Transcript Search Engine Marketing

Productivity Tips
for the Busy Search Marketer
presented by Stephan Spencer,
Founder & President, Netconcepts
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Productivity Optimization!




GTD
VAs
Mind mapping
Shortcuts
– Quick key apps, mouse gestures
 Dictation, Transcription, and OCR
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
GTD
 Multiple action lists running concurrently in your brain?
Ideas buried w/in files, folders, emails, Post-Its, to-do
lists? Bad, bad, bad!
 GTD stands for Getting Things Done, the best-selling
book by David Allen
 Get stuff out of your head & into a trusted system that
also tracks the “open loops” you’re waiting on
 Reach a state of flow, i.e. “Mind like water”
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
GTD
 Processing: For this project/idea, what is the “Next
Action”? What is its context?
 Contexts: @home, @office, @errand, @computer,
@email, @blog, @tweet, @read/review, @agenda, ...
 Review your Next Actions by context. Do in batches.
 In addition to Next Actions, you can also have Projects,
Someday/Maybes, Waiting For, Deferred, Agendas
 Project = anything requiring more than one action
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
GTD
 Horizons of focus: runway (next actions), 10000 ft view
(projects, this yr), 20000 ft view (areas of focus), 30000
ft (1-2 yrs), 40000 ft (3-5 yrs), 50000 ft view (life goals)
 Weekly review: a weekly appt with yourself. The key to
successful GTD, though most neglected. 1-2 hrs long.
– “Process” your intray
– Revisit Someday/Maybes, Projects, Waiting For, Next Actions
 Two minute rule: if the item can be completed in < 2
minutes, do it right then, rather than process it for later
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
GTD
 Calendar: Only what must be done on a certain date.
 Tickler file: 43 folders, labeled 1-31 and JanuaryDecember. Use it to park physical items like bills not yet
due. Look at the current day’s file. On the new month,
look at that month’s file and if necessary move those
into the appropriate 1-31 folders.
 With GTD, easy to fall off the wagon. Also easy to fall
back on.
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
GTD
 More from me on the topic of GTD
– http://www.netconcepts.com/clearing-the-clutter/
– http://www.stephanspencer.com/general/getting-organized-aprogress-report
 Resources
–
–
–
–
GTDconnect.com (paid subscription but well worth it)
GTDtimes.com
Davidco.com
43folders.com
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
GTD Apps
 Mac: Things, Journler, OmniFocus, iGTD
 PC: GTD Outlook Add-in, ClearContext for Outlook,
MyLifeOrganized, TimeTo, Easy Task Manager,
ThinkingRock
 Web-based: Tracks, GTD V2, Backpack, MonkeyGTD,
ActiveCollab
 Paper: “Hipster PDA”
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Things
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Journler
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
OmniFocus
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
iGTD
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Non-GTD Productivity Apps
 ActionMethod.com
 RememberTheMilk.com
 Both of the above are web-based (SaaS)
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Virtual Assistants
 Read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
– fourhourworkweek.com
 Your secret to success: Delegate everything! Let go!
– Tim even outsourced his online dating – successfully!
 Hire 1 or more “VAs” at < ½ what you earn per hour
– Calculate your hourly rate. Annual income is a very deceptive
number that people use to justify unsustainable workloads.
 Repetitive task? Delegate it.
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Virtual Assistants
 What can you outsource?
– Administration tasks like prospecting, research (compiling
spreadsheets of bloggers), analysis that doesn’t have a
creative element, travel arrangements, product sourcing,
manufacturing, quality assurance, shipping, customer
service, regulatory/compliance tasks, etc.
 What shouldn’t you outsource?
– What you really enjoy doing
– Tasks requiring a high proficiency in English that is hard to
replicate overseas
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Virtual Assistants
 Selecting a VA (Tim’s advice)
– Make enough inquiries to receive 20-30 proposals.
– Look to hire multiple VAs. Never hire a single individual. You
don't want your project to fail because someone quit, got sick.
– Immediately delete any boilerplate form responses.
– Assign an easy 20-30 minute task to the top 3-5 candidates
to test for reliability. This will eliminate around 50% of them.
– If your project takes 20-30 hrs, assign it to all three & ask
them to stop after 3 hrs & send you what they’ve done. You’ll
know who performs best.
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Virtual Assistants
 Find a VA
–
–
–
–
Bsetc.ca
Adayva.com
Getafreelancer.com
Getfriday.com? Um, no
 More from me on VAs
– http://www.netconcepts.com/outsourcing-and-delegating/
– http://www.stephanspencer.com/email/i-just-fired-my-virtualassistant
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Mind Mapping
 A fast and efficient way to capture complex ideas (from
brainstorming etc.) and interrelate those ideas
 One of the best mind mapping tools out there is Mind
Manager (by Mindjet). For PC and Mac.
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Shortcuts
 Make your mouse a more efficient tool with “mouse
gestures”
– e.g. Go “back” in your browser by pressing the right mouse
button, moving the mouse briefly to the left, then releasing
the button
– In Opera by default. Firefox plugin
 Multi-touch (trackpad) “gestures” too
– e.g. on Mac laptops, you can scroll by running two fingers up
and down the trackpad
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Shortcuts
 Shed your mouse altogether. Keystrokes are much faster.
– Mac: QuickSilver. PC: Launchy
– Both support plugins
• e.g. Abracadabra plugin for QuickSilver supports mouse gestures
– Launch apps with a few strokes. Without launching an app,
append text to the end of a file, interact with your iTunes, etc.
– Think in terms of “sentences” with direct object, verb, subject
• e.g. Wikipedia Go -> Search for -> SEO
• e.g. buy nails at the hardware store -> Append to -> todos.txt
– Stick with it. It takes time to start a new habit, but it’s worth it.
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
QuickSilver
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Dictation, Transcription, and OCR
Dictate into your phone and have Jott turn it into emails
Use your iPod/iPhone as a recording device
Train your computer - Dragon Naturally Speaking
My personal favorite: employ an assistant who comes
on-site and takes notes shorthand
 Transcribe recordings, podcasts w/ CastingWords.com
 “OCR” business cards & other docs with your phone’s
camera and let Evernote digitize it




© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Thanks!
 For my 45 minute audio interview of David Allen, drop
me your business card or e-mail your request to
[email protected]
 To contact me: [email protected]
© 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]