The Century of the Self is a documentary produced by the BBC (top class) that spans the 1900′s showing the rises and falls of marketing, consumerism, how governments played a vital role in creating and controlling much more than you might realize and how this history has shaped not only how products are sold today, but has also shaped how people think and how entire markets have been created. You can watch it for free right here.

I was introduced to The Century of the Self by a friend a few years ago and just recently re-watched it as there is so much information to be contemplated that it really does deserve more than one viewing.

Not really much else to add except for that this video is a MUST WATCH for anyone, regardless of your background and future aspirations. At first it may seem particularly relevant to only America, but in fact shows how the world over has been controlled and influenced by the attitudes, values and habits shaped during the amazing period of human history that was the past century.

It is long, almost 4 hours, yet I think you’ll find yourself wanting more like I did when I realized it had finished.

There really is a LOT to consider, so once you have finished watching join the conversation and leave your thoughts below.

• How has this video changed you?
• How will it change the way that you do business?
• Do you think others would benefit from learning this?
• What thought patterns can you identify in yourself that have been created by “others”?

Want to learn more? American Historian Stuart Ewen’s PR! – A Social History of Spin is one book that should definitely be in your wealth library.

A Beginner’s Guide To Highly Effective Traffic Sources

Finally!!!!

By far the most common question that I hear is “Matt, how do I get more traffic?”.

There is certainly no shortage of information, in fact, there is so much that for most people it’s too much. When you are overloaded with information, it’s hard to decide what to act upon and what ends up happening is nothing.

I’ve spent several years testing most every traffic source imaginable, I even ran a successful pixel ad site at one point! So I decided to put together a few tips on what traffic sources are working for me.

As I began jotting down notes, I ran into the same problem and quickly realized that there are so many good sources that I actually had to pick and choose and cut out information in order to keep it manageable and actionable for beginners, yet powerful enough for anyone to gain a real benefit.

The resulting guide contains my top tried and tested methods for generating long term, quality traffic from varying sources to any website. Methods that are easily available to anyone willing to implement them.

Do you see your visits increasing month after month?

How To Drive Hordes Of Eager Visitors To Your Website will show you:

• A quick 5 minute ritual that increases your exposure and authority in your market!
• A simple trick that converts one time hits into to repeat visitors!
• The quickest way to reach your exact target market and have them begging for more!
• One minor mistake that is the difference between getting clicks or getting nothing!
• And much more!

If you had to build traffic to a site from scratch, no contacts, no relationships, no money… what would you do?

I would start here and HAVE used these tactics to launch multiple sites successfully over the years. So don’t wait any longer to increase your web traffic!

Get How To Drive Hordes Of Eager Visitors To Your Website – A Beginner’s Guide To Highly Effective Traffic Sources right now!

*Instant download*

What questions do you have about traffic? Leave me a comment below!

I’ve been using Popup Domination on a variety of sites for the past few years and have seen the product improve a lot in that time. It’s easier to use, easier to setup and integrate, more options, more designs, there has been the addition of analytics and general coolness. There’s a quick video review and walk-through below for you to see what it’s all about, but first let me show you the results!

By the way, you can

> Get Popup Domination Here

So for whatever reason, a couple months ago I ended up on the Popup Domination site and noticed the headline said something about getting a large percentage increase in the number of subscribers which immediately made me think “yeah right…” I don’t know, it just sounded hypey and maybe too good to be true because I had never really done a test with it. In the past I would simply install and enjoy seeing my list grow.

But what I found out while testing shocked me…

There is a site of mine that I have been building a list with for just over 2 years, but I had never gotten around to installing Popup Domination on it. With a solid history of signups, this made the site a perfect candidate for testing and I decided to stop procrastinating and just get it installed already!

Of course, the percentage increase achieved would depend very much on the site. In this case, the site that I chose to test on was already highly optimized for opt ins with a highly targeted full size opt in box and a sidebar opt in box as well with a very strong offer.

So how did I test it?

I got to thinking on how one would even measure something like this and I had to do a bit of studying up on how to calculate percentage of increase (I know, I know, I should be doing this in my sleep). It’s simple once you get it though.

For example, if you currently were getting 1 new signup per day before installing Popup Domination and now you get 6 new signups per day, that is a 500% increase.

Of course the per day rate can fluctuate a lot depending on a number of factors, so it’s much more accurate to take a monthly average. So far, Popup Domination has increased subscribers on my test site by 67%!

By the way, you don’t have to figure all of this stuff out if you don’t want/care/have time… I wanted to do this to show solid, proven results rather than simply speculating and saying “Popup Domination works great”. What I found is that…

Popup Domination works wonders and I’ve got the numbers to prove it

My first step was working out an average of how many subscribers the test site was generating per month BEFORE Popup Domination was installed. The average number of signups per month on the test site was: 138

Next step was to determine how many signups per month AFTER installing Popup Domination, and I wanted a few months of data in order to be sure. The new average number of signups per month on the test site is now: 231

That’s a 67% increase (AKA MASSIVE)! Two-Thirds MORE subscribers each and every month!

If I would have known this before, I would not have wasted so many years (and potential signups) without having Popup Domination installed on the site that I tested. Scepticism and lack of solid data can be dangerous things!

It’s also important to understand that Popup Domination is complementary to your current signup forms. It is not meant to take their place, but to simply create another opportunity to ask your visitors to signup. You continue to get the normal signups PLUS additional people that may not have seen your other forms.

I think if your site is not already completely optimized for opt ins that by using Popup Domination you could easily see an even higher percentage increase of 100% or more. It’s an invaluable tool!

So what about the actual product?

Check out this quick Popup Domination review video to see it in action:

Click here to get Popup Domination

I might do another post in the future to let you know what settings are working best for me.

Have you ever noticed how different TV commercials touch different emotions?

For example, commercials about life insurance show happy families because those in the market for life insurance typically desire security for their family. At the same time, a person that does not have anyone depending on them can watch that commercial and couldn’t care less… it doesn’t touch them, it doesn’t trigger their emotions.

Designing for your target market is absolutely necessary, but there is another element, a “second tier” if you will, that involves not only speaking to your target market, but also speaking and engaging on an emotional level with each of the different personality types of the people in your target market. Effective, get-people-excited-and-taking-action communication is based on emotion!

Many people may not even be aware of this and much less use it in their communications, marketing and design, however, those that do are way ahead of the game, the leaders of their industries.

So let me help you take a step forward…

There are four basic personality types which identify how a certain person will react and even interpret different situations, events and communications. Of course the study of personalities and their complexities has much deeper implications, but for the sake of this lesson, we will focus on how each personality type tends to care about different things and be “touched” more by certain emotions.

Now we all have a bit of each of the four personality types in us. This helps us to adapt to different situations where specific traits may be more useful. However, there is in most cases a dominant, default personality type which largely determines our behavior. Each type processes information differently and has different ideas about what is enjoyable and what they want in their life.

Here is the simplest explanation of the personality types that I have learned (because you want actionable information and not try to figure out what all those letters stand for)

The Four Personality Types (Sharks, Urchins, Dolphins and Whales… What?)

Shark – (Action Taker, Go Getter)
The Shark personality refers to one that is aggressive and fast to take action. Sharks don’t sit around and analyze all the details, they are either completely dedicated and ready to go or totally not interested. Sharks are highly competitive and are motivated by… “winning!”, power and control. When communicating with sharks, keep it quick and to the point.

Urchin – (Analytical, Calculated)
These are the people that need all the information including even the seemingly mundane details of… well… everything! Urchins DO sit around and analyze, they pride themselves on knowing as much as possible. Urchins are slow to make decisions because they are calculating the pros and cons. It is important to an urchin to be reassured that they have made the correct decision. When communicating with urchins, give them respect and don’t skimp on information, even if it seems to be redundant overkill. This can mean providing a way for this type of person to get more details.

Dolphin – (Social, Fun-Loving)
Dolphins are social, they’re usually the ones that it seems can talk to anyone, anywhere. They will strike up a conversation with a complete stranger and talk as if they have known them for their whole life! Dolphins tend to have a lot of friends and are motivated by recognition, social events, having fun and being a part of a group. In communicating with dolphins, get excited, show them how fun things are and emphasize the group and social aspects.

Whale – (Caring, Supporting)
Whales are motivated to be a part of the greater good, to help out and be a part of a team that is dedicated to serve others and improve the world. These are the people that you see helping wherever they can. Whales thrive on supporting others and being supported. When communicating with a whale, show compassion and be thoughtful.

I would even go so far as to say that what is appealing to one personality type is many times not even interesting to another and it’s not theory, but something that has been studied extensively and that I have observed and proven in my own personal experience. Of course, it’s not a set in stone law and everyone is different, for example, try telling a whale that they can make a lot of money and be the top achiever… in most cases the whale is not interested, but this is exactly what interests sharks.

If you didn’t understand this, you might make the mistake of assuming that the whale has no ambition. Now tell them the same thing, but explain how making a lot of money and being the top achiever can allow them to help a lot of other people and empower a team to succeed and now you have their interest. Same information, same opportunity or concept, just a slight change to the way it’s presented and the emotional triggers can make all the difference.

Of course, these are extremely condensed and rather light descriptions, but do not underestimate the power of this knowledge, use it well and you can vastly improve not only your designs, but also your communication and the way you get along with others in every area of your life.

So I urge you to use this knowledge and begin to examine the way that you communicate.  Consider the images, wording and concepts that you use to engage a certain emotion and attract a certain type of person. Don’t be happy with your designs just because they appeal to you.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. How are you communicating with the four personality types?
2. What emotions do you wish to trigger?
3. What group of people does your message target?
4. Is that group targeted intentionally?
5. What can you do to improve your message so that it appeals to others?

Authorship and usage of the rel=author tag is not exactly new, in fact, google has been supporting the authorship markup (and strongly suggesting that we use it) since June of 2011. The only thing is, until now, implementation has been clumsy and confusing. Thankfully now it’s easy!

Since learning about authorship and the rel=author tag for claiming content and improving visibility, I was excited about the possibilities and had it on my “list of things to do” for… well almost a year!

I spent many hours researching, testing and trying to find the best way to make rel=author work with minimal effort, because you still need time to actually create content when you’re an author right?

But sadly, all the old ways to integrate authorship on your site were difficult to understand even for the most advanced webmasters and required a link on each content page to an author page on your site which then linked to your Google profile and then your Google profile had to be linked back to that author page, etc… a real mess!

Today I’m happy to say that I found a way to get Authorship working with your Google profile in just 3 easy steps.

Don’t know what rel=author is or why you even should use it?

The authorship tag identifies your content as your content in your Google profile and enables enriched search results showing your profile pic which can help increase your visibility as an online authority on your topic(s), help people discover more of your content through your profile and also increase click through rates to your pages since the search results can appear more trustworthy. It can also help to establish your content as the “original source” so in the event that someone scrapes/steals your content and tries to use it as their own, Google will see that the author is still you.

And that’s just for the moment. There are hopes, dreams and a lot of talk going on about how this could affect SEO rankings and the benefits for strong author profiles.

Here’s what a normal search result looks like (no authorship) and what an enriched authorship search result looks like:

Big difference!

If you don’t yet have a Google Plus profile, you will need to create one before you set this up (in which case it would actually make it 4 steps I guess…).

So here are the 3 Steps:

1. Add the following code inside the HEAD tags of your page(s):

   <link rel="author" href="YOUR-GOOGLE-PROFILE-URL-HERE"/>

   (Make sure that the URL is that of your Google+ profile. You can find this URL by clicking on “profile” in your Google+ account, then just copy and paste the URL that appears in your address bar). Placing this code just after the TITLE tags should work fine…

2. Login to your Google+ account, click on “Profile”, then on “Edit Profile”. Scroll down to “Contributor to” and add the website that you have put authorship on from step 1. Make sure that you have it set to “Public” before you save.
3. While still in your profile, go to the +1′s tab and make sure that “Show this tab on your profile” is checked.

That’s it!

Google has provided a tool that allows you to check to ensure everything was setup correctly here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

If setup correctly, you will see your Google+ profile photo included in the listing preview.

On a recent webinar, several people asked me if I would be willing to share some of my favorite handwriting fonts.

Of course, I find it hard to decide on just a few fonts to be my favorites, so instead I’ll show you a lot and let you decide for yourself!

Handwriting fonts can be used to help you achieve a personal, informal feel on your designs and web pages. They also provide a means to break up monotonous Arial, Times or other standard, boring fonts and can grab a visitor’s attention which can be important on squeeze pages, sales pages, etc.

Now with literally hundreds if not thousands of handwriting fonts available, choosing the right one comes down to being more about the emotion and style that you are trying to elicit (IE, don’t use girly handwriting for a weight lifting site, but a sloppy, strong handwriting style could work perfectly) than picking one favorite. Although, if you do find one that works for everything, then that’s cool too. Effective usage is based on achieving the correct balance as some fonts can be very hard to read, while others are borderline computer style.

You might be surprised to learn that I find all my fonts in one place.

Throughout the years, there have been many good free font sites, but none that I have found even come close to 1001FreeFonts. I’m actually amazed at the amount of stuff there, you could really never use it all, but always find exactly what you need for the job and the thing is, the site is not hardly monetized so help them out if you feel so inclined.

Go get some handwriting fonts at: http://1001freefonts.com/handwriting-fonts.php and then let me know what your favorite is!

The Google Penguin algorithm update had been anticipated for some time and was released on April 24, 2012. Google is calling it “another step to reward high-quality sites”, and while I’m normally skeptical about the effectiveness of their updates, I’m beginning to see a trend in updates and the necessary shift in SEO if one desires to continue ranking well.

Google says this about the Penguin update:

“The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content. While we can’t divulge specific signals because we don’t want to give people a way to game our search results and worsen the experience for users, our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive webspam tactics.” And you can read the full article here.

Ok, but what does this actually mean for SEO?

First of all (and this is stuff that you should have stopped doing LONG ago), get rid of your keyword stuffing. Stop using hidden text or text that almost blends into the background and is hard to read to put a bunch of keywords in. Stop putting big chunks of text on the footer, header, sidebar or wherever else that have the sole purpose of using a bunch of keywords and related terms. We’ve all seen the “incoming searches” or “related searches” type boxes on sites. This is mild keyword stuffing, it can get a lot worse. Like, 500 words with a keyword repeated 100 times. Don’t do any of this. If the content doesn’t serve the visitor in some way, then get rid of it. I promise, having more content isn’t always better for your ranking if that content isn’t quality, which brings me to the next thing to fix/avoid.

Make your content readable and remove links that don’t have anything to do with the topic being discussed. Spun content is worthless for your website. There was a time that it worked for both article directories and sites, but that time is passed. If you don’t clean up your site, you will be hit if you haven’t already. I’m talking about stuff like:

“why not intent a life insurance policy today *link*free downloads*link* in order to get your siblings feel safe and harbored in any occassion”

You know when it is meant for people that can read and when it’s not.

Another thing that you can and should do is consolidate or get rid of near duplicate pages. I’m not talking about duplicate content, but having several pages that target a variation of the same keyword, like having one separate page for “life insurance” and another for “good life insurance” and another for “great life insurance”, etc. is obviously spam according to new standards and you’re really better off by combining these terms into a really strong single page.

Now Google says that they prefer that people don’t do any SEO at all and just sit back and create the best sites possible. Sure, that’s nice, it’s good to create cool stuff, but sadly, this utopian paradise does not exist. When you have a business, you don’t simply sit inside and expect people to show up without doing anything (and if you do, then you probably don’t have much of a business).

SEO is simply another form of advertising and I think the internet is ready for “good” SEO without the spammy tactics. It’s harder, it takes longer, but the rewards are greater and are sure to last through the ever increasing algorithm updates.

I’ll keep this short.

Here are two free opt in templates that I created for you to use to increase your email signups.

The download is free and includes 1 squeeze page template ready to go on your site and 1 opt in box template that can be placed on any page to improve appearance and get great conversion rates.

Click here to get them now

Enjoy!

Ok this will be quick, but this was so cool and effective that I just had to share.

If you do any type of outsourcing, collaboration with others or simply enjoy finding ways to communicate better, then this is for you!

At the time of writing, this tool is completely FREE and… all you have to do is add as a bookmark in your browser (no installation)!

The tool is called Markup and you can find it at: www.markup.io

So what is it all about?

Markup allows you to “markup” or draw and write on top of any webpage and share that markup easily with others. This is especially useful for communicating changes or problems on a page without the need to create mockup images, screen recordings or screen sharing. It’s so much faster and easier.

See how easy it is:

1. Visit the page that you want to markup in your browser
2. Click on the Markup bookmark – this opens the toolkit
3. Draw, highlight, outline and write on top of the page
4. Publish your markup
5. Copy the link and share

That’s it!

Since I’ve started to use Markup, it has freed up time and made communication much clearer for me and other teams that I work with. Enjoy.

It’s not that I hate lottery tickets or anything, I mean, spend a couple dollars, make $372,327,837… sounds like a deal!

And that’s the problem, spending your time, money and hope on what might become instead of on MAKING IT HAPPEN. I’m not talking about devising a way to get a winning lottery ticket either, but about creating the life that you want, on your terms and not based on luck or “someday”.

It hurts to see a close friend or family member stuck in the same job that they hate or even worse, layed off or having lost their job (that they didn’t like in the first place) and struggling to get another one doing the same thing because it’s all they think they can do.

It hurts even more to be that person!

Basing your last ounce of faith on winning a lottery or some other unexpected windfall. Thinking that everything is going to magically work itself out. Putting aside dreams and aspirations for that mythical “someday” that doesn’t exist.

I should know, although I haven’t ever gotten into lottery tickets, I’ve procrastinated and done enough wishful thinking for several lifetimes. There’s always an excuse to put stuff off and we’re all masters at it. We never feel ready, have the right experience or education or all the pieces haven’t fallen into the right place. “Someday I’ll do that” or “It would be nice to be able to afford that”.

Where’s the drive and determination in that? And how is it actually going to happen?

Not to be doom and gloom, because this isn’t, but… people die, they move away, businesses close, countries spiral into civil war and all that stuff that you wanted to do and achieve won’t necessarily be possible if you don’t do it NOW.

Sorry to say, but without making a set goal and developing a solid plan to achieve it, chances are basically zero that it’s ever going to happen.

THIS IS GOOD NEWS!

Because your job, your money, your life isn’t based on chance. You always have choices and yes, they can be monumentally scary at times and it’s at those times, that you’re probably on your own, when your friends and family are telling you to “play it safe” or trying to influence your decisions based on their own fears and experiences. Many times it won’t even be intentional!

This is when you must put on your boots and yank hard on the horns of your life. Decide that you are going to live the life that you want to live, not “someday”, but immediately.

Napoleon Hill says that whatever you can conceive and believe, you can achieve, but he also states that “Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by definite desires, through constant persistence.” You can’t just sit around and daydream, you must MAKE IT HAPPEN and the best part is that you have the power to do so!

If there is something or many things about your life that you don’t like, change them! If you dislike what you do and are only doing it to get by financially, start doing what you love. NOW. There’s always more money, but our time runs out so fast it’s scary.

Is it more important to you to slave away for things that will be left for others, or to be thankful for and enjoy everyday as much as possible?

Personally I hope that everyone chooses to enjoy their life, as this affects all of us. When someone loves their life, it’s infectious, they provide a better service, they put smiles on people’s faces, they’re loving the moment and showing you that things aren’t as bad as you might think they are.

I’ve seen so many people asking for advice as to what market to get into or what niche to promote, but seriously, why waste another minute of your life on something that you’re not passionate about? Do what you love!

People can tell when you love what you do or when you’re just another person doing whatever you can to make a dollar. It makes a difference!

We all need a swift kick in the butt at times and I hope that this will spur you into action.

The world will thank you for it!