1000+ Facebook Fans in 5 days

During the launch of my book, I tested a promotion that grew my Facebook fan page from nothing to over 1200 likes in five days for less than $150 in expenses. Here’s exactly how I did it and why you may, or may not, want to do it yourself.

I’ve had a Facebook page for a long time, but I pretty much ignored it. It sat there with about 30 fans and no interaction from me. Facebook requires your page have 25 “likes” before you can customize the URL, so long ago I got 25 friends to click like so I could lock in my own name as a domain name. You should do this immediately to claim your name.

Outcome

When you plan any marketing, it’s important to be clear of your desired result. Most business owners and beginning marketers aim too broadly and usually fail in their marketing. This is the weakness of most branding advertising and why it’s common to hear, “I ran an ad and it didn’t do anything.” You’ll be more successful with smaller, more refined goals.

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Posted in Marketing | 2 Comments

Your New Year’s Resolution will Fail…

Let’s be honest about these first of the year resolutions. According to a study, 88% of people fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions. With those odds, why would you even bother with a New Year’s resolution? I don’t think you should.

But I do think you should set strategic goals. Semantics? Perhaps, but one is 88% likely to fail; the other has a very high probability of success. Here’s the difference.

So many resolutions fail because they’re not aligned with a burning desire to accomplish them. For example, these are common resolutions:

  • Lose weight
  • Save money
  • Take a family vacation
  • Quit smoking

None of these is specific, nor are there any action steps. But, the real problem is they’re derived almost out of thin air.

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Posted in Inspiration, Lifestyle Design, Personal Finance | 4 Comments

The Behavior Gap

When I received an advance copy of Carl Richard’s book The Behavior Gap, I read it cover to cover in one day. It’s rare that I come across original thinking in the personal finance world and I wanted to bring some of that original thinking to you.

I was fortunate to spend some time with Carl and we recorded our conversation about money its impact on our lives. Carl is known for taking complex financial issues and breaking them down into simple to understand drawings that could fit on the back of a napkin.

One of my favorite drawings from Carl depicts the relationship between money and happiness. Carl explained how we face this contradiction in life where we feel that if we can make just a little more money we’ll be happy, but we’re also told that money doesn’t buy happiness. According to Carl, there is truth in both statements. Be sure to listen to his explanation. Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Personal Finance | 4 Comments

The Definitive Guide to Ruthless Time Management

This approach to time management has nothing to do with colored labels or organizing the files on your hard drive. It’s about ruthlessly protecting your time so you can get more done faster. These ideas will offend some and inspire a few, but that’s ok–there’s a reason only the minority are highly successful.

Why do so many feel overwhelmed most of the time? Many years ago, I was running ragged trying to work a full-time job while running two business and juggling a family with a newborn. I couldn’t keep up and had to slow down and figure out what the heck I was doing and where my time was going. I realized I was “busy” most of the time, but I wasn’t really accomplishing much.

My days as a detective started out like the movie in Groundhog Day. I got to my desk at about 7:15 AM–not because I was most productive then, but because my boss showed up at about 7:30 and as long as I beat him in, I was good. Everyone else worked on the same premise.

I would fire up my computer and just stare at it for a good fifteen minutes. It was much like a scene in the movie Office Space. When my boss walked in, everyone gathered around and talked about nothing for an hour or two. When I say nothing, I mean absolutely nothing, but my boss liked it, so we complied.

No one else had anything to do that early either, but somewhere it said we had to start work at 7:00, so we did, even if it would have been more productive to come in later.

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Posted in Entrepreneurship, Lifestyle Design | 13 Comments

The Answer to All Your Money Worries

Last month I asked readers to share their biggest money concerns and I received a ton of great responses. Today I’m summarizing a few of the common themes and sharing some of my responses. You may relate or have similar worries so my feedback will be helpful to you.

Also, I’ve decided to give you free access to the first nine chapters of my book because the book covers most of these concerns. This offer will be removed soon, so download it quickly and share it with your friends before the link comes down.

Finally, the winners to my Ultimate Free Gift contest are revealed below.

Here are the questions:

“Chuck, my greatest worry is that we will not be able to save for our kids’ future. It is difficult to pay the bills, save for retirement, and also save for the kids’ college all at the same time.”

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Posted in Personal Finance, Recommended Reading | 5 Comments