TypeCarl

Testosterone and Productivity?

I just wrote 500 words, and I hadn’t even touched what I really wanted to talk about. Let me try again…

I recently realized that my productivity does not come from just my mind. Your mind is powerful, but at the end of the day, you are also limited by your physical form.

This realization came from me getting back to working out. I feel I have much more energy now, but most importantly it has translated into action.

So I have been thinking… why does working out help my productivity so much despite it taking my time up?

Here’s a health dose of Carl’s pseudoscience to answer that question. I think it has to do with testosterone. I had heard somewhere that women who had low testosterone were more susceptible to symptoms of fatigue. The solutions that were offered were to have more sexual interaction to absorb testosterone from the you know what (trying to be PG here).

Another solution was to intake animal foods such as squid which you could absorb testosterone from. In addition to this, it is a well known fact that working out and intaking a high amount of protein raises testosterone as well.

Those were all the things I haven’t been doing in the last few months. My thinking was that I was eating healthy anyway so I don’t need to excercise. It also didn’t help that I am a raw vegan, which means I have to eat a lot of produce, which isn’t really calorie and protein dense.

Due to this hippie way of living, I had only a few really good hours a day. However, this is a huge problem for a person who is completely broke, living with his parents who nags him to get a job, and has an unhealthy amount of ambition.

So I tried working out, and it seems to be working. It also means I have to eat like a mad man. Yesterday, I did enough pull ups and push ups that my arms were about to break off (sorry for the image). Today, my body is craving for food like nobody’s business.

However, I feel better and more focused. It’s not like this is rocket science or anything. I’ve heard people talk about the whole exercising gives you more energy thing for ages. I just could never relate until now.

This is why I am going to start excercising like a mad man. I’m talking about upper body, lower body, and cardio to the max. I like to be “natural”, so this means using my own weight instead of using equipment. I am also going to run, jump rope, and practice yoga.

This is going to take time out of my schedule, but I think it will translate into greater productivity during the times when I am working. It will more than make up for it.

We’ll see what happens. There really isn’t much negative to at least trying except for my grocery bill doubling *shakes fist*. I refuse to intake those body building supplements or give up my diet.

That’s because I want to live to 140, but that’s for another post.

Carl Zetterlund

P.S. I also realized that it’s hard to work out when you’re thinking like an peaceful and enlightened monk. You’re body just doesn’t want to do it. Now if you’re thinking about kicking some evil guy’s ass. That’s a different story!

P.P.S. Feeling like a sales letter here… I also started to think about how western societies are so driven to create and destroy. They do sure eat a lot of animal foods, which are immensely dense in protein and other hormones. Maybe it’s also the reason why we fight such bloody wars over nothing… The world is complicated, but I guess that’s what makes it fun.

My Blog is Calling Me

No, it’s not actually calling me. It’s actually giving me a guilty feeling because I haven’t posted in a few days. This drought usually happens whenever something else pops into my mind that I either can’t blog about or distracts me completely. This does bring up an interesting topic for me.

Blogging.

After some few failed attempts to blog, I now have a better understanding of what blogs are and how I want to use them.

It all started with my idea that I can make money blogging. I saw all sorts of blogs telling you that you can make money in no time. Just write great content and throw some ads on there! I ended up starting 3-4 different blogs and all of them went no where. I ended up returning to posting on my personal blog.

What went wrong?

I forgot that blogging is about writing and writing takes time. I’ve never wanted to become a writer. I see writing as a useful skill, but that’s where it ends. However, I didn’t see this when I first started blogging. It’s when I hit my 3rd or 4th post that I realized how tough it is.

The thing is. I was blogging for early profits, and that’s not that easy if you have nothing to leverage in real life. It is true that people can become overnight sensations, but these people are already successful in some other way.

If I was already an internet millionaire, I’d just show you one of my fat Adsense checks *cough* Shoemoney *cough* and be popular overnight.

But… I’m just a broke 22 year old with a dream (sappy, I know).

However, I do want to keep blogging because I feel it will help my thinking as well as make me a better writer. This is where my struggle comes into play.

Should I blog for myself or blog for others? Or is there a balance?

My first instinct says balance because I don’t intend for blogging to be a source of income. If it happens, it happens. It’s a similar attitude that Shoemoney has.

However, there is a lot of power in creating a brand for yourself on the internet. You can leverage this into networking and potentially profits. This can’t be ignored.

So what am I going to do?

I know I need to keep this blog updated. It’s not like it’s a terribly hard thing to do as I am talking about what I am doing. It’s just that there are stretches for a few days where I just don’t want to post. Maybe I’m just trying too hard. Maybe I should start write shorter posts such as commentary on other people’s articles. The danger in this is that my blog becomes way to general and sporadic. There has to be a happy medium somewhere.

It’s something that has been nagging me. I know I need to blog, but I have to find it. Whatever “it” is.

I answered my blog’s call today, but what about tomorrow?

Carl Zetterlund

P.S. I had 26 subscribers yesterday (~5 - 2 weeks ago). The interesting thing is that I had no intention of really marketing my blog just yet. I just wanted to figure out what my blog was about. I guess I must be doing something right.

Success is Hard and That’s Beautiful

I’ve been out of a normal job for a few months now, and I can already say I am learning a lot. One of the things I have learned is that success isn’t easy. There is no magic pill despite all the silly sales copy out there that says it is.

So success is hard, but that’s a good thing, and I’ll tell you why.

I’ve been exploring the different ways to make money online. I’ve been learning a lot about really goes on in the internet. Most stuff out there is complete garbage, but it’s wrapped up in a beautiful sales letter. You know… those strange looking websites that are supposed to look like letters, but have all sorts of red and blue ink plastered everywhere in every font conceivable.

They all say that it’s easy to make money on the internet.

Well let me tell you. It’s not.

I will agree that there are seemingly easy ways to make money, but the fact that you just found out about it now means it’s already too late. If it was easy, it’s already been exploited to smithereens. It used to be hard because someone had to think of it in the first place.

So what do you do?

Well.. you realize that it is hard to become successful, and you must start to appreciate it. There are tons of ways to make money in the internet. Even more so than in real life, because it is such a wild west of our days. We are only beginning to see the potential of what is possible

The only thing is that you have to be creative and be different. Sometimes, this is just hard for people, but it shouldn’t stop you. I know… it’s scary. How do you know if your ideas are going to work?

Well you don’t unless you try.

But trying is hard if you’re constantly fearing your outcome. We can look at statistics all day that say that only X percent of people make it on the internet and feel more comfortable that we didn’t try.

But statistics is really an illusion, it turns out that most people give up way to easily.

If you have an idea, make it happen. It’s not going to be easy, but that’s a good thing. Every time you encounter a stumbling block, you know at least a thousand more people would hae given up at this point. By getting through it, your chance of successs just went up by a few notches.

You’ll then start to find that it becomes more and more time consuming to manifest your idea. You think about giving up, but you pull through. Your chance of success just went up a few notches again.

So you may get where I am going with this.

Whenever the going gets tough, appreciate the moment fully. Think about all the people who would have given up at this point. For motivated and smart people, it’s a blessing that most people are the way they are (no name calling). It just makes it easier for you in the end.

Success is hard and that’s beautiful.

Carl Zetterlund

Google SEO is Like Riding a Mechanical Bull

So I’ve been in the SEO game for the last month or so, and I have to say it is quite a ride. The reason I am posting this is that I’ve finally managed to become number #1 for a search term for one of my niche websites.

I have to admit that I love checking my Google ranking about a few times a day. It’s because I want to get a feel for how Google handles rankings. Just maybe I can intuitively spot a pattern that is going on that will help me with my other websites. I definitely do not consciously understand how Google exactly figures out your ranking, but I can give you some patterns I have seen.

Since the world seems to love lists, I’ll succumb to it just this time… Don’t mind my clever titles.

1. Beginner’s Luck - Google seems to love Web 2.0 websites, and if you create a page on one, you will be indexed quite quickly. Not only that, you can create quick backlinks on other Web 2.0 sites such as Digg and Del.icio.us. For doing this, Google may give you a quick high ranking for a keyword with low competition. In other words, you are surprisingly doing a great a job riding that mechanical bull.
2. Your First Fall - Google kicks you off the bull. For the inexperienced, you sit there and freak out. Your beautiful first website has seemingly fallen from grace. Little do you know that it’s just a test. It’s trying to figure out who you really are. It’s thinking whether you deserve to get back on the bull.
3. You’re Getting Better - You’ve gained some experience by learning a little about riding a bull (SEO). You’re running around the internet trying to figure out ways to make others link to you, and it seems to be paying off. Google just bumped you up 4 places out of nowhere. You celebrate! You think you’re about to conquer the bull.
4. The Big Fall - You just don’t understand it. You know you’re good. By now, you’ve got those important muscles developed to handle the bull (backlinks), and yet you still fall hard. You think about all those hours you spent creating those backlinks. At this point, you now understand what the gurus have said when they told you it is hard work.
5. Victory - You’ve conquered the bull. You are now the best bull rider at the small bar. You have this incredible feeling of accomplishment. Don’t get too big of a head. There is always someone who wants your spot.

Ok. So I might have taken this metaphor too far. In the simplest of terms, Google loves to toss you around. I’ve seen my ranking go from #3 to #10 to #4 to #7 to gone to #8 to #1 and so on. It’s like it is constantly testing you. I have a gut feeling that it is testing a multiple of factors. It is placing you in certain positions to see how searchers are liking your site. If they hit the back button from your site, that’s probably not a good thing. If they don’t come back to the search, Google gives you brownie points.

In the end, backlinks and how you use the keywords on your web page are the most important factors. However, don’t expect to get to #1 over night. It likes to see if you stick around. If they see occasional updates and see a constant improvement, it will eventually reward you for being the best in your keyword term.

However, it may take well over a month to get what you deserve.

Be bold. Trust the true gurus, and stick to your guns. You’ll get there. I promise.

Don’t let a fall get you down. Conquer the bull.

Carl Zetterlund

1.

This is Creative Blog Marketing

I just checked out Shoemoney’s and John Chow’s site, and they both introduced Blog Rush, which is a new widget that is supposed to help market your blog.

I have to say it is very clever and is designed in a way that can help blogs become viral. You basically get your blog posts shown on other people’s blogs for each view you receive on your website. For example, a 100 visitors on your blog translates into 100 times that your ad will be shown on other blogs.

That’s pretty cool.

Here’s the special part. The referral system is the really creative part. Every person you refer to Blog Rush will help you get even more exposure. Every impression they receive will give you even another impression for your own blog. This continues down to even people who they refer, and even past that!

If you’re an early adopter and refer a lot of people, this could potentially mean millions of free impressions for your blog posts!

This video explains it best. There is something about this system that makes me wish I created it. All I know is that Blog Rush definitely made me want to join quickly and get it spread. How about you?

Click here to sign up for Blog Rush

To PHP or to Ruby on Rails?

That is the question. I’m about to create a website that requires a decent amount of web programming. I’ve never actually created a web application from scratch. My experience is limited to editing other people’s PHP code. However, that’s a lie. I did program a massive project in ASP.NET when I was in college. The only problem is that it is ASP and I’ve forgotten it all.

I did some initial research, and I quickly narrowed it down to PHP and Ruby on Rails. From there it was a little harder.

PHP is like the father of the internet right now. There are just so many websites that use it and for great reasons. It’s fast, so web hosting providers can squeeze even more accounts into one server (shakes fist). It’s got a million a resources on the internet. Almost every open source application is in PHP. It’s fairly simple to get started.

However, there’s a problem. If you’re trying to do something more than just a simple script, you’re going to hit into some annoying snags. This is mainly because PHP wasn’t designed initially around object oriented programming. However, PHP 5 now has full support, but it is still an old way of programming. The code is messy and hard to follow especially if you’re an amateur. You have to do a lot of things manually over and over again.

Now here comes Ruby on Rails. Ruby has been around for awhile. It is this innovative approach to programming where many of the “busy” work is automated for you. Not only is it automated, the code adheres to standards. Anyway, geeks love Ruby.

Now the special part is in Rails, which is why they call it Ruby on Rails. Ruby isn’t a language designed for the web, so people created the Rails framework. They basically wanted to bring the power of Ruby onto the internet to make web development easier and better. The magic of Ruby on Rails is that they seamlessly integrate the database and things like ajax into a elegant Model-View-Control pattern. This probably won’t make any sense until you actually learn it.

It’s a totally different way of thinking.

The biggest barrier to adoption stems from many people’s existing proficiency at PHP. PHP now has frameworks that mimic Ruby on Rails. For example, cakePHP and Zend are a couple of the popular ones. However, quite a few people still say that Ruby on Rails is still better. The best way I can describe it is that it’s more elegant, which translates into cleaner and understandable code with less headaches.

However, it is generally accepted that if you are already good at PHP, you should just stick with it. If you’re not, go ahead and start learning Ruby on Rails. It’s really the future of programming.

I think Ruby on Rails is past the fad stage. In just under a year, documentation is appearing everywhere. It’s really looking like Ruby is here to stay. It’s going to be tough to compete with PHP, but for developers who want to do more in less time, I think it’s an incredible tool.

I’ve only started training, but I can already see the light.

I’m sticking with it, and I’ll let you know what happens.

Carl Zetterlund

High Ticket Niche Marketing Experiment Part 1

So recently, I took the 30 day challenge, and I was successful at making my $10+ dollars while spending no money. I have a couple of niche websites that were one hit wonders.

Literally.

They only gave me one sale and then vanished as they couldn’t rank in Google well. However, I have couple of other niches that are selling quite well, but I have a problem.

Each sale is netting around 30 cents to 3 dollars, and the lower part of that range is much more popular.

The problem is that I’m selling items that cost an average of $15-20. I’ve made a whole bunch of sales, but at 6%-7% commission, it ain’t jack. I have accumulated $120 so far but half this revenue comes from 6-7 sales out of 60+ total sales!

Talk about the 80/20 rule.

So I’m thinking one day. I spend a lot of time building websites trying to nail commissions on such cheap items. Why don’t I aim for the big ticket items?

If I can refer a sale on eBay for a car, it’ll be like $60+ commission each time! I’m also thinking it takes the same amount of time to get $60 commission as a $1 commission because the real time is spending just putting the darn site together with content.

This is why I’m going to propose an experiment for myself. In the last 3 weeks, I’ve made over 60+ sales for small ticket items and made roughly $120.

Now I’m going to aim big.

I’m talking about selling items that are priced in the thousands. I’ll put my minimum criteria that the item has to be at least $1000 for me to sell it.

I will set up websites at a minimum of 3 niches. We could be talking high end TVs, cars, or whatever. I will then give you guys updates on each one as I go.

My prediction is that I will spend roughly the same amount of time to make more than triple the income. I expect less sales, but the sheer size of each commission is where the magic happens.

I’ll keep you guys posted on my experiment as I go. Should be exciting! To me, it’s only a win win situation. If I hit it big, it’ll really be big. If I make nothing, I will have learned a lot, and I can share what not to do.

Just don’t harass me too much :).

Carl Zetterlund

The Power of Two

In the past two days, my mindset and goals have changed so much that it is simply… ridiculous.

Did I suddenly wake up and change my mind?

No.

I talked to a long lost friend who is very like minded and has gone through a similar path. Let me tell you that isn’t an easy task to find a friend like this, and I didn’t even know I had one until now. On the other hand, I have “friends”, but most of them are too typical for me, and please don’t take me for being arrogant.

Most “friends” have a lack of ambition, are against smart calculated risks, sometimes irrational, and some of them can’t control their emotions. These people are usually pretty typical and follow the path given by society.

You can tell I’m not a big fan of typical. Bear with me here, and try not to get offended. I love everyone. Really, I do, but there is only a certain type of person I will invest into.

Anyway, there is a certain type of person that understands me and hence I put a lot of trust on. They can understand my overly analytical observations about human nature. They can offer explanations that cater to my mind’s obsession to explain things.

If they can do all this, I will usually take their word for it when it comes to other ideas I haven’t really encountered. They may even change the way I think.

Now to bring this down to something more concrete and useful. What I am talking is the power of having at least one other like minded person when you are starting a new venture.

It is so incredibly important because it is amazing how much of a reality check another person can give you. They will have different experiences and hence give you a new perspective.

When we sit by ourselves, we usually take all of our ideas that pop in our head as gold. We are usually too lazy to question them. If it feels good, why mess with it?

For example, I have become more of an idealist by the day. I’ve been reading books like Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now to the point that I wanted to be enlightened like Buddha. That’s the ultimate path right?

Now here’s the problem. Buddha didn’t exactly do much more than help spread a religion. That’s great and all, but I do not believe he got us any closer to answering the questions of the world and the universe.

Why I want to answer the questions of the universe? That’s for another post.

Anyway, I was becoming more idealistic by the day. There is no problem with being enlightened, but deep down it is not what I really wanted. The idea of becoming a monk is actually enticing to me, but is it more than just a whim?

The thing is. I want to carry out my idealist goals, but I need to be practical to do this. I need to show the world that I am a smart individual that knows how create value in this world. In value, I mean create money for myself.

Money is the currency of your creativity. Sure… I believe that starving artists create a lot of value too, but the real good ones usually have their paintings worth a lot despite it happening after his or her death.

Money allows me to carry out my idealistic goals because money is power. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet aren’t giving their money away because they are making a smart business decision. They are giving it away because they hope the money will do good. Frankly, there is a very unpredictable future when you’re trying to use money to bring a whole continent from disease and famine to prosperity.

You don’t exactly know what your money is gonna get you, but it doesn’t matter. The hope and promise of it is enough. The great feeling you get when you give your money away to the needy is greater and purer than any other.

So, I’ve come full circle. I used to be incredibly ambitious without a conscious. I just wanted my share in a competitive world. I then transformed and got rid of my stupid quirks that were holding be back. In my case, it was my social anxiety. I also adopted an abundance mindset, which means the world isn’t a pie that needs to be carved up. Then I continued on this path and found out about the spiritual realm. Now I’m back to business with a new upgrade.

Call it Carl 2.0 or not. (geek alert)

The circle didn’t complete until someone gave me a reality check. I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent, but what I am trying to say is you need a business partner to bounce ideas off. This person needs to think like you. Even a clone of you would probably work (not exactly feasible yet). You would be amazed at your propensity to argue even with your own self.

Don’t cut corners though. You’ll know when you find the right person. Otherwise, it’ll destroy you.

Carl Zetterlund

P.S. Been neglecting my revenue generation a bit. It’s about a third of a month through. At the current rate, I’ll only hit about $225. I need to get on it because I do remember setting a goal of $1000. On the other hand, I’m going after a bigger fish. My friend and I are going create a Web 2.0ish site that hopefully will hit big.

Exciting times indeed.

Also, I need to write more about my adventures as an internet marketer. I’ll get on it. I promise!

Motivation

I had a conversation with an old friend who I highly respect, which is probably because he’s thinks alike. As a disclaimer, don’t read this post unless you are extremely competitive and want to be the very best. Anyway, I was talking to him about the two sides of a human being.

The human and the animal.

The human is logical. The human has ideals. The human can do math. The human is creative. The human can solve problems.

The animal is emotional. The animal craves food. The animal craves sex. The animal craves power.

How does this relate to motivation? Here’s the thing. I am always constantly looking to motivate myself. I have recently become less and less motivated despite hardly noticing it.

The motivation isn’t pure. It’s not raw.

The motivation I have right now is extremely idealist and logical. It works to a certain degree, but I’m not craving success anymore. I’m trying to achieve the enlightened state of people like Eckhart Tolle, but here’s the problem.

If you fully embrace Eckhart Tolle’s teachings or any other spiritual guru, you will lose motivation to be the best. Why try to take over the world or change it when you can just embrace the beautiful world around us. To be in the moment. To be enlightened.

There is a major problem with this if you have massive goals.

It’s too human. It’s too idealistic. In reality, people are both human and animal. For example, people kill others for a reason. It’s not hard to understand. However, the more I become “enlightened”, the more idealistic I become. I want to impose my ideals onto the world.

The problem is that I am now working against the grain. I am not working at my full potential because there is extreme power in our animal side.

The power of wanting to beat your peers to come out at the top. To embrace the glory of being the best. If you harness this, you will be so extremely motivated to work hard.

All the time.

The best way is to relate it to sports. It seems that people’s true personality comes out in sports. I am personally extremely competitive. I want to win.

People completely change when it comes to sports. Just look at soccer. People kill for it.

Motivation is not a problem.

However, I am trying to be 100% human, which means I am trying to be too idealistic. I want everyone in the world to be equals. I want world peace. I want everyone to just love each other and get along.

I am essentially becoming blinder by the day. Is it even possible for any of those ideals to happen. Probably not if you’re really studying humanity.

Anyway, I am saying that the highest potential in motivation comes from a balance of being a human and animal. The balance of big creative ideas and primal urges of power. For some of you, it is no problem. But for people who think too much, it is because you latch on to idealistic ideas.

This isn’t even rocket science. It’s so simple that I have blinded myself to it. I’ve been trying to use every trick in the book to keep myself to be motivated, but I haven’t been letting myself use the most powerful tool.

Embracing your primitive and evolutionary need for power.

I’m not saying to go around and start trying to manipulate and back stab people because you want to win. I’m saying that you should still remember we are still animals. Idealism is just a nice way to keep people from causing havoc and chaos. It keeps people relatively calm. Religion is a perfect example of this.

Idealism doesn’t get you out of the house to kick some ass (not literally).

However, you need to be human as well. It lets you create goals for yourself. It lets you be able to solve problems. It allows creativity.

Yet, don’t delude yourself. Your real motivation cannot come from just a belief. It comes from power.

Embrace it with balance. It will help you achieve your goals.

It’s ok to be the best. Just be smart about it or else a bonehead might club you to death.

Carl Zetterlund

P.S. Does the end justify breaking your ideals?

MyBlogLog Success Story

It’s a long video (90 minutes), but it contains a gold mine of information. If you don’t know, MyBlogLog is a stat tracker and blog community. They are most recognized for their sidebar widget for seeing who is reading your blog via a small picture (need to set it up on this blog).

MyBlogLog was recently sold to Yahoo for millions of dollars as you have probably heard. The video has the two original founders, Todd Sampson and Eric Marcoullier, talk about their experiences and advice.

I learned a lot. From what to do when you’re starting out to how to deal with venture capital and acquisitions. They also touch on their theories of where the web is heading and where the value is. Think Facebook and beyond.

Anyway, really cool video. If you’re looking to start something, you’ll get a lot out of it.

Carl Zetterlund