Tim Ferriss diet

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The most common criticism of my blog (which has 60,000 subscribers) is that I write controversial headlines just to get traffic. I usually ignore this criticism because it’s so ignorant. But today I’m going to tell you why writing controversial headlines just to be controversial is totally stupid.

There is no formula for a wildly popular post.

Look, if I knew how to write a controversial headline that would get a ton of traffic then I’d be writing them every day. But really I’d be retired, living in Bermuda, not even writing headlines.

The most successful posts are posts that people email to their friends. Every day, whatever number of subscribers a blog has, that’s how many people read the blog post. The only way you get more readers is if people start telling their friends about the post. Read more

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A list of gifts that’ll help your career

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It’s true that I am publishing my gift suggestions too late for the biggest gift-giving season of the year. But I think it’s okay, because the gifts are totally impractical.

In fact, I think this is actually my wish list—stuff I wish I had been given over the years to keep my career on track.

1. A hall monitor for emails.

Email provides a chance to sidestep the problems of reading facial cues, which is what people with Asperger’s want. And email provides a chance for introverts to collect their thoughts before they talk to extroverts, which is what introverts want.

The problem with email is that the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says that emails are misinterpreted fifty percent of the time. Read more

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Hey, look! I got a camera.

The farmer bought me a camera. It’s a big deal for us because the farmer agreed to date me only if his photo would never show up on my blog. It means a lot to me that he’s buying me a camera which, invariably, will mean more photos of him on the blog.

But also, owning a camera allows me to make photos a big part of my blog; until now, I have only published photos here that other people took. I am excited to see where this leads, but first, I am excited to get better at taking photos and creatively organizing them into photo books. 

My first picture was the morning view from my favorite window in the house.

Read more

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What things do you outsource?

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Webinar on Friday, Wedding on Saturday

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I’m getting married on Saturday. We will talk about that in a minute. First, I want to address the recent onslaught of complainers who have entered my life.

  1. People who tell me I’ve jumped the shark. Honestly, I had never even heard this idiom until people started writing it in my comments section. But I’ve been writing about my personal life for ten years, and anyway, the people who complain that I don’t write enough career advice are always the people who most love to read my posts about sex.
  2. People who tell me I should record the webinars. Look. I know I should. But I don’t control it. Ryan Paugh does. Fortunately, we have a bitch session network on Brazen Careerist, and Ryan is in charge of it. So you should go there and tell him to record the webinar this Friday.
  3. People at my office who wonder why I’m not there. Have I ever told you guys how much I love waking up every day and having a wide span of time to be by myself? I wish I had paid more attention to recess. I always spent recess alone. Just to get a break from everyone. Nothing has changed since fourth grade except that it’s not the playground, it’s Starbucks.

Now. For the wedding. Here’s what I’m wearing:

Read more

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Webinar. How to be a millionaire from your blog. Really.

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You would not know from my blog that I actually make money from it. The first reason you wouldn’t know is that there are no ads on the blog. The second reason you wouldn’t know is that I haven’t posted in a week.

In fact, though, blogging has made me tons of money. I could say millions. It’s sort of semantic though, the millions part, because even being the Big Mac guy at McDonald’s makes you millions if you add up salary from a forty-year career of burger flipping.

I tell you guys all the time to forget about making money from your blog. But I also tell you to post at least three times a week to have a blog that is useful. And look, I’m violating that rule. So I think I’ll just go ahead and violate my other rule, too: I’m going to do a webinar about how to make money from blogging without running ads. (It’s Wednesday, March 31 at 8 pm eastern. Sign up here. )

I guess that another thing about my webinar about making money from a blog will be that it takes a lot of self-discipline.

I think I have self-discipline, but honestly, I’m not sure. Because right now the only thing I’m doing on a daily basis is obsessing about what color to paint the dining room of the farmhouse that I want to treat as the historical building that it is, but I’m drawn to geographically inappropriate color schemes from French provincial life. Read more

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Live video chat: How to find the hidden job market

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This video chat will take place Friday, March 12, 1pm eastern. (Sign up here.) This chat will be about how to get a job by looking in the right places. (And, I am experimenting with mysterious titles for my video chats. Do more people sign up if the title sounds like a Nancy Drew mystery?)

The last video chat was so out of control that I actually got reprimanded from just about everyone in the company. Except Andrew Shell, who said it was funny and funny is all people care about.

So I have a choice of doing a private chat for Andrew, or I can switch up the format to be less obnoxious. And, as I am trying to be more likable, being less obnoxious will be good for me. So this week I’m doing the video chat alone. And for those of you who are disappointed that Ryan Paugh won’t be there, take solace in this: The headset for doing the video alone is much better with my hair than the headset for doing a video with Ryan.

Sign up here to join the video chat on Friday.

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Rants

These are posts where I vent on a multitude of topics.

May 2009 Good grammar might derail your career

Apr. 2009 I hate David Dellifield, the one from Ada, Ohio

Jan. 2009 Five time management tricks I learned from years of hating Tim Ferriss

Dec. 2008 Five things people say about Christmas that drive me nuts

Jun. 2008 The hardest part of my job is that everyone lies about parenting

Aug. 2008 Living up to your potential is B.S.

Jun. 2007 Hold CEOs accountable for their bad parenting

Aug. 2006 Please, no more studies about women getting to the top

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Live video chat: Blogging Bootcamp, Tuesday March 2

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Yep, that’s right. I’m going to tell you how to write a blog that will help you meet your goals. Tuesday night at 8 p.m. eastern. The chat will be upbeat and inspirational. At the beginning. And then I will rant about my pet peeves. For example:

  • Why you should not try to make money from your blog
  • Why you should not start a second blog
  • Why you should take care to link to other blogs, a lot

But mostly, I’ll answer your questions, which you can ask in real-time.

I’m doing this video stuff with Ryan Paugh. (I am linking to his personal blog to show you that I take my own advice.) Ryan keeps coming to these events a little bit drunk. But that doesn’t stop us from getting rave reviews. Here’s one he forwarded to me from his mom: “Great job, Ry.”

So sign up here. And you will have a great blog. Or you will at least know why you don’t.

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How to…

You can track the evolution of this blog by tracking the evolution of my how-to posts. It started that I didn’t quite know what topics to cover. So I did how to write a resume, how to interview, etc. Then I got bored. So I stopped writing how-to’s, but people love how-to posts: Conundrum. Then I realized that I could write about anything under the sun, and then slap a career-oriented how-to title on the top. Where I am today is that the how-to posts are my favorites.

Dec. 2009 How to hit a wall at work, with grace

Jul. 2009 How to decide how much to reveal about yourself

Jul. 2009 How to have more self-discipline

May 2009 How to decide where to live

Dec. 2007 How to deal with getting fired (from Yahoo)

May 2007 How to ask for mentoring

Aug. 2003 How to cope with self-doubt

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