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The Habits that Led James Clear to One Million Books Sold

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“The most important thing is also the least sexy one.”

James Clear (Source: James Clear/Flickr CC BY 2.0)

James Clear’s journey has not always been so clear as his name suggests.

I love his book. Others love it too. Atomic Habits has over 20,000 reviews on Audible and was translated into 40 languages. More than a million people subscribed to his newsletter.

I wanted to find out how he became a prolific writer. So I listened to around thirty of his guest interviews. Then, I went all the way down to internet time travel — a site that reveals website content from a decade ago.

His success is no coincidence. These are the habits that led him to write a book bought by one million people. You can steal them to write your own bestseller.

Iterating via Trial and Error

His website ‘jamesclear.com’ has been online for more than a decade. Within a decade, it underwent surprising turns.

In 2010, Clear announced ‘James Clear photography’. He sold his travel photos online and in print.

James Clear’s blog / October 2010 (Source).

Maybe he didn’t get as many sales as he hoped to. Maybe he got bored.

So, Clear started something new. On December 13, 2010, he said:

“I am launching a new site that will become the centerpiece of my effort to build a business that I am proud of. The focus of the site will be on personal finance with an entrepreneurial twist.”

James Clear’s blog / December 2010 (Source).

Three days later, he was done with planning. He announced to focus his self-employment on three main tasks:

  1. Creating mobile applications, including graphic design and user interface.
  2. Building niche websites on a topic he enjoys or a product he believes in.
  3. Selling travel photography.
Fun fact: His own mobile application was called passive panda — an app that teaches people how to earn money / January 2011 (Source).

If you’d asked him in 2011 whether he’s planning to become a bestselling NYT author, his answer probably would’ve been a clear no.

It wasn’t until 2012 that his trajectory finally pointed towards the bestselling author he would later become.

Publishing Articles Twice a Week

In November 2012, James Clear launched a new website. He vowed to publish a new article every Monday and Thursday.

Even though he feared it was too late to start writing online, he kept that pace for the first three years. Reflecting on this first year of writing online, he writes:

“I wrote a new article every Monday and Thursday in 2013. (I only missed one day all year, which happened when I was sick with food poisoning while traveling through Italy).

My first article was published on November 12, 2012. I’m proud to say that since that time I have published 114 articles on JamesClear.com and received 686,937 unique visitors.”

His streak went on in 2014. In his annual review, he says:

“I’m proud to say that I stuck to this schedule without missing a post in 2014. I did take some time off during a planned sabbatical in June.”

2013 was also the first time he wrote about identity-based habits. Three years of writing online would go by until he was offered a book deal.

James Clear (Source: James Clear/Flickr CC BY 2.0)

“The most important thing is also the least sexy one. I wrote two to three articles per week for three years, and I tried my best every time.” — James Clear

Following His Two Most Important Principles

While his business ideas iterated, he realized two core principles. In essence, it’s what still drives his continuous growth.

Discover what your audience wants

Early on in his entrepreneurial journey, he advised people who wanted to build a business.

“I’m about to let you in on an advanced technique that everyone should be using — and it’s really simple. Ask people what they want from you.

It is critical that you get to know the people that spend time on your site. Ask them what they want. Get to know their interests and needs. You will gain valuable insights about what you should be offering.”

He intuitively understood what Pat Flynn would later popularize as ‘Will it fly’ or Tucker Max as the ‘Target book audience’. You can copy his approach to learn more about your audience.

“Also, use open-ended questions that are proven to get responses. For example, a great question would go like this, “With respect to [your topic], what is the number one problem that I can help you with?”

When you start like James Clear — publishing on a blog, within a newsletter, or on Medium, you can build an audience before selling a book. You’re more likely to land a book deal and have an existing audience when you start selling your book.

Writing online before writing a book diminishes your risk. Instead of assuming what people want to read from you, the data shows you what works and what doesn’t. You get to know your audience without any sunk costs.

Writing online helps you discover the value you can bring to your audience before taking any money from them. Clear writes:

“I have readers emailing me each week asking when my book is coming out. I have friends telling me every month that I need to launch a product. Maybe it’s my own fears or mental barriers holding me back, but I haven’t done it yet. I want to do it. I plan to do it.”

Connect with your audience using email marketing

In a podcast interview, he explained that his email list went from 0 to 30,000 subscribers in the first year.

Eight years later, on Jan 5th, 2021, his list hit 1 million subscribers.

What did he do? He focused on connecting with his audience to truly understand their needs and build an email list from day one./media/e424a38d9f3b51c7b55549d26cde4674

Continuous Improvement for High Quality

Clear says it took him about a year to find his voice. He copied the style from various artists he admired. The longer he stuck with a writing habit, the more he developed his voice.

Even when he discovered his niche, he didn’t start writing a book. Instead, he continued improving his website.

He explains that the average article took him 20 hours to write. During his sabbatical, he reflected on how he could improve his writing. He added pictures to his articles and sources below every single one.

It’s this learner’s mindset he fostered all along.

“Picking what to read and making sure I’m reading consistently is a really important part of my writing and idea-generating process.” — James Clear

Final Thoughts

Success isn’t linear. James Clear could have stopped in 2010. He could have quit after his travel photography failed to take off. He could have quit after the demand for his financial freedom app didn’t materialize.

But he didn’t. He searched for his niche, produced consistently, and never stopped learning. And so can you.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

This is How I Made My First $30,000 From Writing Online

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7 beginner-friendly tips to get you started.

Photo by Julia M Cameron from Pexels

I published my first article in late March 2020. Since then, I made a full-time income from Medium and writing for clients that found me via the platform.

I had no prior writing experience, and English is not my first language.

Yet, I won’t say anyone can succeed. Writing is like running. You get better with practice, and almost anyone can do it. But how many of the people who fancy running end up running a marathon?

99% who read this will never start or quit too early. But if you’re in for the long-term, the following strategies and tips will help you make a solid income.

1) Is starting on a platform still worth it?

It depends on your answers to the following questions.

  1. Do you have an existing +10K follower base on any social media platform?
  2. Are you good at SEO or plan to learn it?
  3. Do you know how to code or want to build your website on a CMS like WordPress, Ghost, or Wix?
  4. Can you spare $2,000 to hire help in case you fail with SEO or programming?

If you answer yes to all of these questions, write a blog. Read this excellent guide by Natt Eliason, and stop reading this article now.

In all other cases, start on Medium.

Publishing is frictionless. You tap into an existing audience. Through publications, comments, and curation, you receive feedback on your writing. Data on reading time will give you additional insights. Plus, you don’t have to spend time finding sponsorships or affiliates for your website. You get paid based on the user’s reading time on your articles.

Even if Medium didn’t pay me a single cent, I’d write on the platform. I get thoughtful comments and 10–15 e-mail subscribers a day. I see the platform as a tool for learning and growing my business.

What you can do:

Create an account and enroll in the Medium Partnerships Program.

2) How to find endless ideas

When I wrote my first three articles, I feared I’d run out of ideas. But with a system in place, this won’t happen.

The more you create, the more creative you become. Research shows the best ideas will arise once you flow into the writing process.

Once you get the ideas, you want to capture them. Most of my ideas come while I write an article, read a book, or talk to friends. How I capture the ideas evolved over the months from Trello, to Notion, to Milanote.

v1 Idea Management on Trello March 2020 —July 2020 (Screenshot by author)
v2 Idea Management on Notion August 2020 —December 2020 (Screenshot by author)
v3 Idea Management on Milanote Jan 2021 —today (Screenshot by author)

But in the end, it’s less about the tool and more about a system. A lack of structure is a threat to creativity.

Thanks to the process of capturing everything on the go, I never start with an empty page. I know I have more ideas than I will ever be able to cover.

What you can do:

Pick your favorite tool and start collecting ideas today. What are you curious about? Do you have life lessons worth sharing? Any insights based on your studies or your profession? Write your first 10 article ideas and add a line or two. From now on, capture any idea.

“The essential ingredients for creativity remain exactly the same for everybody: courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, trust — and those elements are universally accessible.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert

3) The single metric you should measure

Unless you’ve written before, your first twenty articles will suck and not reach a broad audience. Don’t stress about it. Every good writer goes through self-doubt and the valley of despair.

The most important metric to measure is whether you created quality content. I found the Medium distribution guidelines very helpful for adding value to my writing.

Many first-time writers say they read and follow the guidelines when they don’t (me included).

How to spot it? They write journal-like entries instead of focusing on the reader. Burn the following advice from Medium’s editorial team into your mind:

“Does it add value for the reader? — Does it share new insights or perspectives? Offer an original take on a familiar issue? Does it stir emotions and/or thinking? Provide meaningful advice? Enrich a reader’s understanding of the topic? Does it feel like time well spent?”

Writing is different from journaling. Avoid using “I” too much. Posts are not about you but the reader. Always put the reader’s benefit first by putting yourself in their shoes. How can you derive actionable advice from your article? Where can you add more empathy for your reader?

Value creation is the single most important metric to focus on. Most successful writers I know went from a niche audience to a broader audience by focusing on the group of people they can truly help.

What you can do:

Study the distribution guidelines. Take notes. Read through the work of successful writers, such as Michael Thompson, Megan Holstein, and Niklas GĂśke.

4) Publish with big publications

Think about it this way: The official Headspace Youtube Channel with 425,000 subscribers would publish your article about meditating. You could reach almost half a million people without having to build this audience.

With Medium publications, you can do exactly that. Better Humans has almost 400,000 followers. If you publish an article with them, you can reach way more people than you would have ever reached by self-publishing.

Many writers feel demotivated by rejections and miss out on the power of publications.

You have to write quality content before big publications accept your work. Don’t feel angry if they don’t want you in the beginning. Your writing isn’t good enough yet.

I applied 9 times for Mind Cafe, 12 times to Better Humans, and 15 times to P.S.: I Love You before publishing with them. Some publications haven’t added me (yet). But I’ll try again and again.

What you can do:

Choose publications within your niche. Search for the top writers in your topic and look where the most successful articles were published.

Once you found your target publications read their submission guidelines and recent posts they published. Then, write quality content, and submit. Don’t feel discouraged by rejections. Be patient. Tapping into the existing audience is worth the wait.

5) Collect your reader’s emails

“You have to start collecting emails today,” Sinem Günel told me in one of our first coaching sessions.

I had just published my first article, and asking my 7 readers to sign up for a non-existing newsletter seemed hilarious.

But Sinem insisted: “Now is the right time to start one. If you’re trying to make money online, your email list is one of your biggest assets.”

A year and 1K+ subscribers later, I know she was right. Platforms change. Emails don’t. Your follower’s email address is their most permanent online identity.

What you can do:

Register on Convertkit, Mailchimp, Substack, or Mailerlite. I chose to go with Convertkit as it’s intuitive, free and helps me grow my audience. But again, the tool doesn’t matter that much. The important part is to get started.

Add a call to action at the bottom of each article. Until recently, my CTA was a fluffy “Do you want to connect? Sign-Up here”.

Don’t worry if you’re unsure about your newsletter’s content. I didn’t send a single email until six months in. But when I knew what I wanted to write about, I started with 400 subscribers.

6) Write headlines that make people click

Simple but sad: If your headline isn’t interesting, nobody will read your article. There’s so much great content that will never be read because the headline sucks. You can write the best blog post, but without a great headline, nobody will read it.

To succeed in online writing, you must learn to write great headlines. Writing headlines is unglamorous. That’s why many writers avoid practicing the craft.

But to make money with writing online, there’s no way around it. The best headlines make the reader curious, describe a transformation, offer a specific benefit, or a thought-provoking statement.

“I’ve written more than 15,000 headlines since I’ve started writing. Only one percent of them are really good. Those one percent of headlines I’ve written created 100 percent of my viral successes. Every single morning, I write down 10 ideas for headlines. […] I promise, if you don’t learn how to write good headlines, you’ll never have a career as a blogger. Never. So do it.”

— Ayodeji Awosika

What you can do:

Browse through your reading list and save the headlines that made you click. Write 10 headlines every morning before you start writing. Most writers never do it. By practicing, you gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

7) Use online tools to improve your writing

These tools won’t turn you into a professional writer; they will level up your writing process. These are the tools I use daily:

Are you ready to increase your income?

Making money from online creation is a long-term game. You won’t see the desired results in the beginning. But if you keep working, you might suddenly hit a glass ceiling.

Progress is slow but exponential. Whenever you think about quitting, keep in mind, you’re in for the long term. Writing in 2021 isn’t hard.

Making money through writing works by providing value at scale. Here’s what to remember:

  • Enroll in the Medium partner program.
  • Collect every idea with your favorite tool.
  • Focus on creating value for the reader.
  • Pitch and publish with the big publications.
  • Start an email newsletter from day one.
  • Write ten headlines every day.
  • Use online tools to improve your texts.

Don’t waste time searching for a secret sauce. Use success stories as inspiration but don’t get lost in them. Creation is all that matters.

When looking at your metrics, don’t feel discouraged. Use data to analyze what works and do more of it. But apart from that, don’t agonize over low stats. Instead, spend all of your energy consistently creating user-centric content.

You’re not too late to the party. Today is the perfect time to start. Follow these steps and make a full-time living as an online writer.

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My Life Became Richer the Day I Stopped Chasing Passive Income

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It’s worth questioning the beaten track.

Author at an EU conference about innovation in education. (Source: Heinnovate, 2018).

“You’re never going to get rich renting out your time,” Naval Ravikant says. “Earn with your mind, not your time.”

And it’s true: people can become wealthy by establishing systems that make money independent from time. They build products with no costs for selling additional units such as books, online courses, media, movies, and code.

And so I did. When I became self-employed last summer, I said no to trading my time for money. I declined freelance gigs and job offers from previous clients and focused on building scalable online income streams.

Within a few months, I made 4x the amount of my previous full-time teaching job. Yet, something felt odd. After two months of a $10,000+ income, I felt less happy than before. Passive income didn’t make me as happy as I thought it would. Here’s why my life became richer the day I stopped optimizing for passive income.

Activities exist in hierarchies.

When you focus on building passive income, your time becomes your most valuable resource. Pretending your time is worth $1,000 can make you 100x more productive.

You hire freelancers and focus on the strategic tasks that push your business forward. You evaluate how you can use your time in the best way to multiply your returns without putting in more hours — but it comes at a cost.

Chasing passive income will downgrade all activities that don’t push you towards your goal. You’re trapped in a logic of material productivity, competition, and greed for money. Things and actions that value love, enjoyment, empathy, mindfulness, understanding, and care have less value.

You won’t be able to enjoy a hobby such as reading because you’ll become obsessed with work.

“There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Passive income makes you greedy.

In the 1930s, John Maynard Keynes predicted that people stop striving for more as soon as their needs are met. Once they reach this point, they prefer to live the good life.

But his theory was wrong. Even though economies reached all-time highs, people don’t work less. In ‘How much is enough?’, Edward and Robert Skidelsky describe how the rich world has so much less leisure than Keynes suggested.

Why? Material desires are limitless.

Once you make a few thousand bucks a month, you don’t retire and live the good life. You see your growth trajectory, and you want more.

Maximum income ≠ maximum impact.

The people most in need are not the ones who drive your sales. By focusing on and optimizing for your target audience, you overlook those who need help but can’t pay for it.

In ‘I spend, therefore I am,’ Philip Roscoe argues that the justifications of economics make you set aside any social or moral obligations. Instead, you act within a limited, short-term definition of self-interest.

This mindset is responsible for the gravest problem we face: the empathy gap.

The ones who belong to the dominant groups — white, heteronormative, without disability, cis-gender — don’t learn to develop empathy for those who do not belong to the norm.

And maximizing income with digital products widens this gap. You lose touch with reality. You’re not challenged to question your worldview. Instead, you remain in a neat online bubble.

When I think back on my best workdays, they don’t include screens or income. The happiest moments always happened with people around me — helping the local community or doing things nobody wanted to do.

Passive income delays doing what you want to do.

When you’ve built passive income streams, you can do whatever you want with your life. But why not do what you want in the first place?

Oh, yes, right. You first need to ‘achieve it’ before you can allow yourself to do what you love.

Optimizing for passive income is like taking a consultancy job. You take it because of the promises that await you after you made it. But taking any job is not about what you’ll get as a result. It’s about who you become on the way.

Chasing after passive income is just another way for delaying the most important question: How do you want to spend your life?

Once I answered this question, my priorities shifted. I work 5–10 hours a week for an education NGO without earning a cent. I traded time for money and accepted a part-time project for fostering entrepreneurship education at schools.

Does that mean I don’t know the value of my time? On the contrary — I know what I want to do with my life: improving education.

You tie your self-worth to your net worth.

With internalized capitalism, it’s easier to measure your worth by what you have instead of who you are. Your self-worth depends on your performance.

The online world celebrates people for making a specific amount of money a month. But when you seek external confirmation, you lose sight of what really matters.

Instead of running in the corporate hamster wheel, chasing promotions, you’re chasing the next number. You built the very hamster wheel you wanted to escape. In the pursuit of passive income, it’s easy to forget what you truly live for.

On days I made $400+, I felt great. On the other days, I didn’t. And in both cases, I looked for ways to accelerate monetary growth. But as Edward Abbey says:

“Growth for the sake of growth is the motto of the cancer cell.”

In Conclusion

Do I want people to stop chasing passive income? No. But we should stop idealizing it. The passive income chase can be destructive. It can make you self-centered, greedy, unhappy, and possessive of time.

Focus on finding a job you genuinely enjoy. And if that means working in a kindergarten — by all means — please do it. You’d be my hero.

True heroes are the ones who are generous with their time. The ones who give back to society without expecting anything in return.

Whether your goal is passive income or not, it’s about you finding your own way. But I bet you won’t lie in your death bed regretting the dollars you didn’t earn. What you might regret is supporting a system that discriminates against minorities.

My life became so much richer the day I stopped chasing passive income. I hope yours will too.

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The Two Traits That Made Joe Rogan a Million Dollar Podcaster

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No, it’s not consistency and patience.

Photo by Luis Miguel P. Bonilla from Pexels

Joe Rogan is to podcasting what Stephen King is to writing.

Their careers weren’t set from the start. They took random jobs to pay the bills. Both honed their crafts in early adulthood and pumped out content like crazy. To date, Joe published 1615 episodes, Stephen 62 novels.

Stephen is among the richest authors; Joe is the highest-paid podcaster.

In the past year, I published 149 articles and 61 podcast episodes. I’m still a bloody beginner. But I want to learn from the best.

I spent some hours analyzing Joe’s success and was surprised. Many online creators preach consistency is key. But Joe’s story adds deeper layers to the common advice.

From Kickboxer to Kickass Podcaster

Joe’s journey wasn’t clear from the start. In 1988 he set out to become a stand-up comedian and kickboxer. He said he tried to pay the bills by delivering newspapers, driving limousines, and construction work.

Between 1995 and 2006, he appeared on TV shows, continued with stand-up comedy, and became an interviewer and commentator for the UFC. In 2005, he hired two full-time employees to film him on tour.

In short: Joe had a ton of different jobs before starting his podcast.

The Joe Rogan Experience launched on December 24, 2009. If you look at one of his early videos, you see he even was a bloody beginner. You find snowflakes on-screen and identify the background as one of his house’s spare rooms.

In a podcast with Jon Stewart, he says about his early days: “The early episodes sucked. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t think anyone was listening. It was just for fun.”

And while his Comedy career and TV shows contributed to his conversational qualities, his career path hasn’t always been clear.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

— Steve Job

Joe’s dots connected in the future. These days his podcast gets 200 million downloads a month. If we look at the pricing for podcast advertising, he charges something between $22 and $50 CPM. Joe makes somewhere between $53-$120 million a year solely based on podcast advertising.

His real income is likely higher as he generates revenue from his 8 million subscribers YouTube Channel. Plus, Rogan signed a hundred million dollar deal with Spotify. Joe is indeed the highest-paid podcaster.

What Makes His Show Successful?

To be successful in anything, you need to be persistent. That’s the prerequisite. If he had stopped a few years in, he would have never gotten where he is right now.

But I’m pretty sure there are a few hundred other podcasters who started in 2009 and continued for five or even ten years without ever seeing the success Joe is seeing.

Two traits made his show so successful — courage and curiosity.

Courage

In his 1,600 episodes and counting, his guests range from comedians, over fighters, and thinkers including Elon Musk, Tim Ferriss, Sam Harris, and Rhonda Patrick.

If his guests have one thing in common, it’s that Rogan doesn’t pick them by fame but by sympathy. Every conversation feels like a small journey as he really tries to understand his guests.

Often dialogues drift into surprising directions. For example, the conversation with Metallica singer James Hetfield was less about heavy metal and more about bees and alcoholism.

But Rogan’s also not afraid to ask hard questions and discuss controversial topics. If somebody delivers sound arguments, he likely changes a stance on topics he was very certain about.

A person who lived like Joe Rogan for six weeks summarized the charm of his mission perfectly: “Hear several facets of a narrative, entertain disagreeing viewpoints, and decide positions from a place of the reason all without losing one’s cool or resorting to petty insults.”

Curiosity

To entertain disagreeing viewpoints is a rare gift of our time and super needed. Joe is genuinely interested in the position of someone who thinks differently, as in his interview with Ben Shapiro.

The unscripted, interested, sometimes, hour-long conversations make his guests open up. He creates an atmosphere where you can disagree without discomfort. He detaches arguments from a personal level. Even in disputes, he aims to find common ground.

In a time where the media often takes aside, these open-minded moments are gold. Politically Rogan is probably one of few public figures whose attitudes are difficult to assign.

As this article analyzes, Rogan advocates introducing the unconditional basic income as suggested by Yang, the legalization of cannabis, and marriage for same-sex couples. He identified himself as a supporter of left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders. On the other hand, he complains about high taxes and is hostile to transgender activists.

I disagree with Jordan Peterson on most of his positions, but in his reasoning for Rogan’s success, he couldn’t have been clearer:

“You’re very very curious but also very very tough. It’s interesting watching you because if you don’t understand something you will go after the person […] you’re really good at pursuing things you don’t understand instead of assuming that you know what you’re talking.”

Joe is by all means not perfect, and there are viewpoints I disagree with. But his courage and curiosity help him produce episodes millions of people want to hear.

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How Ali Abdaal Makes Over $1m Per Year as an Online Entrepreneur

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And the habits that helped him achieve success.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

From 2017 to 2020, Ali Abdaal built a 7-figure online business while completing his full-time medical studies at Cambridge.

As a YouTuber, instructor, and podcaster, he explores the principles, strategies, and tools that help people live happier, healthier, more productive lives. His YouTube channel has 1.4 million subscribers, and with a book and a second online cohort around the corner, these numbers likely double in 2021.

Recently, he published a 50-minute video on how much he earned in 2020. Ali’s levels of humbleness, humor, and self-reflection make it one of the most inspiring entrepreneurship videos I’ve seen.

This article gives a quick glance at how he made more than a million dollars in 2020, and more importantly, the key takeaways from his entrepreneurial journey.

How Ali Abdaal made +$1,000,000 as a YouTuber

Ali diversified his online income streams over the years. While he built the last two pillars in his early online career, the first three emerged more recently.

1) Skillshare Courses: $475,700

Teachers on Skillshare earn revenue through royalty payments and premium referrals. Instructors make money for every minute watched by Premium students in their classes and for every student they bring through a referral link.

Ali has seven classes on Skillshare, with more than 100,000 students watching his classes at more than 9,000,000 minutes of watch time.

2) Self-Created Online Course: $371,046

In 2020, Ali launched the part-time YouTuber academy. He teaches students how to grow a YouTube channel from 0 to 100,000+ subscribers and transform it into a sustainable, income-generating machine.

The pricing starts at $1495 for the essential package, up to $4995 for the premium package. His 2021 enrollment for February is already sold out.

3) Sponsorships: $184,843

Brands pay YouTubers to feature their products or services in some way. Sponsorships require an existing audience, and Ali got his first sponsorship deal in 2018 when he already had 50k subscribers.

Sponsored videos might run in-video advertisements or use product placements, like Ali does here with Notion, or here with Apple.

4) Affiliates: $180,047

Affiliate marketers earn a commission by promoting other people’s or company’s products and content. The broader creators’ reach, the more people will buy what they talk about.

Ali’s main affiliate income sources include Amazon’s affiliate program, Tiago Forte’s Second Brain Course, a special Keyboard, and a paperlike iPad protector.

5) AdSense: $136,859

Google AdSense is the main income for many YouTubers. The advertisements are the short 5-second clips before videos or the snippets you see while watching a video. To start earning money with AdSense, YouTubers need a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 valid watch-hours on their channel.

For reaching $136,859 in 2020, Ali published 98 videos with 1.3 million subscribers.

5 Lessons from Ali’s Journey

It’s tempting to use Ali’s success as an example for a get-rich-quick scheme. Nothing could be further from the truth. His entrepreneurial journey is another proof that shortcuts don’t exist. Instead, success is a result of smart habits and strategies.

#1 Focus on the single most important metric.

Value creation is the most important metric to measure. Recently, Ali shared a tweet, stating:

“Achieving creator-market fit feels a lot like cheating because you can suddenly grow incredibly fast.”

But if you look at his history, you see that he didn’t cheat. He found his creator-market fit step by step.

In his first months, he targeted the one group he could provide value for: students wanting to get accepted into Cambridge medical school. He recorded videos on test-taking and interview questions.

A few months in, he expanded for the students among him, sharing learning strategies and university productivity desk set up. Only after more than a year of video creation, he tapped into a broader audience and shared videos on note-taking, a general desk setup, reading, and time-management.

He went from a niche audience to a broader audience by focusing on the group of people he can truly help.

How to apply this lesson:
What do you know that can help other people grow? What have you done with ease that other people are struggling to achieve? Focus on this niche as a start. Whatever you do, focus on the single most important metric: creating value for your audience.

#2 Publish consistently for +2 years.

Ali started in 2017 and didn’t earn a cent from his first 50 videos. He needed to build a solid 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch-hours before he’d qualify for the income program.

Around the same time, Ali posted his first video in 2017, Danika Chilibeck and I started Investella, a personal investment platform for women by women. We put in 20, 40, 100 hours and but didn’t see desired results. We grew impatient because we didn’t make any money. A few months in, we stopped.

That’s the difference between Ali and most people on this planet. He continued to trust in his process and producing great content, while most aspiring entrepreneurs stop along the way.

His YouTube success didn’t come overnight. Before earning +$100k a year, he had published more than 300 videos. He stuck to the process and published consistently without expecting returns.

How to apply this lesson:
Making money from online creation is a long-term game. You won’t see the desired results in the beginning. But if you keep working, you might suddenly hit a glass ceiling. Progress is slow but exponential. Whenever you think about quitting, keep in mind, you’re in for the long term.

#3 Accept there’s no secret sauce.

While preparing this article, I expected to find a secret sauce for growing a content channel into a thriving business. But there’s no secret.

On his website, Ali writes that all it takes to become a successful online entrepreneur are three things:

  • Producing content that your audience finds useful (see #1)
  • Posting this on YouTube once a week (see #2)
  • Repeating this for 2+ years (see #2)

Successful content creators know there’s no magic trick. And that’s why they can calmly focus on creation. Ali followed his own advice. He created one to two high-quality YouTube videos for more than three years and ultimately saw the results.

How to apply this lesson:
Don’t waste time searching for a secret source. Use success stories as inspiration but don’t get lost in them. Creation is all that matters. When looking at your metrics, don’t feel discouraged. Use data to analyze what works and do more of it. But apart from that, don’t agonize over low stats. Instead, spend all of your energy consistently creating user-centric content.

#4 Always invest in learning and growth.

In 2017 Ali invested £ 2000 in buying camera equipment while he didn’t make a single cent from his new YouTube channel. Three years later, he wrote in the advertisement for his part-time academy:

“ I’ve spent over $30,000 in courses and coaching programs.”

Learning fuels growth. The best entrepreneurs are lifelong learners and don’t hesitate to spend money on themselves. A quote from Billionaire investor Warren Buffett sums up why this strategy works:

“The best investment you can make, is an investment in yourself. The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.”

How to apply this lesson:
Make self-investments and learning a priority. Seek courses, coaching, and training within your niche. Don’t agonize about whether you should spend money on these things. Save on consumer goods, and invest the spare income into learning and growth. Finally, make reading a habit.

#5 Connect with new people.

Ali said he planned to launch his part-time YouTuber academy as another Skillshare course. Then he talked to Tiago Forte and David Perell (both sell online courses at +$1500 and +$4000).

Probably that’s how Ali learned about the features of learner-centric online courses: highly interactive, community-based, feedback opportunities, accountability.

Because he connected with people who’ve successfully done what he intended to do, he deviated from his original plan. He learned that a top tier offer at a higher price is a better way to go.

How to apply this lesson:
Make it a habit to connect with new people. In a Forge article, Michael Thompson shared great strategies for how to do it. He suggests calling one new person every week and reaching out to people you already have weak ties with.

What’s next?

If there’s one thing we learn from Ali Abdaal’s impressive way towards a YouTube millionaire, it’s that the best way to make large amounts of money on the internet is to provide value at scale. Here’s what to remember:

  • Focus on creating value for the audience.
  • Publish high-quality content for +2 years.
  • Stop searching for the secret sauce.
  • Make it a habit to invest in learning and growth.
  • Regularly connect with new people around you.

Are you a life-long learner? Join my e-mail newsletter for insights on reading, learning, and growth.

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How to Start an NGO from Home

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An actionable guide for purpose-driven businesses

Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels

In December 2019, we couldn’t have known that founding a remote NGO would turn out to be the only way to bring an idea to life in 2020.

What started with a social media post from one of our co-founders turned into a fast-growing nonprofit organization with a 20 people team and a 28% user growth rate.

As we’re a digital match-making platform for equal educational opportunity, the pandemic didn’t harm us. On the contrary, we have a strong, growing demand from students with non-academic families and an even faster-growing supply of supporting mentors.

Our world needs more purpose-driven businesses tackling education, climate change, or other social challenges. And as this story will reveal, starting from home can be a great opportunity to found an NGO.

I’m one of the co-founders, and I’ve been working on the core-team since day one. Together with the other founders, we analyzed our story and came up with an actionable guide on how to remotely start and scale a purpose-driven idea.

1. Sharing the ‘Why’ and ‘What’ on LinkedIn

To start an NGO, other people first need to know about the idea. Simon Sinek’s classic golden circle is a great way to structure the initial social media post.

In this manner, our co-founder Kevin articulated his idea on LinkedIn. A post that eventually would reach more than 234.000 people.

“Being the first in my family to go to uni, I faced multiple headwinds as higher education was not considered to be something one should aim for and could afford. What started as an experiment ended up in six years full of studying and working in Cologne, Shanghai, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Munich, Lisbon, and Milan.”

After empathetically sharing the why — his personal, educational path — he stated what he plans to do to tackle the problem:

“In 2020, I want to further work on a platform that aims at building a community to connect those who want to study as the first in their family with those who already did it. Your family background should not predetermine your educational path!”

I asked Kevin how much time it took him to craft this post and whether he expected virality. “I thought back and forth how exactly I’d write what I mean,” he said, “but I didn’t expect to recruit an entire team for my idea.”

So while one can never plan the effects of a social media post, this example demonstrates the importance of clear communication. By putting some hours into crafting a meaningful, personal post with a clear why and an achievable what, it’s likely one finds people who want to join forces.

The quality of a post often increases in direct proportion to how much time we spend crafting it. That’s why it makes sense to put work into the initial message.

2. Gathering A Group of Like-minded People

A shareable and likable post is a great lever to recruit people who want to work on a solution. After his post, Kevin received countless comments and messages from people who wanted to support or team-up.

To capture the momentum, he created a closed LinkedIn group and added all people who expressed interest. In retrospect, this move was genius. The group formation turned passive bystanders into direct idea stakeholders.

Once in the group, I felt I was part of meaningful creation. And many others must have felt the same way. When Kevin suggested doodling a kick-off call, 30 people joined.

To structure the conversation, we used a collaboration tool like Miro. As the picture shows, we wrote down the vision, the required task forces, and a rough timeline.

Screenshot of Miro Board by Author

With a protocol follow-up in the LinkedIn group and the opportunity to contribute to the Miro board, all idea stakeholders started with equal alignment. Plus, the transparent co-creation set the tone for the next steps.

3. Building a Self-Selected Core Team

After forming a common understanding within the LinkedIn group, it soon became clear we couldn’t effectively work on a 150 people team. Kevin could have started a formal selection process. But he didn’t. Instead, the core team formed through self-selection.

In Germany, one needs 7 founders to register an NGO officially. But instead of starting a competition, the communication was clear: Those who have time, and the drive, will become part of the core team. Those who don’t will remain supports and receive regular updates within the LinkedIn group.

When I asked Kevin about the selection process, he said: “I think there were 3–4 people who didn’t end up in the core team. Not because we pushed them out, but rather because they didn’t want to or didn’t have the drive themselves.” Reflecting on the formation, he concluded: “Self-selection is really the crucial point.”

Self-selection made our team diverse. Since the core team formation, it’s been a key asset to have a lawyer, a techie, an HR expert, a visual wizard, a sales guru, students, business developers, and process and strategy consultants in our team. What unites us is the joint mission to tackle education equality by creating a scalable product for students with non-academic backgrounds.

Within the first 11 months since our launch, we bootstrapped the business. We didn’t need to pay for external services. Remote founding has the benefits of large network effects. As we bring 12 different circles of friends, there’s always somebody who knows a person with the skills required to solve our next problem.

4. Setting a Launch Date for the MVP

Once the founding team was set, and we settled on communication tools and regular touchpoints. We had a bi-weekly Saturday morning call to discuss our progress. Yet, three months in, we got off-track.

“We were in a phase where things got vague,” my co-founder describes. “We always tried to develop further, to improve processes, but at the same time, many people lost their motivation because we had been working for long without visible results.”

To regain our drive, Kevin set a launch date for our minimum viable product. With a clear going-life date in mind, our team got back on track. We launched a website, set up a mentoring process, developed marketing strategies, created content, and built a community.

Today, three months after our launch date, we’ve more than 200 mentors, 80 mentees, and crossed the 50 match mark.

Number of mentees, mentors, and total matches; Screenshot by Author

Struggles Along The Way

While many things went smoothly, there were three key obstacles along the way. Here are the things only hindsight can reveal.

#1 Implement Slack as a Communication Platform

For most of the early days, we had all of our discussions on WhatsApp. Many ideas were lost. We should have switched to Slack earlier.

#2 Protocols and To-Do Lists

As within many organizations, many of our meetings were unproductive. While the talk time felt nice, we struggled (and still do) to have a team-wide agenda, protocol, and to-do list system.

#3 Expectation Management

As there was no formal recruiting process, and all of us work voluntarily, we never discussed how much time we expect each team member to contribute.

Key Takeaways

Starting from home can be an advantage for building an NGO. It helps you find and team with people you didn’t even know existed.

It forces you to focus on finding a vision worth building instead of fantasizing about vague ideas on societal improvements.

After all, your idea takes off or sinks. To increase your chances of success, remember:

  1. A well-crafted LinkedIn Post (including why and what).
  2. The formation of a large pool of like-minded people.
  3. Building a driven, self-selected core team.
  4. Setting an MVP launch date to increase team motivation.

Starting and building an NGO from home can work. Yet, it also takes work.

But who’s gonna make it work, if not you?

14 Respectful, Yet Effective Ways to Say No

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“Very successful people say no to almost everything” — Warren Buffett

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

— Warren Buffett

We all know focus leads to greater success. Yet, most people dilute their focus by saying yes when they should be saying no.

Whether we are driven by the fear of missing out or by the urge of pleasing others, saying yes too often weakens our personality.

The more often you say yes to something, the weaker your yes becomes. The more projects you take on, the fewer your available energy for every single of those projects.

To make a change in the world, you must learn to say no.

And while the first no seems daunting, it’ll become easier every time you say it. Just like anything in life, saying no is a skill you can learn.

And once you have a repertoire for “no’s” at your disposal, you can adapt and use them for your needs.

Here are 14 curated ways to say no with instructive examples on when to use them.

1. Thanks for reaching out. I appreciate the thought, but my priorities are elsewhere.

This no is clear and concise. You can use it for any casual invite or idea. When you feel the urge to help, you can also offer an alternative solution.

For example, if somebody is asking you for advice, point them towards a book you like, an article you wrote, or a podcast episode you recorded.

2. This sounds super exciting, but unfortunately, I can’t find the time.

The key to an effective “no” is not to get lost in over-explaining. Every extra justification will weaken your no.

Instead, make a straightforward statement. By saying you can’t find the time, you won’t open the room for negotiation.

While in truth, “can’t find the time” is a more respectful way to say, “I don’t find it important enough,” most people won’t question your reply.

3. I’m flattered you considered me, but regrettably, I’ll have to pass this time.

This one is my favorite “no” to hear. I got it countless times from speakers I requested while organizing a startup conference in Vienna.

I love it because the prase shows appreciation and leaves the door open for future opportunities. “This time” implies there might be the next time.

It’ll be more comfortable for the opposite person to accept your “no” when you leave the door open for future collaboration.

4. No thanks, I won’t be able to make it.

This one is short and requires confidence. The shorter your “no,” the harder it is to say. A brief, gracious “no” takes practice.

But once you dare to speak it out loud, you’ll be able to repeat it the next time.

5. Regrettably, I’m not able to. I can‘t set aside the time needed.

While still short, this way to say “no” demonstrates you thought the option through. It’s a great combination of logic and empathy.

You assessed the time that’d be needed to complete the ask and measured it against your available time. This “no” is a logical, thoughtful conclusion.

Yet, the use of “regrettably” demonstrates your empathy. You would have loved to, but you can’t.

“The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”

— Lin Yutang

6. No, but I know someone that might be a fit for that. I’ll email you their information.

This one shifts the focus from your reply to a new person. This one works great when you don’t have a respectful reason to say no.

You let the other person know you can’t while still offering an alternative solution.

Instead of worrying why you said no, your counterpart would shift the energy towards the new option on the table.

7. I wish I could help you out, but already committed to other projects. I’ll let you know if something changes.

This phrase shows your competence. It demonstrates you’re clear about your priorities. At the same time, you offer empathy as you state you wish you could help.

It shows your yes is a hell yes. It shows when you say yes to something; your commitment equals 100%.

By briefly explaining your why the other person will understand and accept your respectful no.

“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”

— Peter Drucker

8. Thank you so much for asking. Can you keep me on your list for next year?

In this case, you say “no” without actually saying no. It indicates you can’t find the time this year but would be interested next year. You leave the door open and let the other know that you want to help.

Still, to get your help, the other side needs to check-in at another point. There’s a high chance the second check-in will never happen. At the same time, the other person will keep you in good memory because of your willingness to help.

9. I am unable to say yes due to commitments that leave me unavailable until the end of the month.

This is a combination of the previous answers. It combines a time-bound aspect with a reason why you can’t say yes right now.

Again, make sure you don’t overexplain. Doing so suggests that you feel guilty about the refusal. Instead, keep your response straightforward.

I got this “no” many times when asking young professionals to volunteer as mentors for kids who are the first in their family to study.

It’s a great way to say no, as you give back the responsibility to act to the person asking. Now, it’s in my hands to follow-up after the month.

10. I’m learning to limit my commitments.

While this might sound unprofessional coming from a 40-year old business owner, it’s a great phrase for a person early in their career. It shows that you’re learning.

By stating you’re trying to learn here, you’ll trigger a supportive reaction from the other person. By accepting your “no,” the other individual feels they helped.

11. No, I’m not the best fit for it.

You want the project to be successful, but you’re not the right person to help. You made a valid point by demonstrating that you have the best intention in mind.

I was grateful when a potential speaker for our conference sent me this response. Better, to know beforehand that a person is not the right fit than when it’s too late.

12. No, sorry, sounds great, but I’d rather not.

This is borrowed from Ryan Holiday. Again, this one takes some courage as you don’t offer any explanation for your “no.”

To be honest, I still need some practice before I dare to use this one, so I can’t give you any insights on your counterpart’s reaction.

“Always Think About What You’re Really Being Asked to Give. Because the Answer Is Often a Piece of Your Life, Usually in Exchange for Something, You Don’t Even Want. Remember That That’s What Time Is. It’s Your Life, It’s Your Flesh and Blood, That You Can Never Get back.”

— Ryan Holiday

13. I’m going to say no for now. I’ll let you know if something changes.

Again, this one leaves the door open. Yet, you only get back if something changes.

As a default, the other person will not hear from you again. Thereby, you don’t set unrealistic expectations. In case you get back, the other person will be delighted as she didn’t expect it.

14. No, thanks.

Short and effective yet challenging to master. Remember that a clear “no” can be more graceful than a vague or noncommittal “yes.”

Firm but friendly boundaries lead to greater satisfaction in your life.

Finally, here are common ways how NOT to say no.

  • I only say yes to very select opportunities, and unfortunately, this doesn’t meet my criteria. 
    Deed. No empathy here.
  • Let me think about that.
    This “nay” is a very weak answer. Neither yes, nor no.
  • I’d love to, but I’m already overcommitted.
    It sounds like you can’t prioritize and don’t have your shit together.
  • I’m going to have to exert my NO muscle on this one.
    Don’t make a “no” about yourself. The request is about the other person.
  • No, sorry, I’m not taking on new things.
    Instead of demonstrating focus, this makes you sound narrow-minded.

Practice Saying No

Saying no is a skill you can learn. And, when delivered with respectfulness and tact, a “no” can be the fastest way to success.

Remember that every “yes” means a “no” to a million other things. And by saying no to 95% of all requests, you’ll make your “yeses” a lot more meaningful.

Choose your favorite phrases, try some of them, and skip the rest.

By using them, you’ll, step by step, reclaim your focus and find yourself on your path towards a happier, wealthier, and more meaningful life.

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These 7 Books Will Improve The Way You Work

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About productivity, mindsets, decision-making, and so much more.
Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

Most people spend most of their life working.

Yet, only a few try to improve how they work.

By working only one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. This is what James Clear calls the accumulative advantage:

“What begins as a small advantage gets bigger over time. One plant only needs a slight edge in the beginning to crowd out the competition and take over the entire forest.”

Reading the right books is the simplest and fastest way to get one percent better each day.

And by learning and applying strategies from the smartest minds, you can improve how you work step by step.

I regret I didn’t make reading a habit earlier. Yet, since I realized the books’ potential, I read every day. Since 2016, I’ve read 161 books.

Here is the list of seven books that will change the way you work, including why they‘re relevant and when you might want to read them.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker

This one is a fantastic meta-analysis of the latest scientific findings related to the Western idea of “success.”

Barker combines storytelling with science and shares how you can apply his findings to your work life.

If you question whether you’re on your right career path and look for bulletproof advice, this one is for you.

Most of Barker’s lessons are so simple yet effective that you will be astonished.

“Great mentors and great teachers help you learn faster. Not only should you care about your mentors; the mentors who really make you succeed need to care about you. When you relate to someone you look up to, you get motivated. And when that person makes you feel you can do that too, bang-that produces real results.”

Deep Work by Cal Newport

This book will improve how you work on various levels. After reading Deep Work, I stopped procrastinating and quit Instagram and Snapchat.

Deep work is a must-read for anyone doing any kind of work as it teaches you how to produce your best output. It’s also an excellent read for anyone who struggles to concentrate and achieve great results when life is distracting.

Cal Newport provides concrete, actionable advice on how to focus and engage in, what he calls, deep work. By putting deliberate thought into what you do, you’ll be less inclined to procrastinate.

“Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love — is the sum of what you focus on.”

Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

I love Ryan Holiday. Especially his articles about managing your time management and developing better habits.

In Ego is the Enemy, he helps us to get a deeper understanding of who we are. After reading, you’ll understand the anatomy of our success and failure.

The book is not only packed with inspiration that will empower you to produce your best work, but also includes actionable advice on how to live your best life.

It’s an ideal read for anyone who is either early in her career or achieved success and wonders what to do next.

“There’s no one to perform for. There is just work to be done and lessons to be learned, in all that’s around us.”

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

This one is quite different from the rest of the list, but there are a lot of life lessons to learn from this page-turner.

Bad Blood portraits the breathtaking rise and the surprising collapse of a unicorn startup in a way every reader can relate and form her own opinion.

I gasped out loud while reading this thriller-like business book as it shows what happens when a CEO and prioritizes ego above all else.

Bad Blood is worthwhile for anyone struggling with ethical questions or interested in the importance of honest work.

“The way Theranos is operating is like trying to build a bus while you’re driving the bus. Someone is going to get killed.”

The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhou

A consultant shared that she’d read and discussed this book at her Boston Consulting Group book club.

To be honest, I didn’t expect much. I thought it would go along the lines of other mediocre self-help fluff.

Turns out I was wrong.

Julie Zhou might turn into the Peter Drucker of our time. She shares everything from leading teams to managing oneself and nurturing culture.

Throughout the book, she asks powerful self-reflection questions and shares simple, yet applicable principles to excel at work.

This book is a growth bible for anyone who wants to step up from employee to a manager or recently got promoted to managing people.

“What opportunities do you see for me to do more of what I do well? What do you think are the biggest things holding me back from having greater impact?”

Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

The title sounds like clickbait, I know. But this book delivers on its promises as you access the brains of world-class performers.

I’ve read all books of Tim Ferriss but found this by far the most inspiring piece. Tools of Titans is an encyclopedia for personal growth and productivity.

The world-class performers in this book share all their strategies on how to become healthy, wealthy, and wise. This sounds like too much to cover in a single book, but the titans deliver the value.

“Losers have goals. Winners have systems.”

Mindset by Carol Dweck

If you’re only going to read one book on the list, you may want to choose this one. Why? It covers how to program your mind to excel at anything.

Dweck demonstrates how success in work, sports, and almost every area of human endeavor is influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities.

This book is a must-read for every person looking for personal growth. After reading this book, you’ll be able to integrate a growth mindset into your life, and you’ll see mistakes as valuable learning opportunities.

“No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.”

Once you get enough of an answer to act on, stop reading, and start doing.

Applied knowledge is power.

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What Every Entrepreneur Should Know About SEO

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The only step-by-step guide you need to succeed in SEO

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

Sales funnels, social media strategies, email marketing…these are only a few of the things any digital entrepreneur has to understand and apply.

As someone who has worked with several digital businesses, I know how overwhelming all of this can feel.

Unfortunately, I can’t provide a solution to all these areas, but after reading this post, you’ll be able to cover one of the essential areas of any digital business: SEO.

Setting up a website is easier than ever before, but how do you ensure people find your work?

SEO is the most effective way so that people really find your website.

You probably read articles on keyword research, backlink strategies, and H1 tags before and you might be aware of the importance of SEO, but how do you put all of this into action?

“A website without SEO is like a car with no gas.”

— Paul Cookson

WordPress.org was the CMS of choice for the websites I created. In retrospect, I can also recommend wordpress.org from an SEO perspective as there are great plugins and resources.

SEO is significant leverage to increase your visibility in the online space.

SEO can help yoga teachers, product owners, company co-founders, dentists, etc. — anyone who owns a website. Important message first: you do not need to have coding skills. Let’s take a deep dive into the three significant areas of SEO.

On-Page SEO

On-Page SEO is everything you do on your website. More specifically, on-page SEO contains Keyword Research, Content Strategy, and SEO Copywriting.

On-Page SEO is one of the three pillars of SEO (Source: Eva Keiffenheim).

Keyword research

Keyword research is the most important part of On-Page SEO. Unfortunately, I did not take this seriously two years ago and wrote my first blog articles before doing keyword research. By skipping the research step, my pieces were, from an SEO perspective, useless.

Without proper keyword research, you optimize for words that don’t help you advance your business or product. Here’s how to do proper keyword research so that you don’t waste as much time as I did.

First, consider your company’s mission and your audience before diving into the technical part of keyword research.

What is your unique selling proposition? How does your service/product enhance your visitors’ /companies’ lives?

Then, through the eyes of your visitors, think about which search terms users should find you for. Consider that your visitors do not look for technical terms.

An ugly but substantial truth upfront: the best SEO in the world won’t improve a shitty product or low-quality content. In case you are unsure about your product or service — use your website to ask for feedback and learn from potential customers instead of reading this SEO guide.

After doing proper keyword research, my final result looked like this table. I used a google sheet to prioritize my keywords (feel free to duplicate the research template to your cloud):

My Keyword Research Sheet (Source: Own Sheet based on Yoast SEO Academy)

Here’s how I filled each column with content and how you can master your keyword research, too.

For the first four columns:

  • Start with brainstorming all keywords that come to your mind and use the free tool “answer the public” for finding questions users ask related to your search term. Brainstorm at least four to five main groups for the first column.
  • Find related keywords to your main groups based on google search with Yoast google suggest expander
  • Look for keyword suggestions and keyword’s rank and search volume with ubersuggest by Neil Patel
  • Compare the search volume for different keywords over time and region with Google Trends and fill in the column “traffic potential.” Note that this is no exact number, but your best guess.

As I had new websites with a domain authority lower than 5, I aimed for mid to long-tail keywords. A mid-tail keyword would be “Yoga Studio Vienna” and a long-tail keyword “Ashtanga Yoga Studio next to Vienna University.” Long-tail keywords contain 4–6 content words and are therefore more specific. You reach a more targeted audience, while the search volume (people that type this word combination into google) is lower.

“In SEO the keyword length matters because, at least in the beginning, we’re going to go after long tail keywords — very exact, intention-driven keywords with lower competition that we know can win, then gradually we’ll work our way to the shorter keywords .”

— Austen Allred

For me, focusing on long-tail keywords also made sense from the conversion potential. People who google “Yoga Vienna Mysore Style in 9th district” are more likely to become my customers than people who google “Yoga.”

You also notice in the excel file that I scored “chance for conversion” higher for long-tail keywords.

Lastly, make a good guess on your chance to rank in the top three.

Ranking in the top three means that google displays your site in the first three organic results for your specific keyword. Score your chance by researching what the three best ranking sites for your particular keywords are doing.

For ranking research, open an incognito window to research. With the tool “I search from,” you can access google from any location.

Do you have content that’s better than the current top 3? Do the current top 3 have a low domain authority? Great. This keyword is your chance to rank.

After you identified your top 5 keywords, check the competition that is ranking best for those keywords, and make better and more relevant content than they do. Here’s how.

Content Strategy and Content Creation

Before you determine a specific content topic, think about the search intent (=what are your visitors looking to find on your site).

Do your visitors want to buy something? Are your visitors looking for information? Do visitors come to your site for educational purposes? Each page you create should exist for one search intent.

Here’s what your website’s content pieces can do:

  • you can demonstrate competence (case studies, industry updates, awards, lengthy testimonials from previous buyers)
  • create consciousness about what you do (product pages, service descriptions)
  • develop a sense of belonging (behind the scenes & team, company culture, philosophy on things)

Great! Once the search intent is clear, you can focus on creating content. If you already have ideas on content, you can skip the next paragraph as it shows you how to come up with content ideas.

As the Content Idea Generator, Google Analytics is a great tool. However, the best way is to ask your target audience about their interests.

You can also follow relevant hashtags on social media. Here are my favorite hacks for content creation:

  • Find the content that performs best with buzzsumo
  • Monitor new web content with Google Alerts
  • Research the trending topics of the world with Google Trends
  • Type in the first idea of your keyword and look at the sentences google suggests

Are you clear about the content you want to cover? Great, let’s continue with actually composing the content.

SEO Copywriting

Your blog posts are SEO Copywriting. I had to fail before realizing that SEO Copywriting is nothing similar to journaling or blogging.

In SEO Copywriting, your keywords come into life.

If you do not have the time (but the money) to outsource, take a look at SEO copywriters on Fiverr. I am a big fan of the YOAST plugin as it monitors your post’s quality and gives actionable advice on what to change.

Here is a checklist for single blog posts and SEO quality:

  • Good readability — active voice, alternating sentence beginnings, transition words. For English texts, the free online writing assistant Grammarly can help.
  • Keyphrase length — the optimum is up to 4 content words (e.g., Ashtanga Yoga Class in Vienna)
  • Keyphrase in the slug, title, and subheadings — you should have your focus keyphrase of your article in your URL, in the <H1> title tag and your <H2> or <H3> tags
  • The proper length of your piece — For a regular post it should be >300 words and for cornerstone content >900 words
  • The adequate length and content of your meta description — between 120 and 156 characters with your key phrase in it, use an active voice with an actionable call to action
  • Keyphrase density — 0.5%–3% is the optimal density, you can also include synonyms
  • Images alt attribute — include your keyphrase in the image descriptions in your blog post
  • Outbound and internal contextual links — your article should link to other relevant websites and also to other related sites on your page (follow or nofolllow). By building an internal linking structure, you show Google which of your pages are most important.

Before jumping to the (easier) part, one mistake I want you to prevent making: NEVER optimize different articles for one keyword. Otherwise, you are competing against yourself.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO improves your site in such a way that search engine spiders can crawl your website and index your content in their search results.

Technical SEO is one of the three pillars of SEO (Source: Eva Keiffenheim).

If you are already familiar with the terms “crawling, indexing and spiders” you can skip this 5-minute video.

The technical side is my favorite SEO part because you can work through a list step by step. In case you are wondering who determines the importance of each factor, take a look at Google’s search quality evaluator guidelines (Dec 2019).

If your time is better spent on other tasks and you have the financial resources, hire a Technical SEO freelancer on Fiverr. The following checklist can still help you determine which specific tasks to look for.

Page Speed Optimization

Page Speed matters. Check your current page speed with GTMetrix or with Googles Page Speed Insights.

Both metrics give you tailored advice on how to improve your page speed. The easy fix is the proper size of your web images (I reduced my image sizes with tiny png.)

As a rule of thumb, a picture should never exceed the size of 200kb. There are also plug-ins for image auto-optimization, but in my experience, the manual adjustment works better.

In addition to image optimization, use a caching plugin (I used and liked wp fastest cash).

On a side note: FB Pixel or Hotjar can make your page slower. Only enable both when you are testing and analyzing something. Otherwise, consider switching them off.

Mobile Optimization

The Google search algorithm strongly favors sites that are optimized for mobile devices. Most WordPress themes are mobile responsive.

Nevertheless, always make sure that the mobile content is displayed correctly.

For exploring your site’s mobile-friendliness, you can use the google chrome built-in testing tool to view your content from different devices. Here’s a video that explains how.

Repetitive Technical To Do’s on Your Site

  • Use Tags for Hierarchy <H1> <H2> <H3> — only one H1 Tag per site (check source code on every single site)
  • Use Meta Title Tags (e.g., check with this free tracker from SEObility where your site needs improvement).
  • All URLs should be human-readable and contain keywords. Remove stopwords (such as “a” or “and”) from your permalinks.
  • Alt descriptions of images. The alt description is the text that appears in place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load on a user’s screen.
  • Have clear path navigation visible on your site. Breadcrumbs show your visitors how the current page fits into the larger structure of your website and allow them to navigate. Moreover, Breadcrumbs allows google search to determine the structure of your site more easily. Add Breadcrumbs with the help of a Breadcrumb Plugin.
  • HTTP Status Codes. Check for 404 errors in Google Search Console at Crawl errors. Google Search penalizes sites with many errors, as this can be a sign of bad maintenance. 301 redirects can help in solving this issue.
  • Use Structured Data in your sites. Here’s an SEO’s guide to writing structured Data. Alternatively, Schema&Structured Data is a helpful plugin for WordPress Sites.

Crawlability

The crawlability determines whether search engine bots (like Google’s crawling spiders) can discover your site.

If your site is not crawlable, bots can not find it, and not list it in search results. Here’s how you make your sites crawlable and your On-Page SEO worth your work:

  • Submit your XML.sitemap via the Google Search Console (Here’s how to submit it).
  • Check whether your site has duplicate content that needs removal. If duplicate content is necessary, make use of canonical links and the robots.txt to avoid problems.
  • robots.txt file tells search engine bots where they can or cannot visit your site. For example, you do not want your audience to find your checkout page in the search results. The official syntax of the robots tag is: <meta name=”robots” content =”value”> The most common robots value are index, noindex, follow and nofollow

Off-Page SEO

Off-Page SEO is everything you do away from your website that brings traffic to your site.

This part of SEO is about so-called “inbound links” from other websites to your site.

The higher the domain authority (=trustworthyness and relevance on the internet) of sites that refer to your site, the more valuable is such a link for you. Links from high authority domains to your site tell the search engine (e.g., Google) that you are referred to from trustworthy sources.

Let’s have a look at ways to gain those backlinks. In contrast to Technical SEO, (whitehat) backlink building requires continuous long-term work.

Off-Page SEO is one of the three pillars of SEO (Source: Eva Keiffenheim).

Backlink strategy

There are several paths that you can include in your backlink strategy:

  • Google alert for your company name and always claim to mention your enterprise’s name + a link to your site
  • Google your keyword inurl:blog intext”learn more” to figure out blogs you can address
  • look for old content in your niche, make it better and send it to all sites that currently have old backlinks
  • For a high domain authority page link, you can contact your last education institute and suggest writing a blog post for them. For example, I composed a blog entry for Vienna Business University on “Do you need to study if you want to found your company?”

Public Relations

Press coverage can help to gain more traffic from external sources. I followed these steps to gain traction from newspapers:

  • Build a Public Relations network by attending journalism meetups and talking to journalists at conferences.
  • Draft a story and send it to contacts you met and general newspapers.
  • Prepare a media kit with the image sizes and company description length required for your newspaper.

Sounds too easy? This step is all about trial and error, story, and timing.

The more you try, the likelier the chances that a newspaper will cover your topic and refer to you. Are there any trade journals in your niche that would benefit from your insights?

Is there any local newspaper in the area you grew up that would want to portrait you? These are good questions to start with.

Conclusion

For successful SEO, the three fields of Technical SEO, On-Page SEO, and Off-Page SEO are equally important.

The three pillars of Search Engine Optimization (Source: Eva Keiffenheim).

Your time is limited. Decide how much time you dedicate to each SEO field and you want to outsource specific parts like SEO Copywriting or Technical SEO.

SEO is a never-ending process. If you’ll ever say “I have done it all, and I’m finished with SEO,” — you did not understand SEO at all.

Even a few hours of serious SEO work can move the crawl spiders to index your page.

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