Case Study: How a Headline Made the Difference Between 100 and 5000 Visits
Want to attract thousands of visitors? If you are a blogger struggling to succeed on the social sites, this post is a must read.
Up until three days ago I hadn’t been able to get much traffic from any of the social sites (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUp, etc.). I’d been frequently submitting to all of them but nothing stuck. I wasn’t sure why. I knew my content was good, but for some reason people weren’t going for it. I finally made a break through, and I’ll tell you exactly how it happened.
The Stats
On Friday, January 26, I wrote a post titled “The Two Types of Cognition”. I posted it to Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Del.icio.us and attracted a grand total of 100 visitors in the next two days.
The average time spend on the post (6:11) was great, so I knew the people who read it liked it. The problem was people weren’t seeing it.
On Saturday, my friend Greg came by and told me he liked the post and that I should try to promote it. This planted the seed of curiosity. On Sunday I decided to make an effort to promote the article.
I realized that my original headline sucked. I’m new to copywriting, so I normally want to use headlines as labels. ‘The Two Types of Cognition’ is a perfect description of the post and it includes the main keyword, but it doesn’t give the reader any incentive.
My breakthrough was galvanized by the discovery of Steve Olson‘s post, “How This Blog Attracted 100,000 Visitors in the First 30 Days“. Through Steve’s post I discovered “5 of Your Headlines Remixed” by Brian Clark. If you want traffic READ THIS POST.
After reading Brian’s article and some of the other links from Steve’s post I resolved to concoct a new headline and resubmit to the social sites.
I came up with “Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence“. A bit more provocative isn’t it? I submitted to all the same sites, made it up to the second page of Reddit and got a few del.icio.us tags and stumbles. Reddit brought in some good traffic, but it really took off with StumbleUpon.
As of this moment that article has attracted 4,930 unique views. Not bad for a site that normally averages a couple hundred visitors a day. As a bonus, people started stumbling one of my other pages, leading to even more traffic.
Here is a chart depicting how rewriting a single headline has affected this site’s traffic.
I didn’t write this post to brag. Many other people attract many more visitors over the social sites everyday. I wanted to point out that content is not always the biggest issue. The EXACT SAME ARTICLE had drastically different results all because of a headline. And it isn’t even that tough. Read the posts I linked to earlier, take the lessons to heart, and start putting a lot more effort into your headlines and opening paragraphs.
Don’t let your great content go to waste.
Why Unmaterialistic People Should Want to Get Rich
Imagine a greedy old miser, nearing the end of his life. For years he shunned friends and family to amass a fortune, but now, in old age, he sits alone in an empty mansion, cursing himself for missing out on the truly important things in life. No one wants to end up like him. We want to enjoy the love of our family and friends. Only materialistic people with skewed priorities care about being rich. Right?
The burden of acquiring money weighs heavily on anyone without it. People don’t go to work because they like it. They go because without money their families will have nowhere to live and nothing to eat. Without money you have no clothes, no food, no shelter, no life. For money we trade the bulk of our waking hours, 5 days a week, until old age renders us incapable.
Money isn’t everything, but it comes damn close. So with all these reasons to want money, why is the drive become rich associated with greed, selfishness, and materialism?
Why Money Arouses Greed and Resentment
What is the first image ‘rich man’ brings to mind? Think Disney, think Christmas, think Scrooge. Since before we could read we’ve been fed images of greedy misers abusing the helpless and kind hearted poor. Scrooge is only one instance of this popular archetype. Scan your mind for villains and you’ll find that ‘greedy rich man’ is the finest. Nothing inspires resentment better than someone with abundance who craves more, more, MORE.
But this isn’t reality. Real villains are few and far between and as likely to be poor as rich. Money is inherently neutral. The greed that inspires evil deeds originates not in money, but in the perpetrator. Money is as good or bad as the force that wields it.
In addition to media portrayals, there are more tangible reasons that richness inspires resentment. The greatest of these is the division of classes. While some people have relationships with both rich and poor, most don’t. You have your team and you stick to it. Even though most rich people are good folks, some are downright horrible. These spoiled brats (No one cares who your daddy is, and you’re making him look like a fool) create the resentment that spreads to all richness. The relationship between rich and poor is a toxic mixture of hatred and envy; people are forced to pick sides, and as Steve Olson explained, the outcome isn’t pretty.
There is also the wretched plague of materialism. The worst offenders aren’t the rich, but those who live beyond their means. The people going into debt to buy big houses, luxury cars, and plasma T.V.s. It isn’t about what you have, but what you can show. These fools want to be rich for shallow despicable reasons. Unmaterialistic people associate this idiocy with the desire to be rich and label the pursuit of the money unfulfilling. I was a member of this group of unmaterialists until I began to consider money and the nature of employment in a different light.
You Can Buy Time
The popular saying ‘you can’t buy time’ is blatantly false. Employers buy time everyday when they exchange money for labor. You may not be able to buy back time that has already passed, but you can certainly prevent yourself from having to sell your time in the future. Only the rich are able to avoid selling their time for money on a daily basis. Without the pressure to trade time for money, rich people are free to enjoy their lives however they please. If you take nothing else from this article, remember that money is freedom.
This realization led to the formation of my primary life goal: to become independently wealthy. By nature I am not a materialistic person. I care little for extravagance and the admiration of others. My favorite past times are the outdoors, basketball, reading, and collecting books. Old, used books, that generally cost less than a dollar, are more precious to me than any high tech gadgetry. But there is one valuable commodity that I prize above all others. Time.
When I started working full time 7 months ago I realized what it really meant to sell my time. I’m not complaining about my job. It pays well, affords decent hours, and the people are great. The problem is having to be there all the time. Call me ungrateful, but I don’t want just a good life, I want the best life I can muster, and that means having control of my own time.
Making Money Helps Other
After you buy something how do you usually feel? Unless you have spent foolishly and have buyer’s remorse you probably feel good. This is because have acquired something worth more to you than the money you paid for it. Commerce is an exchange of values. The merchant gets your money and you get wonderful commodities. Everyone is happy. If you weren’t happy you’d buy from someone else, which is why companies that don’t provide value go out of business. The success someone has is a direct indication of the value they provide to others.
Becoming rich doesn’t mean working long hours at a job you hate. Many people believe that becoming wealthy requires a high paying job i.e. doctor, lawyer, banker, executive etc. This may be the most certain path, but it isn’t the only one. There are unlimited ways to provide value to others, and the more creative ones are the most explosively successful. Don’t resign yourself to being poor just because these professions don’t fit. If you don’t like something you will never be great at doing it. The key is finding something you love that provides value to others.
You are currently witnessing my first foray into the world of independent value creation. I don’t expect this site to make me rich overnight, but it’s my first attempt at using my passions and abilities to create value. You may say I’m an optimistic fool, but each minute I work on this site I learn more about business and sharpen my creative abilities. Plus, it’s also very fun!
If you want to make the most of your life and attain personal freedom, becoming rich is a goal we both share. Don’t resign yourself to trading time for money just because that’s what most people do. Don’t wait to get going. Start working now. It’s going to be hard and you will need to make sacrifices, but don’t be discouraged. You have everything to gain, all you have to lose is your time.
Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence
Three years ago I listened to a lecture on cognition that changed the way I think about intelligence. This is the crux. There are two types of cognition. The first is normal cognition. This is the ability to retrieve knowledge from memory. When you are asked a question on a test and produce an answer, that’s a display of cognitive ability. The second type of cognition is metacognition; the ability to know whether or not you know.
Have you ever been asked a question that you knew the answer to, but you couldn’t find the right word? This is called the “tip of the tongue” phenomenon and I’m sure we’ve all experienced it. You know that you know the answer, but you fail to produce it. If someone said an answer, you would know instantly if it was correct or not. In these cases metacognition exists without cognition.
In short, cognition is knowing, metacognition is knowing if you know or not. Both can exist together, but many times they don’t.
How Does this Affect Intelligence?
So what importance does this have and how is it relevant to self improvement? The fact that there are two different kinds of cognitive ability means that there are different types of intelligence.
In traditional education, intelligence is measured by cognitive ability. For some people this is works well. They can easily produce everything they know on a test. But for others it doesn’t work out so well. The people that know something cold but can’t find the right words on a test are awarded with poor grades and considered inferior.
But does this inability make them any less intelligent? They know the answer. If the question came up on a task, they could refer to a book or a quick Google search. In reality they’re just as effective as the people that aced the test. They just can’t prove it as easily.
The Importance of Knowing what you know
Unless you’re taking a test or playing Jeopardy, metacognition is more important to success than cognition. In real life, when you’re faced with a question the first decision is whether you know the answer or not. With strong metacognitive ability this is easy. If you know the answer, but can’t come up with it, you can always do a bit of research. If you know for sure that you don’t know, then you can start educating yourself. Because you’re aware of your ignorance, you don’t act with foolish confidence. The person who thinks they know something that they really don’t makes the worst decisions.
A person with poor cognitive ability, but great metacognitive ability is actually in great shape. They might do poorly in school, but when faced with a challenge they understand their abilities and take the best course of action. These people might not seem intelligent at first glance, but because they know what they know, they make better decisions and learn the most important things.
Clever but mediocre people
At the opposite end of the spectrum are people with great cognitive ability but poor metacognitive ability. These people are proclaimed geniuses at a young age for acing every test and getting great SAT scores. Unfortunately, they’ve been ruined by poor metacognition; they think they know everything but they really don’t. They are arrogant, fail to learn from mistakes, and don’t understand the nuances of personal relationships; showing disdain for persons with lower cognitive ability.
So who is superior? In a battle of wits the higher cognitive ability prevails, but life is not a single encounter. It is a series of experiments in succession, each building upon the last. Learning requires knowing what you don’t know, and taking steps to learn what you need to. People with poor metacognitive ability never realize that they don’t ‘get it’. They also don’t realize what’s important.
This doesn’t preclude them from material success. But, perhaps that’s a poor measurement of intelligence as well. There are many people who become rich and successful by their cleverness and cognitive ability, but as human beings are quite mediocre. Is the man that makes a million dollars, but is cruel and abusive to his employees and family, really more intelligent than the poor man who lives a modest and loving life? I don’t intend to demonize wealth, only to state that it should not be the measure of virtue.
Use your metacognitive ability
So what do we know and what do we not? And how can we tell the difference? There is so much to know in the world that the most brilliant human minds can grasp only the tiniest fraction. For this reason we should always be in doubt of what we know. The closed mind is oblivious to its surroundings, while the open mind absorbs them. Like a sponge, it soaks up observations, becoming fuller and more robust.
But we can’t live in total doubt. If we did we would never act, paralyzed by our inadequate knowledge. We must trust our intuition. If something makes you feel a certain way, that feeling is real and must be respected. Act based on your own convictions, not those of others, and keep an open ear for new ideas.
The most important mental power is the ability to know what you don’t know. The recognition of a fault is the first step to improvement. Don’t try to hide a lack of knowledge. People will see through it and you’ll appear foolish and arrogant. If you admit your ignorance, people will help you learn and respect your humility. For intelligent people this is the toughest lesson to learn. We are used to being right, and consider being wrong shameful. We’re afraid to lose status by looking stupid. This vain arrogance is a great weakness and the source of many problems. To crush it and embrace humility is the mark of true wisdom.
Commit Yourself to Action by Investing in Success
Getting motivated is a challenge, and it often takes more than good intentions to really get going. When we first come up with an idea, our heads are filled with scattered thoughts and a vague plan of action. The problem is that good ideas don’t go anywhere on their own. Without a tangible force behind us nothing happens. Do you work harder when faced with a deadline? We all do because we have no choice but to produce.
So how do we force ourselves into action? A great way is stepping up and putting some hard earned cash on the line. Investing money in a goal does two things. First, it provides you with a valuable resource towards reaching your goal. Second, it gives you something to lose. If you don’t do anything at this point you’re wasting your own money.
I was first exposed to this idea in a post by Violent Acres that explains why the poor have a higher rate of obesity than the rich. V points out that poor people don’t lack the willpower to get in shape, they lack the resources. Only the rich can afford personal trainers, expensive gym memberships, and high priced groceries. With all these resources available it’s hard not to stay in shape.
At first I disagreed. Why can’t someone get a great workout for free by running outside and doing pushups and situps at home? In theory this works, but practice is different. Say you decide not to buy the gym membership and resolve to work out at home. Excuses always turn up. One day the weather is bad so you don’t run. The next day you come home tired, turn on the TV and never get up. Without a monetary investment to lose, there isn’t pressure to perform. By investing in a gym membership, you’re not just buying a place to workout, you’re buying motivation.
In effect, you become your own employer. When someone is hired, an employer pays for office space, a computer, training, etc. If that person doesn’t produce, the employer loses money. That’s why he also pays a supervisor to ensure the employee works hard. If you decide pay a consultant or personal trainer, you hire you own supervisor. By investing money in your goals you become employer and employee.You have something to lose if it fails and everything to gain if it works. It’s harder to be lazy when it means wasting your own money.
This strategy can be applied to any goal. When I decided to create this website, I started writing articles and bought a domain name, but without a significant investment my motivation fluctuated. I nearly abandoned this pipe dream before I put down $200 for a year of hosting. I could have gone month to month, but I knew it would take a year to build traffic. With that money spent up front I was committed. I also had a new resource. Seeing my articles published online was a tangible sign of progress. I also bought a great book on CSS(aff) and a Wacom Tablet(aff) to develop my web design skills and improve the looks of the site. These are all assets that enhance the site and provide reasons to keep working.
Any savvy entrepreneur will tell you that it takes money to make money. If you aren’t willing to spend a nominal sum to further your cause then how committed are you? By all means be frugal, but look at the big picture. Free resources are great but you can’t rely on them alone. What is the worth of a $30 book that helps you make thousands in the long run? Spending on valuable assets that grow your business is the sign of a wise investor.
We’re only human. We have good intentions, but our willpower can fail us. Over time we wear down and need an extra push. Don’t let the fear of wasting money prevent you from investing in your goals. If you know you want something, invest in it financially and mentally. Give yourself a resource and a reason to push yourself. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. One great investment can make up for scores mediocre ones. With hard work you’ll make back the money you spend, but you’ll never be able to get back lost time.
How to Be Happy At Work – An Interview
Work occupies an enormous amount of our lives. To be happy, we need to be happy at work. But unless you fall into the job of your dreams, this can be a challenge. It’s hard to make sitting at a cubicle all day seem fulfilling, and for many employers, employee happiness is a low priority compared to the bottom line.
For these reasons, I was surprised to learn that someone has built a career around happiness at work. Alexander Kjerulf has the gumption to stand in front of large groups of corporate employees and tell them how to be happier. He’s also written a book titled Happy Hour is 9 to 5.
When Alex offered to interview with any blogger, I jumped at the chance. Here are the toughest questions I could muster.
1. Have you ever worked in a cubicle farm, or at any large company as a subordinate? If so, what was your experience?
In fact, I have. My very first job out of university was for Bang&Olufsen which make some of the world’s best music systems and TVs. My job was as a software developer, and it was everything you could fear from a big corporation.
The offices were a ugly, gray and uninspiring cubicle farmscape. The job was boring, everything mired in endless layers of bureaucracy. Every good idea had to approved at three different meetings. The mood at the company was unhappy and cynical.
Now don’t get me wrong, B&O make great products, and there are good reasons why they run software development the way they do, one of them being that it ensures a VERY low rate of errors. But I just didn’t fit in.
I lasted six months and then left for a job in a small consulting company where I was employee number 4. That was much more to my liking.
2. What would you say to someone who finds the work they do, of even the entire industry, to be terribly dull?
Well you’re facing a choice, aren’t you? Stay where you are and make it fun or go somewhere else that is more likely to be fun,
As long as you stay and accept dull work, you will never realize your full potential. You will never be as productive, creative, successful, fulfilled or happy as you could be if work was fun, energizing and inspiring.
3. What is the best way to deal with a boss that is just an awful person?
Again, there are two options. You can try to teach your boss a better way. I know many people don’t think you can, but with most bosses it IS possible.
A friend of mine has just done it. Her boss’ boss (the district manager) was constantly unpleasant, tough and never said a kind word to anyone. People always feared their weekly status meetings with him because he was so strict and always only gave people hell for the problems he saw. My friend went on a successful campaign to change him, and over the course of three months has taught him to appreciate good work, to praise people and to talk nicely.
However, with some bosses it just plain can’t be done. As studies have shown, around 2% of the general population have psychopathic tendencies, and in business these people tend to concentrate in management positions. This means that around 5-10% of managers have psychopathic traits.
You can’t work with these people. They have no empathy and don’t care about others. If that is your boss, run, don’t walk, away from him. Find a new job inside the company or at another company.
Oh, and read Bob Sutton’s book “The No Asshole Rule” which describes what companies can do about jerks.
4. What would you recommend to someone who doesn’t like working in an office in front of a computer everyday, but still wants job security and a good salary?
I’d say go for a job that makes you happy. Surprise 
Seriously, many people seem to think that there is some built-in contradiction between being happy at work and making good money or having job security. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If you love what you do, you’re more likely to be very good at it, meaning you’re more likely to make good money and be secure in your job.
I know many people who were miserable in their jobs – and then lost’em in a downsizing round.
5. How can someone break the monotony of working in an office and going through the same routine day after day?
There are about a million ways. One of my favorites is Random Acts of Workplace Kindness. Do something nice for a co-worker, for your team, for your department or for your employees.
Bring someone a cup of coffee without them asking. Pass out candy at a meeting. Compliment people on their work. Ask people about their weekend.
Anything that creates a fun mood and a real connection between people.
6. What is the hardest part of standing in front of a large group of employees and telling them they should be happy at work?
Hmmm… Tricky question. I love doing it so much that there are no hard parts about it.
The hardest part is probably knowing that if I come in and do a bad job, I risk giving “happiness at work” a bad reputation at this company. Happiness at work will become something silly that people ridicule, rather than something important that people work together to create. I’m very conscious of this responsibility, and try to do my very best every time.
Focus Better by Listening to Music
I know this idea isn’t ground breaking, but it’s a technique that I know to work from personal experience. Since I discovered it two years ago, I’ve used music to get through boring work or focus creatively almost everyday. I’ve found that it can make even the dullest jobs enjoyable and help clear mental blocks to creativity.
I first noticed the beneficial effects of music while playing video games. It was a few days after Christmas 2005 and I was playing Halo 2 online. My parents had just given me a new Ipod, so I decided to listen to music through the headphones while I played. After a few minutes I noticed a distinct change in my style of play. I was playing more naturally. Rather than hesitating, I made decisions based on instinct. The music relaxed me, and to a certain extent distracted me from the game, allowing my subconscious talent to come through. The music also helped me block out the outside world. With those headphones on I was like a machine, moving from one task to the next without unnecessary thought or action.
Pascal said that we enjoy music because it causes us to count without our knowing it. I believe this is also what causes music to increase focus and creativity. Even if we aren’t paying close attention, our brain counts each note and change of rhythm. This counting occupies the part of the mind that hinders our creative abilities. Like a soothing lullaby, music puts the worrisome unfocused part of the mind to sleep so the productive side can get to work.
Music can also have a profound effect on mood. If I’m in a bad mood at work I’ll put on some Bob Marley and get down to business. It always takes my mind off what I’m doing and makes me a happier person. The same is true for classic rock. One summer I worked a terrible job manually assembling bottle openers and renovating an old barn. Without a radio playing classic rock in the background I would have hated life. It depends on your particular tastes, but listening to music with soothing rhythms and a positive message helps you forget your work and think happy thoughts.
For focusing on a creative task, I’ve found that listening to music without lyrics is most effective. There are no words to abruptly grab your attention and instrumental music tends to have the most compelling melody and composition. The dashing enthusiasm of Mozart or Beethoven enhances the speed and agility of creative thought.
When I’m writing I always have my Ipod handy. If I have trouble concentrating because of outside distractions or my own scatterbrain, I put on some classical music. This relaxes my mind, blocks outside noise, and helps organize my thoughts. Mozart works very well, and I’ve heard this is because his rhythms resonate with human brain waves. Whether this is true or not, classical music is a great tool for increasing concentration and productivity.
The results you see will depend heavily on your personal tastes. Experiment with the types of music you listen to during certain tasks. Through trial and error you’ll eventually discover your optimal soundtrack. I’m always looking for new concentration aids, so I’d love to know what type of music or other technique works best for you. It might not seem like a big deal, but listening to music can change your state of mind, causing changes in mood and productivity. Using music as a tool is an easy thing anyone can do to make themselves smarter and happier.
Resisting the Temptation of Authority
For many reasons, submitting to authority is extremely attractive. It takes the pressure off. We don’t have to think for ourselves. If any problems arise we don’t have to worry about deciding what to do. We can just do what the leader says and be confident that answer is the final truth.
This innate craving for authority is rooted deeply in the human psyche. In Freud’s philosophy, the mind is divided into three segments. The id is our primitive childish side. It causes our spontaneous desires for sex, food, and laziness. When you get an urge to quit working, take a nap, eat junk food, or look at pictures of scantily clad members of the opposite sex, that’s the id at work. The superego is the opposite of the id. When you feel compelled by success and ambition, the superego is exerting its influence. The ego is the moderator between the id and superego. It tries to balance the two and is perpetually torn between extremes. Authority forms a bridge between the superego and the id, allowing the ego take a vacation. When you submit to authority, the superego is happy because it believes you are doing the right thing, the id is happy because your childish craving for a father is satisfied, and the ego is thrilled because for once there is peace.
Authority is not constrained to a single personage. It takes the form of belief systems, religious doctrines, political parties, and any entity claiming to hold truth exclusive to all the rest. These entities appear to have our best interests at heart. They take us under their wing and shelter us from the world.
In our heart of hearts, we’re all searching for a great teacher, someone who has mastered life and will show us the way. Isn’t it invigorating to discover a potential authority? Whenever I find a new author that strikes a chord I can’t get enough. I read everything they have to offer, hoping to find that elusive truth. But inevitably, my naive enthusiasm wears off and I realize the answer isn’t there.
From childhood we are conditioned to submit to authority. Do what the teacher says or you will be punished. The desire for authority continues in adulthood and there is never a shortage of potential leaders urging us to join them. Consider the books and web pages you read. How many claim to improve your lives, if only you subscribe, tell your friends, and follow their instructions? Understand that all motivation is rooted in self interest, and be guarded against those who offer simple answers.
There is No One Right Way
I’m not saying that everything offering guidance is evil. There is much to be learned from authority. But it is harmful when accepted unconditionally. There is no ONE right way. The are many shades of truth and ways to live. Growth, intelligence, and perspective are developed by experiencing a broad variety and drawing your own conclusions. By submitting to authority you sacrifice originality and potential for personal growth.
Nothing Will Solve All Your Problems
Many people are of the opinion that if one party took over the government, or if some ideal system was implemented, our problems would be solved. Our problems are not so simple. The root cause is human weakness; greed, selfishness, aggression, and jealousy. There is no system of government that can change human nature. The conflict would remain and people would turn to another ‘answer’.
We see the same weakness exploited at a personal level. Supposed gurus preach miraculous programs. For a price, you can be cured. We are so desperate for authority we flock to these frauds, and in a desperate search for answers oversimplify our problems. Suppose the guru is correct and you make a million dollars, or fulfill some other dream, what then? Authority will give you no lasting peace.
Authority Exploits
When we submit to authority, we willingly pull the wool over our own eyes, exposing ourselves to manipulation. The greatest catastrophes of human history were caused by submission to authority. The Holocaust was caused by submission to the Nazi authority. September 11th was caused by submission to Bin Laden’s authority. Everyday people are suckered out of hard earned money because they blindly believe in authority. Be distrustful, question what you’re told, and don’t believe that anyone claiming to have all the answers has your best interests at heart.
It is a cold and lonely road to stand alone without authority and rely on your own judgment. But as Emerson said, “To be a man, is to be a nonconformist.” I hope you will choose to trust your own intuition above any outside authority. Be honest with yourself, live by your own principals, and you people will admire you for it. But don’t take my word for it, reflect and draw your own conclusions.
A Guide to Better Web Browsing
This article isn’t for all you Firefox using RSS fiends out there. If you’re already up to date on the best ways to surf the web then you’re probably better off skipping this post and checking out the site’s other content.
That being said, if you’re still using Internet Explorer and haven’t heard of RSS feeds and social bookmarking, the tips in this post will get you up to speed. The truth is most people don’t use the web as effectively as they should. Nearly all my friends outside the engineering world (and many within it) are totally ignorant of these completely free technologies that can save you loads of time. If you’re a person who works on a computer all day, this is a no brainer.
Use A tabbed Browser
Do you ever get annoyed by having too many open windows? Using tabs completely solves this problem. It allows you to open multiple web pages within a single browser window. This is a huge time saver. There are many reasons to upgrade, but this is the biggest. I started using Firefox last year and I’ll never go back. You can download Firefox here for free. Installation is automatic, takes less than 5 minutes, and automatically imports your IE bookmarks.
Another great thing about Firefox is that tons of plugins are available. These are add-ons that let you do things like download several files at once or use your browser as a dictionary. For the sake of simplicity I’ll let you discover these on your own.
Use RSS Feeds
Reading multiple websites can be quite cumbersome. For each new page you have to find your bookmark, click on it, and wait for the page to load. Using RSS is an easy way to streamline your web surfing.
RSS works by using a feed reader to compile content from all the sites you read in one central place. With your feed reader you can read all the headlines from the NY Times, ESPN, and other favorites sites without having to move between pages.
There are many alternatives, but I use GoogleReader, and I’ve read it’s one of the best. If you have a Gmail account there is no reason not to. There are also equivalent readers for Yahoo and MSN and numerous stand alone applications like NewsGator and Bloglines. You can also incorporate RSS into your Google, Yahoo, or MSN home pages. Once you start using RSS, it eliminates the barrier between you and information you want. You’ll find yourself reading more in less time and finding new sites.
If you’re interested in RSS, but aren’t completely sold yet, check out this list of reasons why RSS puts control back in the hands of the user by Copyblogger. Hopefully once you start using RSS, you’ll subscribe to my feed by clicking on the pretty orange RSS button at the top of the sidebar.
Social News and Bookmarks
Google is still the best option when you want to find something specific, but what about those times when you want to find something interesting, but you aren’t sure what? For this purpose social news and bookmarking sites are great.
The way social news works is that users submit stories that other users have the option of voting on. If you go to the popular pages of these sites you can find the items that other users found most valuable. This puts the power in the hands of the people. Each popular story is something that a real person enjoyed, not a computer program. The content of these sites includes everything from cool videos to breaking news.
My favorite social news site is Reddit. Another extremely popular site is Digg, which is technologically oriented. If you’re feeling adventurous, try StumbleUpon, which lets you to choose a category and sends you straight to a new site. I can’t tell you how many cool things I’ve found this way that I never would’ve otherwise.
The other side of social media is bookmarking. Sites like del.icio.us allow you to save all the pages you want and label them with helpful tags. With del.icio.us you can easily organize and save many more pages than you can with regular bookmarks. The del.icio.us popular page displays the items saved by the most people.
To help my readers share my articles with others, I’ve placed links at the bottom of each post to make it easier to save them to Reddit, del.icio.us, and StumbleUpon.
Well, I hope I haven’t overwhelmed you. This is more than enough information to send you on your way to funner faster web browsing. If you follow the suggestions I’ve made in this post you’ll be web savvy in no time.
An Easy Way to Get Paid for Something You Already Do
Anyone that browses the web for more than 5 hours a month should sign up with AGLOCO to get paid.
Here is the basic outline of the idea in the company’s words:
Advertisers, search providers and online retailers are paying billions to reach you while you surf. How much of that money are you making?
AGLOCO collects money from those companies on behalf of its members. (For example, Google currently pays AOL 10 cents for every Google search by an AOL user. And Google still has enough profit to pay $1.6 billion dollars for YouTube, an 18-month old site full of content that YouTube’s users did not get paid for! Read the Rest of This Article »
Overcoming a Loss of Motivation
How many times have you started a new activity (such as a personal project or exercise routine) with a burst of enthusiasm, only to see that initial momentum evaporate? This often leads to depression and causes us to give up prematurely. I’ve experienced this letdown dozens of times myself. But fortunately, with a bit of thought and reflection you can turn this negative emotion around.
The key to harnessing your emotions is understanding them. The natural pattern of human emotion is peaks and valleys. When we start a new project we’re filled with tremendous optimism. All we can think about is the expected benefits, and since we haven’t started yet, we aren’t aware of the difficulties involved. This natural high causes a surge of mental and physical activity. The peak is a great thing because the energy boost gets projects off the ground. If you’re a creative type like me, you know that this period is euphoric. You feel like nothing can stop you.
The downside of this surge of energy is that it inevitably ends. Exerting large amounts of energy wears you down, and after the initial optimism wears off we feel extremely tired. However high you started off, you fall down just as low. This causes a loss of confidence. The combination of fatigue, scant results, and an awareness of impending adversity makes us want to give up. From personal experience I’ve learned a few ways to hold strong against negativity.
Be Prepared for a Letdown
Emotions, by nature, lose their power when we understand them. Prove this to yourself. Next time you get angry, take a moment to reflect on the reason behind the emotion. When I step back and reflect, it’s easy to see that my anger is caused by insecurity/selfishness/jealousy etc. After I understand the cause my anger fades away.
The same technique applies to a loss of motivation. Instead of giving into negativity, step back and analyze. Look at the causes. Are you tired, burned out, disappointed by the results? Are these feelings justified, or are they a by product of a low point in the emotional spectrum?
To illustrate these ideas, I’ll use my most recent project as an example, the creation of this site. When I launched Pick the Brain it took an enormous amount of effort. I was completely new to blogging, web design, and traffic building so there was a steep learning curve. Writing new posts, setting up the site, and trying to build traffic took up nearly all my free time. After about three weeks I was completely burned out. I got depressed and started to question if the site was worth the effort. I wasn’t seeing any returns and I started to find enormous faults in my writing and the purpose of the site. There were moments when I was resigned to failure.
One reason I was able to overcome this loss of motivation is that I prepared myself for a letdown. Beforehand, I researched blogging and learned that it generally takes 9-12 months before a site begins to see significant traffic. Knowing that my lack of success was perfectly normal helped me get over it. The same is true for other endeavors. If you know losing 20 pounds in a month is unrealistic, you’ll be able to accept losing only 5 more easily.
I also knew my own emotions and was prepared for the initial emotional peak to pass. When I was first inspired to launch a website, my expectations were through the roof. Dreams of AdSense revenue danced in my head and I pictured throngs of loyal readers as if they already existed. But because I understand my emotional pattern, I realized this optimism would give way to depression. In the back of my mind, I foresaw the impending motivational battle, and when it came I was ready.
Reevaluate Your Strategy and Motivation
The passing of the emotional peak is a blessing in disguise because it allows us to reevaluate our plans from a fresh perspective. At first we are blinded by our own optimism. When we lose our motivation we can see gaping holes our in plan. We can either get down on ourselves and give up, or we can use this negative emotion to discover our faults and correct them. After I pulled myself out of the motivational cellar, I went back to all the negatives thoughts I’d had and applied them to improving the site. Having a pessimistic attitude opened my eyes. It made me realistic about my abilities and expectations. Emotional valleys bring us back to reality. Without them we’d be raving lunatics with unlimited self-confidence.
Use a loss of motivation as an opportunity to reconsider what your motivation really is. One reason I lost motivation is that I became too concerned with the financial aspect of blogging and lost sight of the real reason I started: sharing my passion for self improvement and the pursuit of happiness. When I realigned my motivation with my passion, the lack of results didn’t matter. My motivation returned because I realized connecting with people through my writing is an end in itself. Even if this site never makes I dime, sharing my ideas and experiences to help other people is worth the effort.
In truth, sometimes giving up is the right decision. If you started doing something for the wrong reasons you’ll likely lose your motivation. This is a good thing. It allows us to see what really motivates us. In these cases, the best choice is to move on to a new endeavor. Don’t fight self doubt, use it for your benefit.
Conclusion
Dealing with emotional highs and lows is an experience common to all people. We generally accept our emotions as beyond our control. They are powerful and mysterious and appear quite irrational. But if we contemplate our emotions, if we explore the inner workings of our minds, we find that like all things, emotions obey the law of cause and effect. Armed with this knowledge, we can continue to allow our emotions to dominate our lives, or we can use them to our benefit.
Don’t be surprised by a loss of motivation and don’t be disappointed by it. Understand it as natural effect of the human mind, and utilize this knowledge of self to make your emotions work for you.
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