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.
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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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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Unfortunately there aren't as many crazy stories as there are facepalm stories. One thing about that job is that people always thought it was glamorous -- that I was going out with these guys and doing crazy party stuff and banging tons of hot girls. It was quite the opposite it. It was more akin to holding therapy sessions in night clubs than anything. And then hour after painstaking hour trying to get a guy over his anxieties or insecurities around women. Just a guy getting a phone number was cause for celebration. With that said, there were some cool nights... Mostly involving bringing girls back to my hotel room. There are some awkward Vegas strip club stories in there too but I don't completely recall all of those nights. But mostly just therapy sessions.
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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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Personal Stylist & Life Coach
What's the difference between a life coach and a therapist?
Server / Bartender
What's the best tip you ever got?
iPhone & iPad Technician
Do you think tablets are just a fad?
Sometimes my parents call me up feeling really guilty when I do a post about my emotional baggage or childhood issues, haha. But generally, no. Most of the people either don't care, are mildly flattered, or never find out because they don't read me. The exception is girlfriends. My ex could get pissy/happy depending on how I referenced her in various posts. And the current girl I'm dating actually cried when she read a post I wrote about her (it was the good kind of cry). Honestly, it's surprising how little blowback or drama I've gotten considering how personal I do often get.
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Best ways to get the word out about your blog: 1. Guest posts on other blogs. I recommend emailing other bloggers with an article ALREADY written. Make sure it's good. You basically want to make it as easy as possible for them to say yes. Aim for bloggers who are in your league. A big blog that gets 10k hits a day likely gets asked for guest posts daily and is only going to be interested in promoting someone who has a platform to promote them back. Look for blogs of people who are similar but slightly larger than you. So if you get 20 hits a day, look for someone who gets maybe 50 or 100 hits. If you get 100 hits, look for someone who gets 400 hits. Work your way up. 2. Forums. Either pop your blog in your signature and post a lot of good, quality posts. Or find HIGHLY RELEVANT threads and drop a link to your site in your reply. It is very, very, very, very important to make sure you're adding real value when you post on forums, lest you be considered a spammer. The moment people think you're a spammer, no one will take you or your site seriously. 3. Blog comments. See above, although these are a bit easier and people are a lot more lenient about you linking. But again, make sure your comment is great. 4. Interview people. Interview other bloggers and then hope they link to your interview. Same rule applies about finding bloggers of similar but slightly larger size. I get interviewed multiple times a week, and I simply can't be bothered to link my readers to every place I'm interviewed, especially if it was by a tiny site. Don't worry about social media until you've gotten a bit of a following. Until then, it's just a waste of time.
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I rarely do research for a specific post, but I do a lot of ongoing research in subjects I'm interested in. I read A LOT, and most of what I read is non-fiction. I try to keep up with all of the popular psychology books that are being published and as I read I make little notes on my computer of certain ideas, studies or anecdotes I'd like to use in a post. I also have a bookmark folder for articles and studies I come across on the internet that I could see myself using in a post. I basically build up a reservoir of research and credible material to fall back on when I need it to make my point. I just put up a post today about what I call "the prime belief." It relates a lot to William James, one of my favorite philosophers and someone whom I've read quite a bit of and about over the years. So when I decided to write the post, it was a matter of digging through my old books and verifying a few basic facts online before writing it. Citing stuff definitely does build a lot of credibility and I'm trying to get better about it. People take you more seriously and it helps keep me grounded and talking about what works not just some hair-brained idea I came up with on a Saturday night. It's particularly important for my industry too, because there's actually a scary lack of scientific research backing up a lot of self help. So I'd like to be the guy who actually does go through the trouble to cite a lot of research backing up my models and theories.
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