84 – How To Blog, Build An Affiliate Site and 10x Productivity

David Kadavy is an author, podcaster, designer, and in general, a man of many talents. Having formerly worked as a product designer in Silicon Valley, he is the author of the top-selling book Design for Hackers: Reverse-Engineering Beauty, and his writing has been featured on The Huffington Post, Inc.com, Quartz, Lifehacker, and more.

In this episode, we cover an interesting variety of topics, from how to get started as a blogger, how to make money from your writing, and what you should know about creativity and being productive.

Contact David:

• David Kadavy’s Official Website
• David Kadavy’s Love Your Work Podcast
• David on Twitter
• David on Medium
• David on Facebook

 

In this episode, we cover:

• How to improve your writing and increase your output
• How to start a blog (and how to be good at it)
• How to start an affiliate-based online business
• How to optimize your creativity and productivity by understanding when you can be the most creative and productive
• … and much more!

 

Download How to Attract Great Personal Trainers PDF

 

• Listen to it on iTunes.
• Stream by clicking here.
• Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as”.

This episode is brought to you by ARXFit.com, ARX are the most innovative, efficient and effective all-in-one exercise machines I have ever seen. I was really impressed with my ARX workout. The intensity and adaptive resistance were unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I love how the machine enables you to increase the negative load to fatigue target muscles more quickly and I love how the workouts are effortlessly quantified. The software tracks maximum force output, rate of work, total amount of work done and more in front of you on-screen, allowing you to compete with your pervious performance, to give you and your clients real-time motivation. As well as being utilised by many HIT trainers to deliver highly effective and efficient workouts to their clients, ARX comes highly recommended by world-class trainers and brands including Bulletproof, Tony Robbins, and Ben Greenfield Fitness. To find out more about ARX and get $1,000 OFF software licensing fees, please go to ARXfit.com and mention Corporate Warrior in the how did you hear about us field.

This episode is brought to you by Hituni.com, providers of the best online courses in high intensity training that come highly recommended by Dr. Doug McGuff and Discover Strength CEO, Luke Carlson. Course contributors include world-class exercise experts like Drew Baye, Ellington Darden and Skyler Tanner. There are courses for both trainers and trainees. So even if you’re not a trainer but someone who practices HIT, this course can help you figure out how to improve your progress and get best results. Check out Hituni.com, add the course you want to your shopping cart and enter the coupon code ‘CW10’ to get 10% off your purchase!

 

To subscribe via email and get my FREE eBook with 6 podcast transcripts with guests like Dr. Doug McGuff, Drew Baye, and Skyler Tanner – Click here

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you have a HIT blog? Please let me know in the comments at the bottom of this post.

Show Notes

Click the link below to listen from the exact time stamp on Overcast:

• What does David say when someone asks him “what do you do?” [6:15]
• What type of work does David derive the most joy from? [7:18]
• What approach does David take in terms of writing and editing? [8:02]
• The inspiration behind, the rationale, and the benefits of writing 100 words every day (and how David goes about writing now) [10:04]
• David and I talk about writing drafts, procrastination, and how to stop worrying so much and just finish writing articles [16:50]
• On using Medium versus using your own blog [19:46]
• David on creative insight, memory, ideation, and writing  [22:10]
• Has David ever done a writing course? [24:15]
• Is blogging still worth doing nowadays? [27:38]
• How can bloggers and writers just starting out deal with analysis paralysis? [30:08]
• What to do if you want to start writing but you’re not an expert at anything [32:20]
• What writing or blogging platforms should you start with, and why should you try writing under a pseudonym? [36:03]
• David talks about online dating and his experience writing under a pseudonym [37:55]
• Why did it take so long for David to make money from writing? [40:34]
• David talks about making money with affiliate-based programs and SEO [42:58]
• Is setting up an affiliate program-based online business still worth it today? [49:10]
• The importance of passion and interest in building a sustainable writing project [53:17]
• David talks about Design for Hackers (the website) and working as a product designer in Silicon Valley [54:04]
• David talks about typography [55:42]
• On typography in logos, banners, brand imagery, and podcast artwork [58:03]
• On how metadata affects ranking, keyword density, and how it all works with Apple Podcasts [1:02:30]
• David talks about creative productivity, flow, problem solving, and how to know when the best time for being creative or productive is [1:07:04]
• David and I talk about scheduling time for creative work, administration, and prioritization (and David probes into how I prepare for an episode of Corporate Warrior) [1:16:40]
• On scheduling high-profile guests versus not-so-high-profile guests on podcasts [1:30:51]
• David and I talk about Getting Things Done, Inboxing, and what we do when GTD isn’t quite working as it should [1:33:01]
• Having an audience of mostly English speakers and living in Colombia, what percentage of David’s day does he spend interacting in English versus Spanish? [1:41:10]

Selected Links from the Episode

• Design for Hackers: Reverse-Engineering Beauty by David Kadavy ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
• David Kadavy’s Love Your Work (Podcast)
• Observer | David Kadavy on Observer
• Huffington Post | How to Write a Blog That People Will Actually Read by David Kadavy
• Inc.com | David Kadavy on Inc.com
• Quartz | The best productivity hack when you’re stuck is to do nothing by David Kadavy
• McSweeney’s Internet Dependency | David Kadavy on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
• Upworthy | David Kadavy on Upworthy
• Lifehacker | David Kadavy: How I work
• 100 words about 100 words by David Kadavy
• Medium
• The Second City | The Second City’s Sketch Writing Course
• Let Me Sleep on It: Creative Problem Solving Enhanced by REM Sleep
• Solving Problems in Your Dreams
• Match.com
• South by Southwest (SXSW)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• eHarmony
• CJ Affiliate by Conversant (formerly Commission Junction)
• DMOZ
• Tinder
• Design for Hackers (the website)
• Typography
• Uncanny Valley
• Spotify
• iOS 11
• Libsyn
• Flow (psychological state)
• This American Life
• Study: Better without (lateral) frontal cortex? Insight problems solved by frontal patients.
• How the Seven Mental States of Creative Work guide your art through The Four Stages of Control by David Kadavy
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
• Active Listening
• Evernote
• Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
• Buffer
• The Ultimate Guide for Becoming an Idea Machine by James Altucher
• Colombia
• How to Better Control Your Time by Designing Your Ideal Week by Michael Hyatt
• Boomerang

People Mentioned

• James Altucher
• Ryan Holiday
• Seth Godin
• Kevin Kelly
• Noah Kagan (Listen to my interview with Noah here)
• Dean Simonton
• Mark Zuckerberg
• RuPaul
• John F. Kennedy
• Ira Glass
• David Allen (Listen to the episode with David here)
• Michael Hyatt
• Ari Meisel