Here is everything new and interesting in October of 2019.
Business Related
Fun Times at ECom Chicago
I've said it many times, working for yourself shouldn't mean working by yourself. It's for that reason that I love making it out to as many conferences as I can.
With 4 young kids, I can't travel like I used to, but I did make it out to the annual eCom Chicago conference.
The conference was great and I got to meet up with some of my long time friends and business partners like Chris Green, John Lawson, Robyn Johnson, Nick Schucet and Gabe Strom.
Here's a tip for the next time you go to a conference. Hire a camera person for a few hours!
They can load you up with professional pics and videos and you can get tons of talent for a couple hundred bucks (or less).
Crowd fund it with other people there if you want. It's as easy to take pictures of 5 people in 4 hours as it is to take pictures of 1, so whoever you hire shouldn't mind.
Hired a New Content Assistant
I've been trying to reduce my workload on the site and finally got someone onboard to help.
The hiring process was different than usual. I decided to do my own application process instead of using a 3rd party freelancer agency.
Here is the application I made with Typeform (for demonstration purposes only, please don't apply).
I went this route because I really wanted to find someone who was already a fan of my content.
I knew I had a lot of great candidates on my own email list/social groups so that's where I shared the application.
The new team member's name is Carol and she rocks! You'll start to notice that she's writing some posts for me on the site but her main task is updating old content.
She tracks her time via Hubstaff (more on that later) and is mostly working on updating my old content to keep it fresh.
New Products/Software
HubStaff for Managing Payroll
HubStaff has been a great addition to my software arsenal. I've started testing it with Carol for now and will be adding others to it soon.
The biggest benefits.
- Easily submit and report time cards
- Payout with PayPal
- Track where time was spent (I trust Carol so I don't do this)
- Assign tasks
It is really solid and affordable compared to the alternatives out there.
I'm only a few weeks in but I am head over heels in LOVE with this software.
Here's why...
ABRankings lets me create AB tests of my headlines and meta search descriptions. The tests take less than a minute to whip up (although I spend more time trying to write more clickable copy) and can have a huge impact on my results going forward.
Relatively speaking, better headlines mean more clicks and more clicks mean more revenue!
The test above is ranking higher on average and getting more clicks when it's shown. That is a big time win for me, even though the total impressions took a small hit.
That one test should send me an extra 100 visits per month if everything stays relatively the same. Not too shabby!
A/B Rankings will help me drive more traffic to the keywords that matter most and I love that.
Productivity/Health
Whoop Strap Activity Tracker
Joe Rogan is basically like Oprah for middle aged white dudes. When he gets in on something, his followers (me) follow him.
Hey, we all need our idols! 🙂
Joe started using the Whoop strap and mentioned it on his podcast, so I bought one for myself.
My main reason for buying was to see if I was recovering properly and if I was getting quality sleep.
Whoop Strap has a very cool interface for tracking strain and recovery.
Shockingly, I was sleeping very well. I kind of expected/hoped that I wasn't because I could fix it and then take things up a notch!
But alas, I'm pretty much at 100% on recovery.
WhoopStrap Pros and Cons
Overall, I'm loving my Whoop but I do wish it didn't conflict with my Apple watch so much. If Apple were to integrate comparable analytics, I'd break up with the Whoop in a heartbeat (that it would track).
Self Education
Copywriting Secrets by Jim Edwards
My reading was lighter this month. In fact, I didn't even get to read this book since I accidentally had it shipped to my old address ...
I did listen to the audiobook which was far different from any book I had ever listened to. It wasn't a verbatim reading, it was a conversational reading between Jim and a friend.
Weird, but good.
Click here to get a copy (free + shipping, you know the routine).
Bingeing on Marketing School Podcast
You know I'm an audiobook junkie, but I had to ask myself something..."is this REALLY the most productive thing my ears can be doing?"
The answer was, no. Audiobooks are amazing but they have too much fluff. They shouldn't be the main thing we listen to. So, this month, I shifted to podcasts almost exclusively.
The podcast that has gotten most of my time is Marketing School by Neil Patel and Eric Siu.
It truly is one of the greatest free educational resources I've ever found. If you're a marketer and not listening to it, you're missing out.
New Content
Here is the content EntreResource.com published this month.
Check out the previous months in review below!
Happy to hear more on how what’s working well or doesn’t with your content assistant and team 🙂 Was thinking of buying Jim Edwards’s book, you got me tempted. On the podcast, I find myself getting very distracted after listening to Marketing School, they talk about so many marketing strategies you’d need a 20 people team to apply, I’ve enjoyed way more listening to niche/authority sites related podcasts recently at the gym.
I wish I got the physical copy! It got shipped to the wrong address lol audiobook was still good but I love having a physical copy in my hands to mark up. Yeah what I recommend is cherry picking episodes. They have over 1,000 and some aren’t relevant to me either.