Building Log Book Template: Fill & Download for Free

I thought by the time I turned 20 that it was too late to have sex.And the same by the time I'd turned 21.And 22.And 23.etc.And then I eventually did.And I was happy — relieved, finally — for a few moments, then I realized that there were still about 50 different things I'd feared for forever and had yet to really tackle:Building a business.Developing a really long-term relationship.Backpacking for months.Writing a book. Or an ebook.Racing around the Nurburgring.Etc.And then I got sad, and felt that maybe it's too late for those things, too.Then I had to ask myself, if I died tomorrow, would I regret that I hadn't done any of those things?And the answer is almost always a no, but a small part of me always yearns to achieve more because, secretly, we’re all overachievers.And then I remember this story:A boy and his father were walking through the woods together. They came across a large log, blocking their path. The boy turned to his father and said, “Do you think I can lift this log, Dad?” The father replied, “If you use all your strength, absolutely you can.” The boy rolled up his sleeves, bent his knees, and got his hands under the log. He locked his arms and heaved with every ounce of strength he had. But the log wouldn’t budge. He tried over and over again until at last, exhausted and breathless, he gave up.He looked at his dad with disappointment and frustration and said, “You told me I could lift it!” His dad smiled and said gently, “I told you you could lift it if you used all your strength. You didn’t ask me for help.”So the boy asked his dad to help him and together, they lifted the log out of their path.Your strength isn’t held by you alone, but also by the people who march alongside you. When you feel unequal to the task in front of you, perhaps it is simply because you aren’t using all your strength.(Quote from the book, The Bravest You.)And the reality is, if we ask for help and don't expect too much from ourselves, there are very few things that we're too late for, regardless of our age.See: Colonel Sanders, etc.[Related: I created a simple goal-setting template that allows you to plan your year in less than an hour.]

Update: I’ve continued to publish every day in 2016, which resulted in over 100,000 people visiting the site in its first year. This works.Here’s how I generated almost 30,000 visitors in 2 months with a $0 marketing budget, AND no previous experience (I just graduated).You can do the same. How?By setting up a content creation process and streamlining your SEO and promotion, so you can write without thinking, publish every damn day and turbocharge your site’s growth (even if it’s brand new).Note: For a more in-depth guide, this answer is based on: How To Publish Like A Huge Content Creation Team (When It’s Really Just You)==========================================================Step 1: Figure out your “why” → crunch the numbers to meet the goal → validate==========================================================My goal was “$1000/month in passive income” and to meet it, I decided to pursue affiliate marketing.I would sell books and make a commission for each one I sold.Validating which books to promote/sell is tricky. To choose the best books to sell for my affiliate income, I used two methods:Method 1) Using a tool called NerdyData, I could see a list of other affiliate marketers promoting the product I was targeting. I would then look for the affiliate marketers who pay to promote (e.g. banner ads) the affiliate product.By searching for the banner’s web archives, I could see how long the banner ads were up. If the banner ads are up for a few months, it must be selling enough to justify the banner ad costs.For example, Mike Vardy had this banner ad for the same affiliate product up for several months:This informed me that the affiliate product is providing income to Mike. So I’d prioritize selling the same book on my own website because it was already proven based on my competition.Method 2) I would tell my friends about the product, and for the friends who were interested, I’d send them the affiliate link. Imade 3 sales by doing this, which was enough to validate.Once it was validated, I spent the time to build a website and drive traffic to it.==========================================================Step 2: Build a content log and streamline SEO, email collection and your promotion process.==========================================================To sell my affiliate book products, I created a site that would provide short book summaries and reviews. There were four parts to it:Part 1: Content CreationI wanted to publish content everyday to promote his affiliate books. To do so, I set a limit for each article to <1000 words by following a framework:Part 2: SEOSince I was creating a piece of content each day (30/month), I started to rank for certain keywords by using Google’s Keyword Planner. I would then add targeted keywords into my content headlines.Part 3: Email CollectionI was now creating a bunch of content, and several of the content pieces started to rank in the first page of google on popular keywords. I started to see quite a bit of traffic going to my website.I would make the most of the website visitors by collecting emails using SumoMe.By collecting their emails, I would send them my best hand-picked summaries (more affiliate products).Just by doing this, I would collect over 8% of all website visitors into email subscribersPart 4: PromotionEvery day, I would spend ~1.5 hours writing the content piece, and another 90 minutes promoting it.Here’s the exact promo checklist I used every single morning:Submit to StumbleUpon2. Submit to Hacker News3. Post to relevant Slack groups4. Send post to 1 person via email5. Tweet at input creator6. Buffer tweets7. Check in on Coach.me (or another community you’re a part of)By doing this for 10–15 minutes a day, it adds up to over 5 hours a month, which makes your promotional efforts manageable on a daily basis, but the effects compound fast==========================================================Step 3: Publish every day until you hit your goal==========================================================Create content every single day. By doing so, eventually you’ll have several articles that start to rank high in google. Create a content creation structure so you publish at the same time everyday.And that’s how I got 30,000 visits in 2 months using a content marketing strategy.If you want the templates and more in-depth walkthroughs related to this guide, you can download them by clicking here.Last year, my writing reached over 100,000 people. I hope this year, it’ll reach you too. Join Nik’s Newsletter to get the very best of what I’m writing each week.You can sign up here.

Here's a list I compiled a while back that covers areas I should pay attention to in order to 'step up'. This is a subjective list for a subjective question. What I'd encourage is you observe your weaknesses and gaps in knowledge and look to fill. That's how you level up.Learn advanced Ruby/RailsLearn enterprise Rails architectureLearn to leverage Rails generators and templatesLearn absolute essentials of character encodingLearns ins and outs of RESTful architectureStudy terminology lists (anki, web dev dictionary, computer science terms etc)Learn a low-level language (Go, Scala)Build basic app with Play! and NodejsLearn basic bash scripting (to write my own install scripts etc)Learn NoSQL (Redis, Mongo)Use client_side_validationsUse a dotfile system (store on github, with personal dotfiles on private repo)Learn everything about git flowLearn Docker and Chef for server setup and provisioning (build processes)Learn caching strategiesLearn how to edit coffeescript/sass from browser?Setup multi-server infrastructure for applicationUse continuous integration (jenkins)Read job vacancies and required/desired skills sections for RoR/webdev jobsDocument applicationTest firstLearn Vim / emacs or Sublime text (file editing, navigation)Watch other developers in action, make notes (peepcode, etc)Learn crucial shell (security, permissions, user management, ports, services)Discover the system level tools for application monitoringUse right tools for development (pry debugging, stepping)Learn how to plan using user stories, estimationsLearn software development process (planning, design, implementation, maintenance)Streamline processes (adding repos, uploading ssh keys to server)Contribute to opensource (oh-my-zsh improvements, tweaks, gems)Make connections (irc, quora, meetup)Go to convention(s)Read code for popular opensource projects as guidanceBuild a public API (learn how to document it)Use responsive-first design principles (bootstrap 3)Use exception/performance/request logging (setup self-hosted server if necessary)BLOG!HELP! (irc, SO, quora)TEACH! (blog, mentor)Pair program/work in an immediate feedback team environmentMake commitment to either move to sublime/emacs or stick with rubymine/ideLearn important keyboard shortcuts for chosen editorComplete coding quizzes (ruby quiz)Learn important computer science and software design concepts (algorithms, sorting, data types etc)Improve maths and abstract thinking abilityWrite a technical bookDraw up contracts for independent workUse accounting systemFinish portfolioUse hubble/console data dashboard for app servers?To keep myself fresh and ready for work:Write! (blog, forums, answer questions on LinkedIn and Quora, Google?, ebooks, kindle)Network (LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, Github)Keep my github account active (opensource, publicise some personal projects, challenges repo -- euler, blog via repo)Build applications! (test new technologies, study while I build)Maintain fresh portfolio