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How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself 452 Comments
The above video is one of my favorite presentations I've given in 2009, an opening keynote at the last San Francisco WordCamp, titled "How to Blog without Killing Yourself". More than 700 people from 32 countries were in attendance, which made for a wonderful experience.
The original title was "Scalable Blogging Behaviors: How to Grow from 1 to 1,000,000 Readers" and the content did not change.
In the above presentation, including detailed screenshots, I cover…
- Why I blog
- How I blog and select best practices
- Frequency and tools — best times and days to post
- Blogging myths and how to harness data for better results
- Testing design and surprising findings that can be copied
- How I address comments and community building
- How I write and research for good social media response
- 20 minutes of audience Q&A on Twitter, branding, outsourcing, and much more
I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed giving it.
Related and Suggested Posts:
The Top-7 Timothy Ferriss YouTube Videos (4 million views and counting)
Timothy Ferriss Experimental Short-Form Blog
Timothy Ferriss in Inc. Magazine – The Secrets of Super-Productive CEOs
Posted on June 29th, 2009
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452 Comments
Great info. Always keen to hear your thoughts on blogging and social media. As we discussed at your Sydney party, it seems social media has been key to building the success of 4HWW and your continued efforts are surely going to contribute to the success of your next book.
Perfect timing. Launching a new blog next week, so this should come in handy.
Thanks Tim,
I am glad you posted this, I have a blog which I have 'played' with for a while but am about to get really going on it. One reason I have been slow to "get serious" was the whole "quit living and start blogging" dilemma.
Also I like the beginning where you are talking about the other currencies that blogging offers, which I had not thought of in those terms.
Chris -
I find that most bloggers don't effectively use analytics data to understand traffic, user keyword search terms, bounce rates, etc. Optimising your blog around what users want to see (or don't want to see) is a critical way of improving traffic.
Thanks for sharing! One of the things I've picked up from your blog is posting frequency i.e. quality vs. quantity; it totally fits my temperament.
Great post Tim, thanks for the advices.
Yours and Matt's talks were the best of the day in my opinion. It looked like you were enjoying it when I saw you speak, so it's good to see that you did. Thanks for all the incredibly useful information.
I've been blogging since 2000 and it's about time I change my ways. I took some sweet notes that day… especially during your presentation! Don't know if you've seen them, but they're on flickr if you'd like to.
Excellent post, Tim, your "break the rules" approach is what sets your blog apart from most, and obviously creates the loyal readership that defines any sort of success.
Thanks Tim I have picked lot many things, Hopefully i will able to impliment those in my blog
Again thanks
Rajnesh -
Thanks for sharing. I just realized I don't know when you started this blog – I assumed it was after published 4HWW, but in that case, did you really need to work hard to build this – wouldn't the spillover traffic from the book come naturally? Looking forward to watching the video.
I am going to ask after the presentation… Please could you recommend me and others interested any source or book/s about public speaking?
Confessing, when I met you at Manhattan man I introduced myself for 1 min at least, that's weird isn't it? ha.
Awesome talk, very valuable Tim.
Hey Tim nice video. Thanks for all the info you share.
I heard you reference a good friend had passed away from pancreatic cancer. I am sure you are aware of the Alkaline diet/PH water lifestyle made popular by Dr. Robert Young; but many haven't.
The Learning Channel did a documentary about a young woman with cancer who implemented the Alkaline Diet. Needless to say she cured herself. This alkaline lifestyle has helped a lot of people with varying health concerns. I hope you like the video. Here is the link. http://bit.ly/19yZib
Best regards,
Victor V.
Excellent lecture. Tim confirmed a few things that had been rattling around in my brain the past few weeks. Which will ultimately lead to me taking my blog in a new direction, maybe one that will be more interesting and fun for the readers as well as me. Also It was great seeing him in a more candid setting being himself. Thanks for the great lecture.
Hi Tim,
Very instructive presentation, thanks for sharing it ! This will help me soon for sure…
And may I too make a suggest, which could increase your (european) audience : what about proposing english subtitles for your videos (something that could be hidden or shown) ? Especially for long ones, it's hard to keep focused, and Californian accent doesn't help . I tried to find an automatic subtitle transcriber but have failed till now…Cyril (from France)
Good ideas. I like your idea of tweaking/testing everything –including the labels and looking for changes to user behaviour. I also like the idea of moving your twitter feed down on the blog, to avoid sending your hard-won visitors away.
It is so important to write things you're passionate about, as you say. I think a lot of people get trapped in the pursuit of monetization on their blog and they start writing to the dollar, rather than to the idea. A blog is much more valuable as a quality of life enhancement tool –allowing you to connect with like-minded (or at least similarly-interested) people around the world and learn about the things that excite you.
Tim Woods
Just thought I'd drop a comment to say that was a great video. Diverted my attention a little for the morning but it was worth the sacrifice. Cheers!
Hey Tim, sounds great but i can't view the videos when i'm on the road with a crappy data plan.. How about getting one of your va's to transcribe it and post a link to that as well? Just a thought mate, australians are a bit behind on mobile data plans! Cheers
I second that. Please!
Great info for someone who has just started a new blog.
I would like to try out CrazyEgg, but I guess it doesn't make much sense before I actually get som readers. My blog is actually about my ventures into the 4-hour workweek experience.
Signed up for Evernote but haven't had time to play with it yet. Great talk – really enjoyed it. I'd like to Tim-Ferriss my love life too, hahaha.
Thanks Tim,
I am glad you posted this, I have a blog which I have 'played' with for a while but am about to get really going on it. One reason I have been slow to "get serious" was the whole "quit living and start blogging" dilemma.
Also I like the beginning where you are talking about the other currencies that blogging offers, which I had not thought of in those terms.
Chris -
I enjoyed this video so much! And I find it really, really useful (which is the most important thing for me because I've just launched my English language blog a week ago.
My personal favorites of plugins which you didn't mention, but which are great IMHO:
All in One SEO Pack – allows you to set amange all your SEO stuff (including descriptions, tags, etc);
Google Analytics for WordPress – needs no comment;
Google XML Sitemaps – helps with Google optimization;
LiveJournal Crossposter – can be useful for those who want to crosspost to livejournal (which the most popular blog platform in Russia and has a relatively big audience in the other countries as well);
Math Comment Spam Protection – I guess it's the best spam protection for comments. Typical CAPTCHAS can be annoying and not always effective;
Similar Posts & Sociable – I guess you use them both, but you didn't mention them, so I assume they are the obvoius
WordPress Database Backup – extreeemly important tool! It backs up my database (I personally prefer to do it by emailing the latest version to my Gmail account) and sets me free of worries about loosing all the data.
Wordpress Video Plugin – for embeded video content.Well, this my top, I guess. Hmm, this comment appeared to be longer than I expected, probably I should write a post about it) Any additions, guys?
Hope, it helps!
Hey Tim,
One thing you said about blogging (in a previous video post) was- if your going to write a blog…. Write a f**** blog and ….it's better to have no blog then a bad blog. It really stuck with me and became a guiding principle for my writing.Thanks again for giving us the 80/20 on blogging.
Rob -
About the screenshot issue:
You might already have figured this out yourself, but there is a Mac app called Paparazzi, which will take a full-length screenshot of any URL you choose. It doesn't appear to have been updated for a while, but it works for me.
Enjoy! =)
BTW, your approach to dates almost made me LOL! I do love your obsessive rationality! Can you share a link to that elance project if it's still there? :))
For me, this is the best quote of the talk:
"If you are wasting time – but having fun – you are not wasting time!"
Fantastic video!
I was wondering. Do you ever get the urge to fiddle around with older posts, how do you have the self discipline to let them be!
Hey Tim,
Love it man! Keep up the good work! I wish you posted more! I could read your stuff everyday!
Ian Anderson
Topics i liked the most and want to know more about:
write about a topic and not the person – so much can be said – powerful tool and great advice
Find your best writing or syntheses period – tailoring your day to optimize this period instead of fitting it in or having it happen in a haphazard manner – would wind up much happier with oneself at the end of the week
Evernote along with Dragon Naturally Speaking – yeah you never mentioned dragon, but i am about to use the hand held voice recorder along with Evernote – an idea i think i got from one of your older posts
by the way – i follow via an rss. i know that there are exceptions to every rule and i am probably one of them as i do not use twitter, go to digg, or folllow anyone on facebook (although i use it for other social reasons). i feel that they all reduce my productivity as i do not have as much self control as others may have.
Thanks. Looking forward to the next.
Not that anything you say here isn't true or good, but let's be real: step number one for getting high-traffic blog for Tim Ferriss is to be Tim Ferriss.
This couldn't have come at a better time. But I'm still on a high from your announcement that the new book is coming
Thanks for the tips. They're really going to come in handy for my blog. I don't know if I'll get 1,000,000 subscribers (let alone visitors) but we'll have to wait and see.
P.S. Batching your dates. I never thought that was even possible until now.
Thanks, pretty informative…
I do have one question though.
I am not as digitally aware as you are (That is, I am not part-cyborg! ) So the idea of using so many tools to blog feels like work to me (lots of it).I am about to launch a more serious blog than the one I have been playing around in finding my comfort zones in, (with things like being pretty open about intimate aspects of my life, rudeness from readers as well as myself [your living room theory is simple and effective, but my living room may be different from yours] ) and I think a lot of what you discussed relating to using various analytical tools I am just going to ignore.
So the question here is: Any experience in writing from the gut without measuring anything as opposed to doing it your way in terms of measuring results?
My theory is if the content is good eventually the numbers of the types of people you want to show up do show up.
Am I a total moronic dinosaur and way off on this? -
Great Presentation Tim.
I like the analytical approach to your blog… and life, but my problem is that it's too much to manage sometimes. If you should give 3 MI things from your presentation, what would it be?
You are a great inspiration – thx
Tobias -
Tim, great post and I'm going to try to implement some of your changes on my blog. I'm interested as to why you seem to be switching to video instead of text (many of your posts have recently been video based instead of text based). I believe a few months ago you stated you liked the 'viral' aspect of text and that video didn't have the same appeal. Is this a change in philosophy?
No change. I had elbow surgery.
Very nice. Seems I've been missing out on a few tools, evernote etc which I'll be looking to integrate soon.
Also, nice dating style…
[...] Ferriss gibt in diesem Video genauere Auskunft über seinen Blog. Informationen, die wir kleinen Blogger sicher als nützlich [...]
Hey Tim, GREAT post! I feel privileged to be mentioned in the video, will start using some of these tips as I develop my blog. Has there been steady viewership of your blog over the last 2 years? How do you track that info?
Keep up the great work, it's inspiring!
Throw a "+" on the end of your bit.ly link to your blog and bask in the data
Loved the video, it was very insightful. I've been working on my blog for the past few weeks and i'm kinda getting frustrated with a few things, putting things up/taking them down, test this/test that. You gave some great "do's" and "dont's" that I need to implement, "less is truly more"…
Hey Tim,
I absolutely love everything you do. This is a great post. I look forward to the new book.
Thanks for allowing us to watch this. Great to hear how it's done from someone who is doing it right. NICE to hear a guy speak who is not touting the 'How I made my first million in my sleep with just a few easy tricks' mentality.
Funny. After you talked about people always complaining, I finally got the kick to kill MSN Messenger and never use it again. Posted a message saying people could reach me on Twitter or email, and surely enough, two minutes later, people complain. Small world.
I hope this technique will work for website too… I really need to increase traffic to get great sales…
thanks for the post…
Great helpful post. Video helps, as well. Your analytical approach is great. I could definitely use some more time looking my analytics.
Hey Tim,
Great video, it was a nice diversion today.How do you find out about new web tools? I always just stumble upon (bad pun intended) them while doing other things on the web. Is there a source you or other readers would recommend? Some examples of things I like would be Evernote, Mint, Stumbleupon, etc.
It's a good thing you ditched the initial title–this talk had little to do with getting attention for blogs and more to do with keeping the attention of the people who trickle in. I think the challenge for a lot of people is gaining that initial audience, however small, in the first place.
Still, It was great to see some of the tools you used. The heat mapping in particular seemed far more useful than the overlays provided by Google Analytics. Crazyegg seems to monitor clicks, whereas the overlay in GA treat clicks and pageviews as the same thing when representing them as that tiny little progress bar that shoes up.
Hi Tim.
In the video above you mentioned your one glass of wine while blogging thing, your video on your work out breakfast had you sipping a from a bottle, and You speak a fair bit about Argentina, I am wondering what you enjoy drinking and why?
Hi Josh,
I enjoy good wine and good company, but I don't have to drink. I haven't had anything to drink at all in the last week, even last night, when I was with people drinking wine. Just giving my liver some down time.
I make it a point to cycle off of drinking alcohol to avoid any dependencies, but I enjoy the extra laughs and buzz that comes with a slow bottle of wine with friends.
I can't call you a quitter just because you didn't drink last week. No more than I can call you lazy for a four hour work week. If I wore a hat I would take it off for you but, I don't. So, the best I can do is tip my next beer in honor of you and give you my admiration. You've been a BIG help to me!
Wow, another great post. Just starting my first website and blog, this information has come in very handy. Really looking forward to your new book coming out..
Hey Tim,
This post was really helpful… It answered a bunch of questions I had.
I'd love to hear more on your thoughts about "social media" (which is becoming a cliche for me). Like you said, transparency, communication and conversation aren't defined very well and I think many well-meaning entrepreneurs are spending time on Twitter, Facebook, etc., but aren't making money or gaining any quality followers.
- Chris
Great post – I haven't used many of these tools but they seem awesome.
The advice is great, we're trying to build our blog out and will definitely try to incorporate what you say. What we're trying to do is combine links/external content with unique/written posts. Any thoughts on what would be the best mix? We're dealing with entry level jobs and the quantity (and quality) of great information out there is staggering – we love sharing it but sometimes the linking/quoting others eats up everything.
Tim, you always seem to intrigue my interest through your book, posts, and videos. I found this video to be really helpful in analyzing my own personal blog. Thanks for the information.
Definite an informative post. I've been wondering why you don't combine the site and blog as one url with tabs. Did I miss that part of your presentation?
Nice video. Your mention of not being able to capture a screen shot that would scroll down – try SnagIt. I use it alot for demoing software to clients. It allows you to 'scroll' a web-page, copy and paste and mark it up.
P.S. Do you think you could show us an example of how you have your Evernote organized?
Doh! I'm so sorry guys — with my bum elbow (I had surgery last week), I accidentally deleted a few comments. My sincerest apologies. I did read them all, though!
All the best,
You have a great quality of openness about you. You break assumptions, make discoveries and then share them with the public. I like many things you say, but honestly your general approach to life makes following what currently engages you so interesting. Keep up the good work!
Tim, great stuff. I'm taking written and mental notes like its my job. Your lifetricks and approach to blogging are stellar, I'm looking to copy and improve at every turn, especially right now…the subtle move of the date in specific posts is something I went and did on the spot.
Question: Do you use SEO enhancing plugins? (Headspace?) or simply switch out synonyms after doing some google keyword research in the actual blog content?
Suggestion: Come out with a 4HWW companion guide.
Comment: Do you mind if we record, analyze and test the crap out of your book and all the derived tenants publicly at our site? I wanted to ask before we officially launch.
Like a lot of people I listen to your videos while working at my desk. Problem is that sometimes I miss a few of the gems. I really liked the part how you tested the layout and headers. Since I was working I had to go back and listen to that part again.
Have you ever thought or experimented with giving away a "cheat sheet" with the Cole Notes of the video?
Great video man. Very useful. Need to go through it again with a notepad and pick out all the goodies.
In all honesty, I want to hate Tim Ferris. But it is hard when you do work like this.
This was a fantastic video that gave me so many ideas. I want to believe that no person can be this talented, but how can I argue with results?
People attack you for the title of your book. They mock your ability to spin your experiences into something more. I too want to uncover your weaknesses to bring you down to Earth.
The fact is; you kick ass. I ridiculed you to others because of your hard boiled egg video. Now I feel like an idiot after you explained your reasons and found out how many views it received. I hate the title of your book, because it sold a false hope to millions of couch potatoes, but… it sold books. That is what it was chosen for so how can I fault you?
You live life on your own terms and that is immensely awesome. I will go one step further, you lead the world into new terms of living and for that you deserve to be followed.
I can't wait to see what Tim Ferris is going to deliver over the next few decades.
The next time you are in Japan please look me up.
WOW! As someone mentioned above your "breaking the rules approach" is one of the most inspiring things and as it looks also your key to great success!
I have two different folders in my RSS reader.
One for stuff that I just read because I "might miss something" and that I sort of "have to read".
The other one for blogs and sites where I'm really looking forward to every new article and where I enjoy watching the projects and life of the author develop over time. Just moved you're feed to the second one And hey don't underestimate you're RSS-readers.. -
Great video!
I haven't done any A/B testing on my blog yet (I do at work though), but one thing that really helped my bounce rate was adding the LinkWithin (any "related posts" type widget would work). It doubled & tripled my time on-site stats.
Tim, thanks for another valuable post.
You are obviously a very good public speaker, but I thought that you might be interested in making your presentation skills even more excellent than they already are.
In which case here are some notes from an impartial observer:
In the beginning of your talk you mentioned that you were very nervous. I used to do the same thing, because I thought that it would make my audience more comfortable. However, I noticed that commenting about being nervous, typically makes the audience more stressed out as opposed to relaxed. BTW, you looked very comfortable for most of the presentation, judging from the video.
Something else that a lot of people tend to ignore when giving a public speech is watching their use of "ahas", "uuumhs" and "sos." I still struggle with these filler words, and that's after giving a LOT of talks. They tend to be a bit distracting to an audience (re-play this video and count all of the filler words).
Of course the most important part of a talk/presentation is the message and quality of presented information. You have that part down. These are just small fixes that typically make anyone look like a more polished speaker.
Masha -
I don't know if I agree with your practice of pushing the date to the bottom on older posts. I hate finding a blog post that seems relevant to my search and then finding out it was written in 2006 and is severely outdated. I can see how an old date might lead people away from interesting posts, but misleading them into thinking it's a new post just doesn't seem like the best solution.
You're a great speaker.
Tim -
In your video you disclosed that you were an investor in Twitter. Perhaps you could write a blog in the future about your involvement in Twitter and how you joined up with such a great organization. Twitter has been a Godsend to the development of traffic to my blogs and radio shows.
Thanks so much for sharing – RBP
[...] Tim Ferriss, author of the hugely popular book 4 Hour Work Week, posted one of his presentations today on his blog. [...]
Re: your use of stumbleupon links. Their best property is that each contains the whole original link, so I am able to excise the SU part and still get to your link. I prefer to link directly to a site, not through a filter – partially to support the ads (if any) on the content-containing page.
I cannot get this video to play…it just has a blinking center in a black field…I have flash player 9 installed…
Thanks Tim, I love it. I have just started my own blog and have been looking for some tips, so perfect timing! Keep it up… I always get excited when I see that you posted something new because I know it will be worth my read and I can learn something!
[Oops, should have read the directions first rather than after submitting the comment! Here it is again, Fonzie-style.]
Cool video – many thanks for making this available to everyone here.
I've launched a successful language blog, and am gearing up to launch several more in the numerous languages I do speak and can manage that kind of thing in! With good help, naturally. Some of the tips in this video are definitely going to come in handy.
As far as the WordPress goes, I have to say I am an avid Drupaler! Hey, we can still get along, though. GPL is GPL!
Cheers and keep up the goods!
I love the advice about making the blog cover a broad set of topics. One of the things that I have loved about following your blog is that I never know what you're going to post. One day it's about life, the next it's how to peel eggs. I actually bought (and devoured) Emergency by Neil Strauss because of your post.
Yours is also one of the only blogs that I follow in Google Reader, but then actually click through to read the post on the site. The comments are always worth the jump!
PS – I'm now fully working from home due to your book. Even went mobile last week while working. LOVED IT!!!!!
Congratulations, David! Thank you also for the very kind words
All the best,
As someone who consults non profits and small businesses about the power of twitter and especially blogging. I found this to be a pretty cool post. I plan to make this a "must listen to" for all people interested about how to get started. If you don't have a plan with with stuff, it makes your life pretty miserable.
AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA! I've always wondered what your approach to dating was. I've often considered the benefits of outsourcing the qualifying and scheduling game involved with dating but have never rationalized it enough to just do it. Some little voice in the back of my always nagged me that it was so impersonal and cold. I'll blame that on social conditioning. I cant stop laughing! Time for me to Tim Ferriss my love life
Great video Tim!
We are using social media within our blog environment to encourage a community of people to form around the blog. Social media can be used effectively if you take it for what it is – a communication and relationship building tool.The real change is from outbound media to inbound marketing.
Hey Tim – great presentation. Took some cool ideas away – especially removing dates from permalinks and finding better photos in Flickr – already did the Creative Commens search but didn't know you could filter by interesting!
[...] Video by Time Ferris on How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself [...]
Thanks Tim.
The Flickr idea will help me out greatly and I love the part about how to Tim Ferriss your love life. I just might have to try that approach!
re-sent in case this is one of the posts you deleted –
Topics i liked the most and want to know more about:
write about a topic and not the person – so much can be said – powerful tool and great advice
Find your best writing or syntheses period – tailoring your day to optimize this period instead of fitting it in or having it happen in a haphazard manner – would wind up much happier with oneself at the end of the week
Evernote along with Dragon Naturally Speaking – yeah you never mentioned dragon, but i am about to use the hand held voice recorder along with Evernote – an idea i think i got from one of your older posts
by the way – i follow via an rss. i know that there are exceptions to every rule and i am probably one of them as i do not use twitter, go to digg, or folllow anyone on facebook (although i use it for other social reasons). i feel that they all reduce my productivity as i do not have as much self control as others may have.
Thanks. Looking forward to the next.
Hey Tim,
As a non-blogger, I didn't realize all of the effort and planning that could go into every aspect of blogging and designing/optimizing the site for increased traffic/retention etc.
Great work and kudos for going further than most people probably do.
Great Talk! Thanks for sharing your experience.
One minor bug report… while following along I noticed the html title text for your link, "7 Reasons to Subscribe" reads, "10 Reasons to Subscribe." If you mouseover the link you can see the discrepancy in the popup tool tip.
I am a raving fan and fledgling author/blogger. As others have also said, your blog is one of only 3 blogs that I follow in Google Reader. You consistently deliver value to your readers, with all posts being either interesting, useful, funny, or all three at the same time. I am (have been) applying your advice from both 4HWW and this blog in creating my own blogs and soon-to-be book.
You are actually part of my target demographic: you are a polyglot martial artist who has spent time in Taiwan! You will of course receive a pre-release copy.
FYI, I have made reference to much of your advice and I quote a few times (hopefully your lawyers won't come after me…) I know your feelings about posting URLs in the post, so I will just tell you the most recent blog post title that features you: "Making the Time To Study & Train: Minimize & Prioritize"
Speaking of Tim Ferrissing your love life…
Wondering if a Blog post on blog/comment interaction/flirting and potential targets (yes I know objectionable labels) would create a buzz…
It is interesting the attraction that is developed from
sharing your brain with people. -
Yo Tim
It's not a greasemonkey script, but I use the Firefox add-on Autopager ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4925 )
Great vid per usual.
I'm about halfway through "Letters from a Stoic" and I keep laughing out loud. Thanks for the suggestion.
Hi Tim,
Long time reader of your blog and I often view your videos that you have posted on other sites. I was searching the web and I came across your profile at Crunchbase (http://www.crunchbase.com/person/tim-ferriss), very impressive.
I wanted to know how can I become an Angel investor since most Venture Capitalist Firms do not accept individual investors?
Evernote v. Dragon — which is better? -Roger Ost
That was really impressive. I did not know you read the comments that meticulously. I like the "why I blog " part and the sources you use for writing.
I loved your comment comparing the process to people coming into your living room!!! That we really personalize and think about how we talk to friends.
John -
Tim Schatzi! Werd wieder munter and gesunder! Von Herzen gute Besserung!
Great post! I am glued to your site whenever you have a new post, as my business partner and I try to implement your tips and tricks whenever possible with our own blog site.
Keep up the good work, and I hope your elbow heels quickly!
Also – sorry if I've missed it – but a blog on your favorite wines would be fun sometime! My personal favorites are Cake Bread and Silver Oak … but due to their price, only for special occasions
Terrific video! You always have great information on your blog posts and videos
Hi Tim
Thanks a million for this video. I read your book some time ago and just launched the second version of my website a couple of days ago. I've decided to raise peoples level of consciousness in a huge way. I believe living in the now is the best change a person can incorporate in their life, hands down! But my blog needs more fun posts!! Considering I'm on the search engines #1 page usually for search topics like "goal setting" high time I get this version 2.0 off and running!! Thanks again!!!
Terry -
Nice video Tim!
Your video is really fantastic!Thanks for the great ideas for increasing the traffic,but i'm not sure i can reach 1,000,000 subscriber,let's make it as a try
It's really amazing to watch your movie,I'll certainly follow your next videoGreat day!
Cynthia Tanady
Thank you for all of your work and reminding us that there are no shoulds and no rules in life. One of the greatest things that I have ever learned. That is why I love your work and why this presentation was so good. It is about finding out what works for you, being passionate, doing the research and making life happen. Never living someone else's dreams or opinions.
I read 4HWW after all my friends were telling me that you wrote a book about me. I had started feeling guilty about my lifestyle. Why? Not sure. I have traveled for 3 months out of the year for the past 5 years. Learned languages, mostly along the lines of proust, gambai, and salud, climbed mountains – ok hills, and learned to surf, and I bet I am better at chopsticks then you are. Yet, the point is that your book got me out of this feeling that I should be settling down, having a stable job, buying a house… I was starting to listen to peoples opinions about what my life should look like. Thank God it was just a moment – as I am still living my life as I have designed. Now off to Costa Rica for a few months.
Wish you all the best!
Amy Lee
Appreciate you constantly giving back to, sharing and cultivating the entrepreneurial ecosystem in which you dwell. You and a few others are the Dersu Uzala's of the modern age- guides looking out not just for themselves but for those around them.
Don't know if you've seen this magificent Kurosawa film yet- but I definitely recommend it if you haven't. I've been thinking about it a lot lately.
It begins on a freezing cold night in the Siberian forest when a group of Russian soldiers are suddenly joined by a mysterious Nanai tribesman as they sit warming themselves around a fire. He seems ancient and does not greet them as they sit in stunned silence watching him as he slowly lights his pipe. After some minutes he breaks the charged silence and strikes up a conversation with them. It turns out that this is the beginning of their remarkable adventure with this nomadic tiger-hunter who serves as their guide through the wilderness. The men soon learn that wherever he goes he is looking out not just for himself, but for those around him and who might come after him. Twice he saves their lives by virtue of his great experience and wisdom and in one scene they watch with fascination as he leaves some food behind in a remote shelter for anyone that might stumble there after their departure.
Again, many thanks.
I am working on a news and referral site to help people in my city. What if it goes from 1,000 people to day to 10,000 or worse in 24 hours due to too much unexpected local attention. How can I find out how much this will cost before I select and pay for a host. Cost information was not in the video displayed above. What happens when a site blows up. Would google advertising be enough to maintain it. I saw an article that there are only 3 or 4 companies that can handle very large web site traffic with downloads. Have you heard of them.
I am doing this on my own without a board of directors and non profit incorporation. I hope this will become a community of people who help each other, I would like this to become of community of people who help each other. I do not have a blog, I am not a professional writer. Thank you if you can find time to post a reply.
Thanks for posting and getting into the details. I've been blogging for about four years and enjoying it. I'm glad to hear that blogging doesn't have to be all-consuming. That's what flyfishing is for.
I'm switching my "Categories" to "Topics" as we speak. I always hated using categories as it sounds so impersonal…great tip Tim!
This is really good stuff. Thank you for sharing it.
you mentioned something called "crazy8″ I think as you spoke, but it was unclear what you said. what did you say?Thanks.
Hi Tim. that's some great info you're sharing here. thanks. do you have any free sites to heat track my site, instead of crazy egg?
Hi Tim
Been following your emails for a while now – they are always entertaining reading!
Hope this is not a stupid question, but I cant seem to view the video on this site. I see a message in the video box saying "required plugin not installed"?
Is someone able to tell me what I need to do to view this.
p.s. I am using internet explorer-
I am also having trouble viewing the video. Do I need a plugin?
Excellent speech and some great ideas in there.
I've posted this on Sphinn too: http://sphinn.com/story/119695
dude, on my side, the video is shown as removed. Did a technical glitch happen?
Hi Tim,
thanks for the lessons on blogging. I just recently started with it but it takes me a great length of time. I guess it is a learning curve… Do you have some tips to stay focused on the article and speed-up the process of writing?
Maybe the speed has also to do with me being Hungarian, living in the Netherlands and speaking all day Dutch and then writing blog in English
Or you have not find any correlation?
Thanks ( = koszi in HU).
Peter Herku -
Hi Tim,
thanks for this, very very interesting!
I am working on bringing out a blog but I am not sure about the language. I am from Germany and for some reason I have the feeling that germans are "poor bloggers". I am not a native english speaker but love the language and I think writing in english may attract more audience. Do you have any suggestions on that?Thanks, Alex
Und übrigens, Du bist jemand, der Menschen verändert und damit die Welt noch schöner macht!-
Danke for the kind compliment! I would suggest you write in both and see which you and your readers prefer. It's true that the market is bigger for English, but the market is still quite large for German. I think Stefanos Kofopoulos is one example of how to build a large audience in a smaller country (Greece).
Good luck!
Tim – As always you're on top of the the game.
Thanks for this – great resource. Going to watch it at work today….II've cut to actually working (with no quality compromise) 3 hours a day – working in a daily 9-1 with your book!
Hi Tim,
I believe there's a solution for your twitter 'problem'. TechCrunch recently posted this (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/29/bring-twitter-talk-to-your-site-with-tweetboard/).
From TC:
'One of the difficulties of following a conversation on Twitter itself is that replies to particular threads aren't threaded together. On Tweetboard, all the discussions are threaded and nested together…'Daniel
The video player doesn't let me jump around in playback, I accidentally quit the page and couldn't restart from where I left off.
Hi Tim. Is there a transcript of the video? Or a method to convert it? I read and comprehend better. Thanks
Jae -
Hi Tim-
I understand that the quality of the video production is not your main focus when you do these talks (or other videos), but it seems it might be worth undestanding who is filming you and what the lighting situation will be like if at all possible.
This video was great, but you were constantly moving in and out of the shadows and I found it very distracting. If you take a little more care when producing your videos (I understand it is not always easy, but you could negotiate for a little more control when you do these events.) you'll be happy you did this later as web video continues to grow and people are able to watch it on their televisions.
You mentioned that text is easier to index, which is true for now, but companies like Grab Networks and many others are building automated video indexing software that will scrape the metadata in these videos you create with no extra effort on your side.
The ultimate point is that the higher quality video you can create now will pay dividends down the road as it will open up web syndication (and ad revenue for you) for multiple platforms long into the future.
Wishing you continued success.
Tim- hilarious story about outsourcing your love life at the end! It killed me, to borrow a Holden Caulfield-ism. How did your experiments in eye-contact dating go?
This video was entertaining with some practical take-away's. The answer to that guys questions on "How can I Tim Ferriss my love life" was hilarious!
Great video Tim! I took a ton of notes! I'm starting to use Evernote more and more, and that was a great tip to store drafts and ideas for my blog in there. Also for the Flickr tip! Thanks!!
Hope the elbow is healing well.
Hi Tim,
I've been looking for a good "popular posts" plug-in like the one you are using.
I've tried many and they all either don't work or like you said in your video, are a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a sense that they show most popular of all times and in effect those just stay there forever.
What is the name of the plug-in you are using and where can I get it. I've seen it on a couple of websites besides yours but cant find where to get it.
BTW great post.
PS. I've commented to one of your other posts about how I'm trying to turn my 100% service business into a 95% hands-off business, and at this point I see the general direction and just need 3-6 months to get everything ready to pull the plug.
Reality is that my biz puts so much mental pressure on me that I'm very hesitant in getting more work, but until i put the things in motion, I need some money to get by.
I'm grateful for your excellent eye-opening book. Keep up the good work.
Hi Leo,
I'm afraid it's a custom job and not a plugin. The same guy who did ProBlogger's site did this one for me. It ties into the "most popular posts" or "popularity plugins", but the graphic design itself — and the javascript — is custom.
Good luck!
Hey Tim, great Video. I am a longtime reader of your blog and great, great fan of your book (as probably most people here). I just have to say I loved your answer on how to "timferris you love life". Very funny and interesting!!! Keep on blogging.
Hi Tim,
Just a quick technical note for the record – I find when I try and access the blog from my address bar in Opera it frequently won't load, although it is usually (although not quite always) fine accessing it via a google result. Yours is the only site I experience this with so thought I'd mention it, although it could be really unique to my setup.
Keep up the great work! Really pleased to learn about Crazyegg…
The depth of thought in all your content is what ultimately lends so much value and robustness to it for me. I'm conditioned to getting a sales pitch or a gimicky kind of self-endorsement when viewing the kind of videos you posted here, and I admit I was even a bit hesitant despite the type of content I've come to expect from you because of that.
All of your material is thoughtful and laden with the bigger picture, life, happiness and the end rather than the means, and I can't tell you how rare that is in the Dead Sea of the Internet. While there is an obvious, understandable, and even appreciable amount of wealth building in your content, it's not overpowering by any means and hasn't come to feel familiar and jaded as you've found greater success.
Keep doing what you're doing. Your talks and musings are among the best on the web in combining knowledge, expedience, life, happiness, and wisdom. Cheers!
Dear Brian and All,
Thank you so much for the comment and kind words. It made my day, and I hope the best of this blog is yet to come. I'll certainly do my best to ensure that's the case.
Off to a feed and glass of wine now. Just finished my antibiotics today
All the best,
Really like this video – full of useful information. Running a blog takes a lot of focus and commitment
Great video. Similar to the question about "Tim Ferrising" ones love life, I would like to ask if you have any recommendations for optimizing the time of a college student. I am studying music and find it hard to balance practice (about 3 hours a day) with school (5/day) a part time job (10/wk) and a personal life.
I'm sure other collegiate readers would benefit from any insights you gained from your years at Princeton.Cheers,
Once again,
Mr. Ferris, wann wird dein neues Buch fertig sein?
Tim when will your new book be finished?
Finally got done watching the vid, great talk Tim (literally implemented as I went along on my own blog), always sharp on camera.
I'd love to use this video as a teaching tool (my daughter lectures at SJSU), but occasionally you slip in a profanity which makes me think twice about who I might link to this and other videos of yours.TOOLS
I love hearing about tools you & other use… or are recommended even if you don't use them… couldn't wait to get to that part of the book when I read it.LOVE LIFE
Great anecdote. Deserves to be it's own video and topic. I can image you popping down LINCOLN AVE for your 20-minute dates. Monsieur Beans still there, and of course Starbucks on the corner… but SB in the Garden Theater building closed (Peet's is across the street). -
Great video, I like how you started out saying you were nervous. Liar. But it put me at ease.
I love the "Tim Ferrissing your love life" story. It reminds me of a Tech Crunch arcticle I saw not too long ago about an outsourcing service solely dedicated to getting you dates online: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/05/virtualdatingassistantscom-lets-you-outsource-your-online-dating-life/
I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to set them up at 20 minute intervals, but hey, if you want to get a year's worth of flirting done on a Saturday, why not?
hola tim
(no creo que sea tan dificil contactarse contigo, especialmente despues de haber leido tu libro)At the beginning of your talk at some point you mention that there are better ways to get a descent income, and blogging is not necessarily one of top ones. I'm in the process to improve my life with many projects in my mind, if you could give a couple of ideas or fields that you think are potentially profitable, that would be really helpful.
perdon por el ingles
graicas, abrazos y suerte -
what is your plan for conquering your receding hairline? are you going to end up shaving it all?
Still looking sexy btw
As you mention you only skim your comments (you are getting bucket loads of them) but thanks for sharing this presentation – really useful for both my personal and business blog.
I really like your presentation style – relaxed and full of stories – brilliant.
You were also right about Stumble – that's how I found you. Now in Reader and looking forward to following you.
Great video Tim, I must say I really enjoy your stuff…the sexy intro music had me wondering for a second at the start though!
Something you may not be aware of – your Vimeo vids see to be very patchy at times and don't work too well on several of the internet connections I use here in Oz, while youtube and videos hosted elsewhere like this one work fine. With the vimeo vids I usually pull down the entire vimeo vid using Orbit, a download tool that lets me grab the video as one file so I can watch without the video constantly breaking. Thought would be worth mentioning.
Enjoyed hearing your insight on comments and learning from readers etc – have to say that I really enjoy looking through the comments…one that had me particularly excited was the top 5/10 books post, my reading list got significantly bigger after that one.
Really interested to see how you work the blog in with the new book.
Also looking forward to seeing the 2nd edition of 4hww and wondering what your take is on the current generation of muses and passive income businesses and methods such as affiliate marketing, info products etc and how million $ launches and info products that guys like Frank Kern and Eben Pagan are doing are changing the info product landscape for everyone.Keep up the good work dude!
Ive just bought your book (not got round to reading it yet – still fininshing my current one) because someone elses blog that i came across said they are following your tips. I then went back to his blog, found your blog and just watched all of your video on how to blog without killing yourself!
I am now a converted fan (without having even read your book yet). So i am very much looking foward to reading the four hour week and learning from it.
Thanks so much.
Hey, Tim,
Have you considered excerpting and posting the bit at the end on your little love life experiment? It's very entertaining, interesting, and endearing; plus, it's a nice length, it could stand alone easily, and it's buried at the end of 45 minutes of unrelated video. I, for one, would forward that link around.
Hi Mark,
Good idea! Let me see if I can get that from the WP guys…
Throughout the video I've been opening new browser windows to check out URLs you mention along the way, but blog.timferris.com now just seems to go to the 4HWW site, did you give that one up?
Hi Tim,
You have to add in the extra "s" on the last name
Tim Ferriss
I am not sure how often you check comments but since I am not on Twitter I hope this information gets to you in time to help with your elbow rehab.
There are a couple of things you can do:
Of course use ice on and off to reduce swelling, which increases pain and retards regaining your range of motion, and also to get fresh blood and nutrients into the area, which will help repair and heal.
If the incisions won't allow you to touch the actual elbow, you can use sports massage and work above and below the joint. This will increase blood flow to the area. Most joints don't have a lot of their own independent blood supply, but rather receive it from the muscles that surround it.
Another technique for injuries is to work the other, noninjured area. Since both elbow joints are innervated by the same spinal nerve, which splits into the right and left sides as it leaves the spinal column, sending messages from one side will have an affect on the other. I haven't tested this regarding ROM specifically, but I am thinking it is worth a shot. So practice your full ROM on the unaffected side- the message gets to the other elbow even though it isn't moving.
You can also work the area near the spine where the nerve exits, again for the same reasons as above. In the case of the arm, work from C4 through T2, basically the neck and upper back.
Once you can touch the elbow and can practice ROM you can warm-up the joint using friction. This is a good sports massage technique for old injuries, basically take the flat of your palm and rub over the elbow joint and the muscles above and below it–flexors and extensors of the forearm and biceps and triceps. This will get the synovial fluid in the joint heated and ready for movement. It is like warming up your car's engine without having to start it. You get the area heated with blood flow but you didn't have to move the joint to do it. This way you will experience a greater ROM than if you just started cold.
I hope this all makes sense, it is much easier to explain and/or demonstrate in person. Email or call 805.218.3631 if you have questions.
I was a nationally certified massage therapist and am always happy to help someone get back in action.
Sorry to hear about the elbow and I hope you are in top shape again soon!
Hi Susan,
Thanks so much for the tips! I totally agree on the uninjured ROM transfer, as odd as it sounds. Speaking of therapy, time for me to ice
All the best and thanks again,
Hi Everyone!
Just to make it easier, this is a list of tools Tim talks about in his video. Enjoy
Tools for Tracking
• CrazyEgg (www.CrazyEgg.com) – creates tests to figure out what people are doing on your website; heat maps and click patterns on blog.
• Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics/)- web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness
• WordPress (www.WordPress.org)- state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.
Tools for Analytical Research
• Twitter (www.Twitter.com)- micro blogging platform. Tim uses it for polling, quick research and sharing info. back to twitter followers and as an online diary.
• Slinkset (www.Slinkset.com)- helps you create your own social news site in seconds.
• Evernote (www.EverNote.com)- allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.
Tools for Writing
• Google Key Word Tools (www.google.com/sktool) -help you choose relevant and popular terms related to your selected key term.
• Pictures (www.flickr.com) – go to Flickr, click on advance search, go creative comments only, then sort by most interested and you will find awesome pictures.
Other tools
• Weebly (www.Weebly.com) – easy website creation.
• Grease Monkey Script (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748)- Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays.
@Dynasty THANKS for URLs.
Note to other readers: by subscribing to followup comments, Dynasty's note arrived in my (Outlook) email inbox with clickable URLs intact! (unlike on the blog page). It appears the blog page requires the protocol (http://) to make the address clickable.
no http: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com
FQDN: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com -
This video was extremely informative. Good pointers.
Thanks Dynasty! I was looking for the • Grease Monkey Script
i am trying to print off the dreamline worksheet with scribd, after wasting back and front sides of paper the last column continues to not print the costing up section. i am using a4 on a pc and from australia.
can any one help me please?
Awesom-o! Great post as always TIm!
@dynasty – thanks for the list!
Hi Tim, thank you very much for your blog…it's great!…it has helped me get my tango videos seen all over the world !
I am a former businessman and entrepreneur from Austin, Texas who one day did a crazy thing and followed is dream by going to live in Florence, Italy even though I was broke, had never been there, did not know anyone and did not speak the language…I was 47 years old at the time….well it had been a 12 years full of unbelievable movie like experiences in a country full of MAGIC !
One of my dreams had always been to be a tango dancer and so I pursued that with a passion…I have now taught tango in several places in Europe and the US and have done performances in some beautiful theaters…BIGGER THAN MY DREAMS !
And so my message to people is..
• Follow your dream…DO IT NOW !
• It is never too late…NEVER ! (like, life is too short, man!)
Come visit me in Rome , we'll share some good food and wine and I'll show you the most beautiful city in the world ! (and I can teach you to tango) Here is my latest video ! -
This comments pertains to a twitter post. (Sorry I could reply in Twitter; I'm not signed up)
I use Scrivener for writing and love it. The more I use it, the more I like it. (I work on a Mac). Very helpful for writing issues related to structure because of the corkboard feature and the edit feature. I use Evernote, but only for research.
Hey Tim,
I have to say I loved your book, I have listened to it so many times I can't even remember, has to be 10 times if not more. Also starting Monday I'm going to do your 20 pounds in 30 days diet and going to take pictures and document it. That is going to be a blog of mine, once I'm finished with the 30 days. Also my hope is to start doing blogging on a regular basis (I already do it on occassion) but my hope is to do blogs to get interest in me and that will help my business ventures or to spread the word. Do you have any more tips to get the mass flow to my blogs beyond what is said in this blog that you think can really help? I'm a successful 30 year old that uses you as my main focus for inspiration and ideas, so I can't even begin to say how thankful I'am for your information and efforts.
hahah, just got to the part in the video where you mentioned using a personal name, just fixed that, i totally overlooked the rules, how foolish of me!
Look forward to the book Tim. I'll be in touch.
1st time on your blog, I must admit when I was about to watch the video & I saw 50 minutes, I was like whoa that's a movie, but it was pretty interesting. I understood some of it, I'm grateful to "Dynasty" who commented with all the links you talked about, because i wanted to check some out & wasn't sure what you called them. the last question was awesome, your blog seems to be a mix of techie stuff & fun stuff. I'll check it out more (lol like u need one more subscriber)
In response to a comment made way, way at the beginning–the way to get blog traffic is not to be Tim Ferriss, but to one day be a better-known version of yourself. True, I'm just starting out blogging myself, but I'm providing (what I think is) quality content and earnest advice on how to live your life effectively. At one point in his life, people didn't know who Tim was either.
Tim – I put this in my priorities to review today and FINALLY have a REAL plan for my blog – it was excellent and much better than I anticipated as I review my notes made. Thanks so much.
I second using SnagIt for capturing scrolling webpages with a single click:
It is a great tool and saves me a lot of time (I have no affiliation, just a paying customer).
@Tim Great video. What are the other better ways you can make money online than blogging ? A lot of bloggers tell there are better ways but don't mention them . May you do the honors ?
Tim – thanks for the great post. Agreed, one of your best presentations of the year. Signed up the Crazyegg now, thanks to you!
Dynasty – thanks for the summary. Really useful – Tim might be worth posting Dynasty's summary at the top, great 'at a glance' info.
Vince W
Your speech was very educational and humerous at time. I felt that you did a wonderful job of explaining how to drive quality traffic to your site and retain reader loyalty. I am new to blogging, but I am so anxious to put the concepts you described in your speech into my blog.
Thanks for the abundance of Info!
Hi Tim,
My husband, Ed, follows you regularly and we have your 4HWW book. He specifically sent me this URL about getting blog traffic. I'll come back and review it more closely after a good night's sleep. I'm sure I'll learn a lot.
Anyway, I'm posting this comment because I noticed that you are recovering from elbow surgery. I hope you're recovery is going smoothly and quickly. Have a wonderful 4th of July!
Sincerely, Karri
Fantastic, value-packed content as always Tim – thank you.
You mentioned the importance of being aware of our biorhythms. Did you measure yours with any specific tools / pieces of equipment (and if so, which ones?) or was it more through a process of self-observation?
Thanks for the advices.
This information has very much helped at creation of my blog.
Only badly that in video it is not visible the screen, and in the rest all is fine -
Great information. I watched this on Pro Blogger and you've shared some very valuable tips.
I'll be visiting here again!
Caught this video from a link within my wordpress administration panel… didn't know you had posted it to the blog till now : ).
I use a wordpress daily top 10 plugin for most popular and that changes everyday (resets every day) … I'm sure a minor change to the code can make it reset every 30 days… however there seems to be two or three of those top 10 that show up almost every single day… if you got to analytics you can pretty much see a clear 80/20 of what people want to see for my blogs … that is most people want to see the same 2 or 3 topics and then everything else is just not that interesting to them.
I do agree with whoever said that all these 'tips' were secondary to your primary selling factor…which is your voice… and you did touch on that in the presentation … have a voice and if people agree with you (or no matter what you say i'm sure there is some niche group of people out there that does agree with you, another way of looking at things) will follow you. But if you have no personal voice or angle on your blog, no matter how technical you are in analyzing things you may not get far.
My all time favorite post on here, btw, is the entrepreneuereurerial (sp?) roller coaster…. and I'm somewhere close to the bottom right now so i make sure that no matter what i keep working to try and climb out…
I definitely think that there are two distinct blogger behaviors out there :
The first is the lifestyle design model… which posts fewer times with more interesting content… and here your voice is key…
The other is more of a 'gossip' model… which is where the internet can outrun traditional media, and a good example of this is techcrunch… and here speed is key….
Unless you have REALLY strong industry ties and already a super expert (rather than a self proclaimed and self educated expert ala 4HWW) then there is no way most people can run a gossip model blog. That is unless you crowd source (and have enough guidelines or moderations to assure consistency and quality)…
Looking forward to more interesting video Tim… and you inspire us.
Great speech, Tim.
I have a question: If you write from 01:00 am till 5:00 am what kind of sleeping schedule/routine do you have?
Can you do a post on that please too since you travel a lot through different time zones etc.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Hi Tim,
This and Darren's 31 DBBB provide enough detail. THANKS!
Your point about "having a voice" is well taken; I'm encouraged to keep posting about the fastest cat in Africa and Howler monkeys in Argentina, well, and good steak.
Melissa -
The most interesting parts for me were your experiments with moving around the different elements on your blog to get different intended results (e.g. changing "categories" to "topics" and moving your "twitter alert" lower in the sidebar), and how you use online tools for research. Thanks for letting us know about slinkset.com. I've found it very useful during the past week.
Dear Tim, Hi! My son sent me a link to this post. He is so great:) Also a bit sarcastic–he was making fun of me for caring about my new blog so much & he liked your title. Anyway, I love this post & will look at your others. I am probably not your demographic–I am a 40 yr. old "momblogger" who just started blogging to do something that stays done and might help someone else. I have found it is a whole new world. Very fun. However, I have a question–what can you do to make your posts count when you are adhd and pretty busy? Seriously, I agree the reader deserves content. So, really–is one good post a week is better than keeping in "touch" more often? HQS
Great attitude Tim. You seem to be an "open source" person. I read your first book one year ago and been following since that. Congrats !!!!
Thanks for sharing your experience and tips! I came searching about how to make more money with writing… and leave with pages of notes of inspiration on how to improve my blog. Yay! Lots of fun to listen to.
Thanks again Tim!
Hi Tim,
My brother in law Aaron sent me this link and I'm glad he did. Couldn't believe I ended up listening to the whole thing but I'm glad I did. You reminded me of something important that I often forget in my own blogging… less is better and quality may not win every stage or time trial, but it wins the race. Thanks for reminding me to check myself and take a deep breath now and again.
This is an absolutely amazing discussion. I don't think I've learned anything quite like I have learned by watching this video, and I'm very interesting to hear more about it. Thanks for the video, wish I could have attended but I was there in spirit.
Hi Tim,
Great vid. Loved your anecdote about deleting comments/mail – reminded me of the hilarious cartoon character Strong Bad and his approach to spring cleaning email… http://tinyurl.com/5bjh
All the best,
Rob -
Tim, was wondering, is there anyway to download your video? I'd appreciate If you provided us with a link to do that.
Keep up the great work!
Tiny URL creator dropped off the actual page i meant to post – here's the correct one: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail20.html
Hello. I just got your book and started reading it. Then I found this site and am watching this first video. I really need to know what some of these terms you speak of mean so that I can understand what you are talking about. Can you point me to a dictionary or some other source to look up these words? Thanks so much you are very inspiring. JDF
Hi Tim,
Thanks for sharing this valuable presentation. Looking forward more such tips from you. I'm following you in Twitter now.
- Jarlin Paul
Thanks Timmy!
Loved the video, except it keeps cutting out for me near the end (probably something to do with my internet connection, but very annoying!) Anyway, thought I'd add to your mind-bogglingly enormous stream of comments of love you've got going here. Can't wait for your new book!
Great post. I'm really digging the info and tools on analytics.
– Jeff Nabers
Hi Tim
great video and great speech, thanks for sharing.
Your nice presentation and the examples of how you analyse stuff of your blog and how you convert this knowledge really impressed me and I am happy that you share it.
i will surely use your ideas for some of my blogs, i. e. the category name change to topics is super sharp while so easy. Also, I love the idea to relocate the posted date to the end instead of having it in the beginning. This keeps readers to care about the content and not to judge on how fresh this article is.Now, can you please share how you made the date change? This is something that I would really love to adopt but I cannot figure it out.
Know that you are really busy if you could drop a line here in the comments or by e-mail it would be really appreciated.Thanks anyway and keep it up.
Thanks for sharing this Tim. Great insight.
Just watched your latest video and really enjoyed it. I started my blog several months ago and I am enjoying doing it…but not making money. As a 47 year old father of two grown kids (Brittany, 24 and Tim 22), I am looking to make extra cash. I did find your video very informative.
I will be buying your book this week.
Scott Lara
Jacksonville, Florida -
This is a very inspirational video for bloggers everywhere. I've shared it with all my friends, and I would highly recommend that anybody interested in blogging watch this. I would feel honored to ever chill with you in person Tim, and keep up the good work!
Hi Tim,
Have been a regular reader of your blog and hope you recover well from the surgery. I have always wondered and thought you would be best person to write on this. How do you handle a very serious relationship breakup and one person moves on and the other finds it hard. I dont know if you have ever been through that but would be interesting to know your thoughts and how you would/did manage it. I think this would also make a great post. Will look forward for your response on this.Sincerely,
I am actually still in the process of watching this video. I came across it on Daily Blog Tips website. So far I have about 2 pages of notes and only half way through the video. I must admit I am impressed by the items you have presented in your presentation so far. Unfortunately, I don't come across to many videos that really offer valuable insight let alone motivate me to take notes.
Tim, this is fantastic–exactly the kind of blogging help I've been looking for, all in one video. As a beginning blogger–but an advanced computer/internet user–I'm often overwhelmed by the endless options out there.
…and I've now moved my Twitter status from the top right side of the page!
what is the tool that you said you be using to track the click patterns?
Is it craziag?? krazia?? or wat.
I couldn't find it in google search.
plz mention the URL here.Thanks in advance and besides your blogging skill I like you fit body.
Try some yogasanas & pranayama coz the weightlifting work is not always good for you heart. -
Awesome video Tim! I'm researching bloging, marketing, and the like… as I just started up my first blog last month. Love your advice…. and your no negativity policy! Also, got a kick out of the "Time Ferriss" you love life question… the thought never occured to me until now! I'm currently listening to the audio of 4 Hour WW in my car, and a new visitor to your blog. I like what I see… and I'll be coming back often! Thanks for providing the great content.
[...] Ferriss, già autore di "The 4-Hour Workweek", ha reso disponibile uno dei suoi ultimi speech al WordCamp 2009 di San Francisco, dal titolo abbastanza esplicativo "How to Blog without [...]
Hi Tim:
What a great and generous video of information. This is what I needed to kick me in the pants, thumb on the head, and motivate to write my passion. I tend to over diagnose and critique myself. You hit the nail on the head for me so I can proceed forward and stop my own whining and delaying my posts to my Blog (I just reorganized my site and Blog and blocked up my ability of posting).
Hi Tim-
I heard you speak at the SF WordCamp. It was my first WC. I really enjoyed your presentation and learned a lot. I'm new at blogging so, I'm really happy it's been recorded here so I can review it again.
Stephen -
I'm listening to your video as I write this.
Great presentation and post. I just started a leadership blog and your words of wisdom will be very helpful. The fact that someone as knowledgeable and successful as you are sharing your secrets with the blogging world shows a lot about your character.
Thanks for the help; I will be back to the site.
I really enjoyed your video, Tim. I learned quite a bit and look forward to implementing some of the things you mentioned. I have a long way to go with my blog but I'm getting there day by day.
Hi Tim,
Great video. Thanks for some great ideas – I've already put a few to use.
Honestly, this has been more informative & helpful than the ProBlogger's 31 day challenge this year, which I followed/practiced every day. Make some announcements on any upcoming lectures/demos anytime you have one planned for public/possible public sessions. Whether it's planned weeks away or months away, it'd be great to attend one if possible under certain circumstances.
Thanks for the video-
Hi Tim,
As a relatively new blogger, I want to say thank you for sharing your fantastic insights with all of us! It's so easy to get lost in all the "should's" and "rules" when it comes to a successful blog, and I appreciate your reminder that it's all about what's right for each of us and having fun in the process. I LOVE my new blog and I don't ever want to lose that enthusiasm (after all, my blog is all about "following your joy"!). You are serving as a model for the type of blogger I strive to be. Thank you!
Best wishes to you for continued success. I look forward to now checking out your book, which a client recommended to me and has been sitting here waiting for just the right moment…guess that moment is NOW!
Michelle -
Thanks a million for this informative blog Tim you have helped us down at veriup.com and indeed countless others i am sure, it is very difficult nowadays to get much traffic to a blog and this has indeed helped, cheers!!
I absolutely love this video. I've always enjoyed your blog, but this post is my all time favorite. You've completely inspired me! Thank you so much for posting. I would love to see more blogging tips from you. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for this presentation. It gave me lots of new ideas for a business and non-profit venture I've been kicking around.
I love the way that you're willing to share what you learn.
Life is short, and for most of us, it's the quality of our relationships and how we have helped others that will truly be meaningful at the end of our time here.
It's intriguing that you were nervous for this being such a rock star of motivational speaking! Care to share the reasons? I'm quite curious!
On a Random note I saw an article by "Tim Ferris" in The National Geographic. It was about the new images from the Hubble Telescope and I thought "DAMN this boy is into everything! Even SPACE! God that's sexy!"…then I read the bio and noticed the missing "s"
I still think you are hot though and damn clever
And thank you for another fabulous video and set of tools-I made a note to SPECIFICALLY check this blog post out today while I was taking a break from mindmapping some Internet Business Mastery stuff. The info in this post creates an interesting harmony with some of the principles Jeremy(one of my mentors) and Jason espouse regarding content creation and building community.
Yummy stuff.
Yes, damn clever.
There's a great Firefox plugin that will let you capture either a complete webpage or just the visible area called FireShot. It can also capture the entire page of each of your open tabs with one click.
Extremely useful addon!
[...] Ferriss recently posted a video of a talk he gave to the Wordcamp Conference that is based around the WordPress blogging platform. His talk was about how to write a killer blog [...]
Hi Tim,
Hope you're having a smooth recovery. Keep us posted.
I think your scientific approach to everything is incredible. It is pretty clear that you don't take much for granted and are consistently trying to improve EVERYTHING. I hope that your elbow recovery goes well – what did you do to it that required surgery?
David Sinick
I loved this video and I learned some great tips to help my own blog (a new one). The timing could not have been better. I'm always in awe of what you achieve Tim and I love your blog. Top notch!
Thanks again!
Dayne -
Hey Tim,
Did you use the "click" tracking to determine the subject of your next book? I noticed you have the most posts under topics of losing fat and gaining muscle.
I just started a blog, so this post was so timely. Thank you.
An extremely random and pointless question.
Did I see you getting hassled by Australian Customs and Immigration on Border Security Australia's Frontline episode 17 of series 5?
I have to know this!
Mike -
Hey Tim–Great video, loaded with useful ideas–and I'm planning to use all of them
You display incredible humility for a man who's accomplished so much so early in life.
I thought your presentation was awesome and inspiring and I would like to ask you if you could write all the things you said in a post in your blog..
You rock, man! hehe..
=1 -
[...] The following are 10 blogging tips I extracted from Tim Ferriss's presentation (video below) originally titled "Scalable Blogging Behaviors: How to Grow from 1 to 1,000,000 Readers", then re-titled to "How to Blog without Killing Yourself": [...]
Did Tim get hit by a bus?
Tim, many thanks for posting this. It has some of the most practical information I've heard over the years.
Hey Tim,
Enjoy China and enjoy your time away…
Pura Vida Hermano!!!
Thanks so much for the fantastic video/post. First video where I paused it early on and immediately opened my blog admin to start making changes. Will have to watch it again for all the changes. I think it's digg, but it would be super if you could plop a few links of names or things mentioned in longer post under the video in the written post. Would also be super great if you could list the plugins you use on WP, you mentioned during the video that they were maybe listed somewhere on the site … didn't find them. Searching through, testing and deciding on WP plugins is extremely time consuming and not fun!
Thanks again for all that you do and more importantly all that you share. It's priceless and very much appreciated to get valuable, trustworthy & quality info web or otherwise.
I have seen many blog orientated videos.
By far the best.
Appreciate all that you do.
Thank you
Tim, thanks for the great video and commentary – it's refreshing input to take and try to apply to the decidedly "not fun" environments necessary in some corporate and government environments – yet where a reasonable degree of levity and more personable dialogue is only more helpful.
Hello Tim,
I'm a "lazy" creative writing student who made a blog to spur me into content generation. How convenient that I just start a blog and you post this video! I found it Google searching for how to make a successful blog, and I appreciate your comments and advice since I am looking for high quality viewers and not for income. Your opinions on site design and other experimentation are very appreciated. Thank you very much.
My best,
Greg -
Hey Tim,
Thanks for posting this – I watched with a pen and notepad!
I signed up for CrazyEgg.com on your recommendation and have to say I'm very impressed with the results. It really is a valuable tool for the price.
I did have one question for you – do you find that your traffic stats on CrazyEgg don't match the stats that your other trackers list? I've noticed that my CrazyEgg traffic stats are well below my wordpress and AwStats reporting programs.
Oh, and I just wanted to thank you for your book – reading it last year gave me the courage to quit a job I hated and make a life a love. Thanks so much!
- Nacie Carson
Hey Tim,
I just discovered your blog through ProBlogger. I really enjoyed the lecture, and got some new pointers which I'll most definitely use.
I'm a young blogger who just started his own site about a month ago and have been on a personal learning spree, this is by far one of the most useful videos I've seen yet. I read 4 Hour Work Week over Christmas and am excited to read your new book on fitness when it's released! Keep those Random episodes with Kevin Rose coming, they are great.
All the best,
@Mark – he goes on mini-retirements from time to time
Hey Tim,
Great tips!
Your speaking was good too. It can be improved though.
You kept apologizing and knocking yourself about your speaking.
I didn't notice your mistakes until you pointed them out.
Also, it distracted me from your content. Stop it!That is all. Thanks again for the juicy material.
I wish there's a printed/transcribed version of this video that I could devour at my leisure.
Cool presentation, thanks for sharing!
You asked why people do anything. I think we do everything to find out who we are.
Hey Tim!
Thanks a lot for your Weebly suggestion back some time ago. I have utilized it and have been extremely pleased for a beginner's website.
Time to move on: Have you done any posts or have any advice on how to find the right person to build for you an effective lead generating, engaging website/blog combo for a person (like me) who does NOT know code or want to learn?
[...] How to Build a Successful Blog – if you only watch one hour-long video on blogging this week, it should be this one by Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek. If you watch more than one hour-long video on blogging, you need to go get a job. [...]
[...] interesting and thought that I should share it with you. The original post for this video can be found here on his site. The video is titled "How to Blog without Killing Yourself" vice the [...]
Wow, thanks for the enjoyable presentation – it was one of those rare occasions where I found myself so absorbed by the video that I nearly clapped at the end! haha
You have triggered a lot of ideas in my head, and inspired me to go ahead and try them out.
4 Hour Workweek… interesting and good stuff.
But what if someone writes the "3 Hour Workweek" ? … then the ball is rolling and soon no one will be working at all
Fantastic video, Tim! Thanks for posting this.
So I commented on this post somewhere near the top, I clicked the "Notify me of followup comments" button as well. Even though this post is more than 2 weeks old, every day or so my inbox fills up with 12 or so more comments. I'm beginning to get a taste of what it must be like to sit down at your computer, and open your inbox….it must be a horribly terrifying thing for you on days when you hope to get anything else done.
-Matt -
[...] High Traffic Blog by Tim Ferriss. The bare bones of blogging. Make it a priority to finish this video if you can't take it all in one sitting, because it's worth pausing and taking notes. [...]
Hey Tim,
Great talk! I decided to try to apply some of the techniques you discussed. I've always thought the little box you have at the end of each posting linking readers to other blog posts was a great idea, so I've used it on my blog too. Hope you don't mind the emulation!
Have fun in China.
[...] Ferriss, author of "The Four Hour Work Week," recently posted on how to build a high-traffic blog without killing yourself, featuring this 50 min. video on blogging. I always enjoy Tim's analytical approach and [...]
Finally was able to watch the whole video, though I sometimes need to click the 'pause' button so the whole thing could load before I could continue. And this video turns out to be very good information. Hmmm….small details like changing 'Categories' into 'Topics' makes a difference? I'll definitely try that. Automating love life? That's new.
[...] go to the original article: The Tim Ferriss Lifestyle Design Blog This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 1:38 amand is filed under business [...]
Just wanted to drop a big thanks to Tim. In the past 7 months I've executed over 200 behavioral experiments, started and finished writing a book that will be published by Oxford Press next year (on accelerating the pace of discovery in neuroscience), got into the best shape of my life with Thai boxing training 3 times a week, 2 camping trips to Joshua Tree, a camping trip to Catalina island, a 10 day trip to the Galapagos with the requisite time to appreciate the local evolutionary history, got my wedding planned (to be performed next month), and developed a practical philosophy website that will be launched in 1 month. All without neglecting to spend QT with the fiancee. Couldn't have done all of that without the tips on this blog and in the book. Thanks!
[...] without further ado, I present to you Timothy Ferris – How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing [...]
[...] read it already) writes a very successful blog and he does not update it regularly at all! See this entry of his to see his blogging strategy and listen to how he blows apart common myths about the need to [...]
As a self styled "Slow Blogger" I have to admit finding it difficult to marry the slow ethos (which, btw is very much NOT about being lazy or slothful) with the current expectation and advice that bloggers should be regular and immediate to be successful. This talk was a god send to me! Not only did blow apart the current myths about what you need to do to have a successful blog, but gives excellent advice on how to build an successful blog without killing yourself trying to post every day! Great post Tim, I say lets all become Slow Bloggers, Vive LA Slow Revolution!
This post inspired me to start a personal blog. It never really made sense to me until I saw this video.
[...] Tim Ferriss I learned several points, but one most crucial theory: Do not have an easy exit point for new [...]
Thanks for sharing so much of your research Tim. I have two followup questions:
1. You don't seem to have any duplicates in your "Most Popular" section. Is that on purpose?
2. When you include video in a post do you find that most people watch the video and read the post?
Very interesting lecture, thanks I'm visiting your site for the first time but have heard of your book because quite a few of my successful guy friends are fans. Keep up the good work!
Tim — One thing you mention that's perplexed me is the posting day/time. In my thinking, the posting time (I'll just use time to make the examples easier to discuss) is irrevelant because its when the reader finds post is when the blog post "exists" for that person.
So if the best posting time is 10am because that's when all your readers check your blog, if you post anytime after 11am, then when they read it the next day, it will still be at 10am that they first saw it. It seems to be a "if a trees falls in the forest and no one hears, does it make a sound" kind of a problem.
I'm sure you've A/B tested to prove that those day/times are best for you, but I haven't been able to determine the exact logic of why something like that would actually affect traffic. I've tried similar tests on my own small blog, but I think the size of the blog affects the test rather than the testing conditions (I have a niche blog of about 200/day with steady growing readership, but not enough readers to make a difference on posting times/days).
One thought I've had that may affect the posting day/time (theory anyway), is that your posts have more potential virality (is that a word?), so its not the probability of someone reading the post, but of them tweeting, re-blogging or just plain telling someone about it; and the day/time that its released affects its travel pattern. In the same way that the flu travels better in the winter, but not in the summer.
Your thoughts on this conundrum would be appreciated. And I thoroughly enjoyed the video (and my wife suggested the name of the post should have been — "How to Build a High Traffic Blog without Your Family Killing You".)
Thanks in advance for your answer!
Great video. My physics teacher first turned me on to your site and i was immediately hooked. The way you life is amazing. I just want to give you props. Your video was extremely informative especially since I'm experimenting with blogging but I have a question about what you said in the beginning. You said that there was quicker ways to make money than blogging. I was just curious about what they were. I'm headed to college on a scholarship, might be playing baseball, but could use some extra income.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the subject of traffic.
This is one area of website design and blogging that still frustrates me. Working hard to increase Page Rank and build traffic.
Just love this video! Excellent Tim. Learned a lot – in particular liked the stuff you explained about StumbleUpon.
- Mike Michalowicz
[...] you'd like to read the entire entry on Tim's blog, CLICK HERE, there are some great comments there as well. Posted in Blog Marketing | Tags: Blogging, Tim [...]
I appreciate the focus in "The 4-Hour Work Week" on setting immediate deadlines. Having always been a natural procrastinator, ie:artist type, I thrive only when I have a deadline that is broadcasted to the world. Since watching the video on blogging, Timothy has convinced me, as well as others I see, that my business would benefit from an ongoing dialogue with an audience that has the same goals.
Instead of just writing for the blog though, I thought I would combine the dreamlining with the blogging without killing yourself idea. So here is my idea with an immediate deadline broadcasted to the world. Write a book in three days (what a fun challenge, but it will probably feel like I'm killing myself) and then use excerpts for the blog to help promote the book. Does that sound silly? I conducted online research on the process and am excited to take the plunge.
Regarding the outsourced matchmaking mayhem, I think that Timothy should have used his obsession for testing to find the perfect girl. Here's the scenerio: set up a special blog or website with various topics that Timothy is interested in. Add other topics that would give a clear indication, if clicked on, that the prospects should shop elsewhere. Send an invitational link to the prospects, and then analyze the data. Voila!
Blog on.
Awesome info Tim. I particularly liked the tip about grabbing pictures from Flickr. A simple yet effective way to add some style to the substance.
I just want to say thank you tim for really opening my eyes on how to get more out of my life and realizing that there is a lot to life that sometimes we deny ourselves. Has anyone ever felt that you deny yourself of things you truly want with weird rules or obstacles that are created by yourself???
The whole thing about community and the thrill of interacting…to me it feels like every comment is a gem, a visit, an honor…thank you for your brilliant advice and for sharing your success. Rori Raye
Thanks for sharing these great tips! It was perfect timing for me to. We've just updated our site from an in-person consulting approach to an online approach to be able to help more people – of course, this was inspired in part by your book too. So, we're in the process of implementing the suggestions on the site. Su.pr is great too. Plus, I've recommended your blog and book so many times on our site, I thought I should say thanks on yours.
Thanks again & enjoy China.
- Patrick -
Insightful, direct, and most importantly usable information.
Enjoy China, I just got back myself, beautiful, diverse country. From chicken feet noodles to endless mountains- everything is new and exciting there!
Xie xie!
[...] one I totally copycheated from Tim Ferriss' presentation on creating a high-traffic blog. But it applies not just to making a high-traffic blog, but also to helping your posts stand the [...]
¿Querés un amargo? Read that you like mate, I'm glad that you can get "yerba" where you live. Send you a big hello from Buenos Aires.
Keep on rollin'
[...] blogger Tim Ferris in his post How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself says the key is to have your content waiting when your readers [...]
Another screen shot suggestion.
If using Firefox as your browser, you can use the addon/extension called fireshot. Even the free version will allow you to capture the visible portion or the entire page.
Stumbleupon is how I found this blog!
Hey Tim,
I'm found your blog through your book, which i read in Danish: "4-timers arbejdsuge."
I love your blog, and this video is a great inspiration for me on how to improve my own blog. Thanks alot!
May the force be with you..
- Jacob
Thanks, TIm! Great content. I learned more usable tips from this 50min video than I have from much more time consuming methods of research. Your blog is a personal favorite. Thanks for continuously living up to your brand standards!
Hi Tim
I am an Aussie entrepreneur wanting to market some Aussie made and owned mineral make-up/natural cosmetics in India/US. Can you please advise the smartest way to do this?
Greatly appreciate your time
Karen -
Great stuff, this will come in handy with my new blog.
In terms of the blogging engine, how do you compare WordPress and Blogger? Clearly you've chosen the former, but why?
Good stuff…as usual. I'll have to watch it again when I'm not glued to MMA on HDNET Fights! Bad timing on my part.
Tim! O inspiring, kind/fun and useful fellow human!
Got ideas for Town Hall meetings?
It occurs to me, listening to your observations on your "living room" approach to comments, that "if I wouldn't tolerate it in my home, I won't tolerate it on my blog" philosophy applies to the current health reform town hall "meetings". Newscasters frame these as orchestrated by the insurance lobby. Maybe so, and I say, this is just plain rude behavior. Where does our idea of democracy excuse civility? Do you think a way could be found to establish some living room core ethical agreements between participants at the outset of each meeting, i.e. Three Principles of the 21st Century Town Hall Meeting so that we could actually have national conversations in which we learn from each other? If so, suggest on blog, the big O? -
video doesn't work. Very choppy. Not a traffic driver.
Excellent as usual – Thanks for the info!
Brenda -
Thanks for that and to think I found your site totally by accident looking for some Jquery stuff…
I haven't even watched all of your video but Crazy Egg looks great, I agree with the "most popular" thing , the bounce rate on my site is crazy but I have implemented something similar last night and am hoping to see immediate results.
You are awesome. Your videos are superb, you have so taken this blog up a hundred notches since I first started reading it, and every bit of advice you give works. Thanks, Sarah
[...] Posterous Website Optimzer Google Analytics KISSmetrics WordCamp List of Speakers at WordCamp How-to-build-a-high-traffic-blog-without-killing-yourself "The Living Language Series" Previous episode of "Random" David Prager [...]
Hey Tim this cracked me up with this:
"I know what you're trying to do, even with the nofollows, please, I know..:
I just thought to myself, I hope those suckers aren't as savvy as you are. Dude you are real, don't change.
Peace man. I have the hard cover and autio book.
Thanks for "The Magic of Thinking Big"
So. I go on Problogger, as me and my wife are starting a blog that providing tips and tricks of how to not just survive, but enjoy a long distance relationship. Looking through their blog tips, I came across this video.
Granted, I didn't have a good impression of you to start with. Back in my less smart days, I read some negative reviews about you and your book, believed them, and never paid you any more mind from then. Then, I saw the video on Problogger, said what the hell, his advice has been sound so far, sat down and watched it.
Easily the single best move I've done since starting to blog. Your advice is priceless, you are clearly intelligent, organised and focused, a thinker, and not at all like your negative reviews described you (disinformation in an article on the internet, who knew, huh)?
So. I'll be looking around your blog, reading your posts, and seeing if I can't pick up any other good tips from you about blogging and lifestyle adjustment. In the meantime, keep doing what you do, you're doing great at it.
More as it develops
Thank you for the comment and kind words, NFG! I had to learn early on in blogging: you're never as good as they say you are, but you're never as bad as they say you are
Glad to have you in the community here,
"you're never as good as they say you are, but you're never as bad as they say you are"–Randy White, another gentleman who was as humble as he was outstanding.
You changed my entire business life! In 8 months I went from being an agent in a financial planning firm to owning one with 160 agents. I followed your book exactly…and to think many said it wouldn't work It has worked like a charm. Now starting heavy into Adwords as per your recommendation. Thanks!
-Joe Adkins-
Wow! Congratulations, Joe! That's an incredible accomplishment. Hope to cross paths some day…
All the best,
As a little side note… StumbleUpon is EVIL!! It will suck you in and hold you captive for ages.
Definitely set a timer if you plan to use this site, especially if you are the type to get lost in whatever it is you're looking at, and follow links all across the web, like I do. (Hey, how do you think I found this site? Which led me to StumbleUpon, I might add!)
If nothing else, this site has at least made me conscious of when I'm wasting time, even if I can't always stop!
I was very surprised of how many things that I don't use that you covered in your video. Some nice simple little things that make an impact and have gained me more targeted traffic to my SEO Blog.
It goes to show you, that a person can learn new things even with many years of optimization experience. It was great learning from your video and looking forward to learning more about what makes your blog work!
Is the effect the same if I use a dropdown menu for my categories and rename it, Topics? Of course, I would need to change the "select category" to "select topic". Just wondering if the dropdown menu would get the same response?
Great post Tim. Really useful and something that I will come back to so I can watch your presentation over and over again to make for better blogging.
Matt -
Great post Tim – lots of awesome information for me to incorporate into my own blogs. I'd also be interested in how you use Social Media to promote your blog. If you ever decide to outline your strategies on that, I'd be grateful.
All the best and keep the great content coming,
Cheers, Niro
I absolutely loved this video. I took three pages of notes and watched/listened to it three times . . . so far.
Right now my challenge is to get traffic TO my web site and PARTICIPATE, and not so much manage the masses. I will get there.
I've read a couple of great articles on how to spark the flow to my web site. I would love to hear your story, so if I can't find it in your archives, I will be ringing back in.
Thanks again. Namaste
Thank you. I said I'd give this guy 3 minutes and then stop watching the video… then I watched the whole thing while taking notes. It is very generous of you to share these tips, which I will implement tomorrow.
Hi Tim,
dieser Blog Post ist echt sehr gut. Er hat mich auf viele neue Ideen gebracht meinen Blog zu optimieren.
Mach weiter so…dein Lifestyle ist einfach super und inspirierend für alle
Ich hoffe dein Deutsch ist schon so gut, dass du dieses Kommentar verstehst.
Viele Grüße aus der Nähe von Berlin
P.S.: Wenn du das nächste Mal in Deutschland bist, lade ich dich herzlich in meine Heimatstadt in der Nähe von Berlin ein Wünderschöne Landschaft und nette Leute…
Tim – although we have not met I consider you a mentor of mine and I appreciate everything you have done and are doing for this world. Awareness and consciousness is what this world needs. My new blog/site will greatly benefit from your wisdom – to positive change and an even better tomorrow.
Thanks so much, Jonathan
[...] first set of tips are taken from Tims fabulous video 'How To Build A High Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself'. Even if you aren't a fan of Ferriss, he provides some really fantastic [...]
Great video, I like how you broke everything down in a way that I can relate to. Sometimes books and articles can get too technical making me feel lost. However, your video was real practical and easy to understand.
this post intrigued me but unfortunately the video doesn't seem to be working. I checked on other sites as well and haven't been able to get it to play. Anyone else having this issue?
Thanks for the great post. 4HWW helped me refocus my life back to passive income which I sort of lost as I rode the real estate wave. I look forward to the new book.
This is very useful, great job!
Great stuff. I will be using some of this in my next blog.
Tim – Thanks for the post. Timely for me as I'm starting a blog to supplement my e-commerce businesses. Could you talk a little more about Stumbleupon advertising? I did a quick test and spent $50 to send traffic to a recent post. While the users rated the post up to 5-stars, it hasn't gone viral or generated any additional Stumbleupon traffic other than the paid traffic.
I find a $50 CPM to be quite expensive. Also, any other paid services you might recommend?
All the best,
P.S. Loved your book. Bought several copies for my friends. It helped me quit my hated investment banking job to start a profitable e-commerce business. -
THX…useful video`s and comments …
Greetz, -
Great info- thanks for sharing! =]
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the fantastic video. I appreciate the instruction on testing blog page design aspects. I can't wait to implement your clear ideas.
We are working on a new company blog at moment and your the man when it comes to what we need to do to get it right. Thank you in so many ways!
My favorite moment…."The Cleanex Of Love Life Automation"…I don't know Tim that could be your next book. Something you touched on in your talk was the indirect value you get from creating your blog. You have found the right balance of having fun, being your authentic self in your voice, and adding value. People sense when you're having fun and will pay attention even as you "break the rules". Your name or brand tends to become a verb when you are expressing yourself and your clearly defined values while connected to your passion. The moment you do that people want to carbon copy your success. Thanks for your candidness about sharing what you know and what you don't know. Witnessing that is inspiring. And when people connect to you, it is amazing the power of your influence. I wonder how many media temple sales were made just based on your suggestion. I know I looked at your blog and decided to give them a try even before I saw this video. Cheers Tim. I hope your travels are going well. Peace and Light, Shawn "Mr. Symphonics LIve" Randall
I love this video and re-watch it frequently.
Thanks for turning me on to crazy egg as well. -
[...] few weeks ago, I watched this video from Tim Ferriss's opening keynote "How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself" at San Francisco [...]
An excellent and instructive video presentation. You really think out of the box. I enjoyed the video very much.
Thank you,
Nieves Segura
is there any other way to view this video ? i prefer to view this on my ipod touch when i on the go …. , thanks
Very incisive as always Tim, your tips are really straightforward and make so much sense. I'll be following them to the letter
Tim. Great video. So much great information in there that I enjoyed watching it for the information but also enjoyed it. I love your philosophies and the notion of you actually enjoying your blogging and doing it for fun. It is great that it doesn't give a feeling of controlling your life. Great stuff and I will be back looking at more. Keep the content coming. Thanks again.
~ Joel -
Great Info, your the man Tim !!!!!
Will you marry me
Keep up the good work, your a great blogger
Tim! I enjoyed this vid. I'm glad I bought your book at San Antonio airport. I was so elated to find you are a language nut like me. I was gov trained in two and have hobby learned a bunch more. I translate Korean at home. Actually translating from home is how I make a living. I know of your prowess but I have ideas that flatten out the learning curve. I can put together something or we could chat. Okay; I'm gushing.
Take care.Tom
Hi Tom,
Please send a note to me via Amy on the contact page! I'd love to hear more…
All the best,
Hi Tim
I wanted to see the video but it won't load. Can you help? Thanks! -
Hi Tim,
Thanks so much for the post!Enlightening as always. I think everything your teaching is so great, especially for this new generation of entrepreneurs and dream realizers. I'm just entering into the blogging world, and want to thank you for helping me and so many others avoid a bunch of unnecessary heart ache.
By the way, is it cool for us to put our website address in the website field when commenting?
Also, I hope its okay if I use your disclaimer for the blog I'm creating. (giving credit to the source of course) email me a let me know if it's not cool.
Much Love & Gratitude,
Cool on both, of course
All the best,
Hi Tim,
I have another question on the popularity box on top of your page.
What are the factors that determine a popular article in this box? Is it the number of views? Or comments? -
Hi Tim!
Like all of your blogs this one is particlary helpful. I have read this over a number of times and keep learning more.
Thanks for your great content!
John -
I was hesitant to read/listen to 4 Hour Work Week until it was up for free on audible.com recently.
I'm now a super fan! I've been trolling your blog for most of the afternoon now. Watched this whole video and skimmed over so many of your posts.
Thanks! ;j
That was awesome and funny, and oddly enough that lead me to click on Tims Favorites even though I'm not German.
Tim, Just started following your blog a few weeks ago and what an interesting ride. You remind me of a very good friend that I met late in life.
The world is changing around us at a rapid rate and I believe you provide a very good example of being adaptable to the ever changing environment.
Happy Trails.
Scott S.
Tim this is great information. This is some good info that I can use to bring more visitors to my site.
Thanks for the help!
Thanks for posting this video about blogging. Very informative and gonna use some of your tactics soon!
Phat post, good looking weblog, added it to my favs.
I was thinking about starting a blog. I just made my first homepage and I will use these ideas. thanks!
[...] How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself by Tim Ferriss [...]
where did this video go ???
To geting traffic for your blog, it is very slow process. But your suggestions are good and very informative.
It does take time to get your traffic up but you just have to be consistent inn you marketing of your blog. Content is king and they will come!
This is a really great idea and nice video great information. This is some good info High-Traffic Blog that I can use to bring more visitors
I have been using social media a lot lately, and have been getting a lot of hits from it lately. I will tell you all how it is working out in the future.
[...] first heard about Tim Ferriss when a friend sent me a link to one of his posts — How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself. Whoa! I haven't read his book, The 4-Hour Workweek yet (it's on my list to read this [...]
I have read your blog and I really liked it very much.I noticed the popular posts plugin at the right side of the page. I would like to know what is the name of the plugin if you don't mind.Thank you very much.
Hi Paul,
It's actually custom coded and not a plug-in. I looked!
All the best,
Excellent video Tim! Really enjoyed it and other useful tips you always seem to provide. Thanks again.
P.S. Love your book 4HWW. Everyone should own a copy!
Thanks for the video. Your keynotes are awesome. I'm just starting a blog of my own. You should do a speech at Buffalo State College.
thank you, i just started blogging
Hi Tim:
Can you give any guidance to the non-technical? Where do we go to learn? It is very difficult to run a successful blog if you don't know how to write code — and I haven't a clue how to write it. I am sure I could learn, but I have no idea where to start.
Hi Tim,
I just started blogging 2 weeks ago but before that, I spent a month researching the best strategies out there. A colleague sent me this link to your video on building high blog traffic. Thank you for sharing your strategies. It's helped me slowly yet steadily grow my readership.Esther
This is honestly one of the first time I've spent the time to sit down to listen to one of your talks and can say that I appreciate your views. Not ones that are filled with hopes and possibilities, but precise and very analytical thoughts/ideas that can be tested and applied on our own end. We don't get a lot of the *factual* nowadays online, so thanks for that.
The content of your blog is exactly what I needed, I like your blog, I sincerely hope that your blog a rapid increase in traffic density, which help promote your blog and we hope that your blog is being updated and placed can always be richer and more colorful.
Hey Tim this is really great info, thanks
Great post and I love the tip on the tool for the heatmarks, but I can't seem to find it, does anyone have any info on that or similar heatmark tools. Google analytics tells me where the clicks are, but this tool Tim briefly speaks about seems more robust.
Note: With the "killing yourself" in the blog title the AdSense ads are pretty scary and mainly about suicide prevention.
Hi Tim,
You're looking for http://www.crazyegg.com. As for the AdSense, well, I'm working on that
Hi Tim,
I had heard a lot about you but I had never really read your book. But somehow I came across your blog, have no idea how I got to this place.
You are right, your blog sells the book and not the other way around.
I also believe you've got to write about what you are passionate about rather than for search engines. Never saw logic in writing for search engines.
Thanks for this video, it's was really helpful and simple to implement.
I enjoyed this video alot, you´re a great speaker,Tim! Thank you!
Best regards,
Herren Bekleidung
I have to say that video is one of the more informative things I've seen so far, and I've been at this for 5 years. You really give some valuable information that can be tweaked and used for different niches and situations. I think I have been lacking a concrete direction, and have been trying to write about what I think everyone wants to read, not what I love.
Thanks again for setting me on the right path!
what advice do you have for people who work as programmers or similar job descriptions where something needs to be built…how can they workless and do more or work from home when you need to be in a team or leading the team?
Alot of tasks cannot be outsourced people need to be onsite and do the work and work late too if the project requires
how can one apply the 4hour thingy in the mentioned senarios?
well mate, you got me in. It does sound like you spend more than 4 hours a week on this stuff… keep it up.
Can't wait to put some of these ideas to test on my own new blog. Love you're thinking outside the box! Thanks
Personality in content. Simply summarized. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am now going off to develop my voice more. Thank you for the EverNote mention too.
GREAT POST!!! Tim, your the best brother keep it up!!
Thanks for another great post. This is definitely relevant information the thousands out here in the cloud trying to create some value for others. At first I wanted my humorous stories to get published but now I have moved towards a blog platform
Amazing how you are always leading the latest technologies. This post is over a year old. Now (a year later) there are hundreds of " gurus" selling how to market yourself with videos online.
Was lost for ideas on my site, then got your book, about to outsource webdesign for my wordpress blog, this post is going to be so helpful.
I just bought my dad the audio book, he works from home, hopefully he can get his on VA like I did!
Tim, Mind if mention you on my blog, and I would like to discuss putting up an ad on my site for your stuff. ( you obviously will get a special discount
Ever since readings Tims book when it first came out I found his ideas cutting edge always running ahead of the pack. I have also in the last year taken to other projects and trying to find ways to automate what can be automated and learn to let go of tasks that really dont require me to do them. This advice towards blogging is great I have implemented some of the ideas already into a few of my blogs and picked up a few new ideas today. Thanks Tim and keep it coming.
This video is one of the most honest, usable and informative i have seen yet. , and I've been at this for 5 years. I love the info that you divulge here, it'd great.
I like your approach to internet marketing, it is refreshing, keep it up dude.
Tim, I watched this post in August right after I launched my blog; it was a god-send; your advice has been spot on – Thank you! I am now in the process of building my readership through links and reviews – a long process but fun. I would adore your thoughts and completely understand that you are overloaded .. but maybe late one night, you may be inclined to treat yourself to a little bit of Aussie storytelling!
Excellent post! Thanks everyone for sharing your ideas… you all are making me unproductive
I do have a question.
I want to create a blog for my website. However, my company page is also a squeeze page. Therefore, I prefer not to have any distracting links or buttons on my page. I do see the value of creating a blog for my site. So my question is: Should I create a blog as a subdomain, i.e. blog.mycompany.com? or should I do something else?
I look forward to your ideas.
You can do it as a sub-domain blog.yoursite.com or a a sub-directory (like on this site) yoursite.com/blog. Either way gets the job done and the conversations flowing!
Good luck!
Hi Tim,
I appreciate your video on youtube and this blog.
Gratulation aus good old austria.
How much time do you spend at the moment for this blog ?
Nice time!
Anna -
I just wanted to thank you. It is a really interesting presentation. I enjoyed it very much and it will help me a lot.
Greetings from Germany.
nice video and presentation..
the way that you have presented how to build high traffic is an eye-opening for me.
actually, to blog successfully, i think the first to first is to put yourself in the reader view. keep emphasizing on tips, trip that can solve the problem will definitely engage the readership. (that's my test)
hope to come back for more!
Ivy -
Great information! Thank you for sharing your experience!
Keep blogging!
Thanks. This is an interesting video clip.
I wish my blog can be as successful as yours one day.Greetings from Sydney
This is a good idea, but I have to say sometimes something just too good to be true. I did not mean it is a lie. It is just a way for marketing.
Humor is great for creativity and I enjoyed your "dating tips." Is that the next book?? I am sure it would be hit like the rest of your work.
The story does highlight an interesting shift where the corporate and social sphere are copying and borrowing from each other – the boundaries have gone. Speed dating to speed networking, online B2B portals to online dating services, matchmakers and business brokers. I guess relationships are still fundamental, be they personal, business, face to face or virtual.
As an academic I am going to put 4 Hour on the reading list for my innovation unit and your blog on the unit's website.
Cheers from Perth, Australia
Great info. Helped me with my blog. Thanks
hello my names kc and i see you as an inspiration to the same way Indians saw Gandhi… I think that i want to start blogging, not to be overly competent but i do believe i am one of the most innovative people i know! you are like a glass of iced water in the desert, giving me hope that i can actually make $ online contrary to what all my friends and family tells me i should do and what i cant do.. i'm 20 years old and have literally the crappiest car ever made 1994 subaru justy Google it ..ha i'm pretty sure it will make you feel better about Ur self..ha
now i'm not saying all this for you to say to your self damn that sucks for that guy i want you to acknowledge that you have brought maby only a glimpse of light to a seemingly impossible feat!
Now I know i'm probably wasting my time due to the fact that you will probably never even read this but, if you do all I respectfully ask is for motivation i know your probably thinking well why the hell would i help you, because someday when i am inevitably somebody! i will return the favor!
Am i wasting my time trying to make money online i hope not is are all of my dreams just a pastel motivation to continue through life, maby.. but even so i would rather risk all i have and find out its impossible then to risk nothing and find out it was only a step away!
when a bum approaches people on the street propositioning them for money the natural response is to walk away and pretend you didn't hear anything, they figure thats what he deserves or someone else will help him, and i know i must seem as a bum on the street but i really do want you two cents!
The most important factor that i have noticed really works while building my website for celebrities all around the world: LINK building with other sites
its greatly increases your page rank.
I have a lot celebrity pictures in my site, so second thing is when you add pictures to your website you should always give them "ALT" tag so search engines would know that does your pictures describe.
It greatly affected my google search engine traffic, right now i have almost 54% traffic from search engines
This is very interesting post for newbies to get touch of seo for their websites
GOOD LUCK everybody! -
good stuff. sure will help me to increase traffic for my blog.
I am a really big fan of your blog and I read all your books. Please keep on motivating me and stay as awesome as you are!Cheers,
Chris Wilhelm -
This is really good info, It helped me a lot. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Tim
Straight to the point – you mentioned really briefly in the video that "people can be poor about predicting what they would want" (or something to that extent) and that it was a topic for another time.
have you or do you know others who have posted on this? – it would be so useful to me as a young music composer for film whose clients struggle to know exactly what they want in music for their picture.
your post as usual is gold dust
thank you
Hi Tim,
I have read both the 4hour workweek and now the 4 hour body and what can I say…I love them! Especially 4 hour workweek. WIth 4 hour body I like the un-biased and innovative approach. In some cases I have been shaking my head in disagreement but still overall a great book with some fascinating tips.
Keep up the good work and I am awaiting more in your 4 hour book series..;) -
The story does highlight an interesting shift where the corporate and social sphere are copying and borrowing from each other – the boundaries have gone. Speed dating to speed networking, online B2B portals to online dating services, matchmakers and business brokers. I guess relationships are still fundamental, be they personal, business, face to face or virtual.
As an academic I am going to put 4 Hour on the reading list for my innovation unit and your blog on the unit's website
Hi Tim,
I realized only after paying attention to when you recorded this that it a few years old. The fact that it is relevant even today is remarkable. Thanks for the enlightenment.
It is a very inspirational video and it is really very helping for people like me who have just started blogging.
Thanks -
I found this post while doing a research on the behaviour and strategies of bloggers. Thanks for sharing this!
I'm only half way through because unlike you I normally don't stay up until 5 am LOL. I still need to pick up your 4 hr workweek book. But I'm a busy girl. HMM maybe I need to read it so I can only work for four hours. Ok we'll see if you read your comments. And Cash is my real name ( since you made a point to tell people to put their real name)
I'll watch you again in the morning-This is very cool though so thank you- -
Tim, my great friend Laurent Boghossian, who talked about your books & philosophy to me almost 3 years ago, forwarded me on this post.
I enjoyed to listen to you and it will help me to improve my own websites, probably.
I'm both technology engineer freelance & digital artist (named protofuse)
I chose to quit my job to redesign my life and it works.
But, as usual, I'm eroding each days the things that are too much, trying to sharp the stuff.I have actually 2 websites : one for my artistic side & one for my company.
I have only one blog on the company one but IT SUCKS a lot .
Sounds complicated everyday. SO… I have to change something because I'm just Julien Bayle & not one day the artist and the other day the program designer (even applied to art)I use 3 domains:
- 1 for a global entry point ( a former domain with my name & surname ; forwarding through links to the 2 other domains)
- 1 for my artistic way
- 1 for myI only have a blog on the company one because I need to improve the traffic on it.
I thought about an ONLY ONE blog on the former domain, creating automatically post in the other websites. But even that sounds complicated.
What would be your best advice?
Just want to say your article is as tonishing. The lucidity in your post is simply spectacular and i can assume you are an expert on this field. Well with your permission allow me to grab your rss feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please keep up the ac complished work.
That's a really innovative and cool looking window they designed to show off! It's amazing at what you can come up with when you partner with another powerhouse company. I bet it helped keep the sales up even though the economy isn't back in full-swing yet.
Hello, Tim
Your Article is like no other! I'm very new to online blogging and you breaks it down to a Fine Science. Because of all your expert advice I've thought about starting my own blog and possibly sharing your for other novice bloggers.Thanks!!!
My coder is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he's tryiong none the less. I've been using Movable-type on a variety of websites for about a year and am worried about switching to another platform. I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress content into it? Any help would be really appreciated!
AJ XI is one of the essences of the historical precipitate. The born with king temperament and the gorgeous looks are not any other shoes can imitate. Although the technology of the shoes' body is readily available now, the combination of these shoes must be the peak level of the shoes which should be perfect. The one fit to Jordon well and best embodies the king temperament of the Michael Jordan, it must be the Air Jordan XI. They are both vested with the inherent king temperament. The Michael Jordan would be the god among the numerous outstanding athletes in basketball. Just the same, the Air Jordan XI would be the crown of pearls among the numerous brilliant basketball shoes. AJ 11 must be the classic of classics among the Air Jordon shoes so that Air Jordan Retro 11 Concord must be the retro of the classic. The white and black color scheme is the color at home and always has been the favorite color scheme of the fans.
Very useful and informative! Thanks again
I have been browsing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It's pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will be a lot more useful than ever before.
Very useful informations, thanks for sharing!
I listened to 4 hour work week audio book(I purchased from audible.com). I feel like I need to read it again. There was so much great content and questions to ask myself. Do I need to listen again and take notes?
In the spirit of 4 Hour Work Week, is there any way I can get a cliff notes, or cheat sheet, or worksheets on the book?
Great stuff on here,
Thank you.
Hey Tim, good day! I watched your video presentation. I learned a lot from you. Thank you for sharing this useful information. Keep it up and keep helping other people and sharing your success.
Great talk. Any updates to this for 2012?
Thanks for the video Tim. I took 2 pages of notes on the tips you offer in the talk. I am especially interested in the tool you used to track clicks and see how people interact with your site. It was all very helpful.
Thanks for all if this great info. will definitely be implementing this in my blog asap!
I am so glad I took the time to watch this, it took me almost 2 hours as I was taking notes and visiting the websites you mentioned and I will be 'stealing' most of your recommendations for my redesigned blog! Especially the part about the Flickr photos saved me a lot of precious time as I had no clue I could find so many awesome photos there, I was just about to turn into online databases and start buying photos as my blog traffic is rising.
Please share more of these talks for those of us who have not been able to be to your live events! Thank you
Great video, loved the answer to how to Tim Ferris your love life as well, haha.
I've been blogging for a few months now, and recently it's getting bigger and bigger. I'm 100% going for indirect currency, finding work. The traditional methods don't work at all, but I'm hoping to get the attention of some recruiters and translate that into work.
However, along the way it's become a tonne of fun and now I spend a tonne of time tweaking. Promotion is everything as well, and I will use some of your ideas moving forward.
Thanks Tim!
Still watch this video so many years later…. Thanks
Hi Tim! your video offered tips and info that I'm *most* grateful for.
Some background…I've been blogging so long, I can't even remember when I started! (ha!). I never thought I'd be able to do it professionally or on a platform that'll allow me to make money from it. It was only in the last few months that the interest was slowly developing into a feasible plan.
I've had domain names that I've purchased, but that I never did anything with until just recently. They're all literally in the beginning phases of development, so I'm feeling that initial rush you get when you take on a new project (e.g. the one I listed for this comment)
There's a lot of books out there touting the supposed "in's and out's" of successful blogging, but I feel like I've finally gotten the permission, if you will, to kind of break a few of the rules…or bend them just a little.
I have a note-pad of all the key points you mentioned to be aware of when maintaining the blog. But honestly, the biggest take home message from your video was blog what you love.
I was a little fearful of getting into it, since writing and blogging, which is therapeutic at best, was also something i rarely, if ever, shared (my blogs were, more often than not, set to private, which rendered them useless I guess…a diary of sorts). However, the suggestion you made in conveying personality, more so than conveying excellent writing skills, gave me a little bit of hope
I'm excited to see what I can implement, and experiment with in the coming future, and will definitely reference back to this post, and probably others to gain inspiration, info, or maybe a little wisdom
Great post! This post goes really well with Seth Godin's, Who's There. Together, they make a great case for creating content that matters to people, and specifically to engineering posts based on what people's interests are: filling demand versus creating demand.
Thanks Tim!
Hi there! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could
locate a captcha plugin for my comment form?
I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having difficulty finding
one? Thanks a lot! -
Great lecture full of helpful tips for bloggers like myself. I often wonder how anyone gets so many dedicated readers and comments on a regular basis without being famous to begin with, and yet you and others show its possible with great content time and time again. I'm going to try to raise the bar for my blogs by implementing some of your tips and fine-tuning my writing voice. Thanks from Japan.
Very good take away points.
I think this is a superb info.
Content is always king when it comes to blogging.
It is sometime sad to see people copy or spin duplicate articles and content and adding it on their blog.That is really one last thing you do.
Provide real and solid content and you will be on your way to real blogging -
I can't believe it took me 3 years to find this post. Inspiring video that just raised my bar to yet another level. Thank you!
Cool post. Still relevant. I love how he talks focusing on smart execution and learning.
Hi there would you mind stating which blog platform you're using? I'm
looking to start my own blog in the near future but I'm having a difficult time making a decision between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I'm looking for something completely unique.
P.S Apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!-
Hopefully, Tim "The Man" will reply.
But if not, I woud suggest WordPress. It has a huge following, it is easy to install (if you get a host that uses cPanel or another big name hosting company you can install it in minutes…I would suggest looking at a youtube video). Then you can apply a theme to get a really cool look instantly (google elegant themes). Plus you can quickly and easily install plugins on the fly.
Most important thing is that you can start right away blogging without burning too much time setting things up.
But if you do plan on making it exactly how you want it, I would suggest the _s WordPress theme which is made to be customized.
Hope that helps!
Thanks Tim,
I am glad you posted this, I have a blog which I have 'played' with for a while but am about to get really going on it. One reason I have been slow to "get serious" was the whole "quit living and start blogging" dilemma.
Also I like the beginning where you are talking about the other currencies that blogging offers, which I had not thought of in those terms.
I have several blogs and write content for them on alternating days. I can find it to be much easier to find new ideas on what it is I am going to write about this way.
Going to start implementing today. Ill report back on results.
Thanks, Tim, for sharing your e-biz experiences. You're kind of like a lighthouse for me. Keep up the great work. You're one of a kind.
I'm watching this almost 4 years after it was originally posted, and it's still great advice. Funny story about how to Tim Ferris your love life.
Hmm it appears like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I
guess I'll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I'm thoroughly enjoying your
blog. I as well am an aspiring blog writer but I'm still new to the whole thing. Do you have any suggestions for novice blog writers? I'd
definitely appreciate it. Michaela -
Great post. Good information. Thank you and keep it up!!!
Great stuff, especially now that WordPress has become some prominent! Will be implementing several of these strategies into my site to get the blogging more active!
I'm utterly tired. Finding ways to build traffic, without annoying my facebook friends, is something I've been doing tirelessly for a few days now. I don't even know why. I'll give this a watch tomorrow.
Thanks Tim! For your book and your legitimate ways of marketing truth!
Totally agree about omitting dates on blog posts… so logical. Thank you for this presentation, very valuable stuff.
Great video I watched it last night. I have thought about starting a blog for awhile and will use this as a reference to get started. I very much like your rule about not attacking anyone and making sure you get the right kind of traffic on your blog. Great tip after great tip, I will take to heart and put into practice. I see myself watching this video many times. Thanks again.
To try to improve my Writer's Platform and attract sales , I created my blog site and blogged my first book, The Grumpy Old Withered of Oz, in it's entirety as it was a comedic autobiography about unexpectedly becoming a carer for my wife who suffered a devastating stroke, our subsequent restrictions and the frustrations of aging in the zzzzzzz generation. I blogged the entire book in episodes for the readers to become familiar with my style and background. It attracted only a couple of thousand hits in the first few weeks but the comments were very positive. I am now blogging sample weekly chapters of my 7 other print and ebooks books attempting to attract sales but with little response in sales so far. Am I doing the right thing and what can you suggest I do to attract paying customers. I publish through Kindle and Smashwords.
Great to see that some of your learnings are still reflected in the functionality of this blog. And, of course, very helpful presentation overall. Had to grin a bit that you couldn't find RSS useful back then in 2009 and now Google is shutting down Google Reader – interesting!
cool i loved ur valuable info. Thanks
Awesome information, thanks for sharing!
Tim – in this video you covered two concepts that have really focused my attention back to the reasons why I started my own blog. 1) to have fun while doing interesting things and 2) to get access and meet people in scenes where I never thought possible. But the most important point that you made was that you also have to have a voice and infuse your personality into the blog!
This has been my fatal error since I started my blog in January. I was trying to "out Fox News, Fox News" by trying to keep up with and report EVERY news item related to my blogs topic, when there is no way I could possibly keep up with the vast networks of information that other blogs have spent years establishing.
Now I'll focus my energy where it counts to generate quality posts to attract quality readers.
Thank you; this is exactly what I needed to revitalize my blogging spirit!
Great post and video, going to give it a try.
Thanks for the post, im finding it very difficult to get followers on my blog. Im sure this will help.
Hey Tim,
Just simply – thank you!
Its so great to see people like yourself putting this out to the world that is full of gold information.
I have read the 4 hour workweek which starting my transition for focusing on what i love – the hospitality industry. I have a blog and its started well, but what you have offered will truly help me to take it to another level. Basically your book inspired me to go into a new industry of hospitality coaching and mentoring (basically it means i assist and provide resources for anyone who owns a cafe bar or restaurant who are a little stuck with money, staff issues or management dramas).
This video really hits mark with me – outstanding work!
Thanks again Tim from a very loyal follower down here in Australia
Thanks for this Tim…I'm just about to start my own blog and this was really informative.
Will -
Hi Tim,
Looks like this video is not available.
Kindly see, if there is any way to access the same.
Thanks, Ravi
thanks so much for the advice awesome work
Hi Tim, the link to the video on this page is not working. Can you or your team fix it? Thank you!
Hi Humberto,
I'll take a look. Thanks for the heads up. In the meantime, you might want to Google it. The video was from Wordcamp in SF.
Thank you!!!
It's tough to get traffic to your web page if you don't have type in. However, if you follow all the rules and find your self some decent ad networks than you start increasing the numbers but it takes time.
Hi Tim,
very good advices.
I've just began research into this and what a place to begin!
Thanks for the advice. -
Beautiful explanation, we expect more from you
Just stumbled upon this! 2 years late, but still a gem. Thanks Tim.
Government Universities provides dedicated team and space for Research and Development while private universities do not focus on providing such dedicated team and space for Research and Development
Hi there! This is kind of off topic but I need
some help from an established blog. Is it difficult to set up your own blog?I'm not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast. I'm thinking
about creating my own but I'm not sure where to start. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? With thanks -
I'm just sorry that I didn't have this information available from the get-go. Excellent advice!
Great content as always, I'm really looking forward to implementing this into my blog! It took me a while to realize that certain topics were generating huge numbers of hits, and others were getting next to nothing, but with this info it will be much easier to target my blog posts better.
Thanks Tim!
Nat -
well ,i like it,
Great video – thanks for the tip about Evernote! Also, loved your book, The 4-Hour Workweek.
This sounds encouraging but I guess time is also a great determinant. I have come to understand that Google will only take a blog serous after 6 or so months. Anyway thanks alot the eye opener.
Hi Tim,
I'm a jazz musician and cartoonist and I've really enjoyed reading your blog. I have found your posts to be fun to read, helpful and logical. I particularly like the cheekiness of some of your experiments. I've told a few other creative mates of mine about your site as I've had some success applying a few of your strategies to my practice. Bebop scales no more! lol.
Cheers muchly!
thanks a lot for sharing this post to us and it's very help full for new blogger thanks
For all these good tips you give, I wonder if anyone can achieve a high traffic blog using these methods. You know is it based on theory more than reality? Just my thoughts.
I watched this 3 years ago and just watched it again and it's still extremely relevant and useful.
I am working hard to get my traffic to my site and hoping for some conversions. For some reason this video is not showing up and I would love to watch it because I think I could be spinning my wheels with all my efforts on my blog.
Thank you!
Thx for this cool Video,
i really learnt alot in this simple Post!Best Regards,
Peter -
Why people still make use of to read news papers when in this technological globe the whole thing is available on web?
This was great. Just great, Tim.
Firstly, because I see from your video you like to know where your traffic comes from: picture Melbourne, Australia
I started a blog [Moderator: link removed] after coming out of hospital (where I literally near died) August 2011, and I wanted to reach people with my story, wanted to change the world so much, by my story. It slowly gathered, & yes, people did write me sincerely and in earnest, called me inspiring, my writing magnificent, so amazing and so on – and here's where we get to "How to Blog Without Killing Yourself?" Well, I closed the blog February 2014 because of just that. I'm entrapped in full-time office work, dying within it, actually, but felt I had to commit to the day job to raise my son (single-handedly), and with the mere 2 days a week I had – the weekend – I found that instead of turning on the PC to write, I turned on the PC and was responding to comments, responding, responding – and more, then out of courtesy, visiting people's blogs back. I thought it was normal courtesy (still do think so – but then, what if you don't feel much about what you're visiting, and they've written you all heart about yours, what you mean to them and so on, you know?).
So I pulled it because I was not able to WRITE THE BOOK, get it done (my blog was chapter by chapter, the unfolding of the novel in first draft). The book really spoke to people, Tim, but I pulled the blog because I just couldn't keep up with comments.
So I can't tell you enough: your site is very interesting to me (as I intend to resurface but with more form about what I do, more awareness of what I'm getting into etc), and I am at the moment just formulating "how will I do this?…" AND how the 4 hour week. OH MERCY, a 4 hour week…
I only had 800 subscribers, mind, not amazing millions, but they were ALL genuine, they were ALL supportive, they ALL commented sincere and earnestly about chapter upon chapter, & even as I've pulled the blog I've had some people contact me through email and say please tell them when I do publish it as they want to read it.
But see how stuck I got. I've lost my mojo since, and life seems all office duty, shopping & cooking… but the good news is my son's just turned 18 and so it is high time I can, after 18 years of surrendering my own life and dreams in order to serve my son's needs in the absence of paternal loyalty, it seems just the right time to do this now. Yet I'm still pondering how, how will I do this…
So thanks, Tim, great video. I valued it heaps (in this my research time before launch).
Sincere regards, & kudos to you – & absolutely that quote about finding yourself amongst the majority & rethinking.