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.
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 do believe in it. Although I don't believe in it in any kind of supernatural or meta-physical way. The law of attraction has been taught in self help for over 100 years and can be easily explained by some basic psychological mechanisms we all have. 1. Confirmation bias - when we believe something, we're more likely to see information that supports our belief rather than what refutes it. 2. Opportunity blindness - we're only capable of seeing the possibilities of what we're immediately focusing on. The example I use for this is that when I quit my day job and started an internet business, I believe it was all or nothing with the internet business. But in fact, not only has my business completely evolved into something else I never could have imagined, but I have encountered dozens of amazing opportunities in the past 4 years that don't relate to my business at all. As humans, there are more variables and possibilities than we can comprehend and so we're not able to see them until we take a step towards them. 3. Hindsight - As Steve Jobs, it's easy to connect the dots when you look backwards. What "feels" serendipitous to us is actually just the single path we happened to choose. One of my interns commented to me recently at how lucky he was to have stumbled across a forum where some people knew me, therefore leading him to getting a job with me and being flown to Colombia to work online. I commented back to him that he always wanted to work online, and that if he hadn't met me, chances are he would have met someone else and encountered other opportunities, just as unique. The total effect of all of this is that when you focus singularly on your goal -- whether it be make money, start a business, find a girlfriend -- you start to 1) naturally only see information that confirms your goal, 2) "stumble" onto new opportunities you were unaware existed as you pursue that goal, 3) in hindsight feel that everything serendipitously came together.
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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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Lack of internet. Unfortunately in most countries (including the US), landing reliable internet is a crapshoot depending on which hotel or hostel you stay in. In developing countries sometimes you even run into internet problems in apartments and houses. As someone who not only makes a living on the internet, but also needs the internet to keep in touch with my family, friends, plan future travel, pay bills, etc., this drives me crazy to no end. Luckily, wherever you go in the world, there's almost always a Starbucks two blocks away.
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Track and Field Coach
How often are your athletes tested for PEDs and is it easy to beat?
Call Center Employee (Retail)
Which cable company do you think has the absolute worst customer service?
Stand-Up Comedian
What types of crowds are the worst for you to to perform for?
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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It depends on where you want to go and what you want to do. Most Spanish and French speaking countries it's fairly important. But if you're going to Thailand or Israel for example, then you don't really need to know anything. Knowing the local language absolutely helps your experience and the longer you stay there, the more advantageous it is. But if you're only going to pass through a place for a couple weeks, then it doesn't really matter.
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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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