It’s about 50 minutes long, so I thought I’d condense the main tips into an article.

Yes, some of it is a little on the geeky side, but I’m reliably informed that geeky is the new sexy.

That might be a misquote.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

Swapping Applications

I’m starting with an obvious one, but there will be some people who haven’t come across this shortcut before.

Basically, you hold down the “Alt” key (“Command” key if you’re using a Mac), tap the “Tab” key, and a list of all the running applications will appear in the middle of the screen. Keep tapping “Tab” (while still holding down the “Alt” or “Command” key), and you can scroll through the open applications until you get to the one you want.

Bonus Tip: If you’re using the latest version of Windows, trying using the “Windows” key instead of the “Alt” key for a flashier version of the same technique.

File Organisation

Filing documents on your hard drive properly is a challenge. Even if you start out on a new machine with good intentions, creating lots of tidy folders and grouping files together in a logical order, it’s not long before the sheer volume of data makes finding something again almost impossible.

This is because most people neglect the most important aspect of file organisation…

The name that you give to the individual files.

You might, for example, think you’re pretty smart in creating a folder for receipts for online purchases, but how are you going to find the receipt for that kettle you bought last year when every file looks like this…

Unless you can remember the exact date that you made the purchase, you’re going to struggle.

What you should have done, was to save each file using a name that properly describes the contents.  If, for example, you’d called the filename of the receipt for your kettle:

amazon_kettle_June2011…

Do you think that might make it easier to find?

Along the same lines, a simple trick is to create three-letter codes that represent different projects, and then include that code in every file that is related to that project, whatever type of file it is. Not only does that help your overall organisation, it also makes the files easy to find, even years later, by simply entering the three-letter code into your computer’s “search” facility.

You can come up with your own system for creating logical filenames, but it’s a really good habit to get into that most people never figure out.

This is evidenced by the number of CVs that employers receive called… you guessed it…

CV.doc

What they should be receiving is a document called…

PeteWilliams_CV_May2012.doc

Once you realise the sense in creating descriptive filenames and you start to put it into practice, you’ll wonder why you didn’t begin sooner.

Email Organisation

I discussed email management in a previous article (see “Managing Your Inbox” article), so I’m not going to rehash it here, except to follow on from the previous section by pointing out that you can also include your three-letter codes in the subject lines of your emails, to make filing and sorting that much easier.

Teach your team of employees and outsourcers to use the three-letter codes in their correspondence to you and then use your email software filters to automatically place emails into the correct folders.

Backup Everything

It doesn’t matter how smart you think you are, no one is immune to the danger of accidentally damaging or deleting content (see www.wimp.com/storydeleted, for a really scary example).

If you’re not backing up your hard drive on a regular, preferably daily basis, you’re basically collecting petrol in cans under your office and wandering around with a lit cigarette.

Sooner or later, your business is going to go up in smoke.

The funny thing (and it’s not really funny) is that you’ll never fully appreciate how much you take for granted the software, data and settings that you have on your computer, until the day you lose them all.

Better not to find out the hard way, so back up everything to an external drive, or use an online service.

You can buy a 2-terabyte hard drive from Amazon for about $100, or take a look at services such as Mozy (www.mozy.com), Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) or Amazon S3 (http://aws.amazon.com/s3/).

Use What You’ve Got

One of the quickest ways to get more out of your computer is to learn how to use the software you already own.

I can guarantee that the software you already have installed boasts some incredible features that you don’t realise exist and that you would use every day if you took the time to discover them.

Try Googling “tips on using <software name>” and the chances are good you’ll find a whole bunch of articles that will help you become a power user of everything you own.

If you own an Apple product, make sure you check out http://www.screencastsonline.com/. They post weekly videos that show you how to get the most out of your Mac, iPad or iPhone. If you purchase an annual plan, it works out about $3 a month, and you get access to the archive of existing videos.

Well worth it, in my opinion.

Typing Shortcuts

TextExpander (http://smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/) is a tool for Mac users that lets you store specific blocks of text and recall them when you enter a sequence of keystrokes.

For example, anytime I want to enter my email address somewhere, I simply type the @ symbol twice in a row, and the software removes the two @ symbols and replaces them with my full email address.

Depending on the kind of work you do, there are lots of different ways to use this software, from inserting signature text, to saving email templates.

And you may be pleased to read that there is a PC version of this software called Phrase Express (www.phraseexpress.com).

Just Read It Already

I heard this quote years ago that went along the lines of:

I’ve got a huge library of books. I was smart enough to buy them, now I want to see how smart I’ll be if I actually read them.

I’d actually go beyond that. If buying a book and reading it are the first two steps, then the next two are…

Trusting the author enough to read the book to the end, instead of getting half-way through and thinking, “Actually, I know more than this expert, so I’m going to go off and do things my own way”.

Taking action and applying the knowledge that the book has provided you. That means, making notes as you go along and, at the end, making an action plan to implement everything you’ve learned.

So, there we go. There’s quite a variety in the last 1000 words, so hopefully you’ve found something in there that’s new and that you can start putting into practice.

Digital Power Tools (Embracing Geekdom) is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Hey Gang…

I just wanted to get this out before Hurricane Isaac hits the Florida coast.

If you missed the 6-hour live video broadcast I did with Rich Schefren on productivity, my workflow hacks and leveraged content creation, they’ve posted a highlights video over at:

The unsolicited comments from the Livestream were amazing:

I have learned more here in the last few hours than on any free event ever before.

Thomas F.

You have over-delivered guys! Motivational.

Pat S.

One of the best days this year! Learned so much on how to move my business forward.

Ana

This was amazing, business shifting day of content that was time very well spent!

Lynn P.

I never thought I’d hear this kind of training in such detail.

Marlayana

I’m grateful you’ve made this available for free cuz I know it (sic) worth a lot of money.

Crisiti

Incredible training today. Great info – wonderful delivery. Many, many thanks.

Christine E.

We covered a lot of ground over the original 6 hours, but the team have cut out all the crappy bits, the small technical glitches, plus the rants and tangents to just the highlights.

If you’re interested, check out it out here:
http://www.strategicprofits.com/profithacks/video-2/

From rainy Florida,
Pete

Missed the Profit Hacks Livestream? Here’s the Highlights… is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Earlier today, I hosted an incredible livestream with the “Guru to the Gurus,” internationally known business coach, Rich Schefren in South Florida.

Right in the middle of this livestream, I recorded a quick podcast for the Preneur Community.

(That’s a quick profit hack of mine – taking a livestream or interview and turning it into a podcast. And right now, we’re turning that podcast into videos, and even articles like this one.

…Like I said, productivity on steroids.)

And during this podcast, Rich and I revealed something that I want to share with you here…

It’s the importance of demonstrating things to your clients. That’s what we were doing during this podcast, and during that livestream.

Now why do you want to do that? Let me explain…

It’s All About Proof

If you’re marketing anything, you need some way to show your audience that not only do you know what you’re talking about, but also what you’re suggesting actually works.

Now of course, you can do that with testimonials, or case studies.

But a demonstration is so much stronger. It’s the show, don’t tell that gives everything you do a “wow” factor.

It takes a certain amount of confidence to say “I’m going to do this right now and show you it works.”

I’m going to work without a net right now, and I won’t fall while you’re watching.

And you’re going to see the outcome right here, and now.

So you need to think about what you could demonstrate that would show your prospects that you are the expert to follow and get advice from.

For example, if your expertise is teaching people how to get appointments through cold calling, you could film yourself picking a random number out of the phone book, and calling them.

If you got the appointment right there with your audience watching, that would be infinitely stronger than any testimonial ever would be.

Because you just showed you can actually deliver on your promises.

You just demonstrated to your prospects – who are desperate to learn cold calling – that you can teach them how to do exactly what they need.

Another demonstrations that I like to tell my followers…

If you were a locksmith, you could easily put $5,000 in a locked box in the middle of a busy strip mall and say if anyone can get into it – they get the $5,000.

That’s a powerful demonstration that will help you draw a crowd and followers.

A Demonstration You Can Use Again and Again

On the livestream, Rich gave another type of demonstration.

In his business, he has coached a large majority of the largest, most popular Internet Marketers in the world.

In his marketing, Rich can truthfully and legitimately list these big superstars as his past clients. Any future clients can look at that list and recognize these names who have paid Rich thousands to get his strategies.

That’s a demonstration of competence and authority.

When you have that kind of powerful demonstration, you can get a much higher buy-in from your prospects.

When you can do this type of live or even past demonstration, it shows you have the chops to do exactly what I say I can.

So next time you’re looking for that “wow” factor if your marketing, think show don’t tell – it will pay off huge, I promise.

Show, Don’t Tell: The Importance of Demonstration is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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For most people they bring to mind images of slightly drunken business owners, patting each on the back, talking big, but accomplishing little.

Which is a shame.

Because I’ve found that masterminds have the potential to propel your business development forward at a remarkable rate.

The main reason why so many of them degenerate into a bubbling cesspit of hot air and alcohol fumes is a lack of organisation. As we discussed in a previous article, creativity needs structure to be productive, and this applies equally to mastermind groups.

Without clearly established guidelines and arrangements, masterminds are not only ineffective, but they waste the time of everyone involved.

But the reverse is equally true.

With carefully agreed guidelines and structure, mastermind groups can be extremely effective and a highly worthwhile investment of time.

I originally joined a mastermind group because everyone was telling me that I should. I wasn’t really convinced that they were worth the effort, but I figured I’d give it a go. I was living and working in Geelong at the time, which is a beautiful little coastal town in Victoria where I’d pulled off “selling the MCG”, but we were really just a bunch of wannabe entrepreneurs.

We got together for dinner every couple of months and it wasn’t particularly well organised. We just chatted and generally had a pretty good time.

Then, in one of the sessions, someone said to me, “your MCG story is pretty cool. Why don’t you make it into a book?”

I thought, “yeah, that sounds good.” So, for the next session, I wrote a book proposal and let everyone review it and give me some feedback.

Ten days later…

I got a phone call from the an editor at the publishing giant,  John Wiley & Sons.

It turned out one of the guys at my mastermind group had recently done some IT work for a book printer, and he’d called up the printer and said, “I know someone who needs to write a book. Could you take a look at this proposal?”

From there it was passed to John Wiley & Sons and they gave me a call.

We set up a meeting and I went along expecting to get some suggestions on how to improve my proposal. Instead, I walked out of the meeting after half an hour with a book deal.

Pretty freaky, huh?

If that’s what a rough and ready mastermind group can achieve, imagine what can be accomplished when it’s done properly!

I’ve been a firm believer in the power of mastermind groups ever since, and over the years I’ve been able to witness, first-hand, what does and doesn’t work in making a mastermind session successful.

So, here it is – my quick-start guide to running a successful mastermind group.

1 – Form a Group

Obvious right ?

But for those who don’t know – a mastermind group is a group of people with similar goals. It could be an association of entrepreneurs, freelance writers, small business owners, or anything else. How tightly themed you want your group to be is entirely up to you.

Ideally you want your group to be local enough to be able to meet up in person, but if that’s not possible, you can always arrange group conversations through SKYPE. (But just like deal making – it’s better done face-to-face.)

2 – Have Rules

If you’re the one responsible for managing your mastermind group, try not to be a dictator. Think of yourself as the chairman of a board. Everyone around the table should have an equal voice, but your goal is to keep everything organised.

And that means making rules.

You don’t have to go nuts and itemise every last nuance of the meeting, but work together as a group to come up with a list of “dos” and “don’ts”, as well as a structure for the meeting.

For example, the mastermind I currently belong to has an open voice policy. Everyone has the right to call people out and to do so bluntly. If we think someone is being a douche or not living up to his potential, we have the freedom to call them on it – no holds barred.

That level of openness might not be for you, but this is what the rules are for; to establish what is and isn’t acceptable. But as a funny and wise man once said “Thou shall not be a pussy”.

3 – Come Up With a Name

If you think about all the famous groups and organisations that you’ve ever read or heard about, they all have a name. And your group should have one as well.

It doesn’t have to be clever, it doesn’t even have to make sense, but come up with something to call your mastermind group. This will help you to think of what you have as some sort of club or underground movement; it’ll help to bond you all together.

4 – Chit-Chat

Leave the first 10-15 minutes of the meeting open for everyone to chat freely among themselves. This gives everyone time to get the small talk out of the way and get settled into the environment.

5 – 15 Minutes

This is where the structure comes in. Everyone, at every meeting, gets a maximum of 15 minutes taking the spotlight.

Have someone with a timer, and after 15 minutes, no matter what stage they’re at, the person speaking has to stop and hand over to the next person.

Obviously, you can adjust the exact length of time, depending on the number of people in your group, and how long you want the meeting to last – but I’ve found 15mins is the perfect length of time to get to the point, without waffle and restricting tangents.

6 – Content

You also want some structure to what is included in each person’s 15 minutes.

At the group I belong to everyone aims to include:

• An update on how far they got with the accountability pledge (see below) made at the last meeting. (2-3 mins)
• A tip, strategy, tool or resource that they’ve discovered since the last meeting and that they think will be useful to others. (2-3mins)
• A problem, question or friction point on which anyone in the group can offer their suggestions, feedback and input (10mins)
• An accountability pledge (a job or action that the person wants to accomplish before the next meeting). (1min)

7 – Notes

While you’re speaking you’re going to get a lot of useful ideas and comments thrown at you from the rest of the group, but if you try to take notes as you go along, you’re going to miss stuff or waste some of your 15 minutes. Instead, have a rule that the person who just finished speaking has to make notes for the next person speaking.

This is for two reasons:

1. It gets them back into the meeting quickly; if you let a person who has just been focused on, “off the hook”, their mind will still be wondering off on points just discussed about themselves, and that just isn’t fair.
2. Having a scribe is MUCH better then recording the sessions. We NEVER record our mastermind sessions; this builds trust and openness that is ALWAYS hindered by a tape recorder.

8 – Tools

Google Groups is a great tool to use in-between meetings. It allows you to send emails to everyone in the group in one go, and also ensures that all your conversations are archived for future reference.

It’s also a good idea to setup a Dropbox folder to which everyone has access, so you can easily share resources.

Whether you’re in a mastermind currently, or planning to start one of your own, following the above suggestions might just help you get the most out of your time together.

That said, every mastermind group is unique, and you should come up with some of your own ideas to set yourselves apart.

Just make sure you have some sort of structure. It’s the only way your meetings will truly be productive.

A Real Mastermind: How to Make Your Meetings Productive is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Knowing my weakness for cutting-edge technology…

You’ll probably be surprised to discover that I opted for the laptop.

I made the decision, not because I couldn’t get work done on an iPad, but because I simply wouldn’t be as efficient. I’d be messing around trying to figure out how to do stuff that I take for granted on my laptop.

While poolside in Bali, I‘d be limiting myself to two hours work per day, so I didn’t want to be spending two-thirds of my time trying to work out how the heck I copy and paste something.

But this is more than just a technical issue.

When I’m writing, or engaged in any kind of creative process, it’s really important that I maintain a certain pattern of work. To produce my best stuff I have, what almost amounts to, a ritual; anything that interrupts that routine, kills my momentum.

When I’m into a good flow of work, I don’t want anything to slow me down, and having to learn new tech will definitely be a hindrance.

That’s why I’m taking the laptop. It will allow me to be effective and efficient, and will help me to maximize what I can accomplish in that two-hour window I permit myself.

Why am I telling you this? Because there’s a significant truth hidden in there; if you can figure it out, then your productivity will go through the roof!

I can’t remember who originated this quote, but it goes something like this:

“I always just wait for inspiration to strike before I write. Luckily, it strikes at 9:01 AM every morning.”

The thinking behind this is that if you get into a routine of working on something creative, at the same time, every day, then you brain will become accustomed to the pattern and will be “switched on” when you need it (and the same goes for the tools you use too).

It’s not going to happen overnight.

You need to sit down at the same time, every day, and force yourself to write, or draw, or shoot video, or work on pulling one of the 7 Levers or whatever your creative activity is, until it becomes a habit. Eventually, your brain will get used to the routine, and the quality of your work, and the speed at which you produce it, will increase.

If you cheat and miss some days out, it’s not going to work.

By repeating your activity every day, you’re building up momentum. And once things are rolling, you won’t want it to stop.

This principle of routine as a technique for generating momentum works in other areas of business and life. Marketer, Joe Polish, offers a great example of this when he was working with Bill Phillips on the “Body for Life” phenomenon. Joe asked Bill, out of everything he knows on the subject of controlling your body and unlocking your potential, what is the one trick or secret to success.

Bill’s reply…

“Start off with the perfect breakfast.”

A substantial and nutritious breakfast will not, on its own, improve your diet. But if you start the day off right, you’re more likely to eat sensibly throughout the day.

The flipside is that if you skip breakfast, or fill up on pop-tarts, you’re more likely to think, “I’ve already messed up, I might as well write this day off and start again tomorrow”.

Start the day well and you’re more likely to keep up that discipline throughout the rest of the day.

And if you eat a good breakfast, at the same time, every day, eventually…

It becomes a habit and you start to generate momentum.

Unlike a lot of marketers, I’ve always preferred going to bed early and starting my day early. I’m not saying that’s crucial to having a productive day, but whatever time you get up, you’re setting yourself up for success if you start the day with a good routine and stick to it until it’s a habit.

This might sound like it takes a lot of discipline, but you really only need to focus on driving yourself for that first hour or so, because once you’re got yourself going, the rest of the day is that much easier.

Let me share with you my daily routine. I’m not suggesting it’s perfect; in fact, although it works for me, it’s always evolving, and it probably won’t work for you. You have to put together a routine that fits in with your priorities.

But this should at least give you some ideas to get you started.

1)     Emails  – I start by checking my emails and within about ten or so minutes I’ve achieved “Inbox Zero”. I haven’t actioned all my emails, but every message is out of my inbox and into my GTD process.

2)     Daily Plan – I boot up Omnifocus, review what my main jobs are for the day and figure out the order in which I’m going to tackle them.

3)     Breakfast – If I’m in training, I have to make sure I consume more calories than normal, but I make sure I’m also getting the right levels of nutrition along with plenty of water.

4)     Lumosity – This great little tool delivers a daily dose of cognitive mind games to improve things such as spatial awareness, memory and attention spans. In addition to the long-term benefits, It really helps  to wake my brain up in the morning.

5)     SendOutCards – If you’re not already familiar with SOC, it’s an online system for sending postcards and greetings cards, but using a font that matches my actual handwriting. Every day I (try to) send out at least one card to someone in my social or business network.

6)     Facebook – I don’t spend hours a day here, but a few minutes in the morning to message a friend or two allows me to keep in contact with the important people in my life.

7)     Forum Posts – I have a system (which you can learn more about  at http://www.ed-ucationonline.com/goingpro-conference/session15a) that lets me keep up with my favourite forums in about ten minutes a day. (For transparency – this is the step I often let slip.)

8)     Swipe File Copy – I spend about 10 minutes thinking up and practicing new ways to communicate, sell and write – this is often done, by simply re-writing sales letters and marketing material that has been tested and proven effective. (There is a pattern to selling and pitching that can be learnt through repetition.)

9)     Change Passwords – We all know it’s crucial to our online security that we regularly change our passwords, but it’s so easy to neglect. I aim to change just two a day and that ensures a decent level of rotation. (Tool of choice here is 1Password.)

These nine items may sound a lot, but the time I spend on each one ranges from 1-2 minutes for the shortest, to just ten minutes for the longest.

Altogether this morning routine takes me less than one hour.

But it’s one hour very well spent.

It wakes me up physically and mentally, it has time spent on business, family and friends, and it gets me in a great frame of mind.

And because I do this every day, it’s become a cast-iron habit that maximises my chances of putting in a productive day’s work.

Creativity Through Routine: The Science of Momentum is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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But I’m going to go ahead anyway because, frankly, there is too much advice out there that is either bad, or just pointless, abstract ideas.

I’m probably partly to blame because I encourage people to position themselves as a market leader by writing articles and blog posts, and adding their voice to the online conversations that are taking place.

(Apologies there!)

The trouble is…

Too many people are writing, without really saying anything!

Look, I’m all for people setting goals and reaching for targets, but if you’re going to plan a route to success it needs to be OBJECTIVE, and not SUBJECTIVE. (Social Media Experts – I’m calling you out too.)

By which I mean you need to have specific, tangible targets that can be measured.

“I’m going to work hard today” ISN’T a goal.

“I’m going to complete five items on my task list today” IS a goal.

Building and maintaining a successful business is a battle, and you need to operate with the precision of a finely-tuned, 21^st century military. You need to study the terrain, select the appropriate weapons, plan your strategy and choose your angle of attack.

Let’s see how we can apply this by waging war against that notorious time sink…

The Email Inbox 

Your email inbox is the enemy of work productivity. It surrounds your important emails with trivial messages, and in no time at all it can become so overcrowded that it turns into a monster that you can’t control.

What follows is discouragement and a temptation to steer clear.

Which only compounds the problem!

Here are four six email rules of engagement, that I’ve used to help me take control, and have my email inbox waving the white flag.

1 – Make a Commitment

Before visiting your email inbox, make a commitment to stay focussed on the task at hand and DO NOT close your inbox until you have followed the steps below and processed EVERY SINGLE new email. You’re not going to just go in, scan for 1-2 items of interest, and then leave the rest to pile up. You’re committing to taking action on everything.

As we’ll discuss in a moment, this doesn’t mean you’re going to work on every single email, right now, but you are going to take action on everything.

2 – Filter Your Emails

Every email software application worth its salt comes with the ability to filter emails. Set up filters to move unimportant emails out of your inbox as soon as they arrive.

For example, if you purchase a domain from GoDaddy, you’re going to get several automatic emails, that you need to archive, but you probably don’t need to read. So setup a filter that automatically moves emails from GoDaddy, out of your Inbox, and into a Admin/GoDaddy folder.

Filters can take a bit of time to setup, but once they’re in place, you’re saving yourself some time every time you download your emails.

There are lots of different ways to filter emails, but to keep things simple, every email that comes in can be grouped into either “Actionable” or “Consumable”.

“Actionable” emails are messages that require you to do something. It could be a request for a quote on a piece of work, or an email from your Mum that needs a reply; either way, it’s something that requires action.

“Consumable” emails are messages that only require reading. This category could include emails that you REALLY want to read, and you might take this a step further and create different levels of “consumable” emails, but you must still make this distinction between emails that require consuming, and emails that require action.

Your goal at this stage is to move all of your consumable emails into separate folders, with the end result being that your Inbox ONLY contains emails that require some sort of action.

Now, if you’re using Gmail, I have two distinct types of filters:

1. Auto Filing – These filters label the incoming email, mark it as read and archive it straight away. This way I never even see the email, but it’s filed away for reference and retrieval, and is just a search away.
2. Auto Labelling – This is a filter that only labels the email to make correct filing (archiving) easier. For example, I might get emails from places like appFigures every day on the sales numbers for SitchSoftware; by having a filter “auto-label” the email, but leave it in my inbox, I can consume it, and then file it away in the correct folder  with just a click of the archive button

3 – Actionable Emails

Once your filters have done their thing and moved the consumable emails out of your inbox (you might still need to move a few emails out by hand), you’re ready to turn your attention to the actionable emails.

Work on each email in turn. If the work required is quick and easy, and you can do it now, go right ahead. Otherwise, for each email, take whatever action is required to ensure that it’s added to your work process. Most of them will probably be added to your “To Do” software (I use Omnifocus), but others might be sent to your virtual assistant to work on, or to your accountant to process, and so on.

Once you’ve processed each actionable email, move them to a “completed” folder. At the end of this step, if you’ve followed through on your commitment to take action on every single email, your inbox should now be a gloriously satisfying, empty white space.

4 – Consumable Emails

Through a combination of filters and manual movement, by transferring your consumable emails out of your Inbox, and into other folders, you’ve already actioned these emails.

But when are you going to go back and read your consumables?

Quite simply, when you’ve got nothing better to do.

If you have a 10-minute coffee break at 11am, spend some time reading your consumables. When you’re near the end of your work day and you haven’t the time to start something new, dip into your consumables. When you’re stood in a queue at the bank, load up your emails on your smartphone and fill the dead time with some reading.

Got it?

Good!

5 – Subject Lines

OK, so here is where the OCD kicks in.

To the best of my ability I always try and “tag” each of my email subject lines with the project it relates to. I do this by adding a [TAG] to the start of the subject line. For example:

[Noise Reduction] Adjustment to the website functionality.

[PreneurCast] Show guest idea.

[SimplyHeadsets] Shopping cart abandonment stats.

I do this for two reasons:

1. It allows me to use the filtering technique I mentioned above, to have all the reply emails I receive pre-filtered and labelled to the correct project (just run a filter/rule on all emails with [PreneurCast] in the subject).
2. It allows me to batch process my inbox by project, not necessarily by date/time.

6 – Why Did You Reply To My Email With An Audio File?

If you’ve ever received an email reply from me, sent from my MacBook, you probably received this:

Thanks for your email.

I’ve attached a short audio response here (see attachment).

.Pete

Q. Why did you reply to my email with an audio file ?

A. http://www.petewilliams.com.au/why-audio-email/

Here’s why:

But the tools and tricks you use, aren’t really important…

It’s the process that makes the real difference between using email effectively, or allowing it to suck up your time and slow down your productivity.

I don’t do the whole Tim Ferriss thing, and only check my emails on Wednesdays, at 11:35, on a beach. I’m too hooked on my inbox for that.

But when I do go in, I use these email rules of engagement, these positive constraints, to ensure that I’m not wasting my time.

Managing Your Inbox: My Email Rules of Engagement is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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If you want play along at home, check out my Amazon Kindle Profile over at https://kindle.amazon.com/profile/Peter-Williams/1154035

Hacking The Amazon kindle For Crowdsourced Reading, Speed Reading & Stealing Ideas Every Day is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Like many of you Mac users out there, I’m a huge huge believer in the all-mighty OmniFocus; but I live a somewhat double-life and needed an OmniFocus solution to match….

So I sent off a question to the team over at Omni Group to see  if there was a way to run two OmniFocus databases at once; so I could split me crime-fighting to-do’s and the GTD actions of my alter-ego… So I could open up each separate OmniFocus ‘version’ in isolation.

… and alas there was a solution:

Thanks for writing in! While you can run multiple databases in OmniFocus, there are some limitations- currently, you can only sync one database at a time (the default database located in ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus), and your perspectives are tied to the default database as well.

The easiest way to create another database is by making a copy of the “OmniFocus.ofocus” database file in ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus, renaming it, then removing all data from that duplicate to start fresh.

If you have any other questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. We really appreciate your support!

Well OmniFocus, I appreciate your support.

Running Multiple OmniFocus Databases [NerdWorthy] is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Are you the bottleneck in your business?

Marketing online (or off) is a “team sport” nowadays. But finding a team, and managing them, can be difficult. (A lot of people I know who are outsourcing are getting frustrated while their outsourcers miss deadlines and fail to get the quality of work done that’s truly needed.)

That’s why the guys over at Noble Samurai asked Davey J and I to put together a brand-new Video Series that reveals the RIGHT WAY to do Outsourcing.

They’ve just released the 2nd video which you can check out over at:

http://www.noblesamurai.com/blog/outsourcing/outsourcing-video-2-the-content-leverage-system-2761/.

In this video, I talk about:
●   How to become a market leader in your niche in just 30 minutes a day
●   How to systemize content creation to produce high-quality videos, audio and reports -– all on auto-pilot
●   Why you should only work on the core elements of your content creation, and outsource the ‘mechanics’
●   How to ethically hijack traffic from some of the most popular web properties like YouTube, iTunes and top article directories
●   The 11-step process that quickly and easily creates thousands of high-quality backlinks to your site
●   Plus much, much more!

You’re guaranteed to get some gold nuggets out of this free blog series.  If you want to know the secret of how to work ON your business rather than IN your business, you need to watch these two videos.

Enjoy,
Pete

Outsourcing Made Easy is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Firstly, I want to say a big THANK YOU from Dom and myself for all the awesome feedback we’ve had so far relating to the PreneurCast Podcast. It’s been a really fun thing to do each week, so please keep listening and leaving your feedback and ratings on the iTunes Store.

We’ve been reading and responding to all the feedback and emails so far; and off the back of all the interaction from you, the listeners, we’re in the process of getting a specific website put together just for the podcast…

…and we’ve had each of the episodes transcribed for you to download, read and make action points all over.

You can download the PDF transcription of each of the episodes below:Episode 1: The First Time…
Listen to Episode 1 on iTunes.
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Episode 2: The Marketing Symphony
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Episode 3: Information Overload – Email A-Go-Go
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Episode 4: Holiday Preparation
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Episode 5: Start as You Mean to Go On
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Episode 6: The Reading List
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Episode 7: The Bali Edition… Finally
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Episode 8: Failure
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Episode 9: The Other Book
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Episode 10: Masters of the Mind
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Episode 11: Numbers
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Episode 12: Pitching, Proposals and Chat-Up Lines
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Episode 13: Of Ironmen and Entrepreneurs
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Download the PDF transcription of Episode 13 SOON.

Episode 14: Pete and Ed Dale sitting in a tree, r-u-n-n-i-n-g
Listen to Episode 14 on iTunes.
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Episode 15: Context and the Man With the Black Case
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Episode 16: The 7 Levers of Business
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Episode 17: Cutting the Ends Off the Roast
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Episode 18: The Challenge – How to Earn a Dollar Online
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Episode 19: Dead Bodies, Wedding Cakes and The Mirror Economy
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Episode 20: Performing Triage on Your Business
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Episode 21: The Most Productive Episode Yet
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Episode 22: Questions, Questions, Questions
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Episode 23: Steve Jobs and His Gifts to Consumers
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Episode 24: The One Without Dom
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PreneurCast Transcriptions is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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