far. Maybe you can help me change my luck on Digg by pushing this post on the front page.

65. Facebook

It’s all over so you must be there. I don’t know any specific technique on how to use Facebook to promote your work other than just being there. Put your blog feed on the wall, so your friends can see it and just wait. At some point, you will be surprised by how many hits you receive just by being there.

66. Follow Your Trackbacks

Constantly keep en eye on who’s linking to you. Visit them and let a comment. If the number is too high and you can’t physically leave a comment on every site which is linking to you (don’t smile, it WILL happen at some point) just be sure to constantly verify that list. You’ll learn a lot about your audience and possible followers.

67. Comment On Other Blogs

Find at least 10-15 blogs you really like and make a habit out of commenting on them. Not only you will get to know a lot of interesting and potentially useful players in this area, but you will generate a lot of links and buzz. Don’t brutally say: “Hi, check out this great article I just wrote”, say something meaningful and they will eventually want to know more about you.

68. Respond To The Comments

Keep an eye on the conversation you generate, if any. Be there for it, support it and make it a normal part of your routine. Behind your posts lies another exceptional line of content, and that’s your comment repository. Respect your commenters, as they are voluntarily creating content for YOU.

69. Establish A Slug Structure And Stick With It

A slug is the link part of your post, the one that shows in the browser. You can tweak what is shown there just with a vanilla wordpress setup. For instance, I chose to have the post title right before the domain name. Other approaches are to put the date between them, to add an “archives” or even a custom one made entirely by yourself.

70. Participate In Blog Carnivals

Kinda slow but necessary. Submit your most interesting posts to blog carnivals in your niche. It might be a little cumbersome to do this in the beginning but in a 3 months time frame you will gather a lot of links and awareness. Don’t be fooled by the somehow awkward interface of BlogCarnival.com, those carnivals are actually real and useful.

71. Use Proper CSS For Headings

That would be, by a wide accepted standard, H3. Make sure your paragraph titles, also known as headings, are styled with H3. This is extremely important for layout (if you change your theme and didn’t use h3, you will lose the formatting) but for search engine optimization also. A different CSS style weights differently in most of the search engines.

72. Select Your Keywords In Headlines

If you used a different CSS selector for headlines, don’t forget to chose specific words for it. If you want your post to be found by specific keywords, putting them in the headings will significantly increase your chances. It’s one of the cheapest promotion technique I know.

73. Use Proper Keywords In Your Slugs

In the same league as headings come slugs. Although WordPress can automatically create your slug, it’s always a good idea to double check for common words or / and for keywords you want to be highlighted. Also an easy one, but often overlooked.

74. Use Title Tag Appropriately

The title of your post can or cannot match the <title> tag. The thumb rule is: the tag is seen by search engines and the title in the post is seen by search engines + your readers. It’s useful to play a little with the title tag, but don’t go too far, don’t chose completely different words for the post title and the tag title, you can get penalized for that.

75. Use Metatags Appropriately

There is a long debate on the internet about how useful metatags really are. And the real answer is that nobody really knows, so it’s better to get yourself covered. Thesis theme has this awesome feature which lets me control per each post metatags like title, keywords and so on.

76. Look For Small Or Emerging Communities

Once you’ve done your job with the giants (twitter, reddit or digg) start looking for small / emerging communities in your niche. At this time, both Ycombinator or BizSugar are still young and emerging communities, but judging on how fast they’re moving, they may become mainstream pretty soon.

77. Use A Cluster Of Analytics Services

Observe your traffic statistics. You can use any service you want, from Google Analytics, to a server based log analyzer like webalizer. I use Woopra lately with fairly good results. One good strategy is to group 2-3 analytics services together, because usually they have different algorithms and you can have a better idea about your real traffic if you check at least 2-3 sources.

78. Establish (and strictly follow) A Statistics Checking Routine

Don’t go to your statistics page every 5 minutes. I know the feeling, and it’s not good. In the beginning, weekly it.s ok. Once you get to be linked or retweeted, 2-3 times a day is enough. And you will do that mainly to get in touch with who interacted with your content.

79. Identify Forums In Your Niche

Forums are still very popular and they can be a very good traffic generator. Just be sure to keep a fair balance between your regular contribution to that forum and your self-promotion, forums users are typically a little bit more sensitive.

80. Watch Your Comments Density

That’s another blog metrics which I consider extremely important and which plays a big role in shaping your overall visibility. By watching the number of comments per post. per day, per week and their variations from one month to another you can draw extremely valuable conclusions.

81. Watch Your Pingback Volume

If comments density is a measure of your popularity, pingback volume is a measure of your visibility among other competitors. Identify posts with the higher pingback volume and see what you can learn from them. Pingbacks are like a volume switch for your work, the higher the volume, the most popular the article.

82. Talk About It With Your Friends

Like the friends you have in the real world (if you’re fortunate enough to still have some). Let them know who you really are and what do you do. Don’t put your work under the carpet. Make it as visible as you can. Word of mouth is much more powerful than any promotion strategy I know.

83. Make Your RSS Subscriber Number Public

Surprisingly enough, many of the bloggers I met are shy about these numbers, most of the time thinking they don’t have enough followers to show off. In fact, making the number of subscribers public will encourage your potential readers to join. People are attracted to meaning, not numbers.

Networking

Blogging is about connecting. Don’t stay in the same place, you’ll get dusty. Go out, meet new people, contribute or help in different ways. Networking is so often forgot and I think this is a big mistake. Networking is much more than promotion, being able to connect you with people in the real world.

84. Write Guest Posts

Go out and find blogs in your niche. Contact the authors and ask if they accept guest posts. Most of the time, they will. The main benefit of guest posting is not, as they largely promote it, the traffic you get, but the relationship you establish with the host.

85. Write Massive Guest Posts

Massive guest posting is something a little bit different than guest posting (and, as far as I know, is something that wasn’t done so far). Basically, you write an article with several possible developments and then continue those developments as guest posts on other blogs. See massive guest posting.

86. Create And Maintain A Close Group

Identify bloggers with a similar background (they can or cannot be in the same niche, as long as you can get along) and openly propose a cross-promotion. Be careful when you chose them and be sure they are persons you can rely on. You will be in that group for quite some time.

87. Promote The Members Of Your Close Group

Just like any other friendship relationship this must go two-ways. Whenever you see the opportunity to promote them, do it. Retweet, stumble, digg or reddit their articles. Remember, they have to be people you trust and admire. What you promote tells a lot about yourself.

88. Participate In Internet Blogging Challenges

One of the most famous internet blogging challenges is Darren Rowse’s 31 Days To Build A Better Blog. I personally attended (virtually, of course) the last edition and I must tell you it was a really nice experience. This is as good as participating in collaborative projects, only you benefit from the exposure of a blogging icon.

89. Go Out And Meet Bloggers In Flesh And Blood

If you have a hugely diverse audience this may be a little difficult. But even so, you can try it. I did it too and that helped me understand that other bloggers are for real, just like you, they’re not just some numbers in your analytics tool, under the “referrers” tab. Meet them, maybe you won’t become close friends, but you may learn a lot form this interaction.

90. Attend Specific Blogging Events

Like in real world specific blogging events, this time. One of the most famous is Blog World Expo, but there are many other established conferences, not to mention the local ones. Do your best to participate in real events as often as you can.

91. Speak Out

Once you’re at a real life event, don’t be shy. I saw too often bloggers attending to interesting events but keeping an unexplainable low profile. Stand out, speak, give feed-back and let the people know who you are. People are more curious than you think to actually meet the real presence behind a blog. Even yours.

Money

At some point, you will want to make some money out of your blog. It’s natural. It’s your work and there must be some sort of payment for it. Only in this business, you have to take care personally about this problem. And that is the good news, because if you’re careful, the sky is the limit. Literally.

92. Accept Donations

Don’t make a loan and vouch it with your blog donations, it will never be like that. Donations aren’t predictable. But having them displayed is a nice way to let people know that you accept their gratitude. If you really write valuable content, you will receive donations. I know I did.

93. You Sell Authority, Not Goods

Always remember that what you are really selling would be your authority, your expertise, your credibility or your lifestyle. Be very careful when you chose to make money and how you do it. Blogging is not about selling, blogging is about building partnerships. You’re responsible.

94. Promote Only What You Use

Once you’ll become well known, there will be more and more requests for promoting different products or services. One of the rules I followed so far was to promote only what I directly used. People have this tendency to associate your person with what you are promoting and if the promoted product is a mess, that could be really awkward.

95. Use PPC Diligently

Don’t overcrowd your page with ads (and yes, by PPC I also mean AdSense). Pay Per Click is such a size consuming advertising technique, it needs a lot of space and exposure to create sustainable results. It can create a stable source of income, but its golden days are gone.

96. If You Sell Space, Sell It Directly

If you decide it’s time to sell display advertising, sell it your own. Make a separate page in which you are announcing your prices and your conditions. Selling display advertising via an advertising agency is very expensive. Not to mention that you don’t really control the process.

97. Make Your Expertise Stand Out

And clearly state that you are for hire. If it’s consulting that you do, say it out loud, if it’s web design, write it with big fonts. Don’t expect people to dig through your posts trying to find what’s your main expertise and if you could help them. There are a lot of people out there already doing it.

98. Make Long Term Deals

Even if the overall payout is smaller, always go for long term deals. Despite what TV news told you, economy is not predictable. Go for a tinier profit but do it for longer time. One of the best promotions I did was a year long deal with a software producer and I’m totally happy with it.

99. Create And Sell Your Own Products

Write an ebook. Create an online course. Make a suite of videos. Go for what you can genuinely create. Making money directly from your products is always better than advertising. You can totally control the process and even if you use affiliate networks to promote your products, the payout is much bigger than in any other field.

100. Use Incentives To Promote Premium Content

Create free ebooks or other free resources to create awareness. Link to your commercial products in those free products and then spread the word. That way, people will have the opportunity to know more about what you do before actually buying the commercial product.

101. Add Paid Membership

I didn’t actually do it here, but I successfully did it in other projects and all I can tell you is that is really working. But it depends a lot on your niche and audience. As a rule of thumb remember that people are ready to pay from premium content, if that content really solve some real problem for them.

I know, there are 101 ways, not 100, as I promised in the title. I lied. And I also did something that always helped me being successful: under promise and over deliver.

How To Get Successful Astrological Readings

Although I practice astrology myself I sometimes find the need for a external advice or guidance. I know my chart by heart and still I can find useful and fresh chart interpretations from another professional astrologer, or even from a friend who’s practicing astrology.

Recently I had one of those insightful readings from a professional astrologer and I realized most of the people searching for astrological advice don’t get the full package when having astrological readings. Maybe it’s time for me to share some thoughts on this matter. Oh, and if you’re in the “I don’t give even two recession cents on this astrology nonsense” league, I recommend you to start by understanding astrology. And if it’s still doesn’t ring any bell to you, that’s highly ok, feel free to skip this post.

Important: this post will not teach you how to chose your astrologer, instead it will focus on how to work with it. We will assume that you already have / know / work with an established astrologer.

Why Would You Have An Astrological Reading

Let’s start with the reasons. Why you would need astrological advice? As a rule of thumb, you will turn to alternative answers when everything else fails. The vast majority of people are asking for astrological advice only when their life path is a complete mess. They chose astrology as a final resort and this is why the answers they receive are largely negative. When you spend all your time wasting your resources on a wrong path, the simple fact that you have to acknowledge that – and an astrological reading will shed a powerful light on this – will upset you.

It would be so much simpler to just include this way of getting answers for your questions in your current bag of life tools. Astrology is just a symbolic way of seeing reality and it should be treated like this. Is just a way of understanding the world in an alternative way, that’s all. And using it at the same level with your other, more earthy approaches, would just give you a balanced view of your life. You don’t have to believe it first hand, but it would be so interesting and challenging to take it into account.

So, try to integrate it as a secondary tool for all your decision making processes. I always try to raise a chart of some important moments in my life or at least to know where exaclty the planets are at that specific moment. I get a lot of information about the poential of that moment, and several times I even switched decisions based on some unfriendly astrological contexts. And it turned out I was right. Also, in some cases I ignored the astrological warnings and I had to face the consequences. (more…)

Late meme: what’s the greatest productivity tip in the world?

I just found out about this meme and, even if it’s kinda late (over two weeks), I’m joining it… What’s this meme about? Well, it’s simple: what’s the greatest productivity tip in the world?

I’ll be fast and simple:

Do something you like

Just like that. You can be a productivity genius, know all the tricks to do stuff, having all the habits for that, creating all the energy and measuring all the metrics, but if you’ew not doing something you really like, it will NEVER work.

So, before starting to go too deep into doing, do yourself a favor and analyse what you really like to do. It will all be simpler from that moment.

That was my advice. I will take the liberty to tag Nuance Labs, Slacker Manager, and one of my fvaourite programmers, Bargiel, the creator of my productivity application of choice, iGTD.