Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus to start selling from Rs 64,000 onwards, come 29 September

The rumours and speculations have been put to bed. Apple at its special event to mark 10 years since the launch of the original iPhone, unveiled the iPhone 8 and the taller iPhone 8 Plus at the company's new Steve Jobs Theatre. The iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus will start selling at Apple Authorised Resellers from 29 September in India starting at a price of Rs 64,000.

iPhone 8 Plus. Apple

The iPhone 8, as well as the iPhone 8 Plus, will be available for pre-order starting 15 September while shipping starts on 22 September in the US. Both devices also come in two storage variants and identical colour options. This year Apple has doubled the storage capacity with the base variant now being 64 GB and the other option being a 256 GB variant.
The exact break up of the prices is thus: iPhone 8 (64 GB) at Rs 64,000; iPhone 8 (256 GB) at Rs 77,000; iPhone 8 Plus (64 GB) at Rs 73,000 and the iPhone 8 Plus (256 GB) at Rs 86,000.
The design on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus features a new glass back with what the company claims to be the most durable glass to be used on a smartphone. The glass back also enables wireless charging on the iPhone, for the very first time. Wireless charging works with the established Qi ecosystem, including two new wireless charging mats from accessory makers, Belkin and Mophie. Colour options, however, have been brought down from five to three. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will be available in gold, silver and space grey.

The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus come with a glass back which allow for Qi based wireless charging.

The display is where the iPhone 8 and the 8 Plus differ. The iPhone 8 packs in a 4.7-inch LCD Retina HD display while the iPhone 8 Plus comes with a larger 5.5-inch variant. The display hardware has not been changed much from its predecessor, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Both phones support Apple's 3D Touch and also come with a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating. The other difference is the presence of the dual cameras on the iPhone 8 Plus, whereas the iPhone 8 comes with a single camera.
The Apple iPhone 8 and 8 Plus feature the company's new and the fastest A11 Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture. The A11 not only improves on performance in comparison to the A10 Fusion chip found on its predecessor but also houses a GPU which is 30 percent faster. The A11 Bionic chip also adds a neural sensor which helps in AR capabilities.
The camera on the iPhone 8 comprises a 12 MP f/1.8 lens, capable of up to five times digital zoom. The iPhone 8 Plus here takes the lead having a dual camera setup comprising of two 12 MP lenses, one a wide-angle lens with f/1.8 aperture and the other a telephoto lens with an aperture of f/2.8. The two cameras allow up to 10x digital zoom and 2x optical zoom. Both the phones continue to have a sapphire crystal lens cover to avoid scratching the camera surface.

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will sell in India starting 29 September.

The front-facing camera on both phones continues to have a 7 MP f/2.2 sensor with automatic image stabilisation and 1080p video recording.
The new features included by Apple on the iPhone 8 Plus is the Portrait Lighting capability which adds a number of studio lighting options to images shot using the portrait mode. The feature is still in beta mode but should soon make its way as a full-fledged feature soon.
Video shooting capability too receives a boost with 4K shooting capability now available with up to 60 frames-per-second and 1080p slow motion videos up to 240 fps. What gets better is that with iOS 11 being just around the corner, both the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus will support HEIF and HEVC formats, allowing up to two times compression for better storage management.

Touch ID integration remains the same with the home button also integrating Apple Pay. Both iPhone's also come with IP67 dust and water resistance.

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How to Create Content People Will Still Remember in 5 Years’ Time

What the heck happened?
You had a brilliant idea for your blog.
You spent days (or even weeks!) bringing your idea to life — editing, tweaking, and perfecting every syllable.
You used every promotion strategy and technique in your arsenal to ensure the world would know about your blogging masterpiece.
So when you laid down to sleep that first night, you were certain you had a winner on your hands — the kind of content that could stand the test of time and be spoken of with reverence years later by adoring fans who named their firstborn after you.
But faster than you can say “Keyser Soze,” your content was — poof! — gone.
After its initial wave of popularity subsided, your masterpiece faded into the background as newer and newer content popped up.
Instead of standing the test of time, your content was forgotten.
And the only adoring fan willing to name their firstborn after you was your spouse.
Seriously…
What the heck happened?

The Painful Truth: Most Content Will Disappear Into Obscurity Days after Hitting “Publish”

It’s sad but true.
Most online content, even when it’s excellent, is quickly forgotten.
Sure, it may be popular for a little while. For a few glorious moments, it may be flush with laudatory blog comments, congratulatory emails, and social media love.
But, eventually, its popularity fizzles out.
With two million new blog posts published each and every day, only a select few are able to stick in the minds of readers.
How do these select few do it? How are they so memorable?
More importantly, how can you repeat what they do so your content has a chance to still be remembered years from now?
That’s what this post will teach you.

The 5 Crucial Qualities of Unforgettable Content

If you want to create content that people will remember and reference for years — not just days — after you click publish, you need to give it one (or more) of the five qualities we’re about to discuss.
Ready?
Let’s get started.

Quality #1: Gives Readers an “OMG!” Moment

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Remember the end of Se7en when Kevin Spacey’s master plan was revealed?
Remember when your mouth dropped open after Darth Vader made the shocking (and often misquoted) revelation that he was Luke’s father?
Remember how stunned you were at the end of The Sixth Sense when you learned that Bruce Willis’s character had been wearing a toupee the entire time?
These movies caught us off guard, jolted us to attention, and got us talking.
And years later, we’re still talking about them.
Why is that?
They’re quality movies for sure, but there’s more to it.
As Chip and Dan Heath discuss in their book Made to Stick, our brains filter out consistency in favor of focusing on differences.
So instead of remembering by-the-numbers movies that end exactly how we expected, we remember the ones with unexpected twists and surprising revelations.
Those are the stories that stand out, stick in our minds, and get us talking about them.
How does this relate to blogging?
If you want your content to be remembered, try surprising your reader.
It’s a tried-and-true method for crafting content that sticks.

How It’s Done

Have you ever come across a headline that stopped you in your tracks?
Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants is such a headline. It’s surprising, different, and catches you off guard.
But it’s nothing compared to the surprises inside the post.
The first revelation is that James Chartrand is actually a woman; however, the big discovery is why she took and continues to prominently use the name James Chartrand as her pen name.
She explains how a simple name change was able to take her from a struggling freelancer to a well-known blogger.
While the result was unintentional, she reaped many benefits from taking on a male persona — an easier time getting jobs, more respect for her work, and more recognition.
Undeniably, the post is brilliantly written. That makes it great.
But it’s the surprise factor that makes James’s post so gosh-darn memorable.

How You Can Do It

Creating surprising content is not an easy task, and it requires a well-thought-out idea to achieve it. But here are two ways you can get it done:

#1. Drop a Bombshell

Do you have a secret your readers would find surprising?
You’re a travel blogger who’s never flown on a plane? Do you blog about healthy eating but stuff your face with cake on a weekly basis? Are you a fashion blogger who once wore an orange tuxedo to a charity gala?
Tell your readers. Give them your reasons. Get them talking.

#2. Break the Norm

Let’s be honest… Most tips, advice, and strategies you find online — regardless of the niche — are unoriginal. You’ve seen them before, and so have your readers.
Want to surprise your audience?
Offer them unconventional advice they haven’t heard a thousand times before. Give them a truly new idea or insight. Provide a simpler technique or shortcut that makes them cry over all the time and effort they wasted doing things the regular way.
A surprising revelation doesn’t have to be extraordinary or outlandish for people to remember it.
Sometimes, it just needs to thwart you reader’s expectations.

Tweetable Takeaway

Want a proven method for crafting content that sticks in your readers’ heads? Surprise them. (Tweet This)

Quality #2: Overwhelms the Senses (Including Taste Buds)

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Remember the final scene in Field of Dreams when Ray Kinsella has a catch with his dad?
You can hear the sound of the baseball hitting their gloves. You can smell the grass on the field. You can feel Ray’s years of guilt melting away as he closes his eyes, smiles, and tosses the ball back to his dad.
(Be honest. You’re crying right now, aren’t you?)
Field of Dreams made you feel like you were in Ray’s shoes, on his field, playing catch with dad.  The scene creates such a vivid experience for viewers that whenever they think of playing catch, this scene will come up alongside their own childhood memories.
That’s the power of content that overwhelms  your senses.
When you paint a strong scene in your audience’s mind, you make it easier for them to pull it back up from their memory. You’ve essentially bookmarked it for them so they can easily find it when something — a sight, a smell, a sound — reminds them of it.
And the precious few bloggers who can paint such scenes with their writing have been rewarded for their efforts.
Rewarded with tweets. Rewarded with email subscribers.
Rewarded with posts remembered long after their publish dates.

How It’s Done

The trick is to use descriptive language that conveys sensations and lets readers experience what you want them to gain from your writing.
Few writers are better at this than Jon Morrow.
In his post 7 Lessons from a Guy Who Can’t Move Anything But His Face, he uses descriptive storytelling to help the reader get an idea of what it might feel like to be him; specifically, what it’s like to live with a disability.
Had he simply told his readers facts, the points in Jon’s post wouldn’t have resonated with them the same way.
So Jon puts the readers in his shoes. The ups, the downs, and everywhere in between.
And they remember him because of it.

How You Can Do It

If you’ve taken a good English or writing class, you’ve probably been told a time or two to “show, don’t tell.”
This means you want to create an engaging experience for your audience; not just tell them what you want them to know.
But it also means giving your readers specific, concrete advice.
Your reader shouldn’t try in vain to grasp abstract concepts, such as building courage or showing kindness. These are hard to visualize and too vague to put into action.
What would building courage look like? What would showing kindness look like?
Give them concrete actions to take that would display these concepts, like asking someone out on a date (courage) or hugging a stranger (kindness).
You must engage the senses both in the stories you tell and the advice you give, or they will both be quickly forgotten.
Here are a few more specific ways to create engaging, sensory-overloading experiences:

#1. Paint a Mental Picture: What Do You See?

It isn’t enough to tell your readers there was a scary house in your neighborhood when you were a child. Describe the house to them in vivid detail.
What shade of gray was it? Were the doors boarded up? Precisely how many ghostly figures did you see staring at you from the upstairs bedroom windows, and how many are standing behind you right now?

#2. What Do You Hear?

We listen to uptempo songs to push us through cardio workouts. We listen to rainfall when we’re trying to sleep. We listen to Justin Bieber when we want to punish our neighbors.
Want to transplant readers into your world?
Talk about the drip, drip, drip of the faucet. Mention the squeaking floors beneath your feet. Describe the awful music coming from your next-door-neighbor’s house.

#3. What Does it Taste Like?

Does the beach air taste salty? Is the roaring fire so intense you can taste the smoke? Is the smell of your roommate’s tuna fish sandwich so strong you can taste it from across the room?
Tell your audience. Make them taste the fishiness.

Tweetable Takeaway

Make readers see what you see. Put them in your shoes and take them on an emotional journey. (Tweet This)

Quality #3: Coins a Contagious Catchphrase

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“The quicker picker upper.”
“The ultimate driving machine.”
“Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.”
Unless you’re one of the precious few whose brains haven’t been inundated with advertisements over the years, you probably recognize these slogans. You also probably recognize the companies that created them.
That’s what a great slogan, phrase, or title can do.
They’re memorable. They differentiate the brand. They often outline a key benefit.
If you want your content to have a chance to stay relevant for years to come, present something that’s novel and — this is key — condense it to its essence.
The end result will be a phrase or idea people will immediately associate with your content.

How It’s Done

The post 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly created an idea that was short and sweet: you can make a living doing anything if you have just 1,000 true fans.
He defined this simple, brilliant idea and then spent the rest of his post explaining why it worked and what you had to do to make it work.
Written in 2008, Kevin’s post is still remembered and referenced all these years later.
Why?
Because the phrase “1,000 true fans” condenses its concept into a simple, catchy phrase. And that makes it easier for people to remember and  repeat in conversation.
Brian Dean does something similar in his post The Skyscraper Technique, which teaches a useful link-building strategy for beginners and veterans of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) alike.
After naming his technique, Brian breaks it down into easy-to-follow steps so his audience can quickly get what they need from his post.
The technique is fairly simple and its title, again, is quite catchy.
You can grasp the concept of Brian’s idea simply by its name. You can visualize it. You can close your eyes and see it in action.
And that helps make it memorable.

How You Can Do It

Ask yourself a few questions…
What is your post about? Can you boil your main idea down into a memorable phrase or title? Does it present a unique perspective or technique? Does it address a real need or concern many people can connect with?
Your phrase should be simple and leave an impression on your audience, whether that’s giving them an “aha” moment or simply piquing their interest so they’ll be curious to hear what you have to say.
And once you have settled on a memorable phrase or title, feature it prominently. Include it in your headline. Repeat it, as needed, throughout your post.

Tweetable Takeaway

Create something useful and your audience will read it. Make it catchy, and they’ll remember it. (Tweet This)

Quality #4: Strips You Down and Lays You Bare

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If you really want to write a post that resonates with people, you need to connect with them on a deep, personal level. You need to strip your defenses and show your vulnerable side.
This not only sets you apart from all the regular, straight-laced content your audience is exposed to, it helps you relate to them in a way that’s meaningful.
Why do you think Taylor Swift is so popular?
It’s not because she has a better voice than everyone else. It’s not because she’s seven feet tall. It’s not even because she frequently posts pictures of her cat on Twitter and Instagram.
It’s because her lyrics connect with her audience.
From teardrops getting on her guitar to shaking off the fact that haters insist on hating, Taylor often shows vulnerability in her songs.
This vulnerability endears her to her fans. When they look at her, they see a seven-foot-tall version of themselves. They see a kindred spirit.
And you don’t forget kindred spirits very easily.

How It’s Done

Jon is masterful at showing vulnerability.
In his post On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Ideas, Jon recounts the story of his mother’s tenacity in the face of his condition, which his doctor labels terminal.
He does this beautifully by telling the story first from his mother’s perspective, then from his own, and — lastly — he ties it into his main point: writers have to fight for their ideas with all the determination and love with which mothers fight for their children.
Such an appeal to the audience’s emotions is powerful. It hits home. It’s memorable.
If you want to make your content memorable, make it personal.

How You Can Do It

There are many, many ways you can show vulnerability in your writing. Here are a few ideas:

#1. Open a Window into Your Life

Like Jon does in many of his posts, you can draw your audience in with a personal story.
This works especially well if it exposes you in some way to the reader or helps them relate to you. When you write, you’re asking your audience to trust you with their time and attention.
Show them why they should feel comfortable trusting you.

#2. Reveal Your Intentions

Do you have personal reasons for writing your post?
Be candid with your audience and tell them why the subject means so much to you.
It’s easy for your audience to see you as just another faceless entity trying to sell them a product or idea.
Break this image by showing them your human side.

#3. Expose Your Fears and Anxieties

Are you writing about a problem or worry your audience has?
Do you share and understand their anxieties?
Let your readers know you are (or have been) in the same boat they are and show them how that makes you more qualified to write about it.

Tweetable Takeaway

Don’t be a superhero. Pull back the curtain and let readers see your struggles. (Tweet This)

Quality #5: Breaks Your Reader’s Lenses

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We all view the world through lenses.
Some are very specific…
“I’ll vote for whichever candidate lets me have chickens in my backyard.”
However, most lenses are common. They shape our thoughts, passions, and widely-held beliefs on everything from sports to religion.
But what if one of the things you’ve believed all your life was turned on its head?
If you want to write content that people will remember in five years, you can’t just give readers random facts.
You need to hold up a mirror so your readers take cold, hard looks at themselves.
You need to challenge something your readers hold dear.
You need to change their worldview.

How It’s Done

Few concepts are as ingrained into the American way of life as the eight-hour workday.
That’s why Leo Widrich’s The Origin of the 8-Hour Work Day and Why We Should Rethink It, which attempts to debunk the eight-hour day by showing how it wasn’t a well-thought-out or highly-optimized number, is so intriguing.
Leo doesn’t offer the reader a new number as an alternative. Instead, he says what his reader should be concentrating on is focus; specifically, how well they are able to focus on the task at hand regardless of how much time they have to complete it.
Another way to change worldviews is to expose your readers to the reasons why they hold the beliefs they do. A great example of this is the post Taming the Mammoth: Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People Think.
Written by Tim Urban, this humorous piece takes the audience through a history lesson that tells them why they care so much what people think, and then guides them on how to overcome this crippling fear.
We’re constantly trying to overcome fear of rejection and embarrassment, so a post telling us why we (foolishly) fear such things definitely hits home.

How You Can Do It

Challenging people’s views isn’t easy, but here are a few ideas to help you do it.

#1. Demolish Beliefs That Lead Them Astray

Look at the commonly held beliefs of your readers and see if you find any of them to be faulty.
Ask yourself question like:

• “What do my readers believe about X that’s untrue?”
• “What often-repeated tips and strategies in my niche are — how to put this delicately — extremely stupid?”
• “What beliefs keep my readers from achieving X result?”

Once you’ve found something faulty, write about it.
That’s what Derek Halpern did when he tackled the “Content Is King” mantra.
It’s what Dries Cronje did when he told bloggers that posting every day was a silly strategy.
And it’s what Jon did when he shot holes in many of the traffic-building techniques used by beginner bloggers.
Demolishing your readers beliefs  in a direct, honest, and non-condescending way is an effective strategy for creating  memorable content.

#2. Put Your Readers in Someone Else’s Shoes

A great way to get into your readers’ heads and change their perspective is to present them with a story — whether it’s a real one or a metaphor — and challenge them to ask, “How would I feel if … ?” or “What would I do if … ?”
Just think about your favorite books.
The best are ones where we put ourselves into the shoes of the characters. You’re not reading The Three Musketeers, you are The Three Musketeers.
It’s you who is fighting with swords and having swashbuckling adventures.
And once you’re in their shoes, you can more easily see things from their point of view. Suddenly, you’re not viewing the world through your lens. You’re viewing the world through theirs.
That’s what a great story can do. It draws you in. It flips the “sympathize” switch and turns it to “empathize.” Flip that switch in your reader and it becomes that much easier to flip their perspective.

Tweetable Takeaway

Want to write something people will remember? Turn a commonly held belief on its head. (Tweet This)

It’s Time to Craft Everlasting Gobstoppers of Memorable Content

With dreams of fame, fortune, and world domination dancing through their heads, ambitious bloggers pour their hearts and souls into content they hope people will remember forever.
Unfortunately, most bloggers have no clue how to craft content readers will remember after their morning cup of coffee.
But you do.
You now understand the five crucial qualities content needs to be memorable. To be spoken of with reverence years later by adoring fans. To stand the test of time.
The days of being dumbfounded as you watch your latest blogging masterpiece fade into the sunset are over.
Are you ready to create content  people will still talk about in five years?
Then what are you waiting for?
Let’s do this thing.

About the Author: When he isn’t using his very particular set of skills to preach the virtues of the Rainmaker Platform or help bloggers improve their craft, Kevin J. Duncan runs Daily Dad Tips — a free daily newsletter for men wanting to up their game.

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How to Be Smart in a World of Dumb Bloggers

Note from Glen: As a kid, I remember my mom rubbing antiseptic ointment onto my bloodied knee after a fall. “It hurts!” I sobbed. “That means it’s working,” she said wisely.
Sometimes what’s good for you hurts a little too. And that’s how I feel about this post by Jon.
We’ve gained a ton of new readers since it was first published, which means thousands of new patients for Doctor Morrow. So tell me, are you ready for your medicine?
Can I be painfully honest with you for a moment?
Not thank-God-he-told-me honesty, where somebody points out you have spinach on your teeth. No, I’m talking about the sucker-punch-straight-to-the-face brand of honesty.
It’s brutal. It’s ugly. It’s unexpected.
And I can almost guarantee you will NOT enjoy it.
In fact, I’ve been holding off telling you for years now, hoping somebody would do the dirty work for me. But no one has. So, out of respect to you, I want to tell you the truth.
So here it is.
You know how you’ve been struggling to get traffic? Tried everything, and it’s just not working right?
Well, it’s not because you haven’t found the right traffic strategy. It’s not because you need to change your domain name. It’s not because the Google gods have turned against you and cursed you to wallow in anonymity forever.
It’s because you’re dumb.
And if you ever want a chance in hell of anyone listening to you, you’d better smarten up.

Did I really just call you “dumb?”

Yes, I did. Sorry.
Granted, you might be part of the minority who’s getting a lot of traffic and making a ton of money and is really and truly brilliant. If that’s the case, consider yourself excused from this “Come to Jesus” meeting.
The rest of you though?
This is not a ruse where DUMB turns out to be a clever acronym for something far less offensive. The truth is, I’m calling you out, and I’m doing it out of love.
Because you see, everyone has been lying to you. Including me.
We teach you traffic strategies. We dole out writing tips. We give you a pep talk and make you believe maybe you can really become the next blogging superstar.
But honestly?
There’s one really big thing we’ve been leaving out. Here it is:

Popular bloggers are smarter than you are

And no, I’m not talking about IQ.
What I’m referring to is having a conversation with somebody and walking away thinking, “Holy crap, they’re amazing!” Maybe not a super genius, no, but captivating nonetheless.
Every popular blogger I’ve ever talked to for more than 15 minutes has had that effect on me. I always come away from the conversation with a perspective I didn’t have before.
You might say, “Well, they’re not necessarily smart. They’re just articulate,” but I don’t think that’s all it is. I think it’s a piece of a much larger set of characteristics.
Just a few examples:

• They know damn near everything about their topic. And if they don’t know it, it’s in their reading pile.
• They can take enormously complex ideas and compress them into simple language anyone can understand.
• At least some of what they say is truly original. You’ve never heard it anywhere before. Ever.
• Even if you have no interest whatsoever in their topic, they find a way to captivate you and make you interested. It’s spooky.
• You find yourself thinking about something they wrote or said weeks or even years into the future.

Yes, they are publishing great content, building relationships with the right people, and employing the right traffic strategies, but at the bottom of it all, you have a wicked smart person who deserves all the attention they’re getting. They are truly special people.
On the flipside, there’s everyone else who is some combination of ignorant, obtuse, unoriginal, boring, or forgettable. You read their work, and you come away thinking they’re kind of dumb.
So, it’s time to ask yourself the question…
Which group do you belong to?
Or even more importantly, which group do you want to belong to?

The truth about building a popular blog

It’s not only about what you publish. It’s also about who you are.
If you’re smart, it’s relatively easy. You publish an idea that’s both brilliant and useful, it blows people’s minds, everyone starts talking about it, and a bazillion people link to your blog. Influencers also line up to become your friend and help you out because… well… you’re cool.
But if you’re not smart?
It’s nearly impossible. You can do everything all the blogging authorities tell you to do, and you can do it absolutely correctly, and you’ll still fail. I guarantee it.
So, does that mean you’re doomed?
Not necessarily. Here’s why:
This isn’t about genetics. This isn’t about inborn talent. This isn’t about fate.
It’s about deciding who you want to be and then making yourself into that person.

How to make yourself smarter

I was not what you would call a “bright” kid.
I goofed off in class. I failed tests. I skated through with mediocre grades.
But sometime around the age of 13 or so, I got fed up with myself and decided to change things. There wasn’t any pivotal moment that I recall. I just started caring less about what my friends thought and started thinking about who I wanted to become.
And that person was smart.
So instead of spending 30 minutes on homework, I spent five hours. If the teacher assigned a 500 word essay, I wrote a 1,000 word essay. On the weekends, I stopped going to the arcade and hung out at the library, reading books totally of my own choosing for 8-10 hours straight.
Nobody told me to do it. I just did it. Because that’s who I wanted to be.
Within a year, I was getting straight A’s. By the time I was 16, I graduated high school with college credit, a full two years early. In college, professors regularly called me a prodigy.
But you know the funny thing?
I failed every intelligence test the schools gave me. Every single one. I don’t remember for sure what they said my IQ was, but it was something like 106.
Could they have been wrong? Maybe, but I prefer to think something different:
Each and every one of us decides who we are. No, you may not be ready to be a popular blogger now, but you can become ready.
You just have to decide you want it, and then take the necessary steps. For example:

1) Replace your friends

I told you this would be painful, right?
Well, here’s some more brutal honesty:
If you want to grow, you almost always have to replace your friends. No, you don’t have to insult them or drive them away, but simply stop spending as much time with them as you used to.
Why?
As Jim Rohn famously said, “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” There’s no scientific evidence I know of to support him, but pretty much any successful person will tell you it’s true.
When I first heard that as a teenager, I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to think I could help my friends and take them with me.
But I couldn’t. Not because I had to “take care of myself” or anything narcissistic like that, but because they simply didn’t want to come. They were happy with who they were, and they didn’t have any desire to grow.
So I left them behind. I’d be lying to you if I said it was easy, but I’ve never regretted it. If you want to grow, you have to become someone new, changing the way you think, how you talk, and yes, the people you hang out with.
Want to become a better writer?
Well, find a few writers a little better than you are, online, in real life, wherever, and become friends with them. Exchange work, give each other feedback, and also find ways to hang out and do absolutely nothing related to writing.
If you know them in real life, go to a movie, bowling, a coffee shop, whatever. Talk to them. If they’re online, IM them every day or two, share a YouTube video, rant about stupid politicians, or just ask about their day.
At first, talking to them might be painful. You’ll feel like an idiot. Eventually though, you’ll get smarter, just by hanging around with them. You won’t be able to help it.
That’s what good friends do: they help us grow.

2) Become a know-it-all

Ever seen the movie The Edge?
Anthony Hopkins plays a billionaire who seems to know… well… everything. No one can ask him a question he doesn’t know the answer to.
Well, popular bloggers are kind of like that.
No, they don’t know everything, but a quick conversation could easily go from the latest trends in social media to political intrigue in medieval England to how to replace the carburetor in your car. All in a few minutes.
And they’re not bullshitting. They really know a lot about all of those subjects (and many more).
Here’s why:
They’re learning. Constantly.
To use myself as an example…

• I listen to an interview with a brilliant person every morning during breakfast
• During lunch, I read part of a nonfiction book
• I watch 42 minutes of the smartest TV I can find during dinner (often on Netflix)
• After dinner, I read the day’s news and interesting blog posts
• Before going to bed, I read fiction for at least an hour
• While I’m in the car, I listen to books on tape, even if I’m going to the local pharmacy
• I spend a portion of every weekend watching recordings of conferences I couldn’t attend

And the crazy thing?
Amongst popular bloggers, I’m not abnormal. Yes, everyone has different routines, but each and every popular blogger I know spends at least three or four hours a day consuming new information.
It’s not just an idiosyncrasy. It’s required.
In today’s world, going to school, learning a few things, and then coasting through your life without reading another book is a death wish. You’ll be obsolete in a few years. Hell, if you’re a blogger, you’ll be obsolete in a few weeks.
The opposite is also true. If you spend more time learning than anyone else, before you know it, everyone thinks you’re a genius. Not only can you recite the work of other important people, but you connect the dots between totally unrelated subjects, creating new ideas nobody has even considered before.
It’s not because you were born with a high IQ. It’s because you know so damn much.
The point?
Spend at least three hours a day learning something new. I don’t care how or when you do it. Just make sure you do.

3) Do less

Here’s another powerful question:
How many hours per day do you spend thinking?
And no, I don’t necessarily mean sitting in a chair, lost in thought. You can include time when your body is on autopilot too, like when you’re driving to work, doing the dishes, taking a shower, etc.
For most people, it’s maybe two or three hours per day. Now, here’s the follow-up question that really brings things into perspective:
Of those hours, how many are spent thinking about your writing?
Uh oh. Now you’re in trouble, right?
Most people think about their family, their job, their upcoming vacation, but they don’t think about what they’re going to write until they open the word processor. Big mistake.
Recently, I found a slide deck from Brendan Schwartz, the CTO of Wistia, talking about how to build a great product, and in it, he gives some surprising advice:
For every hour you spend working, you need to spend 10 hours thinking. Or put more simply, 10x thinking, 1x doing.
And it applies to more than just building a product.
If I add up all the time I spend writing blog posts, it’s probably a similar ratio. If I spend five hours writing a post, which I often do, I wouldn’t be surprised if I spent 50 hours thinking about it before I start writing and in between drafts.
When readers see the finished product, they think, “Oh my God, you’re a genius,” but the truth is, the vast majority of the stuff I think is either worthless or downright stupid. You never hear any of that. All you hear is the 10% I decide to share with you.
Whether they realize it or not, most popular bloggers do the same thing with their best content. They might think about a post for months or even years before they feel ready to write it. Usually, those are also the posts that go viral and make them famous.
Now, you might be thinking, “Well, I’m not doing this full time. I have a job, kids, a social life. I’m just too busy.” And you’re right. You are too busy. That’s the problem.
If you want to become a popular blogger, you need time to think. Not just for a few minutes here and there, but for hours and hours on end.
That means doing less. As painful as it may be, you’re going to have to cut some things out of your life to give yourself time to do this right.
Maybe it’s reducing your time in front of the television. Maybe it’s scaling back your hours at work. Maybe it’s spending less time with your friends.
Regardless, you have to cut something. Otherwise, you’ll never have time to think, and you’ll be just another fool regurgitating what everyone else says.

The bottom line

Blogging isn’t only about SEO or social networking or the quality of your subheads.
It’s also about you.
More than likely, the person you are right now is not capable of being a popular blogger. Your environment, your habits, and your schedule are sucking all the promise right out of you.
If you want to succeed, you have to change. Surround yourself with smart people, bury yourself in books, and cut all the crap out of your life that’s distracting you.
You may not feel it happen, but it will change you. Drastically. You’ll still be you, but you’ll be a better version of you.
And you’ll see the results.
Where your posts used to get a halfhearted response from readers, you’ll start getting dozens of adoring comments. Where popular bloggers used to ignore you, you’ll find them linking to your posts without even asking. Where you used to only see small, incremental traffic gains, your traffic will explode, going from 100 visitors a day to 500 to 1,000, all within a matter of months.
Not because you’re using some new traffic technique. Not because you got to know some powerful influencer. Not because you got lucky.
It’ll happen because you’re worthy. Slowly and painfully, you’ll have transformed into someone worth listening to.
Are you ready to be that person?
Or are you going to be just another dumbass with a blog?
The choice is yours.
About the Author: Jon Morrow has asked repeatedly to be called “His Royal Awesomeness” but no one listens to him. So, he settles for CEO of Boost Blog Traffic, LLC. Poor man.

5 Things to Do If You Want to Fail at Online Business

Strange feeling, isn’t it?
Both exciting and terrifying at the same time.
But that’s what it’s like, starting an online business.
On the one hand, you know you were meant to do more with your life than being stuck in a job you hate.
On the other, starting a new business is risky — and the thought of failing and crawling to your boss to beg for your old job back paralyzes you with fear.
You yearn to take control of your destiny and see where your passion leads you. But passion is not enough, and you know it. To make it work, you need to create a source of self-sustaining income.
For most people, though, starting a business doesn’t sound like fun. At least not compared to “following your dream.”
But if you really want to gain your freedom while making your mark on the world, you have to make the leap. You have to start your online business.
And honestly, you couldn’t have picked a better time to do it. The Online Revolution is here and in full swing, ready to scoop courageous entrepreneurs into its warm, multi-billion-dollar embrace.
And that’s frickin’ exhilarating!
But the possibility of embarrassing, crippling failure is still very real.
So what’s a would-be online entrepreneur to do?

If You’re Not Scared Witless, You’re Probably Being Reckless

Let’s be honest, the insane number of moving parts required for a successful online business are intimidating enough to make even the most determined entrepreneur freeze like a deer in the headlights.
Getting started feels like jumping on a merry-go-round that’s spinning 1,000 miles per hour.
And that’s when the reality of failure sneaks in and threatens to smack that revolutionary opportunity right out of your hands.
But wait…
What about “taking action,” “failing fast” and “pivoting?” Aren’t they the true path to entrepreneurial success?
Well… kinda.  
Because there’s a huge difference between failing while doing something the right way, and failing because you jumped in unprepared for the challenges ahead.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  Nobody can be 100% prepared for an uncertain journey like entrepreneurship. And you’re right.
But ironically, it’s our fear of failure that drives us to make some pretty silly mistakes.
In a mad dash to take action, make progress, and draw ourselves closer to the finish line, we forget, overlook, or flat-out ignore vital steps in the business building process.
Well, the good news is that many of the most common reasons why online businesses fail are completely avoidable — if you know what they are.
But here are five things to do if you’re still hell-bent on failure (and some practical advice for dodging each bullet just in case you aren’t):

#1 Create a Horrific Franken-Strategy

It seems like someone launches a new tactic, strategy or business model every week — if not every day.
The outcomes they promise are so tempting that it’s damn near impossible to resist trying them.
I mean, how can you turn your back on strategies that offer to “10x” your content, traffic, profits, and email list?
Here are just a few of the tantalizing offers that could drop into your inbox any week of the year:

• Get 100,000 Instagram Followers
• Get 10,000 email subs with Facebook ads
• Build a 6-figure online course
• Become a popular guest blogger

It never ends…
So you get scatterbrained and decide to try a little bit of everything. You take bits and pieces of powerful strategies and tactics from multiple mentors and coaches and blindly mix them together.
But in doing so, you inadvertently create a monster.  A monster that’s destined to wreak havoc and destroy your business, your time, and your pocketbook.
I like to call this monster a Franken-Strategy.
Here are some examples of what this powerful beast looks like:

• As you work on growing your email list with guest blogging, you decide to take a shortcut and mix in a couple of quick Facebook ads.  And for good measure, you add a few Instagram marketing tactics.
• As you work on building your blog traffic, you decide to try a little bit of everything: social media, random list building hacks, and what the heck… toss in some SEO stuff too.
• As you work on getting your online coaching business off the ground, you decide to tinker with Pinterest marketing, and perhaps a webinar or two. While you’re at it, you stitch a few surveys to that bad boy.

The sneaky part about these crazy combos is you see popular online business gurus mixing it up all the time. And it seems to work great for them — after all, they’re gazillionaires.
Well, here are two problems with that:

1. An effective strategy is put together a certain way for a reason. You usually can’t omit or change key steps without breaking it. (Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a strategy, just a collection of ideas.)
2. You know those experts you follow? Yeah, they’re pros at this strategy mixing stuff. They probably tried it the “pure” way initially, tweaking it based on their results to make it work even better for them.

Sure, you’re a pro at being a life coach, nutritionist, writer or something else, but those passion-based skills differ considerably compared to those required to run and market a business.
So resist the temptation to pick and choose your tactics like you just reached the front of the queue at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Now at this stage, you might think:
Hey, it’s my business. I can do whatever I want!
And you’re right.
But what if doing whatever you want with your strategy stops you from getting what you actually want from your business?
I know it’s not easy to hear. But it’s true.
So pick a mentor with a strategy that feels doable for you — and stick to it. Give that one strategy a chance to shine on its own.

#2 Insist on Doing Every Damn Thing Yourself

We’ve all been there. Your car needs servicing, so you decide to train as an auto mechanic and do the work yourself.
Except, of course, you don’t.
But that’s the approach many people take to key tasks in their online businesses.
When our business requires a specialist’s skill, we’ll happily spend hundreds of hours immersed in “how to” posts — or thousands of dollars on books and courses.
But if I’ve learned anything from my four failed online businesses it’s this:
You can’t do it all and expect to keep your head above water.
Tackling every aspect of your business all by yourself simply will not work.
Now, what about you? Do you recognize any of these business-crushing mistakes:

• You bury yourself in tutorials and knowledge bases for months so you can customize a complicated WordPress plugin or theme instead of using a more user-friendly theme that works right out of the box.
• You need some compelling copy for your website so you decide to spend $2K on a 3-month master copywriting course instead of hiring a copywriter who can complete it in a week for half the cost (or less).
• You want better Google rankings, so you bust your brain trying to apply complicated SEO tactics to your blog posts instead of hiring an agency to do it for you.
• You waste time trying to personally handle administrative tasks like basic customer support emails instead of hiring a VA to assist you.

The list goes on and on…

Here Are 3 Common Reasons You Try to Do Everything Yourself:

1) Control

You not only want it done the right way,  but you also want it done your way. You believe depending on someone else to help you only adds more risk to the equation.
However, having the ability to attend to every single task for your business is not only an illusion; it’s impossible. There simply isn’t enough time or energy to play a significant role in every aspect of your business.
At some point, every successful entrepreneur has to let go of some of the reins and delegate responsibilities to others. If you can’t, you’ll never scale your business.

2) Budget

Whether you truly lack the funds or you’re just a tightwad, the money isn’t there, and you can’t afford to pay anyone else to do the work for you.
It might be tough to accept, but most online businesses need an upfront investment, which means you may not be financially ready to start one yet.
However, if you have a small budget, you can stretch it by compromising on certain things. For example: be satisfied with an out-of-the-box theme with no customizations, use a wordmark instead of a designed logo, and use free software and plugins.

3) Procrastination

It’s only natural to protect yourself from failure by attempting to prepare yourself for success. You don’t want to look like a fool, right? So you tell yourself that you need to learn this “one last thing… and then you’ll be ready to launch.
However, there’s no such thing as the right time to start. And delaying will not lessen any of the exposure or life changes that are holding you back.
Even though it’s scary as hell, you’ll likely discover that once you jump in, getting started and being exposed isn’t as bad as it seems.

Look, I Get It…

In the beginning, it may seem as though a new entrepreneur has to wear all the hats. But remember, you’re only one person, and you can’t assume the roles of CEO, marketing manager, content creator and customer service provider if you want to succeed.
Because if you think it’s tough to do everything in the beginning, it only gets worse as your business starts to take off.
So the next time you’re tempted to enroll in a $2,000 course or spend months learning a new skill or marketing technique, ask yourself if you could more wisely spend your time and money delegating tasks or making compromises while continuing to grow your business.

#3 Make It All About You (Even Though You Know You Shouldn’t)

Quick question: Who should be the focus of your blog and online business: you, or your audience?
Your likely response: “My audience. Duh!!”
“Is this a joke? Am I being punked?”
I mean, every smart blogger knows this. It’s Blogging 101, right?
The funny thing is, when the time comes to develop and execute their business’s content and design, I have yet to find a single freelancer or entrepreneur who doesn’t buck against this advice. They always let their personal preferences and hunches take center stage.
Even stranger: when I confront them, attempting to educate and warn them of the perils, they admit that many of their choices cater more to themselves than their audience, brand, conversions or their business.
It’s like warning someone that a hot stove will burn them, and their response is “Oh I know that, but I’m gonna touch it anyway. Thanks!”
My point?
You know your business should focus unwaveringly on your audience. You hear it all the time.
You get it. But you don’t practice it.
So why is that?
Well, building your business to cater to other people is a painful and counter-intuitive process. After all, it’s your business, and you want it to represent you and your knowledge.
You want to look at your site and see a reflection of yourself. Something friends and family will say “Oh, that’s totally you.”
The problem is — none of that matters.
What does matter is what your audience expects to see. And even more importantly, that your audience sees a reflection of themselves — not you.
The first step is to stop thinking of your online business as a personal project. It’s not a scrapbooking session. And it’s not a mysterious bottom-of-the-pantry casserole either.

Instead, think of it for what it is:
It’s a business designed for a specific audience.
Here’s a case in point:

A food blogger creates a site that looks like a food blog. And even though she doesn’t like how most food blogs look, she goes with it because it works… it’s what her audience expects to see. And she also has content and recipes that her audience craves. Not just a collection of what she likes (or even worse — what she thinks her audience should like).

There’s a reason why Mexican restaurants look like Mexican restaurants and serve Mexican food. There’s a reason why social media sites look like social media sites and offer social interaction tools. There’s a reason why minimalist blogs look minimal and offer minimalist content.
And that reason is: that’s what the audience expects and wants.
Don’t get me wrong. I strongly encourage you to apply your own personal twist in your writing and design. But if you twist too far, so much so that your audience can’t recognize their expectations in your offer, you’ll break your business for sure.
If you’re struggling with design, pick a proven template or hire a designer with a track record in your niche. Not sure which of several options works best? Ask your audience. It doesn’t matter which you prefer. (But try telling your ego that.)
As for content, you already know the answer:

• Do your research (e.g., blog comments, forums, social media).
• Pick topics your audience craves (not just ones you find interesting).
• Engage with your readers and use their feedback to refine your focus.

Always keep your sights on your audience and don’t let those self-centered choices get in the way.
Because you must wrap your head around this:
Your audience doesn’t care about you. They only care what you can do for them.
Fail to make that connection, and you’ll fail to deliver what they want.
And that means your business will fail.
Every time.

#4 Try to Be a Second-Rate Someone Else

You’re smart. You know that the quickest way to building an online business is to tap into the wealth spring of a profitable market that already exists.
And let’s face it, the best sign of a healthy market is that other businesses are already thriving there.
In fact, some of those businesses are probably your role models — influential bloggers with hordes of raving fans and an enviable online empire full of million-dollar products.
Talk about a proven market!
But while it’s only natural to aspire to a similar level of success, there’s a real danger in copying your role models too closely. You’ll end up creating a “me too” business, one that fails to differentiate itself from the others already established in the market.
Let’s say you’re a huge fan of Jon Morrow. So you decide to target the same audience as Jon. You try to write headlines like Jon. You do your best to tell stories like Jon. You even imagine creating products like Jon.
But the thing is, you’re not Jon. Try as you might, you’ll always be a pale imitation.
So you have to ask yourself: why would readers who resonate with Jon’s content and style read your blog instead of — or even as well as — his?
In other words, why would anyone choose the imitation when they can have the original?

Of course, that’s not to say you couldn’t build a blog as popular as Jon’s, but you’ll never be able to out-Jon, Jon. So if you want to appeal to the same audience, you need to do it in a different way.
But let’s say you want to appeal to an entirely different audience. Let’s say you want to be the Jon Morrow of technology, parenting or even… interior design?
Well then, my friend, you could be onto something. Because then you have a differentiator. You’re bringing a distinctive blogging and online business style into a niche where it doesn’t exist yet.
(Just better hope Jon doesn’t start blogging on those topics!)
So never forget that you need a strong differentiator. Something about you, your business or your product that sets you apart.
In other words, you need a strong answer to the question:
“Why would people read my blog and buy my product or service instead of the already established alternatives?”
But how can you do that?
The possibilities are numerous, however, here are few ways to stand out in a sea of sameness:

1. Have a strong attitude. Take a stand for your worldview… and don’t ever back down. You don’t have to name names and call people out. Rather, you can pick a fight with the status quo. Be bold. Be daring. Yell it from the rooftops!
2. Pick a different format. If your role models tend to publish long-form blog posts, then try publishing in a video or audio format. If your niche is already swamped with good content, become a curator instead of a creator (just as Brian Clark did with his Further newsletter).
3. Revitalize a classic. Find a tired method, strategy or mindset that still works and give it a useful upgrade. Seth Godin did this with his book Purple Cow. He took the classic teaching of developing a unique selling proposition (USP) and gave it a modern-day upgrade. What if you applied minimalism to parenting? Or the 80/20 rule to career development?

Next time you’re tempted to follow your heroes too closely, just ask yourself what kind of entrepreneur you want to be: a passable forgery or a true artist?

#5 Refuse to Make Real Sacrifices

You see it on every online course sales page, launch email, and money-back guarantee. Like the big list of side-effects at the end of a drug commercial, it’s always there. You can’t miss it.
“You gotta put in the work. If you aren’t willing to put forth an honest effort, then this course is not for you.”
It’s become such a common statement that you tend to blaze right past it while thinking “Yeah, Yeah, I get it. I’ll do the work. Now where’s the damn buy button?”
But here’s the thing…
Nobody tells you what “putting in the work” actually means.
Well I’m going to expose that sneaky little phrase for what it really means:
You must be willing to make sacrifices.
Building a business takes time, money, and energy. If you’re serious, then something must give. Extra time doesn’t just magically appear the moment you hand over your PayPal details.
No successful business owner got where she is without making numerous sacrifices in exchange (at least at first).
Here are the kinds of sacrifices I’m talking about:

• Watching less TV (and that includes the latest must-see Netflix series)
• Giving up on some of your hobbies
• Working in the evenings & on the weekends (even if you don’t feel like it)
• Declining invites from family and friends (and maybe getting into trouble for it)
• Being less dedicated to your day job (which could affect your offline career)

Look, your sacrifices don’t have to be sudden and brutal — they can be methodical and gradual.
I’m not asking you to abandon your family, destroy your career, reject all forms of enjoyment, and become a maniacal, business-obsessed hermit.
However, you must take a long, hard look at what you do with your time. And figure out how you’re going to make room for your business.
Some people find it helpful to write down daily routines over the course of a week. Be honest and specific. Make a list of everything you spend time doing, as well as how much time it takes. Then go through your time inventory and make as many cuts and adjustments as you need.
For each item ask: is this more important than getting my online business off the ground? If not, consider cutting it.
Others find it easier to make sacrifices on the fly. They decide from week to week as their business commitments fluctuate.
And a few brave souls take huge plunges like quitting their day jobs. That way they’re forced to make their business a top priority. It’s a high-risk strategy but for certain people the lack of a safety net is the best motivator they know.
I can’t tell you exactly what to sacrifice. It’s up to you to decide what to cut and how much.
But I can tell you that without sacrifices, without shifting your priorities, you’ll never create the business of your dreams.

Stop Inviting Failure and Get on the Path to Success

Starting an online business is risky, no doubt about it.
And going into something feeling like the deck is already stacked against you is discouraging, even downright depressing.
But not all risks are created equal. In practice, you can slash the chances of your business flopping by opening your eyes to how and where failure most often occurs.
So study the lessons above and make sure you’re not cruising towards failure along one of these misguided paths.
Will this insure you completely from defeat? Of course not.
But armed with a knowledge of the most common pitfalls, I have a feeling you’re not going to let that stop you.
Because even though you know that the road to online success is paved with a million failed dreams, there’s something special about us entrepreneurs.
Despite improbable odds, immeasurable fear, and the toughest of sacrifices, we refuse to be defeated.
And that’s the secret to it all:
When you’ve eliminated the risks you can control, you must dive in and start clearing a path to success. And if you hit a road bump or make a mistake, brush yourself off, learn something useful from it… and then pick your ass back up for another round.
Because that’s what real entrepreneurs do.
So, are you ready to make that leap?

About the Author: Blaine Wilkerson helps scatterbrained entrepreneurs launch their online businesses. Grab your free cheat sheet of the most reliable tools every online business needs here.