Invest in a SSD When You Can

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 09:13 PM PDT

Some weeks ago I wrote a post mentioning two things I believe are worth investing in for your office or home office: a big monitor and a good chair.

Now I have a third item to add to that list: a SSD.

SSD stands for Solid-state drive. It’s basically a hard-drive with no moving mechanical parts. It uses integrated circuits to store data, much like a USB flash drive.

Last week my main hard-drive started to fail, and that’s when I started looking for a substitute. Initially I was considering a standard 500GB disk, but I figured two things:

1. I never use even half of the capacity of those drives
2. I am always looking for ways to speed up my computer

That’s when I decided that going with a SSD was a good idea. I purchased one with 120GB, which is enough for my needs. I loaded a fresh Linux install on it and within 30 minutes I was up and running again.

The boot time of my computer was reduced from 12 seconds or so to around 4 seconds. Not only that, programs launch faster, saving and deleting files is a lot faster and so on.

Overall it was a very nice improvement and a small investment, and that is why I wanted to recommend it. Whenever you have the chance make sure to switch to a SSD for your computer, it’s well worth it.

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How and Why Images Help Readers Engage with Your Blog Posts

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 09:49 AM PDT

This is a guest post from Joshua Danton Boyd.

I'm massive fan of cats. I even wrote an article about the ones living on my street and what you can learn about freelancing from them.

This also means that I study every lost cat poster I see just in case I can help.

I was walking to work the other day when I spotted one, but I paid no attention. Why? There was no picture. It was all text, just a title and a description of the cat.

It kind of shocked me that that was all it took for me to not acknowledge something I'd usually stop to stare at.

Even if your subject matter is interesting to people, if it lacks an image people will find it very easy to pass it by.

Pictures are massively important and this – of course – applies to blog posts. They encourage engagement and this is something every blog owner should be striving to increase.

importance-of-images

How can you ignore that? (Source)

If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them

A great indicator of this is the rise of Buzzfeed. A quick look at their homepage and this post, which went live a day before I wrote this, has already clocked up 1.1 million views, not to mention the 124,000 social interactions (that's only including Twitter and Facebook). No one can say that isn't impressive.

BuzzFeed is certainly image-centric, focusing on lists filled with pictures or GIFs accompanied by a witty comment.

(To see just how lacking in words Buzzfeed is, check out Buzzfeed Articles Without The GIFs.)

I'm not suggesting you reduce your blog to listicles … but this does show just how vital images are.

Of course, once you've attracted readers, you want them to stay on your page and actual read the work you've done. This is a whole other problem.

Readers Don't Read Blogs Like Books

reading-book

Not how things are done online. (Source)

There's a bit of science in looking at how people interact with articles. In this impressive piece, Martin Robbins writes, "Eye-tracking studies have revealed people don't simply read from beginning to end, but follow a distinct F-shaped pattern. On average, it seems people only read about 20% of the words on a page; spending only 4.4 seconds per 100 words."

In the end, getting people to read your posts is a bit like herding cats. They don't just follow the words they skim-read.

Images can help to break up this practice and focus the reader. With a long block of text it can be easy to lose interest, but images set up little checkpoints where we can refocus.

trees-flowers

Feel free to check your Twitter too. (Source)

Of course, images are vital for presenting data and representing ideas. Sticking in a nice looking graph to visualise some stats or embedding a location in Google Maps can work wonders in raising the quality of your piece. It gives your readers something to point to (and Pin!) as well. Image can convey information much quicker and more freely than words sometimes and it'd be foolish not to take advantage of this.

Images are also important for social media. As this garish infographic demonstrates, images will help encourage shares of your blog posts. While shares aren't the be all and end all we once though, they're still a positive thing and especially so when it comes to your SEO as well.

Watch Your Back

As a final warning, be careful you only use images that you're allowed to and that you include proper accreditation. You can find some great sources here.

So, add a bit of life to your posts, even the short ones. You'll soon see the benefits.

Bio: Joshua Danton Boyd is a copywriter for the online accountancy firm Crunch. He thinks images of cats are the best images.

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

How to Master Stuff (Even If You Hate Doing It)

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 06:58 AM PDT

For some kids, it’s soccer.

For some kids, it’s playing the piano.

No, not me.

For me, it was the abacus.

If you don’t know what that is, it’s bunch of beads you move around to signify digits. Believe it or not, you can do addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division.

Of course, I was a 7 year old kid and I wanted to go outside and play, not play with beads all day.

I hated it at first… when I first saw them, i thought maybe these kids had their brains eaten by zombies… staring down at them beads and moving them around endlessly.

But apparently, it was my mom who had her brains eaten because she actually took me to a private abacus school where apparently the Korean champions of abacus were born.

My mom didn’t think gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, taekwondo, track & field, or something manly & athletic.

No, she wanted me to a math nerd moving beads around.

Of course, I was 7 and my mom wasn’t about to let me practice democracy. So I did what she asked.

As much as I hated every moment of it, I was good at it.

I was the bead master… I remember the owner of that school would “use” me to get prospective parents who were interested in enrolling their kids to the school.

He would have this list of 20-30, 7 digit numbers that he’d have me add up. He would have his secretary use a digital calculator and have her “race” me while I calculate in my head. Of course, I would be done in a few seconds and spit out a number. We’d wait and see that my number matches the printout on the calculator.

The parents would be so fascinated that they would immediately sign up their kid, with the “promise” that their kid too would be a wiz once they learn this. (Now that I realize, I should’ve gotten a cut for doing this.)

So much so that the owner of the school thought I should enter the national competition. He would “train” me & let me practice without charging tuition to my parents. (Heck, we’d be giving the school free PR if we won.)

That summer was intense. Here’s what the schedule looked like (for 6 & 8 year olds)

Wake up at 8 AM
Wash, eat breakfast & get to school by 9 AM
Abacus from 9 AM to 12 AM
Come home by 12:15 PM, eat lunch, take nap.
Get to school by 1:30 PM.
Abacus from 1:30 PM to 6:00 PM
Come home by 6:15 PM, eat dinner.
Get to school by 7:00 PM
End 9 PM
Repeat following day.

Now, I did this EVERYDAY during every break from school.

Did i get good?

Yeap, I won.

My sister and I came in 1st and 2nd in a national compeition, and were eventually picked as candidates to compete in Japan (but my parents turned them down because they thought it was “too much”).

If you really thinkg about it, this is no different than anything in business.

1) Talent you’re born with. Skill is something you develop by hours and hours of beating on your craft.

Was I a talented math kid?

Believe it or not, not all Asian kids are good at match… let alone love it. I liked Gundam and Mazinger Z. I wanted to be the guy controlling 30 story tall robots, not crunch numbers.

I got good because I just did it over and over and over and over again, until it was second nature.

I hate writing, but now it comes natural to me because I’ve blog about marketing & growth hacking.

I blog regularly now I don’t really “think”. I just do.

2) Get a good mentor

If you read any story where a hero goes on a journey to save the girl, save a village, win some big prize, or a cause bigger than himself, you notice how there’s always some wise man who helps him along the journey

- Han Solo has Yoda
- Frodo had Gandalf
- Rocky Balboa had Mickey

When I did abacus, I had this crazy dude who would scream & rant about how I got some calculation wrong. I was 6-7 years old for god’s sake, but this dude made me better by making me challenge myself, and tell me to keep trying when I felt hopeless.

When you’re on the path of entrepreneurship, it is TOUGH. Ups and downs, successes and failures… i don’t care what anyone says it’s tough as shit and things don’t necessarily get easier, the way you react to them just gets better. (It should, anyway).

How much easier would it be if you had someone who can shed some light and some wisdom during the hard times?

Not gonna lie, I personally struggle with this too because I noticed the ones that want to “help” have some ulterior motive when things are good, and vanish when you’re struggling.

If you don’t have a mentor, it’s ok. There’s the web – you can read about other people’s nuggets of wisdom, their trial & errors, their stories, and of course, their advices on their blogs, books, podcasts, etc. If they don’t mentor you personally, at least you get to see what’s going on in their minds.

(Take a look at Mr. T’s story… a TRUE story of rags to riches story.)

3) Fell? Get Back Up

This is so much easier said than done.

There are two kinds of pains in this world: the pain of discipline vs. pain of regret.

They both have pains… except one comes first but things get easier, whereas the other one it’s easier now but the eventual pain that you experience is much bigger and much longer lasting.

You have a choice.

Quit now and do easy stuff. Go eat cheeseburger, drink beer, and do whatever everyone else is doing.

Or, do what you know is right.. today.

Remember, you can always quit.

So why not quit tomorrow?