While browsing at Best Buy, I noticed Square which was mentioned to me from an acquaintance I met a few months ago; this person had been using Square to take mobile payments for their lawyer firm which sounded like the perfect opportunity to create a point of sale and instantly seal the deal.

As you could expect, I went ahead and picked up one of these and would like to share a bit about it because I think it would be perfect for you freelancers and online business owners out there.

Dissecting the Square Card Reader and App

The Square Card Reader is really quite simple – it’s like a tiny credit card reader that plugs right into your headphone jack on the top of your phone. You run the card just like you would if you made any other transaction – easy as pie.

The application is very minimal too. You add in the sales amount, add a description or take a picture and then complete the transaction.

To get started though, you have to install the app and sign up for an account. Since I bought the card reader at Best Buy – I got a $10 credit to my account because Square is currently giving away their card reader if you sign up on their website.

I actually have an extra now which I’ll give to a friend that showed some interest.

I’m already thinking of all the applications I can use this for:

• Landing a sale, on the spot, when talking with freelance clients
• Use Square to accept money owed to me by friends if they don’t have cash
• Let people buy with their debit and credit cards during the annual yard sale I have

Square takes the usual 2 – 3% fee which is charged by credit cards and such but that’s what you’d have to put up with anyway if you were accepting transactions at your business anyway.

Additionally, you don’t have to worry about the technical elements of online shopping cards such as certificates and server security – it’s all done on Square’s end; Aka. Fewer headaches.

Square vs. Paypal vs. DPD

I’ve been using a variety of payment processors for my online business from a simple Paypal shopping cart to the most recent addition of DPD (which I still love).

However, I can say time and time again that I had wished I could accept mobile payments on the fly. For me, I can easily jump on my Paypal app and send to friends and family that have an account but when I mention it to normal peeps – they look at me as if I’m speaking an alien language – wtf is paypal?

There’s also been times when I’ve walked into local, small businesses and began running off about online business and the benefits of owning a website. The people I’ve talked to showed great interest but the “sale” always turns cold when you try to follow up with an email – people are simply too busy.

I think, with Square, you could waltz right in to businesses, lay down what you can offer and solidify the transaction right on the spot for your freelance services – then, it’s just a matter of sending over materials and getting things started – I can’t really pull that off with Paypal and I’m not about to bust out a mobile website on my phone to type in tons of information (people don’t want to waste time, remember?)

The Age of Mobile Payments is Upon Us

We’re getting to the point that anyone can easily start up their own online business and have things up and running within the day with the idea of launching a website, offering up your services or product and immediately start marketing through Facebook, Twitter and so on.

Square lets you get to the starting line one step ahead of the competition because if you’ve never gone through the process of getting a credit/debit machine than you don’t know the headache that comes with it.

So, I’m pretty enthusiastic about what I can do with Square and how it will impact my online business. I’ll be mentioning it to my friends that are also running their businesses because I think it’s a great fit. I suggest you go ahead and get a free card reader while they’re still up for grabs.

You won’t necessarily get a lot of practical information out of this post but it could kick up a few ideas of your own so you’re not feeling the burn of constantly working.

GPT (Get Paid To) Websites

A few years ago, I got a lot of my original start while using GPT websites such as Helium and Neobux (the later of the two sucked and I quickly dropped it). I kept up with Helium where I earned a great deal of income and stamina for writing.

Today, a few years later, I’ve rediscovered GPT websites and find them to be a nice way to earn a bit of extra money during my downtime or if I want to change up my daily routine.

I stumbled across Reddit’s Beer Money which was buzzing about GPT websites. Most of the information on the threads is kind of worthless but there are a few great gems here and there – along with a few submissions of my own.

Out of the suggestions, I signed up for:

• Swagbucks (my favorite)
• PollBuzzer
• PaidViewpoint
• InstantCashSweepstakes

After about 3 weeks of playing with these websites – I’ve pulled in an extra $50 or so bucks which isn’t all that much but I use it to purchase new domain names and pay my web hosting. The majority of this work is doing a few simple surveys here and there and watching videos off to the side.

Overall, I like it because it’s something that I can run on the side while I get my writing work and homework done for classes.

Out of them, I recommend starting up Swagbucks since you can pull in an extra $25 – $50 a month no problem. I wrote a guide to make money with Swagbucks, too.

New DIY Projects

Outside of work, I’ve been digging heavily into the DIY and hobby scene because all work and no play makes Murray dull as shit.

Some of the more notable things I’ve finished up are:

• Perler bead figures
• Popsicle stick lanterns
• Modding my bike to add an old phone as an mp3 player
• Trying out Windows 8 on my new tablet (which is pretty cool, actually)
• Taking a dive into hydroponic gardening

The last, hydroponic gardening, has been an interest of mine for some time now especially since I buy a lot of my fruits and veggies down at the local farmer’s market.

I found that we still have a lot of PVC pipe from an old project and will be giving it a go. I did my research and I’m hoping to yield about 15 heads of lettuce, a few tomato plants, cucumbers, onions, and peppers – all the ingredients to make fresh salad which has become a staple of my new diet.

Why DIY? I’m a frugal type of guy plus I’m starting to get a bit bored with strictly working on online projects and buying everything from a big box store. Doing DIY and hobby projects also unlock your creativity which can be great once you’re ready to dig back into work.

Prep for a 30 Day Paleo Diet Challenge

I’m starting to be a fat ass again – getting lazy with my exercise and diet.

Prior to the holidays, I dipped below 200 pounds which was the first time I hit that mark in many years after burning about 40 pounds off between my trip to Japan/Thailand and exercising after my big break up. Now I’m ready to get back into action.

After reading up a lot on the Paleo Diet via Reddit, I found that this makes a lot of sense because early humans didn’t eat up a lot of processed goods such as breads, sweets and other junk – they mostly had meat and some veggies.

My girlfriend is a vegetarian so I’m sure she’s not entirely thrilled about this challenge but I’m going to record it over on my Hubpages account – probably through a weekly update vs. daily; I’ll also probably include some additional tips and tricks I learn along the way.

This project will kick up in Feb. 2012 and run til the end of the month.

I’ll be Back and Forth

I’ve been posting more frequently than I usually do here on Murlu which has been a lot more about updates and little things going on with my projects rather than massive tutorials.

I think I’m going to take a bit of a “back and forth” approach to blogging for a little while whereas I only really contribute if I’m feeling inspired instead of forcing myself to create some piece of content.

I don’t really feel like talking about them at this time because I always end up failing on the follow through when I announce things (it seems). Instead, I’ll release stuff as it comes out.

Anyway, comment or not, tweet or not, share or not, I don’t mind, I’m busy

Except, this is the real world and, unfortunately, you and I need to work.

One thing I’ve learned over these years of freelancing, working full-time, blogging and all the other goofy shit I work on is this: workflow matters.

Without a workflow, I barely get things done because I’m simply reading off a to-do list that never really gets done. A workflow, on the other hand, is habit forming. You get shit done.

Here’s how to do it.

Phase 1: Strategy and Planning

I know very few people that can take an idea and see its completion without the aid of planning and strategy; that means the majority of us need some kind of solid, iron-clad blueprint for our work.

The beginning of a great business workflow starts in these early stages. Failure to work out the kinks and hang-ups that you’ll likely run into, at this stage, will have you working down a path that eventually hits a dead end.

Here’s what I highly recommend prior to solidifying your workflow:

• Understand your Most Valuable Actions – The MVA’s of your business will either be the task which makes you money or that which has significant impact for your branding (which, in turn, sets you up for future earnings). These actions need to be direct such as “cold calling a list of 100 potential clients” or “sending out an email newsletter to kick up promotion and sales”. The MVA’s needs to be front and center in your business workflow; actions that pay you rather than waste your time.

• Be Realistic with your Time – Let’s be honest with ourselves – we aren’t going to get everything done, that we want, within the time limit we set for ourselves. All of us over reach when it comes to getting things done – that’s why you have a laundry list of things to do vs. logically breaking down larger tasks into manageable chunks. Be realistic here, write down what you will truly finish and set the next step for tomorrow or next week.

Knowing the MVA’s and being realistic, in my opinion, are the two items that have always increased my own productivity and since I’m human, like you, it will most likely work for you, in the same.

Phase 2: Understanding Your Productivity

I suck at getting things done the first moment that I wake up. I used to be decent when I was working full-time because of the stress of performing but since going on my own – that shit went out the window.

We have 24 hours in a day but a good half of those hours will go toward daily activities like eating, transit, working and sleeping; that means, realistically, we only have about 6 – 8 hours of “work” time.

The tricky part is understanding when you are most productive. Personally, I work my best between 2am – 5am; don’t know why, I just get in the “groove”. You’re probably totally different.

Here’s what I recommend for discovering your productivity “mode”:

• Track your Time – Start keeping a daily journal of when you’re actually working. Notice that you can easily write a post around lunch time? Great, use it to your advantage. In a week, you’ll know when you get the “bug” for work and when you’re just forcefully pushing yourself during procrastination hours.

• Know your Limits – I can easily manage 10 articles in a day if I push but that doesn’t give me a lot of time for other things in my life; believe me, doing something like this will cause a burn out. Instead of pushing too hard – figure out your personal limits so you’re not rushing into work with this overwhelming sense of stress and anxiety to perform. Be okay with working on bits at a time.

Suppose you set six hours to work this afternoon – well, you’re only really going to put in about two hours – that’s human nature – we want to procrastinate. Instead of feeling “bad” that you didn’t get things done – work within your limits and you’ll never feel that anxiousness because, after all, you have all the time in the world to continue on that big project (aka. Rome wasn’t built in a day).

Phase 3: Getting It on Paper

I’m a big time nerd but I still rely on classic pen and paper for my to-do lists and monthly goals. Why? Well, they’re right in my face and after they’re on paper – I don’t change them (unlike software apps which you can easily ignore and forget).

Bust out that piece of paper, grab a pen and let’s get writing:

• Write down your MAIN MVA such as “call 5 potential clients”
• Write down your SECONDARY MVA such as “write a guest post to increase traffic”
• Write down three more SUPPORT MVA’s such as “tweak and optimize my SEO”

You’ll notice that there are really only about five major actions you should be working on each day. I’ve found that any more can often lead you to just procrastinate and feel overwhelmed – that solid list of five is do-able.

Your main MVA needs to be a direct money making action because this pays the bills. Secondary MVA’s need to support a long-term goal such as building your email list that will, in time, increase your sales. The final three are all about support which keeps existing contacts and leads in the fold so all of your work from one and two don’t get lost.

Phase 4: Tackling that Shit

Man the fuck up and tackle that shit.

Stop making excuses on why you’re not getting things done because, by this point, you’ve already gave yourself a “curve” by understanding your productive hours and weaning down the list into manageable chunks – if you’re copping out here than you’re just plain lazy.

Look, I know I’m not the most productive person but I’m still getting things done while attending college, working on my freelance business, juggling my social life and keeping up with my exercise.

Each person is different but if I can do it than you can too.

I was putting in nearly 80 hours of work each week between my full-time job and blogging at one point – I don’t recommend it but if you want to get things done than you’re going to bust ass and do it.

Resources and Extra Advice

If there’s any one piece of advice I’d give to you, in terms of work, is to not let it be the focus of your life. Work pays the bills, it can be fun and challenging but letting it become that center of attention will make you drift from friends and family.

Your work is like a relationship: if you change too much for it than you start to change. You avoid being social just to work on your projects. You stop working on yourself for that few extra bucks.

Work your ass off but don’t let it get to you – burn out is a true bitch.

Okay, anyway, here are a few additional resources I’d like to recommend:

• Your Digital Legacy Begins Here
• My Guide to Creating an Incredible Content Strategy
• Steve Scott on Taking Responsibility for your Actions (a series)
• Glen’s (Viperchill) guide to Productivity
• Pat’s (SPI) guide to Productivity Hacks
• Blogging with a Gun to your Head
• Getting Things Done by David Allen

Alright, enough with the resources – this should give you enough head start on building an iron-clad workflow. Share your own, below if you’re man enough otherwise gtfo and start working. Also, share this post.

If you’ve got an existing customer list than listen up because taking an hour to do what I’m about to tell you could easily give you a quick bump in sales …

Bought Once? Offer Something Else!

Cheesy but you get the point ...

On my website, PLRArticlesNow.com, I offer up a good amount of products for busy website owners.

I intentionally created the PLR to appeal to buyers through related topics.

I found that if someone picked up a pack on Online Business than they’re also going to be interested in Traffic Generation (since this leads to sales).

I already know that my customers get great value out of my work from their feedback but I’ve also been stunned to see so few repeat customers in the long run since launching the business (with the exception of a few individuals).

If you’re offering a selection of products, like me, than you can greatly benefit from spending about an hour of your time to reach back out to these previous customers in an attempt to spur up some new sales.

They’ve already “voted” that they like what you offer – now, just offer them something else.

Streamline It – Here’s Some Freebies

I use DPD on PLRArticlesNow (review), and so I was glad to find that there was an option for exporting my existing customers into a .CSV file which included all the necessary information for reaching them.

Exporting a customer list in DPD

At this point, I wanted to make the Thank You emails as efficient as I could so I created a template that basically said “Thanks, come back …” but also gave them a personalized discount code for future purchases.

The email template I put together for promotion

Within DPD (or whatever shopping cart you use), you probably have the option of creating discount codes. I don’t entirely recommend giving away so much since you’re trying to run a business but this is a great tactic for early adopters in your business.

Recording and getting those emails out

For me, and maybe you, a 10% cut of the earnings doesn’t really matter if I can get them to come back, buy something, be happy and maybe recommend it to their friends if it’s slipped their mind.

Then, from this point, send out personalized emails to each of the people through little mods to your email template.

Personally, I like adding their name to the email subject line which snags their attention.

This entire process should only really take you about an hour unless you have a couple hundred (or thousand) customers which, at that point, you may want to do this through an email marketing service.

Quick Case Study? You’ve Got It.

I did this the other day which set this entire process in motion.

I had a customer interested in my PLR so we went back and forth – I made sure to give him great information and support. He liked me enough to vote ‘yes’ and purchased a good chunk of products and mentioned that he’s ready to be a customer for life.

20 minutes of my time? $50 in earnings.

It’s not some huuuuge number but still, it’s awesome to be able to pick up these kinds of quick sales from a simple email. I’ve since sent out the others and now eagerly awaiting the response from my customer base.

Okay, Conclusion

This post wasn’t all too long but I hope you got a lot of great information out of it but more importantly: ACT ON IT.

These little tips can be immense for generating new sales. When working at my past job, we would easily pull in an additional 5 – 10 sale a day through this strategy which resulted in a cool $1k+ bump (since the average sale was about $100 – $200).

• Here’s a download link for the template I used: http://www.mediafire.com/?oi3v98ma7wlxghg

Over to you – how do you kick up new sales?

Take a look at the screen shot:

According to Google, traffic rose by 35,350% which is such a bullshit number when you consider that the website was only truly receiving about 20 – 30 hits a day.

A point I’m trying to make here is that there are a lot of internet marketers, bloggers and individuals trying to use this type of hype to get you on board with their products.

Say it with me: due diligence.

Get Your Head on Straight about Copy

Copywriting is powerful as shit. It’s what gets you to buy the items you don’t really need by spending the money you don’t really have. It what gets people to drop a hundred bones on a new pair of shoes that are replacing the perfectly acceptable set already owned.

In terms of the title of this post – it’s legit, I didn’t stretch the truth but since you rarely see the context of these sorts of claims, you can easily get swooped up by the copy.

Like I said: due diligence. This is the term used for taking enough time to do your research about a claim. Really, it’s just common sense if you ask me.

Example: What if I made that a title of an ebook like “Grow your Traffic by 32,350%!” Sounds scammy but I bet your ass that someone is going to bite and shell down some cash for a report that basically says that it was a one day spike that was cause by sharing the post on Reddit.

You too can make $1,000,000!

What people expect from "make money online" apparently.

If you spent $999,999.

What I’m trying to say is that without knowing how much effort and resources were put into a venture – you really can’t trust the vast majority of claims online.

Yes, you could make a million dollars if you spent $999,999 of it on advertising but that’s defeating the purpose – but I guarantee you that there are many marketers out there pushing the million dollar copy line as part of their product promotion and people are eating this shit up.

So, what do you look for?

• Screenshots
• Case studies
• Bank accounts
• Reviews (that don’t come from fellow bloggers in their “circles” or “tribes”
• Analytics

The review part is a big one. Take a quick look around at a lot of the current products being pushed around – see something funny? You see a lot of bloggers endorsing each other. Why? Because many of them are a part of “tribe” that looks after one another whenever someone is launching a new product.

Is this ethical? It’s hard to decide. Hell, I admit I’ve given endorsements to products from friends after I’ve reviewed copies and testing them out. Their words may be true but at some point you need to question the authenticity of the endorsement especially if you notice the same group of people making these claims.

• More? Read: Fuck the Hype!

You’ll get a lot of information from that.

Okay, So, How I Did It

Sorry for that long diatribe of due diligence but I thought it was a good opportunity to catch your attention before jumping into the meat of the content. After all, this isn’t rocket science and I’m going to summarize it with a few bullet points.

How it went down:

• I wrote a post called the 25 best personal finance podcasts. Simple stuff.
• I browsed sub-reddits related to personal finance
• I posted a link with a casual title vs. one verbatim to the post

Done and done. Simple. Effective.

It’s niche marketing, plain and simple. You find a highly focused group of people and plant your message. In this case, it’s a sub-reddit dedicated to personal finance so it fits perfectly within the group and for discussion.

I did this for a few other article pieces in /r/entrepreneur which gave me a quick 1,500 additional visitors to Murlu over the last few days.

Need I say more? Not really, simple, remember?

Conclusion

Okay, we’ve had two topics in this post which is totally against the idea of being focused in your writing but whatever. First things first, do your due diligence when it comes to online claims. Secondly, find those niche communities and tap them for traffic.

Want to do me a favor? Share this and see if we can overhype this shit.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve taken up a writing challenge like this which is why I’m dedicating this year, 2012, to write 1,000 articles on Hubpages. Basically, that comes down to three articles a day.

Why Hubpages?

For those that have followed my blog, you’ll know that I was writing for Helium which paid out great money at the time until they flipped their direction and basically annihilated that opportunity.

I set out to find a new platform to spill my thoughts to.

After weighing the options of Squidoo vs. Hubpages vs. Bukisa vs. Personal Blog, I decided to say screw it and settled on Hubpages.

After the Panda update slammed down on content mills, Hubpages has made a lot of great strides to keep their traffic and search rankings up there. Notably, they give you a separate sub-domain so your content isn’t lumped in with a lot of the trash.

I had a jump start with Hubpages back at the end of 2011 and the results were, quite to say, pretty awesome …

Hubpages is a great outlet for me. I have thousands of ideas for articles I’ve always wanted to write but couldn’t quite find the platform to place them – I wouldn’t put things like “Top 5 PS2 Video Games” on Murlu, ya know?

Details of the 1,000 Hub Challenge

Like I’ve mentioned, the 1,000 hubs will cross a lot of variety but there is a method to this madness.

You didn’t think I’m just throwing shit against the wall, did ya?

I’ve got some upcoming posts about Hubpages that you’ll really enjoy that’s about earning money and leveraging your work there for future business opportunities but let’s get back on topic …

1,000 Hubs in 365 days is way more do-able than the previous challenge. Likewise, this gives me (and, perhaps you) an opportunity to try different styles for writing.

For example, much of my inspiration for my hubs comes from these sources:

• What I’m cooking that day (becomes a tutorial)
• New products I’ve bought (becomes reviews)
• Places I’m visiting (becomes travel guides)

I’ve been in a funk lately in terms of writing as more than a few of you could tell over these last few months. I think the big problem was that I was spinning wheels because I didn’t have anything in particular I was going for – that’s why I kicked up the challenge.

I’d say you should join me but you’ve probably got too much on your plate at this time. However, if you’re down for this kind of challenge than jump over to the Facebook page I slapped together for it. Follow it and add your say – let’s get a little tribe going here or something.

You can clicky that image or just go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/1000-Hub-Challenge/214586501961328

For the challenge, it basically comes down to this: 3 hubs a day, every day.

And …

I said I would be posting on Murlu here and there – more relaxed – but back with style. I need to do this challenge, me thinks, in order to really get back into my creative flow.

Ever since leaving my job to start up freelancing, I’ve found out two things that no one really had been talking about:

• You gotta really bust your ass to make things happen
• No one is going to support your lazy ass

Everyone likes to push out that image of sitting in the tropics, sippin beer and making money but the reality is that being alone, in your room, working on shit is way more difficult than you think especially when you’re tapped on motivation for that day – you gotta grind through it.

Where was I going? Oh yeah, the challenge …

So that’s why I kicked up the challenge, get back into writing but more importantly: I’m going to be throwing a few awesome concepts and guides about Hubpages that’s going to get a lot of you to make your projects (and freelancing) roll along.

Okay, anyway, that’s all I really have for today. Share this with people that are trying to get started. Join up. Comment and lemme know what you think about the challenge.

I know it may not sound important now but it’s vitally important for the future: future-proof your freelance opportunity by getting your own domain name today, seriously.

The Future of Employment

Hopefully the future will this badass

Ten years ago (and still, somewhat, today), you needed a resume to land a job opportunity. The future will be no different in terms of job sourcing but we’ll be seeing a lot less paper trail and way more use of online portfolios.

This isn’t some gimmick – it’s going to happen.

Future companies and jobs you’ll be working for will place less importance on the paper resume and more on your online involvement.

They’ll check your Facebook, Google your name, monitor your Twitter feed, examine your LinkedIn connections and use online “snooping” tools to see your Internet history.

The best course of action, today, is to secure and future-proof your opportunity for freelancing by snagging your name, as a domain name.

What’s in a Domain Name?

In a previous post on Murlu, I shared how to create your own portfolio website.

At this point, it doesn’t even matter if you actually set up a portfolio – it only matters that you claim your domain name so that others won’t snipe it in the future.

Having a domain name under your name, such as MurrayLunn.com, helps silence the noise of your Internet history.

You wouldn’t want a potential freelance client to find you through an awkward forum post – have them find the “best of” you from your own website.

Likewise, we just surpassed the 7 Billion mark in human population – I can guarantee that there is another individual that could be your doppelganger out there. Having YourName.com gives you that ease of mind knowing that at the end of the day – people looking for you will find you.

$10/yr for a Future-Proof Freelance Career

Wake me up when my domains are worth millions.

Even though you may never find yourself entering a freelance career – it’s still important to snag up your domain because you may find a way to sell yourself in the future.

The web is increasingly giving everyone to turn their hobbies and passion into a viable money-making opportunity; your own domain ensures that you’ll have the perfect platform to brand yourself.

If you do see a freelancing career in your future than you’re going to be set.

For example: If you were to do a search for “Murray Lunn” than you will be given a slew of great results such as my blog, Murlu, my Facebook profile and my personal portfolio website. Although I don’t necessarily want interested clients to read my Facebook activity – they can still easily find my through my blog and portfolio website.

You too can create this form of lead generation.

If you’ve got $10 sitting around than do this, immediately:

1. Register your name
2. Snag some web hosting
3. Setup a very basic portfolio

It doesn’t have to be spectacular – you can get away with just having links to your social media profiles, a picture and a contact form. At a later time, you may want to populate the site with your work.

Final Thoughts

Domain age is quickly becoming one of the biggest factors for Search Engine Optimization. This fact, alone, should be a big reason why to get started today, seriously.

There are more and more domains coming online with each passing day – get the jump on people trying to squeeze you out of the market by beating them to the punch.

Hell, if you have children than consider snagging up their domains while you’re at it – you’re, in essence, securing their future.

Thought ya might like this little tip. Share it.

Over the last few days, I’ve been on a hunt to find new sources of article ideas that are relevant to today. I wanted to find real questions from real people to ensure I’m going after long-tail traffic.

Seeing that you’re here, hooked in by the title, let’s dig into some new, inspirational ways of finding engaging article ideas from a few sources you’ve yet to hear about …

It’s 2012, Time to Get Engaged

Pump your brakes! Not that kind of engaged!

These last few years, we writers have been going a bit too far into the SEO territory – a lot of our writing is becoming bland just so we can score a few new visitors a day.

I think 2012 is going to be a year of us being more free and creative with our writing. We’ll be working on posts that will be going outside the box and sometimes have no real placement in our work other than for the benefit of the reader (we all need to relax a bit more and enjoy writing, yeh?)

Sure, there may not be any place for an article about beer on your blog but there might be in the freelancing world or on sites like Hubpages.

We’re getting so wrapped up in our niche of writing that we’re beginning to forget how fun writing can be when we’re not under pressure, hear me?

Pinterest

Pinterest is a fairly new website where people can share their interests with one another. The website is simple and allows you to scroll deeply into the site – some things are meh but there are some real gems here in terms of kicking up some ideas for articles.

How to use Pinterest: Check out the ‘Everything’ or ‘Popular’ section of the website. There, you will find things that people are posting that could become their own articles on your own website or wherever you’re writing.

For example: I see a Pinterest post about ‘Galvanized Water Troughs’ for building your own garden. It’s awesome! It’s also a great idea on creating an article because you could do some research into getting started with gardening, link to products on Amazon, find people talking about it and even pick up some keyword ideas from what people are saying (such as questions and answers).

This site is still new but it’s already taking off – keep it on your radar in 2012.

43Things

43Things - A place for people to share their goals.

I’ve had 43Things on my list for some time now for generating ideas but I haven’t really mentioned it. 43Things is a site where people share what they’d like to do and learn which is epic in terms of idea generation since you know what people are looking for – you can even see how many people want to do it which is basically like getting the search volume!

How to use 43Things: Once you’re on the site, you can explore and find what people are interested in. Right now, it’s all about new years resolutions but the normal format is so people can easily gather around another and share their experiences in learning new things. The tag cloud is especially cool because these are the BIG items people are focusing on in 2012 (at the moment).

For example: Just off the top of my head ‘Lose 5 Pounds’ is a biggie on 43Things. This, in actuality, isn’t all that difficult even with basic knowledge of diet and exercise. You could easily turn that idea into something like ‘How to Lose 5 Pounds in January’ in which you talk about diet, exercise, products and even your own progress (that hooks the reader in).

For me, I’ll be checking in and out on 43Things this year to see how people react to new resolutions and goals since they’re always changing – it’s definitely a hot-spot for new article ideas.

Reddit’s ‘I Want to Learn’

IWTL, TIL, AMA - the list goes on an on for inspiration

I’m on Reddit every day; it kills my productivity most of the time. However, there are a lot of great sub-reddits for finding new ideas, joining discussions and talking with real people about the things they’d like to do, learn, interests and hobbies that catch their eye. You could spend hours each day on the site finding new ideas for articles but I specifically like the IWTL thread since its loaded with great ideas.

How to use IWTL: Just take a look through the posts and keep jumping to the next page. Dig into the discussions too! Often, you’ll find a lot of individuals sharing great resources which can become part of your own research for writing an article around the topic.

For example: There’s a current ‘IWTL To get Better at Chess’ – this is perfect. Chess players are very passionate (like golfers) so there’s a lot of opportunity to share some great knowledge, guides, resources and maybe a product (or two) around the topic. If I were to write it, I’d do my research to find what pro players had to say, resources to great Chess websites, books and tutorial videos, forums and even simply linking back over to the sub-reddit.

The trick is to avoid getting consumed in Reddit because you will, literally, waste a day just lurking. Get in, get an idea and get to work.

BucketList

Like the movie - minus Morgan Freeman

We’ve all heard of a bucket list (no, not the movie) and some of us may have created on (I did so just the other day). Bucket lists are great because this is what people want to do with their lives instead of just some one-off weekend thing. Likewise, it’s often things that most people will want to do so these are real, evergreen topics.

How to use Bucketlist: I recommend checking out the most-liked area because you get to see some stats behind what people want to do – this is really helpful so you’re not wasting time writing. Dig deeper into each by clicking their respected links and see what people are saying about the bucket list item.

For example: I’m reading a bucket list item about going to a drive in theater. Maybe I could write an article on where to find drive in theaters, their cost, maybe the history and so forth. This article would be really cool (it interests me, actually) and you could snag a long-tail keyword that not many people are going for. Hell, it could be a niche site too!

If anything, make your own bucket list and pick up some ideas from there. I guarantee you’re not the only one that wants to go skydiving in Australia or fishing off the coast of Florida.

Bonus: *Seed* Idea Generation

A small screen cap of my own "seed list"

This is one that I’m beginning to use more frequently which boils down to simply finding a seed keyword and then branching it off to relevant article titles.

For example, you could write about Desktop Wallpapers but then why stop there, do very specific ones such as Holiday Desktop Wallpapers so on and so forth.

Off the top of my head, here is an example:

• How to Brew a Perfect Cup of Coffee
  • How to Grind Coffee Beans to Perfection
    • Where to Find the Best Coffee Beans in your Area

You’re taking that single keyword and running with it. It does two things:

• Helps you organize ideas and generate new ones on the fly
• Allows you to easily interlink them between articles

I’ve used this method to pull up hundreds of article ideas in no time. In fact, you can even use modifiers:

• Best [Video Games] of [Year]

The brackets [ ]’s can be flipped around for other things like movies, blog posts, blogs, businesses, destinations, hotels, etc, etc, etc. Play around with it.

Hot Damn, this will be a LOT of Writing

lol wut, you are a dog, get off the computer

2012 is going to have a ton of writing, no doubt.

I’ve found a few clients for freelance work – got a couple requests – and still making my rounds, getting things started up again.

I guess, in some ways, Murlu is getting back to some of its roots via freelancing. Developing online products are good and all but freelancing has always held a special place in my workflow and drive.

At the core of it all – is being able to come up with new ideas. Hopefully these new sources can help you out with  your future work.

Also, take a look at the 1,000 Hub Challenge if you’re interested. You could make a bit of money this year, find a platform to push out creative writing that doesn’t fit on your blog and even build up something special for the future (hint: I’ll be talking about this later, it’ll be good, yo!).

Peaaaaaaaaaace.

BLAM! Take that!

Oh sweet jeebus! First we got the Mayan calendar telling us everything is going to hell in December and now I’m throwing around words like ‘enema’. Well, it’s time that I take a bit of time to bring on the apocalypse for all that email that’s been building up for the last year.

Why do all this? Meh. Maybe I’m a bit bored but more importantly, my mind is fuzzy whenever I log into my Gmail because I know I have far too many emails I’ve forgotten about (much like all those bookmarks you told yourself you’d check out one day … but didn’t).

Make a post about it? You bet your ass.

Be Gone, 33 Folders!

Waaaaay too much folder-age

Time Management. If there’s anything that we, bloggers and business peeps, should be working on its making sure we’re getting our shit done.

You know me as of late, I’m taking a stance against emails, commenting and any other action that’s merely wasting my time vs. moving me forward.

The only problem, with the discussion of time management, is that we generally talk about the future but what about the past? Surely having a lot of mental weight from technology can be equally time consuming as what’s coming your way, right?

That’s why I’m making an effort to remove everything that is no longer relevant for this year. Gone: old conversations, password reset confirmations, emails with no follow up (and on and on). This shit’s been on my mind for ages – whether I need to go back and answer emails or if I ever got a response.

But ya know what? If I didn’t get a response or if it’s no longer relevant than it’s not important enough to keep. So, I spent some time clearing out my old inbox of what I no longer needed but also found a few items I set aside that are quite relevant today.

Do You Need an Email Douching?

I wasted a good half of this post just rambling on about what I’m doing with my email but maybe I can break it down a step further to help you this year (and so forth) by removing that unnecessary ‘weight’ that comes from technological baggage.

• De-Clutter Your Mind. Let’s just cut out all the shit you don’t need and start fresh. You’re going back to the basics here and starting fresh. Any of those old emails you’re just “saving, just in case” – delete them. If they were truly important than you either already took action upon them or just set them aside in hopes you someday follow up on them.

• Evacuate your Inbox Cavity. There’s a reason why there are folders and labeling in most email programs: it’s to keep shit organized. Unfortunately, like most of us, we just kind of slap things all together and figure it makes sense. How about going back through and creating a real system for your emails that don’t make you second guess where you put everything. Keep it simple like “Business Opportunities”, “Sales”, “Swipe File” or whatever. Get rid of the rest and spend some time relabeling that shit.

• Douche that Mental Weight. We all have a lot on our minds – we don’t need more added to it from feeling overwhelmed from emails (and other digital “essentials”). If you’re going to work on an idea than do it now and stop putting it off like you do with your bookmarks. Use email to get things done instead of just shooting the shit back and forth – that’s what instant messaging is for. Believe me, once you clear all that crap out of your inbox – you feel a bit less weight on your shoulders.

Dang. I really have it out for emails as of late – probably because I’m just so tired of them and it adds to another item to check that, often times, isn’t all that necessary.

2012. Return of the Phone? I Hope.

One thing that I’d really like to start doing – and maybe you should too – is to pick up the damn phone. My boss would always tell me this.

You go to email customer support or ask someone a question online all the while you could just pick up the phone and talk with someone. I think we’re all too used to the convenience of email.

That doesn’t mean that you start wasting people’s time but get rid of that social awkward penguin. I think I’ll try to call people far more frequently now because I know it gets results. Maybe you will too?

Okay, that’s all I got for ya. I know, nothing special but it’s still worth spending a bit of time doing. You’ll be working backwards in terms of Time Management but it’ll definitely help you move forward. Comment. Share.

But hey, its 2012 now, which means that we’ve got new resolutions, goals and projects to work on. Screw all that 2011 bullshit; let’s get this show on the road!

Where to begin?

Out of everything I learned in 2011, in terms of business, few people truly had something unique to say (I may have fallen into this group, as well). Hrm? When you add up the huge group of bloggers that write about business, blogging and other online work – you begin to see that there really isn’t a lot of good information going around. In a lot of ways, it’s become a circle jerk.

I’m not one to point fingers but I think we could all step up our game.

Sure, there’s a lot of bloggers that brought some extremely valuable information (Marcus and Steve being two off the top of my head).  However, I saw far too many bloggers regurgitating the same information that has been around for ages.

There are only so many times you can explain how to build links before you run out of steam.

Maybe we’re all at fault

Do something unusual ... reject the norms.

2011 was the year where a lot of us got on the ‘niche train’.

Blah blah blah, niche this, you get the point, you’ve been reading it. It’s all good information and I still highly recommend you test the waters with your own niche sites but when we look at our own blogs we can begin to see that we’re just spinning our tires.

I started off the year with 100 blogs that I would readily read. I’m now down to about three.

I would obsess over RSS, Twitter, Facebook and all the social media hype yet I would neglect the basics of what turned people onto me – being myself and talking whatever-the-fuck I wanted to talk about.

You see, I never really intended Murlu to be what it is today. I wanted to share some information about online business because I was a webmaster for TRK (online retailer). I was able to do things that a lot weren’t able to do because I had a budget and my boss let me try out new strategies. I tried to distill the best information I learned on the job into blog posts that could be applied across the board.

However, as time went on, I started listening to “how a blog post should be” from the bloggers that immediately pop into your head when you mention the word.

Boring, yo.

I admit, I contributed to a good portion of this and then sat there wondering why people didn’t care. The engagement still seemed good – comments, retweets, etc – but I just knew people were passing it off and going off to get their next ‘fill’ of information from the next blog on their RSS.

A departure (and return) to fun

For a good while, I was thinking about giving up on Murlu because the topics no longer held my interest. As I type now, it has been ages and I’m struggling to get my thoughts onto the screen. But, I decided to keep it going because there’s still a lot of good information on here – I just didn’t know where it was going in the future.

So I decided to shake some things up.

I’m going to play with the format and write when I feel inspired rather than trying to keep this imaginary schedule that everyone keeps insisting upon. I’ve got a few plans but I rather not mention them because I’ve realized I enjoy my privacy when it comes to online projects.

Less fucks are now being given, more or less.

I guess what I’m expecting, from all of us, (get ready for the bold!) is to stop caring about the bullshit, start working on things and break your format.

I’d really love to go back through my old RSS list and see blogs try something else – ending that circle jerk that blogging has become. I’m going to try my best. Sometimes it’ll suck but whatever, it’s my blog.

Share it. Comment. Whatever.