Chad Blenkin

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7 Productivity Blogs Smart People Read

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By Chad Blenkin

Smart is smart. That’s obvious. But how exactly do you become smart? And how do you turn yourself into a productivity ninja? Generally, smart people are productive. Question – how do you become smart and productive? There are many ways, but one of the best is education. Teach yourself techniques and strategies to become bright and productive. Well, if you want to be cleverer than what you are now, you need to start by not spending too much. One of the best ways to do this is to read websites. Numerous sites offer free content to reach your goals of turning yourself into someone wiser and more intelligent. Numerous sites offer free content to reach your goals of turning yourself into someone wiser and more intelligent.

In this post, I’ll cover 7 smart productivity blogs you should be reading. I love these blogs. I have invested time reading them, and I don’t have any regrets. They’ve helped me learn more about personal finance, productivity, setting goals, forming good habits, GTD, time management, and other invaluable subjects.

 

Dave Seah

As one person so eloquently put it: This guy is THE MAN.

And really, it’s hard to disagree. Dave calls himself an investigative designer, but what does that mean? He comes up with all kinds of designs and productivity hacks (like templates and spreadsheets) that make tons of sense. He also discusses design and information technology as well, so if you’re in those areas then you’ve got to follow Dave.

Recommended Post: Get amazing productivity tools and spreadsheets

James Clear

James has emerged as one of the most prolific writers on the Internet, writing and researching hundreds of articles on everything from sleep to satisfaction. Much of his work is also on the mentality of productivity, discussing how to keep a sharp mind, how to remain more creative, and how to stay confident even when things don’t go your way.

Recommended Post: Forget About Setting Goals. Focus On This Instead.

LifeHacker

Lifehacker is the granddaddy of them all, the biggest and most well-known. Their name says it all of course, and they range from tips and tricks on gadgets to how to dry the dishes in your dishwasher faster. That’s not just work productivity of course, but life efficiency. One amazing section and ongoing feature is the How I Work column, which features different entrepreneurs, business leaders, athletes, entertainers and more about what their daily schedule looks like.

Recommended Post: How I Work

 

Dumb Little Man

With Dumb Little Man, you’ll get a quick dose of actionable tips, but also some bigger picture topics like health, relationships, and happiness. The best section is the “How To” section which gives you a primer on everything from looking for an apartment to how to clean your camera. It also provides a steady drip of great productivity tips to improve your day and workflow.

Recommended Post: 55 Bullet-Proof Productivity Hacks

Becoming Minimalist

Josh Becker complained about cleaning out his garage to his neighbor

“Maybe you don’t need all this stuff,” his neighbor said.

Inspiration struck and Becker created a blog to document his decluttering and minimalist style.

This is a little different than normal productivity tips–but if you don’t have to wade through stuff or look to buy more stuff, wouldn’t you be more productive in your family and work life? That’s Josh Becker’s take.

Recommended Post: 10 Things To Simplify Your Life

 

Productivity Land

The need for Productivity Land was realized when two marketers wanted to find the perfect productivity tool that would meet all their needs. Both Frank and Steve who also have a background in project management, soon found out there was no one perfect tool available in the market and so started a platform to help people make better and informed decisions when evaluating products. Productivity Land gives you candid productivity tool reviews, project management insights and tips to improve work-life balance.

Recommended Post: The Best Project Management Software of 2019 (Free & Paid)

 

Benjamin Hardy

Benjamin Hardy is a little different, because he made his name on Medium, leveraging the platform’s engaged audience to examine the habits of the world’s most successful people. Building on that, he’s tapped into a unique blend of analysis, motivation and experimentation.

Hardy, though, is more than his message. He seems to actually do everything he talks about. He is studying for a PhD and writes prolifically. He and his wife take care of foster children, which is a monumentally difficult task. To balance all of that, something must be clicking.

I love how he gives his readers a sneak peek into what his processes are like as well, like in the recommended post below.

Recommended Post: How I Use My Journal To Create My Future and Achieve My Goals

 

About Chad Blenkin

Chad Blenkin is an entrepreneur, marketer, and founder. Currently working in digital space as a director of business development.

 

Productivity Hacks

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Ever feel overwhelmed in your business? The art of doing less can help you. I use a system called O.A.O.

Keep a log of the things you need to work on. Then weekly in your management meetings when going over them ask What can I optimize? What Can I Automate? What Can I Outsource?

 

What City+Search’s Founder, Chad Blenkin is doing to outpace other digital agencies in the race for growth.

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Asked how City+Search came to one of Canada’s fastest-growing digital marketing agencies, founder Chad Blenkin said his team practices what they preach, put skin in the game, don’t hide behind vanity metrics and focus on bringing cash in the door — “We’ve had no choice, being bootstrapped, but there’s no smarter way to grow”.

I started the agency a short while ago from my basement without any funding, venture capital or safety net. All I had was a computer, a cell phone, and a few hundred dollars. Not only was I entering a highly-competitive industry but there were already thousands of digital marketing agencies in the market. To grow City+Search, my team and I have used the same direct-response marketing principles that we offer clients — and our record growth is proof that these principles work.

So I would say being recognized as one of Canada’s fastest growing agencies is a testament to our ability to grow a business. Equally, our success is attributable to our company culture. Being a service-based business, our people and our expertise ARE our product. To deliver our clients the best results possible, we’ve invested a lot into not only cultivating the right culture within our team but nurturing team members and helping them grow. It’s funny, there are numerous business coaches and agencies coaching people on how to grow their companies but they aren’t practicing what they preach in their own.

I’ve known for a long time that there’s no other full-service digital marketing agency growing at the pace that City_Search is, so it’s wonderful to have that. Despite all the milestones we’re beginning to hit and the successes we’re starting to see, I believe we’re still at the very beginning of our journey.

 

Finish the rest of the interview with Chad Blenkin here

Top SEO Mistakes To Avoid In 2017

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2017 is off and running, hard to believe we’re a month in already at this point. You set some hefty goals of improving your SEO rankings for this year and are grinding away at the work daily, or at least you did for the first 3 weeks. This post will look at top mistakes you need to avoid this year in order to keep ranking well.

1. Content isn’t King.

Thinking your witty content will rank without any optimization is just foolish. Content marketing is great, works great in conjunction with a full-scale SEO strategy, however, content on its own will not get you to the holy grail of page #1 rankings. Key here is content marketing isn’t a substitution for SEO, it is complementary.

There will always be examples of amazing content that ranks without optimization. However, that’s the exception and not the rule.

2. Awesome content builds links naturally.

See this time and time again from many bloggers, or noobs, who think awesome content will generate links once posted to a few social media sites. It’s possible to hit a viral link campaign here and there, but consistently doing so without having a built up brand is very unlikely.

However, more often this strategy (or lack of a strategy) will result in 90% of your content sitting stagnant on your site.

To build links, you need to develop an outreach program and work it daily. The hard work will pay off, though.

3. Guest posting without first investigating the site(s).

Guest posting is a popular way to build backlinks. However, posting on the wrong site can damage your reputation and rankings.

Before reaching out to a host blog (or responding to a guest blogging request), be sure to do your due diligence on the site. Ask yourself: Does this site’s audience match up with my own target market? Do they typically publish unique, high-quality content? Do they seem trustworthy given their Domain Authority, link profile, and online ratings and reviews?

4. Not intentionally promoting your content

Promotion and distribution are key to giving your content that initial burst of attention and engagement. Without it, your content is likely to sit unread, gathering few shares or links.

According to research from Moz over half of all online content sampled had 2 or less Facebook interactions, and 75% had no external links. I’m willing to bet this was largely due to a lack of intentional distribution.

About Chad Blenkin

Chad Blenkin is an experienced entrepreneur, marketer, strategist, growth hacker and startup guy. Chad has over 15 years experience working with companies in the areas of strategy, sales, and marketing (digital and traditional).

Currently, Chad is working on a new startup that is soft launching in the first quarter of 2017, based out of Vancouver, British Columbia.