Jason’s Tips

Are You Sabotaging Yourself If You Don't Have Self-Discipline?

Are You Sabotaging Yourself If You Don’t Have Self-Discipline?

Self-discipline is difficult. There’s no way around it.

Self-discipline is regarded as a sign of professionalism and confidence, especially in the business world. Professionalism requires being on time, responsive, efficient, creative, active, productive, and conscientious… not to be satisfied with the bare minimum

You must “do what you say and say what you do,” which means not promising the unattainable, being practical, competent, and meeting deadlines in order to complete the objective. It’s not the end of the world if you have trouble with self-control. You can get back on track and become more efficient by doing a few simple measures.

In fact, Jim Rohn, the legendary motivational speaker, once said, “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”

He realised that even the greatest of us will struggle to develop and sustain self-discipline, he understood. This is a lifelong battle, but it  should become easier over time if you practice it on a daily basis.

Self-discipline is a gigantic and Herculean undertaking in and of itself, but some people make it far more difficult than it needs to be. They sabotage their own efforts in a number of ways.

Blindly Following Advice

Each of us is a unique individual. It’s best to do what’s right for you when trying to form positive habits (which is what building self-discipline is all about).

Weight loss is a common issue where most individuals go wrong. There are so many options for losing weight that you’ll be spoilt for choice.

If everyone you know is following the keto diet and you decide to give it a shot (because your friends say it’s amazing), but you despise eating all that fat with your meals, following the plan will be difficult.

However, once a week, you may want to do a 48-hour water fast. This strategy may appear to be more convenient for you. In this scenario, fasting is preferable to forcing oneself to do something you don’t want to do.

It will be easier to build fasting as a part of your self-discipline than it will be to stick to your keto diet.

The same can be said of other habits. Some folks accomplish their finest work first thing in the morning. Others might rather work late at night. You’ll be fighting your natural circadian rhythm if you force yourself to get up early merely because others believe it works.

Rather than striving to work against yourself, you should be disciplined and work with your natural inclinations.

Trying To Cram Too Much Into Too Little Time

Life is a breeze inch by inch. Life is difficult, yard by yard. You may believe that making drastic changes in your life will help you advance more quickly. In actuality, this is ineffective and will just cause you to stumble.

You’ll experience uncontrollable food cravings if you try to adjust your diet overnight. Working out  too intensely too soon can result in significant muscle aches and even injuries.

You will feel fatigued and drained if you take on too much work. You lack the necessary ‘muscles’ and endurance to execute the tasks you intend to complete.

The final result is that you continue to succumb to food cravings, or you miss workouts or put things off at work. These mistakes can make you feel bad, and you will be tempted to give up.

It’s best to take things slowly and create modest beneficial changes that you can manage on a daily basis. You’ll be far more likely to stay on course, and over time, your entire life will change.

Not Keeping Track Of Your Progress

Keep a journal and make a list of the habits you want to develop. This will assist you in keeping track of your progress.

Allow yourself around 60 days to form a habit, then mark it off with a check each day. The goal is to create a continuous chain of checkmarks.

If you skip a day, begin again the next day and try to complete another 60 days.

Giving Up Too Early

Development takes time, and most people are overconfident in their ability to achieve a lot in a short period of time. It will take considerably longer than you expect in practice.

If you’re impatient and anticipate unrealistic results in a short period of time, you’ll be disappointed if your efforts don’t bear fruit within a month or two. Don’t give up simply because you’re not seeing results right away.

Staying on track and making progress (even though it may be slow) until you achieve your goal is what self-discipline is all about.

Allowing Slip-Ups To Derail You

You’re certain to make a mistake at some point. It happens to all of us, and it always happens. This isn’t a symptom of laziness or a lack of willpower.

Breaking old habits can be difficult, and you’ll always face opposition. We’re all human, so we’re bound to make mistakes now and then.

Do not consider it a failure and abandon the process. Make adjustments and c ontinue on your current path.

It will take time to develop self-discipline. You’ll achieve mastery over your ideas and actions over time if you allow yourself that time and don’t work against yourself.

Developing Self-Discipline

Once established in your life, these positive practices should provide better alternatives to your previous habits. When the feel the urge to revert to past dangerous habits like drug and alcohol abuse, you can turn to these things instead.

It’s easier to turn your goals into achievements when you have self-discipline. The first step toward becoming self-disciplined and successful is to recognize the relationship between success and self-discipline.

Self-discipline is a decision, at the end of the day. You may need to work extra hard to become self-disciplined, depending on your background and personal problems, but the good thing is that self-discipline can indeed be learned.

It’s not a problem at all if you don’t have as much self-discipline as you’d like. You can begin by becoming more self-disciplined than where you are today. All you need to do now is take that initial step and keep moving forward one step at a time.

Whatever errors and blunders you’ve made previously, you can always make better choices right here, right now.

“Small disciplines repeated with consistency everyday lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.” – John Maxwell.

As you can see, self-discipline is an important skill to master, and if you want to increase your power of self discipline then check out the featured resource below for a free detailed report; download, read it and take action 😊

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How To Make A Popup That Benefits Opt-Ins Rather Than Hurting Them

How To Make A Popup That Benefits Opt-Ins Rather Than Hurting Them

When most people think about popup windows, they have a bad association.

That’s because we’ve all dealt with popup windows that won’t close, popup windows that act like “whack a mole,” with many windows popping at the same time, and other annoying situations.

As a result, you may believe that you should not subject your website users to popups.

You are correct – you really should NOT subject your visitors to irritating popups because they will undoubtedly reduce your opt-in rates.

However, a well-timed and polished popup benefits both your visitors and your opt-in rates, therefore you should start employing them.

So, how can you design a useful, beneficial popup? That is the focus of this article.

Using popups is an important part of your overall email marketing strategy and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Let’s get this party started…

Step 1: Stay Away From Tricks Or Annoyances

The first thing you should do is prevent any type of popup that tries to fool or annoy users. To that purpose, stay away from the following:

  • Numerous popups showing on the same page. (Let’s be honest, one is more than enough.)
  • Popups that generate a new one every time the previous one is closed.
  • Inability to close popups
  • Popups that are virtually impossible to close, such as those with small close buttons and ones that can only be closed by using something like the “esc” key.

And similar ploys. Remember, your purpose is to serve individuals by offering them something useful through the popup. You want users to appreciate your popup rather than be so angry that they swear never to return to your site again!

Step 2: Write Your Popup’s Copy

You must now decide what will be displayed in your popup. This would best be a concise piece of writing that encourages individuals to sign up to your mailing list.

To that purpose, you can design your popup copy using the guidelines from this lesson.

The difference is that this content will be even shorter, consisting of a headline, along with a few perks, and a call-to-action in addition to your opt-in form.

The key to creating a successful popup is to link it directly to the material that the visitor was just browsing.

This means that both the sales text and the lead magnet or other opt-in offer are directly relevant to what the visitor was viewing.

To clear things up for you, let’s look at a couple of quick examples:

Example 1: If someone is viewing a blog post about weight loss, your popup could give them even more weight loss ideas by offering them a free report or newsletter.

 Example 2: If someone visits a dog training sales page, you could give them a free video on dog training and maybe even a discount on the product or service they were looking at.

Step 3: Decide On The Appearance

The next part is to figure out how and when your popup should appear.

In terms of timing, you have a few options:

  • Showing up as soon as anybody visits your page.
  • Showing after a certain amount of time (for example, 30 seconds after someone arrives on the page).
  • Showing on the exit or with the exit intent (this means that it appears if the visitor is going to leave your page).

Important…

You should generally avoid popups that show as soon as a visitor reaches the page.

They haven’t even had a chance to read the page/post to see what it’s about, thus any popup box will be quickly closed, most likely without even glancing at it, because they want to find out what the main page is all about.

When it will appear depends on whatever it is you’re giving away and where it appears on the page.

If you’re using a popup box on a sales page, for example, you would be better off using an exit intent popup box.

You can keep the sales page’s focus on buying a product this way, but if they decide to leave without buying, you can employ the popup box to encourage them to sign up to your email list.

The design of your popup is the second factor to consider. There are several options here as well. Just make sure the prospect can easily close the popup box if they want to.

  • The main screen is darkened by a lightbox type popup, allowing visitors to focus on the popup.  The lightbox also nearly fills the whole screen, so it’s hard for the reader to overlook it.
  • The standard popup, which is a smaller window that will appear above or below the main page, is another alternative.
  • Another alternative is the slider style popup in which the popup can slide in from either the top, bottom, or either side of the screen. This popup is slightly different from the rest, and it’s meant to grab your attention.

It’s a pretty good idea to perform some testing to determine which styles your visitors respond to the most in order to figure out which one is best for you.

This brings us to the final phase…

Step 4: Monitor And Test

Testing and tracking your popup windows is the only real way to know for certain what affects your opt-in rate the most. To this end, you should put the following to the test:

  • The text that will appear in your popup (your headline, any benefits and your call-to-action).
  • The interior design of your popup as a whole (e.g, images, font, color etc.).
  • What you’re selling — this should be dependent on what the viewer was just looking at, you can provide different kinds of lead magnets.
  • The popup’s appearance and location.

Even if your shiny, new popup appears to be performing well, tracking and testing is a smart idea because you could probably boost your response rate a whole lot more.

Check that you are able to track conversion data if you’re utilizing a separate piece of software to design your popups. I highly recommend Thrive Leads.

Split testing is the only surefire way to know how effective your email marketing campaign is, and how to optimize it further for even better results.

Conclusion

Popups, as you’ve just learned, can be extremely advantageous to your online business and well-received by your target demographic.

Here’s a quick rundown of how to make a successful popup:

  1. Decide what you’ll offer inside the popup. Make sure the lead magnet is tailored to the information the visitor is seeing.
  2. 2.Write the popup’s copy.
  3. Select the popup’s details, such as its timing and look.
  4. Make a commitment to testing and tracking in order to increase response rates.

Remember to try to build popups that help rather than hinder your conversions!

Any type of marketing funnel relies on good sales copy and there are many pitfalls and mistakes that inexperienced copywriters can make. If you want to know more about avoiding these and other copywriting mistakes, take a look at the featured resource below where you can download a copy of a free report, Copywriting Blunders, so you will be forewarned and can make your copy more effective. Download, read it and take action 😊

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10 Tips For Working Smarter, Not Harder

10 Tips For Working Smarter, Not Harder

Who wants to go to the trouble of driving yourself into the ground? It’s highly unlikely that anyone will raise their hand in support of such an idea! 😄

We all want to relax and unwind, but the reality is that we need to be working. To work smarter not harder, to be happy and productive.

You don’t get any points for working harder than you need to, so it just makes sense to be smart about the way you approach your work.

Here are ten pointers to help you master the simple concept of smart working, so you can work smart not hard.

Be The Delegation King Or Queen

This isn’t to say that you should start chopping heads like the nobility of old. It means being a visionary leader with innovative ideas for getting things done while also ensuring that the process is enjoyable.

People enjoy completing tasks for others when they are praised and feel that their efforts are worthwhile.

There is a definite knack when it comes to getting things done for you and you need to be able to delegate with a light touch.

Do this right and your productivity will skyrocket!

Organize Your Priorities

You must be the ruler once again. Treat yourself properly, but don’t fall into the trap of doing things that aren’t necessary.

Decide what requires your undivided attention and focus on it before moving on to the next high priority.

Busyness for the sake of it is not a good idea and can really limit your productivity too; this is key to smarter working.

And whatever you do, DON’T be tempted to multitask; it is a productivity killer. Focus on one task at a time, and don’t be tempted to move on until that task is finished.

Become An Expert Planner

Have you ever witnessed someone attempting to construct a backyard deck without a blueprint? It doesn’t go smoothly does it?! 😳

Few people have the ability to complete high-priority activities without thorough planning. Following a well-thought-out plan will assist you in properly managing your time and achieving your objectives.

You know what they say, “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail!” Do not be that person!

Become A Master Of The Keyboard

Slow typing is inconvenient and reduces the amount of time you have to complete all of your high-priority activities.

If you are unable to type quickly, it is probably a good idea that you take a typing course to learn how to type quicker. Keyboard shortcuts can also be extremely useful, so make sure that you learn them.

Many people use speech to text software, such as the one included in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, to speed up their writing.

Take A Break And Be Kind To Yourself

It’s a good idea to take breaks. Even if you’ve been working hard in short spurts or for lengthy periods of time, you still need a break.

When you’re stressed and exhausted, you’re more likely to make mistakes in your work.

You will find that after all of that hard work, it is not up to the standards that you have set for yourself, and you will have to redo some of it. That has now become counterproductive!

Short breaks will keep your health in control, and you will be less likely to become ill and miss work.

Actually Call Somebody!

In today’s environment, most people rely on email to communicate with others, even within their own company.

Instead, why not try picking up the phone instead and calling them?!

You’ll get a sense of who is available to take calls and who will never answer. Keep note of those who are responsive, and only email or text those who will either not respond or who have a tendency to become irritated.

Put Time-Consuming Tasks On Autopilot

You will find yourself completing repetitious tasks throughout the day. Put a stop to it by working smarter rather than harder.

You can programme mini-programs in your computer to handle repetitive activities for you.

If you use Excel, for example, there are tools in there that can be utilised for repetitive tasks. Learn how to use macros etc. to get things done quicker.

Wherever feasible, look for templates. You can just load and fill in the blanks. Templates are available for download for free or for a modest cost and can be used for recurring writing or visual assignments, such as sales pages.

Deadlines Are Crucial

Set and stick to deadlines for everything, not just your top priorities. You will need to work harder if you procrastinate.

You must first work to break free from procrastination, and then you’ll need to work even harder just to catch up.

Set a firm deadline for a task and then work toward finishing it on time. Give yourself a tiny reward before getting back to work and meeting the next deadline.

You Are In Charge Of Your Time

You must softly but firmly communicate to family, friends, and coworkers that your time is valuable. Distractions must be avoided in order to avoid working harder.

They will steal your focus away from you, and it will be difficult to regain it.

Keep an internal punch clock in your head to keep track of time. When the job is done correctly (and smartly), punch in and out.

Get Moving

You must move it, a bit like that famous song from Disney. Doing all of your work in one place can lead to boredom. Use a combination of your regular work desk and a standing desk next to it.

Switching between the two will help your body stay strong and prevent you from becoming drowsy. If feasible, alternate between those and taking the laptop into an empty conference room for a while.

It will help you stay alert and concentrated if you move around. You have an endless supply of ideas for the same thing at home. There are numerous workstations, comfortable chairs, and other items that you can shift from one location to another.

As you can appreciate, working smarter not harder requires a lot of self discipline, and if that is something you struggle with (don’t we all?) then please check out the featured resource below for a free report which will help you; download, read it and take action 🙂

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6 Product Types You Can Promote As An Affiliate Blogger

A common question that comes up for affiliate bloggers is…

“What kind of products or services should I actually promote?”

Of course, this is dependent on your niche. The short answer is that you should promote things that your readers actually want, and hopefully, need!

Products that help to solve issues, elicit an emotion (recalling a memory, making others laugh, etc.), or that meets a need are the best ones to promote.

Yes, items that people just “want” are also excellent choices, but if you want your site to rock out the sales, focus on the aforementioned.

Sticking with products that have worked for you, that you’ve tested for yourself, that come from reputable brands, and that are evergreen (unless you have a seasonal blog) are also good “rules of thumb” to follow.

All of the information I’ve given you thus far is useful in general, but now let’s speak about specific product types.

Services Offering Recurring Commissions

This is listed first because I want you to go find as many of these as you can. Being an associate for items that pay recurring commissions is fantastic because you sell it once and get paid again and again. This is the closest thing to passive income you can get.

Now, depending on your niche, you will be able to find these types of products and how many there are, but for most niches, you should have at least a few possibilities. Because certain niches have numerous alternatives, you could have several of these functioning for you at the same time. Consider having three, four, five, or more of these programmes paying you every month.

People tend to pay for services longer than any other form of recurring product you might promote, therefore services are the ideal option for this.

Make a list of all the services you think that individuals in your niche would want to use. You may also do a Google search for “your niche + service” to find some that you might not have considered.

Once you’ve compiled your list, look for affiliate networks that offer those services and start promoting them on your site.

Membership Sites Offering Recurring Commissions

I just got you all pumped up about recurring commission affiliate programmes, so let’s move on to another type of programme. The membership type.

Again, depending on your niche, this may or may not be a possibility for you, but you can find these by searching on Google for “your niche + membership site or “your niche + membership.”

Look to see whether they offer affiliate programmes that you may join once you’ve found them. If you don’t see anything that indicates they do, simply contact the site’s owner and inquire. Many will likely say yes!

Find as many as you can and start promoting them for many recurring income streams.

Digital Products

This is my favourite type of product to promote because the commissions are usually the highest. Whereas a lot of physical products (which we’ll speak about next) pay extremely small commissions (like 1% to 5%), digital products can pay you anywhere from 30% to 100% of the transaction in some niches.

Ebooks, software, courses, pintables, and other types of downloadable products are types of digital products.

Return to Google and begin searching for digital products in your niche. Look for all of the product kinds I described above, and then check if any of them offer affiliate programmes.

You can uncover a number of these types of products to promote as an affiliate in a lot of niches.

Books

Even in this digital age, many people like to hold a physical book in their hands and read it. If you have written a blog post about a particular topic, see if there is a book about it that you can recommend.

This can be as simple as going to Amazon and doing a topic search. Then simply grab your Amazon Associates link for it and include it as a tip for additional reading in your posts.

This is a terrific strategy for popular topics for which you want to develop content but can’t find a product to promote and profit from as an affiliate.

Physical Products

Because there are so many physical things out there, and so many affiliate programmes for them, this is a really broad product category.

Only promote physical products that you have personally used and liked, or that have benefited you in some way. There’s no need to promote a tangible product merely for the sake of promoting it when there are so many other options available.

Although it is not a requirement, recommending things that you have used and enjoy will almost certainly earn you more money.

There are now a number of affiliate marketplaces where you can look for physical products. ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, and the ever-popular Amazon Associates programme are just a few examples.

Do a quick search on these or go back to Google, and you’ll find that there are many options to choose from.

Food

One thing that we all have in common is that we all eat food, and most of us enjoy eating, therefore this is an excellent product to market.

Aside from obtaining your Amazon Associates connection for different sorts of food you write about or recommend, many businesses now offer cooked food delivered to your door, food boxes with everything you need to cook, shopping boxes, and speciality food boxes.

If you’re not in the food niche, this is an often-overlooked type of product to promote as an affiliate, but you’d be surprised how well you can work your affiliate links into this type of product.

So there you have it! As an affiliate blogger, there are just six ideas of products you can promote.  Although not every product type may be available to you due to the type of niche you’re in, you should always be on the lookout for new things to promote in order to keep the money coming in from your site!

Follow these affiliate marketing tips, and you’ll be on the way to becoming a successful affiliate marketer in no time. And if you want to know more about affiliate marketing check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊

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7 Tips To Make Fear Your Friend

7 Tips To Make Fear Your Friend

What scares you the most? Is it the loss of someone you care about? Is it having to go to the dentist? Perhaps you’re afraid of thunderstorms, heights, or elevators.

Fear is normal, no matter what it is. It’s how our bodies alert us that we’re in danger and that we should be cautious.

However, our concerns can sometimes become so overwhelming that they prevent us from reaching our greatest potential. They fill us with so much fear and uncertainty that we become continually concerned and anxious about the tiniest details.

Surprisingly, fear in its positive form might be beneficial to our health. It has the ability to spark fresh thoughts and encourage us to achieve new heights.

As a result, we’re here today to assist you in making fear your ally. If you follow the tips below, you’ll be able to change an enemy into an ally.

If you don’t understand the mechanisms of fear, learning how to conquer it can be a daunting task. Recognize that fear is a natural evolutionary response before you chastise yourself for feeling terrified.

Your body and brain are attempting to communicate with you, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. You can permanently overcome fear if you learn to read the signals.

Let’s get started.

Firstly, Let’s Explain What Fear Is

When we are confronted with a threat to our mental or physical well-being, our bodies go into survival mode, triggering the fight-flight-or-freeze reaction.

You’d be vulnerable to danger if you didn’t have the fear reaction. Despite this, our bodies react with dread in many instances where we are not physically threatened in the modern world.

A known external occurrence, such as a loud noise, peering over the edge of a cliff, or standing in front of a crowd, might cause fear.

When you’re scared, your heart will race, and your breathing will become more rapid. A “pit” in your stomach, dizziness, sweating, or a dry mouth are all possible symptoms. You can feel stiff or weak in your muscles. All of this is a result of your body sending signals to the outside world.

So, you need to…

Determine The Source

This is perhaps the most difficult phase, but it’s well worth it. However, in order to conquer your fear, you must first come to grips with the basis of your anxiety.

Being conscious of the root reason will be challenging at first, but it will strengthen you. You won’t have to live in the shadow of that huge, overpowering fear anymore.

Embrace Your Fear

You’ve confronted your apprehension. It’s now time to accept it.

But first and foremost, you must recognise that such-and-such terrifies you. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. To begin, speak it aloud, preferably to another person in a natural context.

You can also jot down your thoughts in a journal or diary. The idea is to get them out of your head and into the real world. That’s when your fear relinquishes control.

It also feels better to get it off your chest and tell the world about it. You’d be shocked at how many people are terrified of the same things you are.

Think Logically

Fear causes us to panic, and panic causes us to make poor decisions. Our prefrontal cortex, in fact, shuts down when we panic, according to various studies. This is the part of our brain that controls rational thought.

So, despite your anxiety and terror, you need to be able to learn to think rationally. Make terror your ally, and you’ll be able to do much more in life.

Take Stock

Fear, tension, and anxiety are all handled differently by people. Some people thrive under pressure and really enjoy being challenged. Others like to work at their own speed without the pressure of imminent deadlines.

Whatever method you choose, the most essential thing is to avoid allowing fear to overcome you. Let’s say you’re terrified of speaking in public. But then a colleague suddenly became ill and asked you to step in and deliver the presentation you’d been working on for weeks.

In this situation, you must choose whether to let your fear to overcome you or to rise to the occasion.

The latter will be difficult, but it will be well worth it in the end. Keep an objective mindset and remind yourself that others have given presentations before and survived to tell the tale. So, what exactly is the big deal?

Remember that your mind has a tendency to exaggerate things. So, find a strategy to cope with the tension and assess the situation. It’s the only way you’ll be able to control your anxiety and finish the work.

Get Help And Support

With a robust support system, no one has ever failed. Surround yourself with people who will motivate you to achieve your goals. These are the ones who choose to love you unconditionally despite listening to you scream about your concerns and anxiety.

A great deal of research has been done on the advantages of having a support system. It improves your self-esteem and overall well-being by giving you effective coping abilities.

Furthermore, having a strong support system can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.

Remain Positive

When you’re afraid, you’re more likely to dwell on negative ideas and feelings. Then, in your mind, things fester and grow into this huge, hideous beast that you can’t control.

For a change, why not try some positivity? Remember that the mind is quite powerful; all it need is a gentle prod in the proper direction.

You can overcome your anxieties and live to tell the tale if you think positively. All you have to do now is believe it, and the rest will take care of itself.

Build Faith In Yourself

You can increase your comfort zone and confidence by celebrating tiny victories when confronted with fear, switching to positive self-talk, and imagining positive outcomes. People handle worst-case events significantly better than they expect, according to fear research.

Dedication to a greater cause, whether it’s a spiritual conviction, altruism, or personal ambitions, can help us overcome fear and stay on track when we’re feeling down.

Rather than fighting, avoiding, attempting to control, or feeling horrible about fear, learn to approach it as a friendly companion, anticipating it to show up and welcoming it when it does.

It isn’t a problem if you stop thinking of it as one.

As you can appreciate, changing the way you think can have a huge impact on your life, and if you want to know more about developing an inspirational mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊

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