September has been a complete whirlwind for me personally. My wife and oldest son went to Italy for a few weeks, it was his college graduation trip from 2020 that they finally got to take.
I was home, thinking I’d have a few weeks to write and work on a few things I’ve got in the hopper.
My other two kids, four cats, a bird, a chinchilla, and two dogs (one of which is a puppy) had other plans for my time. I didn’t get anything done, but everyone stayed healthy, clean, and fed!
Incredibly, my wife just recently got on my ass about not having enough time for herself. Meh.
Yeah, funny how that happens. We create an environment that keeps us busy.
So we need to find a way to automate, scale, and make things happen.
Here’s are a few ways I keep the machine running.
I love Twitter.
I’ve been using it since 2010 for both personal and business use.
Twitter makes it incredibly easy to test your ideas out. If one of your tweets gets some traction you can do more of the same, build your list, and start marketing.
It’s incredibly easy to get traction on Twitter.
Contrast that to the old way of doing things: identify your niche, buy an available domain that will give you some SEO benefits, buy hosting, install and configure WordPress, publish a bunch of content, wait for Google to crawl your site, sprinkle some SEO magic on your site, and wait for Google to index your pages, and you track your position in the SERPs.
Sure, you can drive traffic to this site by buying ads from Google or Facebook, but if you’re not sure that your landing page is converting it just ends up being an expensive test.
With Twitter, you can tweet an offer and make sales. For free.
If it doesn’t work, tweet a variation.
Post tweets and build your email list.
Or just gain a following on Twitter.
There is a lot to it, but it’s not that complicated.
There is a warm audience on Twitter that is there to engage. If you have a good story, are relatable, and bring value to the table you’ll grow a following.
I’ve started using Tweet Hunter. It’s badass.
I’ll tweet more on how I use it, but basically, I’ve found the Engage feature to be incredibly useful.
If you’re a Twitter user you should check it out.
Medium is awesome.
But a little break was in order.
I’m sure most of you have subscribed to this list after reading one of my stories on Medium.
But it seems like everything there fits one of the following:
Something from Tim Denning (love the guy, he’s on point)
Someone bitching about not making money on Medium
Someone telling me how to make money on Medium.
Really?
There used to be some really good stuff on there, and I think it’s still there, maybe I’ve just been clicking too much junk so they’re feeding me more of the same.
But I know one thing for sure:
Medium is an amazing Top of Funnel platform for the average Joe or Josephine.
If you are using content marketing as a part of your online strategy, you need to be writing on Medium.
Why?
Google loves Medium.
Write there first. Do your keyword and phrase research, make sure your Medium profile is linked to your Twitter account, use relevant and popular tags on your story, and pay attention to your SEO Settings.
Write great things, things people want to read.
They will stick around.
The Bottom Line
We’re all hustling.
Use Twitter, use Substack (for your email list and another blog), write on Medium (pointing users to your Substack signup page), use tools that you find valuable (like Tweet Hunter) to build your audience and engagement.
Sure, I still have my own domain and WordPress site, but it’s not my main thing anymore. It’s more like an anchor. It’s the platform I have complete control over that no one can kick me off of (more on that some other time).
Build your crew and take care of them.
Thanks for being a subscriber, your support means the world to me.
Email me any time (seriously) with any questions, comments, or concerns.
Talk soon,
Travis