21 Day Blogging Challenge

Is It a Good Idea to Give Away Your Best Content on Your Blog?

January 5, 2015 by Paul 4 Comments

When I first started Blogging, way back in 2006, I wondered if it was a good idea to give away some of my best content for free on my Blog.

I wondered if maybe I should hold back some of my best ideas and content and put them into a book or course or some kind of info product instead of sharing it on my Blog.

Each day when I would sit down to write a Blog post, I would think to myself “Hmmm…is this something I should just give away for free, or should I charge for this information?”

I mean as a student of personal development I’ve easily spent over 6 figures on educating myself through books, audios, courses, seminars and mastermind groups, and then I also invest a lot of time in researching and testing various things I learn to see what actually works and what is crap.

So for example if I spend $1,000 – $5,000 in “education costs” and 3-6 months in “trial and error costs” to learn something new, like a new technique or something that I apply and produce personal results with, that is “intellectual property” that cost me time, energy and money to develop.

So my thinking used to be “Why should I give that away for free to someone on my Blog?”

Right?

But then, I decided to try something out…

…I decided to just start giving away some of my best content, my little “secrets” and strategies to my Blog audience for free.

Of course if what I was referring to was intellectual property that is owned by someone else who sells some kind of course or seminar, I wouldn’t give away THEIR secrets, but I would refer people to the source of the information that they could then decide to buy if they wanted to.

But if it was MY intellectual property that I created from my personal experiences and trial and error I just started sharing it with people, not worrying about someone else knowing my “secrets”.

And here’s what happened…

#1 – I Manifested More “Best Content”

The funny thing with the Universe is that it doesn’t like a vacuum.

So what started to happen was that as I started Blogging and giving away some of my “best content”, a lot more NEW “best content” started flowing into my life.

Every time I would “empty the cup” giving away my “secrets”, I would attract NEW secrets to give away.

I find that when we try to “hoard” information or “secrets” because we think they are way too valuable to give away for free, or because we think later on in life we might put together a course or something, we tend to stagnate.

If instead we just give it all away in a sense, we start to create MORE new “Best Content” to Blog about.

Try it yourself and you’ll see what mean.

#2 – People Will STILL Buy Your Coaching / Training

I have studied many top trainers in the industry who put together $10,000 – $25,000 seminars that people GLADLY pay to attend.

They pack their rooms and “sell out” pretty much every time.

But you know what I’ve heard many of them say?

Many of them say that pretty much EVERYTHING that they teach is already summarized in their books which most people can buy for $10 – $15.

Even if they write 10 different books, that means you can learn everything they teach at the seminars for $100 – $150, not $10,000 – $25,000!

So why do people pay $10,000 – $25,000 to attend their seminars if the INFORMATION is inside their books?

And why do they give away all their information in their books?

Well, it’s because first of all MOST people will NOT ever read a book. They find it too boring and time-intensive.

They would rather pay $10k to sit at a seminar and be essentially “forced” to learn the information in an entertaining way – and not just read about it in a book.

Secondly though, transformation doesn’t just happen when people are presented with new information.

A big part of transformation is HOW the information is delivered and with what energy.

For example, I guarantee that attending a Tony Robbins seminar is going to have a MUCH higher transformational effect on a person than simply reading his book. Even if his book contained ALL the information from the seminar.

It’s the transfer of ENERGY from one person to another that is important as well, not just the information.

So when I started giving away some of my best info on my Blog…essentially free of charge, it actually INCREASED the amount of people who wanted to get coaching / mentoring from me – not the other way around.

The MORE I give away for free, the more people want to PAY me to coach / mentor them!

This is still happening to this day.

So if you’re a coach, mentor or someone who puts together events. Don’t worry about giving away your best content.

Just do it. Give it all away. People will STILL want to pay you for your ENERGY, and your PRESENCE.

Finally, there’s one other reason why giving away essentially EVERYTHING on a Blog will never replace one-on-one or group coaching.

And that is the concept of information overload.

When people pay me to coach them, they don’t want to spend 100 hours reading all my blog posts… they have a very specific challenge that they want to overcome RIGHT NOW, and they are willing to pay me to coach them through it.

The time savings alone is worth the investment for them.

And for those people who are short on cash right now, and who can’t afford one-on-one coaching, they just read my Blog and get access to some awesome content which builds trust with them.

It’s a total win-win situation.

#3 – You’ll Connect with Better People

When you become a Blogger who is not afraid to give away their best content on their Blog or on Google Hangouts you host etc. not only will you start to attract a better, more loyal client base, but you’ll also start to attract better people around you in general.

Your reputation in the marketplace will begin to grow and you will be seen as a “giver” not a “taker”.

When this happens higher quality mentors and teachers will open their doors to you.

People who are giving and who want to help the world are attracted to other people who want to do the same.

If your reputation is that you are this secretive person who has some super amazing information they have discovered, but who is unwilling to share it with anyone, then people will doubt you and the value of your information.

If your reputation is that you are this giving person who just gives away amazing content and information, people will automatically start thinking “Wow, this content is amazing… what an awesome person! If this is what they’re giving away for free, imagine the quality of information they must give away at their paid programs / coaching / products?”

Warning! Do NOT Do This

There is one warning I will offer here of something you DO NOT want to do.

Do NOT give away someone else’s “best content” pretending that it’s your own.

I’ve seen some people take this concept in a totally wrong direction.

What they start doing is that they don’t want to give away any of THEIR best content or information, because they think they’ll save it for a future seminar or product that they’re putting together…

… but since they want to start building “trust” with their audience, they start giving away someone else’s “best content” as their own.

Meaning, they’ll attend a $2,000 seminar, and then they’ll come home and start giving away all of the content that they learned at the seminar, as if it was their own.

Don’t do this.

Another example of this is when people take copyrighted paid content and they “rip it” to a digital format and give it away to people for free.

When you do this, you are hurting the entire industry, including yourself, and soiling your reputation.

Don’t do it.

If there’s some amazing content you learned from someone, and you want to share it with your Blog subscribers, then POINT them in the right direction of where they can get access to this information.

But don’t just give them a stolen, pirated copy of that copyrighted data.

First of all it’s illegal, secondly it’s stupid, and thirdly it’ll ruin your reputation long term.

As a blogger for over 8 years now I’ve GIVEN AWAY so much of my best content for free.

In fact, at one point a few years ago I did a tally and I realized that I’ve written enough Blog content to fill more than 5 full-sized BOOKS.

BUT, even thought I’ve given away so much free content, when I come across a course or training that someone else put together, which they charge for, I don’t just give it away for free as it’s not MINE to give away.

Instead I recommend people go to the creator and purchase it.

Because of this, sometimes I’ve ran across people who have gotten mad at me for not giving them access to someone else’s work for free.

Meaning, they essentially ask me to break the law, and to illegally copy someone else’s best work, and rip it off and send it to them, and then when I say NO to that, they call me an asshole.

That’ll happen, but it doesn’t bother me.

Or they’ll say something like “Oh, well you’re just recommending this course and you’re sending me to your affiliate link because you want to make money when I buy the course.”

Here’s the thing…

I give away a LOT of free stuff on my Blog.

But I’m not going to give away someone else’s work, illegally, for free, without their permission.

I also don’t promote crap.

For every product, course, seminar, system or ANYTHING that I promote, I’ve filtered out and turned away probably 50 other products.

I only promote the BEST of the BEST out there.

And when I do promote a product or service as an affiliate, I believe that I deserve to get paid for my recommendation.

But I also believe that if anyone who reads my Blog doesn’t want me to make an affiliate commission on something that I promote, they are 100% FREE to buy the product through someone else’s affiliate link.

I’m 100% okay with that. If you are going to buy a product I recommend, and you don’t want me to make any affiliate commissions on it, then go find someone else’s link and buy it through their link.

This is also what I recommend you do on YOUR blog.

Give away a LOT of great value on your Blog. Give away your BEST content.

You’ll create NEW content anyways.

If you want to put together products or systems to SELL, that’s perfectly okay too, and don’t worry…people will buy from you because they like you ANYWAYS.

And when you find amazing content that is NOT your own, recommend it to others!

Don’t be shy about it either.

If whatever you’re promoting has an affiliate program – then promote it as an affiliate, so that you can get paid affiliate commissions for your well deserved recommendation.

And never let any WUSSIES make you feel bad for promoting something as an affiliate.

If they don’t want you to make the affiliate commission you deserve, they can go find a link from somewhere else.

🙂

So to summarize. Is it a good idea to give away your best content on your Blog?

YES!

You’ll get more “best content” flowing into your mind.

You’ll build more trust with your audience.

You’ll make better connections in the marketplace.

And people will STILL be happy to PAY you for any paid products or services you create in the future.

And it’s also a good idea to promote the BEST products you come across from other people as an affiliate.

How I’m Getting Top Google Rankings for My Brand New Blog

January 4, 2015 by Paul 9 Comments

You can get top rankings on Google even if you have a brand new blog with a brand new domain.

In this Blog post I’ll explain exactly how I’m doing this.

But before I do that, I want to first show some quick proof so that you know I’m speaking from experience and not from theory.

Proof #1 – My Domain is Only 5 Days Old

Here’s a screenshot of my domain registration with GoDaddy.

As you can see, I registered my domain “FreeYouNow.com” on Dec 30th, and today is Dec 4th so my domain is just 5 days old.

So you do NOT need an “aged” domain to get ranked.

Proof #2 – I’m Ranking #1 on Google for My Keyword

A few days ago I wrote a Blog post where I was targeting the keyword “Double Your Chances Weight Loss” and different variations of it.

I always try to make my titles speak to real human beings and not just focusing on keywords so the actual title of my post was “How to Double Your Chances of Sticking to a Weight Loss Plan”.

As you can see I’m ranking #1 on Google for the keyword “double your chances weight loss”.

Now, I know that this is not a super amazing highly searched keyword, but it is a long-tail keyword that people might search for and I’m trying to show how easy it can be to rank for long-tail keywords with a brand new Blog and a brand new domain.

How I Got My Blog / Domain to Rank So Fast

I think a lot of people completely overcomplicated Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and try to game the system with unnecessary tactics and strategies that will just get you banned on Google.

Personally I prefer to keep things simple and to just give Google what it wants, and it seems to work for me pretty well.

Here’s what you need to do:

#1 – You Need Your Own Domain

Get your own domain because that way you’ll be building your own brand and you’ll also need it for one of the following steps to become a “Webmaster” with Google.

You can get a domain at GoDaddy.com for $10 or less.

#2 – You Need a Solid Blogging Platform

You need a solid blogging platform built around the WordPress blogging system.

Anything that you get for free is going to be crap and isn’t going to give you the features you need.

So don’t waste your time looking for some “free” blogging platform that’s good. You won’t find it.

I’m personally using Empower Network’s Kalatu platform which is awesome. It takes the ultra powerful WordPress platform and simplifies it and adds on a whole bunch of extra powerful tools to make your Blog ultra effective right out of the gate.

Click here to learn more about Kalatu.

#3 – You Need to Sign Up as a Webmaster With Google

Once you’ve got your Blog setup and running and your own domain registered and mapped to point to your Blog, you need to head over to Google Webmaster Tools and register yourself as a webmaster with Google.

Once you create an account with Google Webmaster Tools you’ll need to add your domain/site to the list.

Google has fairly good instructions on how to go about this, but just search for it on YouTube if you don’t know how to do this.

#4 – You Need to Setup a Sitemap With Google Webmaster Tools

Next, you’ll need to setup a Sitemap with Google Webmaster Tools.

A Sitemap is basically a tool which tells Google about all of your new content / blog posts that you write and kind of “nudges” Google to come check them out and index them.

It’s kind of like your website picking up the phone, calling Google and saying “Hey Google, guess what, I now have a new Blog available at my domain…come check it out when you got a minute.”

Sending a sitemap to Google doesn’t guarantee that Google will index every post you submit, but it significantly improves your chances.

Plus, once you have it setup once, the whole process is automated so that you never have to worry about it again.

What you’ll need is you’ll need a Blogging platform that supports Google Sitemaps. Luckily for us, the Kalatu platform comes with a built-in Sitemap plugin running so you don’t have to worry about it.

Here’s a screenshot from my Google Webmaster Tools system. As you can see, as of right now I’ve submitted 8 web pages from my site to Google (automatically), and Google has gone ahead and indexed 5 of them so far. Keep in mind that my Blog and domain are ONLY 5 days old so the fact that they already indexed 5 out of 8 pages is awesome.

#5 – You Need to Get Some EXTERNAL VOTES Pointing To Your Blog Post

This next step is where most people drop the ball.

It’s a very simple thing to do, but most people won’t do it because they don’t believe it could be this simple.

Essentially what you need to do is you need to get at least a COUPLE of EXTERNAL “votes” for your Blog post.

One way to do this is to leave comments on other people’s Blogs which allow you to add in your website URL in the comment box.

This is an example of a comment I left on someone’s Blog.

When you leave USEFUL and RELEVANT comments on people’s Blogs they WILL approve them, and most Blogs allow you to include a link back to your Blog with each comment.

In the example above the word “Paul Piotrowski” is a link back to this Blog.

What you want to do is you want to go out there and leave some useful comments on people’s Blog posts and link back to your Blog post!

You only need a few of these to get on Google’s radar screen.

Another way to get some external “votes” back to your post is to post your Blog post on Facebook like I did here:

By sharing a link to my Blog post on Facebook, this gives me yet another “vote” or link to my specific Blog post from an external domain (in this case Facebook).

The trick here is to get a few links that point back to your individual POST and NOT just your main domain.

Make sure you are just going out and getting a few links here and there from REAL websites and make sure if you use Blog comments that they are real comments left on real blogs.

In other words, don’t try to cheat by going out there and buying some stupid “10,000 links for $5” package on Fiverr or some junk like that thinking that “more is better”.

What you want is NATURAL exposure for your Blog, not some kind of system for “gaming” Google.

#6 – Send Your Blog Post to Your Email List

Now here’s where I think a BIG secret lies that most people in the SEO world don’t really talk about.

What you want to do is you want to have an EMAIL list on a platform like AWeber which allows you to send out an email blast whenever you write a Blog post.

A platform like Kalatu has AWeber integration built right into it so it helps you to build an email list from scratch if you don’t have one, but even if you just have 3 people on your email list you want to start emailing them every time you write a Blog post.

Here’s why you want to do this.

When you send out an email blast to your email list, SOME of the people WILL click through to read your Blog post.

When they click through to read your Blog post, your Blog post will load up in their browser and as it loads it will also trigger the loading of the Google Analytics tracking script (covered later in this post).

This is important because statistically speaking the people who are going to sign up for your email list are going to be those people who like you the most and who trust you the most.

So when you send THOSE people to your Blog FIRST, it will give your Google Analytics stats the best chance of looking good, as opposed to the type of stats you might get from some other traffic source of “cold” traffic.

Let me explain why Google Analytics is important in the next step here…

#7 – The Importance of Google Analytics Integration

You want to make sure that you integrate Google Analytics into your Blog. If you’re using the Kalatu platform, this is super easy as it has Google Analytics Integration built right in.

All you have to do is setup a free Google Analytics account and then paste your Tracking ID into Kalatu and click “Save”.

It’s that simple. Kalatu takes care of the rest.

Now, once you have Google Analytics installed and you send out an email blast to your email list (of any size really), when people visit that Blog post they will trigger the Google Analytics Script every time they load the page.

When the Google Analytics tracking script is triggered, Google starts to track the number of visitors going to your individual blog post page as well as some very important STATS.

Do you see what I mean?

When I published my post, I sent out an email to my email list and a bunch of people came to visit my post.

As you can see, we’re not talking about ASTRONOMICAL numbers either. We’re only talking about 60-70 people visiting that post.

BUT, those 60-70 people visiting my Blog give Google some early indicators (STATS) about the content on that page, such as:

Avg. Time on Page – My stats show Google that people stayed 2 minutes and 41 seconds on my page – on average. In “Internet Time” that is an eternity. This is a GOOD sign for Google, as opposed to if they stayed like 3 seconds.
Bounce Rate – The stats also show Google that my page has an 85.11% bounce rate. This is not bad either. Basically Google just doesn’t want to see a 99% bounce rate.
Pageviews & Unique Pageviews – This tells Google how many times this page has been seen and by how many people. In my case it was seen 68 times by 59 unique people.

Once Google sees and records these types of statistics for this page, it will KNOW that this page is a real page, with real content, which seems to be valuable since people are hanging around and reading the content and not just leaving after 2 seconds.

When Google sees this, it now will give you a chance to rank for whatever keywords it deems appropriate for the post based on your Blog post title and content.

Eliminating RISK for Google

At first, what I’ve written above may seem a bit complicated but keep in mind that MOST of it can be greatly simplified simply by using Kalatu as a Blogging platform since it has a lot of the necessary features you need already built in, without the need to go looking for WordPress plugins, or worrying about modifying codes or scripts or anything of that nature.

Kalatu simplifies a LOT of this.

Secondly, remember that MOST of this is also one-time setup stuff which only needs to be done once in the beginning and then it just works automatically for all your future Blog posts.

Thirdly, understanding this process becomes MUCH simpler if you think of it from the perspective of ELIMINATING RISK for Google instead of trying to PROVE AWESOMENESS.

In other words, in order to rank well in Google, you don’t necessarily have to prove your Blog is AWESOME to them, you just have to ELIMINATE THE RISK that your Blog is SPAM / JUNK.

Does that make sense?

Google WANTS to include your content in their search engine, as long as you can prove to them that it’s not just SPAM / JUNK.

And the way we are doing this is as follows:

Domain Ownership – By spending $10 to buy a domain we’re showing Google that we are willing to invest at least $10 into our site.
Good Platform – By using a platform like Kalatu, build on WordPress, we’re showing Google that we’re running our site on a solid platform.
Claiming Ownership – By becoming a Webmaster of our domain we declare to Google “Hey Google, I own this domain and I vouch for it. This is a good site, it’s not spam or junk.”
Regular Content – By writing content on a regular basis, we show Google that this site contains timely and relevant information.
Natural Links to Content – By sharing link to your Blog post on your Facebook timeline, you’re showing Google “Hey Google, my Blog post is good, I’m proud of it and I’ll gladly share it with my friends.”
Emailing Your List – By emailing your Blog post to your list you’re showing Google “Hey Google, I’m proud enough of my Blog post to send it to my email list.”
Good Starter Stats – When your initial group of friends and email subscribers visit your site, THEY tell Google “Hey, this content is pretty good, I’ll hang out and read it.” with their stats.

Make sense?

I mean just think about how much RISK you’ve eliminated for Google with all of the above. What are the chances that your site/Blog Post is some spam or junk post if you’ve done all of the above?

Chances are that your post is NOT going to be spammy / crappy content right?

From my 8+ years of experience as a Blogger, I have bought many different SEO courses and I’ve listened to many different so called SEO Experts, and so many of them complicate everything so much to the point where you simply can’t keep up with all the daily changes in the so called Google Algorithm.

But in reality what I have found is that if you follow the simple strategies outlined above, which follow ALL of Google’s rules, you can get your content to rank very quickly and very well, even if you’re starting from complete scratch with a brand new Blog on a brand new domain.

I hope you enjoyed this article, and if you’d like to join my team of Bloggers and learn how to make money blogging about your passions, click here to get started.

How to Set Up a Paperless Office in 2015

January 3, 2015 by Paul 1 Comment

In this article I’m going to share how I setup a paperless office for all of my receipts, bills, documents and everything else that usually clutters up your desk.

There are several things you’ll need to setup a paperless office in 2015.

#1 – A High Quality Receipt / Document Scanner

The first thing you’re going to need is a high-quality, high-speed receipt / document scanner.

Most people today have all-in-one printer / scanner / copier combo that they got on sale for $50 – $100, but that is not going to cut it.

As an average person we go through way too many receipts and documents to waste your time with an all-in-one printer/scanner that is just going to frustrate you and make you quit and go back to a paper system.

If you’re serious about setting up a paperless office, you have to invest in some proper tools that are going to make the job simple, easy, fast and convenient – otherwise you just won’t do it.

So what’s the solution?

After a lot of research I bought the Fujitsu Scansnap IX500 Scanner for the following reasons:

It’s fast! Really, really fast
It can scan receipts, business cards, as well as regular sized paper and documents
It scans BOTH sides at the same time
It can scan receipts that are really, really long (unlike a flatbed scanner)
It has a microprocessor that helps with processing the image/scan

This scanner is not cheap. It will cost you around $400- $500, but it’s worth every penny.

I’ve had mine for about a year now and I just love it.

It makes the process of scanning papers and receipts very quick an painless.

Also, as an added benefit, the way the scanner is designed, when you fold up the lid and bottom tray the scanner doesn’t take up a lot of real estate on your desk and it’s fully protected from dust!

#2 – Software to Convert Scanned Documents / Receipts Into PDF Files

The next thing you want to make sure your paperless office does is convert all your scanned documents into PDF files.

This is where MOST so called “paperless office scanners” and “systems” out there fall flat on their face.

They sell you on the idea that their system is best, but what they do is they try to store all of your documents in a proprietary format that can only be read by THEIR software.

This is the way that they sucker you in with low priced scanner/software combos that only cost a few hundred dollars.

Don’t fall for it.

If you go for one of those systems that doesn’t directly scan right into a PDF file, you will regret it later as your software becomes bloated, slow and unmanageable.

Also if the company you purchase the scanner / software from ever goes out of business you could be left stuck with no way to retrieve any of your files.

The Adobe PDF format has been around for decades and it’s a PROVEN file format that is a standard on all computer platforms and you want to make sure that is what your scanner / software stores your files as.

Luckily for us, the Fujitsu Scansnap scanner comes with a free software that does just that.

All you have to do is place a document or receipt in the scanner, press the blue button, and it automatically scans the document on both sides, very quickly and it automatically loads up the software allowing you to save the document in PDF format.

#3 – File Organization / Management Software

Once you have a system for converting your documents and receipts into PDF files you will also need a way to keep everything easily organized, categorized and easily retrievable.

Most scanners out there come with free software that claims to do this, but from my research and testing I have found that most of them really suck at this part of the paperless office system.

Even the software that comes with the Fujitsu Scansnap is mediocre at best at handling this part of the process.

What I have found to work MUCH better is a software called FileCenter from Lucion Technologies.

With FileCenter you can easily manage and organize your files, automatically do OCR, join and split PDF files, and integrate with various Cloud Services if you so choose to.

It’s a software with MANY features, bells and whistles, but the truth is that you don’t really need to worry about bells and whistles as you mostly won’t use them.

What you really need is a robust, simple and effective software that can handle the process of organizing your PDF files in a way that makes logical sense – and FileCenter does just that.

The software allows you to create “Cabinets” which basically act just like physical filing cabinets, except that these are digital filing cabinets with unlimited storage space.

So for example you could create one “Cabinet” for your “Personal” files, one for your “Business” or “Work”, etc.

Then, within each of the cabinets you can create any number of “Drawers” which are just like the drawers in a real filing cabinet.

Then, within each of the drawers you create “Folders” which would of course represent a folder, and then within each folder you can have any number of actual files / documents etc.

This means you have three levels of hierarchy within the system which is plenty enough for all of your needs without getting too crazy and confusing.

You can also create sub-folders within folders if you want so that basically means the hierarchy of files can be expanded even further if you wish.

#4 – A Backup Solution

The final thing you’ll need is a backup solution for your files so that you rest easy knowing that your files are safe.

There are two different routes you can go with here.

Firstly, you can backup all of your files to an external hard drive on a regular basis which keeps all of your files safe in case of a computer failure or theft.

Of course if your backup drive is not stored in a safe location it can be damaged in a fire or stolen in the case of a break-in.

Of course in the case of a fire, your physical files would have been destroyed as well, so it’s kind of a mute point, but if you do want to make sure your files are secure you could create an off-site backup for your files, or subscribe to one of the cloud services out there.

FileCenter Pro allows you to sync your files with Could server services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, SugarSync etc., so if you want to use a cloud service you can do that as well.

How you decide to backup your files is completely up to you, but just make sure you back them up!

Paperless Office Flow Diagram

This is a flow diagram which summarizes what my paperless office system looks like.

Additional Tips for the Perfect Paperless Office System

#1 – Dealing With Digital Receipts

One of the realities of today is that not all companies offer receipts, invoices and bills on paper anymore. You will find that many of the companies you deal with are now switching to a paperless system as well.

Unfortunately, as convenient as it may be for them to NOT have to mail you a receipt or invoice, when it comes time to send your files to an accountant or to look up an old bill it’s not always easy to get access to your files.

Some companies only keep bills around for a certain number of months and then delete them.

So what’s the solution?

Well, that’s where this system really shines. See, most of the companies that offer paperless systems also save their documents in a PDF format, or they email you their receipts.

The trick is to SAVE those PDF files that they have on their websites OR the email receipt that they mail you to a PDF file and to file it into your “INBOX” in FileCenter.

This is what I do.

When I get digital receipts or emails I’ll just click the SAVE button and quickly save the file as a PDF and put it into my INBOX folder for FileCenter. Then, later on when I’m ready to do some digital filing I’ll organize the files accordingly, placing them in the right cabinet/drawer/folder.

#2 – Afraid You’ll Lose Your Digital Backups?

One of the reasons I personally procrastinated switching to a paperless office system was because I never fully trusted digital files.

I’m sure we’ve all had one of those incidents where you accidentally erased some files on your hard drive that you didn’t back up, or lost the photos on your cell phone, or had a hard-drive malfunction that caused you to lose important data.

This was something I was a bit worried about, even though I know a good backup system can usually save the day.

So what did I do?

What I decided to do, and what you may want to consider as well is to NOT throw away your paper files after you scan them.

I know that this might sound a bit weird since I’m talking about going to a paperless office system, but hear me out here.

What I do is I simply get some bankers boxes, and when I take physical paper documents that come across my desk, I scan them into my paperless office, and I chuck them all into ONE bankers box labeled “2015” or whatever year it is now.

This is a very quick and painless process. The beauty of this system is that I don’t have to organize any of these files in physical form, they are just chucked into a box that I should hypothetically never have to ever open again.

BUT, in the case of a complete computer meltdown or a lack of digital backup, in the worst case scenario, I would STILL have access to the physical versions of my files.

This helps me to sleep at night. 🙂

For me this was a great compromise that allowed me to do all my “filing” and “organizing” in the digital realm, while at the same time knowing that in the event of a digital catastrophe I still DO have the actual physical files as a backup of my backup.

After a few years, when I no longer need the physical files I can just shred the files in the banker’s box.

The Real Reason We Struggle to Lose Weight

January 2, 2015 by Paul 2 Comments

Weight loss is one of the most convoluted subjects on the planet.

There are countless so called “experts” out there all selling the latest diet or exercise program, trying to cash-in on our desire to lose weight and get fit.

The interesting thing is that while the weight loss advice industry has exploded and virtually everyone from the latest diet expert to your aunt Judy has a theory on weight loss, the majority of people in North America and now worldwide are just getting fatter and fatter.

You could blame laziness, a lack of exercise, a lack of proper diet or a lack of willpower to stick to a healthy diet, but what’s the real cause of these things?

Why do we find it so hard to stick to a diet, and why are we always so hungry???

I have studied nutrition and weight loss for over 10 years now and have tried virtually every diet under the sun.

I’ve lost weight while on the various diets, but I’ve always gained it back after completing my diet and feeling hungry for all the different types of foods I’ve “deprived” myself of during my diet plans.

But why do we crave so much food, so many calories and all these foods that we know are “bad” for us?

I believe that Dr. Wallach has the answer to this.

Why We Struggle to Lose Weight

In this video Dr. Wallach explains how our inability to lose weight comes from two main reasons:

Reason # 1 – Mineral Deficiency

Unlike the food that our grandparents ate, most of the food we buy today at restaurants or supermarkets is deficient in various minerals.

When our diet is deficient in minerals we develop an uncontrollable appetite for food, and especially carbohydrates.

Dr. Wallach explains how when farmers want to fatten up their livestock, all the have to do in order to get their cows to eat more food is to make their food deficient in minerals and then provide them with a steady stream of cheap carbohydrates (ie. corn).

When you starve a cow of minerals, it’ll eat and eat and eat and just continue to get fat.

In the livestock industry this is not a problem, as fattening up cows is how the farmers make their money, selling the fattened up beef for more money.

But for us, as humans, being mineral deficient is a huge problem because we can try to eat a “sensible diet”, but if our diet is lacking in the proper minerals we WILL have an uncontrollable urge to eat more food – especially carbohydrates.

Reason # 2 – Too Much Carbohydrates

This will probably be of no surprise to most people.

As a society we have become completely addicted to and dependent on cheap carbohydrates.

Bread, white pasta, white rice, corn, sugar, donuts, the latest Starbucks creation, you name it… we’re addicted to carbs.

Anyone who has gone on any diet knows this.

We all know we need to cut these crappy, nutrient deficient carbs from our diets and incorporate more healthy proteins and fats, so why is it so hard to follow through on this?

Well, the reason is because our food is mineral deficient, and so we CRAVE carbs uncontrollably.

So yes, you COULD blame carbohydrates for the fact that you’re eating too many calories every day and STILL feeling hungry, but that isn’t going to help you.

What you need to do is you need to make sure your body is getting ALL the vitamins and minerals that it needs every single day, and THEN you can slowly start cutting out carbohydrates out of your diet without going insane.

Easiest Way to Ensure You Are NOT Mineral Deficient

When Dr. Wallach concluded his research and began lecturing on this topic of us being mineral deficient, many people wanted to know how the heck do we make sure we get all of our vitamins and minerals?

Yes there are many different multi-vitamins and multi-mineral products on the market, but you would have to combine dozens of different pills together on a daily basis to get everything that you need, and even then you’d have to ensure that all of the vitamins and minerals that you need are all in the right proportions for your body and that they’re not coming from synthetic sources.

So to address this issue, Dr. Wallach formulated is own multi-vitamin / multi-mineral product line which contains ALL 90 of the essential minerals and vitamins that your body needs.

He called this line of products 90 For Life, and it makes the process of getting all of your minerals simple and convenient.

Yes you could read his books, and figure out the exact amounts of each mineral and vitamin that you need and then try to create your own set of supplements, but it’s not easy to find the right combination of supplements which gives you EVERYTHING that you need.

Most multi-vitamin/multi-mineral products out here don’t even have 20% of what you need.

This is why I’ve chosen to use Dr. Wallach’s 90 For Life product to make sure I’m getting all of my nutritional needs met for my upcoming weight loss program.

If you’re looking to lose weight, I’d recommend ordering a starter pack and supplementing whatever diet and/or exercise program you’re going to be following with these products. It will help you to get all the nutrients you need so that you’re not the carb-rich junk foods that you know aren’t good for you.

To learn more about 90 For Life and to order your starter pack click here

If you have any questions about which product might be best for you, feel free to contact me with your questions.

How to Double Your Chances of Sticking to a Weight Loss Plan

January 1, 2015 by Paul Leave a Comment

Making the decision to start a weight loss plan is always the first step towards weight loss.

But how do we increase our chances of actually sticking to the weight loss plan we create for ourselves.

Over the years I’ve gone through many different weight loss programs I created for myself, and in most cases I’ve reached my goals, and sometimes I didn’t.

Looking back on it now, I realize that there has been one differentiating factor that really helped me to stick to my weight loss plans when I’ve succeeded.

It’s something that most people avoid doing when making the decision to lose weight because they don’t like putting pressure on themselves.

However, the social pressure behind doing this one thing is what makes it so effective!

What I’m referring to is blogging about your weight loss journey.

When I’ve done my previous weight loss plans and I blogged about my journey from setting a goal to recording my starting weight and doing my “before” pictures, all the way through to actually reaching my goals and everything in between, I’ve always found that blogging about it was a tremendous help.

There have been numerous studies done that show that publicly announcing your weight loss plans has a positive effect on achieving your goals.

The perceived accountability and gentle social pressure we put on ourselves can be exactly what we need to keep us on track during the inevitable tough times we may run into during a weight loss program.

I’ve even gone to the point of challenging several of my friends in weight loss challenges where we put up hundreds of dollars and public humiliation on the line to make sure we hit our goals.

You don’t have to do that, but blogging about your weight loss journey can be a HUGE motivating factor for losing weight.How to D

The support you’ll garner from friends and supporters online could just be what you need to keep going.

When I’ve ran into challenges with my weight loss in the past, such as when I’ve hit plateaus, I’ve had my readers posting comment of encouragement and recommending various resources to help me out as well.

If you are a blogger, I STRONGLY recommend blogging about your weight loss journey, publicly declaring what your goals are and sharing your progress on a regular basis.

Even if you have ZERO followers and nobody reads your posts (they will), just knowing that someone out there could be watching can be just what you need to keep you accountable.

If you haven’t started a Blog yet, I would also strongly recommend getting started with blogging by clicking on this to get access to one of the most powerful blogging systems on the planet with the best training as well.

My Public Declaration

I would be a hypocrite if I wrote this post but didn’t publicly declare my weight loss plans as well.

Losing weight has not been a priority for me for several years now, and truth be told I’m actually currently at my heaviest weight I’ve been at all of my life.

As of this morning I weighed in at 243.8 lbs which is pretty much the heaviest I’ve ever been.

I don’t yet know every detail of the weight loss plan I’m going to follow to lose this weight but I have a pretty good idea and I’m organizing the resources to get started shortly.

For example, about a week ago I purchased a recumbent exercise bike to help me with my cardio training, and I’ve been gathering other resources as well.

My ultimate target goal is to lose 75 lbs of fat from my current frame, as well as to start building some more lean muscle mass after that.

I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to reach this goal, but that doesn’t really matter.

One way or another I’m going to hit the goal, that’s all that I know.

How to Make Your Public Declaration

Declaring your weight loss goals publicly isn’t easy for most people.

Especially when the majority of people tend to give up on their weight loss plans after just a few weeks.

However, I promise you that if you declare your weight loss goals publicly, it WILL help you to stick to your plans.

As human beings we tend to stick to things that we tell someone else we are going to do way more than to things we just tell ourselves, so why not use this part of human nature to your benefit!

If you’ve already got a blog, just write a post sharing your plans.

I do not recommend setting a deadline for reaching your goal though, just set a target and start working towards it.

I realize that most gurus out there say that a goal without a deadline is not a goal, but that’s not true.

For a more thorough explanation of why I don’t recommend putting deadlines on your weight loss goal, check out this video:

If you don’t yet have a blog, I highly recommend joining the Empower Network of bloggers where you’ll not only be given access to the world’s most powerful blogging platform, but you’ll also get the best training and team support from thousands of like-minded people.

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