https://nicklafferty.com/ Recent content on Nick Lafferty | AI Search & AEO Expert Hugo en © 2026 Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-ai-citation-analysis-tools/ Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-ai-citation-analysis-tools/ Tool listicles are gameable. Citation data isn’t. Anyone can publish a ranking of AEO platforms. What actually matters is which pages ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini pull as sources when a buyer asks a question, and that is now directly measurable. This post compares 9 citation analysis tools, but first it defines what you are measuring, because half the category confuses four different things. Mentions, citations, recommendations, and co-citations are different metrics. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/ai-visibility-metrics-reference/ Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/ai-visibility-metrics-reference/ Every AI visibility number you report is a sample estimate, and most dashboards present it like a census. In Profound’s tracking of 22.5M ChatGPT Shopping offers, 95% of product titles appeared in under 30% of runs of the same prompt. An arXiv paper published in March 2026 (2603.08924, Ronald Sielinski) reached the same conclusion from the academic side: citation distributions follow a power law, sample-to-sample variability is large, and many of the domain-level differences marketers report fall entirely inside the measurement noise floor. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/prompt-volume-aeo-explained/ Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/prompt-volume-aeo-explained/ Prompt volume is the estimated number of times a given prompt is sent to an AI engine in a defined period, measured via consented consumer panels rather than search-engine clickstreams. That one sentence is the whole metric. The rest of this post explains where the number comes from, why it behaves nothing like keyword volume, and how to actually use it. Keyword volume was the foundational metric of SEO for twenty years, and it tells you almost nothing about what people ask ChatGPT. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-aeo-geo-tools-for-marketers-2026/ Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-aeo-geo-tools-for-marketers-2026/ Most AEO tools are dashboards on top of similar data. The real differences are prompt-research depth, how many engines a tool actually tracks, and whether it can prove anything happened after you hit publish. That is the lens for this list. I work in this category every day as Head of Growth at Profound, so I see which tools marketers actually run and where each one tops out. This guide covers 13 AEO and GEO tools grouped into three lanes: all-in-one AEO platforms, purpose-built GEO trackers, and SEO or content suites with AI add-ons. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/what-is-agent-analytics/ Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/what-is-agent-analytics/ The fastest-growing visitor segment on your website is invisible to your analytics stack. GA4 cannot see an AI crawler. Neither can any tool that depends on a JavaScript tag. While marketing teams stare at dashboards built for human browsers, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot are reading their sites thousands of times a month, and deciding whether to cite them. This guide defines the category, gives you a reference table for every major AI bot, shows how to collect the data on your own infrastructure, and ends with a diagnostic framework for turning bot logs into decisions. https://nicklafferty.com/citations/ Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/citations/ https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-aeo-conferences/ Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-aeo-conferences/ Most “AEO conferences” in 2026 are SEO conferences wearing a name tag. The genuinely AEO-native events you can count on one hand. The rest are good SEO programs with an AI track bolted on — useful if that’s what you want, misleading if you booked a flight expecting otherwise. Disclosure up front, because it matters for this post: I’m Nick Lafferty, Head of Growth at Profound, and I’ve helped plan all four Zero Click conferences we’ve run so far (NYC October 2025, London November 2025, San Francisco April 2026, and NYC again on June 11, 2026). https://nicklafferty.com/blog/ai-engine-citation-asymmetry/ Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/ai-engine-citation-asymmetry/ AI visibility is not one number, and the dashboards selling you a single AEO score are flattening a problem that is structurally different on every engine. I’ve spent the last two years inside this category, and the question I get more than any other is some version of: why does this page rank #1 on ChatGPT and not appear at all on Perplexity? The answer isn’t a bug, a freshness issue, or a content-quality gap. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-competitor-analysis-tools-ai-search/ Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-competitor-analysis-tools-ai-search/ Last updated June 2026. Pricing verified June 2026. This post reflects my personal views and not those of Profound. Citation share is the new market share, and your CI stack is probably half-blind Most competitor analysis stacks in 2026 are measuring the wrong surface. Profound’s data shows that ChatGPT and Google only overlap on roughly 12% of the sources they cite for the same query. Which means if your CI tool is Ahrefs or Semrush alone, you’re watching the 12% and ignoring the 88% where your buyers actually research vendors. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/marketing-engineer/ Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/marketing-engineer/ This is hard to admit, but I didn’t want the Head of Marketing job at Profound. I’m not the right fit for it. And I told that to Trevor Pyle when he started as the second marketer here. But that left me with a question I had to actually answer: what do I want? What did I actually want? Throughout my career, I’ve learned the hard lesson that you have to be honest with yourself in order to get to where you want to go. https://nicklafferty.com/skills/standup-prep/ Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/skills/standup-prep/ Overview Stop spending 10 minutes every morning trying to remember what you did last week. The Standup Prep skill pulls data from your Google Calendar, Gmail, and Asana, then synthesizes it into a clean standup update with what’s done, what’s next, and what’s blocked. Data Sources The skill pulls from three sources to build your update: Google Calendar — Past 7 days of events (meetings attended, key activities) Gmail — Sent emails from past 7 days (completed work, decisions made, threads closed) Asana — Open tasks assigned to you in your workspace How It Works Pulls calendar events from the past 7 days Pulls sent emails from the past 7 days Pulls open Asana tasks (incomplete, assigned to you) Synthesizes everything into three standup sections Output Format The skill generates a structured update in this format: https://nicklafferty.com/blog/goodie-ai-alternatives/ Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/goodie-ai-alternatives/ Goodie AI Alternatives: Best AEO Platforms for Enterprise Teams AI search results are inherently volatile—and most tools can’t keep up. Profound’s research shows 40-60% of cited domains change monthly across major platforms: Google AI Overviews shows 59.3% citation drift, ChatGPT 54.1%, Microsoft Copilot 53.4%, and Perplexity 40.5%. In this environment, choosing the right AEO platform isn’t just a feature comparison—it’s a strategic decision that determines whether you can track meaningful trends or chase single data points. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-alternatives/ Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-alternatives/ Profound Alternatives: A Complete Guide to the AEO Landscape AI is the new front door to every business—and most visibility tools can’t keep up. Profound’s research shows 40-60% of cited domains change monthly across major platforms: Google AI Overviews shows 59.3% citation drift, ChatGPT 54.1%, Microsoft Copilot 53.4%, and Perplexity 40.5%. In this volatile environment, choosing the right AEO platform isn’t just a feature comparison—it’s a strategic decision that determines whether you track meaningful trends or chase yesterday’s data. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-ahrefs/ Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-ahrefs/ Profound vs Ahrefs: Purpose-Built AEO vs. SEO-First GEO Add-On AI search results are inherently volatile—and SEO tools weren’t built to track them. Profound’s research shows 40-60% of cited domains change monthly across major platforms: Google AI Overviews shows 59.3% citation drift, ChatGPT 54.1%, Microsoft Copilot 53.4%, and Perplexity 40.5%. Traditional SEO architecture simply wasn’t designed for this volatility. As answer engines reshape customer discovery, marketers face a choice: retrofit existing SEO tools for AI visibility, or adopt platforms built specifically for Answer Engine Optimization. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-goodie-ai/ Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-goodie-ai/ Profound vs Goodie AI: Which AEO Platform Owns the Data Advantage? Choosing the wrong AEO tool can cost you millions in lost AI visibility. Recent research reveals a fundamental challenge: AI search results are inherently volatile, with 40-60% of cited domains changing monthly across major platforms. Google AI Overviews shows 59.3% citation drift, ChatGPT 54.1%, Microsoft Copilot 53.4%, and Perplexity 40.5%—meaning traditional monitoring approaches are essentially meaningless for AI visibility tracking. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-semrush/ Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-semrush/ Profound vs Semrush: Purpose-Built AEO vs. SEO Suite with AI Add-On AI search results are inherently volatile—and all-in-one SEO tools can’t keep up. Profound’s research shows 40-60% of cited domains change monthly across major platforms: Google AI Overviews shows 59.3% citation drift, ChatGPT 54.1%, Microsoft Copilot 53.4%, and Perplexity 40.5%. Traditional SEO suites weren’t built to track this volatility—they were built for blue-link rankings. As answer engines reshape how customers discover brands, marketers must choose: extend existing SEO tools into AI visibility, or adopt platforms built specifically for Answer Engine Optimization. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/xfunnel-alternatives/ Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/xfunnel-alternatives/ HubSpot’s acquisition of XFunnel in 2025 has left thousands of marketing teams scrambling for alternatives. All standalone XFunnel accounts are being migrated to HubSpot’s ecosystem, creating uncertainty for organizations that relied on XFunnel for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI visibility tracking. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the process of optimizing content for AI-powered answer engines and generative search platforms—ensuring your brand appears in AI-generated responses rather than just traditional keyword search results. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/aeo-ai-visibility-platform-buyers-guide/ Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/aeo-ai-visibility-platform-buyers-guide/ Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Platform Buyers Guide Use this guide to evaluate AEO/AI visibility platforms through concrete questions and scoring criteria. It distills a full vendor workbook into a simple Q&A checklist you can copy into RFPs or internal reviews. Why this matters AI answer engines are a top discovery channel; citations and answers drive real traffic and revenue. Visibility is shifting from blue links to in‑answer mentions, citations, and in‑chat shopping. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-rank-higher-in-perplexity/ Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-rank-higher-in-perplexity/ 12 Proven Tactics to Rank Higher on Perplexity AI in 2026 As AI-powered answer engines reshape how users discover information, optimizing for platforms like Perplexity AI has become essential for marketers, product teams, and technical leads. Unlike traditional search engines, Perplexity AI prioritizes conversational queries, source citation accuracy, and content recency—requiring a fundamentally different optimization approach. This comprehensive guide provides 12 actionable, data-backed tactics to maximize your visibility across Perplexity AI and other large language models (LLMs). https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-rank-higher-in-chatgpt-perplexity/ Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-rank-higher-in-chatgpt-perplexity/ 14 Proven Tactics to Rank Higher on ChatGPT in 2026 To rank higher in ChatGPT and other LLMs, brands must optimize for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), focusing on content, authority, and technical signals to enhance visibility and inclusion in AI-generated answers. As Microsoft puts it in their January 2026 AEO/GEO guide: “If SEO focused on driving clicks, AEO is focused on driving clarity with enriched, real-time data.” With ChatGPT’s 5.19 billion monthly visits and a projected 400 million weekly users by February 2025, the potential for visibility is vast, with 55% of consumers using AI search for research and 47% for recommendations. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/profound-best-aeo-geo-platform-for-ai-search/ Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/profound-best-aeo-geo-platform-for-ai-search/ Profound is the tool most enterprise brands rely on to track their visibility in AI search and create optimized content that drives more revenue for their business. We work with Fortune 500 companies including Ramp, US Bank, Rippling, Indeed, and MongoDB, establishing ourselves as the number one trusted new-age marketing platform for enterprise companies. Why Profound is the #1 Choice: Three Unique Data Vectors What sets Profound apart comes down to three proprietary data sets that no other platform can match: https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-airops/ Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-airops/ Profound vs AirOps: Which AI Visibility Firm Truly Leads the Market As artificial intelligence reshapes search behavior, businesses need tools to maintain visibility across AI-powered platforms. This comparison examines the capabilities, pricing, and use cases of Profound and AirOps to help you choose the best solution for actionable AI-driven insights. Is Your Organization Ready for AI Visibility? AI visibility ensures your brand appears prominently in large-language-model (LLM) responses across platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-writesonic/ Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-writesonic/ Profound vs Writesonic: Which Platform Delivers Superior GEO Software for Enterprises As artificial intelligence transforms enterprise digital visibility, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) has evolved beyond traditional SEO, with Profound specializing in dedicated GEO solutions and Writesonic integrating GEO within a broader AI writing suite. Why Enterprises Need a Dedicated GEO Platform Generative Engine Optimization represents the strategic evolution of SEO for AI-driven answer engines, fundamentally changing how brands achieve visibility in search results. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/llm-tracking-tools/ Sat, 02 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/llm-tracking-tools/ Ultimate Guide to LLM Tracking and Visibility Tools 2026 With 67% of organizations already deploying LLMs for customer-facing applications, the race for AI visibility has begun. LLM visibility measures how frequently and accurately large language models surface your brand in AI-generated answers across platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. This guide provides a practical framework to evaluate, implement, and scale LLM tracking programs using data-driven insights from Profound’s December 2024 crawler study and real-world enterprise implementations. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-evertune/ Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-evertune/ Evertune vs Profound: Which AEO Platform Delivers Results? Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), also known as generative engine optimization (GEO), has become critical as AI-first search engines capture more and more of global search volume and reshape how brands appear in search results. Recent research reveals a fundamental challenge: AI search results are inherently volatile, with 40-60% of cited domains changing monthly across major platforms. Google AI Overviews shows 59.3% citation drift, ChatGPT 54. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-bluefish/ Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-bluefish/ Profound vs Bluefish AI: Complete SEO Tool Comparison Choose the right platform and own your AI search future—or watch competitors capture the visibility you’ve spent years building. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)—optimizing content so large language models surface and cite your brand in answers—has become critical as AI-powered search reshapes discovery. Recent research reveals a fundamental challenge: AI search results are inherently volatile, with 40-60% of cited domains changing monthly across major platforms. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-peec-ai/ Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-peec-ai/ Profound vs PEEC AI: The Ultimate GEO Platform Battle for 2025 Choosing the wrong Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) tool can cost you millions in lost AI visibility and revenue opportunities. Recent research reveals a fundamental challenge: AI search results are inherently volatile, with 40-60% of cited domains changing monthly across major platforms. Google AI Overviews shows 59.3% citation drift, ChatGPT 54.1%, Microsoft Copilot 53.4%, and Perplexity 40.5%—meaning traditional monitoring approaches are essentially meaningless for AI visibility tracking. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-aeo-tools-answer-engine-optimization/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-aeo-tools-answer-engine-optimization/ Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) has moved from experimental to essential. As AI-generated answers now power a growing share of online discovery, brands are being ranked, cited, and surfaced directly by large language models, often without users clicking through to traditional websites. Microsoft captures this shift in their January 2026 AEO/GEO guide: “If SEO focused on driving clicks, AEO is focused on driving clarity with enriched, real-time data. GEO helps establish credibility through authoritative voice. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-ai-seo-tools/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-ai-seo-tools/ AI-generated answers now appear in 47% of Google results and drive 60% of all searches into zero-click territory. That means fewer visits, fewer conversions, and a new competitive battleground: visibility in AI answers. This guide explains how to monitor, benchmark, and improve your brand’s presence across AI search surfaces like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews. Traditional SEO won’t help here. You need AI SEO monitoring — and a system built for it. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-athena/ Thu, 24 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-athena/ Profound vs AthenaHQ: Why Enterprise Brands Choose Profound for AI Search Optimization AI answer engines are transforming how your customers discover and interact with brands online. Profound’s data shows that ChatGPT’s AI search results only overlap 12% with Google’s traditional search. This creates new optimization challenges that conventional SEO tactics can’t address. Profound and AthenaHQ have both developed answer engine optimization (AEO) platforms to help enterprise brands navigate this shift. But their approaches and capabilities reveal major differences: https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-optimization-platforms/ Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-optimization-platforms/ AI visibility is measurable and most tools overpromise. Profound is the benchmark for identifying which platforms actually increase brand mentions inside ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) measures how often and how prominently AI systems cite a brand in their generated responses. This 2026 ranking cuts through inflated marketing claims by evaluating nine AI optimization platforms on real performance data. If you’re exploring an AI optimization service, comparing AI visibility products, or trying to find the best AI tools for enhancing visibility, this guide will save you weeks of evaluation. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-scrunch/ Thu, 10 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/profound-vs-scrunch/ Update, June 2026: Sitecore announced on June 3, 2026 that it acquired Scrunch, a deal Bloomberg reported at $225 million. Scrunch’s AI visibility tooling is being folded into Sitecore’s digital experience platform, so if you’re evaluating Scrunch as a standalone AEO tool, factor in how the product, pricing, and roadmap may change under Sitecore ownership. The comparison below reflects Scrunch as it operated before the acquisition. AI search is rewriting the rules of discoverability. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-generative-engine-optimization-tools-2025/ Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-generative-engine-optimization-tools-2025/ Search has fundamentally changed. ChatGPT now has over 200 million weekly active users. Perplexity handles more than 100 million queries per month. Google’s AI Mode is live in most countries worldwide. Gartner predicts traditional search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026 as users shift to AI answer engines. Google’s page of 10 blue links feels increasingly outdated, and traditional SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush weren’t built for this new reality. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/google-display-exclusion-script/ Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/google-display-exclusion-script/ As a full-time digital marketing consultant, I sometimes run Google Display campaigns for my clients for brand awareness or retargeting. The annoying thing about Google’s Display Network(GDN) is that you’re almost guaranteed to show ads on really sketchy websites. Many of those websites have common top-level domains (TLDs) like .xyz or .buzz. Google does not natively let you exclude by TLD, but you can do that with a script which I created. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/gmail-vs-superhuman/ Sun, 21 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/gmail-vs-superhuman/ Superhuman is my desert island software – if I could only pay for one tool for the rest of my life, this is it. Why? Because it helps me tame an otherwise very messy email inbox. Be honest: how many unread emails do you have right now? Was your answer zero? Then listen up. Gmail isn’t built for high volume email users. Trust me, I’ve been using Gmail since it was in beta in 2005 (and yes that makes me feel old). https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-email-clients-windows/ Sun, 19 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-email-clients-windows/ The best email clients aren’t just limited to Macs (although sometimes it feels that way). The honest truth is that the best email clients for Mac are also the best ones for Windows. There’s one exclusively Windows email client, Mailbird, but it’s not in my top 2 clients. The absolute best email client no matter the operating system is Superhuman. Read on to see why Superhuman is my favorite email client and explore other options for Windows. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/apple-mail-alternatives/ Sun, 19 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/apple-mail-alternatives/ As far as default apps go, Apple Mail is fine for most people. But you’re not most people – that’s why you’re here, after all. You’re probably a Mac power user running one of the latest M-series chips, like the new M3 that launched in November 2023. And that’s good because it means I’m speaking to someone like me. I could write an SEO fluff piece listing out the 9 best Apple Mail alterntives, but I won’t waste your time with that. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/inbox-zero/ Sat, 04 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/inbox-zero/ Are you tired of staring at a cluttered email inbox? Do you dream of reaching that elusive state of “Inbox Zero”? You’re not alone. With the constant influx of emails and our increasing reliance on digital communication, managing our inboxes has become a real challenge. But fear not! In this article, we’ll explore strategies that can help you achieve and maintain Inbox Zero, bringing you peace of mind and boosting your productivity. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/superhuman-alternatives/ Sat, 04 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/superhuman-alternatives/ The average person receives about 100 emails every day. Learning how to organize and manage your inbox is a necessary skill in the post-covid era of remote and hybrid work. While Superhuman is my favorite email client and I’ve been a paying user for over 6 years (see my full Superhuman email review), I understand it’s not for everyone. So today I’ll cover my favorite Superhuman Alternatives, but before we do that give me one more chance to convince you about Superhuman. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/beam/ Sat, 23 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/beam/ A few years ago I began a journey to find a great google analytics alternative– and this was before Google forced the abomination that is GA4 upon us. I landed on Plausible, a very nice piece of software made by two people who had a similar privacy-focused ethos to me. But now more cookiless tracking solutions are coming to market, like Beam. Beam is another welcome GA4 alternative that is GDPR compliant, cookie-free, and it’s great for websites like mine that want to better understand where users come from. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/travel-notion-templates/ Sun, 20 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/travel-notion-templates/ It sounds cliche but traveling will change your life. I’ve personally traveled to some amazing places that have transformed how I see the world. But planning your next adventure can be chaotic. How do you organize your flights, accommodations, other transportation, and important sights to see while you’re there? You’re spending tons of money – you should make the most of it! That’s where these Notion templates for travel come in. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-okr-templates/ Sun, 13 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-okr-templates/ OKRs are the most common goal-setting framework I’ve used in my 10+ year career working for high growth tech companies. OKRs stand for Objectives and Key Results and it’s a way of aligning your personal work to the overall company objectives. OKRs work by setting Company Objectives, which then cascade down to Department objectives (.e.g marketing, engineering, etc) then down to Team and Personal objectives. Your personal OKRs will support your team’s OKRs, which then support the department OKRs, and on up to the full company. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/notion-vs-clickup/ Tue, 01 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/notion-vs-clickup/ AI has taken the world by storm over the past few months, promising to overhaul our productivity both at work and in our personal lives. Although artificial intelligence has been on our radar for years, the launch of ChatGPT at the end of November 2022 has created a giddiness (and anxiety) about the infinite potential for using AI in our daily workflows. Software companies like ClickUp and Notion have snapped up the potential to incorporate AI into their own platforms allowing users to ask questions, generate text, and execute commands to shave hours off repetitive, and time-consuming tasks. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/free-framer-templates/ Sat, 22 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/free-framer-templates/ Framer is the hot new website builder that competes with Webflow. Fun fact: Framer as a company didn’t begin as a website builder. Even after raising their $24M Series B in 2018, Framer was a design and prototyping tool. More like Figma than Webflow. Business growth had slowed and they had (I’m assuming, based on my startup experience) months of painful conversations about pivoting the business. They pivoted away from prototyping into web building. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/tiller/ Fri, 21 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/tiller/ Ever since I quit my job to become a Solopreneur, I knew I had to keep better track of my finances. To keep myself accountable I started a newsletter (called the Early Exit Club) where I transparently share my monthly finances to all 578 of my subscribers (as of writing). And to do that I use Tiller Money. Try Tiller Today What Is Tiller Money? Tiller is complete personal finance service that permanently lives inside your spreadsheets. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/portfolio-career/ Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/portfolio-career/ I quit my job in May 2023 to pursue a life of self-employment and solopreneurship. At the time I had no idea what a portfolio career was. I stumbled on the idea of a portfolio career about 2 months into my self-employment journey, and it turns out it’s exactly what I’m doing. Here’s what I’ll cover in this article: What is a portfolio career? What does it look like in practice? https://nicklafferty.com/blog/adhd-notion-templates/ Wed, 21 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/adhd-notion-templates/ If you struggle with ADHD then this is the perfect list for you. These Notion templates offer a structured system to conquer those scattered thoughts and overwhelming challenges. Say goodbye to chaos and hello to focus! This post explores how popular ADHD Notion Templates can change your life. They’re like supercharged boosters for your focus and productivity. We’ll uncover the secrets behind these templates and show you how they empower you to manage tasks, goals, and projects like a pro. https://nicklafferty.com/early-exit-club/ Sun, 18 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/early-exit-club/ In May 2023 I quit my stable full time job to work for myself. There’s a lot of information about Solopreneurs out there but they didn’t have enough details. I wanted to know exactly how they got started: How much money did they make starting out? What does it cost them to run their business? How did they grow? So I started my own newsletter. It’s called The Early Exit Club. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-joe-rogan-podcasts/ Sat, 17 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-joe-rogan-podcasts/ Alright, folks, buckle up because we’re diving into the wild world of the 10 best Joe Rogan podcast episodes. Now, keep in mind, these summaries are in the voice and tone of your friendly neighborhood Joe Rogan. So let’s get it on! Best JRE Podcast Episodes Guest Name Episode Number Elon Musk #1169 Neil deGrasse Tyson #1159 Graham Hancock #1284 Matthew Walker #1109 David Goggins #1212 Bob Lazar #1315 Elon Musk Round 2 #1470 Sam Harris #543 Lex Friedman #1696 Matt Taibbi #1386 Dr. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-affiliate/ Tue, 13 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-affiliate/ I exchanged over 30 emails with the Notion team when they were building their current affiliate program. At the time I was growing Loom’s affiliate program and I’m always happy to help a company out that I respect like Notion. But here’s the thing: Notion’s goals for the affiliate program don’t benefit smaller creators. They want you to refer teams to Notion: workspaces larger than one person. Most signups from affiliate links are single person workspaces, based on my experience doing this at Loom. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/loom-alternatives/ Sun, 11 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/loom-alternatives/ I worked at Loom for almost 2 years. I wrote over 30 posts on their blog. I’ve recorded hundreds of Looms. I built and launched Loom’s affiliate program, which there are no links to in this article. I helped generate tens of thousands of sign-ups for their product. I’m very familiar with their product, their company, and their industry. This post is about the best loom alternatives based on that experience. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/student-notion-templates/ Sat, 10 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/student-notion-templates/ 👋 Hey, I’m Nick. For the past four years I’ve kept lists of the best Notion templates here on my website. This list is the best Notion templates for students across middle school, high school, college, and university. While I’m not in school anymore I am a guest lecturer at my local University where I talk about my experience with marketing at billion dollar startups. Every lecture I ask the students if they use Notion and if so what their favorite templates are. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-project-management-templates/ Fri, 09 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-project-management-templates/ Notion launched their Project Management feature, simply called Projects, in June 2023. Suddenly the big project management tools like monday.com and ClickUp have serious, focused competition from Notion. With that in mind, here are some of my favorite Notion templates for project manageent. Don’t miss my other templates: Free Notion Templates Notion Templates For Teachers Notion templates for business Notion Second Brain Templates Notion Project Management Templates Ultimate Brain by Thomas Frank Author: Thomas Frank https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/chatgpt-vs-jasper/ Wed, 07 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/chatgpt-vs-jasper/ AI is changing the world. When ChatGPT launched in November of 2022 the world was not ready for it. Now every company is racing to launch AI features in their product, many of them using the technology behind ChatGPT to power their LLMS (large learning models). I’ve spent my entire career as a growth marketer writing content to help software companies like Loom and Mailgun grow to billion dollar valuations. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/chatgpt-vs-copy-ai/ Wed, 07 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/chatgpt-vs-copy-ai/ Are you struggling to generate fresh and appealing content for your website or blog? Do you wish you could automate the writing process and free up your time for other critical tasks? AI writing tools can help. I’ve been using AI tools to generate content for my blog and others for the past few months. I’ll compare two popular options, ChatGPT and Copy.ai, to help you decide which one suits your marketing needs best. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/quit-your-job/ Mon, 05 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/quit-your-job/ In May 2023 I quit my job and left the 9-to-5 workforce to start my own business and become a solopreneur. I’ve quit a job 4 times in my professional career and many more times as a high school and college student. Quitting a job is symbolic of starting a new chapter in your life. I love qutting my job because each time I quit it means I was on the way to something bigger. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/solopreneur/ Mon, 05 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/solopreneur/ I quit my job in May 2023 to become a Solopreneur. I had spent the last 10 months building up side income through consulting and affiliate income so I could support my family in this new phase of our lives. And let me tell you – the solopreneur life is exciting and rewarding experience, but also challenging. You can work anytime, which is a pro and a con. You don’t get PTO anymore. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-couples-templates/ Sun, 04 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-couples-templates/ I’ve been with my significant other for 11 years. We met in college and have been partners throughout some major moments: Getting our first full time jobs Moving to a new city Traveling internationally 3x Buying a house I can’t imagine my life without them. During that time I’ve learned a few things about how to nurture our relationship: Communication is key Talk about your feelings Give them space This page is a collection of Notion templates to help nurture your own relationships, across your finances, feelings, and major life decsisions. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-notion-website-builders/ Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-notion-website-builders/ Are you looking to build a website with Notion? You came to the right place. This guide compares the top Notion website builders, Potion.so and Super.so. Both let you create a full website with Notion. Notion by itself does not let you build full websites, you can only publish individual pages. You need a 3rd-party option to build an entire website. But good news: there are great options available and they both have free plans. https://nicklafferty.com/products/cozy-life-dashboard/ Sun, 14 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/products/cozy-life-dashboard/ Introducing the Cozy Life Dashboard, an aesthetic Notion template to track your habits, favorite movies, life goals, classes, and more. Did you come here from the Notion template gallery? Click below to purchase the template. Use Code 50OFF to get 50% off! Get The Cozy Life Don’t miss my curated lists of other Notion templates: Aesthetic Notion Templates Budget Notion Templates Notion Second Brain Templates Here’s an overview of the template’s quirks and features: https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/executive-assistant-tools/ Sun, 07 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/executive-assistant-tools/ I’ve worked with many executive assistants in my time advising and working full-time as a growth marketer at billion-dollar companies like Loom and Mailgun. It’s a hard and often under appreciated job. I’ve seen that managing calendars for multiple executives is hard as hell. As someone who has to book on my boss’ calendar, finding a free spot in the next 2 weeks is like voodoo magic. I wrote this list by talking to a few of my former EA colleagues and asking them what their favorite tools are. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/unpluq/ Sat, 06 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/unpluq/ I’m on a never ending quest to reduce my screen time. I have a widget pinned to my home screen that shows my daily screen time so it’s front and center. I average between two to three hours of screen time per day, depending how much I’m working and if I workout that day. Imagine reducing your screen time by 50%, what would you do with that extra time? On really busy days with a lot of meetings, my screen time is very low until I finish with work. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/write-childrens-book-ai/ Fri, 05 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/write-childrens-book-ai/ Did you know it could take 18-24 to publish a children’s picture book the traditional way? That’s mostly due to how long it takes to get high quality illustrations made, but now AI tools have shrunk that time down to days. 14 days, to be exact. My wife and I had the idea for a children’s book a week ago and today we’re publishing it on Amazon. In 14 days I went from an idea, to writing the content for the book, creating the illustrations, learning about Kindle Direct Publishing(KDP), and uploading the final version of my book. https://nicklafferty.com/template-titans/ Wed, 03 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/template-titans/ I’ve been a heavy Notion user after first discovering it in 2019. I’ve published a list of my favorite Free Notion Templates here on my blog that hundreds of thousands of people have found via Google Search. Now I’m taking it to the next level by interviewing my favorite Notion template creators. The template economy for Notion is huge. Creators are making over $300,000 selling Notion templates and the #notion community on Twitter is thriving. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-teacher-templates/ Sat, 29 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-teacher-templates/ The shift to online and remote learning changed everything for teachers and educators. I often present to students at my local university and more than 50% of them have used or currently use Notion to manage their coursework. Teachers can take advantage of this too, and it could help them connect more with students as well. The students I met are really into Notion, so imagine if your teacher created a template and distributed it on the first day of class? https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-accountant/ Sat, 15 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-accountant/ This is a guest post by The Accountant Guy, a Notion creator that focuses on building Notion templates to help track your finances. As an accountant, staying organized and efficient is key to ensuring that my personal financial records are in place and I am able to provide valuable insights to my clients or employers. Notion has been a one-stop solution for managing things smoothly be it tracking my debt or budgeting for my expenses for the month. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-health-templates/ Sun, 09 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-health-templates/ It’s hard to stay healthy when you’re busy. Between school, work, and actually having fun in your life, making time for health and wellness is honestly hard. This is a list of my favorite Health and Wellness Notion templates. You can track eveything from your mental health, overall wellness, workouts, and sobriety with the templates on this page. Don’t miss my other Notion template pages: Free Notion Templates, Aesthetic Notion Templates Notion templates for business Notion Second Brain Templates Wellness and Better Health Notion Templates The Super Life (Ultimate Life Planner) The Super Life (Ultimate Life Planner) is one place to manage everything in your life entirely in Notion. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/productivity-notion-templates/ Sun, 09 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/productivity-notion-templates/ You got this! This is your year. All those things you’ve wanted to do can totally happen. Being more productive is all about taking little steps toward your big goals. Your progress compounds over time and before you know it you’re there! Supercharge your productivity with my favorite Notion templates to get stuff done. Track your progress, crush your goals, and be a better you this year. Don’t miss my other Notion template pages: https://nicklafferty.com/blog/content-creator-notion-templates/ Sun, 09 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/content-creator-notion-templates/ This is a collection of the best Notion templates for content creators, social media, and freelancers. Whether you’re simply looking to map out your Twitter content for the rest of the month or you want to grow and monetize a social media following, there’s a Notion template here for you. Don’t miss my other Notion template pages: Free Notion Templates, Aesthetic Notion Templates Notion templates for business Notion Second Brain Templates Notion Templates for Content Creators Creator’s Companion by Thomas Frank ($50 OFF) Author: Thomas Frank https://nicklafferty.com/privacy-policy/ Wed, 29 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/privacy-policy/ Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1) The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-life-planner/ Sat, 25 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-life-planner/ Notion is the best tool to organize your life. It’s used be students, professionals, executives, and entire companies like Figma and Nike. This page is a collection of my favorite life planning Notion templates, and is one of many posts I have. Don’t miss my other template pages: Free Notion Templates Notion Second Brain Aesthetic Notion Templates Budget and Finance Notion Templates Best Notion Life Planners The Super Life (Ultimate Life Planner) The Super Life (Ultimate Life Planner) is one place to manage everything in your life entirely in Notion. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-sales-templates/ Sun, 26 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-sales-templates/ I’ve partnered with the best Notion creators to curate a list of the most useful Sales & CRM Notion templates. These templates will help you with everything from managing current clients, organizing your prospect lists, tracking what stages deals are in, and much more. Don’t miss my other Notion templates: Free Notion Templates Aeshtetic Notion Templates Budget Notion Templates Notion Second Brain Templates Best Sales CRM Notion Templates Notion Sales OS Capture and Manage your Sales in Notion that was a #4 product of the day on Product Hunt. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-airbnb-templates/ Fri, 24 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-airbnb-templates/ Notion is an incredible tool for organizing just about anything. I’ve partnered with some amazing Notion template creators to give you a list of the best Notion templates for Airbnb hosts. Don’t miss my other Notion templates: Free Notion Templates Aeshtetic Notion Templates Budget Notion Templates Notion Second Brain Templates Best Airbnb Notion Templates Here’s a list of the best Airbnb Notion templates I could find. Airbnb Super Host Attention all Airbnb hosts! https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-template-bundles/ Fri, 24 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-template-bundles/ Why buy one Notion template when you can get a bunch in a template bundle? This is a list of my favorite Notion template bundles. I’ve partnered with some of the best Notion creators to offer them to you in one place. Don’t miss my other Notion templates: Free Notion Templates Aesthetic Notion Templates Budget Notion Templates Notion Second Brain Templates Best Notion Template Bundles Notionway Essential Bundle Author: Notionway https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-calendar-apps/ Sun, 29 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-calendar-apps/ You’re here presumably because you searched something like best calendar apps in Google. I did the same thing. And you know what I found? Way too many articles with Google Calendar and Apple Calendar at the top. Like, no shit. I have been living under a rock and completely missed the fact that two of the largest tech companies in the f&%king world have calendar apps. Thank you for those mind blowing recommendations. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-second-brain/ Wed, 28 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-second-brain/ Best Notion Second Brain Templates Ultimate Brain by Thomas Frank ✅ More Affordable ✅ Made By An Expert ✅ Tutorials & Documentation ✅ Exclusive Support Community ✅ 30-Day Money Back Guarantee Download Link Notion Second Brain by Easlo ❌ Less Affordable ✅ #1 on Product Hunt ✅ Tutorials & Examples ✅ Exclusive Support Community ✅ 30-Day Money Back Guarantee Download Link This list organizes my favorite second brain templates for Notion, by creators like Easlo, Thomas Frank, and many others. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-business-templates/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-business-templates/ I’ve used Notion to build my one-person business and while working at 200+ person start-ups. Notion is flexible enough to be used for a business or start-up of any size. This is a collection of my favorite business templates for Notion. Don’t miss my other templates: Free Notion Templates Aesthetic Notion Templates Notion Second Brain Templates Notion OKR Templates Sponsor: monday.com Monday.com is project management software that will actually make you more productive. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-goal-templates/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-goal-templates/ The best time to start working on your goals is right now. Not tomorrow, not next week, or not next year. Right. Now. This is a collection of the best Notion templates for goal setting. Don’t miss my other templates: Free Notion Templates, Aesthetic Notion Templates Notion templates for business Notion Second Brain Templates Best Notion Goal Templates The Ultimate Goals Dashboard Author: Gridfiti The Ultimate Goals & OKR Dashboard for Notion is designed to help you map out and actually achieve your goals – no matter how big or small – by breaking them up into an actionable system. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-custom-domain/ Sat, 03 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-custom-domain/ Let’s face it, Notion’s default URLs are ugly. They end with an ugly string of numbers and letters like this: https://nicklafferty.notion.site/X-Y-Z-0845ac8d228645bab5c1fc5a15f5f8ca Luckily there’s an easy way to fix this with a tool called Potion. Potion is an easy to use website builder on top of Notion. Turn an existing Notion page into a fast website with a custom URL in seconds. Try Potion For Free Adding A Notion Custom Domain To add a custom domain you’ll need to use a 3rd party tool like Potion. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-todo-templates/ Fri, 02 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-todo-templates/ Notion is my favorite place to track to-do lists and other tasks I need to get done. I like that I can add them from anywhere. If I’m at the gym and think of something I can quickly add it via the Notion mobile app. I keep my grocery lists, workout tracker, and my business to-dos all within Notion. This piece of content was on my to-do Kanban board. Let me show you my favorite Notion to-do list templates. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-calendar-monday/ Fri, 02 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-calendar-monday/ I’m the kind of person that needs to start my calendars on Monday. I know, weeks technically start on Sunday, but that feels wrong to me. Luckily there’s an easy way to change this in Notion, so all your calendars default to Monday as the first day of the week. Starting A Notion Calendar on Monday Go to Workspace Settings & Members Click Language & Region in the left sidebar Check the box to start the calendar on Monday That’s it! https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-dashboard-templates/ Wed, 30 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-dashboard-templates/ Building dashboards is one of Notion’s best product features. Create a dashboard that best reflects your style and needs by mixing and matching your favorite Notion elements like text, images, videos, and other rich objects. This page is one of my many Notion posts, here are a few others: Free Notion Templates Best Notion Widgets Aesthetic Notion Templates Budget and Finance Notion Templates Here’s a list of my favorite Notion dashboard templates. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-dark-mode/ Tue, 29 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-dark-mode/ I’m a fiend for dark mode. I seek it out on every device, app, and website to protect my precious nerd eyes. Luckily, Notion’s dark mode is great and super easy to enable. Here’s exactly how to do it. But first, don’t miss my huge list of the best free notion templates and my favorite Notion dashboard templates. Notion Dark Mode Shortcut Mac: Cmd+Shift+L Windows: Cntl+Shift+L How to Turn on Dark Mode for Notion Follow these steps to enable Notion’s dark mode on desktop and mobile devices. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-calendar-template/ Mon, 28 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-calendar-template/ The Notion Calendar is one of my favorite ways to stay organized across both my personal and work Notion workspaces. There’s also an easy way to set the Notion calendar to Monday. Don’t miss my huge list of free notion templates and shorter roundups for the best budget templates and aesthetic templates. Want to make money selling Notion templates? There’s a guide for that too! Onto the Calendar templates. Notion Calendar Templates Here are some of my favorite calendar templates for Notion. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-notion-widgets/ Sat, 26 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-notion-widgets/ Notion widgets are a great way to spice up your dashboards with additional features. And they’re super easy to implement. I’ve collected a list of the best notion widgets to use in your Notion docs. This page is one of my many Notion posts, here are a few others: Free Notion Templates Best Notion Widgets Aesthetic Notion Templates Budget and Finance Notion Templates Sponsor: monday.com Monday.com is project management software that will actually make you more productive. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/sell-notion-templates/ Mon, 24 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/sell-notion-templates/ There are two ways to make money with Notion templates: Sell your own templates Sell someone else’s templates I’ve done both and it’s easier than you think. I’ve been doing it for the last 12 months and I’ve sold over $80,000 of Notion templates. I’m building a course to teach you exactly how I built my Notion affiliate business. And you can start with my free list of 30+ Notion template creators that accept affiliates. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/create-notion-website/ Sun, 16 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/create-notion-website/ There are a million ways to create and launch a website. But if you’re already a Notion pro, why not use a tool you’re familiar with instead of learning something else? Notion is a valuable skill to learn. Huge companies like Figma, Pixar, and the one I work for, Loom, use Notion across their entire business. I’ve created hundreds of Notion documents across my personal work and professional career working as a growth marketer for fast growing start-ups. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-budget-template/ Sun, 09 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-budget-template/ The beautiful thing about Notion is that it can do almost everything. This is a list of my favorite free and paid budget and personal finance templates for Notion. If you want even more Notion resources, don’t miss my huge list of free notion templates. I’ve also curated the best aesthetic notion templates, created my own notion habit tracking template, and a built a custom notion journal template. Now onto the budget templates. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/aesthetic-notion-templates/ Sat, 01 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/aesthetic-notion-templates/ Sometimes you just want a cute Notion template to inspire your creativity. I’ve got the perfect list for you. Below you’ll find a list of hand-picked notion templates for their cuteness and aesthetics. Check out my longer list of free notion templates. ClickUp vs Notion Introducing ClickUp AI. With hundreds of handcrafted and research-backed AI prompts, there's something for everyone. Try ClickUp AI For Free Who am I? 👋 Hey, I’m Nick. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/craft-notion-templates/ Sat, 01 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/craft-notion-templates/ Notion has exploded in popularity and has expanded from workplace kanban boards to complete organization of your life. You can track your habits, budget, track, itemize, start a journal, schedule, and document just about anything you need to inside of Notion. But, can you use Notion for more crafty hobbies? Absolutely. You can build databases of craft supplies, projects, and keep notes about those projects within each. Today we’ll take a look at some of my favorite Notion templates (both free and paid) for the crafty person. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/team-collaboration-software/ Sun, 04 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/team-collaboration-software/ This post is sponsored by Nextiva, software that helps simplify your business with an all-in-one customer communication platform. Try Nextiva Today Team collaboration has never been more important. In the era of hybrid and remote work, collaborating with people you’ve probably never met in person is critical not only to the sucess of the company you work for, but also for your career. I’ve been a fully remote employee for about four years so I had a little headstart before the pandemic forced remote work on most knowledge workers. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/ikea-kallax-hacks/ Wed, 24 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/ikea-kallax-hacks/ The Ikea Kallax is probably the most recognizable piece of furniture out there and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This shelving unit is all-function and is priced affordably at $70 so it’s no wonder everyone has one or two or six. We have a grand total of three Kallaxs in our home and have had them for years- one of which since we moved in together in 2014. Our primary one is used as our TV stand and our second and third are used as storage in the sunroom and office respectively. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-plant-template/ Wed, 20 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-plant-template/ This post, and template, was written by my wife Cody. She specializes in crafts, DIYs, and everything cute and aesthetic. You can find her website here. Download Her Plant Planner I didn’t know it yet, but the idea for this plant planner started when we bought our house a couple of years ago. We had a yard full of grass, but there wasn’t much else in the way of plants. When we first purchased our home, we decided to do some large-scale renovations before moving in. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/jira-alternatives/ Sun, 17 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/jira-alternatives/ JIRA, built by software giant Atlassian, is the most common issue management tool for software development teams around the world. And as of writing JIRA has been under a degraded status for over 10 days. Specifically 400 JIRA customers accidentally had their data deleted. While Atlassian keeps meticulous backups and their team is working hard to restore everyone’s data, the issue started on April 5th 2022 and were ongoing as of April 17th. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/work-advice/ Sat, 16 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/work-advice/ My friend Jesse is the Director of Marketing for a SaaS company called PhoneBurner. They help sales teams automate outbound dialing in a TCPA compliant way to close more deals. He recently posted a question on LinkedIn asking for advice to share with marketing students at his local University. Jesse got some great responses so I wanted to organize them here in one place. Marketing Advice for Students #1. Leverage your contacts Jake Johnson - VP of Brand & Content at Versapay: https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/screen-recording-software/ Sat, 26 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/screen-recording-software/ Screen recording software will change the way you work. What if instead of writing a long email or Slack message you could quickly record a video message? With the pandemic forcing the adoption of remote work we need new tools to communicate more effectively and expressively that allow our personalities to shine through. Plus you can use them to replace a few Zoom calls too. At their core screen recording tools enable you take charge of your communication at work which can honestly make you a better employee. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/viral-linkedin-post/ Sun, 20 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/viral-linkedin-post/ Posting on LinkedIn consistently is one of the best ways to jump start your career. And it’s super easy to get started. I’ve been posting on LinkedIn since I got my first professional job in 2014. Since then every new job I’ve taken has come through a connection I met on LinkedIn or a recruiter reaching out to me. I spend a few hours on LinkedIn each week reading and posting interesting content, networking, and running LinkedIn ads for my day job at Loom . https://nicklafferty.com/blog/focus-at-work/ Sun, 23 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/focus-at-work/ I’ve been working remotely for the last three years, a little before the global pandemic forced remote work on many of us, and it first it was amazing. I had so much time in my day! But over time, and as my career grew, it became increasingly difficult to stay focused at work. I often spend my days in back to back meetings which can completely kill all productive and deep work. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/remote-work-tools/ Mon, 17 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/remote-work-tools/ I’ve been working remotely since before the pandemic started. Finding a remote job was a priority for me because I wanted to take back my time. I used to commute an hour each way to my job in Austin, Texas. I’d leave my house around 7 in the morning to catch a bus headed for downtown. Then I’d hop on that same bus around 5 to get back home around 6 or 6:30, depending on traffic. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/clickup-alternatives/ Sun, 09 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/clickup-alternatives/ What is ClickUp? ClickUp is more than just a project management tool. ClickUp can track your tasks, goals, and OKRs, work documents, and more. ClickUp is trying to become one app that can replace all other apps. They raised a $400 million Series C funding round in October 2021 which valued ClickUp at $4 billion But you’re looking for alternatives to ClickUp, and that’s what I’m going to give you. https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/chocolate-donut-cake/ Wed, 05 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/chocolate-donut-cake/ Chocolate Bundt Cake Recipe From Scratch I bugged my wife for weeks to make and write up this recipe. Behold the best chocolate cake you’ll ever make. This cake isn’t that hard to make: Mix dry, mix wet, combine, and bake. There’s no prepping to do or weird ingredients to source. And it’s always a hit at parties. That soupy batter turns into a super moist and decadent cake and the coffee in the icing knocks it out of the park by bringing out all that chocolatey goodness. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-invoice-software/ Sun, 02 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-invoice-software/ I started freelancing in 2020 and to date I’ve brought in almost $100,000 in revenue in addition to my full-time job. I honestly had no idea what I was doing when I started freelancing, and I made some silly mistakes. This post isn’t about my particular freelancing business, instead it’s about the software I use to automate the boring parts so I can spend my time on making money instead. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/blade/ Sat, 27 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/blade/ Want $50 off Blade? Use my code: NickL145 Update: I took a second Blade ride from Manhattan to JFK during the day in November 2022 and also filmed it. Blade is a super cool experience I think everyone should do at least once. That video is below: The next video is from a night-time ride from JFk to Manhattan in December 2021. Want $50 off Blade? Use my code: NickL145 https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/dkim/ Fri, 19 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/dkim/ What is DKIM? DKIM, short for domainkeys identified mail, is a way of authenticating emails to prevent spoofing. DKIM works by allowing the receiving email server to check that an email was actually send and authorized by the domain owner. The DKIM signature is encrypted and added to the email headers. Implementing DKIM could improve your email deliverability, especially if used with DKIM and SPF records. https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/dmarc/ Fri, 19 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/dmarc/ What is DMARC? DMARC is short for domain-based message authentication reporting and conformance. It’s an email protocol designed to prevent spoofed or phished emails from being appearing to be sent from your domain. It’s free to use and works by authenticating an email to align the SPF and DKIM records. DMARC essentially broadcasts to the world, and specifically inbox providers like Gmail, what to do with unauthorized use of your email. https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/marketing-emails/ Mon, 15 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/marketing-emails/ What are Marketing Emails? Marketing emails are sent with a commercial intent in the hopes that you purchase a product or service. Compared to transactional emails, the user did not take an action to trigger the emails. Marketing emails also typically have lower open rates and click-through rates because they’re not expected. Marketing emails often take the form of promotional emails designed to generate revenue and sales, such as Black Friday emails. https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/transactional-emails/ Mon, 15 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/transactional-emails/ What are Transactional Emails? Transactional emails are triggered emails that a user is expecting to receive. They often have higher open rates and click-through rates because the user wants to receive that email. One of the most common uses-cases for transactional emails are password resets. If a user forgets their password they can click a button to have a new one emailed to them. Examples of transactional emails: Password resets Purchase Receipts https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/email-deliverability/ Sun, 14 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/email-deliverability/ What is Email Deliverability? Email deliverability happens when your email is successfully delivered into the inbox. Gmails promotional folder is considered the inbox, so deliverability is considered successful if your email lands there. Failed email deliverability means your email ended up in the spam folder. https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/email-delivery/ Sun, 14 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/email-delivery/ What Is Email Delivery? Email delivery is the measure of how many of your emails were accepted by an inbox provider. Often confused with email deliverability, delivery is not the act of making it into the inbox (and avoiding the spam folder). When your email is delivered that means the ISP (inbox service provider, like Gmail or Yahoo) has accepted your email. Your email has yet to be sorted into a folder like Inbox, Spam, or Promotions. https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/open-rate/ Sun, 14 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/open-rate/ What Are Email Open Rates? Open rates are a measure of what percent of users opened your email. Open rates can be calculated on a unique and non-unique basis. Unique open rates only count one open for each recipient. Non-unique open rates count all opens regardless if a user opens the same email multiple times. Open rates are tracked by adding an invisible tracking pixel to emails. When a user opens the email the tracking pixel fires and tells the email sending service that it was opened. https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/ctr/ Sat, 13 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/glossary/ctr/ What is Click-through rates? Click-Through Rate(CTR) is the percent of users that click a link from your email compared to the total amount that opened it. Unique CTR only looks at one click per user. So if a user clicks multiple links then only the first click will be counted. Click-through rate is a metric that can help determine the success of your email campaigns. A high CTR means that your email was engaging and that users wanted to click through to read more or buy your product. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-organization-apps/ Sun, 31 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-organization-apps/ So much of life happens online now. It’s easy to lose track of what you need to do on any given day. So having a place to organize your digital life can be the difference between actually getting stuff done or devolving into a forgetful mess. Organization apps, which is a broad category of tools that ranges from project management software, to calendar apps, to lightning-fast email clients, can help simplify your to-dos. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/increase-productivity/ Mon, 25 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/increase-productivity/ It’s that time of year where people around the world start setting ambitious new years resolutions. We list out things we want to do differently, habits we want to change, and how we’re finally going to join a gym next year. One of my new years resolutions is to be more productive. I want to be more efficient with my time at home and at work But exactly how can I do that? https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-productivity-tools/ Sun, 24 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-productivity-tools/ This post is sponsored by Nextiva, software that helps simplify your business with an all-in-one customer communication platform. Try Nextiva Today Productivity tools are some of my favorite software to use on a daily basis. The tools here, like Notion, monday.com, and Superhuman, are tools I use almost every day. Tools like Vimcal and Friday and new to me, and I honestly love finding, trying, and talking about new software. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/new-years-resolutions/ Fri, 22 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/new-years-resolutions/ I love New Years. There’s something comforting about closing out a year and starting a new one. I’ve done the traditional new years resolutions thing before and they never stick. In my opinion a resolution doesn’t need to stick for the whole year. But it should stick long enough to make a significant impact on your life. So I put together a list of 6 realistic new years resoutions for 2022. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/monday-vs-clickup/ Mon, 18 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/monday-vs-clickup/ monday.com and ClickUp are two leading project management tools in a sea of other solutions all promising to supercharge your productivity and streamline your business processes. So, how do you decide between them? While they have some overlapping features, you should consider some key differences before selecting either of these platforms for your business. After all, adding a project management tool to your team is a long-term commitment. Once you start setting up projects, tasks, and due dates, you’re creating a sunk cost should you ever move to a different tool. https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/gyro-bowls/ Sun, 17 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/gyro-bowls/ Chicken Gyro Bowls This recipe is our take on immitating one of our favorite new restaraunts, Cava. If you haven’t been, Cava is like a mediterranean Chipotle. You build a bowl that includes rice, greens, chicken, and a bunch of flavorful toppings. So we did our best to immitate that here with marinated chicken, hummus, tzatziki, and a bunch of vegetables. Chicken Gyro Rice Bowl We use cauliflower, radishes, and brussel sprouts, but you can replace them with anything. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-hr-software/ Thu, 14 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-hr-software/ What is HR Software HR software helps manage hiring and recruiting new employees, benefits, payroll, continued employee development, performance management, and general tasks for the human resources team. Hiring, training, and managing a workforce is complicated. Whether you have 10 employees, 100, or 10,000, HR teams need the proper tools to ensure everyone is happy, productive, and gets paid on time. Types of HR Software Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS Software) Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS & Recruiting Software) Benefit Software Learning Management Performance Management HR Software Features HR software features fall into three buckets. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/productivity-apps-students/ Sat, 09 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/productivity-apps-students/ Look, I was a pretty shitty student. I failed calculus three times and had to take it over the summer to hit my original graduation target. I didn’t have any of these tools when I was studying. It took me until I was almost 30 to fully understand how my brain prefers to digest information. Since I graduated I’ve given many talks to students at my local university. I talk to them about what modern careers are like: https://nicklafferty.com/blog/netlify-alternatives/ Sun, 03 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/netlify-alternatives/ This website was hosted on Netlify since I started seriously blogging in 2019. After a major issue, which I detail below, I ended up moving to Cloudflare. Read on to learn why I moved and why I think Cloudflare is a fantastic host for modern websites. My Netlify Issues At the time I chose Netlify because it was free and supported my static CMS of choice, Hugo. But the larger my website has grown the more I’ve noticed Netlify’s shortcomings. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/system76-launch/ Sat, 02 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/system76-launch/ System 76 Keyboard Review The Launch is an Open Source TKL keyboard from System76, maker of the Linux operating system Pop_OS and open source laptop and desktops. They’re based in Denver, Colorado and manufacture and mill their hardware products in house. The System76 Launch comes with RGB LED’s, n-key rollover, Kailh MX hotswap sockets, and dye-sub PBT keycaps. You can choose from two avilable switches: Kailh Box Jades (clicky) or Box Royals (tactile). https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/prm-software/ Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/prm-software/ What is a partnership relationship management tool (PRM Tool)? A Partnership Relationship Management tool, also called a PRM, is software designed to help manage, recruit, automate, and commission marketing partners for your business. PRMs are often used to create affiliate programs where your partners can earn a commission by referring you business. PRM software can take all of the manual work out of building a partner program so you can unlock a new revenue stream. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-freelance-tools/ Sat, 18 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/best-freelance-tools/ I started freelancing in 2020 without any experience or knowledge of exactly how to do it. I didn’t know how to create contracts, send invoices, manage multiple calendars, or even how to set my hourly rates. I figured it out eventually and there were a lot of aha moments along the way. I’ll take everything I learned freelancing my way to almost $100,000 in revenue as a side hustle, while working a full-time job, and share my suggestions for the best freelancer tools. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/free-illustrations/ Thu, 16 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/free-illustrations/ A list of free illustration images that are royalty free, public domain, and open source. Have more to add to this list? Email me! 10+ Best Free Illustrations Undraw Completely free illustrations with customizable colors. Download as SVG or PNG. Free Download Inclusive Illustrations 59 inclusive avatars to use in your products, projects, or anywhere you want to! Free Download Open Source Illustrations Created during the 100 day illustration challenge, this pack of 120+ illustrations is completely free to use. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/cc-bcc-email-meaning/ Mon, 06 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/cc-bcc-email-meaning/ I’ve been sending emails since Gmail was first released as a beta product in 2004. Since then I’ve graduated from high school, college, graduate school, and have been working professionally for almost the last 10 years. I’ve sent a lot of email. I even worked at Mailgun, a company that sends 10+ billion emails a month for companies like Pinterest and Substack. But for a while I wasn’t clear on the difference between CC and BCC. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/collaboration-tools/ Sun, 05 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/collaboration-tools/ What are collaboration tools? Collaboration tools help teams work together, share information, and organize tasks in order to best complete their work. Collaboration tools can be everything from calendar scheduling software like Calendly, to project management software like monday.com, design tools like Figma, or video messaging software like Loom. Most organizations will have several tools, often referred to their tech stack, that work together to enable their employees to do their best work. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/digital-workplace-software/ Sun, 05 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/digital-workplace-software/ What is a digital workplace? A digital workplace is one that exists online as a virtual repository of information, knowledge, and services. Employees can access and share documents, files, and view things like organization charts or sensitive files. What is digital workplace software? Digital workplace software enables employees to do their job quickly, effectively, and efficiently from virtually any location and achieve their professional goals. The modern workplace has shifted away from a physical location to people’s homes across the world. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/growth-hacking-tools/ Fri, 03 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/growth-hacking-tools/ I’ve been a professional growth marketer for the last seven years. I’ve worked in-house at several software companies, including Mailgun and Loom (the best screen recording tool for work), and I’ve consulted for many more. I mention this at the beginning to let you know that I know what I’m talking about. Too many bloggers write fluff pieces without any real-world experience using the tool. This isn’t your average listicle. These are my favorite growth hacking tools that I’ve personally used. https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/chicken-wings/ Tue, 31 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/chicken-wings/ How To Make Crispy Chicken Wings Have you ever wanted to make crispy chicken wings without the mess of frying? I know I have. No oil means these are a healthy option too. Well, healthier than frying anyway. But, you came to the right place today my friend. With this one simple trick you can make crispy chicken wings in the oven in like 30 minutes. What does baking powder do for chicken wings? https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/chicken-cheesesteak-hoagie/ Mon, 30 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/chicken-cheesesteak-hoagie/ You can’t get a good cheesesteak in Texas. It just doesn’t exist, not like they make them in Philly. I lived in New Jersey, south Jersey specifically, for about four years and experienced some of the best italian food of my life. Cheesesteaks are great but I fell in love with chicken cheesesteak hoagies. It takes the great parts about a cheesesteak, makes them slightly healthier by subsituting chicken for beef, and then adds hoagie ingredients on top. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/email-api/ Sun, 29 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/email-api/ What is an email api? An email api gives your application access to an email sending platform without having to build it yourself. This is beneficial as many cloud hosting providers like AWS and Google Cloud do not allow you to run an email server. You can send triggered emails directly within your application without having to write complex code and maintain email servers. Why use an email api? Despite email being an old technology, running an email server at scale is very complicated. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-url-shorteners/ Sun, 15 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-url-shorteners/ I’ve used a lot of URL shorteners as I’ve built this blog into a five-figure affiliate marketing business. Every blog should be using short URLs. Full stop. Scroll down for a quick overview of what URL shorteners are, how more context into why T.ly is my favorite URL shortener. Try T.ly Today What is a URL shortener? A URL shortener takes a long URL and makes it short. By shortening URLs you can track how many clicks they get, rebrand them to use your domain, and easily swap out the destination links once instead of replacing many links across your entire website. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/mailgun/ Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/mailgun/ Update 9/30/2021: Mailgun, and the entire Pathwire portfolio, was acquired by European communication-provider-as-a-service giant Sinch for almost $2 billion. There are tons of email service providers on the market today. SMTP.com , Mailchimp, Mailgun, Sendinblue, the list goes on. As with many highly competitive industries, there’s a tendency for companies to sprint towards feature parity. Over time the differences between the companies become meaningless because they all offer many of the same products: https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/breakfast-sandwich/ Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/breakfast-sandwich/ My wife Cody came up with this one and it’s truly a one pot breakfast sandwich recipe. This also totally works in a Ninja Foodie, and in fact that’s what we used. The nice thing about both is that you can sautee and broil in the same pot which makes this recipe super fast and easy. This recipe makes two sandwiches but you can easily adapt it to 1 by only using one egg and 1-2 slices of bacon, or you can double it if you need to make it for more people. https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/pineapple-habanero-hotsauce/ Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/pineapple-habanero-hotsauce/ My wife and I grow our own hot peppers and we’ve always wanted to try to make our own habanero hot sauce. We finally tried it with some pineapples and garlic and it turned out delicious. And also a little spicy. Ok, ours was super spicy, so I’ve modified the recipe to use less habaneros. Pro-tip: Don’t roast your habaneros on the stove unless you want to fumigate your entire house. https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/chicken-fajitas/ Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/chicken-fajitas/ Y’all, these chicken fajitas are seriously one of my favorite meals and it’s so easy. Oven baking chicken always turns out super juicy and it’s so hands off. I’ve tried all different ways of cooking chicken, but for an easy weeknight meal nothing beats popping them in an oven for 20 minutes. While the chicken cooks you have plenty of time to prep the rest of the meal. For me having fresh guacamole is absolutely key to this dish, as are fresh tortillas. https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/guacamole/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/recipes/guacamole/ I’ve been making this guacamole recipe for years and it’s always a hit with guests. My main substitutions compared to standard guacamole is green onions in place of white onion. My wife hates raw onion but green onion is small enough to sneak by. My secret ingredient is sriracha. It adds some heat and extra flavor and makes this a super unique and personal guacamole recipe. The key to a good guacamole starts with avocado. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-alternatives/ Fri, 02 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/notion-alternatives/ Notion is my favorite productivity tool of 2023 but it’s not for everyone. Notion’s building block system for creating workspaces can take some time to master. If you’re still using Notion make sure to look at my free notion template library. But if you’re seriously considering Notion alternatives then here’s my top picks, based on my own research as a working professional for B2B software companies. Best Notion Alternatives monday.com ClickUp Coda Mem. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/6sense/ Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/6sense/ 6sense is an account-based marketing platform that helps companies market and sell to their target accounts. 6sense is headquartered in San Francisco, California and has almost 500 employees. They raised a $125 million Series D investment in March 2021 at a $2.1 billion valuation. It’s one of many ABM platforms on the market today, but it was the first to market with an artificial intelligence powered predictive model. I went through an extensive vendor review process with Mailgun, the company I used to work for. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/bonsai/ Sat, 19 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/bonsai/ I used Bonsai to close a $4k/month consulting client. It’s easily the single best tool to help me, and any freelancer, consultant, or small business owner, level up their business. Here’s why 👇 Did you start a business to do admin work like create proposal templates and legal documents? Hell no. No one did. You started your business to do work you’re passionate about and to help solve major problems for your clients. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/neeva/ Thu, 17 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/neeva/ Would you pay a monthly fee to a search engine, in exchange for removing ads? That’s the bet Neeva, a new search engine, is making. There are many current alternatives to Google Search: Microsoft’s Bing DuckDuckGo (privacy-focused) Ecosia (ad revenue used to plant trees) Yet Google is still king. It’s estimated there are 5.6 billion Google searches every day. None of the alternatives come close to matching that level of traffic. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/dashthis/ Mon, 07 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/dashthis/ The primary source of traffic to my blog is organic search, except when a post hits the front page of hacker news. To view the performance of my SEO traffic I primarily look at Google Search Console. It’s the best data set available, straight from Google. But the reporting charts available are terrible. Yes, the data is good, but you can’t change the graphs to display by week, month, or any date range besides daily. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/osano/ Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/osano/ Osano is a consent management platform, also known as a cookie management software, and in my opinion it’s the cadillac of cookie managers. I’ve had horrendous experience with other consent platforms and Osano is truly a breath of fresh air. Why do I have such strong opinions about this type of software? And who the heck am I to even be talking about this? Let me explain. Why trust me? I run growth marketing for Mailgun, one of the largest email service providers in the world. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/optimizely/ Mon, 31 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/optimizely/ Optimizely is the best website a/b testing tool I’ve used in my career so far and its is one of my favorite growth hacking tools. Optimizely is also quite expensive. But is it worth the price? Keep reading. Want to know how much it costs? View Optimizely Pricing. Why Should You Trust Me? You should be skeptical of software reviews on the internet. Many of them are paid for, either directly by brands who sponsor the content and pay bloggers like me in exchange for a favorable review, or indirectly because the blogger is part of an affiliate program. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/donate-hair/ Wed, 07 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/donate-hair/ I’ve had long hair for the last 6 years but I decided I wanted to cut it all off and donate my hair to charity. The charity I chose is Children With Hair Loss. I started growing my hair out after I got my first full-time job. I work in technology so as long as I got my job done my bosses never cared what I looked like. But after 6 years it was time for a new look. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/plausible/ Sat, 13 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/plausible/ What is Plausible Analytics? Plausible is a fully GDPR compliant website analytics platform, made and hosted in the EU. The script adds less than 1 KB so it’s lightweight, lightning fast, and privacy-focused. Plausible takes a progressive approach to web tracking: cookie-free does not collect personal data no persistent identifiers user count is based on unique IP addresses and is cleared every 24 hours open source But how does Plausible stand up to Google Analytics? https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/supermetrics/ Tue, 16 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/supermetrics/ I’ve managed digital marketing campaigns at multi-million dollar companies for over seven years. My side hustle is Google Ads consulting for SaaS companies. Supermetrics is the first tool I recommend any company purchase for their digital marketing team, simply because it is the most valuable tool I have ever used. I first started using Supermetrics over six years ago and I’ve been a constant subscriber ever since. I changed jobs in July 2021 again and for the third company in a row I’ve immediately recommended using Supermetrics. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/youtube-ads/ Sun, 07 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/youtube-ads/ This article first appeared on GrowthMentor. Have you seen those Youtube ads about how to make money online? “Youtube ads beat Facebook ads every time. Let’s face it…” I don’t believe a word they say because I run Youtube and Google ads for a living. I’ve spent over $6 million on Google Ads and I’ve successfully grown Youtube campaigns from zero to 2,000 sales/month. I also don’t believe in paying for information from sketchy people claiming you can make six figures a month online with this one quick trick. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/project-management-tools/ Sat, 06 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/project-management-tools/ What is Project Management Software? Project management software is used to schedule, plan, organize, and track the status of projects. A project can be anything from a home renovation, to a ProductHunt launch, to a wedding. Anything that involves breaking down a complex idea into smaller steps can be project planned. Project management software helps organize all of the moving parts, due dates, and requirements for your project. Verdict: monday.com is my pick for best project management software. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/monday/ Fri, 05 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/monday/ This post is sponsored by Nextiva, software that helps simplify your business with an all-in-one customer communication platform. Try Nextiva Today Teamwork is tricky, particularly in the business world. Keeping everyone on the same page and working smoothly across different departments takes a huge effort. Factor in the rise of remote work, and it’s harder than ever to effectively manage tasks and facilitate communication. In recent years, workplace productivity tools have entered the marketplace, keen on solving this problem once and for all. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/wordpress-vs-html/ Fri, 05 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/wordpress-vs-html/ I have strong opinions about this topic. In fact, I hate one of the options. Vehemently. I’d throw it in a fire and watch it burn while laughing maniacally. Come along to see if I prefer WordPress or Static HTML websites, and what this blog uses. It’s All HTML Anyway Here’s the thing, no matter what you choose to build your site with, the end result is HTML. HTML is the foundation of all websites. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/wrike/ Fri, 05 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/wrike/ Are you sick and tired of juggling a dozen different apps just to manage a single work task? Relying on a hodgepodge of software is more than just a nuisance — it’s ineffective, a waste of time, and a security nightmare, especially given the number of data leaks nowadays. There has to be a more effective way to get things done… right? Introducing Wrike , one of the most popular free project management tools. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/conversion-copywriting/ Sun, 31 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/conversion-copywriting/ Conversion copywriting is a skill worth developing and it’ll pay dividends across all areas of your life. I Here’s why it’s worth setting a professional goal around it improving your conversion copywriting skills. I use conversion copywriting all the time both in my day job as a growth marketer helping billion-dollar companies like Loom grow and as I build this blog into a $20k/month income source. I bet you’ve used conversion copywriting without even knowing it. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/cover-letters/ Sat, 30 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/cover-letters/ To whom it may concern. Dear sir or madam. Dear hiring manager. These common opening lines to cover letters all have one thing in common. They’re terrible. They sound like they were written by a poorly trained AI. I’ve hired for dozens of roles throughout my career and the most common problem I’ve seen with candidates has nothing to do with their resume. Their cover letters use outdated and incorrect advice. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-email-client/ Sun, 24 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/best-email-client/ How many times did you check your email today? Most people checked email an average of 15 times every day. Which means you check email every 37 minutes. The average professional spends 27% of their workweek managing email. That’s a lot of wasted time. You can instantly be 15% more productive if you reduced how much time you wasted on email. And the best way to do that is with a better email experience. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/evernote/ Sat, 23 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/evernote/ Life can be hectic these days. Between the constant notifications and endless stream of digital information, it’s a wonder we ever get anything done. The good news? Tools like Evernote and the best Evernote alternatives can help simplify your work and personal life. Instead of competing for your attention, these apps use technology to help you wrestle back control and organize your digital information with ease. It’s technology on your terms. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/hire-freelance-writer/ Sat, 23 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/hire-freelance-writer/ How to Hire A Content Writer Clearly define your project Create an application Post on a job board Review writing samples Ask for a paid test project Have a short video call How To Hire A Writer on UpWork I suggest not using UpWork. While you can use Upwork to find writers I advise against it for several reasons: Writers charge on an hourly basis You have to pay up front You have to use Upwork I have nothing against the many talented writers who sell their services on Upwork. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/professional-goals/ Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/professional-goals/ I started working professionally in 2014 after graduating with my Master’s degree in Economics. My starting salary at the time was $48,000. Since then I’ve over 4x’d my salary through a combination of internal promotions, part-time consulting, and completely changing companies four times. I don’t have a STEM degree, I didn’t attend a prestigious university. Setting and achieving the right professional goals has been the difference maker in my career and has allowed me to earn more than I ever thought possible as a broke college student. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/superhuman/ Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/superhuman/ Is Superhuman worth it? Superhuman is the single best email client I've ever used. It's expensive but the time it saves me compared to using vanilla Gmail more than makes up for the monthly cost. Click here for 1 month free I’ve now been using Superhuman for over six years with a receipt to prove it. How has my opinion of the best email client with a wait list of over 450,000 people evolved over time? https://nicklafferty.com/blog/free-notion-templates/ Sat, 09 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/free-notion-templates/ 👋 Hey, I’m Nick. Welcome to my website. For over 4 years I’ve collected my favorite Notion templates on this page. I organized it into sections to make it as easy as possible to find your next favorite Notion template. Feel free to click the table of contents at the top to skip around because there’s a lot of templates here. There are sections for Students, Second Brains, Budget & Finance, Aesthetic templates, and so much more. https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/clickup/ Sun, 03 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/reviews/clickup/ What is ClickUp? ClickUp is project management software that aims to combine everything into one: tasks, docs, chat, goals, and more. ClickUp has 100+ employees based out of San Diego, California. They raised $100M in a Series B funding round in December 2020. Some of their well-known customers are Google, Airbnb, Nike, and Uber. Their main competitors are Notion, Trello, Asana , and Monday. ClickUp is a great Notion alternative because they share many similar features and are closely competing in the project management and workplace productivity market. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/book-reviews-2020/ Sun, 03 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/book-reviews-2020/ A Note on Book Reviews I am guilty of scouring the best seller lists on Amazon, and Goodreads(now owned by Amazon) to find the best rated books to read. I’d spend hours scouring those lists, combing through books that have thousands of reviews. If a book has an above 4-star average rating on Goodreads, surely that means I’ll like it, right? In pre-covid days, I’d use my phone inside Barnes and Noble to lookup reviews of books in-store. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/google-analytics-click-tracking/ Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/google-analytics-click-tracking/ Overview I want to track how many clicks I send to specific external website, then I want to compare total clicks to how many views that page gets to calculate a click-through-rate. This isn’t enabled by default in the old Google Analytics, but it is in the new Google Analytics v4. Google Analytics is only as useful as the data you feed into it. Google Tag Manager(GTM) is a powerful and fast way to send data into Google Analytics. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/landing-page-builders/ Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/landing-page-builders/ What is a Landing Page? A landing page is designed to convert an anonymous visitor into a customer or lead. Landing pages typically have a single goal and they remove any links or escape points that could entice a visitor to leave the page. In Google Analytics, a landing page is the first page that a visitor enters your website from. It’s the opposite of an exit page, which is the last page a visitor looks at before leaving. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/what-is-an-email-subdomain-and-why-use-one/ Mon, 21 Dec 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/what-is-an-email-subdomain-and-why-use-one/ When it comes to email sending, sometimes you need more than the press of a button to get your message across. You may have heard of email subdomains, but you may be wondering - how do you use them? And, wait a minute, what exactly are they? Well, have no fear, because we’re going to use this post to tell you all about email subdomains and why you need them. It’s everything you ever wanted to know about subdomains but were afraid to ask. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/why-im-quitting-video-games-for-an-entire-year/ Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/why-im-quitting-video-games-for-an-entire-year/ Quitting video games was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I wasn’t having fun anymore and I wanted to spend my time in more productive ways. So I quit playing and decided to create content for this blog instead. One of my blog posts hit the front page of Hacker News and it completely changed my life. I originally wrote this post in 2020 and now a few years later in 2023 I quit my full-time job. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/the-basics-of-growth-marketing/ Thu, 13 Aug 2020 05:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/the-basics-of-growth-marketing/ What is growth marketing? Growth marketing, also known as growth hacking, has been on the rise since 2010, coinciding with the growth of tech start-ups after 2008’s global recession. You can see this fast rise in recognition in the graph below, and the term’s speed into the mainstream fits its definition. Growth marketing is all about rapid and iterative experimentation with the ultimate goal of growing sales, revenue, and profit for a business. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/what-happens-when-you-re-on-the-front-page-of-hacker-news/ Tue, 28 Apr 2020 05:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/what-happens-when-you-re-on-the-front-page-of-hacker-news/ I had almost 18,000 visitors to my website yesterday. Maybe you were one of them. If so, welcome! I average about 50 visitors per day, so yesterday was quite the spike! Some very nice person posted my article about spending $6 million on Google Ads to Hacker News, and it hit the front page. It peaked at around #5 on HackerNews and got around 270 comments. Not bad! Thanks, kind stranger. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/finding-joy-when-everything-s-gone-to-hell/ Thu, 09 Apr 2020 05:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/finding-joy-when-everything-s-gone-to-hell/ Hi friends, followers, and other people interested in my words. It’s been a while! Many of you will have found my work when I was writing and publishing new content every day in February. In March I wrote quite a bit less because as it turns out, publishing for 29 days straight is hard work. And with March came COVID-19, aka the Coronavirus. Suddenly my Medium feed was filled with articles about it. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-create-an-all-star-linkedin-profile/ Tue, 17 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-create-an-all-star-linkedin-profile/ A great LinkedIn profile can literally make you more money. I haven’t cold-applied for a job in years because I have recruiters reaching out to me non-stop. If you’re serious about growing your career, the only social network you should use is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is full of inspiring stores and people. But here’s the thing, everything you post will be seen by every professional connection you have. Your grandma isn’t on LinkedIn. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/3-harsh-realities-about-working-remotely/ Sun, 15 Mar 2020 05:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/3-harsh-realities-about-working-remotely/ I’ve been working remotely full-time for the last 12 months out of my house in Austin, Texas. I’m not a digital nomad. I have a wife, dog, and cat that prefer to have a stable home. Now that everyone is writing about work from home tips I thought I’d write about what it’s like to work remotely for a long period of time. There are some simple things that everyone talks about: https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-one-blog-post-can-change-your-life/ Tue, 10 Mar 2020 05:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-one-blog-post-can-change-your-life/ I wrote about Spending $6 Million on Google AdsIt’s done almost 10,000 views on Medium since then. A few days later I wrote about the initial viral experience: The anatomy of a 5,000 view post. You can see it’s been viewed even more since I wrote that. I knew that the post was good. The headline was strong and I picked a good image that was colorful. But I never expected that kind of response. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/the-people-who-inspire-me-the-most-at-the-gym-may-surprise-you/ Fri, 06 Mar 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/the-people-who-inspire-me-the-most-at-the-gym-may-surprise-you/ I’ve stopped working out countless times in my life. I don’t even count how many times I start going to the gym because I inevitably stop for one reason or another. Sometimes it’s motivation, a lingering injury, or some other bullshit reason that I drum up in my head to give me a reason to stop. Consistency is hard, whether it’s writing on Medium or working out. That’s why not everyone is Arnold Schwarzenegger or Tim Denning. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/why-i-like-writing/ Wed, 04 Mar 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/why-i-like-writing/ It’s not what you think. I spent years behind a computer screen, consuming content on the internet without contributing much in return. I’m 31 now and the internet has been a major part of my life since I was about 12. The internet I knew when I was a kid is vastly different than the one kids know today. My childhood internet was connected by AOL dial-up, communicated over AIM instant messenger, and was spent hearing that “You’ve Got Mail” audio chime. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-create-a-free-google-ads-dashboard-in-google-sheets/ Mon, 02 Mar 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-create-a-free-google-ads-dashboard-in-google-sheets/ I’ve been doing some form of digital marketing for over 6 years. I’ve done everything from affiliate management, lifecycle email campaigns, to PPC ads in Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. I’ve spent over $6 million dollars on Google Ads alone in a single year. And there’s one tool I can’t live without. Supermetrics . It helps digital marketers pull data from many different ad platforms, send it to Google sheets, and then pipe in revenue from Mysql, RedShift, or any number of places to create an automatically updated dashboard of your paid media performance. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/i-wrote-every-day-for-a-month/ Sat, 29 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/i-wrote-every-day-for-a-month/ This is it. The last day of my 29-day writing challenge to publish new content every day this month. I almost can’t believe it’s over. It’s been a long, sometimes hard road to get here. But I stuck with it, publishing something new every single day. Some of them better than others. Here are the highlights: Christmas in July Is The Worst Fake Holiday Ever What I learned After Spending $6 Million on Google Ads How to Quit Playing Video Games Why Notion Is the Best Productivity App of 2020 What follows is a summary of the highlights and lowlights of my 29-day publishing journey. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/3-decisions-worth-thinking-long-and-hard-about/ Fri, 28 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/3-decisions-worth-thinking-long-and-hard-about/ It was 9:30 pm and I was watching a blank cursor flicked off and on in my writing application. I had committed to writing a weekly newsletter, and it was due at 6 the next morning. I had to finish the content, design, and get it scheduled before I could go to bed. I haven’t procrastinated this bad since college. I spent all week trying to find the inspiration to write my newsletter, and I came up with nothing. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/the-anatomy-of-a-5-000-view-post/ Thu, 27 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/the-anatomy-of-a-5-000-view-post/ I wrote a post about how I Spent $6 Million on Google Ads Last Year. The title was catchy, the image was bright and colorful, the content was useful, it had clear takeaways, and I was positioned like an expert because I spent a bunch of someone else’s money. I thought it was a good little post and had moderate expectations for its success. It was published on Medium and got about 200 views on the first day. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/an-introvert-s-guide-to-talking-to-introverts/ Wed, 26 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/an-introvert-s-guide-to-talking-to-introverts/ Introverts can seem shy, standoffish, or rude in social situations. In my experience, and trust me, I have a lot of experience here, that’s not often the case. Maybe it’s because I was homeschooled, but I straight up do not know how to behave like a normal human in large groups. I want to have meaningful conversations. I want to connect with people on a deeper level and get past all the superficial bullshit. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/if-you-can-t-find-time-to-write-you-re-not-trying-hard-enough/ Tue, 25 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/if-you-can-t-find-time-to-write-you-re-not-trying-hard-enough/ I went on a 5-day business trip at the start of February. Most days I started working at 8 am and didn’t stop until 8 pm that night. My days were filled with meetings, brainstorming sessions, and team-building events. I’d get back to my hotel room every night exhausted. Knowing I had to get up the next day and do it all over again made it so much worse. But I still found time to write. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/lessons-from-a-dj-the-audience-should-never-dictate-your-art/ Mon, 24 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/lessons-from-a-dj-the-audience-should-never-dictate-your-art/ I started playing music on the internet in 2006. I was 16 at the time and had started an internet radio station that would eventually get me nominated as a Texas Youth Entrepreneur Of The Year. My radio station grew to house 20 DJs from Paris, Sydney, Canada, and the United States. Every week they would volunteer their time to play music on my radio station. I was the first DJ and performed like one from a traditional FM radio station like KISS FM. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/your-college-degree-doesn-t-matter/ Sun, 23 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/your-college-degree-doesn-t-matter/ A 2013 study by two economists at The Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that only 27% of new graduates found a job closely related to their degree. More recently, a study based on 125 million professional profiles in 2019 found similar results. With the exception of engineers, the degree you graduate with does not often lead to a job in that field. The authors found that those with engineering degrees often end up becoming an engineer. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/the-path-to-progress-starts-with-baby-steps/ Sat, 22 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/the-path-to-progress-starts-with-baby-steps/ I was lying in bed, minutes away from sleep, when a strange thought popped into my head. I want to start running. Why that thought, at that particular time? I have no idea. It was a strange idea at a strange time. But for some reason, I seized it. I thumbed open the App Store and downloaded the fitness app Strava. One of my good friends uses it to track his runs, so I figured I could track mine too and draw inspiration from him. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/i-spent-6-million-on-google-ads-last-year-here-s-what-i-learned/ Fri, 21 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/i-spent-6-million-on-google-ads-last-year-here-s-what-i-learned/ I had an unlimited budget. I could spend as much money as I wanted on whatever ads I wanted. But I had to be profitable. I was working in-house for a technology company. We had aggressive revenue targets and I wanted to play a major part in making that happen. I managed to grow ad spend from $3 million to $6 million per year because I found creative ways to profitably scale my campaigns. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/a-millennial-s-guide-to-buying-your-first-house/ Wed, 19 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/a-millennial-s-guide-to-buying-your-first-house/ Millennials aren’t buying a lot of houses. At least they’re not buying as many as our parents did. There’s a lot of reasons for that and I won’t get into them here. What I will get into is once you decide to buy a house, and the finances line up, how to find the perfect one. My own home buying journey has been fraught with disappointment. My wife and I have been searching for almost 6 months. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-swap-option-and-command-keys-on-macos-catalina/ Tue, 18 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-swap-option-and-command-keys-on-macos-catalina/ I recently purchased this external keyboard to use with my Mac’s home-office setup. I wanted a minimal, mechanical keyboard that was not bluetooth. That one is great and under $30. But it’s a windows keyboard, so the keys aren’t mapped correctly. Specifically the Alt key is where the Mac Command key should be, so I needed to swap them. Swapping the Option and Command Keys Googling this problem lead me down a rabbit hole of results, all linking to different software you need to download with complicated setups. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/introducing-the-1-word-email-newsletter/ Mon, 17 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/introducing-the-1-word-email-newsletter/ I created a newsletter. Wait, before you go. It’s different. Like, really different. The premise is this: each email is only about one word. That’s it. How bad can a one-word newsletter really be? I’ve promised not to track any of the normal email marketing stats. No open or click rate tracking. Definitely no conversions. No selling. No affiliate marketing. No amazon links. No calls to action. I won’t even check who’s subscribed to it. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/organize-your-writing-with-a-kanban-board/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 06:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/organize-your-writing-with-a-kanban-board/ Building an organizational system for my writing enabled me to publish new content every day this month and helped build a huge backlog of ideas and drafts for future months. I’ve used a Kanban board at work to manage my priorities and tasks, so it only made sense to build one for my writing too. You’ll learn what Kanban is, it’s history, and how to build a Kanban board in Notion. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-ive-learned-to-love-the-brutal-100+-degree-texas-summers/ Sat, 15 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-ive-learned-to-love-the-brutal-100+-degree-texas-summers/ You are powerless to the whims of planet earth. You’re just a spec that is around for barely a blink of its planetary eye. The weather cares not for your wants and desires, puny human. So much of your daily environment is out of your control that it almost seems foolish to let an uncontrollable problem ruin your day. When life rains on your parade you have two choices: be angry and upset, which is the most common response, or make a conscious choice to laugh and let the problems roll off you. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/3-things-to-know-before-accepting-that-remote-job/ Fri, 14 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/3-things-to-know-before-accepting-that-remote-job/ I worked at a tech company in downtown Austin, Texas for five years. My office had every cliche start-up perk you can think of: beer kegs, catered lunches, open office format, dogs running around the office, and a casual dress code. My job was great but the commute sucked, an hour each way by bus. I’ve endured many negative experiences on that bus. A guy showed me his phone with a text that read “You’re beautiful, can I have your number? https://nicklafferty.com/blog/dont-move-the-goal-posts-before-celebrating-success/ Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/dont-move-the-goal-posts-before-celebrating-success/ In today’s world of viral TikTok moments, Instagram influencers, and oversharing on social media, It’s important to remember the progress we’ve made in our lives. The sum of our life experiences up to this exact moment makes us unique. We all have a story to tell, filled with highs, lows, and some boring stuff in between. Humans have the tendency to remember negative experiences more vividly than positive ones. Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University, explains that this tendency is based on our evolution: https://nicklafferty.com/blog/3-must-have-mac-apps-of-2020/ Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/3-must-have-mac-apps-of-2020/ There are 3 apps I install on every single Mac. I don’t buy laptops often, but every corporate job issues me a mac, and I’ve been issued over 5 different ones in the course of my career so far. So I’ve had a decent amount of Apple computers. The mac I’m typing this is a Macbook Air from 2013 that just had it’s battery replaced. It’s perfectly suited for what I use it for, which is writing and tinkering with websites. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/read-this-before-you-become-a-manager/ Tue, 11 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/read-this-before-you-become-a-manager/ I’ll never forget a conversation I had with the CEO of my last company. He asked where I wanted my career to go, and I said into management. Make sure you really want to be a manager, because it’s hard and not for everyone. He was right. I ended up becoming a manager at that company but it was the hardest job I’ve ever done. Nothing can truly prepare you for management. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/create-a-bullet-journal-in-notion---free-template/ Mon, 10 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/create-a-bullet-journal-in-notion---free-template/ Looking for the best Bullet Journal template in Notion? Check out the Ultimate Planner Dashboard for Daily, Weekly, and Monthly tasks. It’s designed to help you get more things done with a fully integrated system in Notion. 🕹 Interconnected dashboard to get an overview of all of your daily, weekly, and monthly planning – with boards, task lists, widgets, and more 🛠 Master tasks database organized by days, priority, to-do, and more – plan your tasks by day, and even plan how long you want to spend on each task https://nicklafferty.com/blog/my-first-case-of-writers-block/ Sun, 09 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/my-first-case-of-writers-block/ I’m 9 days into my month-long journey of publishing new content every day, and I’m fresh out of ideas. This is the first day I’ve really struggled with publishing. I’ve spent my weekend working on a side project, which is new type of email newsletter. Not another newsletter I know, but this one is different, ok? I want to write about what I’m working on, but it’s not done yet. My side project is occupying the entirety of my mental space. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-be-a-great-start-up-employee/ Sat, 08 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-be-a-great-start-up-employee/ I’ve worked at two high growth startups over the last six years. I’ve done everything from affiliate marketing, business intelligence, paid media, lead generation, user on-boarding, and lifecycle email campaigns. I was initially hired to do only one of those things, but as I was recognized for performing at a high level I was handed more responsibilities. Those lead to big promotions, raises, and equity grants. I more than doubled my salary over that time. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/publishing-every-day-for-a-week-what-ive-learned/ Fri, 07 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/publishing-every-day-for-a-week-what-ive-learned/ This post marks the 7th story I’ve written this month. Last month I wrote 6 stories, which then was a huge landmark for me. 3 of them were featured in various Medium publications and in total earned me enough to buy one coffee. But to have surpassed that number only a week into my goal of writing every day in February is an incredible feeling. I wanted to take you on a journey over the last 7 days and show some struggles in trying to publish new content every day. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/my-notion-journal-templates/ Thu, 06 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/my-notion-journal-templates/ Get more done with the Ultimate Planner Dashboard . Custom built to help you get more done with a fully integrated system for daily, weekly, and monthly planning. 🕹 Interconnected dashboard to get an overview of all of your daily, weekly, and monthly planning – with boards, task lists, widgets, and more 🛠 Master tasks database organized by days, priority, to-do, and more – plan your tasks by day, and even plan how long you want to spend on each task https://nicklafferty.com/blog/christmas-in-july-is-the-worst-fake-holiday-ever/ Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/christmas-in-july-is-the-worst-fake-holiday-ever/ A short entry today. I’m traveling for work and don’t have as much time in the morning or evenings to write. Of course, this is the month I chose to publish every day, so I still need to get something out. Read on for a story of why I had to wear a Santa suit in the 100 degrees Texas heat one summer. It begins with a radio station I created an internet radio station when I was 16, and since then I had always been interested in working for a “real” FM radio station. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/why-notion-is-the-best-productivity-app-of-2020/ Tue, 04 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/why-notion-is-the-best-productivity-app-of-2020/ This post on the best productivity tools was first written in 2020. It’s been updated for 2023 to reflect feature and pricing changes and the addition of Monday and ClickUp. There are a lot of productivity apps on the market. Notion is one of the most popular and flexible tools. It’s an all-in-one productivity solution and it’s simply one of the best tools I’ve ever used. Notion is incredibly flexible. It can be a writing repository, task management software, a workout calendar, a database, and so much more. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/write-from-the-heart-not-for-the-numbers/ Mon, 03 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/write-from-the-heart-not-for-the-numbers/ I’m new to Medium. I’ve read and paid for a membership off and on over the last year, but I really started taking it seriously as a writer in January. I published 3 posts in January, two on The Ascent and one in Better Marketing. I wanted to take some time to talk about the statistics involved in publishing on Medium, and why they’re distracting from your true purpose. My most popular story I started a project this year to quit video games and create more. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/one-month-after-quitting-video-games/ Sun, 02 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/one-month-after-quitting-video-games/ Last month I decided to quit video games for a year. I wrote more about why I made this decision here. This post is about what I got up to during my first month, and what I want to do more of next month. I Started Running I downloaded Strava one Sunday night, a social network app for running and fitness, and woke up at 6am the next day to go running. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/why-im-publishing-new-content-every-day-in-february/ Sat, 01 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/why-im-publishing-new-content-every-day-in-february/ You’ve heard it countless times before. The most common advice I see for aspiring new writers. Write every day. And not only write, but publish. So that’s what I’m going to do in February. This is my commitment to publish 29 pieces in February. Stupid leap year added an extra day :) Why February Because February just started, and it conveniently is the shortest month of the year even with the leap year. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/journaling-for-unemotional-robots-like-me/ Thu, 30 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/journaling-for-unemotional-robots-like-me/ I started journaling every day towards the end of last year. I don’t even remember what pushed me to start, but I’m so glad I did. Here’s why. My journal contains the best, most authentic writing I’ve done in my entire life. I’ve never been good at talking about my day. My parents would ask me every day how school was, and I would just say “it was good”. I come off as unemotional because I honestly don’t know how to express my emotions properly around other humans. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-develop-healthy-remote-working-habits/ Tue, 28 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-develop-healthy-remote-working-habits/ Working remote is the dream for most people. It enables you take better care of your mental and physical well being. You can travel the world, digital nomad style, and work from wherever internet connected location you want. I’ve worked remotely for the past year and it’s been mostly great. But it’s forced me to take a hard look at my habits. Cook healthy meals Many of my friends say they don’t have time to cook meals at home. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/are-you-making-this-huge-mistake-with-your-email-newsletter_/ Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/are-you-making-this-huge-mistake-with-your-email-newsletter_/ Grow an email subscriber list. That’s common advice, and it’s good advice for a reason. Email is a direct and easy way to communicate with your audience. I see a lot of email campaigns in my day job working for one of the largest email service providers. Our users send billions of emails every month. The biggest mistake I see our users making with their email campaigns is also one of the easiest to fix. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/4-easy-ways-to-bring-more-happiness-into-your-life/ Tue, 14 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/4-easy-ways-to-bring-more-happiness-into-your-life/ It was 5:30pm and my wife was in tears. She couldn’t find some important work files that were due that night. She was a complete mess. I tried to console her and help look for the files, but they were gone. Totally and irreversibly deleted. She had to redo all of the work at the end of the day, when all she wanted was to get off the computer and relax. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/5-goals-for-2020/ Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/5-goals-for-2020/ I wanted to write and publish a blog post on January 1st 2020 to set the tone for the year. This is me publicly committing to my professional goals on day 1 of the new decade. So here they are. 1) Keep working out consistently I’ve had an on-again / off-again relationship with the gym almost my entire life. It seems every time I start working out again I make a little more progress each time. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/maintaining-old-friendships-without-facebook-is-hard/ Thu, 26 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/maintaining-old-friendships-without-facebook-is-hard/ I moved out of my hometown 6 years ago for my first job. I did a shitty job of staying in touch with my old friends, outside of the occasional facebook update about “look at all the cool things I’m doing in my new city”. I deleted my Facebook recently and realized I really have to work to maintain my friendships. I text my friends more just to ask how they’re doing. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-kick-ass-at-your-first-job-after-college/ Thu, 19 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-to-kick-ass-at-your-first-job-after-college/ Your first job after college can set the trajectory for your entire career. You’ll never be more inexperienced so you’ll be primed for learning. You’ll have developed very few, if any, bad work habits. You can be a sponge, learning from all the experienced people around you. You’ll learn what it’s like to deal with shitty co-workers. How someone doing their job for years can still suck at it. And hopefully you’ll pick up tons of knowledge, experience, and mentorship along the way. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-i-ve-started-using-notion-to-track-my-life/ Mon, 16 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/how-i-ve-started-using-notion-to-track-my-life/ Looking for the best way to track your habits in Notion? I’d recommend the Ultimate Goals And Habit Tracker This super flexible dashboard let’s you: ✔️ Create, then track your habits every week with an easy-to-use checkbox system 🍎 Includes several built-in categories – from health, to self care, organization, finances, intellect, hygiene, and more 🚀 Get an overview of how you’re doing by habit and by category throughout the year with progress bars – and even see how many days you’ve stuck to your habit so far https://nicklafferty.com/blog/one-surprising-thing-about-working-remotely/ Fri, 22 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/one-surprising-thing-about-working-remotely/ Having a full-time remote working situation is the dream for most people. Ditch the commute and take back your schedule. Work in your pajamas and travel the world — maybe not both at the same time. It all sounds great, and honestly it is. But I was surprised how much I missed one aspect from my old office job. The in-person 1 on 1 meeting. I worked in the same office for 5 years. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/free-custom-email-with-mailgun/ Sun, 21 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/free-custom-email-with-mailgun/ Mailgun has changed their pricing plans as of March 2020. As a result their routes feature is now gated behind a plan that cost $35/month. I'll update this if their pricing changes again to allow the use of routes for free. Disclosure: I used to work for Mailgun. I used their product for years before I worked there, but as of 2021 I am employed somewhere else. Read my full Mailgun review. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/using-side-mouse-buttons-on-a-mac/ Fri, 19 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/using-side-mouse-buttons-on-a-mac/ Fast Answer: Simple Side Buttons Long Answer I started a new job recently and I’m a fully remote employee. For the first few weeks I was getting by with just my laptop and the trackpad, but I finally decided to upgrade my working from home setup. I have a nice ultrawide monitor and gaming mouse, a Razer DeathAdder, that I wanted to take advantage of. I hooked my mouse up to my Mac and realized the side buttons aren’t natively supported at all. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/vlookup-return-entire-row/ Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/vlookup-return-entire-row/ I know how to do a VLOOKUP in Google Sheets, but I didn’t know how to VLOOKUP the entire row. I solved this by nesting the VLOOKUP inside an ARRAY. The quick solution for you to copy and paste is below, and the longer more detailed reasoning is at the bottom. Here’s the Vlookup Formula =ARRAYFORMULA(VLOOKUP(A1,'Sheet2'!A3:G6,{2,3,4,5,6,7},FALSE)) This takes the value in A1, searches for it in the array Sheet2!A3:G6, and returns the 2nd to 7th values in that row in order. https://nicklafferty.com/blog/gmail-tabs/ Wed, 29 May 2019 08:53:11 -0500 https://nicklafferty.com/blog/gmail-tabs/ This article was written before I was invited to Superhuman. If you’re like me and you work for a company that uses the G Apps Suite, then you probably have at least one Gmail tab open at all times. For me it became a comfort tab — always there, just waiting for me to click it to check my email 100 times a day. Actually, I found myself having 2 Gmail tabs open, and 1 Google Calendar tab, at all times. https://nicklafferty.com/about/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/about/ https://nicklafferty.com/ai-search/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/ai-search/ I work on AI search all day as the Founding Marketing Engineer at Profound, and this site is where I publish what I learn. The pages below are cited hundreds of thousands of times by ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity: rankings of the tools, how-to guides grounded in real citation data, and head-to-head comparisons. https://nicklafferty.com/contact/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/contact/ Speaking invitations, podcast requests, press, partnerships, or a sharp question about AI search: it all lands in one inbox at hey@nicklafferty.com. https://nicklafferty.com/search/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/search/ search https://nicklafferty.com/speaking/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://nicklafferty.com/speaking/ I speak about AI search optimization, answer engine optimization (AEO), and what marketing looks like in the AI era. In the past year that’s meant 25+ talks, panels, and webinars: SXSW, brightonSEO, OMR in Hamburg, dentsu’s invitation-only executive summit, and a LinkedIn panel at NY Tech Week, in front of marketing leaders from JP Morgan Chase, Novartis, and McLaren Automotive. Every talk is grounded in Profound’s data: real numbers from billions of AI responses.