Jacob S Paulsen's Blog, page 26

How To Double The Number of Books You Read This Year

This year I plan to read 50 new books. Last year I read less than 20 new books. In order to hit my goal this year I have had to take a hard look at the way I am using my time and consider other strategies to increase my reading time.

I decided on four strategies designed to facilitate the goal. You may wonder if they are working and I can tell you they are. As of February 19th I've finished 13 new books.

1. Learn to speed read. I took an abbreviated speed reading course in junior high. 15 years later I decided to recall the general idea and strategy. I've been working hard on the technique and its really paying off. I think there are a large number of courses available online or perhaps at a school in your area. You could even read a book about speed reading.

2. Listen to audio books. This is generally a well known strategy. I no longer listen to music. In the car you may have an auxiliary input for your smartphone/MP3 player. If not you could purchase a cassette adapter or FM transmitter. The other wonderful thing about audio books is their availability. Many people associate a cost with audio book programs but your local library has audio books available to you as part of your membership. You can use your computer to import the discs to your MP3 player and off you go.

3. Read several books at any given time. If you, like many people find yourself getting bored with a book you may set it down without any great desire to finish it in a hurry. Decide to have several books on the night stand at once. Perhaps different genres of books will help you feel more engaged. I am generally reading a religious, business, and fiction book at any given time.

4. Listen to books when you workout. Since exercise is also a big part of my new years resolutions, and makes up part of a healthy lifestyle I find this an easy way to hit two birds with one stone. Most people are accustomed to either listening to music or watching TV during their workout. I would challenge you to try listening to a book. In addition to helping you read more this year you may also find that a good book will also encourage you to workout more this year. I know it sounds weird but give it a try.

Jacob S Paulsen

2011 Reading Challenge
Jacob has

read 13 books toward his goal of 50 books.

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13 of 50 (26%)
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Increasing Your Ability to Take the High Road

I have been reflecting about a quote by a Ralph Waldo Emerson who said "That which we persist in doing becomes easier; not that the nature of the object itself has changed, but that our power to do is increased." As I was out for my run yesterday and remembering this quote I was reminded of a few stories from my life.

When I was a senior in high school I was a year round runner. In the fall I was a member of the cross country team and in the spring I was involved in track. In long distance races athletes have the tendancy to "fall asleep," and forget to compete. As you approach the middle of the race you tend to get into a groove and only concentrate on finishing. In one such mile race I have a memory that will stay with me forever. I was nearing the end of the 2nd (of four) lap, when my subconcious woke me out of the runners sleep and told me to choose. I was startled. I was surprised to have the mental clarity to realize that in this moment of the race I had to make a choice. The decision was between racing with all that I had or continuing to push forward in my normal racing speed which although painful it never fully pushed me. That day I choose the high road and I ran the fasted mile of my life. Looking back I suspect that the top performers on my team were those who were able to make that decision during the middle of each of their races. We all make the decision before the race but those early commitments are easily forgotten when the going gets tough.

I have a less happy memory when I think of my college education. The first few years of school went fine as I did the bare minimum to get by in the general classes. As I began taking core business classes in my third year much more effort was required to get a passing grade and I was faced with the decision of stepping up my level of commitment or failing. It wasn't a conscious choice that I made in my mind but by not deciding to do more I in fact decided to fail. After failing a few classes I eventually dropped out of school and haven't returned. In this instance I choose what was easy and convenient instead of following the advice of mentors and stretching myself to do what I knew I could.

One last story. I was 21 and had signed a contract with a summer sales company to go out of town for the summer and sell satellite tv door to door. A few days after signing the contract I fell in love. The idea of going to Dallas for the summer while my girlfriend (before I left I proposed) was in Wyoming was hard. As the summer approached my designated summer location changed several times and I ended up knocking doors in Billings, MT. In mid June our sales manager told us that we had knocked every door in Billings and that we were going to move to Iowa to finish the summer. I had sold less than 40 units and was only making enough money to break even on my expenses. I couldn't logically justify driving so far East away from my future bride when frankly the job wasn't going well. I did it anyway. I needed the growth and to develop the sales skills and something extremely deep inside of me forced me into the car and steered it toward Des Moines.

When the most difficult choices in life come to us, we "will have to choose between that which is easy, and that which is right." The voice or power deep inside which guides us to take the high road must be developed and strengthened. We exercise it just like any other muscle. In the end it will be the small day to day decisions that we make that will build the strength we need to do the most difficult but necessary of tasks later. Getting up when the alarm goes off, working out when you are too tired, and reading a book to your child when you would rather watch TV are all "tough decision muscle" builders.

Think through your past and search for those difficult decisions that you made correctly and draw on those memories when you need more help. Building discipline in every moment of every day will help you and I reach our divine potential and rise to the occasion when it matters most.

Jacob S Paulsen

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WordPress Themes: Where to Find and Edit Themes

Not all WordPress themes are created equal. Naturally themes can be edited but you can imagine that it is much to your advantage to spend time looking for a theme that is as close as possible to what you have in mind. The less changes you have to make the better. When you are logged into your dashboard you can search for WordPress themes but it is my opinion that anything you will find within the free database available on WordPress.org isn't generally worth using. Those free themes will give you something to start with as you begin creating some initial content but in the long run they won't serve your needs.

Some people spend a lot of time searching the internet for premium themes for free. "Pirating" paid themes for free is not only illegal its also dumb. Themes are not simple and the biggest reason you should buy them from their designers is so that you will have support. When I'm looking for a theme I first start by doing a Google Image search that best describes what I'm looking for. You may try a search such as "wordpress rustic theme" or "wordpress 3-column car theme." Try several combinations and different words as you like. If I don't find what I'm looking for I move directly into the best WordPress Theme designers websites.

There are several top quality theme makers. My absolute favorite is WooThemes. WooThemes has sold me the themes I use on almost all my personal sites and blogs. They go a long way to create versatile, easy to use and customize, professional looking themes. You can also check out ThemeJunkie and iThemes who I also have bought themes from.

Editing Themes

Editing themes is really something that is generally reserved for "advanced users." It requires HTML and CSS knowledge and some PHP would go a long way too. This tutorial is not designed to teach you these programing languages. I will however give you a brief outline on the way these theme files work into WordPress, where they are stored, and how you can access them.

WordPress themes are organized in folders within the www.yoursite.com/wp-content/themes directory. To edit them you need to navigate to the "Editor" sub-menu under the "Appearance" menu. When the editor loads you will see a list of all the different theme files on your far right. Clicking on any of the files will open them for editing in the main editor window in the center.

All themes are different but if you are familiar with html and other basic programming languages you shouldn't have any issues navigating to the file you need. Refer to the WordPress.org codex for PHP questions.

If you aren't familiar with coding I suggest you be very cautious about making any changes.

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Obsessive Record Keeping: The Need for Journals and More

On January 25th I bought a new journal. I have been a relatively consistent record keeper (journal writer) since the age of 15. I use the term record keeper so as to crush the stereotype of journal keeping. Most think of journals as notebooks like the one I bought yesterday in which they write daily or weekly events, feelings, etc. I argue that writing in a notebook is only one form of journal keeping.

My record keeping has taken many shapes. Many of my journals are 3 ring binders in which I include printed emails and articles. I often insert wedding announcements, cards, letters, and newspaper comics. I'm certain that all of my speeding tickets are clipped into my journals. Other records of mine include photo albums of various sorts. Over the years these have turned from physical books with inserted pictures to CDs and DVDs with backups of pictures over the years but they are records none the less. I have often thought of this, my own blog as a form of journal. It was on the day that I decided that I wrote this blog for my own benefit instead of the benefit of others that I began to enjoy the writing. Other forms of journals for me would be the movie reviews I write on my Flixster profile and the Book reviews I keep on my GoodReads profile. A good number of Facebook notes would also qualify. I try to make it a habit of printing and archiving each of those in a three ring binder too. I suppose that any organized collection of personal content could be considered a journal.

Why do we feel the need to keep records about our lives? It seems to be an inherent part of human nature to keep track of things. I suppose that it could be a natural sense of pride that drives us to believe that our lives are of enough importance to warrant recording. Perhaps it is the belief that the mere process of recording our thoughts and actions can be therapeutic. I also believe that there is something inherent in human nature that drives us to know about our own past. As I get older, my thirst for knowledge about my own family's past, my country's past, and the ancient past of the world grows. It could perhaps be that thirst that drives me to keep a journal that I might believe deep down could benefit my own posterity.

Whatever the reason is I have found that without a doubt, the times in my life when I'm most productive and most on task with my goals and my inner purpose; are the times when I'm keeping up in my journal keeping.

I wish all of you great record keeping luck and tools that will help you stay on purpose and build a personal legacy for yourself and for your posterity.

Jacob S Paulsen

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Lessons From My Youth: Running 14 Miles Requires Training

It was 2002. I was living in Springville UT enjoying my independent life as a cell phone salesman. A childhood friend and coworker, Josh Parker lived exactly 14 miles away in Orem UT. I don't remember whose idea it was, but we both latched onto it immediately. We should run from his house to mine. We weren't in shape. In fact we didn't work out at all. Our days consisted of sitting in cubicles cold calling potential customers or eating Panda Express while sitting in mall kiosks. At the time the idea was born we didn't even have an idea how far the run would be.

I'm not sure what it is about human nature that makes us want to do things like this. I suspect that it is more present in males than females, but either way I know it exists in me. The need to do things just to say I've done them. The deep down desire to achieve is inherent. In the Portuguese language I would use the verb "conseguir." Conseguir implies more than just achieving a goal. It means to reach out and get it. It implies action and in my mind when I think of the word I see myself reaching out to grab something that seems at first to be out of reach, but with all my effort I'm able to finally grab a hold of it.

We selected a date for the quest. Plans were laid to run in the evening when the heat of summer wouldn't be as strong. I seem to remember that we started out around 7pm. We had some co-workers who pledged to cheer us on during the trek. It seems funny to me that we didn't think or choose to do any physical preparation. Looking back I'm not really sure what we did that day. I know that for dinner we decided to go healthy… Subway. Right before the designated hour we had a power juice from the popular Jamba Juice in Orem.

I don't mean to imply that Josh or I weren't athletic. I was a diehard runner in high school and Josh was a proven athlete as well. We were out of shape but we weren't ignorant to what we had committed ourselves to. I don't think we attached any real sentiment or emotion to the run. It was just something to be done and we wanted to say we had done it.

We started in front of Josh's Grandma's home where he was living. It was located at appx 200 north 350 west. We ran down her street until we intersected with 400 west, and turned left to get to Orem Center St. The beginning is the part I remember the least. I remember all the cars driving by. I remember that we had camel backs full of cold water. It was probably easy going for those first few miles. Our pace wasn't fast. We weren't in any hurry to get there and we probably knew we should pace ourselves and conserve energy. I imagine that we chatted. I bet that we talked about all paintball among other things as we turned right on Orem State St and headed south.

If you know the route you know that we got lucky as the first wall hit. Turning left on University Parkway we had gone about 2.75 miles and were starting to feel the pain. Luckily that is where the big down hill comes. It was right along here that I remember our first visit. A coworker (or two) stopped by in the car. They probably shouted some encouraging words and handed us some water. Things were good!

Anytime you decide to do something completely wild like this, despite your reasons, you generally hit this same point in your quest that Josh and I were about to hit. The moment when you realize you are in big trouble. Only the truly weak cut out in this moment. You aren't finished yet and you know that you can go further but it's a moment of harsh reality when the worst of negative ideas first begin to tell you it might now work out. You might not finish.

As we got to the bottom of the hill and continued east we finally turned right at University Avenue. Kitty corner from the BYU football stadium I'm confident that traffic was still blazing and that nobody was overly surprised to see a couple of late night joggers. My legs were started to get heavy. We weren't discussing the pain yet but we both had slowed our pace and without any spoken words we knew what was going on.

University Avenue took us about 16 blocks south. As we turned East again onto 300 south in Provo I think we had another drive by. Our friends were honking and shouting from a window as they passed us by. I vaguely remember our conversations getting more fragmented. Words were exchanged in parts instead of in constant. The truth was that while we were getting an aerobic workout, the real danger and pain was in the legs. When we turned from 300 South onto Provo State St, we had been over 7 miles. Even in the height of my cross country season in High School we rarely went any farther than 8-10 miles.

Provo State St never ended. It was the longest road of my life. Our legs just got heavier and heavier. We encountered what I swear were dozens of uphill climbs that we didn't remember ever being there when we drove the same route. I don't remember the downhill stretches, but I'll never forget the way I felt as we jogged up those hills at a pace slower than a walk. It was on one of these hills that I clearly remember our last friendly visit. I think it was around 10:30pm. We had been out of water for a long time and our friends didn't have anything to offer us. They took our camel back and promised to return with fresh supply. The reason I remember it so well is because they never returned.

This is the second wall that we all run into on a journey like this one. This is the part where the majority of your conscious thoughts tell you it's over. Your mind tells you that you were finished awhile ago. You realize that going forward is just foolish and potentially dangerous. What is it within us that keeps us going? Where within the human spirit is that thing, not even a voice or a thought, that keeps you moving when everything else tells you to stop and go back? It's the part of us that makes heroes. I'm not suggesting that what we were doing was heroic, but it's that part of human nature that allows us to go against instinct that makes us special.

The last 7 miles of the journey into Springville were horrific. I wish I could say that we ran the whole way. The truth is that it would have been impossible. We were walking more than running the last 5 miles and only able to do that because of frequent stops to stretch. Our muscles were cramping up and it was all we could do to convince our bodies to hang on with us. I remember one such stop in front of the Allen's Grocery store at the corner of 400 South and Main St in Springville in which we were stretching. It was early in the morning, maybe 1:15am. We were close enough to the end at this point that the thoughts and feelings of "you are going to make it" started to come into play. We were almost home free.

The end of any quest that stretches you so much feels this way. We were just two young men who finished something. I don't think we talked much about it in the future months. Since there have been some references to it as we guessed at the distance. Remembering that experience teaches me two very important lessons. The difficulty of anything comes from the way you choose to do it. I know that some things are just easy by nature but other tasks can be easy or difficult depending on the path we decide to walk. One of the most crucial lessons of my past is simply that I am capable of much more than I know I am. Physically, mentally, and spiritually I can conquer all. The second nature is this. Doing something just to say you did it isn't necessarily foolish (although often it can be). As we stretch our own limits of what we believe is normal or possible we build within us greater inner strength and ability to accomplish great things.

Thank you Josh for the many lessons like that one that we were able to learn together.

Jacob S Paulsen

Me hiding from Josh

Josh looking for the shot at my head.


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My Wonderful Ami & 2011 Goals

Wives just don't get enough credit in general and mine is no different. 2010 was an interesting year for us. I started working for Matchbin Inc in December of 2009. I learned a lot from the great people there and the company introduced me to my future employer. The work required a lot of travel and over the course of the year I boarded exactly 90 planes and visited 16 different states (not including airports). Traveling is glamorous at first. All the hotels, sites, airports, people, etc were really fun at first. Eventually it wore me down and I just wanted to be home with my family but the real sacrifices were never made by the road warrior. They were made by my wife. During Ami's first trimester she spent over a month bed-ridden. When I say she was stuck in bed I mean it. The nausea was so bad she had to have IVs from house visiting nurse people. Luckily my family was able to fill a gap and my mom was able to move in with Ami during my trips and my sister made frequent stops to clean our house (despite being pregnant herself).

There are many more untold pains and sacrifices that come to a family when the father/husband is gone all the time. Its a lifestyle that I understand can work for some but really wasn't working for us. Through it all Ami was extremely supportive and grateful that I was able to secure good employment during such a rough economy.

Now I live in Denver. The word I being the key. On December 5th (22 days after Lucy was born) I left to start my new job with Entravision Communications in Denver. I left a recovering wife alone with a 3 year old and a 3 week old. Its worse than it sounds. Dealing with a crazy and demanding child is tough while you are trying to nurse a newborn but there are other responsibilities that Ami was forced to assume. In trying to sell our house in this type of market we have to take full advantage of every house showing we have. This means that Ami is forced to keep the house in absolute perfect cleanliness because you never know when the agent might call and ask to show your house in 3 hours. Mix this in with the Holiday decorating, cooking, shedding dog, and family gatherings and its a miracle she doesn't pull her hair out.

2011 has started with better hopes for our future than we have had in a long time. Hopefully we will be able to sell our house in the next few months. As Ami joins me we will be able to pick out a home in the very state where we have dreamed of moving since we were married in 2005. In 2009 I did a half marathon. In 2010 I competed in a Triathlon relay with my family. This year I will be running a full marathon. In 2012 I still have to convince Ami but I want to climb Mt Rainer (with a guide:).

Our other goals include going to Disneyland and finalizing our 1 year of food storage and our emergency cash fund. I am also going to read 50 new books. Last year I think I read around 20 but many of those were books I had read once before.

Self-reflection is very healthy and these are among my favorite blog posts to write. So a huge hug and kiss to my wonderful wife and children, and if any of you are in Denver… look me up!

Jacob S Paulsen

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Lost and Found Wild Goose Chase and a Lesson Learned

Thank you Delta and the Person Who Turned in my Jacket!

On Thursday the 23rd of December I flew out of Denver International Airport to go home for Christmas. It wasn't until we touched down in Salt Lake that I realized I had left my Mountain Hardware jacket at the gate in Denver. I immediately called the Denver airport. When you call the airport's phone number you get an automated system, and you can press 5 for "Lost and Found."

The friendly man told me that my jacket hadn't been recovered yet but they only made the rounds to all of the concourses once per day. He suggested that I call back the next day. I forgot about it until Monday morning when I was returning to Denver. I called again and was told that they still didn't have it. When I asked how many days I should let go by until I should give up I was told 7 days.

As fate had it, exactly 7 days after the day I left the jacket at the gate, I returned to the airport for another flight. After getting through security I called the main number again and was told it hadn't turned up. Refusing to loose an expensive jacket at a place where people should know better than to pick up stranded objects I approached an information desk when I reached my concourse. Without mentioning that I had already been on the phone with the airport, I told the story about leaving my jacket at a gate a week earlier. The nice lady gave me a phone number and told me I needed to contact the city of Denver lost and found. Feeling a little confused I thanked her and walked toward my gate.

Circumstance had it that I was at the same gate as the week previous so before I sat down to call the city lost and found I asked the gate attendant if they had their own lost and found, explaining about my jacket left there the previous week. "Did you already check with Delta's lost and found?" At this point I'm wondering how many independent lost and founds there are in this airport and how come none of them know about each other. She made a phone call and found my jacket! I picked it up at the Delta Baggage office on my return.

The lesson learned is that I should never give up on something if it is important to me. I'm guessing that a lot of people have lost property at that airport that they were never able to track down over the phone and I would have been among them if I hadn't been in the airport the following week or if I hadn't kept trying. Often times the solution to many common problems lies outside of traditional thinking and wisdom. Be creative and be willing to try.

Jacob S Paulsen

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Learning from Experts: Online Marketing Gurus

Common questions that I get when I'm working with small business owners are "How did you learn all this stuff," or "What did you study in school?" The digital advertising space is changing so rapidly that very few traditional education programs can keep their curriculum up to speed. Advertisers and other professionals don't know where to go to learn about internet marketing because the very method of learning these skills is as modern as the space itself. You have to look online.

The experts of online marketing are… (shocker) online. If you can find the very best in the space I can almost guarantee you 3 things. First, that they have a blog you can subscribe to. Second, that they have a digital product such as an eBook that you can buy. Third, they are available for private consulting. If you are broke but still want to keep up with the changes in the realm of internet marketing you should just subscribe to all the expert's blogs.

Utilize an RSS reader such as Google Reader to subscribe to those blogs and then check it at your convenience. If you are wondering how to find the experts I can help you just a little. First off know that most people who claim to be experts (or "gurus") aren't. I would judge a blog by the number of comments that each post is getting. Thats an easy way to see how much traffic and interest people have in that author. If you don't want to do any leg work at all let me suggest my top 10 internet marketing blogs:

www.jacobspaulsen.com – What can I say… (but seriously I'm really nobody compared to the following)
www.smallbusinesssem.com – SEO expert Matt McGee
http://searchengineland.com/ – Compilation of expert authors
www.seoverflow.com/blog/ – Denver based SEO firm. Multiple authors
blumenthals.com/blog/ – Mike is an expert on Google Maps and Local Search
www.blueglass.com/blog – Focus on both Search and Social Media
www.seo.com/blog/ – The name really says it
www.searchinfluence.com/blog – Simple and Powerful
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ – Be sure to subscribe to his YouTube Channel
http://www.bgtheory.com/category/blog/ – Specializes in PPC (Adwords)

If you aren't broke I suggest buying their eBook or other digital product. There is a reason they are the experts!

Jacob S Paulsen

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The Blog SEO & Syndication Formula eBook: Now Available

This eBook is fresh off the shelf. Published in Dec 2010 Jacob reveals the secrets of blog syndication. "If you can create an automated process to both grow your social following, increase your rankings in search engines, and drive direct traffic; then you make make money blogging." This eBook discussed the secrets that only the professional bloggers know. Topics include:

Growing your Twitter following on auto-pilot
Growing your Facebook following
Engaging your readers
Syndication tools to publish your content across the internet
Monetization methods and programs
Email Marketing: Why and How
Finding a niche
WordPress Installation Tutorial
Top WordPress plugins

After Jacob cracked the code with his successful blog, AndroidSocialMedia.com, he begin to document the secrets to making money online and the eBook "The Blog SEO and Syndication Formula," contains the formula (that's why its in the name of the book)

Visit our store to purchase the eBook.
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Quality Traffic Really is More Valuable than Quantity

Just a quick note today. In the last 60 days the traffic on my blogs has come down by about 20%. That is a very significant decrease. I suspect this could be due to a variety of factors including the holidays but I hope the change is due to my efforts to center my content more around my target audience.

I used to be of the opinion that more traffic was always the goal. In the last 60 days I've been proven wrong because my display advertising revenue has doubled in that same period. I will take a 20% loss in traffic for double the money anytime.

During that period I've tried to compose more relevant content and interact more with my followers on the social networks. I've seen this start to change my audience. I watch my subscriber count very closely on Feedburner. About the time my traffic started to dip I also noticed that my RSS subscribers started to go down. This most likely because some of the blog posts were not along the same line as some of my readers were used to. This weeded out those who were never a part of my target market. Now after 60 days, my total number of RSS subscribers has not only stopped dipping but has now surpassed the previous high point and continues to climb.

Naturally this doesn't mean I don't care about traffic. I will continue to work on driving more traffic to my blogs but I will be much more focused moving forward, on reaching my target audience!

Jacob S Paulsen

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