11 Ways to Shop Smart for Survival Supplies

Being strategic and stocking up on all of your survival supplies ahead of time is a wise thing to do. But if you are simply buying things on a whim, you may be wasting a lot of money that can be put toward even more supplies for yourself and your family.


There are eleven different ways that you can be strategic in your shopping so that you are saving yourself money and making sure that you are purchasing the correct items, rather than those that might fail you when you need them most.

Once you are aware of these cost saving and strategic methods, you will be able to get good deals on the food, gear, defense, and other supplies that you need on a regular basis.

You may discover that you have already made mistakes along the way with preparations you’ve made so far, but that’s okay as long as you change what you’re doing from this point forward and begin shopping smart.

Learn Which Stores Have the Supplies You Need

You need to make a list of the types of supplies that you want to buy. This includes things like survival meals that are shelf stable for 25+ years, defense tools, water purification and storage items, shelter materials such as a tent, bug out bags, fire starting gear, first aid items, and more.

Once you know exactly which categories you will be buying for, you need to make a list of the different stores both online and offline that you can purchase these types of items at.

Don’t just look at specialty stores, such as a sporting goods store for a tent. You can also buy a tent at Walmart or Amazon at a discount if your budget requires it. You want to consider big brand-name stores as well as smaller stores that may frequently run sales in an effort to unload inventory or boost their bottom line.

You may also be able to find some things at secondhand stores if they are in good shape, such as a thick coat for layering if the grid goes down in cold weather. You can also make a note about what kinds of supplies are sold at discount stores, such as a dollar store.

You can often find survival supplies there and on a very big discount, which would be a great time for you to stock up. For example, you might find an entire pack of lighters for starting a fire for just one dollar, but the same pack may cost eight dollars or more on Amazon or elsewhere.

Another place you may want to shop is your local military surplus store. Many bigger cities have these, and you’ll be able to find survival gear that will keep you and your loved ones safe in almost any weather condition or situation.

You can find paracords, blankets, first aid kits, gas masks, and more. They have camouflage clothing, combat boots, and other tactical gear – and it’s authentic – the same as what the military uses.

Buy in Bulk Whenever Possible

One thing many consumers forget, when they are wrapped up in the process of purchasing survival supplies, is that you can often save money if you will purchase more of the item all at once.

Instead of buying individual products, many manufacturers will bundle them up into larger packs where you will spend more, so they will give a slight discount to help you save money and entice you.

For example, you might find some MREs that are being sold individually at a higher price than if you bought a pack of one dozen. Sometimes it does take a little longer to save up the money that you need to buy in bulk, but in the long run, you’ll save more and be able to purchase more supplies for you and your family.

You also want to buy in bulk because it’s easier to take inventory and find space for it in your home. Sometimes, having a bunch of Individual packages of something means they get lost easier, or they’re harder to organize in a set space.

Stores that sell things in bulk, such as Costco and Sam’s, often have good deals on supplies that you may need in a future survival situation. They do this for things like food, toiletries, batteries, etc.

Learn How to Use Coupons Strategically

There was a point in time when couponing had its own show on television. Some stores did not like the fact that people were able to reduce their bill to almost zero dollars, if not get cash back for a large cart full of items they paid nothing for.

So they eliminated some of the loopholes. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still save with coupons and discount cards. You need to keep an eye out for your weekly circulars and find out what items are expected to go on sale for the upcoming week.

Usually, these circulators will come in your mailbox, but you may have to go to the store and pick one up yourself. Another thing you can do is join or look for printable coupons or even digital coupons that you can use in store or online.

Even on Amazon, if you are shopping for something, make sure you look for the opportunity to check the area where it says something like, “Save an extra 10%.” Another thing you want to do is look for the deals where you can buy a certain number of items and get one free.

Sometimes this will be done on food, but other times it will be done on things like toiletries, and other items. The stores may have a limit as to how many can be purchased, so you’ll need to be aware of that before you have an expectation to stock up on something.

Plan for What You Can Afford

One thing you want to do when shopping smart for your survival supplies is make sure that it doesn’t dip into the monetary needs in other areas of your life. Make sure you have a good handle on your upcoming bills, needs for the children’s school supplies, gas, etc.

The last thing you want to do is make an impulse survival buy for a large stock of something that you saw go on sale, only to be left unable to pay the mortgage or whatever other item you need for your family in that moment.

It’s better to set aside a percentage of your paychecks each week so that you can shop the following week or month and buy what you need without experiencing the pressure from your finances.

Always remember that you can level up with the items that you buy at a later date. For example, you may only be able to afford a solar phone charger right now that costs under $30.

You would really like a whole home generator, but it’s not in your budget at that moment. You can go ahead and get the smaller priced item because you never know if that emergency will hit before you are able to afford the higher ticket product. It’s always good to have back up an additional supplies anyway, so it won’t go to waste in the future.

Buy According to the Space You Have

Before you start shopping, you want to make sure that you have room for all of the supplies that you will be purchasing. You don’t want to get everything home, only to discover you have nowhere to put it, so it goes to waste.

If possible, set aside one room of your house as a supply storage room. If you don’t have that type of room, then make a plan for each room of your house to see where you could store certain supplies, such as under the bed or in a closet or cabinet.

Don’t forget you may have an attic space or an outdoor shed where certain things could be stored as well. Just make sure that wherever you store things, the supplies are being kept at the correct temperature.

For example, some items may need to stay in a cool and dry place as opposed to an outdoor, hot or cold weather situation. Some people like to shop for their survival supplies with the intention of renting a storage facility.

Keep in mind that in a severe and chaotic survival situation, those places may be raided by looters who are after valuables that they can used to trade with others. Not only that, but it may be unsafe for you to leave your homestead and travel to another location to get your supplies, so it’s always better to have them on hand.

Be Ready to Buy at the First Sign of Impending Disaster

Stocking up on survival supplies is a long-term process. For most people, there’s no way you can go out today and purchase everything you and your family will need for the next year.

Therefore, you have to stay aware and know when it’s crucial for you to head to the store immediately and purchase certain supplies that you will need. When the pandemic hit, other areas of the world as well as the coastal cities were posting videos on social media about store shelves being empty, in particular food and toilet paper as well as Lysol.

If you were paying attention to social media and news sites, you will have seen the chaos unfolding and then be able to head to the store immediately before the masses knew that it was hitting in your area.

You want to shop for supplies you may need – whether it is a pandemic situation, war, or even a weather event. You usually have ample notice about a hurricane or tornado, and you can go to the store and make sure that you have your immediate supplies to survive the coming days and weeks.

Make sure that you only allow yourself to buy these last-minute supplies that can be purchased locally. You don’t want to have to order something that may take a week or longer to arrive if you may need it the next day or several hours later. For things you’ll need to send away for, make sure you shop for those early.

Bring a List of Current Inventory and Needs

If you are prepping seriously, and not just randomly hoarding things whenever you think about it, you will have an inventory of all of your survival supplies, down to the date it was purchased and the date it expires.

This can be done digitally, but it’s also a good idea to have a paper account of your supplies so that you can take it on the go with you when you go shopping. That way, if you see an advertised sale in front of you, you can quickly glance at your spreadsheet or list and see if the item is something you have plenty of, if the product is about to expire, and if you need more.

It’s also a good idea to prioritize the things you want to buy. For example, if winter is coming up, you may want to prioritize certain supplies that have to do with heating food or staying warm over things like remedies for mosquito bites, or anything that might happen in the spring or summer months.

You can do the same when you are shopping online. Make sure you have your spreadsheet open so that you can adequately track what you are purchasing, the date, and any other pertinent information – such as the count of items if it is in bulk, as well as the size in ounces or pounds for example.

This way, you won’t be guessing about what stock is back home or in another room on the shelves while you’re shopping. You’ll have all of that information at your fingertips and you can shop smart.

Know When Seasonal Supplies Go on Sale

After the Christmas season ends, or Halloween – or any holiday where there are decorations and candy for that matter, you have probably seen stores discount the items that remain on their shelves significantly, such as 75 to 90% off.

This is a great time for you to stock up on certain supplies, whether it’s food or weather related seasonal items. For example, right before the strong winter weather, you may find that generators are more expensive due to the likelihood of the grid shutting down during a blizzard than they are during the spring and summer, when the threat has subsided.

Clothing is another area where you can find steep discounts on the supplies that you need. For example if you want to stock up on sizes for the future as your children are growing, or clothes that you can layer in the event of cold weather where there is no electricity, the best time to buy this is when the new spring line has arrived at stores, and they are trying to sell everything and make space for new product.

Buy Off Brand to Get More

In today’s world, brand names mean a lot to many different people. Whether it’s the clothes on their back or the food items on their shelves or in the refrigerator. However, when it comes to a survival situation, you won’t care whether or not the brand has any significant prestige, except when it comes to its quality and safety.

For example, if you know that there is a certain brand of designer jeans that you prefer to wear in current times, but they are far more expensive than a durable, cheaper brand, you’ll want to go with the cheaper brand if you’re on a budget and need to stock up for a survival situation.

The store brands are often every bit as good as top labels – and in fact some are made in the same factory, only to have a different label put on them. So when you are stocking up on things like canned vegetables and fruits, Q-tips, etc., don’t be afraid to go with the off label brand so that you get more for your money and have the peace of mind knowing that you have the stock on hand.

Read Consumer Reviews Before You Spend Money

When you’re buying a can of mixed fruit, you’re probably not going to see any consumer reviews about that particular item. But when you are buying some things such as a bug out bag on Amazon, you will see a number of ratings and reviews that you can use to gauge whether or not this is a smart buying decision.

It’s true that you can’t always trust every single review. But you can see whether or not a review is made from a verified purchase, and then make a decision based on the thoroughness of the comment they leave about the product so that you can determine whether or not it is a real or fake review.

You can also turn to things like Consumer Reports if you are making a larger purchase on something such as a technical item, like a generator or storm shelter. They will frequently test and thoroughly review products, pointing out all of the benefits, features, and faults of an item so that you can see whether or not it would be a good purchase for you and your family.

You can also simply Google the name of the product and see who has been blogging about and reviewing certain products. You can even search by specific criteria, such as a camping tent for four or two people, or a sleeping bag for a certain degree of weather, like those below freezing.

Add Supplies with Incremental Purchases

If your budget is severely limited, and you know you need to stock up on things as you go, then you’ll want to just buy one or two extra items every time you go to the store. For example, if you know you need two cans of green beans that are $.50 each, go ahead and buy an additional one or two in that moment.

If you are shopping on Amazon and you have a total of $16 in your cart, knowing you could get free shipping with $25 purchase, go ahead and find something for your survival supplies worth nine dollars so that you can bump it up to the free shipping level.

This way you’re saving the shipping money, but you’re also getting something in return for it. Another thing you may end up doing when you are making smaller build up purchases of supplies like this is taking into consideration what kind of trade-offs you can make.

For example, you may want to forgo an extra bag of chips so that you can get a canned good that will last longer. When you’re making incremental purchases, it may not seem like a lot in that moment, but over the coming weeks and months, you’ll be amazed to see how fast your supplies have grown.

Shopping for survival supplies can either be a daunting or empowering process. It takes awhile to build up a formidable stash of goods, but you should be able to quickly and easily prepare for a 72 hour ordeal without much of a problem.

Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain

Every holiday, people tend to put on a fair amount of weight, right up until they make their New Year’s resolutions. Some people start gaining the weight as early as October and September, when they start putting out Halloween candy.

If you want to get in shape or you think you’re going to want to get in shape, you should take steps to avoid gaining a bunch of weight during the holidays so that getting that summer body is much more achievable and more likely.

Choosing the Right Foods

Part of the problem with holiday foods is that they tend to be eaten in large amounts, and they also contain plenty of sugars and carbs. This is especially true around Halloween, when most of the foods are candy and chocolate.

Around Thanksgiving, there is turkey, but there’s also stuffing, potatoes, sauces, casseroles, rolls, and desserts. Pies are in great abundance, and the carb loaded sides are stacked high.

Come Christmas time, it’s a very similar situation to Thanksgiving, but with the addition of things like chocolate, cookies, hot chocolate, and more. But of course, many of these things are traditional or at least common place, making it hard to avoid them.

The key to keeping yourself in check on these holidays isn’t to outright deny yourself any of the foods you want to eat, but rather to limit them to a reasonable amount within a reasonable timespan.

That being said, there are some better options for foods that you can focus on to allow you to eat more and stay within a certain caloric limit. One of the main ones is meats, especially poultry.

Chicken and turkey are very commonly eaten on holidays, so you can load up a bit more on these instead of focusing as much on the sides and desserts. However, you might want to try staying away from fried foods as well as unhealthy meats like ham.

Another thing you can try is focusing more on vegetables for your holiday meals. Many people don’t prepare vegetables very well, but if you try some good seasoning and roasting methods, they pair well with poultry and keep your calories and carbs low.

When it comes to desserts, try and opt more for fruit based desserts at least. An apple pie isn’t very healthy any way you cut it, but it’s a little bit healthier than chocolate based desserts. Try not to go overboard on desserts, but they’re fine to have in moderation.

Dodging Peer Pressure

Another problem faced during the holidays is peer pressure. A great deal of fitness lies in the mindset, so when you’re in the right state of mind you know what foods to avoid, and thus you lose weight.

However, if it’s a holiday and people are really pushing for you to eat more than you think you should, it’s easy to cave in. If you think your family might push you to eat more, try to avoid bringing it up in the first place at all.

If it’s an option, fix your own plate and load up on more meat and take it easier on the sides. It’s still fine to have some of everything, but just keep to a small and reasonable amount- especially when the desserts come out.

If you bring up the fact that you’re dieting, many people will blow you off, saying that it’s just for this one holiday and that they worked hard to cook the food, and so on. This can lead to quite the annoying conversation, so it’s good to try and avoid it as much as possible.

Something to keep in mind is the amount of time it takes to gain and lose weight. Once you start to lose weight, if you’re losing at a healthy rate, it should be about half a pound per week. In that one day, you might be gaining 1 or 2 pounds, not including leftovers.

So if Thanksgiving in its entirety leaves you 4 pounds heavier, it’s going to take 8 weeks of work to undo that process, assuming you’re dieting and exercising at a healthy and reasonable rate. That’s a lot of time for “just one holiday.”

The same can be said for Christmas. People tend to eat rather lavishly and in large quantities throughout Christmas time. If you have an extended amount of time off of work to be with your family, and you’re eating and drinking a lot, you’ll gain plenty of weight.

When people try and pressure you into making bad decisions like eating a ton of food that’s not good for you, just go along with them until they stop bugging you about it. Don’t eat as much as you tell them you’re going to, if that’s what it takes.

Often times people can get upset when they hear someone’s dieting at a lavish dinner, not because they put a bunch of work into it, but rather because they all know it’s not good for them necessarily.

It’s in your best interest if you want to lose weight and look a certain way for summer to avoid people that try and get you off track of your weight loss. There’s no law saying you have to start dieting after New Year’s, and the sooner you start, the better.

Eating in Moderation

Whether you’re not in control of the meals for the holidays or you can’t overcome peer pressure to eat certain things, or you just don’t want to miss out, you can rest assured. You can and should still eat well on holidays, but you should keep it in moderation.

One of the main reasons people tend to fail diets in general is that they get so strict on themselves but don’t have the mental strength to keep up with that strictness, so they end up cheating really hard on their diet instead of just indulging a little bit.

The same definitely applies to the holidays. When everyone is eating good meals and having a good time, you don’t want to feel left out sitting there eating some “healthy” options. It’s going to make you want to binge really hard and drop the diet.

You shouldn’t deny yourself the ability to eat the foods you want during holidays, but you just have to be smart about it. You should try to stay on top of your diet on the days surrounding the holiday itself, instead of eating tons of leftovers days afterwards.

It’s important to be mindful of how you eat on the day of the holiday, as well. If you plan on having a Thanksgiving dinner with your family at 6 PM, you should try to have a light breakfast and lunch, just enough to tide you over until the dinner.

If possible, you should avoid tons of calorie dense drinks. Whether it be soda, beer, or anything else, drinks that aren’t water can be pretty hefty on the calories. If you’re trying to save your waistline while eating a nice, big dinner, stay away from the beer.

Try to employ more of a sampling strategy when it comes to things like sides and desserts. If you want to eat a bit of everything, just get a little bit of everything. By the end of it you’ll probably feel pretty full, and won’t really want to eat more.

It’s for the best if you limit your heavy eating to one day, as well. Depending on the holiday, try not to eat a bunch in the days before and after it, but rather just the day itself.

Don’t worry about going a little bit overboard on one single day. If you’re just eating heavily on Christmas day, you can do that. Relax and don’t worry about counting calories a bunch for that one instance.

If you’re really worried about going over for that one day, you can always make up for it in the future. For example, let’s say you go over your limit by 1000 calories one day. Instead of freaking out about it, just spend the next two days at an extra 500 calorie deficit, or the next four days at a mere 250 calorie deficit.

As long as you’re eating lavishly in moderation, you’re going to be fine. It won’t be the end of the world if you’re a bit over for one day, but it will bite you pretty hard if you go way overboard for multiple days at a time.

Don’t Wait to Start Your Exercise Plans

One thing that messes with a lot of people’s fitness plans is the timing of it all. For some reason, people are always so worried about just starting their diet and exercise routines that they keep postponing it, often to a point where they’re months off of schedule.

A lot of people try to synchronize the start of their fitness routine to some arbitrary thing. Some people have to have it starting on a Monday. Others won’t start it October, because Thanksgiving and Christmas are “right around the corner!”

So, instead, they wait until January, but not right on New Year’s because they’re celebrating on New Year’s. These excuses go on and on and months fly by, wasted, never having been used for a productive purpose.

Most people are guilty of this, or at least something like it. You need to put a stop to it, and just start getting into the routine of diet and exercise. Your routine doesn’t need to be 100% perfect, but it needs to start sooner rather than later.

The first day of going to the gym is always the worst one. If you’ve never been before, getting that first day out of the way now makes the weeks and months to come much easier. Additionally, gyms tend to be a bit sparser during the holiday season.

However, the gyms get packed once New Year’s hits. So, if you’re trying to go for the first time at the busiest times in January, instead of the less populated times in November, you’re going to have a worse time.

Instead, you should try to get used to and familiar with the gym ahead of time, that way when all the new people show up in January, you won’t have to worry about anything except for a slightly more crowded gym.

Getting ahead on your diet and everything else will help you start to lose weight, which can bring you even closer to what will eventually be your New Year’s resolution goal weight.

Going from 200 pounds down to 170 in a year is much more achievable than going from 240 down to 170. By coming closer to your goal before you even set it, you’re going to have a much easier time reaching it, and you’ll probably feel less pessimistic about it.

You might think about it this way- if you lose even five pounds before the holiday season, you at least have that much wiggle room to work with. If you gain five pounds throughout the holidays, you’re right back where you started instead of being worse off.

Stop procrastinating on getting in shape and just start a basic gym and diet routine. Don’t even worry about making it just perfect at the time being, just as long as you’re being active and making better dietary choices.

Best and Worst Holiday Foods

If you’re not inclined towards fitness and health, then what is and isn’t good for you to eat can be pretty confusing. You’ll hear a lot of mixed opinions and contradictory information, which can be stressful to sort through as a beginner.

By getting a good idea of what foods you should absolutely have and should be careful with, and why, you can get a decent idea of how other foods in your holiday lineup can affect your health.

The best foods that you’ll find around the holiday season is various vegetables. You’ll find carrots, squash, cream greens, broccoli, and more. These are often best done roasted in the oven with some various seasonings.

Another great holiday food you’ll find, of course, it meat. Turkey, chicken, roast, ham, and more all find their way onto holiday tables in abundance. Assuming it’s smoked or grilled and not deep fried, meat is an excellent choice for your holiday meal.

Smoked and grilled meats are high in protein, low in carbs and sugars, and taste great. They’re not very calorie dense, which is a good thing. It means that they’re more filling without being as high in calories.

Now, there are many foods you’ll come across during the holidays that aren’t very good for you at all. Granted, they taste very good, so you can have some, but try not to go overboard on anything that’s going to cause excessive weight gain.

First and foremost is the sugary foods. Desserts, candy, and abundant at the end of each month from October through December. Pies, candy, and chocolate are all very high in sugar and should be eaten very lightly.

Hefty carb-loaded sides should be eaten very conservatively as well. Most commonly, you’ll find these in hearty casseroles, mashed potatoes, rolls and biscuits, and so on. Try to pair fairly small amounts of these with your meat of choice.

If you’re an adult, try to make it a point to stave off candy during Halloween and Christmas if you can. Leave more for the kids instead. If you’re trying to reach your goal of getting in better shape, the candy is going to be your worst enemy.

One of the less often noted things to avoid is high calorie drinks. Sodas are an obvious one to avoid at all costs, but so is alcohol. Alcohol itself is high in calories, and mixing it into sodas is even worse.

Beers, wines, and liquor are all very high calorie drinks. If you plan on drinking during the holidays when you’re with family, you should try to keep it pretty light. Drinking a bunch during those days will pack on the pounds very quickly.

10 Survival Skills You’ll Wish You Had When the SHTF

When it comes to survival, ordinary men and women who are just now immersing themselves into the prepper world are more concerned about hoarding supplies than they are learning the skills they need for survival purposes.

Unfortunately, there are many situations where you will be unable to take most of your supplies with you. In truly dire circumstances, you will have to know how to do everything on your own, without the convenience of having readymade gadgets and tools with you.

The best thing you can do to protect the lives of yourself and your family is to learn what you need to know ahead of time, gain those skills, and practice them over time. You also need to teach your family what to do in these situations, in case they are separated from you or you are no longer around.

Multiple Ways to Filter Water and Stay Hydrated

The first thing many people understand in terms of survival is that water is the most important thing your body will need to make it through an awful situation. You may have many gallons or bottles of water saved up in your household.

However, this will not help you if you and your loved ones have to bug out to another location. Even if you were able to fill your car with as many gallons as possible, it may not last you for the entire duration of the survival event.

The same goes for supplies that help you purify water, such as bleach or water purifying tablets. You may not have the convenience of filter straws or a filtering machine to help you clean the water that you need to drink.

If you find yourself in a situation where you do not have the convenience of a water purifying system, you can always start by boiling the water that you need. Of course, this requires you to start a fire and if you are drinking the water, you will need to wait until it cools down enough to consume safely.

If you are unable to boil the water, then you want to filter it as much as possible using whatever you have on hand. For example, you can run the water through different layers – such as a bandana, coffee filters that are in your backpack, or other fabrics that will separate the particles from the water.

You can also create a homemade filter by using things such as a bottle, sand or gravel, cotton balls, etc. Try to make sure you have some activated carbon with you in your bug out bag.

Another thing you might be able to use is the sun. There is a solar water disinfection process that takes up to 48 hours, but it can help kill off some of the harmful things in your water supply.

Start a Fire Without Matches or Lighters

Many people rely on the convenience of having matches or lighters to start a fire. Survival preppers often have flint and steel to do the job. But you may not have either of those.

You can still start a fire without these tools on hand and use it to boil water, cook your food, wash up, etc. The most common method of starting a fire without matches that just about everyone knows is to cause friction between two sticks.

If you’ve ever watched the show, Survivor, you will know that this is not as easy as it sounds. It takes a lot of work and skill in allowing the spark to breathe and catch the kindling on fire.

There are also ways that you can start a fire using hard materials such as rocks to create a spark, using the sun in a concentrated effort, such as through a magnifying glass, etc.

You should learn and teach your loved ones how to gather the proper tinder that will easily ignite and help in starting a fire that will last. You also need to teach them what kind of kindling well best work for catching fire to then fuel larger pieces of wood.

Forage for Food in a Bug Out Situation

Foraging for food is another skill you will want to learn far ahead of a true emergency situation. You’ll need to have books on hand and you may need to access the Internet while it’s still working to ask questions or find information.

You’ll want to know how to forage for berries and plants as well as nuts in your area. But you also need to learn how to find those same items in other areas that you may have to bug out to in the event that you have to leave your local area.

Come up with a list of everywhere you might end up having to go, and learn how to forage for food in those locations. Then, put your skills to the test and carefully forage for food without putting yourself or your family in danger.

If you learn the skill early enough, you will be able to ask for feedback on whether or not you have correctly identified the plants that you have gathered. You may also be able to find a local class or expert who can guide you in foraging for food. Just look for an herbalist or wilderness expert who can teach you the ropes.

Navigate Outdoors without Maps or Roadways

In today’s modern world, if you need to get from point A to point B, you may turn on an app such as Waze to guide you to the location. Or, you may have a GPS product that simply tells you which turn to take on which street.

In a survival situation, you may not have access to such luxuries. In fact, you may not even have a map on hand. You may not be able to travel by a major roadway if it is dangerous, and therefore will not have any signs at your disposal telling you which direction is the correct one.

You need to know how to navigate the outdoors using a simple, small compass that you will keep in your bug out bag. But even then, you may not have access to a compass, so you will have to learn how to navigate according to the sun’s location as well as the constellations in the night sky.

Build a Shelter from Your Surroundings

Building a shelter will be one of the most important things you’ll need to know ahead of time. While you may think you can simply set up a tent anywhere in an emergency situation, that may not be possible.

You might be out in the wilderness without any tools, tents or tarps. You need to learn how to build a shelter from what’s around you – the wood, leaves, moss, mud and other materials provided by Mother Nature.

You need to be able to build shelter for different weather situations, including extreme heat and cold, wind, snow and rain. You also want to be able to build a shelter that camouflages you from detection from other individuals.

There will be some situations where you may have tools at your disposal. It’s a good idea to learn certain carpentry fundamentals so that if you have to build a homestead off the grid and without any professional services, you’ll be able to.

First Aid Training for Minor and Major Injuries

There will be many instances when you are in a survival situation, where first aid is required. From simple sprains to major wounds, you will want to be able to understand how to treat someone without the benefit of a first aid kit.

Even if you do have a first aid kit on hand, many people don’t know how to use the supplies that are inside. So you want to educate yourself about how to use a first aid kit, and how to treat someone without one.

For example, you may need to know how to treat a wound by using nothing more than water and compression. You may need to know how to locate an aloe vera plant or other natural growing plant that can help you administer first aid to someone.

You want to gradually educate yourself on many different first aid situations, including how to recognize when someone is having a stroke or heart attack – and what to do about it if you are unable to take them to a hospital, how to administer CPR, etc.

Self Defense Measures to Keep Your Family Safe

Self-defense is another thing you want to learn prior to a SHTF situation. This is something that can help protect you from unsavory individuals who may want to attack you or take your supplies.

It may also help you in protecting yourself and your family from wild animals if you have to bug out in an area where there are large wild cats, bears, coyotes, feral pigs, and more.

There are many different measures that you can take for self-defense. Some people prefer to learn how to use weapons, such as being armed with a gun or knife. If you are choosing to go this route, you need to make sure that you are well versed in how to use both of these for self-defense.

You also need to know some self-defense tactics if you are caught without your weapon of choice. For example, you may want to learn karate or how to box so that you can eliminate the threat to your family in a safe manner.

This is something that you will need to make sure your family is educated in as well. You don’t want someone who is smaller or weaker to get caught off guard by an attacker and be unable to protect themselves.

Growing Your Own Food from Seed to Table

While foraging for food is a great skill to have, as well as being able to stock supplies, it may not be enough. There will be some long term survival situations where you need to be able to grow your own food from a seed and provide for your family this way.

Some people fail at gardening, not understanding how to keep pests away from their garden plants, not realizing how much sun the plants need, not being able to evaluate the soil, or know when to harvest.

You want to find out what zone you currently live in, or where your future homestead is located, and learn what types of plants you can grow for food, and in what season. Make sure you have plenty of heirloom seeds on hand for this purpose, and store them properly.

Keep in mind that you can’t speed up the growing process, so if you are panicking for food, a garden may not provide you the comfort you are seeking. There are certain plants that grow faster than others, and in addition to these, you will also need to stock up on seeds of plants that provide the most nutritional value.

Hunting and Fishing to Stave Off Hunger and Fill Up on Protein

Foraging for food and growing your own are great ways to take away the hunger you feel in a survival situation. But for energy purposes, you will need to know how to find the protein that will serve your body well.

Hunting and fishing are two skills that you will need to learn before a major event takes place. Even if you are not currently a hunter, you need to learn the skills it takes to trap small animals, clean them, and cook them in a safe manner.

You also want to learn how to fish with and without supplies, depending on what type of situation you are in. While supplies are great, not everyone has access to them in a survival situation, which means they have to rely on the process of noodling or fashioning equipment out of natural items.

Cooking Outdoors Off the Grid

Many people have been camping, and use the convenience of a propane stove to cook the food they need while living in the outdoors temporarily. However, there may be times when you need to cook outdoors on a larger scale, for a longer time.

You may not have the luxury of propane or charcoal to help you build a fire and cook the food for your family. You need to know what types of gear to buy, such as cast iron pots and pans.

These are too heavy and bulky for you to carry with you if you have to bug out. They may be fine for a homestead outdoor cooking purpose, though. If you have to bug out and can’t take your supplies with you, you need to learn how to use things like rocks over a fire or foil pouches to bake your dinner in a fire pit.

The last thing you want to do is become frustrated and feel hopeless trying to cook dinner without access to pots and pans, grills and ovens while you or your loved ones are starving and miserable.

Learning all of these skills ahead of time will give you the peace of mind to know that your family will be taken care of in the event of a major survival situation. Over time, you will want to practice these skills and perfect your own style so that you can quickly and easily implement them whenever the need arises.

10 Survival Skills to Learn to Keep You Alive When You Bug Out

No matter how prepared you are for a survival situation at home, if an event occurs that requires you to leave your home to bug out in the outdoors, you will be put under a different kind of pressure.

Survival in the elements is very different than that of being in a familiar place, sheltered from the wind, rain, cold or heat. Outdoors, you’ll become both predator and prey. You will have to fight for your survival more than if you were holed up at your home with a room full of supplies.

It’s important that you prepare yourself for survival skills that require you to bug out in the wilderness, forest, desert, or elsewhere. There are certain skills you will need to work on and master ahead of time so that you’re not struggling in a harsh environment.

There are ten very common survival skills required for bug out situations. Not only will you want to learn these things for yourself, but you’ll want to teach your loved ones the same lessons in case they become separated from you or you become incapacitated.

Staying Hidden or Signaling for Help

Depending on the situation that you are in, you may need to stay hidden in a bug out situation. For example, if there is civil unrest or an invasion of some sort, you won’t want to advertise your whereabouts.

The most important thing you’ll want to remember is to blend in to the background. You will want some sort of camouflage attire as well as the gear that you carry that will match your environment and keep you hidden in plain sight.

If you are on the go, make sure that you are traveling at night when you are less likely to be seen. Teach your family how to move and stay quiet so that a target is not put on your back.

The opposite may also be true. You may need to signal for help in a survival situation. Just as certain colors can help you stay hidden, other colors, such as bright orange, can help you be found by rescuers.

You also want to make sure that you are carrying certain types of gear that will help signal that you are in some type of distress. For example, a whistle is easy and effective for both children and adults to use.

You can also use a mirror or a small fire as well as any other sort of sound to alert the authorities to your location so that you can receive the help that you and your family need in that moment.

Navigating an Environment without Road Signs or Maps

The most effective thing that you can do for navigation means, when you don’t have a map or any road signs to work off of, is to use a compass. These are small and lightweight, and can come in handy when you are bugging out in the outdoors.

If you don’t have a compass, you can always use the sun and the stars to find your way around a location. For example, you can always find north just by looking at the location of the sun.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The only time this will be more difficult is in the middle of the day when the sun is directly above you. But you should be able to quickly watch the direction it travels to determine which path you are on or need to go.

Because it’s safer to travel at night, you may want to use the stars instead of the sun. You want to locate and also teach your family how to locate the Big Dipper or Little Dipper constellations.

The north star lines up with the Big Dipper, which will help you find the direction you need to go. Many people like to learn how to find a variety of constellations so that they can navigate their way outdoors at night.

Finding Food to Keep Your Energy Levels Up

Even if you are able to take supplies with you in a bug out bag, there’s only so much food you can take on the go. If it lasts more than 72 hours, chances are good that you will have to forage or hunt for food on your own.

You need to spend time ahead of time learning about the safe foods that you can find in your area, or whatever area you plan to go to. You don’t want to accidentally be eating berries o plants that are toxic or poisonous.

Sometimes, there are plants that look almost identical to those that are safe to eat, but which are poisonous, so make sure you know the difference before a bad situation occurs.

There are many foods that you may not know you can eat. For example, while dandelions are a weed that many people try to get rid of in their yard, they are edible and can help keep you alive in a survival situation.

You will also want to learn how to create traps and snares so that you can catch small game to cook over a campsite fire. If there is water nearby, you can also take fishing gear and catch your dinner that way.

Sourcing Safe Water to Keep You Alive

Water is the number one most important supply that you will need in a bug out situation. You will only be able to carry so much with you when you leave your homestead, so it’s important that you know where to locate water ahead of time.

Make sure you take water purification tablets or other gadgets with you so that you can drink from any source that you find. There are harmful parasites, microorganisms, and bacteria present in most water sources in the wild that you want to avoid.

Keep in mind that in a major survival situation, even finding a faucet may not guarantee that you have sourced clean water. If the grid goes down and the water purification plant cannot function properly, then you will have to boil and purify the water that comes out of the tap.

If possible, try to capture rainwater without it being contaminated by anything it touches. If you are unable to purify water or accumulate rainwater, look for a fast flowing water source, such as a stream, where other animals are drinking from the source and surviving.

Common First Aid You Might Need Outdoors

When you are forced to bug out in the wilderness or elsewhere, you may have first aid needs that you wouldn’t necessarily have within your homestead quite as often. For example, bug bites or stings may be prevalent when you are forced to hike and sleep outside.

Ideally, you will have a first aid kit that can help you address these issues. But if not, you may need to learn how to deal with them without things like Benadryl, tweezers, or ointment.

Another thing that may occur is a broken bone or sprain, such as if you step the wrong way while hiking and sprain your ankle. You may also find that you suffer from things such as splinters when building shelter or gathering wood for a fire.

Having to cook your own food, or start a fire for warmth, you may have someone who suffers from a minor burn. And of course, stress is increased in bug out situations, so something more harrowing may occur, such as strain on the heart.

Surviving Extreme Weather When Bugging Out

If you are bugging out for a short amount of time, chances are you can easily prepare for the supplies you will need to handle a little bit of rain, cold, or heat. The problem arises when 72 hours grows into weeks, if not months or even years.
 You will need to know how to survive the weather events in your area. You may have extreme shifts in weather, such as in Texas where it can be 80 degrees during the day, yet dip down into the 40s or 50s at night.

Make sure that you and your loved ones have layers of clothing that can adjust for any type of weather temperature. You want to ensure that no one suffers from heatstroke or frostbite.

Know how to build a shelter in different kinds of weather, including snow and rain. Learn how to keep your supplies dry and waterproof so that you can continue to make fire to keep warm and cook with.

Keep in mind that sometimes the temperature may not seem very harrowing. However, when you factor in the wind gusts, it can make it seem much colder than it really is. Certain materials will stand up against the wind better than others, so prepare for that if you are in a windy area.

Making Fire to Cook and Keep Warm

It is imperative that you take some sort of fire-starting equipment with you if you are going to be bugging out for any amount of time. However, things happen sometimes, and you may be forced to leave without your bug out bag or your fire-starting equipment may end up lost or misplaced.

If this happens, you need to know how to start a fire using wood and nothing more than determination. You will have to know how to gather some tinder to start the fire with, how to cut a notch in your fireboard, and how to spin the wood to start a fire using friction alone.

You want to make sure that yourself and every member of your family are aware of all of the fire safety rules so that the fire does not grow out of control and end up catching your surroundings on fire.

Make sure you know all of the little tips about keeping a fire thriving, such as making sure it has plenty of oxygen, knowing when to put more wood on the fire, which type of wood will burn longer, and more.

Keeping Your Mindset Strong in Survival Situations

When you are in a survival bug out situation, your mental state will be tested time and time again. Whether you are dealing with your own emotions, or trying to handle the tears of your children who are breaking down over the situation, you have to be strong enough to get through it.

There will be some people who encounter major situations like this and simply want to give up. But you want to have a strong mindset that contributes to your will to live. Remind yourself that people have been through this and worse and emerged through it all to find a normal life again.

Be sure and celebrate the little wins that you have during this uphill battle. You want to toughen your mental state, but also visualize a future that you’ll want to work towards. You will need to have a handle on all of your emotions, whether it is fear, anger, or something else.

Building Shelter Outside

You have to know how to build shelter for your survival. Not only can this protect you from the natural elements, such as cold or hot weather, rain or wind, but it can also keep you safe from bugs, insects, rodents, and larger predators.

It’s always best to have something on hand, such as a tent or tarp that you can use as your shelter. But again, there are times when you will not be able to take that with you, and you will have to build shelter from scratch.

Learn how to build shelter in your area based off of the common trees, leaves, and other items you find locally. You want to know how to build a floor to trap in warmth, and walls that will keep out the elements and predators.

Your shelter should also provide some sort of camouflage for you to stay hidden in a chaotic survival situation. If you are in extreme cold and snow, you can still build an outdoor survival shelter that will keep you warm.

Self Defense from Predators

Shelter alone is not going to be enough to protect you from some predators. For example, if you are in an area that has large wild cats or bears, or even destructive pigs, you may be in danger regardless of whether or not you are inside of a tent.

You need to make sure that you have some sort of self-defense measures on hand to protect yourself from both people and animals that may intend to do you harm. Ideally, you will be able to carry a firearm or knife, but if not, you need to learn self-defense measures ahead of time that will help you protect yourself and your family.

You can use a large tree branch as a weapon if you need it. A rock can also be thrown or used to strike a predator. You can set traps that are not used for food purposes, but instead to alert you whenever something or someone is drawing near to your campsite.

Steel Valley Nightmare and Escape Room Review – My First Time

Have you ever done an escape room? Here are 10 tips to beating an escape room, and my quick review of the Steel Valley Nightmare Escape Room in Ohio.

In October, my family and I went to an Escape Room. It was my first time in an escape room, and I honestly didn’t know what to expect.

We went to the Steel Valley Nightmare and Escape Room in Girard, Ohio because we were there visiting my father in law and sister in law for their birthdays.

Why would we go to a horror themed escape room? Well – because Halloween.

Needless to say, I was scared because what most people don’t know about me is I love all the goofy and cute and fun things of Halloween. The horror and the gore and the creepy stuffs? Not so much!

Still, not wanting to seem like a wimp, I went for it.

Image via Steel Valley Nightmare and Escape Room on Facebook

Going in, I was still nervous as hell. And, I really wished I’d had some cocktails prior to give me some liquid courage.

When we got in, the host made us sign wavers, and then locked us in. YIPE!

Then, he proceeded to tell us how the game worked, and told us we could choose easy, medium or hard.

No one has ever escaped hard mode…

Spoiler alert: We didn’t even escape EASY mode!

Now, I won’t reveal anything that happened inside because I promised I wouldn’t. But, it was definitely scary for me because I jump at allllllll the things.

Still, there were lots of laughs, and we did have a good time. We were also just one puzzle away from escaping.

Would I do an escape room again? Yes!

Would I recommend this one? Yes, especially if you’re into horror and a little bit of crude humor.

I would NOT recommend it for anyone under 18, however.

About Steel Valley Nightmare and Escape:

Address: 160 Trumbull Ave, Girard, OH 44420

Phone: (330) 360-8496

Booking information: Book online here
Book in advance though because they sell out often. Especially near the holidays and pretty much every single weekend!

What is an Escape Room?

The term “escape room” typically refers to a 60-minute real-life adventure game.

You and your team will be locked in a themed room for an hour to complete your goal and “exit” the room. If you want to make it out alive, you’ll have to scour the room for hidden clues and solve tricky puzzles. Look beneath the carpeting, rummage through the books on the shelf, and examine the artwork on the walls more closely.

You might come upon a series of numbers for a combination lock or a good old-fashioned padlock key. Everywhere you look, there’s a potential clue to help you escape an escape room or solve a riddle. But hurry, for the minute you enter the escape room, the clock starts ticking!

To succeed in an escape room, you’ll need to work together, be quick, creative, and patient. Escape rooms are ideal for family holidays, corporate team-building, and simply having a good time with friends. Even if you don’t leave the room, the entire team will have a great time and create memories that will last a lifetime. While it’s fun to bring a large party to an escape game, you can also have a great time on your own!

What drives the popularity of the top escape games? they are an entirely new approach to interacting. Players are plunged into a whole other universe with narratives that feel like Hollywood blockbusters by combining a communal activity with interactive adventures and hard riddles. It’s no surprise they’ve become so popular.

Tips for Beating an Escape Room

The difficulty of escape rooms is high. Most groups, like mine, fail to break free. It’s not that people are incapable of solving problems. It’s often a strategic issue. Other times it’s a matter of not being knowledgeable about the trivia inside.

Our first room comes to mind. We were completely baffled for the first 15 minutes. We didn’t make it through without help, needless to say. However, as we progressed through the rooms, we began to notice what worked and what didn’t. The biggest key – PAY ATTENTION TO EVERYTHING!

Escape rooms might not be as difficult as they appear on the surface, but you can quickly run out of time if you’re not paying attention, working together, getting hung up on the wrong details, etc… All you have to do now is figure out what to do. Here are ten essential components for a successful escape!

  1. Assemble the Ideal Group

What matters is who you know, not what you know. You’d like to play with a fun group. Finding a group of intelligent people isn’t always the goal. You should play with folks with whom you are familiar. Remember, there’s a strong chance you’ll be panicking within the first 15 or 20 minutes and scrambling about with your hints alongside these people. In that situation, who would you choose to be with?

Choosing a suitable group size is also a wise idea. While some rooms may accommodate up to eight (or even ten) people, you may prefer to limit your group to four to six people. It’s really hard to beat a room alone or with only one other person. There aren’t enough puzzle solvers. Eight individuals yelling passionately in a 15 × 15 ft. room, on the other hand, will give you a headache and confusion. It is usually advisable to stay in the middle.

  1. Prepare ahead of time and keep track of your schedule.

You want to spend as much mental energy as possible “in” the rooms to beat them. These rooms believe me, are mentally exhausting. Any time you spend rushing to the escape room because you’re late or anxiously looking for parking as the store calls to inquire where you are, you’ll be exhausted once you’re inside. You want to arrive relaxed and ready to take on the world! As a result, make your reservation a few days in advance and arrive 15-30 minutes before your game.

  1. Approach the situation with a positive mindset.

It’s amazing how much of a difference this makes! Don’t be arrogant, but go in believing in yourself and your ability to succeed. Accept the challenges. If you are stuck on something for a few minutes and have to utilize a clue, don’t get too frustrated. Also, maintain strong communication with your game group.

If you’re playing with strangers, make an effort to introduce yourself and get to know one another. Because you’ll all be working toward the same goal, be polite, enthusiastic, and supportive.

Luckily, we had enough people in our group that we had a private experience.

  1. Be familiar with the room’s regulations.

It is critical to understand this. Certain items in the room may be off-limits. Disrupting them can cause a puzzle to be messed up. Or in our case, messing with things could result in injury. Don’t do dumb stuff. Use common sense!

Also, the number of hints you will receive and the game’s length are other important considerations. Be aware of the methods used to provide hints. Companies assist in a variety of ways. In our case, we had to holler for the game master to give the hints, and we didn’t have many available to us…even in easy mode.

  1. Pay attention to the time.

In an escape room, one hour goes by quickly. It’s a lot like those late-night video gaming marathons where you peek at the clock and find it’s 1 a.m. after setting out to play a handful of games at 9 p.m. What happened to all of my time? In the escape room, it’ll be similar, so keep an eye on the clock. This is also important for deciding how long to wait before asking for a hint.

  1. Come up with an adhere to a steadfast, consistent strategy.

When you’re stuck on a task for 10 minutes or more, it’s tempting to quit due to frustration. Doubts begin to sneak in, heads begin to hang, and thoughts about how you’re a failure who will never live up to your parents’ lofty expectations may begin to whirl in your mind. They should be ignored. Maintain your concentration on the current work. You’ll work it out eventually.

Ask for assistance though if you don’t know what to do. When you solve a problem, don’t get too caught up in it. Instead, go on to the next stage and continue the work until the game is over or until you run out of time. The majority of groups finish the room in the last 5 minutes or run out of time on the final step – exactly what happened to me my first time.

  1. If you notice something, say something.

When it comes to beating an escape room, communication is crucial. Many puzzles have connections to numerous elements in the room. As a result, you can come across something with a specific sign on it that corresponds to something on the other side of the room. If you and your teammate both came upon the same item and didn’t say anything, you’ll most likely miss the significance of those parts. Talking to each other about what you find in the room can help you notice the important details and win. You’re all on the same team, so work together.

  1. Make sure you don’t take up the space for too long.

What I mean by this is, if you’re in a spot in the room and are struggling to figure out if it’s important to solving the puzzle, MOVE. We had to get good at this quickly because one person standing in a spot trying to solve something for too long meant other creative minds didn’t have a chance to try and figure it out.

Speak up and take turns looking at the different items so everyone has a chance to put in their two cents. You may find they see something and it clicks in a way for them that it didn’t for you. For example, one puzzle that we got hung up on in the first room had several of us perplexed, but as soon as we stepped away, one team member instantly got it!

  1. Make GOOD use of your hints

Groups that flatly refuse to use their hints are asking to fail. You will likely get stuck. It’s okay! Don’t think of it as your ego being on the line. Everyone gets trapped at some point. Escape Room areas are meant to be difficult to navigate, and it’s not uncommon for no one to solve the puzzle or notice the critical object needed to proceed. You’ll be able to escape out of your bind with the help of the hints.

The team that waits 20 minutes for a clue despite their game master’s numerous requests to offer assistance has most likely squandered too much time and is now doomed. If you’ve been trapped on a step for more than 5-10 minutes, it’s a good idea to seek assistance. Take the hint if a game master suggests using a clue.

I kind of feel like this is what caused us to run out of time in ours. In our first room (we had three to get through), we spent FAR too much time trying to figure things out before asking for a hint. And, if we’d asked sooner, we would have had the extra 5-10 minutes we really needed to finish the game.

10. Don’t blindly dismiss anyone’s ideas

Our group made this mistake with one of the puzzles. I feel bad looking back that we dismissed her thought because when we asked for a hint, she turned out to be right. So, a little louder for the people in the back – DON’T DISMISS ANYONE’S IDEAS! It might be the clue that you’re not seeing!

Above All, Focus on Having a Good Time

Though you want to escape, remember that escape rooms are there for fun. It’s meant to be a good time. If you run out of time, don’t get angry and leave in a bad mood. It’s a game, so laugh it off. Maintain a positive relationship with your group, whether it’s your close friends, family, or random strangers.

Everyone wants to have a good time, and that should be the primary objective. When playing your first escape room, or event your fiftieth, this is extremely important to remember. It normally takes a few attempts for someone to succeed. Recognize this and try not to let whether or not you win decide your overall pleasure.

A Year’s Worth of Blog Post Ideas for Almost Any Niche!

A Year of Blog Post Ideas

Need blog ideas? You’ve come to the right place. In this post, I’m sharing A Year’s Worth of Blog Post Ideas for Almost Any Niche!

One of the most important tasks you will have as an online entrepreneur is to produce consistent, valuable content for your target audience. This comes in many different forms, including info products, email autoresponders, social networking posts, and blog posts.

You might be enthusiastic about your topic when you first get started, only to find yourself struggling to come up with additional content ideas weeks or months down the road.

Instead of letting your blog go stagnant or ripping off ideas from other niche content producers, you want to have a list of possible slants at your disposal that you can turn to whenever you need a fresh topic.

Below, you will see a list of 52 content ideas that work for just about any niche you can imagine. In fact, in addition to the slant provided, you will also find three examples given for the diet niche, success niche, and survival niche.

This will give you a better understanding of how to take the topic suggestion and mold it to whatever niche you happen to be in. With 52 slants, you will be able to easily create at least one valuable blog post per week for an entire year.

However, if you would like to blog more frequently, even daily, you can simply cycle through the ideas and use them repeatedly over the course of time – but with a fresh approach.

All you will need to do is tweak the suggestion to cover something that you haven’t covered before. For example, if the slant is about providing a shortcut or hack for your audience, you can cover dozens of these on different days and use that suggestion over and over again.

You might also consider combining some of them, too. For example, if one suggestion if a product review blog post, then you might combine that with the suggestion about using a news story.

1. Share a #1 Overall Most Important Tip with Your Readers

Whenever you are leading a niche audience, you will often find many of your followers coming to you with a concern about focusing on the most important thing they should know.

Many of them will know that they need to understand many different concepts, but they want to start with the vital things in the very beginning. Much of this stems from their desire to avoid taking any missteps at the start of their journey.

In just about every niche, there is one hard and fast rule that everyone should know and understand. You can find these lessons as the main topic of many different books in your niche.

You can look in forums and see the same questions being asked again and again, or the same advice being offered repeatedly. You can use your own experience to look back on your journey and think about what you wish you had known from the very beginning.

If you are in the dieting niche, you might come up with a slant such as, “The Single Most Important Things You Can Do to Lose Weight.” One of the most obvious tips we see in the diet niche is that you have to drink enough water.

So your blog post might detail the importance of drinking plenty of water when they are trying to lose weight. It can talk about the amount of water they should drink, how drinking a glass of water before meals helps them eat fewer calories, and more.

If you are in the success niche, you might come up with a slant such as, “The #1 Mindset Shift You Need to Make to Succeed.” One of the things you may have witnessed in your own journey, either by others or even yourself, is that a lack of confidence can hold people back from putting themselves out there as a niche leader.

Therefore, your number one tip could be to work on their level of confidence so that they can project themselves appropriately as experts in their field and lead their niche without hesitation.

If you are in the survival niche, you might come up with a slant such as, “The #1 Most Important Survival Supply You Need.” Many people who are not experienced preppers automatically think about food when it comes to survival purposes.

But you can set the record straight by explaining to them how water is the most important supply they should stock up on. Teach them how they can live longer without food than they can without hydration.

You can also use your blog space to teach them about how to store water for long term purposes, including adding bleach or water purifying drops, which containers they should use, and where it should be stored.

2. Give Them Advice About Taking a Shortcut or Making Something Easier

Everyone loves to find out about a simple shortcut or hack that can make things take less time or make them easier to carry out. In just about every niche, you can come up with some sort of shortcut that will help your audience.

If you don’t know of any, simply go to your search engine of choice and type in the name of your niche and the word hack or shortcut. This will deliver a variety of ideas that you can then explain in your own words without even reading someone else’s work to ensure that you don’t plagiarize their content.

For example, if you are in the dieting niche, you might come up with a slant such as, “Easy Diet Hack That Helps You Feel Full.” There are many different ways to do this, such as how we mentioned drinking a glass of water before the meal.

However, you might also use a hack such as learning how to put the fork down between bites or put the piece of food down, such as a hamburger. This simple tip will keep people from continually shoving food into their mouth and allow them to recognize the signal of fullness.

If you are in the success niche, you might come up with a slant such as, “Use an Egg Timer to Push Your Productivity and Eliminate Long Work Hours.” This might be a tip that you have used yourself, or something you have seen others do.

Productivity and time management is a very common problem, and you can teach them about an egg timer, or a strategy such as the Pomodoro method that can help them focus on working in shorter increments of time so that they achieve more each day.

If you are in the survival niche, you might come up with a slant such as, “Stock Food that Doubles as a Quick Fire Starter.” Many people don’t want to choose between carrying fire-starting materials and food.

One good hack that has been shared among survival preppers is that you can carry greasy foods, such as Frito chips and use those as kindling to get your fire going. Obviously, you can also teach them that the use of flint and steel would be a better option long term, but this is a hack that can work in a pinch.

3. Make Them Aware of Recent News in Your Niche

As a niche leader, it is your job to stay informed about the news that is relevant to your audience and to share it with them. You can easily find this by going to news sites directly or by using a search engine to type in your niche topic and then clicking on the news tab.

You don’t want to simply parrot the news verbatim. What you want to do is let them know what’s going on and then discuss it with your audience so that they know how to absorb and digest this information and what to do about it.

People don’t like to be informed about something that could affect them without having a plan of action. So whenever you release information that you have learned, always make sure you include an action step for them to take.

Whenever you are discussing a news story, you can link out to that story (make sure it opens into a new tab) and discuss a little bit about what you read and what your thoughts are about it.

You might disagree with the author of the story, or have some advice for your readers about what they should do with this information. If you are in the dieting niche, you might want to share a slant such as, “New Dietary Guidelines Released for Good Health.”

It’s been 15 years since the national dietary guidelines were updated, so for those who adhere to them religiously, it would be important for them to know how things have changed.

For example, one of the changes that has taken place is that they now have recommendations for infants and toddlers included. Therefore, you might add advice for healthy nutrition for a younger audience and discuss how childhood food habits may have played a role in your readers’ weight gain.

If you are in the success niche, you might want to share a slant such as, “Most Kids Prefer the Option of Being Solo Entrepreneurs Instead of College Graduates.” By conducting a simple Google search, you could find an article on CNBC about how interest in four year colleges has plummeted since the pandemic and tie that into the alternative of being your own boss.

If you are in the survival niche, you might want to share a slant such as, “Luxury Survival Becoming More Prominent Among Preppers.” Again, on CNBC, there is an article about doomsday preppers stocking up on luxury items, including supplies as well as luxury homesteads and communities.

4. Tie Your Blog Post Into Budgeting

In just about every niche, a budget is somehow associated with it. Whether it’s a hobby they want to spend money on, a strategy they need to implement, or a tool that might make their life easier, they will likely have a budget that they need help deciding how to spend.

You can go to a search engine and type in the name of your niche along with the word budget or spending and see what pops up. If you are in the diet niche, you might want to share a slant such as, “Eating Healthy Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank.”

This is a common concern for many people who are trying to eat healthy, because healthier foods are more expensive than processed, low nutrient foods. You can discuss how a bag of flavored pasta will only cost a dollar, but a bag of broccoli might be $8.00.

Instead of only informing them about the budgeting problems for eating healthy, make sure you share some tips on how they can still eat healthy while spending within their monetary allowance.

If you are in the success niche, you might want to include a slant such as, “Reinvest Your Earnings to Keep Yourself Out of Start-Up Debt.” Many newbie marketers or entrepreneurs often charge up their credit cards in an effort to make money, assuming they will be able to earn it back fast.

According to many hyped up sales pages, this is what should happen. So instead of simply warning then, you will want to teach them an alternate strategy, such as using free tools to get started and then reinvesting their earnings into courses and products that can help them level up.

If you are in the survival niche, you might want to include a slant such as, “Stocking Up on Survival Supplies for $10 a Week.” This is a common challenge that people discuss on social media and blogs sites, where preppers will teach others how to go out and shop on a specific budget.

This is something you will see in forums a lot, where people complain about not having the money to stock up on supplies, which is always countered by those who say you don’t need a lot of money to be prepared.

5. Create a Slew of Product Reviews

Product reviews are always going to serve you well in just about any niche that you are in. Whether it’s digital courses and tools or tangible items that are shipped to their home, consumers want help deciding which products they should invest in.

If you are a niche leader, then you probably have your own personal preferences on which products and tools are best. But you can also go out and look at affiliate programs to find out which ones you want to promote for your audience.

If you are in the dieting niche, you might want to include a slant such as, “My Review for the Best Food Scale on the Market.” This can be a review based on a product that you already own, one you are buying, or just based on the product specifications that you have read.

If you are in the success niche, then you will want to include a slant such as, “Review for the Best Podcast Microphone to Take Your Expertise Global.” Even if you are not personally producing a podcast, you can still do a review on the podcast microphone because it is a tool that many entrepreneurs do need.

If you are in the survival niche, then you can include a slant such as, “My Recommendations for the Best 72-Hour Bug Out Bags.” This can be any number of bags, or you can base it on certain features, but you will be advising your readers about the best bug out bags for themselves as well as their family members, including children.

When you are writing product reviews, you can base it on durability, quality, space and size, price range, brand, functionality, and more. These can all be included in your review or you can have a review just based on one of those items, such as the most spacious, lightweight bug out bag on the market.

6. Associate the Topic with Their Emotional or Physical Well-Being

The reason many people reach out to and follow niche leaders is because they have some sort of emotional or physical issue they need help with, and they’re looking to you to solve it.

If you are in the dieting niche, you might come up with a slant such as, “The Benefits of Losing Just 10% of Your Body Weight.” You can find an idea like this just by typing into a search engine the word diet along with the words body weight.

Or, if you wanted to take an emotional approach, you can type in the words diet mentality or diet emotions. If you are in the success niche, you might come up with a slant such as, “There’s a Link Between Good Health and Overall Success in Life.”

This is a common concept that is frequently discussed whenever the topic of work-life balance arises. There are statistics you can find about the overall health of successful people compared to those who earn less.

If you are in the survival niche, you might come up with a slant such as, “10 Common Health Problems You Need to Prepare for in a SHTF Survival Situation.” This is both a physical and emotional issue, because in a survival situation, any health issue can be a stressful burden as well.

7. Think About the Relationships It Affects and Discuss Those

Whenever you are discussing a topic with your blog readers, it’s often something that doesn’t just affect them, but also their friends and family or perhaps coworkers in some cases.

When you are brainstorming an idea like this, have a picture in your mind of your reader and everything they are going through. Think of who they interact with on a regular basis and what kind of interaction they may have with other people.

For example, if you are in the dieting niche, you might have a slant such as, “Dieting When You’re Dealing with an Unsupportive Spouse.” When you are picturing an adult female who is trying to lose weight, you may think about her spouse, and how they are either supportive or damaging in their journey.

Other people you may you think of in terms of relationships for this audience could be well meaning or sabotaging friends, coworkers who bring treats to the break room, an overbearing parent who always has to chime in, etc.

If you are in the success niche, you may want to have a slant such as, “Surround Yourself with Friends Who Don’t Belittle Your Entrepreneurial Efforts.” This may be something you have encountered or something you read about in forums that other people have gone through.

The isolation many entrepreneurs endure working for themselves without colleagues is a common concern, and adding shaming by offline friends could compound the problem for your readers.

If you are in the survival niche, you may want to have a slant such as, “Forming a Community of Like-Minded Friends and Family for Survival Strength.” This could be an overall approach about a community as a whole, or it could target certain topics such as protection and defense, community gardening, and more.

8. Talk About the Lifestyle of People in This Niche

With most niches, there is a certain lifestyle that the people who follow it are engaged in. For example, dieters have a certain lifestyle that many of them engage in, both for damaging habits as well as positive ones.

This is another situation where you want to sit and create a customer avatar of your readers so that you know what their daily life is usually like. You can address the beneficial things they may be doing and point out some harmful a things they may want to change.

If you are in the dieting niche, you may want to come up with a slant such as, “Permanent Lifestyle Changes You Can Make to Shed Pounds Easier.” This might be a series of simple steps such as taking an evening stroll in the neighborhood or parking farther away from the door at the grocery store.

You might teach them how to meal prep for the week instead of relying on snacks from the vending machine at work. With a post like this, you can focus on one specific tip or a series of lifestyle changes that you suggest they make.

If you are in the success niche, you may want to come up with a slant such as, “Make Sure You’re Enjoying Work-Life Balance During Your Entrepreneurial Career.” Work-life imbalance is a common problem that most people who work for themselves suffer.

You can teach them issues that will improve it for them such as time management, prioritizing their task list, and more. If you are in the survival niche, you may want to come up with a slant such as, “Practice Severe Lifestyle Changes Periodically So an Event Isn’t as Shocking.”

Because a severe survival situation is not likely to be happening at that very moment, you will want to slant this as a habit that they should practice for rather than implement on an ongoing basis.

For example, they may not need to go outside and start a fire to cook dinner every night. However, instead of waiting until a severe survival situation occurs, they should have everyone who is capable in their family practice starting a fire in a few different ways so that if something ever does happen, it will not be a foreign concept to them.

9. Discuss the Idea of Helping Others

Not only will you be helping your audience, but your readers can also learn how to help others from you. Think about your niche and how others can be helped in it in general. For example, if you were in the knitting niche, then you might talk about how people who knit can make knitted hats for newborns in the NICU.

If you are in the dieting niche, then you may want to have a slant such as, “Could the Ticket to Weight Loss Success Come in the Form of a Buddy System?” With a topic like this, not only would they be helping themselves, but they could help someone else out by being their support system.

Don’t just introduce the idea, but teach them what it means to be a diet buddy, where to find a diet buddy, and how to hold each other accountable throughout the process. You will also want to talk about what they should do if their buddy arrangement falls through.

If you are in the success niche, you might want to have a slant such as, “Giving Back Helps You Further Your Success in Many Ways.” Succeeding as an entrepreneur often happens because someone who has more experience than you has graciously offered their insight and assistance along the way.

You can teach your readers how to do the same for those who are new to their own journey. Even if they are beginners themselves, there will always be someone else who knows less than they do – and word of mouth spreads that boosts their reputation.

This does not have to be a one on one interaction, either. It can be something where they give back to the community by creating a free report that day give to others without making them pay for it.

If you are in the survival niche, then you may want to have a slant such as, “Don’t Plan on Bailing Out Friends and Family – Teach Them to Survive Instead.” This is a different type of helpful article, where your readers will be learning how to help others from more of a tough love approach.

You can teach them about the dangers of not helping their friends and family before a survival situation in learning how to prepare. For example, these people may show up on their doorstep knowing they have supplies and expecting to get the handouts.

10. Warn Them About Something Important

When you are a niche leader for people who are hoping to learn from you, there are times when you will need to warn them about things that they may not be aware of. These are issues they may not know to ask about, but that you can see will someday be a possible problem area for them.

When you issue a warning about something, you want to state the problem, but also explain why it can be catastrophic for them in either the short term or long term. If you simply mention the issue, they may not see how it correlates to their own life or they may feel as if they could easily handle it.

If you’re in the dieting niche, you may want to come up with a slant such as, “Strict Diet Plans Set You Up for a Cycle of Failure.” This is something you have probably seen or experienced many times in the past.

People are so desperate for a quick and easy weight loss fix that they will adopt a fad diet plan that is easily handled for a few days or weeks, that which will cause them to chalk it up as a failure when they quit eventually.

If you are in the success niche, you can create a slant such as, “Many New List Building Tools Are Leaving Users Stranded After a Few Months.”  Anytime you find out about a certain type of tool that is repeatedly being launched because the others have quit working, it’s a red flag that you can warn your readers about.

This is a great time to help people learn how to shop smart, for instance helping them understand how to research the reputation of a vendor, how to spot sellers who frequently abandoned projects and customer service, and which products have the longevity they need to seek out.

If you happen to be in the survival niche, you can create the slant that says, “The Supply Chain Is Suffering So You Need to Get Ready Months in Advance.” This is something you will have heard about on major news stations, online, and likely in chatter on forums.

Both the media and forums like to showcase people’s panic about certain topics. Keep your eye open for these and then warn your readers about the situation. Sometimes, your warning will actually be for them to ignore the fear mongering that is happening in the world.

11. Discuss a Movie About the Topic

With many of the niches you can make money in, there will be some sort of movie in the past that either discusses or shows the niche topic in action. Whether it is current pop culture or something from decades ago, movies are a good icebreaker to discuss with people and stir up engagement on your blog.

For example, if you are in the dieting niche, you might have a blog title such as, “10 Lessons Shallow Hal Taught Us About Dealing with Fat Shaming.” This was a popular movie where a man was unable to see the size of the woman he was dating.

You could discuss how she deals with individuals making fun of her in the movie, or the fact that he had to be hypnotized to see her as something other than a large woman. You can generate feedback from your audience to see if they have ever experienced any type of fat shaming themselves and teach them how to handle it if it happens to them.

A blog title such as, “Being Persistent Like Jerry Maguire When You Suffer a Setback” would be perfect for the success niche. In this movie, Tom Cruise plays a man who loses his job as a successful sports agent and has to start his own company where he only has one client who is loyal to him as he navigates the emotional ups and downs of the cutthroat business.

This is a great discussion starter for you to use to help your own audience learn how to deal with a major blow in their business where they are enjoying success and are eventually brought to their knees by something unexpected.

For the survival niche, you might use a slant such as, “Tapping Into Your Will to Live as the Movie The Revenant Shows Us.” The scene where Leonardo DiCaprio is fighting off a bear is one that you may want to embed on your blog and then discuss the physical dangers of having to bug out in the wilderness.

While not everyone lives in bear country, there will be other dangers from animals and the elements that may affect their physical health. You can discuss them and then introduce solutions that can help them avoid catastrophe.

12. Talk About a Demotivating Issue

People come to you because you are a light at the end of the tunnel when they have been going through something that they can’t figure out on their own. They are feeling unmotivated an uninspired, hoping you can lift them up.

One thing you can do is shine a light on these issues that have everyone feeling down. For example, if you are in the dieting niche, you can start with a slant that says, “How to Power Through a Diet Plateau.”

Everyone knows that there is nothing more demotivating than sticking to a diet and exercising consistently, only to see the scale stall. Explain what a diet plateau is and then teach them how to persevere through it so that they continue on with their weight loss journey.

For the success niche, you can use a slant such as, “Staying Strong When Everyone Seems to Be Earning But You.” Many newcomers to online marketing are green with envy as they see everyone else posting about their growing income.

You want to help your readers get past that hump where they are working hard toward their success, but not seeing the earnings they were hoping for yet. Help them understand what they need to do to make sure they are on the right path, without giving up.

In the survival niche, you can use a slant such as, “Take a Break from the 24-Hour News Cycle for an Improved Outlook.” Everyone has been discussing a digital detox recently.

This is a topic that you can introduce to your readers and teach them how to improve their mood without necessarily being uninformed for long periods of time. Help them understand that if the world is ending or a major event occurs, they will hear about it without having to be tuned into the news because everyone will be talking about it anyway.

13. Discuss a Mistake You Made (or Almost Made)

People love to know that they’re not the only ones out there making mistakes. No matter what niche you’re in, there are certain mistakes that people make where they feel stupid or hopeless.

You can step up as a leader by sharing your own past mistakes, or those you almost made, but avoided. This helps your readers to not feel so alone in their own journey. For example, if you are in the diet niche, your blog topic might be, “Embracing a Fad Diet After Reading an Article About It.”

You might talk about how you would embark on a fad diet like clockwork every week after reading a certain women’s magazine that showcased a new diet topic. Women’s World Magazine is a good example of a weekly publication that highlights extreme diets with headlines on the cover such as, “Lose 2 Lbs a Day Without Dieting.”

If you’re in the success niche, you can use a slant like, “Recommending a Product Just Because a Friend Had Launched It.” This is a common occurrence in online marketing. It’s the concept of “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”

If you’ve experienced this yourself, or been approached by someone to do it, you can talk about how it’s not wise to promote a product just because of a friendship. Talk about how to not only analyze a product for value for your audience, but how to bow out of a promotion without hurting anyone’s feelings or causing a rift.

For the survival niche, you can use a topic such as, “Storing Food and Water Improperly.” This might be a good time to talk about the effort you went to in storing food and or water supplies, only to discover they had spoiled because you hadn’t stored them correctly.

Talk about what you have learned in the process, and if there are multiple strategies involved, discuss which ones you felt were easier, most affordable, and most effective to use to protect supplies.

14. Tell Them About Your Own Experience in the Niche

There are many reasons that people get into a niche. Sometimes it’s for sheer profitability based on the volume of searches and the number of products that are available to promote.

But usually, it’s because the marketer has some sort of personal interest in the niche topic, either because they have experience in it or because they want to pursue it based on a passion they have for it.

Don’t just tell them about the facts that occurred in your experience. You also want to discuss the emotional and possibly physical changes that took place from the start of your journey to the place that you are now.

In the diet niche, you can approach it with a slant such as, “How I Lost, Regained and Re-Lost 100 Pounds.” Yo yo dieting is a very common occurrence in this niche. Just about everyone has gone through it, and you can talk about the toll it takes on your body and how you finally stopped the cycle.

For the success niche, you can talk about, “How I Went from Broke to Making Bank in Under 12 Months.” If you haven’t experienced this yourself, then you may want to write about someone else’s journey that you have heard about.

And you can tweak the topic to fit your own circumstances. Maybe you weren’t broke, but you were able to quit your job in the offline world and replace your income. That would also be a good slant for this niche.

If you are in the survival niche, you can use a slant such as, “Survival – The Turning Point That Made Me Start Survival Prepping Seriously.” Everyone who is involved in survival prepping has that one moment where the switch is turned on and they begin to prepare by stocking supplies and learning strategies for long term survival.

Yours may have been recently, such as when the Texas grid shut down during a winter storm or when the pandemic cleared out store shelves. Or, it may have been something you were raised to learn how to do early on.

When you start talking about your own experience in the niche, it opens the door for others to feel comfortable sharing their experience, too. You want your blog to be somewhat of a community where people share their thoughts and journeys.

15. Embed and Discuss a Niche Video Someone Else Made

Sometimes, you can simply go to YouTube and type in your niche topic and find a great video that allows you to embed it on your blog and open up a discussion about it. For example, if you are in the dieting niche, you might use the slant such as, “What I Do (and Don’t) Like About the Snake Diet.”

Embed a video where someone is discussing the pros and cons about this diet and then you can either agree or disagree with them and talk about why you feel it is a beneficial or harmful program.

It’s okay to share the stage with other online entrepreneurs who are discussing the niche topic. Embedding a video on your blog does not mean you will lose your audience, but they will view you as a good curator of information.

If you are in the success niche, you may have heard about the concept of selling digital art recently. Your slant could be, “What This Man Did Wrong in Selling NFTs.” You could find a video where someone is discussing how they tried to make money selling NFTs and failed, and then guide your audience in more effective ways of making money with this concept.

Some of the best slants for the survival niche blogs are helping people learn how to shop smart for supplies. Your slant could be, “Stores to Consider When Shopping for Survival Supplies.”

You can find people with videos on YouTube showing them shopping locally in stores or online. After you embed their video, you can discuss a summary of what the person was able to buy, and then give your own tips on where they can find additional supplies or maybe the same supplies at a cheaper rate.

16. Tie Another Niche Into Your Topic

Almost every niche has one or more companion images that will tie in nicely to your topic. For example, stress and sleep go together well. Diet and exercise are good companions.

Make a list of all of the niche topics that you feel might relate to your main niche in some way. Create a blog slant based off of a combination of those two niche topics. For example, if you are in the diet niche, you might have a slant that ties into the sleep niche.

Your title could be, “Dieters Who Get a Good Night’s Sleep Lose More Weight.” Not only will you be able to discuss the fact that getting enough sleep helps you ward off sugary cravings for energy purposes, but you can also relays statistics that you are able to find online about it.

When you do tie in another niche to your own, don’t just state the fact, but help them achieve the goal. They may have trouble getting enough sleep, so what can you suggest they do that will help them get a full 8 hours every night?

For the success niche, try a slant such as, “Stress Relief Tips for Solo Entrepreneurs.” The stress niche ties into many additional niche markets. First, think about the specific stress that your niche audience has.

For entrepreneurs, it might be the isolation, the pressure of not having a reliable paycheck anymore, the fear of failure, trying to learn new strategies and technologies, and more.

Show them that you can relate to their struggles and the feelings they are enduring having to be under a high stress situation as they try to build a business and also maintain good relationships with their friends and family.

Take it one step further and teach them the stress relief tips they need to know. These might be strategic in nature, such as better time management. Or, it might be something like engaging in mindful meditation for five minutes every hour.

In the survival niche, you might want to do a slant such as, “Decisions Pet Owners Have to Make in a Survival Situation.” The pet niche will not pair well with every single niche out there, but it does go with many of them because pets are a part of our family.

For this type of slant, you can talk about the most extreme situations when food supplies are low and there are more mouths to feed than there are meals. You can talk about different types of pets as well as how to strategically stock food for the animals in your life so that they don’t go hungry during a survival situation, either.

17. Go Over a Case Study (Yours or Others)

Case studies are always fascinating to a target audience. Here is someone who has a goal they want to achieve, and they are able to look over the shoulder of someone else and see how they did it step by step.

You can either conduct your own case study, which is where you show something from the very beginning to completion as well as the results of the tasks that you did. Or, you can discuss how someone else achieved their goal by giving an analysis of what they did.

If you are in the diet niche, you can use a slant such as, “Day-By-Day Account of How I Lost 15 Pounds in 30 Days.” If you look on any Instagram or Tik Tok account where they are discussing their weight loss, one question you will see over and over again is, “How did you do it?”

People want to know every meal that is eaten, every glass of water that has been consumed, and how much exercise it took to lose the weight. Case studies are almost guaranteed to generate immense interest and discussion with your audience.

In the success niche, your slant could be, “How 5 Short Emails Helped Me Rake in $14,956 in Less Than a Week.” This might be something where you purchase a set of PLR emails and then implement them in your own business.

You can then show all of the statistical information, such as how many emails were opened, how many people clicked on the links, what the conversion rate was, as well as the overall income that was earned from your efforts.

If you tweaked the emails in some way, to make them more effective with your own email list, teach your readers what you did and why you did it. That way, they will learn how to become more self-sufficient with their own content and conversions.

In the survival niche, you might have a slant such as, “What I Learned Spending 10 Days Outdoors with Only My Bug Out Bag Supplies.” These types of exercises are very interesting for your audience because it allows them to learn things without having to go through the process themselves.

You might be able to talk about supplies you wish you had in your bug out bag. You might discuss some of the dangers or discomforts you didn’t expect to encounter. And you can talk about the positive things as well, such as the fact that you were able to easily handle the 10 days with plenty of supplies left over.

18. Bring in a Guest Blogger – Or Refer to Other Experts

Bringing someone else into your blog injects a fresh narrative without taking away from your own expertise. You can share the stage with another blogger in a way that shows your readers you are part of a community of niche leaders.

To find a good guest blogger, you can go to other blogs that you already read and admire and simply ask them if they would like to provide a guest blog post on your blog that links back to their blog.

Often, this will be a reciprocal situation, where they will allow you to create a guest blog on their website as well. You don’t want to request this upfront, but just ask if they would like to have a few weeks to gather their thoughts and create a special post for your readers.

When you bring a guest blogger onboard, you can either give them an idea about what your blog is about or allow them to discover it on their own and come up with their own content.

They may ask what you suggest the blog post be about, at which time you can give them some ideas. If you are unable to find a guest blogger, you can create a blog post that simply refers to other experts in your niche.

If you are a diet niche leader, you might have a blog slant such as, “How Dr. Atkins Revolutionized Fast Weight Loss.” In this post, you can introduce Dr. Atkins to your audience, explain a bit about his background, and discuss what he has done for the weight loss industry with his low carb or keto slant.

If you are referring to other experts, you may want to also post links to their websites, books, and videos that they may want to watch that you feel would be beneficial to them if they decide to pursue this topic.

If you are in the success niche, you can have a slant such as, “The Most Important Success Tips I’ve Learned from Tony Robbins.” This is an entrepreneur who covers many different aspects of life, so you can compile some of his tips and then link out to the courses, articles, and videos that he has published discussing these topics.

In the survival niche, you can have a slant such as, “What You Can Learn from Watching Bear Grylls Navigate the Wilderness.” This is a survival expert that had his own show as well as products.

You might cover one or more of his shows, or talk about the products and strategies he’s used and how you either agree with them or recommend something better or different.

19. Give an Over-the-Shoulder Tutorial

People love to watch as a process unfolds. You can allow people to have an over the shoulder experience just by using a screen capture tool like Camtasia or CamStudio, where they can see exactly what you are doing on your computer as you do it.

Sometimes, you won’t be capturing anything on screen, but instead, filming something as it happens. For example, if you are in the diet niche, you might have a slant such as, “How to Properly Measure Your Body Fat Using Calipers.”

For this over the shoulder tutorial, you will have to show the tool, explain how it is used, and then show how it is used on your body or on someone else’s. You can set up a tripod if you want and allow them to see the process unfold.

For the success niche, you might have a slant such as, “How to Install WordPress and Set Up Your List.” This is definitely one of the over the shoulder processes that you can use a video screen capture tool for.

Not only can you capture the process, but you can also edit it so that it highlights your cursor, you can add an intro and outro to your video, and more. If you have any errors in your video or audio, you can replace those as well.

In the survival niche, you might have a slant such as, “How to Start a Fire with Flint and Steel.” This is another situation where you will not use a screen capture tool, but instead a video camera to record yourself using the flint and steel to start a fire.

By allowing people to have an over the shoulder viewpoint, it helps them see how you navigate any obstacles, such as wind that might prevent a fire being started easily, or a technical glitch with a WordPress installation.

20. Make a List

If you look at the covers of almost any magazine, or the post on a major news outlet, you will often see a variety of list articles. Some people call these listicles. Basically, you want to pick a number for your list and then create that many elements for your slant.

For example, if you are in the diet niche, you might have a slant such as, “17 Supplements That Support You in Losing Weight.” You could easily change that to the number 9, 12, or 38.

And just as you can easily change the number, you can also change the topic. Instead of supplements, you could change that to habits or pieces of exercise equipment. If you have more than one idea, jot them down for use at a later date.

If you are in the success niche, you can use the slant, “29 Habits Successful People Have That You Don’t.” Again, you could change the number or the item itself, such as changing it to “digital tools” or “books they’ve read that you haven’t.”

In the survival niche, you can have a slant such as, “37 Survival Items Everyone Needs in Their Bug Out Bag.” One thing you might want to do with these lists is just list the items out and then count them up.

Instead of trying to hit the number 37, just list them out and if they equal 19, then go with that number. There’s no set number it has to be. You could even do a series of top 10 lists, top 5 or top 3 if you wanted to.

21. Host a Challenge for Your Blog Readers

People love to join a challenge and participate in a journey alongside others. In many niches, whether it’s knitting a sweater, writing a fiction book, or painting a picture, you can create a specific challenge that has them working on a goal to completion.

The best kinds of challenges to do for this purpose are short ones, where you can blog in a series about them. That might be 5 days or one month, but usually not longer than 90 days total.

If you are in the diet niche, you might use the slant, “1-Month Alternate Day Fasting Challenge.” Every day, you could blog in your series or blog weekly, and have a separate Facebook group set up for the daily interactions.

In the success niche, a good slant might be, “30 Day Blog Challenge.” Here, you could guide your audience on what to blog about for the day, and have everyone share their blog posts in the comments section.

For the survival niche, a slant like, “Daily Discount Prepper Challenge” might be effective. Have everyone find one product a day online or offline that’s being sold in bulk or at a great deal so others can join in and buy, too.

22. Tell Them Who Inspires You

People love to know who helped inspire you to succeed, and how. Telling this story is both heartwarming and motivational. Plus, in some instances, it gives them someone to follow as well.

In the dieting niche, you might have a slant such as, “How Chris Pratt Almost Lost a Role and Then Lost the Weight.” At almost 300 pounds, this celebrity almost wasn’t cast in Guardians of the Galaxy, until he quickly lost 60 pounds in six months.

It’s a great story to tell because he has openly discussed the health problems he suffered from being overweight, the struggle he’s had with yo yo cycles of dieting, and more.

In the success niche, you might come up with a slant like, “Risk Taking Lessons You Can Learn from Sylvester Stallone.” This is a man who had a dream and wanted it so bad he went through bouts of homelessness and other struggles until he finally made it in Hollywood.

He wrote the script for Rocky in three days and took an enormous pay cut just so he could star in the main role. This is inspiring because it shows how you can put yourself through struggles if you feel the end result will be worth it.

For the survival niche, try a slant like, “The Inspiration of Ruth Stout’s Gardening Strategy.” This was an elderly woman who developed her own method “no work gardening.”

It’s inspiring because she found a way around the obstacles that would have prevented her from succeeding with gardening if she’d tried to accomplish it the traditional way, and managed to provide food for herself.

She simply covered her seeds with year-round mulch, instead of having to get down on the ground and plant them in the soil. This is something that might be good for a survival slant for disabled or elderly individuals.

23. Be Transparent About Your Biggest Fears (or Common Ones)

Everyone has fears in almost any niche. Maybe not in certain stress relief niches, for example, but in those where a specific goal is being addressed – even a common fear of failure is something you can blog about.

While many niche leaders feel they have to project an air of fearlessness, it actually helps you audience if they can see where you’ve been hesitant and how you powered through your fears to achieve your own goals, too.

In the diet niche, try a slant like, “What If I’m Doomed to Be Overweight Forever?” Even if you’re not currently experiencing this, you may have in the past – or you might just want to address it as something your audience might need help with.

In the success niche, try the slant, “What If Everyone Laughs at Your Info Product?” Being afraid to put themselves out there is a common fear many new online entrepreneurs have, and they get caught up in a cycle of perfectionism, which helps them delay their launch and avoid ridicule.

For the survival niche, try a slant like, “What If Society Breaks Down and Chaos Is on Your Doorstep?” The ultimate fear for preppers is that what they’ve been preparing for will happen – and it will happen close to home.

Paint a picture for them so they can see that you understand those fears and then help them navigate their worst-case scenario with a plan so they gain comfort and peace of mind.

24. Discuss Goal Setting for Your Niche

Some people are in a niche with a desire to make progress, but they don’t know how to set realistic goals. They don’t even know what their goal should be. You can help them with that.

You can help people set long-term as well as short-term goals. And within each niche, the goals might be for a variety of issues. For example, in the diet niche, you might have a slant such as, “Common Sense Weight Loss Goals That Ensure Success.”

This is a broad approach, so you can segment it with goals such as weekly, monthly, annually – or weight, BMI, muscle mass, etc. You can help with goals about meals, like how many calories or carbs they take in, and more.

In the success niche, try a slant such as, “Creating Mini Milestones from Your Overall Project Goals.” Pick a project your readers might be undertaking, like the launch of an info product.

Then divvy it up into small milestones, such as hiring people for graphics or sales copy, completing the product draft, reaching out to affiliates, etc. There are many mini steps they may not know they should do, so this goal setting exercise will help them learn those things.

In the survival niche, use a slant such as, “Planning Your Ultimate Off-Grid Property Purchase.” For most preppers, they start small (like a 72-hour bug out bag), and build up in terms of supplies at home.

Your goal blog post could be about the ultimate goal they might strive for – a completely separate property that’s fully functional, off the electrical grid, and also away from the city.

25. Test Something and Share It

People love it when there’s something they’ve been wanting to try, but they’re just not sure if they’ll like it or not. Instead, they’d prefer it if you tried it and then told them how it went.

With the diet niche, try a slant such as, “I Tried Air Fryer Veggies and I’m Addicted Now.” Maybe they’ve been thinking about getting an air fryer, and once they see your crispy parmesan green beans, they’ll be sold on the idea!

Just make sure that when you tell them about it, you give every detail about what you did so they can replicate it. And include the recipe and links to the exact air fryer you’re using, too.

In the success niche, try the slant, “I Split Tested My Sales Page and These Were the Shocking Results.” Maybe you split tested something as simple as the font size or colors, and saw a huge jump in conversions.

Don’t just tell them about the split test – give details about how you technically set it up, how you analyzed the results, and what you learned from this experiment going forward. Make some predictions about why it worked this way and how it’ll help you in the future.

For the survival niche, how about a slant like, “I Tried an MRE from 1980 and Here’s How It Held Up.” Many people don’t know that survival foods can last for decades. This would be a good time to tell them where you got it, include pictures or video of what came in it, and specifics about how each item tasted, too.

In the end, if it was a positive experience, show them how they can purchase their own MREs, and what types of meals you recommend for both nutrients and enjoyment as well.

26. Talk About a Book You Read or Will Read on the Topic

Books are always great blog post fodder! There are books on almost any topic you can imagine. Head to Amazon and see what’s available in the bestseller list that you can discuss with your audience.

Many people may want to join a book club discussion about it. You can make this a monthly event for your blog, or quarterly, if you’re a slower reader who doesn’t have time to quickly consume books.

If you’re in the dieting niche, try a slant such as, “If You Have Inflammation Read The Power Plate Diet.” When you discuss the book, you can talk about what you found helpful, what you didn’t know and learned, what you disagreed with, what additional tips you have, and more.

In the success niche, use a topic such as, “What Mel Robbins Taught Me in The High 5 Habit Book.” You can talk about why you felt this author’s work was motivational for you, or what she said that opened your eyes to a new way of striving for success.

In the survival niche, try a slant like, “Tony Nester’s Book When the Grid Goes Down Is a Must Have for Preppers.” While his book talks about 6 key areas to pay attention to, maybe you feel there’s a 7th area – or perhaps you have tips to add for the six issues he addresses.

27. Write About Habits You Need to Change (Stop or Start)

We all have bad habits. Some we’re doing that we need to eliminate, and some we don’t do, but need to. In many niches, habits are something that can be discussed to help people get closer to their goals.

In the diet niche, for example, use a slant like, “Get in the Habit of Listening to Your Hunger Cues.” This is something we’re born with – eat when hungry, stop when not hungry – but we lose it among childhood rules like, “clean your plate.”

So that would be a habit they need to start. A habit they may need to stop might be eating in front of the television or eating after 10 P.M. if they’re to lose weight and keep seeing the scale creep up.

In the success niche, use a slant such as, “How Positive Affirmation Habits Can Help Grow Your Success.” Starting out your day with positive affirmations is a great new habit to embrace as an entrepreneur.

A habit they may need to stop could be something about binge watching Netflix shows, procrastinating on social networking sites to avoid work, or using shiny new object syndrome as a way to avoid responsibility in their niche.

For the survival niche, you could use a slant such as, “Get Better at Rotating Your Food Stores.” This is a habit you might want to help them learn to do to cut down on food losses and help them save money.

You could also slant it as a habit they need to stop, such as by saying, “Stop Buying New Canned Goods to Use Immediately and Rotate Your Food Instead.” It can work both ways – a habit to stop and a habit to start.

28. Debunk a Myth in Your Niche

With many niches, there is false information floating around that you’re constantly having to correct with your audience. You can make a blog post about the common ones, or even little known ones.

In the dieting niche, try a slant like, “It’s a Myth That Fat Is Bad for Your Weight Loss Efforts.” Some people hear the word fat and instantly think it’s bad, but you can teach your audience about good fats, such as those that come from avocados, nuts, etc.

In the success niche, try the slant, “It’s a Myth That You Have a Spend Money to Make Money.” Online entrepreneurs are often roped into spending a small fortune on courses and tools they don’t really need in the beginning of their journey.

They don’t know any better. You can protect your audience and help them save themselves from a budget disaster by informing them about what they really need, or what free or low cost alternative they can choose instead.

In the survival niche, use a slant like, “It’s a Myth That Food Is the Most Important Resource You Need for Survival.” This is a common misbelief people have, when water is actually the most important item preppers need on-hand – explain why in terms of how the physical body works and help them learn how to ensure their hydration needs are met.

29. Pit Two Things Against Each Other (Strategy or Products)

People love to see a “this or that” approach. When you have a bunch of things to compare, it can be good to see two of them pitted against one another so you can make a decision about which one is best and begin to weed out your choices.

In the diet niche, you can take this approach with a slant such as, “Low Carb Versus Mindful Eating – Which Works Better?” You’ll have many readers who have been contemplating both of these plans and don’t know which one would work best for them.

You can cover all of the pros and cons, give a “best for” summary to tell who might enjoy it more, and even warn people against trying one or the other if you feel there are too many drawbacks against it.

For the success niche, use a slant such as, “A Comparison Between Aweber and GetResponse.” There are dozens of email autoresponder tools, so you can continually pit two against each other until you have what you feel is the ultimate choice.

You can cover features, pricing plans, rules, and more. You can tell them if you’ve ever used one of the two products yourself, and if so, what your experience with it was. If you haven’t, that’s okay, too – just be honest with them.

In the survival niche, try a slant such as, “Military MREs or Survival Food Buckets – Which Are Better?” This is a great type of product to have challenge each other because preppers want to get the best for long-term storage, and both are expensive to the average survival enthusiast.

You can talk about flavors available, longevity, storage safety issues, taste and quality, caloric levels, nutrition, brands available and more. If you happen to have one of each, you can even do a taste test and record it or at least take pictures of the food to show them why you made the comments you did.

30. Give Them a Checklist

Everyone loves a good checklist. It’s even better if you turn your blog post into a PDF they can download and print out to help them navigate their niche journey offline, too. You can type in your niche topic and the word checklist to see what kinds of checklists people have created.

Never copy theirs. Gather ideas and then create yours from scratch. In the diet niche, use a slant such as, “A Checklist of 10 Foods You Need in Your Daily Diet.” You can change the number or the type of food as well as the purpose, too, such as, “A Checklist of 15 Non-Starchy Vegetables That Help You Lose Weight.”

In the success niche, use a slant like, “Launch Checklist for Digital Info Products.” Many people don’t know the intricate procedural details of what goes into a launch, so you can teach them everything from product listings to testing the sale and delivery of the product.

In the survival niche, use a slant such as, “Medical Supply Checklist to Keep Your Family Safe During Survival Situations.” You can have checklists for all different types of survival issues – like supplies, communication strategies, and more.

31. Start with a Quote and Build on It for a Blog Post

Quotes are a great springboard for good content on your blog. It makes it easy for you to have a starting point for a good lesson for your readers. Go to Google and type in your niche topic and the word quote.

Find one that resonates with a lesson you’d like to teach. For example, in the diet niche, try, “Nothing Tastes as Good as Skinny Feels” by Kate Moss. You might embrace the idea or talk about the regret Moss stated she felt for making that statement.

In the success niche, use the quote, “Success Is Not Final, Failure Is Not Fatal: It Is the Courage to Continue That Counts” by Winston Churchill. Being consistent in your pursuit of success is a quality everyone needs, and it’s important to know that both sides of the coin – success and failure, are not permanent so they have to keep going.

In the survival niche, use a slant such as, “The Greatest Weapon Against Stress Is Our Ability to Choose One Thought Over Another” by William James. Mindset is one of the most important things people need in large quantities during a survival situation, so you can teach your audience how to keep their spirits up during the worst of times.

32. Get Off Topic Just Slightly

Sometimes, it’s good to take a break from your usual topis and veer off just a tad. You don’t want your blog to be all over the place, but you can do something out of the norm for your content.

In the diet niche, you usually probably always talk about healthy eating. How about switching it up with a slant like, “My Favorite Cheat Meals to Eat?” That’s something they won’t quite expect, because it’s more indulgent, but it’s also tied into the diet concept, too – because everyone needs a break from time to time.

In the success niche, you could use, “Growing Up I Wanted to Be an Astronaut, Not an Entrepreneur.” Talk about what drove you to want to be something completely opposite of where you are now.

Do you miss not pursuing that other career? Are there any similarities you can spot between the two careers, such as enjoying the risk or unknown turnout of the project, maybe?

In the survival niche, use a slant such as, “Comfort Items I Refuse to Give Up in Survival Mode.” So these won’t be your usual survival prepper supplies, but luxuries some people may scoff at, but you know you’ll need to have on hand as a way to provide comfort for yourself.

33. Find a Good Statistic to Blog About

This is an easy one to find. Go to your search engine and type in your niche topic and the word statistic. You’ll be able to find data on so many niche topics – and this is something you’ll be able to do again and again.

For example, you can find in the diet niche, a slant like, “You’re Not Alone: According to the CDC Over 42% of American Adults Are Obese.” Statistics like these are updated annually, and you can discuss what the measurements mean, how many are men versus women, age groups, and why it’s occurring.

For the success niche, you might find and use a slant such as, “20% of Small Businesses Fail in the First Year – Here’s How You Can Avoid Being One of Them.” So not only are you discussing the statistical data, and why it’s happening, but you’re helping them take protective measures against become a statistic themselves.

In the survival niche, use a slant such as, “Statistics Show a Growing Number of Women Are Turning Into Preppers.” You can then disclose the ratio of men versus women, and the reasons behind the growing trend, encouraging more to come onboard.

34. Survey Your Readers and Discuss the Results

This is a great slant to use once you have an audience. It’s harder to do whenever you’re just starting out, because it requires feedback. You can set up a survey on social media, using a tool like SurveyMonkey, or just ask your audience to email you and gather results to discuss with them.

Sometimes, you’ll get surprising results that you didn’t expect. With the diet niche, use a slant like, “The Top 3 Diets My Readers Are Currently On.” People in a community of like-minded individuals are always curious about what their peers are doing.

You might discover that 75% of your readers are on keto, but your broad diet site hasn’t been offering enough info on that, helping you change your content to something more relevant to them.

In the success niche, use the slant, “The Biggest Obstacle My Readers Say Is Holding Them Back.” You’ll find a variety of answers flooding into your inbox, from fear of failure to perfectionism, lack of knowledge to limited budget.

Help your audience overcome those obstacles. Go through each one, either in one blog post or separate ones and address the issues. Even if you do one blog post with a quick summary solution, you can stretch it out and make complete individual blog posts for each obstacle, too.

In the survival niche, try the slant, “The #1 Worry My Readers Say Weighs Heavy on Their Mind.” Is it societal chaos, like burning buildings? Is it a run on the banks or store shelves emptying out?

Or is it a major solar event that damages the grid for months, or even years? Discuss their fears and then do the same as you would in the success niche – address the solutions so they leave your blog feeling a sense of peace and calm.

35. Expand on Someone Else’s Idea with Credit

This is a great way to show more value than your competitors. You can start with whatever someone else has taught, giving them full credit and links back to their original lesson.

Then, take it further! People always love a deep dive into a niche topic, so for the diet niche, you might do something like, “More Ways to Request Healthier Options at Restaurants.”

So if a niche competitor listed the top 10 healthy swaps to make at a restaurant, and you know of 20 more, blog about it! You’re not only showcasing your expertise, but providing more value to your readers.

In the success niche, try the slant, “More Ways to Save Money on Your Start Up Business.” So if a niche competitor had a blog post for 7 ways to save money on your start-up, you might add 10 more – helping your people out.

Whenever you link back to the original blogger, they’ll often find out about your post and share it with their audience, helping you get even more visitors to your blog who are within your target audience.

In the survival niche, use a slant such as, “More Places to Store Your Survival Gear.” So maybe you read an article about the most common places, such as a basement, pantry, etc.

You can give them little-known areas, like under their bed, in a bunker offsite, and more. You don’t have to take the original idea from a blog or article, either. You can look in books and even videos for inspiration where you can add more value.

36. Talk About the Mindset They Need

Mindset is everything. Without the proper mental outlook, it’s hard to achieve goals in many different niches. Sometimes, the niche itself will be the corrective measure they need to improve a mindset.

For example, if they’re knitting for stress relief, then it’s okay to come to the niche in a frazzled state of mind and use the hobby as a way to achieve a sense of peace and calm.

In the diet niche, you might use a slant such as, “Stop Thinking of Dieting as an Event – It’s a Way of Life.” This is a tough love mindset you’ll use to have people stop using dieting as a short-term tactic and instead make life-long habit changes to improve their health.

In the success niche, try a slant such as, “How to Stop Feeling Shame for Your Entrepreneurial Failures.” Shame is prevalent in this niche. You need to shake them up a bit or even offer a coddling approach and teach them how to eliminate this feeling and embrace one that’s more empowering.

In the survival niche, try a slant like, “A Survival Mindset Is Proactive and Self Sufficient.” This might be a way to pat them on the back for their decision to be involved in survival prepping.

Or, it might help those who are on the fence adopt a mindset of consistent prepping so that they aren’t waiting for a someday event, but instead working on helping their family be prepared ahead of time.

37. Interview a Competitor in Your Niche

Interviews are always a good idea to bring other peoples’ readers to your blog. Whenever an expert is interviewed, it gives them more credibility as a leader, so they share with everyone the fact that they’ve been interviewed.

They’ll notify their subscribers and social media followers and send them to your blog to read (or watch) the interview. If you do a video or audio interview, you can transcribe it for some added text content on your blog.

If you’re in the diet niche, try a slant such as, “Interview with a Diet Blogger Who Lost 100 Pounds without Ever Giving Up Her Favorite Foods.” Of course, you’ll want to find a blogger in your niche and see what perspective they have that sets them apart.

In the success niche, you can use a slant such as, “Interview with an Entrepreneur Who Makes $100 a Day with 30-Second Tik Toks.” Any time you can showcase an expert who has had success, whether small or large, your readers will sit up and take notice.

It also helps you gauge interest to see if this is a topic your readers may want to learn even more about. If you get a good response for the interview, you can either collaborate with the other person for a product or venture out on your own to research and share tips for your readers in a solo info product.

In the survival niche, you can tackle a slant such as, “Interview with a Bush Craft Expert.” Maybe this is something you’ve only just begun learning yourself, or you want to take it to the next level.

Make sure you have some in-depth questions for your expert and not things that you could shar eon your own with your target audience. You want to be able to supplement your insight, not repeat it.

38. Curate the Best Tips on a Topic

Curation is a content strategy that shows you are doing the heavy lifting for your audience in terms of staying on the pulse of the niche and researching the information they need to know.

Curation is when you go out and gather snippets of content from other people, always making sure to link back to the original author for full credit. You can curate quotes, paragraphs, or concepts and link back to a blog or product where it was originally listed.

In the diet niche, you might have a slant like, “23 Expert Tips on How to Cut Carbs without Cravings.” You can take a tip from several sources, or take one tip from a single source that you curate from and discuss it in-depth.

In the success niche, try a slant such as, “19 Tips from Six Figure Marketers to Help You Achieve Success.” You want to curate from trusted sources, not just anyone who happens to have a good tip – because you’ll be linking your readers to these people.

For the survival niche, you might have, “12 Couponing Pros Weigh in on How to Save Money on Survival Supplies.” Share a tip from each one, linking back to their blog or site.

You won’t mind sharing these people because they’re in a companion niche, not necessarily survival. Their couponing site might be for everyday items, like food and cleaning supplies – but even if they are fellow survival bloggers, the curation strategy makes you look good because you’re helping your readers find good information.

39. Give Them a Rundown of the Best Resources They Need

Resource lists are always helpful for your audience to refer to whenever they need a tool, expert, ideas or course to turn to. You can look up your niche topic and the word resource or supplies to get some ideas of what to refer your audience to.

In the diet niche, you might have a slant such as, “The Best Resources for Low Carb Meal Ideas Online.” These might be recipe sites or even apps that help people calculate the carbs in their meal plans.

For the success niche, you might have a topic like, “Top 10 Resources You Need to Run an Online Empire.” You might give them a rundown of the types of tools and other elements they’ll need in the business, such as an autoresponder tool, graphic design tool, platform to sell their products on, domain name, etc.

In the survival niche, you might have a slant such as, “Online Resources for Building Your Survival Food Supplies.” This would be a list of the best places to order from, including Amazon and direct company sites – and it’s okay to use your affiliate link on these to earn a commission.

40. Notify Them About Events They Might Want to Attend

Events don’t happen in every niche, but they do with a lot of them. There are conventions, seminars and meet-ups that you can recommend to your audience and they’ll appreciate learning about it.

Just type in your niche topic and words like retreat, get-together, seminar, webinar, meet-up, convention and more synonyms that will show you the results you need to create your list.

For example, if you’re in the diet niche, you might compile a blog post that’s about “2022 Weight Loss Retreats.” You can list the name of the retreat, the specific purpose, the price, location and other details.

For the success niche, you might use a slant like, “2022 Marketing Webinars for Online Entrepreneurs.” You might want to choose in-person meet-ups, or due to the pandemic globally, you might do virtual webinars instead.

For the survival niche, you can do a topic such as, “Survival and Prepper Conventions Scheduled for 2022.” There are conventions and expos that showcase products for consumers.

Some of them are broad in topics, like survival or prepping and others are specific such as gun shows for survival self-defense. If it’s a self-defense one, it’s narrow than all survival, but it might be broad in terms of covering multiple forms of self-defense, including guns, knives, pepper spray, and more.

41. Make a Post of Gratitude

People love the positive posts where there’s an element of appreciation to them. This will be something you personally feel, so there’s no research – just brainstorming involved.

For the diet niche, you might have a slant such as, “An Open Letter of Thanks to My Intuitive Eating Nutritionist.” Maybe you had a nutritionist who finally got you off the diet bandwagon and taught you intuitive eating.

You can create an open letter of thanks to him or her and discuss where you were when you first met them and what they helped you with. Be sure to include whatever emotional transformation took place, too.

If you’re in the success niche, try a slant such as, “Just a Note to Say How Thankful I Am for Those Who Helped Me Succeed.” This might give gratitude for a list of people, from a spouse who encouraged you to an online colleague who taught you a strategy to your customers who believed in you.

In the survival niche, you could have a post such as, “Grateful to My Grandmother for Teaching Me How to Garden and Can Vegetables.” You could include family pictures, a story about gardening with her as a child, your first solo experiment canning from your garden and more.

Things like this help people bond with you because they see a softer side. You’re not just spouting off facts and data, but you’re unraveling what made you who you are, and sharing the things that inspired you.

42. Make a Post About Terminology in Your Niche

Terminology is something you will frequently find people asking about when they’re beginners in a niche. From full words to acronyms, they’ll need to know what things mean.

You can type into a search engine the name of your niche and the word acronym, lingo, terminology, etc. to find a list of the common ones misunderstood in your niche. If you’re in the diet niche, it might just be one type of word that’s not understood, so a slant like, “A Guide to Understanding What Macros Mean” might work well.

In the success niche, try a slant like, “Don’t Know Your Autoresponder from Your Zip File?” This is where you’re explaining what the words mean, or what the products are. Some people may not know what it means when someone teaches them to “zip up their product.”

In the survival niche, there are many, so a slant like, “BOBs, MREs and TEOTWAWKI – How to Understand the Survival Prepper’s Lingo” would work well. You can cover those three, plus other popular ones, like SHTF, too.

43. Talk About Future Plans with Your Followers

People love to see where things are going. And as their leader, they will look to you to see where they should be planning their own future endeavors. You can let them know in a sort of sneak peek post that helps them understand what they’ll be seeing from you in the coming days, weeks, months and years.

In the diet niche, you might say something like, “In 2022, I’ll Be Sharing More About Alternate Day Fasting.” Maybe this is a plan you intend to start on January first. By giving them a heads up, they can make preparations to follow along and implement it themselves, too.

In the success niche, you might have a blog titled, “Why I’m Adding Kindle Publishing as a Second Income Stream.” Talk about what it means, what spurred you into this direction, and what types of things you’ll be teaching along the way.

For the survival niche, you can have a post slanted, “I’m Going to Build a Shipping Container Home on an Off-Grid Property.” This is a huge endeavor, but it’s one many preppers dream of, so they’ll be sure to bookmark your blog and visit it frequently.

44. Technology That Impresses You in Your Niche

Most niches have some sort of technology or gadgets in them. Whether it’s a sewing machine, underwater camera, a GPS rangefinder for golfers, or something else, you can find tech products that people want to know more about.

These types of blog posts not only serve as an online expo of what’s new in your industry, but it also gives you the opportunity to add some affiliate income into your blog content, too.

If you’re in the diet niche, have a post such as, “Virtual Reality Gaming That Helps You Burn Calories.” You might list a VR gaming system you recommend and talk about certain games that really helped you work up a sweat.

This is a concept that’s come a long way form the Wii Fit gaming system or Just Dance games, which helped people get up off the couch and get moving. This immerses them into an entire new world and some of the games help them be active without a fitness slant at all.

For the success niche, use a slant like, “Page Building Tools That Serve as a One-Stop Marketing Shop.” These are things some people have many different tools for – email autoresponders, page builders, etc.

But there are some page builder tools that do it all. You can cover one in particular or a list of those that have multiple features, allowing the reader to replace or consolidate their purchase into one item instead of many.

In the survival niche, you might discuss, “Solar Survival Gadgets That Make the Loss of the Grid a Breeze.” For this, you can cover all broad solar gadgets like solar cookers, solar phone chargers, solar generators, solar showers and more – or, narrow it down and cover one at a time per blog post.

45. Bring Your Niche to Life with Pictures and Videos

It’s one thing to read about things and it’s another to visually see it in the form of images and videos. You always want to be adding multimedia to your blog posts, but you can create an entire post slanted as a behind-the-scenes look.

In the diet niche, you might have, “A Glimpse Into My Fridge Organization and My Home Gym Set-Up.” So you can do pictures or videos that show them what’s in the fridge shelves and in the crisper, and what kind of equipment and space is your home gym created with.

For the success niche, you might showcase, “What’s My Workspace Like?” People who work from home have different types of set-ups. You might work in a dedicated home office with three monitors or from a comfy couch in your living room on a laptop.

For the survival niche, try a slant such as, “Take a Look at My Self-Built Chicken Coop.” Everyone knows the first rule of thumbs is that you don’t announce your supplies to everyone, so showing them the entirety of your survival supplies may not be smart.

But you can show them a sliver of it – like the chicken or rabbit coop you build either from plans that you downloaded or from some you created yourself. You may have even bought a kit to build – show it off!

46. Share a Meme and Discuss the Truth Behind It

Memes are funny, and often have a grain of truth to them. They’re a fun way to strike up a conversation and engage with your audience, and also get them to share your blog post with their own social media followers.

Go to Google and type in your niche topic and the word meme or cartoon and then see what’s out there that you can share and discuss. You can also create your own meme if you have a good idea for one, just by looking up a meme generator and downloading the results of what you create.

In the dieting niche, you might have a slant such as, “Finished a Seven Day Diet – in One Hour.” This is a meme that can have many different images – from someone stuffing their face with a pizza to someone using the like a boss baby on it.

But we all know it’s true sometimes. You plan on sticking to a diet, even for a short amount of time, and by the end of the day you’ve ended it and are back to your old habits.

For the success niche, you can use a slant such as, “Success: I Define It…Differently.” This is a meme where you might have someone doing something very simple, like sitting in a bath eating a pizza or drinking wine – or, taken to the opposite extreme, if you prefer.

But it opens up a good discussion about how success means different things to different people. For some, it means more time to relax. For others, it means traveling the world on private planes.

For the survival niche, you can have a slant like, “Sensible Prepper Versus Coronavirus Prepper.” This is a funny meme where the sensible prepper’s storage room has everything from canned goods to ammo to medical supplies – and the pandemic prepper’s room is filled with toilet paper.

This is funny to some degree, but it’s a truth, too – because many people went out and hoarded toilet paper when the pandemic hit, but didn’t have other items they might need – a good lesson to teach your readers.

47. Create a Shareable Infographic and Expand on It

Infographics are great for summarizing data or strategies for your audience and getting others to share them. They really pop on social media sites, including Pinterest, where users can pin it to their boards.

You can get some ideas of what goes on an infographic by Googling your niche topic and the word infographic. Don’t copy anyone else’s image. You can see if they give people permission to use it, or look for a private label rights version for your niche.

When you blog using an infographic, you won’t just paste the image into your blog and publish it as is. Instead, you will add your own commentary about what is on the infographic.

If you are in the dieting niche, you might have a post that says, “10 Weight Loss Habits You Can Start Doing Today.” The background of your infographic maybe a lean and fit person, with each of the weight loss habits being listed on the sides.

So for instance, if you have a habit that tells people to drink plenty of water each day, you can use this tip to expand on the idea and tell them how much water they should have and then link to a recommendation for a water bottle that you think is best.

If you are in the success niche, try a slant like, “12 Steps to Success Every Entrepreneur Should Know.” This type of infographic may be something like a maze where they go from one step to the next until they achieve their goals.

For the survival niche, you might have a slant like, “8 Things to Pack in Your Survival Bug Out Bag.” For this type of infographic, you can have many different, smaller pictures that correlate to the text listed on the infographic.

For example, you may have a picture of a first aid kit next to one of the 8 text boxes that tell them to pack medical supplies. Or, you may have a picture of a water filter straw next to a tip that teaches them to pack supplies that will help them access clean water.

48. Share a Template and Teach Them to Use It

Templates are always appreciated by your target audience, wherever applicable. These are downloadable files that your readers can access and print so they can use it in their own life.

If you’re in the diet niche, try a slant like, “Here’s a 7-Day Meal Plan Template You Can Use.” People are always wanting help with meal planning, and this is a great tool to help them ensure they’re sticking to their program.

If you’re in the success niche, you might use a slant like, “Download My 1-Week Work Schedule Template.” Time management and work-life balance are topics that are always confusing to newbies trying to figure out the right schedule.

If you have a work schedule that allows you to maximize your productivity, you may want to share it with your audience. You can also share it as a blank template for people to fill in as they wish, with the day of the week, task priorities, and hours in the day listed on the sheet for them to fill out.

If you’re in the survival niche, use a slant such as, “Print Out This Survival Emergency Plan Template.” Survival Peppers frequently used templates or ask questions about how to keep track of certain things.

This is a topic where planning is essential to their success. The template mentioned above might help them teach their family where to meet up and what to do if chaos ensues.

You might also give them a template for keeping track of their supplies, where they can list the product, size, and expiration date. This helps them rotate their supplies so that they don’t end up with expired stock.

49. Deliver a Rant They Can’t Resist

This is a blog slant that can be very effective if used sparingly. One problem is, some bloggers adopt this slant as their entire online persons. Unfortunately, people don’t like to be exposed to rants on an endless basis, and it makes you look sour and bitter.

You want to deliver a rant on your blog only when you feel something is worthy of it. You don’t want to rant about something that doesn’t deserve to have this attention shone on them.

You also don’t want to rant about an individual and attack them personally, because it makes you look unprofessional. It may also have some legal ramifications if you aren’t careful about what you say.

If you are in the diet niche, try a slant such as, “I’m Tired of the Media Shaming Dieters!” So in this type of rant, you are discussing a tactic that many people use, rather than one individual who has used it.

If you are teaching people how to go on a diet, and they are constantly being exposed to people who insist on not discussing weight because it might trigger someone, then you can teach your readers how to push back against that.

If you are in the success niche, use a slant like, “Let’s End False Scarcity Once and for All!” False scarcity is a tactic many online entrepreneurs use to make buyers believe that if they don’t purchase something in that moment, they will lose the ability to buy it forever.

It says, the scarcity tactic is fake and the price will remain the same, if not drop even lower. You can shine a light on this unethical strategy so that your readers are aware of it, without naming names of who is engaging in this practice.

If you are in the survival niche, try a slant such as, “The Fear Mongering Media Creates Dangerous Hoarding Situations!” Fear mongering is a big business these days. Clickbait headlines are used by many media outlets to get the views on their site, regardless of whether or not the actual article has any teeth to it.

50. Blog About a Scandal That Happened in Your Niche

Not every niche will have a scandal that can be discussed. But you would be surprised to know how many have had scandals. Some of them have been big news, while others have been small situations behind the scenes.

You can find scandal stories in niches such as dog training, knitting, and others you wouldn’t have thought possible. Whenever you discuss a scandal, you want to cover it from all angles and try to get to the root of the truth.

You also want to give your readers some insight about how this may affect them, if at all. If you are in the diet niche, you could use the slant, “Were The Biggest Loser Contestants Drugged for Weight Loss?”

Sometimes, you will be able to discuss a scandal where the truth was eventually revealed and the rumor was false. Other times, you will be discussing a scandal where everyone gave the person the benefit of the doubt, only to discover the rumor was true.

If you are in the success niche, use a slant such as, “Stupid Stunts Like Firewalking Scandals Do Not Motivate People.” This is a slant where you would be giving your personal opinion about a scandal that happened, such as motivational experts making people walk across fire coals.

If you’re in the survival niche, you could discuss, “The Truth Behind the Man Versus Wild Scandal.” While everyone assumed Bear Grylls was braving the elements alone, the truth was, he had a crew with him, and often slept back at the base camp lodge with them, rather than out in the wilderness.

Even though this may not seem like it would affect your audience directly, you can teach them the importance of learning with firsthand experience, rather than relying on experts to simply show them how things seem to be in videos, because you never know if it’s true.

51. Make a Dos and Don’ts Blog Post

Dos and Don’ts blog posts are a wonderful form of list post that you can do with a specific slant. People love to see these in magazines, and they’ll work well on your blog, too.

You can brainstorm these yourself or look online for tips on what to do and what not to do and educate yourself so that you can write your own Dos and Don’ts post from scratch.

If you’re in the diet niche, you might go with a slant such as, “The Dos and Don’ts of Dieting as a Diabetic.” This is for a very specific audience, and would only be applicable for a portion of your readers, unless your entire site was about diabetic issues.

If you wanted to go broader with your topic, then you could do a slant such as, “The Dos and Don’ts of Picking a Diet for the New Year.” This allows you to cover more topics and reach a wider audience.

But being narrow is also good! Sometimes, being very specific with a slant can be something few others have done, and it’s a refreshing change of pace for your readers. You might have something narrow in topic, for a broad audience, like, “The Dos and Don’ts of Dieting During the Holidays.”

If you’re in the success niche, try a slant such as, “The Dos and Don’ts of Digital Info Publishing.” Make a list of all of the things you know to do right and mistakes that you want them to avoid and then alternate them or list them in your blog post.

For example, you might have a Do first such as, “Do approach affiliates to promote for you.” Then follow it with a Don’t, such as, “Don’t approach affiliates one day before your launch where they don’t have time to review your product or make a bonus.”

Or, compile a separate list – top 10 Dos and top 10 Don’ts in one blog post, or two – one for the Dos list and one for the Don’ts list. State what it is, explain why it’s on that list, and if needed, give them instructions on what to do instead.

If you’re in the survival niche, try a slant such as, “A Beginner’s List of Dos and Don’ts for Survival Prepping.” This might be something where you teach them about storing food properly, investing in a variety of items so they’re not just hoarding one thing, and more.

52. End of Year Progress Report

These are extremely popular in almost any niche. When people have goals, they want to know what’s possible in achieving them. Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income has a very popular end of year report he does where he covers what he did and what he earned.

It doesn’t have to be earnings, though – it can be pounds lost, supplies stocked up, dogs rescued, and more. So if you’re in the diet niche, you might have a slant such as, “One Year, 56 Pounds Gone.”

You’re giving it away somewhat in the title, but they don’t know how you did it, what your ups and downs were, and other important facts. You can tell them what mistakes you made or what you learned, what worked and what didn’t, and any products you found that helped along the way.

If you’re in the success niche, you can use the slant, “My 2021 Income Growth Report.” While this is something Pat Flynn does, anyone can do it if they’re leading people to succeed financially.

You don’t have to earn as much, either. You might report as someone in a beginner role, making your first $5 a day consistently. Or, maybe you grew your business from $300 a month to $3,000 or $30,000.

For this type of process tell them what business models you pursued, what strategies you embraced or tossed aside, what tools helps, what courses boosted you – and of course, where you felt you wasted money, too.

If you’re in the survival niche, how about a slant such as, “Here’s How Much Survival Gear I Stocked Up on for an Entire Year.” People who are prepping themselves will love seeing a breakdown of what you bought and what it cost you.

You should only do this if you’re certain that you won’t be at risk for anyone coming after your supplies, so it’s always good to have your website information private and maybe use a pen name for your blogging efforts.

Coming up with 52 weeks of content ideas is draining for many people. Using the ones listed above, you can easily wash, rinse and repeat using slightly different topics each time.

It’s sometimes difficult to be a content creator, but consistency in leadership is one of the most important things your audience needs from you. Otherwise, they’ll turn to someone else who can show up and serve them without disappearing.

Christmas Gift Ideas for Camping Enthusiasts

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Before we know it, the Christmas season will slide upon us again. If you’re anything like me, you never know what to get people for Christmas. 

This is especially difficult if they’re into hobbies that are totally different from yours. 

Case in point – camping enthusiasts. 

While I do love the occasional outdoor adventure, I’m more into glamping – aka glamour camping. But some of my friends and family are into hiking and hard core camping.

So, for myself and for anyone who has people in their lives that like traditional camping, below I’ll be sharing a roundup of Christmas gift ideas for camping enthusiasts.

Hopefully, these ideas inspire you and make the camping enthusiasts in your life smile! 

Fenix PD36 TAC 3000 Lumen EDC Tactical Flashlight Bundle

Deep Creek PR Sent me The Fenix PD36 TAC Tactical Flashlight for the purposes of review, and I thought I would share my thoughts on it. All opinions are my own.

With a brightness of up to 3000 lumens and over 160 hours of runtime per charge, the versatile Fenix PD36 TAC will be a camping enthusiast’s best friend. Even pitch darkness won’t be able to intimidate your loved one anymore.

It’s damn bright, that’s for sure!

Did I mention the tactical steel clip that can latch onto basically anything? Or, the built-in charging port? This is the ultimate tactical flashlight for a reason. 

What’s better than meeting all your camping enthusiast’s flashlight-related needs in a single bundle? Grab them the all-in-one bundle which includes the fantastic Fenix PD36 TAC, 2 ARB-L21-5000U rechargeable Li-ion batteries, a LumenTac Battery Organizer, and a holster. 

Now, it wouldn’t be an unbiased review if I didn’t share at least one downside.

Here’s my only problem with this flashlight – it’s expensive. It clocks in at a minimum of $100 y’all. I didn’t see it anywhere cheaper, but I did see a few Amazon sellers selling it for well over the $100 price tag.

Personally, I don’t know if I’ve ever paid that much for a flashlight, but my father in law had so much flashlight envy looking at it, I honestly might gift it to him for Christmas.

HeadLeveler (Travel Pillow)

Everyone needs a good night’s sleep and camping enthusiasts are no exception! HeadLeveler hypoallergenic and machine-washable pillows can fit everyone’s needs with its customizable features. 

These travel pillows come in seven unique thicknesses, ranging from very soft to very firm. Is your camp enthusiastic ready to say goodbye to back and neck pain? I hope so!

Each pillow measures 19 by 14 inches — small enough to be portable but big enough to provide ample support. It’s the best of two worlds. 

This ultimate travel pillow is perfect for camp enthusiasts, wearily travelers, and even people spending the night at hotels or Airbnbs. Let them have the quality sleep they deserve.

MEKKAPRO Ultra Large Mosquito Net

Being a camping enthusiast doesn’t automatically make that person an insect lover. Nobody should have to deal with irritating insects like mosquitoes. Not only are mosquitoes harmful to your health, but they’re also just so freaking annoying! The MEKKAPRO net is simple to set up and its extra king-size allows it to be flexible in all environments. Your camper enthusiast will be able to keep out noseeum, black flies, wasps, mosquitoes, and many other insects with this single net.

Even if mosquitoes aren’t active during the Winter where you live — think the long haul! Your camping enthusiast will be glad that you’re thinking ahead when they go camping the rest of the year.

Nomader Collapsible Water Bottle

I didn’t know collapsible water bottles were a thing — did you? But, either way, the Nomader Collapsible Water Bottle is brilliant and designed to be portable, durable, leakproof, and safe. When it’s not collapsible, it’s the size of a regular 22 oz bottle. When it is collapsed, it’s the size of a fist or crumpled up piece of paper.

When camping enthusiasts go on their trips, packing too much can be a total burden. Part of the fun of going camping is to be free and totally immersed in nature. Lugging around giant bags of supplies can really pull campers back down to reality. So, help your favorite camping enthusiast pack less by getting them this Nomader Collapsible Water Bottle for Christmas!

Camco Life Is Better At The Campsite Ceramic Mug

Okay, there are a lot of camping-related mugs and other accessories out there. But, this one is just too cute not to put on our list. The design is adorable, the snow creates a fun Christmas atmosphere, and that color is eye-catching. Even when your favorite camping enthaustis is away from nature, this adorable mug will put a big smile on their face!

CaniBrands All Day Spray Bundle

These little sprays would be perfect stocking stuffers! This all-natural, best-value four-spray combo includes Cani-Boost (for focus and energy), Cani-Mend (for post-party recovery), Cani-Fresh (for relaxation) and Cani-Sleep (for rest). The range of solutions help you get the most out of every day, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. Take Cani-Boost in the morning to supplement or replace your morning coffee. Take Cani-Mend during or after a late night. Keep Cani-Fresh with you while you’re on the go and leave Cani-Sleep on your bedside table. Having these four convenient sprays handy at all times, mean you’ll never feel less than your best.

Fiber Knitsports Mask

Now, I know what you’re thinking – if I’m outdoors I don’t need a mask. For the most part I agree with you. However, if you have immunity issues like me, and will be in close proximity with other campers and/or will be traveling into town for sight-seeing or anything like that you might need one of these.

The cool thing about the Fiber Knit Sport Masks is they are anti-fog, breathable, and the ergonomic fit is designed to provide comfortable coverage for your nose, mouth, and chin – helping you say goodbye to most travel-related mask-wearing complaints such as breathability, fogged eyeglass lenses, muffled speech, discomfort, skin break-out, etc. Learn more about these masks here.

Fun fact – I wore masks a lot from January to March just to protect my face from the cold. LOL!

Round Robin of More Camping Enthusiasts Gift Ideas

Here’s a bunch of other ideas for the camping enthusiasts in your life. Some would make awesome stuffing stuffers, and others would be amazing stand alone gifts.

  • A tent – make sure you find out how big someone wants their tent to be before a purchase like this!
  • Camping stove (with propane tanks for the win!)
  • Collapsible cups and bowls
  • Camping utensils and cookware
  • Cooking accessories like egg containers, spice holders, potholders, etc…
  • Waterproof matches
  • Emergency firestarter
  • Hiking bag
  • Hiking boots
  • Clothing (get feedback on what the camping enthusiasts in your life like before you purchase!)
  • Card games
  • Fireproof and waterproof accessories
  • Folding table and chairs
  • Air mattress
  • Air mattress pump
  • All the batteries
  • Colored fire starters that color the campfire
  • Beef jerky/beef sticks, granola bars, and other camping snacks
  • Smores kit
  • Marshmallow roasting sticks
  • Water purification tablets
  • First aid kit

To Wrap Up

Christmas isn’t really about gift giving. It’s more about spending time with loved ones, sitting by a nice fireplace, and sharing a laugh. But, doing a little research will show your special someones that you care about them and appreciate them. Thanks for reading till the end, and I hope this post helped you out a bit.

I wish you (and your favorite camping enthusiasts) a merry and safe Christmas season!

Great Christmas Gifts For Writers

What types of gifts would writers like? Books on writing? Writing supplies? Here are some ideas for gifts any writer would love to receive.

Writers aren’t the easiest people to live with, but they are easy to buy gifts for when Christmas, Hannukah, birthdays, or other special events arrive.

Books for Gifts

Here are some ideas to add to your writer’s library:

* Elements of Style, by Strunk and White (a must-have for any writer)
* A good thesaurus. For a real book (as opposed to a computer thesaurus), try Rodale’s The Synonym Finder.
* Market guides. Writer’s Market, Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market, Children’s Writer’s Market, etc.
* Basic books on the writing craft, including plot, character, dialogue, etc., or genre-specific, such as a rhyming dictionary or how to write fantasy/mystery/romance, etc.
* Informational books on your writer’s favorite subject: historical details, murder methods, dog show rules, or any other topic of interest.
* A writer’s journal, whether leather bound with glossy pages or a simple supply of spiral notebooks.

Magazine Subscriptions for Writers

Magazines specifically for writers, filled with how-to and inspirational articles, make great gifts. But don’t limit your subscription ideas to writing only.

* Writer’s magazines, such as Writer’s Digest, The Writer, Poets & Writers, etc.
* Genre-specific subscriptions, such as Children’s Writer, Cross & Quill, or Romance Writers Report.
* General literary magazines, such as Glimmer Train, Zoetrope, or Storyteller.
* Magazines your writer is trying to break into, such as Redbook, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Analog, Cricket, etc.

Writer’s Supplies

While they’re much more mundane, supplies are necessary and can squeeze a writer’s budget. Here are some ideas to help:

* Printer ink
* Reams of 20-lb paper
* Stamps
* Envelopes: 9 x 12, 6 x 9, and business size

Novelties

What writer can resist a mug that says, “Will write for food” or a clock that reminds her to “Keep Writing?” An internet search for “writers gifts” will load you up with possibilities, such as t-shirts, coffee mugs, wall art, pens, journals, and even teddy bears.

The Gift of Time

Time is precious, and there isn’t a writer out there who isn’t swamped with other responsibilities. Give your writer the gift of time to write.

* If he or she has young children, offer to take charge for the afternoon and send your writer to a coffee shop (too many distractions at home) to work on their novel.
* Take over daily chores for one hour a day for a week, but only if your writer will use the time to write.
* For the ultimate gift of time, send your writer to a weekend or week-long writer’s retreat, or at least to a motel for the weekend (with TV removed).

Other Dream Gifts for Writers

If you’re feeling generous and have the financial means to do so, consider these dream gift ideas for your writer:

* Tuition and/or travel expenses to a writer’s conference
* Computer or computer software upgrade
* Laser printer (very clean copy, and cheaper to run than an ink-jet printer)

Some observation or a few well-placed questions will tell you your writer’s preferences. And after all the tangible gifts have been unwrapped, don’t forget to give your writer the support and encouragement he or she needs.

5 Halloween Safety Tips for Pets – Keep Your Furry Friends Safe and Stress-Free

How to Keep Your Pet Safe – 5 Tips to Keep Your Pet Safe and Calm this Halloween: Top Medical Director Weighs In

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While Halloween can be a fun night for humans, it can often be a stressful time for our pets. Ringing doorbells, spooky masks, and strange decorations can mean sensory overload for our four-legged friends. When it comes to planning a safe and stress-free Halloween, it helps to plan ahead. Here are five tips to keep them safe and happy this year from Medical Director Dr. Sarah Machell – Vet from Hamilton, ON – Vetster (CA):

  1. Designate a Safe Space

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Whether it’s a crate, a bed, or even a specific room in your home, make sure that your pet has a safe space where they can retreat if things get too scary. With trick or treaters coming and going, it’s important to make sure that your pet is secure and can’t bolt through the door once the night gets underway.

  1. Opt For Pet-Friendly Costumes

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If you plan on dressing up your pet, it’s important to make sure that their costume fits well and doesn’t pose any choking hazards, visibility issues or mobility restrictions. Costumes that make noises or have noisy components such as bells can be scary, so try to avoid them. Just like people, not all pets are excited to wear a costume. You know your pet best and should always check in to make sure that they’re having fun too. 

  1. Keep Decorations Out of Reach

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Jack-o’-lanterns and candles can set a spooky scene, but can become fire hazards if knocked over by a curious cat. Pets can get tangled in decorations like cobwebs and lights, so it’s best to ensure they are kept out of reach and secured in place. Lastly, motion-activated decorations can scare skittish pets, so it’s best to turn them off when pets are around.

  1. Hide The Loot Bags

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Be sure to keep Halloween candy far out of your pet’s reach. Chocolate is toxic to both cats and dogs, and can lead to seizures, vomiting, and diarrhea, and depending on the type and how much was consumed can even be fatal. Xylitol, a common ingredient found in hard candies, can also be fatal to dogs. Opt for treats from your local pet store or make your own at home using pet-safe ingredients.

  1. Leave Trick Or Treating to the Kids

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Taking your dog trick or treating might seem like a good idea in theory, but strange noises, costumes, and darkness can cause stress and anxiety, so it’s actually best to leave them at home. If you do decide to take them with you, it’s important to make sure they are wearing an ID tag and that their information is up to date and easy to read.

Huge thanks to Vetster for sending this post to us! This post is not sponsored!

Mastering the Concept of Work-Life Balance in 2022

It’s possible to have a positive personal and professional life, and still feel as if there is an imbalance between the two. What usually happens, though, is one part of your life overshadows the other, resulting in frustration and conflict that only grows until you decided to address it.

It may not be something you can achieve the first time you try it, but eventually, you will develop the balanced life that you seek. Once you’ve gotten a good grasp on the type of work-life balance that works best for you, and you know how to implement it, you’ll be able to have such a fulfilling life.

Sometimes, it’s an issue of not having your priorities straight. Other times, it’s a simple matter of poor time management skills. There may be things you need to cut from your life completely in order to deliver the stability you crave for both your personal and professional worlds.

Work-Life Balance Is More Than a Catch-Phrase

The term work-life balance seems to get thrown around an awful lot. It tends to be discussed as if it were some mythical creature – something unattainable for normal people.

However, it’s very real and very much achievable. When people start discussing the idea of having a better work-life balance, they don’t really get much farther than the idea process.

The actual steps that you need to take in order to get there never get brainstormed or implemented, and the dream remains a dream. You shouldn’t think that work-life balance is something too simple, either.

It wouldn’t be true to say that you’ll get it by just changing a few minor things. This is usually a pretty big adjustment that’s going to need many small changes and a few large ones.

However, just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s unattainable. It just means that it’s going to take a lot of planning and a lot of effort. The result of all that hard work is a life where you have enough time to do the things you want to do.

Gone are the days in which you had to choose between a successful job and a happy life. Nowadays, you can be perfectly happy with your family and friends, while still maintaining a job that earns you plenty of money.

This is more easily accomplished in some jobs more than others. One of the biggest factors in that is whether or not you work online, or if you really do have to work in person for your job.

Over the course of 2020 and 2021, many workers saw just how much they could get done from their own computers, laptops and phones at home. Offices full of workers weren’t nearly as necessary as they seemed.

There are so many jobs that can be done right from the comfort of your own home, as long as you have Internet and a way to access it. These kinds of jobs are the best ones available for maintaining good work-life balance.

Obviously, there are certain jobs that can’t be run from the Internet. There are things like owning your own restaurant or owning a factory that can’t be recreated digitally, so naturally those will be more difficult.

However, you might be surprised at just how many jobs can be altered to be fully done online. Take personal training, for example. Typically, these trainers work with individuals at gyms to give them advice and exercise routines.

This would seem impossible to do online, and yet it’s done online very frequently. Trainers either sell access to online videos detailing exact information, or they video chat with their clients live to talk them through the workout.

The vast majority of office jobs can be done online. Things like handling clients and managing files can be done digitally fairly easily, as everyone learned during the 2020 lockdowns.

Work continued for many people despite not having offices open. Working at home is so important for achieving work-life balance because it allows you to typically have more flexible hours – plus it cuts the commute.

If you don’t need to be directly communicating with people, and just need to get the work done, that can be done at any time of day. With more flexible hours and not having to be anywhere at a certain time, you’re free to work more at night when an office would normally be closed and enjoy personal time during the day with your friends and family.

Think of all the opportunities available to you online and on your own schedule. Instead of having to wake up early and drive out to some office to try to find parking and working until you went home, it could be so peaceful.

You could wake up whenever it felt right, have some breakfast and relax a bit, get some work done, and relax a little more after that. You’d be able to get your work done at your own pace, and never have to stress about anything that a typical job structure brings.

Once you start working on your own time and making your own schedule, you won’t settle for anything less ever again. You won’t let someone tell you that you’ll have to spend all day in one spot working away.

Having flexibility in your schedule is like having a car for the first time, when you’re allowed to go wherever you want to. It’s freeing not having to rely on someone else to tell you where to go and when.

By taking steps to open up your schedule, you’re making genuine progress towards having true real work-life balance. It won’t just be a concept anymore, but rather a real thing that improves your life.

Being Your Own Boss Is No Longer an Unachievable Dream

Decades ago, it might have been a bit hopeful to think about starting your own business and becoming your own boss. While it wasn’t impossible, it was just very unlikely since you needed so many resources to start one, and many people didn’t have that.

Nowadays, it’s so much easier to start your own business, both online and offline. However, there’s still a bit of a stigma around it, and many people either don’t take it seriously or don’t think it’s feasible.

They should, though. The old days of having to know someone specific or having to go into a ton of debt to start your own business are over. This is especially true with online businesses, but in person ones are still easier than they used to be.

One of the reasons so many people have become interested in becoming entrepreneurs has been the events of 2020 and 2021. When lockdowns began and businesses started to close, employees drew the short straw.

Employees were not cared for, not helped, or anything. They were told they couldn’t work, and to go apply for unemployment. This made it clear that most employers don’t care about their employees in the slightest – they have to look out for themselves.

If you were at the mercy of an employer when the lockdowns began, you were likely given nothing much when your business closed. These massive corporations didn’t want to waste money supporting their employees of decades.

However, those that worked on their own, particularly in online business, were able to remain operational and employed. For many, this was life-saving. Being able to maintain a steady income when so many were on unemployment is a big deal.

Obviously, being properly taken care of is a great benefit of being your own boss, but the benefits don’t stop there. Another major benefit is deciding your own schedule, which is particularly important to achieving work-life balance.

When you’re your own boss, you get to choose exactly what to do, when to do it, and how it should be done. It does depend a bit on the job you take, but many jobs just require a project to be done by a certain deadline along with various daily tasks.

In cases like this, you could have as many days off as you wanted as long as you got the main projects done and tended to the smaller daily requirements. If you did work in advance and got everything completed that you needed for the next day, you could take the next day off.

You don’t have to run it by your boss and hope it gets approved, and you don’t have to submit a request for the time off weeks in advance. You simply decide that you’ve worked enough and move along with your time.

One of the advantages you have when it comes to starting businesses now as compared to decades ago is the amount of resources available to you. Years ago, you wouldn’t be able to find information on exactly what to do and what not to do.

Now, however, it’s a different story. You can find so much information online from other entrepreneurs that have made mistakes before, and learn so much about what not to do or what they wish they would’ve done sooner.

You can connect with other entrepreneurs, even in the same field. You can share experiences and difficulties and get advice from them on how to proceed if you’re not entirely sure.

Connecting with other entrepreneurs can be as formal as buying a course from them and learning how to do what they do, or it can be as casual as adding them as a friend on Facebook and talking about bad customer experiences.

These are tools that you simply wouldn’t have been able to access before the Internet and social media came to rise. You would’ve been stuck with whomever was local to you, and hope they’d be willing to talk about it.

Another huge benefit of being an entrepreneur is the lack of an income ceiling. With most jobs, you look at them and one of the first things you judge them on is their salary. Whether it be an hourly job or an annual salary, the money matters.

With any job salary, there’s the average, the minimum, and the maximum. If you took on a job with an average salary of $40,000 and a maximum salary of $80,000 you would have a pretty good job, but you’d never be able to make it to six figures.

Being your own boss, you make as much as you strategize your business to make. While this can be scary initially, when you’re still getting your footing, it means in the long run there’s no limit to what you can do.

If your business takes off, you could easily end up earning a seven digit salary. That would almost never happen in a standard job, no matter how hard you worked and how much you wanted it.

It’s also nice just to be able to do such a variety of things in your own business. If you hate having to be so formal with clients at your job, you don’t have to run things that way at your own business.

You can do things exactly as you want to and nobody is going to stop you from doing it. You might have to adjust the way you operate to maximize your own profits, but you might think it’s worth it to work a certain way even if it means a bit of profit loss.

What Are Your Current Pain Points in Life?

In order for you to make the changes you need to help yourself have a healthier and more fulfilling life, you need to be able to clearly identify what things you want to be different in your life right now.

Everyone has something that they’re unhappy with in their lives. Whether it be something at work or something at home, there’s a good chance that something needs to be changed.

Just because you’re unhappy with one aspect of your life doesn’t mean you aren’t generally happy. People will be quick to dismiss minor sources of unhappiness if they’re otherwise fine.

Don’t be afraid to look at your life a bit more critically. It doesn’t mean that you’re not grateful for what you do have, it just means that you want the best possible life for yourself and for those around you.

There are many common physical problems that people have in their lives that are partly caused by a poor work-life balance. Exhaustion and poor physical health are frequent results of excess work.

If you’re constantly having to eat fast food and get little sleep due to your work conditions, you’ll quickly develop physical health problems due to a lack of proper nutrition and a lack of ample rest.

Don’t be so quick to dismiss mental issues, either. Things like stress, depression, and anxiety are more frequent than you might expect, and are another side effect of a poor work-life balance.

While mental health holds its own great deal of importance, it can also directly affect your physical health. Mental issues create hormone imbalances, which can cause many different physical problems.

Often times, jobs and the conditions in which they put workers don’t allow you to take good enough care of your physical and mental health. They tend to see workers as disposable, and don’t really respect you.

Becoming an entrepreneur is a great step towards being able to take care of yourself more. Without a boss that tries to ignore your issues, you’ll be more free to take care of them as they arise.

Another issue in many people’s lives is time. There’s never enough hours in the day for most people, and they’re constantly trying to juggle time with friends and family along with long hours they spend at work.

Typically, people aren’t happy with the amount of time they spend at work. You might not get enough time to yourself or spend enough time with your family. Things like spending time with your kids is crucial, but most jobs don’t care.

Be honest about where you’d like to have more time in your life. Even if it’s not totally feasible in the moment, think about what parts you’d like to have more time for. This lets you know what’s important to you, and you can sort the details out later.

One issue that’s often seen at any job you look at is a lack of enjoyment. While work isn’t always meant to be fun, it should at least be stimulating somehow. It might be difficult and still interesting, but never boring.

You can ask just about anyone you know if they like their job and their answers will be mediocre at best. They’ll probably tell you that it’s not too bad, or that they get decent benefits from it.

But the day to day work is never enjoyed by most people. This is because most jobs are borderline busy work, or they tend to have employers that don’t respect their employees.

You might need to find a job where you can really feel fulfilled, like you’re doing something that not only makes a difference, but is also interesting and keeps you occupied.

In many cases, this might require you to go on and become an entrepreneur. If you wanted to do something your way and on your time, becoming an entrepreneur is much easier than dealing with an array of bosses who might not give you the tasks you want.

Figuring out these pain points in your life is an important part of the healing process. You might think it’s better to ignore them, and in some cases, that might be easier. But easier is not always better.

Identifying exactly what you’re unhappy with, both the obvious and the subtle, is crucial to being able to make the right changes happen. Be honest with yourself and don’t worry about it seeming selfish or self-centered.

If you want to have more time to yourself, but the rest of your life is going pretty well, be honest about it. There’s no reason to deny yourself one thing just because the others are doing alright.

You won’t have to fully sacrifice other things in your life to spend a little bit more time on another. In some cases, sacrificing time in other areas might be what you need and want, but if you don’t want to, you won’t have to.

Make a Plan for What You Want 2022 and Beyond to Be Like

Once you know what you don’t like about your life, it’s time to envision what you’d like it to look like instead. Just identifying the problems isn’t enough. You need to think about what the alternative looks like and how it all fits together.

First start with the basics of deciding what you’d ideally like to change about the sore spots in your life. This can be as simple or as complex as you’d like it to be, but just come up with the way you’d prefer your life to look.

For example, if you weren’t getting enough sleep at night because you kept staying up late to watch Netflix, it would be as simple as you committing to getting a full 8 hours of rest each night. Simple situations require simple changes, so don’t overcomplicate things.

You might, however, consider how these changes would improve your life. Don’t just imagine getting enough sleep, imagine not being exhausted and relying on coffee when you wake up. Imagine having more energy throughout the day.

You’ll need to be working with specific goals in mind, not just the general ones. It’s okay to start with general goals like wanting more personal time, but you’ll have to get more specific as you make your plans.

Go from wanting more personal time to something like wanting enough time to yourself to learn the guitar while also devoting more time to your kids, especially on the weekends.

Making these really specific goals, as specific as you can get them, makes your work easier moving forward. One way to envision it is like trying to get somewhere based on general or specific directions.

If someone told you the place you were driving to is north of you, you might have a few roads in mind that could get you in that direction, but no knowledge of how to get to that exact spot.

With more specific directions, you’ll know what roads and turns to take, and how to get to an exact spot. Otherwise, you’ll be a bit lost once you get started, and you might end up giving up before you get there.

When you don’t have some solid direction on where you should be going and what you should be doing, all you can do is react to things as they come to you, which never works out well in the long run.

Consider things like the amount of hours you’d like to work and the amount of money you’d like to earn. Obviously it can’t be too unreasonable, like working for an hour and earning a million dollars, but don’t be afraid to dream a little.

Something like working 4-5 hours a day and earning six figures would be fantastic, and it’s not unheard of. It’s certainly more appealing than working 8 or more hours per day and earning a lower salary.

Don’t throw out goals that you want just because you don’t think they’ll be achievable. It might not be easy, but these types of dreams are far from impossible. By ignoring what you really want, you’ll never have even the slightest chance of getting it.

It’s good to have both realistic and slightly unrealistic goals, as they both have their own distinct advantages. Realistic goals are nice because they give you a better starting place, and act almost as progress markers as you achieve them.

It feels good to hit goals that you set, because it means you’re moving in the right direction. However, if all your goals are too easy and you hit them all, it means you’re not dreaming big enough.

By setting some more unlikely goals, you’ll have something to work towards long term. There’s a chance you won’t reach them, but they’ll always be there to continue driving you forward and to get you to continue progressing.

When you’re coming up with long term goals, imagine it as your ideal life in which you have no problems at all. You’ll encounter roadblocks on your way there, but don’t try to come up with problems you’ll face forever if they’re not there.

This is common when people are pessimistic about their lives. They think that they’ll always likely be working too much, and factor that into the picture of their lives they have in their head.

Instead of that, imagine that you’ll be working just as much as you’d like and not a bit more. With the rest of that time, you could be relaxing or spending time with family or doing whatever you’d like.

Remember that these plans you’re making are for what you want your life to look like, rather than a prediction of what you assume it’ll be like. Assumptions are often wrong, and can become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Once you have all of these goals and your ideal life outlined, you can start drawing connections from where you are now to where you want to be, and figure out how to get there.

Remember that these goals and ideals might shift over time as your life and your priorities change. You might make more space in your goals to spend time with your kids once you have them, and so on.

Learn and Implement Better Time Management Skills

One skill you’re going to have to learn in order to have a good work-life balance is time management. Very few people are good at it, and most people don’t realize just how much it can change their lives to learn it.

Time management involves many different aspects, from saving time doing certain menial tasks to having a well-organized schedule. Mastering it can be hard, but there are plenty of skills that you can pick up on to help you early.

First, get a detailed outline of your day as it is currently. Log what you’re doing and when you’re doing it, so that you have an idea of what your day looks like in regard to how you allocate your time.

Don’t change the way you go through your day just to look better on paper – just act totally natural. The whole point of detailing your schedule is to see where you’re going wrong already, so you don’t want to make any quick adjustments beforehand.

Once you’re looking at it, your schedule probably has a lot of things in it that either shouldn’t be there or should be much shorter. This is a great first step to identify where you could get more time in your day.

Start by getting rid of the unnecessary things first. Extra work that your coworkers, business partners or colleagues have put on you, random side projects, and other distractions should be cut out first, just until you have the rest of your time in order.

Keep in mind that necessary things aren’t just work related tasks. Sometimes, for your own health and relaxation, things like a bit of entertainment is necessary. Watching a little bit of TV at night isn’t going to ruin your schedule.

If it’s a massive distraction like watching TV for many hours a day, then it’s unnecessary and should be cut down. Just don’t cut things out that you enjoy as long as you’re not spending too much time on them. After all, the goal is to have a better work-life balance.

Try and come up with ways that you can save time in your day, and test it to make sure it works well. For example, one place people tend to waste a lot of time at is the grocery store.

Meandering through the aisles looking at everything can take up a bunch of time, as can waiting in line to checkout. Instead, consider using curbside pickup, a feature most major grocery stores have implemented.

Just drive up at the designated time and have a worker load up your groceries. You pay and stock your cart online, and they prepare your order for you in advance. This can save a ton of time, but make sure it works for you and your schedule.

Try to find ways to save time both in your personal life and at work. There’s certainly places you could improve on when it comes to both, so look at them equally. You can reallocate the time you save with both later on.

At work, you might struggle in the morning to find a good parking spot and drive around in circles looking for a good one. By leaving a little earlier or just taking the first one you find, you can save a decent bit of time.

Little things like this can add up to become big deals. Just saving an hour a day on little tasks adds up to 365 hours per year, which is roughly 15 days of saved time. Not every change has to be drastic to make an impact.

Of course, big changes are worth looking at as well. Things like adjusting your work hours can be major changes in your schedule, allowing you to use that saved time in your work-life schedule.

One of the mistakes many people make when learning time management is that they try to cram a bunch of different things into their schedules because they consider time management to equal doing more things.

This isn’t the case for everyone, though. Sometimes time management means doing more stuff, but other times it might mean doing less and having more room to breathe. Just giving your schedule more wiggle room can be a great work-life adjustment.

Don’t expect to find one single time management system that will solve all of your problems. There are so many different ways of handling time that it can be confusing, but really it just means you have various options.

You shouldn’t be afraid of considering major life changes for the sake of time management, as well. With certain things like jobs, there’s not much wiggle room that you can get if your boss doesn’t allow it.

Something like becoming an entrepreneur is a major task, but it also allows more time and more freedom. Big changes like this might have to be an essential part of your time management plan if your boss isn’t giving you enough room.

Don’t forget that figuring out a way to save time isn’t the end of the story. You actually have to move forward with that and implement it into your life, and from there, reallocate that saved time to something else.

It’s an easy trap to fall into, because you might try something out that saves you time, but you don’t like the change because it’s something different. Instead of going back to your old way, move along and stick with it as a change.

Be an Advocate for Your 2022 Financial Goals

Money is a crucial part of life, for better or for worse. The better off you are financially, the more you can support yourself and your family, and the less you’ll have to stress about working too much.

In order to be able to maintain a better work-life balance, you need to be very strict about how others deal with you financially. You can’t get pushed around or paid less than you ought to be, otherwise you’ll get stuck in a rut.

Knowing your own worth is incredibly valuable. Naturally, employers will try and undervalue you at any chance they get, so that they can keep more money for themselves and keep costs down.

If you know your exact worth and don’t accept anything less than what you’re owed, you’ll be much better off financially. You’ll get something closer to the salary you want and you’ll be able to relax a bit more.

Many people are scared of negotiating their salaries, because they don’t want to come off as ungrateful or overly needy. They should, though, because typically when you’re offered a salary, you’re being lowballed.

Quality work from quality workers is in high demand. If you do your job well, you could easily be earning more than you currently are, just on the grounds that you’re not putting in such partial work as so many others are.

It can be intimidating, but if your boss isn’t willing to pay you what you deserve to be paid, you should consider moving jobs somewhere else. Knowing your worth also means acting when someone disregards you.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should approach the situation hastily, either. Getting the right salary isn’t as simple as running into your boss’s office and demanding a certain number, and hoping they say yes.

It’s more like a strategic game. You have to catch your boss in the right move, establish a solid rapport with them, and demonstrate the value you provide to the company and how it cannot be so easily replaced.

Then, you’ll be able to get more of what you want out of your job. It might just be a higher salary, and it might also be greater benefits, or the same pay for less work. Any way you cut it, you need to get it to be better.

The situation faced by entrepreneurs in standing up for themselves financially is a bit different. With no boss to go to that controls your salary, entrepreneurs have to find their own ways around taking no nonsense with their finances.

There are plenty of different situations that you could run into as an entrepreneur that can affect your finances pretty heavily. One of the most common ones you’ll find is when you undervalue your services.

This is a lot more common with new entrepreneurs. You might have reservations about how much you should charge when you’re first starting out, especially if you’re not sure your services are as good as the competition.

Charge the same as your competitors, if they’re getting business. If you’re trying to undercut them, you can do that to an extent as long as you don’t go too low. Pricing your services at too low of a cost is a bad idea.

For one, it attracts somewhat worse clientele. For example, if you ran a lawn service company, you’re probably going to have worse experiences with the owners that want to pay $20 an hour rather than those willing to pay $50 or more.

It also labels your company as the budget option. You might be just as good as anyone else in your field, but if you’re charging half the cost, customers are going to think you’re half as good. Charge full price and become known for your quality of work.

When you start really pushing hard on getting higher pay, you’re going to see resistance, and that’s natural. Don’t get dissuaded by that, though. If you keep on going, eventually the other side is going to fold.

This goes for both entrepreneurs and normal workers. With entrepreneurs, you’re going to see clients turn you away if you don’t haggle down your price, but you have to be okay with that.

If you let people move you around on the price, they’ll all figure it out pretty quick, and your price will end up getting lowered for everyone. Stand firm on it and usually the customers will fold, and a few will leave.

For normal workers, the bulk of the resistance comes from the employer. Employers are constantly trying to keep costs down to a minimum, so that a majority of the money gets put into their pockets along with others.

Most employers will attempt to intimidate you out of pushing for a higher wage, but they don’t normally expect you to stand firm on it. If you don’t show fear and keep pushing for what you know you deserve, they’ll be more apt to consider it.

You have to be willing to take these risks for the sake of your own finances. You can’t resign yourself to a poor money situation in which you’re always worrying about how much work you have to do.

Find Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit Regularly

Many people stifle their creativity because they believe that it’s not conducive to better and more efficient work. Some people want everything to just be straightforward and operate by the book.

Others tend to believe that they’re not very creative at all, and just do things how they’re told to, following instructions to a T. Operating like this isn’t going to get you very far in life, both in regards to work and in your personal life.

When it comes to work, taking chances and risks is important, and doing things creatively helps to distinguish you from your peers. If you blend in with the crowd, nobody will care much about you.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a regular employee, setting yourself apart is very important to the success of your career. You can have a decent enough career staying blended in with everyone else, but never a fantastic one.

When you do something creative or inventive with your work that gets customers and competitors to turn their heads, you’re going to see much better results. People get tired of seeing the same thing all the time.

In this case, being creative isn’t for the fun of it necessarily, but rather it’s to be the best you can be at your job. There are many different ways that creativity can help you at work besides just standing out from the crowd.

For example, you might try something nobody else tried before that makes a certain process much faster and easier. This allows you to have more time and not worry about that particular task.

Being more prone to creativity helps a great deal when any problem arises at work. If you’re only used to following things by the book, you won’t know what to do when a brand new problem shows up.

If you’re used to being creative, though, you’ll be able to come up with a way around it or a way to solve it. That kind of skill is invaluable for both entrepreneurs and normal workers.

When it comes to being creative at work, you don’t need to take risks that are too crazy, but you should practice taking some minor ones and try changing things up from time to time.

This is because creativity is like a muscle, and you must exercise it if you want it to get stronger and be more effective. If you don’t use it for long periods of time, you will end up losing it.

You job isn’t the only place in which you should be practicing creativity, though. Your personal life should be a source of as well as a place to practice creativity. Whether it be through hobbies or anything else, it’s important to be creative at home.

The reasons you’ll have to be creative at home are different from those you’d have for being creative at work. It’s not for efficiency or to stand out or anything, but rather just to relax and unwind.

Hobbies that involve some creativity are often stress relieving. Things like arts and crafts and other such creative endeavors tend to be relaxing for those that enjoy them, and they’re generally just fun hobbies to have.

Stress relief via hobbies is important because it gives you some time to yourself, which everyone needs, and stress relief in general is something very important to your physical and mental health.

When you’re too stressed out, your body releases certain hormones such as cortisol, which have various negative effects. It increases your chance of things like heart disease and stroke, and it just feels awful mentally.

Keep in mind that being stressed every now and again is normal and fine, but being stressed out constantly is what puts you at high risk for a variety of physical health complications.

When you do things like paint or do a little wood working or whatever creative hobby you’d like, you tend to get your mind off of stressful things in your life and give yourself a chance to relax.

Having a hobby is a great way to even out your work-life balance a bit, as well. Being too focused on work isn’t healthy, even if you’re not stressed out, so having a creative hobby lets you focus more on your life outside of work.

Being creative at home in a situation in which there are no risks can also help you practice to be creative later on at work. By trying to think differently, you’ll get used to it in a controlled environment so that you don’t have to risk too much in your job.

You should practice this type of thing regularly, but find a schedule that works well for you. It might be daily, it might be weekly, but whenever it is, you should stick with it. Try not to spread it out too much, though, as you’ll lose the progress you make each time.

If you want to practice being creative, you might also try different hobbies each time, or alternate between a few different ones. This will prevent things from getting stale, and it’ll keep you on your toes.

Take Time to Nurture Your Mental Health

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is ignoring your own mental health. Many people, particularly those from older generations, seem to ignore mental health, writing it off as nonsense.

However, there’s plenty of proof that it’s very real and needs to be taken care of. As much as you can try to tough things out, eventually you’ll reach a breaking point. And if you don’t, you’re going to be stuck being miserable instead.

There are many different facets to mental health, many different ways it can affect you, and many different things you can do to take care of yourself. By taking the right steps, you’re going to feel much happier and be glad you took care of it.

First, it’s important to know why mental health is important and what good mental health can help you with. Mental health involves things like your mood, stress levels, confidence, and many other things.

While it may seem to be mostly thought-related, much of your mental health directly affects you physically. As much as you might try to just think positively, sometimes that’s just not possible.

Having good mental health can help you respond to stressful situations easier. If you’re not so stressed out by other things, when something stressful arises, you’ll be more available to handle it.

If you had a ton of different things going on that were stressing you out, though, you’d have a much harder time organizing your thoughts and responding to it in a rational manner.

One of the easiest things you can do for your mental health is get rid of unnecessary roots of negative feelings. These are essentially anything in your life that causes you unnecessary stress, anger, or pain.

An example of an unnecessary stress might be a toxic relationship with your significant other. If breaking up with them will remove a ton of stress from your life, then that would probably be the right move for your own good.

Sources of stress or anger might not be things so easily dismissed, though. Things like poor health habits are a common source of sadness, when people start to get stressed out about things like weight gain.

While it does take time, things like that can still be fixed. Taking the steps to fix things like that in your life will improve it greatly. Don’t worry about how long it’ll take, because as you make little bits of progress, you’ll become happier.

Dealing with your mental health, especially if you come to realize that it’s not in a very good state, is a very difficult task. You should focus on going slow with it so that you don’t make more mistakes along the way.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that it’s always going to be something that you can handle on your own. In some cases that might be possible, but there will be times when you’ll need the help of someone else.

That someone else might be a friend, a family member, a coworker, or even a stranger. Regardless of who it is, don’t hesitate to reach out to them if you know you’re going to need them.

For many, counseling and therapy are good options to try. There’s still a bit of a stigma around it for some people, but that stigma is unfounded and mindless. The reality is that even if you don’t have some crazy trauma, these people are great to talk to.

Some workplaces offer discounts or otherwise include free counseling or therapy with the job, or you might seek one out on your own. It’s much easier than you might expect, as they tend to be very comforting.

If you’re so inclined, they even have online counseling now. Instead of going to their office in person, you can video chat with them live from the comfort of your own home, allowing you to be even more comfortable.

The worst thing you can do for mental health issues is ignore them. They’re not going to just get better behind the scenes, and realistically, they’ll get much worse. Over time they’ll build up until you crack.

Even if you’re not focused on them, mental problems will be present subconsciously, meaning that they’ll be on your mind whether you’re thinking about them actively or not. This is why you can’t just ignore them.

Naturally solving the problems in your life is a method to helping your mental health, but there are other things you can do to help improve it as well while you’re working on those solutions.

Things like going outside more often and eating more healthily and exercising more have all been shown to increase your body’s output of hormones that make you happy. It might not be a permanent solution, but it helps.

Make it a priority to spend at least one day a week evaluating your own mental health, and perhaps even tracking it to see how you’re progressing. Depending on the direction it’s going, you might need to do more or less to help yourself.

Find Ways to Bring Personal Enjoyment to Your Work Surroundings

Whether you work in a cubicle, and office, or anywhere else, chances are high that your area of work looks pretty sad. Most people’s workspaces have pretty neutral colors, little to no decoration, and generally look like they’re made to depress.

If you’re spending 8 or more hours a day in that one spot, you had better make sure it’s a comfortable 8 hours. If it’s not enjoyable to sit there, you’re going to really despise it in the long term.

One thing that might help, especially if you work a computer or work at a job that requires a lot of sitting is ergonomic furniture. Most places are fine with you bringing in things like your own chair and own computer accessories, and you should utilize that.

Most standard office chairs are pretty uncomfortable. Find one that supports you best, whether you need better arm rests or more lumbar support. Sitting for extended periods of time already isn’t fun, you don’t need it to be uncomfortable too.

Any standard keyboard and mouse isn’t built for comfort, but rather they’re built for low costs. If you’re allowed, replace the keyboard and mouse at your desk with more comfortable options.

Many ergonomic keyboards can be found, with things like wrist padding or more angled keys to help make typing all day more comfortable. The same applies to your mouse. Getting one with a bit more wrist support can make clicking around all day comfortable.

Without a good keyboard and mouse, you’re going to put unneeded strain on your wrists, joints, and tendons, which may end up leading to things like carpal tunnel, causing a good amount of pain.

You’d be surprised at how much a change in air quality can affect you, as well. You might not notice if you’re in the same office every single day, but that air you’re constantly breathing might be dirty or otherwise unpleasant.

First, you can get an air purifier for your space. Utilizing HEPA filters allows you to know you’re getting clean air around you. It removes things like bacteria and viruses from the air as well, which can prevent you from getting sick.

Some air purifiers include things like indicators telling you how clean or dirty the air is so that you have a good idea of how well it’s working. Others have things like spaces for scents that it’ll put back into the air, giving your place a nice smell.

Speaking of scents, aromatherapy is another great option for an office space. Aromatherapy devices are often small enough to fit on a desktop without taking up too much room, and they bring a lot of benefits.

Most people use these devices in conjunction with things like essential oils or other scents in order to achieve some desired effect. While some people don’t get much of an effect from it, others swear by them.

Certain scents are used for different things, like lavender being used for stress and peppermint for energy. They’re not too expensive, and even if it doesn’t boost your energy, it still smells nice.

One often overlooked option is some décor. If you’re going to have the same office for years to come, it’s worth it to invest a bit of money in sprucing up the area so that it’s a comfortable space for you to be in.

Whether it be pictures or a certain type of lamp or anything else, some nice décor and furniture that makes you feel at home is crucial to an office space. A standard sterile looking area isn’t very fun to be in.

Consider having some real plants on or around your desk. It can be something small like a little succulent or cactus, or something a bit larger. Either way, having some greenery around is an easy way to boost your mood.

Making your area comfortable doesn’t just have to be physical things, either. If you have your own office, playing some music on a lower volume can be a great way to feel relaxed.

Certain genres of music such as classical have been shown to reduce stress, but really you can play whatever you’d like as long as it’s work appropriate. In some people it might be a little distracting, but in others, it can help them focus.

Making an area feel as if it’s yours and making it feel comfortable to you is important for so many different reasons. For example, it makes it feel like you’re somewhere that you actually belong.

If you’re not used to being in sterile feeling places, then a sterile office space will feel foreign to you, almost as if you’re in someone else’s space instead of your own hard-earned area.

Additionally, it can be a signal to others about your personality and what kind of a person you are. You might have something on your desk as décor that a coworker also likes, which could strike up a conversation.

Most importantly, though, it makes you comfortable. Even though it’s common, spending all day long in an uncomfortable space is a hard thing to do. Over time, it’ll make you start to really dislike your job.

Delegate and Outsource to Allow Yourself Some Down Time

Some people make the mistake of not giving themselves enough down time. Whether it be because they think it’s better to work or that doing nothing is lazy, they just always have to be doing something.

The problem with this is, most of the time that creates a very stressful life. Even when you’re spending some of that time doing things that you enjoy, you can’t just be doing things constantly.

In order to free up some time for you to take for yourself, you need to be able to learn how to delegate tasks and outsource for your work. These skills will free up time that you can take to relax a bit.

Delegation of tasks is something that can be used effectively both at home and at work. At home, it might be things like delegating chores around so that everyone is pulling their fair share.

You might be living with roommates and be the only one cleaning anything. In that case, split up some of the cleaning with them so that you’re not wasting as much time on that. They should be fine with doing a little bit extra to help out.

The same can be said for things like getting your kids to help out with things like dishes or taking the trash out. If you’re busy with other, more important things, they can take some time out to do easy but helpful tasks.

You might even have people to delegate certain errands to. Things like grocery shopping can take up a lot of time, between the walking around and the lines for checkout. Having someone else do this is a great time saver.

At work, delegation tends to be a bit more official. If you need to do three things by the end of the day, but you only have time for two, you might tell someone working under you or a coworker to help you do the third.

The only problem with delegation at work is that you usually have to either be in a position of power or be well liked for people to agree to help you. Otherwise, they can just blow you off and go about their own days.

If you can get them to go along with it, though, you might end up finishing work sooner and be able to spend a bit of time relaxing. Even if you could do all three things in the day, you might still want to delegate just to be less stressed.

Delegation and outsourcing are fairly similar, but there tends to be one key difference between the two – payment. Delegation is typically done because you’re spreading out the workload among multiple people, but outsourcing is a paid job.

You can find people to outsource to for all kinds of work. No matter what job you do, if you’re an employee or an entrepreneur, there’s always going to be someone willing to do one of your work related tasks at a fee.

For example, you might have to set up a bunch of spreadsheets with a given data set at your job. Fiddling with Excel can take a lot of time, and you might not feel like it. Fortunately, you can outsource that to someone else at a low cost.

If you’re not an entrepreneur, you might want to check and see if your place of employment has any rules against outsourcing. Typically it’s a common practice and they shouldn’t have any problems with it, but just make sure.

Outsourcing is great because even though it costs some money, everyone ends up positive in the outcome. Your boss or customers get the work they needed, so they don’t care, the person you’re outsourcing too gets paid, and you get to relax.

Outsourcing doesn’t just have to be for work-related tasks. There are certain things that you might consider doing just to save the time, even if it costs a little bit more money. Lawn care is a great example.

While you could buy a lawnmower and keep your lawn maintained yourself, it can take up quite a bit of time, especially if you factor in the maintenance of the equipment. Hiring a lawn care company might cost a bit more over time, but it’s worth it.

The same can be said about things that need repairing. Lots of guys like trying to repair things on their own, or do stuff like their own oil changes. While they might have the know-how and the skill, it’s not time efficient.

Fixing something like your air conditioner might take hours and hours of work out of your day off, or you could call someone out to take a look at it and fix whatever problem you might have.

It does cost more money, but that’s where you have to start weighing the pros and cons of reclaiming your time. Plenty of people are willing to foot that cost if it means they just get to relax and take some time off from their busy schedule.

Don’t be so hesitant to outsource and delegate some of the stuff on your plate. There are people who do nothing but that, so if you have to do a little bit to make some room for yourself, that’s alright.

If you’re trying to delegate everything such that you don’t have any work to do, that’s not a good idea. You’re trying to achieve a good work-life balance, and for things to be balanced, you do need to be doing some work.

Heading into the 2022 year, you want to make sure you’re striving for a balanced life that allows you to contribute to the building of your business endeavors, while simultaneously enjoying your personal life without apology.

A little planning goes a long way in making that happen. You’ll need to test and tweak your plans from time to time until you get it just right, but along the way, you’ll notice improvements that cater to your desire to have increased personal satisfaction.

Whatever you do, make a plan and put it into action. Sitting on the sidelines as other enjoy their best lives will only bring you feelings of hurt and frustration, and you can avoid that if you’re willing to do the work.