What if you tried to stop doing everything, so you could finally get round to what counts?
Rejecting the futile modern obsession with ‘getting everything done,’ Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing rather than denying their limitations.
Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman sets out to realign our relationship with time – and in doing so, to liberate us from its tyranny.
Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your four thousand weeks count.
‘Life is finite. You don’t have to fit everything in… Read this book and wake up to a new way of thinking and living’ Emma Gannon
‘Every sentence is riven with gold’ Chris Evans
‘Comforting, fascinating, engaging, inspiring and useful’ Marian Keyes
Years ago I subscribed to a paid newsletter in the internet marketing niche.
To access the newsletter, you had to log into a membership site and download the PDF for that
month.
If you forgot to download it each month (which I sometimes did) then there was no way to access
the newsletter you paid for because it was gone and the new one was in its place.
What to do?
Email customer service and ask for the darn newsletter that you already paid for.
It was aggravating for me because it took all these extra steps of find the customer service email (hidden) writing the email, watching for the response, being told I’d emailed the wrong person and so forth.
Now imagine how annoying it had to be for the virtual assistant who continuously dealt with these requests.
Then one day after being a paid subscriber for years, I realised that I hadn’t downloaded the newsletter in months, so I sent off my email requesting my missing copies.
No reply.
I sent a second email.
No reply.
Mind you, I was paying for the newsletter monthly. Yes, it was my fault that I hadn’t downloaded
each newsletter each month, but so what?
It was a crummy system that made things difficult for paying subscribers and created more work
for his assistants.
I never did hear back despite repeated attempts on my part to get those newsletters.
By the way, the newsletters were good and I learned something from just about every issue.
Good quality but a lousy system for downloading issues.
Now here’s my point… this happened many years ago, and yet I still think about it every time I see
a new offer from this marketer. I still like the guy and I still want to buy his stuff but I don’t, because I’ve never gotten over the poor service I received.
Here’s the kicker: I just read an article he authored that stresses how important customer service is
and how you need to respond to customers and help them when they have a problem.
If only he followed his own advice.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could completely, totally automate customer service? This way every time a customer had a question, it would be handled automatically without you or a virtual assistant having to do a thing.
Well, maybe not.
What many marketers don’t realize is that a customer service request is the PERFECT time to sell an additional product.
When you answer a customer’s question, it’s usually going to be about a product they purchased. Maybe they’re having trouble opening it, or need a new download link, or they’re having trouble with Step # 4 of your course.
Now imagine if, when you write back, you not only answer their question but also point out a helpful product that will aid them in reaching their goal.
Yes, this takes time. But these customer service replies often convert like gangbusters because you’re making the customer an offer when they are actively engaged in your product or website.
Think of it as making the perfect offer to the perfect person at the perfect time. They see that you are a real person who replies to their questions. They see you want to help them achieve their goals. And they’ve already proven they’re ready to spend money to get the solutions they seek.
And don’t be shy about offering high priced products or services, either.
They’re having trouble getting traffic? “This ABC Traffic Course is the absolute best resource I’ve seen for getting traffic.” Are they having trouble getting started, or are they stuck halfway through the course they already purchased? Maybe it’s time to offer them some personal one on one coaching. At the very, VERY least, be sure to place an offer at the bottom of every customer service reply email you send out.
When new marketers are wondering why they’re having trouble selling their offers, it’s usually because of one or both of these mistakes.
Conversely, highly paid online marketers never make these mistakes, which is why they are so successful.
Mistake #1:
Focusing on selling the product. You might think this one sounds pretty stupid. Why wouldn’t you focus on selling products? How are you going to make any money if you don’t sell products? Guys, let me ask you this: When you want to build a long-term relationship with a lady, what’s the first thing you do?
It’s not asking her to sleep with you or proposing you move in together. Rather, the first step is to ask her out on a date. If that first date goes well, you try for a second date and so forth.
Marketing is like that. Sure, you can try to sell your product cold. “Psst, hey buddy, wanna buy my product?” You’ll even occasionally get a yes to that question, but it won’t be enough yes’s to build a business.
Even if you can offer the most wonderful products in the world, you’ve got to first build a relationship with your prospects before you can expect most of them to become customers.
That is why you want to place your energy and focus on selling your visitors to join you email list rather than purchasing the product.
Concentrate on increasing the conversion rate of your opt-in pages. Split test the headlines, the free offers, the calls to action and so forth. Once they join your list, you can work on selling them on not just one product, but many
different products over time.
Now here’s the second place where new marketers slip up:
Mistake #2: Not continually following up from day 1.
Here’s what happens to the average new list builder: They start building their list (yah!) but there’s only a few subscribers right now so they wait to follow up.
Weeks go by and the marketer finally has a hundred or a thousand subscribers and now they decide the time is right to start creating and sending emails.
But here’s the problem with that: Most everyone on their list already forgot who they are. No relationship is built. No products are sold. Is it any wonder the new marketer gives up and goes back to his 9 to 5 job?
Here’s what you’ve got to do instead, no matter how silly this might seem: Start following
up with your first subscriber from Day 1.
Create a series of pre-written emails that go out automatically to your list and create these emails before you even get the first subscriber.
This gives you the freedom to focus on list building without having to worry about creating those automated emails because it’s already done. Everybody gets an email the day they sign up and every day after that like clockwork. They quickly become accustomed to hearing from you and in fact expect to hear from you. And when you send an email to the entire list with your latest offer, they remember you and they’re more receptive to what you have to say.
Recap:
1: Focus on getting the sign up.
2: Start following up with the very first subscriber the day they join.
This is what every successful marketer does to build a real business. If it sounds too simple, all I can suggest is that you give it a whirl and see for yourself that it flat out works.
You already know how important images are for your marketing efforts.
People pay attention to images, read image captions and are more likely to read your content if it contains compelling pictures. Images make your content look more professional and help to improve your communication with your audience.
While there are numerous free stock photography sites you can use, here are a few reasons to consider paying a small fee to license the images you want:
Your rights on free images are sometimes confusing and sketchy. Can you use it on for profit material? Do you need to credit the site or photographer? Have the rights changed since you downloaded it?
Paid photo websites give you clear terms of use on copyright laws, restrictions, and licenses
Free images are overused and make your site look like everyone else’s. Cheesy, overused and poorly shot images are NOT helping your brand.
With paid photos, you can get professional and sometimes even unique photos. You can get them in bulk, if you so choose, and there are new photos uploaded all the time to choose from.
Paid images are high-quality and not blurry when enlarged or cropped. They help you to build a polished, cohesive online presence.
Paid image subscription sites often offer vector art, illustrations and graphics.
Free image sites are a time-suck. You can search endlessly for that one decent image.
On a whole, paid images just look better than free, and you’ve got so many more to choose from, too.
Are you just starting out and on a strict budget? Then maybe free images are for you. But do consider upgrading to paid images just as soon as you can for that polished, professional look people trust. Here are my favourite paid stock photo websites:
1.Creative Market
Creative Market is an online marketplace offering photos, graphics, templates, themes, fonts, and more.
All stock photos are created by independent photographers and cover just about anything and everything you can imagine, including animals, architecture, beauty & fashion, business, health, food & drink, nature, sports, etc.
This stock photography website offers high-quality photos, graphics, vectors, music & SFX, and video.
There over 229 million royalty-free assets with thousands added weekly by photographers and musicians. And their stock videos are all HD including 4K videos.
This is an unlimited creative subscription service best for students, agencies, marketers, etc., boasting unlimited downloads of 57+ million creative assets with lifetime commercial licenses.
Their monthly subscription includes stock photos, themes, plugins, videos, music, graphics, fonts along with 1,200+ courses and tutorials.
Price: $16.50 per month paid yearly or $33 for a single month on the monthly
plan, and a discount for students. https://elements.envato.com/
4: Ivory Mix
Ivory Mix stock images cater to every brand with their myriad of categories including business, parenting, and wellness, to name a few.
Best for entrepreneurs or content creators who constantly need fresh content.
What’s included: over 5,000 stock images with 100+ new photos being added each month, monthly Canva templates, Caption templates, workshops & training, and more.
Price: $67 paid quarterly or $167 paid yearly. Be sure to get their freebie package just for joining their list. https://ivorymix.com/
5: Pixi stock
This stock photo subscription site is geared for women, offering beautiful feminine stock photos, social media graphics, templates and content planners.
Pixi stock membership gives you access to Over 7,000+ stock photos, customizable Canva graphics, 365-day Social Media Content Planner, DFY hashtag strategy, research in over 30 niches, and more.
Beautiful images combined with monthly expert marketing education and high-engagement new content delivered monthly.
Over 6,000 lifestyle, mockup and flat lay images, 30 monthly customizable caption templates, custom curation of images in your brand color palette, keywords, digital marketing courses, mastermind calls with guest experts, monthly social holiday posting ideas and more.
Not all upsells are automated. Some of them are born out of a genuine desire to help your customers.
Let’s say you notice that Judy purchased your program on how to write sales letters that convert, along with your program on sending high converting traffic to an offer.
But Judy hasn’t purchased your program on creating info products that sell like gangbusters. So, you drop Judy a personal note and mention how most of your customers who buy those first two programs also buy the third one, too.
You can let her know that while all three programs work well on their own, your customers have found that combining the three provides the greatest success.
Then you give her a link to the sales page and let her know that the product is still currently available.
You close by saying something like, “Judy, please let me know if I can be of further help to you.” And that’s all there is to it.
The conversion rate on this is higher than almost anything I’ve experienced before. And you’re not even selling. Instead, you’re simply being helpful and making sure your loyal customers have everything they need to succeed.
If you can automate this, then that’s great. But if not, it’s still worth it to do it by hand.
There is something about the personal touch that works wonders, too, because the next time you
send out an offer to the entire list, you’ll find the ones you contacted personally are more likely to
open your emails and respond to your offers.
And once your customers are used to getting personal emails from you, your future recommendations will carry more weight, too.
In this automated world of ours, customers place a high value on your personal contact and help.
DEEP WORK: RULES FOR FOCUSED SUCCESS IN A DISTRACTED WORLD
Deep work’ is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. Coined by author and professor Cal Newport on his popular blog Study Hacks, deep work will make you better at what you do, let you achieve more in less time and provide the sense of true fulfilment that comes from the mastery of a skill.
In short, deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive economy.
And yet most people, whether knowledge workers in noisy open-plan offices or creatives struggling to sharpen their vision, have lost the ability to go deep – spending their days instead in a frantic blur of email and social media, not even realising there’s a better way.
Put simply: developing and cultivating a deep work practice is one of the best decisions you can make in an increasingly distracted world and this book will point the way.
