Tips 4 Web

While creating and using to-do lists is relatively simple, there are some tips and tricks you can use to multiply their effectiveness. Below I’ll share with you the 10 tips I learned with my to-do lists over the years.

1. Choose the Right Medium

Your to-do list must be in a place that is easily accessible. For most people this will be a small notepad that sits on their desks, but it might also be an application on your computer, your smartphone and so on. Just make sure that you will be able to add, remove and edit entries on your list easily.

2. Leave the List Visible All Day Long

It is essential to have your to-do list in front of your eyes all day long. This will reinforce the sense of urgency and get you working on your tasks as soon as you start slacking off.

3. Start Your Day with Your To-Do List

Develop the habit of sitting down and writing your to-do list at the beginning of every day. This is the best time to plan things out, because your mind is fresh and because you should have a good grasp of the important things that need to be done that day.

4. List Tasks for That Day Only

Do not try to plan the whole week or even a couple of days ahead. Focus on the tasks that need to be completed on that single day. You can’t know what will come up during the day, so the priorities for the day after might change.

5. Put the Important Tasks On Top

Always put the important tasks on top. First things first, as they say. It is also essential to tackle the tasks in order, else putting the important ones on top would be useless.

6. Have A Separate Section To Write Down Ideas and Notes

It is very likely that during the day new ideas and tasks will come up. Do not mix those with your existing to-do list, however, else you will mess things up. Instead have a section where you can write down ideas and other annotations, and then use them as input for tomorrow’s list.

7. List the Things You Are NOT Supposed To Do As Well

Apart from listing the stuff you need to do you can also list the stuff you are NOT supposed to do. If you lose productivity because you check your email every 10 minutes and keep logged on Twitter all day long, for example, you could have one entry on your to-do list as “Check Email Only Twice A Day” and another one as “Open Twitter Only After 6pm”. Then you would cross those tasks at the end of the day if you manage to respect them.

8. List A Realistic Number of Tasks

Even if you are feeling good in the morning, don’t try to add everything that comes to your head to your to-do list. Instead put a realistic number of activities there, and try to finish all of them by the end of the day. Listing too many tasks might discourage you at the beginning of the day, and frustrate you at the end.

9. Take Your Breaks Between Tasks (And Not Inside Them)

Taking breaks is essential for your productivity. Just make sure that your breaks are scheduled between your tasks, and not inside them. In other words, finish the task at hand before taking a break. If you take breaks while working on a certain task you’ll lose concentration and prolong the time it will take to complete it. Remember, finish what you start.

10. If You Miss A Task, Send it to Tomorrow’s List

Missing a couple of tasks here and there is normal. You can’t predict with accuracy how long each activity will take to be completed. The important thing is to not forget about those. Instead send the tasks you missed today to the top of tomorrow’s to-do list.

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10 Tips to Create To-Do Lists Like a Pro!

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This post is part of the Friday Q&A section. Just use the contact form if you want to submit a question.

Samson asks:

I want to have your opinion on two plugins for wordpress I found recently.

One is called Unique Articles Wizard – which claims to give free articles for my blog in exchange for linking back to author. Is it worth? Does it help in SEO? Or does it just leak vital link juice from my blog?

Another one is Article Submit Auto, which is a paid plugin for auto submitting my blog posts to article directories.

Can you please help me with your opinion on both of these.

The short answer would be: stay away from similar plugins.

The first one will basically post articles from article directories on your blog. These directories allow anyone to republish their content as long as you keep the author byline and the links intact. The reason why you should stay away from similar articles is not because you would be leaking link juice, but rather because you would risk getting a duplicate content penalty.

Articles from directories get republished all over the web, and by doing the same on your blog you would be sending a very clear signal to Google, which is: I am a lazy blogger, and instead of publishing my own unique content I will just grab stuff from around the web.

The second plugin is not as bad, because the original article will be posted on your blog first and only then distributed to article directories, but if your blog is not authoritative you might get duplicate content penalties anyway.

That does not mean that article marketing is useless, however. You just need to make sure that you’ll not submit your own blog posts to the directories, but instead unique articles written just for that purpose.

Unique content is one of the most important aspects for search engine optimization, so don’t compromise it on your important websites.

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Can I Use Free Articles on My Blog?

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Next Monday (January 18) we’ll open the doors of the Online Profits training program for new members again. In order to celebrate the launch we are having a small contest over there, giving away 3 iPod Nanos (the 8G version).

I wanted to make participating in the contest really easy, and here is the deal: you just need to retweet the contest post to enter the final draw. There is a retweet button on that post, so it takes literally one second and one click to enter.

Alternatively you can also copy and paste the following text and tweet it:

Retweet To Enter The OnlineProfits.com Contest And Win an 8G iPod Nano! http://ow.ly/1mZobz

The deadline for participation is this Friday, and next Monday the three winners will be announced (as an update on the same contest page).

Good luck!

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We Are Giving Away 3 iPod Nanos on Online Profits

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I often get people asking me the following question: “What is the best way to make money online?” They wonder if they should focus on blogging, affiliate marketing, search engine optimization, web design, selling ebooks, or what.

My short answer to that question is: there is no “best” way. All business models can work if you work hard, smartly, and persistently.

The proof to this is the fact that you have millionaires on virtually any segment and business model around. You have millionaire bloggers, affiliate marketers, web designers, ebook sellers, SEOs and so on.

What is more interesting: there are people out there making a ton of money even with trivial services like directory submissions. Anyone can make directory submissions, yet I know people who make six figures annually by offering directory submission services.

Now don’t get the wrong idea. I am not saying that making money online on any segment is easy. It is hard. But it is pretty much equally hard, regardless of the business model or segment you choose.

The takeaway message from this post, therefore, is the following: do not stress trying to choose the “best” way to make money online. And more importantly, don’t let that choice paralyze you. There is no “best” way or business model. Just choose something that you like to do, something that you are passionate about, and work damn hard at it. Work hard until you are among the best doing that. Once you reach that point, the money will come naturally.

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You Can Make Money Online Doing Anything You Want

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If you are looking to kick start your blog in 2010, check the special deal that Darren is offering on his 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook. For the next 7 days he is offering three special bonuses for anyone who buys the workbook. They are:

• Free Report: 9 Things to Do to Get Your Blog On Track in The New Year
• Podcast with Leo Babauta from Zen Habits (talking about post ideas, launching ebooks, etc).
• Podcast with Neil Patel from QuickSprout (talking about SEO, blog promotion, etc.)

On top of that you’ll also get access to the 188 pages of the workbook, covering all the angles to improve your blog and get it back on track (traffic and money-wise). For $19.95, it is a pretty good deal right?

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Special Deal On the Problogger Workbook

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This guest post has been written by Andrei from DomainingTips.com. Andrei owns dozens of top notch domains, and he is organizing a domain name auction which will end on Tuesday (tomorrow), together with Moniker and SnapNames.

Look, the Internet itself is still in its infancy and out of all online industries, the domain name industry is definitely the one which resembles the wild west the most. You see a domain being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars today, and the next day a similar domain is being sold for 4 figures.

iReport.com, remember that one? You know, the domain CNN.com uses? If you don’t remember the domain name deal, let me ask you this: how much do you think the domain sold for? Maybe it sold for $15,000? Maybe even for something like $30k?

Nope, It Sold for $750,000!

Yes, 750 grand. And you know what’s funny? Most of the people who invest in domain names have at least a handful of domains which are obviously a lot better than iReport.com. And again, it’s not Report.com that sold for $750,000, it’s iReport.com (it’s not a typo, “Report” followed by dot com and with an “i” in front of it sold for $750,000).

It seems that the Web has been around for ages but, in fact, it’s only about 20 years old! There are practically no rules yet, most domain name owners would have taken $15,000 or even less than that for iReport.com without even blinking. In this case, however, the domain was owned by an investor who was sitting on a lot of cash (Rick Schwartz) and who was in a great position to negotiate with CNN. Rick Schwartz is one of the people who has managed to retire early thanks to his domain name investments. Do you want to follow in his footsteps? Here are 7 golden rules which might just help:

1. Quality over Quantity

Domains are cheap so if you want to, you can hand register over 1,000 domains for less than $10,000. Would that make you happy? Would you consider yourself a “big shot domainer” if you were to own 1,000 domains? Wake up!

Most of the people who are just starting out as domain name investors make the mistake of hand registering worthless domains. For example, lots of people thought they would make it big by hand registering as many five letter domains as they could afford. Needless to say, practically all of them ended up learning a fairly expensive lesson. If you want to invest $10,000, buy a handful of domains which are actually worth it for 2 simple reasons:

a) A domain with inherent value will always be in demand
b) If you own about 1,000 domains, you’ll end up having to pay around $10,000 yearly in registration fees. If you own 10, you’ll only have to pay roughly 100 bucks per year in order to keep them all.

2. Stay Away from Over-Hyped Extensions

Do a bit of research and you’ll understand why. Dot mobi domains are one of the best examples: people have initially paid a lot of money for them but as time went by, these domains started losing more and more value for one reason: the fundamentals just aren’t there, dot mobi is an extension which has been over-hyped and nothing more.

The rule of thumb? .com is king.

3. Avoid 4 Letter Dot Coms, 5 Letter Dot Coms etc.

At a certain point, 4 letter dot coms were available for registration and at the beginning, a lot of people started to register domains live mego.com, tevo.com and so on. In other words, domains which were extremely easily pronounceable. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of domains like those even if the fact that they are easily pronounceable does give them at least some inherent value, nobody can deny that.

After a certain point, most of the 4 letter dot coms which are actually worth it have been registered but there were a lot of people who wanted in on the action. Since the good domains were all taken, they started to register the remaining 4 letter dot coms, domains which are anything but pronounceable. Seriously, try it yourself: pronounce FYQV.com, now say it ten times and faster. Needless to say, as soon as renewal dates got closer and closer, people who owned awful 4 letter dot coms started becoming desperate. Some of the sold them in bulk for like a dollar or two per domain, some have simply let them expire and the same principle is valid when it comes to five letter domains.

4. Always Go with Reputable Registrars

Remember what happened with registerfly? If you want to avoid situations such as those, stick with companies which have proven themselves and understand that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Personally, since I own lots of extremely valuable domains, I prefer to stick with Moniker (the safest domain name registration company in my opinion). Even if I have to pay a bit more, I know that my valuable domains are in good hands and it’s definitely more than worth it.

5. Sell to End Users

You can buy lots of amazing domains on the cheap through domain name auctions and sell them for 10-20 times more to end users. Buy domains through auctions, sell them to end users: this is a strategy which works for quite a few people.

A lot of times, you will have to explain why domains are valuable in the first place, so you need to understand that being patient is extremely important. Even if it seems that some of the questions end users usually ask are ridiculous, don’t lose your temper and calmly guide them through the process. A lot of times, an end users who does initially not understand why you ask for so much will end up reaching for his wallet after understanding why the domain name is valuable.

6. Take Advantage of Type-In Traffic

Most decent domains have at least some type-in traffic, so don’t just let them stand there and do nothing. Park your domains and if possible, make sure to also include a “this domain name is for sale” message on the parking page.

Most parking companies offer something like this and it’s definitely worth it. Some domains will generate more than others via parking but why not squeeze as much money out of them as possible?

7. Develop A Strong Position to Negotiate

If you rely on domain sales in order to put food on the table, you’ll never be in a great position to negotiate. Remember the iReport.com deal (the domain Rick Schwartz sold to CNN for $750,000) I told you about at the beginning of this article?

Well, he managed to obtain $750,000 for the domain because he was in a great position to negotiate (he already had a lot of money, so putting food on the table was definitely not something he had to worry about) and as I’ve mentioned previously, most domainers would have accepted $15,000 or less for that domain with a smile on their face.

Develop some websites at the beginning, offer some services online at the beginning or if you have a day job when you’re just starting out, don’t quit it just yet. A person who has to worry about paying off the mortgage and things like that is NOT in a good position to negotiate, be sure to keep that in mind.

You can check the domains that Andrei is putting up for sale on this auction page.

Source
Want to Invest in Domains? Here Are The 7 Golden Rules

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This guest post has been written by Andrei from DomainingTips.com. Andrei owns dozens of top notch domains, and he is organizing a domain name auction which will end on Tuesday (tomorrow), together with Moniker and SnapNames.

Look, the Internet itself is still in its infancy and out of all online industries, the domain name industry is definitely the one which resembles the wild west the most. You see a domain being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars today, and the next day a similar domain is being sold for 4 figures.

iReport.com, remember that one? You know, the domain CNN.com uses? If you don’t remember the domain name deal, let me ask you this: how much do you think the domain sold for? Maybe it sold for $15,000? Maybe even for something like $30k?

Nope, It Sold for $750,000!

Yes, 750 grand. And you know what’s funny? Most of the people who invest in domain names have at least a handful of domains which are obviously a lot better than iReport.com. And again, it’s not Report.com that sold for $750,000, it’s iReport.com (it’s not a typo, “Report” followed by dot com and with an “i” in front of it sold for $750,000).

It seems that the Web has been around for ages but, in fact, it’s only about 20 years old! There are practically no rules yet, most domain name owners would have taken $15,000 or even less than that for iReport.com without even blinking. In this case, however, the domain was owned by an investor who was sitting on a lot of cash (Rick Schwartz) and who was in a great position to negotiate with CNN. Rick Schwartz is one of the people who has managed to retire early thanks to his domain name investments. Do you want to follow in his footsteps? Here are 7 golden rules which might just help:

1. Quality over Quantity

Domains are cheap so if you want to, you can hand register over 1,000 domains for less than $10,000. Would that make you happy? Would you consider yourself a “big shot domainer” if you were to own 1,000 domains? Wake up!

Most of the people who are just starting out as domain name investors make the mistake of hand registering worthless domains. For example, lots of people thought they would make it big by hand registering as many five letter domains as they could afford. Needless to say, practically all of them ended up learning a fairly expensive lesson. If you want to invest $10,000, buy a handful of domains which are actually worth it for 2 simple reasons:

a) A domain with inherent value will always be in demand
b) If you own about 1,000 domains, you’ll end up having to pay around $10,000 yearly in registration fees. If you own 10, you’ll only have to pay roughly 100 bucks per year in order to keep them all.

2. Stay Away from Over-Hyped Extensions

Do a bit of research and you’ll understand why. Dot mobi domains are one of the best examples: people have initially paid a lot of money for them but as time went by, these domains started losing more and more value for one reason: the fundamentals just aren’t there, dot mobi is an extension which has been over-hyped and nothing more.

The rule of thumb? .com is king.

3. Avoid 4 Letter Dot Coms, 5 Letter Dot Coms etc.

At a certain point, 4 letter dot coms were available for registration and at the beginning, a lot of people started to register domains live mego.com, tevo.com and so on. In other words, domains which were extremely easily pronounceable. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of domains like those even if the fact that they are easily pronounceable does give them at least some inherent value, nobody can deny that.

After a certain point, most of the 4 letter dot coms which are actually worth it have been registered but there were a lot of people who wanted in on the action. Since the good domains were all taken, they started to register the remaining 4 letter dot coms, domains which are anything but pronounceable. Seriously, try it yourself: pronounce FYQV.com, now say it ten times and faster. Needless to say, as soon as renewal dates got closer and closer, people who owned awful 4 letter dot coms started becoming desperate. Some of the sold them in bulk for like a dollar or two per domain, some have simply let them expire and the same principle is valid when it comes to five letter domains.

4. Always Go with Reputable Registrars

Remember what happened with registerfly? If you want to avoid situations such as those, stick with companies which have proven themselves and understand that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Personally, since I own lots of extremely valuable domains, I prefer to stick with Moniker (the safest domain name registration company in my opinion). Even if I have to pay a bit more, I know that my valuable domains are in good hands and it’s definitely more than worth it.

5. Sell to End Users

You can buy lots of amazing domains on the cheap through domain name auctions and sell them for 10-20 times more to end users. Buy domains through auctions, sell them to end users: this is a strategy which works for quite a few people.

A lot of times, you will have to explain why domains are valuable in the first place, so you need to understand that being patient is extremely important. Even if it seems that some of the questions end users usually ask are ridiculous, don’t lose your temper and calmly guide them through the process. A lot of times, an end users who does initially not understand why you ask for so much will end up reaching for his wallet after understanding why the domain name is valuable.

6. Take Advantage of Type-In Traffic

Most decent domains have at least some type-in traffic, so don’t just let them stand there and do nothing. Park your domains and if possible, make sure to also include a “this domain name is for sale” message on the parking page.

Most parking companies offer something like this and it’s definitely worth it. Some domains will generate more than others via parking but why not squeeze as much money out of them as possible?

7. Develop A Strong Position to Negotiate

If you rely on domain sales in order to put food on the table, you’ll never be in a great position to negotiate. Remember the iReport.com deal (the domain Rick Schwartz sold to CNN for $750,000) I told you about at the beginning of this article?

Well, he managed to obtain $750,000 for the domain because he was in a great position to negotiate (he already had a lot of money, so putting food on the table was definitely not something he had to worry about) and as I’ve mentioned previously, most domainers would have accepted $15,000 or less for that domain with a smile on their face.

Develop some websites at the beginning, offer some services online at the beginning or if you have a day job when you’re just starting out, don’t quit it just yet. A person who has to worry about paying off the mortgage and things like that is NOT in a good position to negotiate, be sure to keep that in mind.

You can check the domains that Andrei is putting up for sale on this auction page.

Source
Want to Invest in Domains? Here Are The 7 Golden Rules

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