Mark Manson
Medellin, AT
Male, 28
I am a professional blogger, internet entrepreneur, and world traveler. I've been to over 40 countries and am currently working on my second book about long-term travel and how to work/live abroad. On my blog I write about self development and creating a unique lifestyle for yourself. Feel free to ask me anything.
Great content markets itself. Especially for a blogger. I think what most bloggers don't understand is that you're not just offering information or a point of view, but you're offering an experience in the minds of your readers. So yes, great content should come first. It should also come second, third, fourth and fifth. I actually used to focus a lot more on marketing that I do now. What I discovered is that the quality of my marketing had little effect on my sales or traffic. People who liked me liked me regardless of how I marketed myself. I'd say these days I spend 75% on content 25% on marketing. That seems to work well for me.
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The biggest challenge was figuring out something I could produce that a lot of people wanted. My first 2-3 products barely sold much at all, certainly not enough to live off of. It took a number of tries, studying marketing and branding, and understanding my audience a lot better until I was able to nail something that made me a solid income. I don't think I necessarily got in my own way. I worked my ass off through 2008 and 2009. I literally had no life other than my business for those two years. If there's one thing that I think I screwed up on internally is that I didn't give myself enough credit as a writer. At the time I was thoroughly convinced that people bought from me because of my marketing and offers, not because they had built a connection and loyalty to me as a teacher and writer. It took me a long time to figure out that my writing was the driving force behind my business and not all of the bells and whistles I spent so much time focusing on. Could I have avoided that had I been a bit more confident in myself at the time? I suppose. But this stuff is all a learning experience regardless.
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I think in the early-going my readership influenced me quite a bit. Back when I started I had far fewer readers, so in a way my relationship with my readers was far more intimate. Conversations and feedback from readers inspired me to pursue a lot of various areas of interest that I may not have otherwise: i.e., feminism, self esteem, motivation, etc. These days I would say they influence me less... or at least they influence me less on a person-by-person basis. There are a dozen readers or so who I am in regular contact with, but for the most part, there seems to be an invisible barrier of separation between me and them. I suppose on a macro-level they influence me indirectly by validating my life purpose and ambitions. It's cool to write things you're passionate about and see that 10,000 other people read it and seemed to like it. That has to affect a person I imagine, even if on an unconscious level.
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I have a few interns that are helping me at the moment, mostly with marketing and behind-the-scenes stuff. I've outsourced things here and there over the past year as well. But for the most part, I was a one-man show from 2007 to 2011.
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CPR Trainer
Is it possible to perform CPR on animals?
Social Network Security Manager
How has Facebook remained mostly immune to hacks?
Movie Theater Employee
Why is movie theater food so overpriced?
As usual, content is king. People don't share articles that suck. But there are some things you can do. 1. The New York Times actually recently did a little study on their own content and how much it got shared and they found that the more polarizing of an emotional response the article brings, the more likely it is to be shared. It's like the old Howard Stern thing, people who loved him listened to him for 3 hours a day. People who hated him listened to him for 4 hours a day. The point is to get an emotional reaction and a STRONG one at that. 2. Know the basics of copywriting, this is the biggest thing I've picked up from bloggers like Tim Ferriss the last year: the title of the article is so important as a marketing tool. For instance, check out the difference between the two following titles: "Implementation Intention and Overcoming Bad Habits" or "3 Steps to Remove Procrastination from Your Life Permanently" Both are accurate article titles. One is about the psychological concept of implementation intention and how it can be utilized to overcome procrastination and bad habits. The other is the benefit marketed directly in the article title. Guess which one will get shared more? 3. The article needs to be widely applicable. One of the most popular articles on my site is called "Butchering the Alpha Male". It's an article written for a very specific subset of men and a response to a certain subset of men's dating advice. Within that small niche, the article became widely popular and was shared a lot. The thing is, because it's focus was so narrow and was only relevant to such a specific group of people, it never caught fire and spread beyond that.
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Yes, absolutely. It forces you into new and uncomfortable situations, often handicaps your communication (creating a so-called "altitude effect") and of course, gets you talking and meeting new people. I think it's one of the most useful things you can do to improve your social skills and social confidence in general.
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This question is so misinformed and ignorant that I'm not even going to justify it with an answer. Taxi Driver is one of the best movies made in the last 50 years. Anyone who disagrees is a communist and/or a terrorist.
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