Imagine we pick an email marketer at random and we ask him: “Hey, bro! Which Email Service Provider (ESP) do you use?”
Yep, an ESP is the service you use to send your emails and newsletters to your subscribers every week.
What do you think some possible answers will be?
MailChimp, Aweber, GetResponse, Drip, Active Campaign, ConvertKit, right?
And then a dude comes and says: “I use Amazon.”
Whhhhaaatt??? Amazon??? You on drugs mate?
In this short article, I’ll explain the terms ISP, ESP, and inbox service and why people usually get confused using these terms.
The ISP (Internet Service Provider) is the company that gives you access to the Internet. For example, Comcast or Verizon in the US, BT or Vodafone in the UK, etc. People usually call their ISP’s providers, ie. “Who’s your provider?”
The ESP (Email Service Provider) is a service used by marketers who send bulk emails to their subscribers. For example, Aweber, MailChimp, Drip, Get Response, etc. These services also provide campaign insights, ie. how many opens or clicks you get.
Now, some ISPs also provide an inbox service (mailbox) to their customers and here is the confusion:
People often mean “Inbox Service Provider” when using the acronym ISP.
For example, “your ISP can kill your email deliverability by sending your emails to the spam folder.” Obviously, it’s not your Internet Service Provider that sends your emails to the Gmail spam folder; it’s Gmail that filters your messages into the Gmail spam folder. 🙂
That’s why I prefer to use the term ISP for companies such as Comcast or Verizon, and the term mailbox or inbox provider/service for Gmail.
I hope you got the answer you were looking for. If you’d like to read something different from me, check out my best articles:
Loving you, Angelos
Hi guys,
I know you haven’t heard from me for a while.
The reason is I’ve been working hard on two courses, one on self-publishing and one on the Russian culture.
I’ve also been interviewing experts on various subjects you requested – learning, marketing, writing, self-development and more.
I’ll be publishing videos and new material soon so stay tuned!
I also wanted to share with you a few truths about my journey as an entrepreneur.
More than 3 years have passed since I gave up my investment banking job in London. I was an exciting decision but not an easy one.
Hi Live Diversified people,
Recently I came across an interview of Maria Popova on the Tim Ferriss Show – Tim Ferriss’ podcast.
When Tim Ferriss asked Maria what she does, she answered: “I read and I write, in that order”.
Maria is the creator of BrainPickings.com, a ridiculously adored website.
Brain Pickings is Maria’s life journey, the books she reads, and mostly her subjective lens on what matters in the world and why.
I also created a YouTube video for this article. Watch if you don’t fancy reading.
Tim Ferriss asked Maria: “What does your day look like”, “What is your daily routine”?
I was blown away by her answer. She says word by word:
Well, I’ll answer this with a caveat. The one thing I have struggled with or tried to solve for myself in the last few years is this really delicate balance between productivity and presence, especially in a culture that seems to measure our worth, or our merit, or our value through our efficiency, and our earnings, and our ability to perform certain tasks as opposed to just the fulfillment we feel in our lives and the presence that we take in the day to day.
That’s something that’s become more and more apparent to me. So, I’m a little bit reluctant to discuss routine as some holy grail of creative process because it’s just really – it’s a crutch. I mean, routines and rituals help us not feel this overwhelming massive mess of just day to day life would consume us. It’s a control mechanism, but that’s not all there is. And if anything, it should be in the service of something greater which is being present with one’s own life.
What a beautiful answer. A ton of wisdom on how to live your life in a few sentences.
Talking about the same topic on her website, Maria mentions Annie Dillard:
How we spend our days, is of course, how we spend our lives.
Ours is a culture of how to get things done. How to be more efficient. How to master speed-reading. How to learn a language in 7 days.
Hey!! Stop! Take a breath. Be present.
If what you want right now is to go for a walk, or cycle your bicycle, or shoot a few free throws, or sit on the grass doing nothing, do it. Break your routine and do that.
And after you do all what you felt like doing, you realise you’re suddenly more productive.
From my experience as an author and YouTuber, I often struggle coming up with article or video ideas. Of course, if you sit in front of a computer all the time being loyal to your daily routine, how do you expect to be creative?
An author has to live in order to write. Creativity sparks when you do things out of your schedule, when you talk to other people, when you walk and more oxygen reaches your brain cells, when you travel, when you taste new flavours.
I’m making this video for myself so I don’t get sacrificed on the altar of productivity.
In the past, I used to be a productivity freak and today still I often get eaten by productivity.
One of my mentors, Dr. Teresa Hunt, who is an astrophysicist, writer, composer, musician, a totally Live Diversified lady used to tell me: “You are obsessed with your schedule Angelos, getting up early, doing the same things every day. You shouldn’t be living like that.”
And imagine that was after I quit investment banking to become an entrepreneur.
An Internet entrepreneur is supposed to be have a flexible schedule but I still used to stick to my daily routine as if was something holy I had to protect.
Teresa was right but I couldn’t understand her a few years ago.
I guess it’s our psychological bias again.
We are reluctant to deviate from the equilibrium point, ie. our daily routine, because we believe that our daily routine is what will lead us to success.
For example, we can’t afford to go to a theatre play because we haven’t crossed all tasks off our to-do list.
Remember what I said earlier though. Life is non-linear. Deciding to answer 10 more emails will definitely contribute to your success “a considerable linear chuck”. At the same time, the solution to one of your problems, or your next big idea may be hidden in that theatre play which you turned down to answer those 10 emails. In other words, the theatre play can potentially contribute a “huge non-linear chuck” to your success. But even if it doesn’t, a wonderful evening in the theatre will at least charge your batteries for the next day that you have to fight against your to-do list.
Yes, life is chaotic, non-linear, unpredictable. What’s wrong with living chaotically then just like life is?
It’s OK to deviate from an equilibrium point. It’s OK to explore without any particular purpose. It’s OK to try something without being certain about the outcome.
And if you are an entrepreneur, this is what entrepreneurship is all about – pushing boundaries, discovering new areas without any guarantee of success.
It’s all about the journey remember. All the experiences, lessons, failures contribute to your success.
One of my favourite contemporary Russian authors, Михаил Веллер, says in his book “Everything about Life” that an indicator of a good life is your memories. How rich are your memories? Routine doesn’t create memories. If every day of your life looks like the previous, you will probably don’t remember much about those days a few years later.
If you ask me to write about my memories during the five years I used to work in banking I can probably write a short book with the title “getting to work and back home”. If you ask me to write about my memories during the last three years as an entrepreneur travelling the world, I can probably write ten books!
To sum up, it’s OK to have a routine, it’s OK to fight procrastination and aim to be more productive. Just always have in mind Maria Popova’s caveat. And remember, how we live our days, is of course, how we live our lives.
I just finished reading Tony Robbins’ book Awaken the Giant Within and I want to share with you some powerful ideas from the book.
1 – The Power of Truly Committed Decisions
To take control of our lives, we need to take control of our consistent actions. I’m not talking about the things that we do once in a while but what we do consistently.
But what precedes all our actions? What is the father of all action? What drives all our actions? The answer to all these questions is one word – decisions.
You take action because you decided to take action. If you don’t take action, it’s again your decision not to take action.
People instead of making decisions complain about their conditions. I came from a dysfunctional family. My parents were really poor. I didn’t get the right education.
No one denies that there are people who are born with advantages. Genetic advantages, family advantages, environmental advantages, relationship advantages. However, for every “privileged” person I can give you an example of a non-privileged person that against all odds smashed all their barriers by making the decisions of what to do with their lives.
But what sort of decisions? Truly committed decisions. The moment you make a decision, it’s a commitment. There is no way back.
We have disempowered the word decision in our lives. We have associated the word decision with something like I should do that one day, I ought to do that one day, it would be nice to do that, wouldn’t it? No. If you decided that you have to do something, you must do it and you have to take action now.
A real decision is measured by the fact that you have taken new action. If there is no new action, sorry you haven’t decided yet.
A truly committed decision has to be unshakable no matter what happens. The stock market collapses, your girlfriend dumps you, your “friends” think you went crazy.
Your decisions need to stay there strong and powerful. Because your decisions reflect your values, your purpose, what you came to this world for. You decisions need to stay consistent with the quality of your spirit, your inner calling.
Make decisions often. The more decisions you make, the better you’re gonna get. Muscles get stronger with use and so do our decision muscles. Feel the excitement that comes from taking the committed decisions that shift your life towards the direction you wanna go.
Learn from your decisions. There are gonna be times when you screw up. Don’t focus on the short term setbacks but focus on the lessons that will save you time, money and pain in the future.
Build flexibility. Once you decide who you want to become, what is you wanna get, be flexible in your approach. Try different ways, learn throughout the process, experiment, don’t become rigid in your approach.
Enjoy making decisions. One moment, the moment that you make a true decision can change your entire life. The moment you decide to quit smoking, to buy a gym membership, to quit your job.
A truly committed decision is the force that can change your life.
Angelos
PS: For those who are asking about camera and lighting gear have a look:
Hey LiveDivers,
Have you read the title of this post? Well, I don’t know the answer. I want you to answer this question for me.
This is what Gary Vaynerchuk says: “You need to bet on your strengths and not give a fuck about what you suck at.” Watch here.
In another video he says the same.”Legacy is better than currency”. Watch here.
Now, Peter Ducker in a popular Harvard Business Review Classics (Managing Oneself) says the same: The reason people don’t succeed is that they don’t know their strengths. He suggests that we can only find out what our strengths are by looking at our past successes and failures (he calls that feedback analysis). Then, we should only invest in those strengths every single day. Also, we shouldn’t try to change everything at once. The key is in getting rid of the bad habits and continuously investing in our strong areas.
Here is an excellent summary of the book Managing Oneself written by the successful entrepreneur Tai Lopez.
On the flip side now I have to say the following:
My dad used to be a teacher in primary school. He was a really good teacher. All the kids loved him. I’ve probably got some of his talent and done lots of teaching myself too. I’ve taught mathematics, languages, music and the feedback I’ve been getting all these years is really exceptional. However, I haven’t always enjoyed the process of teaching. Why? Because teaching sucks all your energy. 3-4 hours of real teaching can leave you dead. Does the fact that I can be a good teacher means I should become one? Not sure.
Two years ago I wrote a book about how we can become better learners and memorise better what we learn. I spent six months reading tons of research in cognitive psychology. There is no evidence that we should learn according to our preferred learning style (visual, acoustic, verbal, kinaesthetic) if we want to learn more effectively. On the contrary, there are studies that have shown the opposite. For example, visual learners learn better if they start reading or listening.
In another recent Harvard Business Review podcast, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor at University College London and Columbia University says there is no scientific evidence that focusing on your strengths guarantees success.
The problem he says is that we usually compare our own strengths between them instead of comparing our strengths against the same strengths in our peers. Well, I don’t fully agree with that either. Let’s say that more than half of the population is better at something we like and are best at. Giving that something up and looking at something we’re not good at doesn’t sound like a good strategy either.
Professor Chamorro-Premuzic says also that overdeveloping a strong area can become a liability rather than an asset. For example, a really ambitious person can become greedy or someone with good social skills can become a manipulator. But that’s again something you can’t control. Here we’re talking about people who want to get better and achieve the most of life like you and me. I don’t find convincing the reasoning here. Read for yourself. Tell me what you think.
My gut feeling as I’m writing this article is that we should do what feels right and not what we think is right. We live in a “KPI and ROI” society where productivity and optimisation are everything. We put our mind first and our heart second.
I think you shouldn’t follow anyone’s advice. Do what feels right to you. Do you want to explore something new? Do it. Do you find challenge in improving a skill that you thought you were not good at? Do it! You may find out that you’re good at it in the end.
Can you leave a comment below? I want to know your opinion.
-Angelos
Being an entrepreneur is tough. Gary Vaynerchuk says that entrepreneurship sucks! Watch this video.
You quit your 9 to 5 job to build an online business to become your own boss, to work from home, to travel more. You are looking for more freedom and you end up in your own prison!
I guarantee entrepreneurship can get f***** overwhelming. I now work harder and longer than I used to work in investment banking.
Minimalism is not just the key to becoming a successful entrepreneur. It’s the only way to go as an entrepreneur. Here are my best tips and lessons I’ve learned going through a ton of bad days as Gary says.
Prioritise. Before you start doing any work in the morning ask yourself what the 2 -3 most important tasks are.
I don’t think that changing the theme on your wordpress site is your number 1 priority of the day (I changed my theme recently but I resisted doing it for a whole month as I had other priorities).
Look at your to-do list. Do the stuff that adds the most important value. Be damn strict with this!
Remember the 80/20 rule. 20% of the things you do are responsible for the 80% of your success. Focus on that 20%. Most of the time you know what is important but still you don’t do it. You fool yourself. Stop that! Reconsider your day-to-day priorities. I’m repeating myself, I know but it’s so important.
Don’t check your inbox every five minutes. Set multiple alarm clocks at 11am and 4am every day to check your email. Check your email only twice a day. It wastes your time and it kills your focus and quality of your work. I’ll tell you more about this shortly.
Stop multitasking. Our brains are designed to focus on one thing at a time. MIT neuroscientist Earl Miller says that when people think that they multitask, in essence they switch from one task to another very rapidly. Read this article.
When we complete a tiny task (answering an email, sending a text message, posting a post on Facebook), we are hit with a dollop of dopamine, our reward hormone. Our brains are addicted to dopamine and we switch tasks quickly because that gives us lots of instant doses of gratification.
These instant gratifications make us feel that we accomplish a lot whereas in reality we don’t.
Multitasking reduces the quality and efficiency of our work. Organising thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information becomes more difficult.
A study at the University Of London also showed that people who multitask while performing cognitive tasks experience IQ drops. In fact, the IQ drops were similar to what you see in individuals who smoke cannabis or didn’t sleep the night before.
Multitasking has also been found to increase cortisol, the stress hormone. The rapid fire-ups of the brain leave us mentally exhausted very quickly even when the working day has barely started!
The biggest instigator of multitasking? Our inboxes. Some studies have shown that even when you have the possibility to multitask when you know for example that you have unread emails in your inbox can reduce your IQ by 10 points! For men, IQ drops can be even worse up to 15 points.
The constant thrill of having new bolded emails in our inbox keeps us distracted. A McKinsey Global Institute Study found that employees spend 28% of their time checking their inboxes.
Studies have also shown that the damage of multitasking in the long run can be permanent. MRI scans showed that people who multitask consistently show less brain density in the anterior cingulate. That’s the area responsible for empathy and emotional control.
So, stop multitasking now, check your email twice a day, put your phone in a silent mode and focus on the task at hand.
Don’t skip breaks. It’s tempting to skip breaks (and even lunch) when you have lots of work to do. However, research again has shown that those who take regular breaks are actually more productive than those who don’t. Sounds trivial again? It does. But we skip breaks (including myself of course) and we feel we’re working like a supernatural machines. Total illusion.
A great app to use is Pomodoro One. Pomodoro One has an alarm that goes off after a set interval. Then, it sounds an alarm and gives you a break from work. When the break’s over, it automatically starts timing your work again. You can use it on both Desktop and phone.
You don’t need business cards. It’s a waste of paper. I get angry when I see so many business cards on the streets. If someone wants to keep in touch with you, give them your telephone number, or your email. If they are really interested in you, they will contact you. I’m sure that the chances are higher that someone loses your contact when getting your business card rather than saving your number in their phone.
Unsubscribe. How many emails do you get that you don’t even read or open. When you first decide to declutter your inbox you may get overwhelmed. So, unsubscribe as new emails come in. Don’t try to do it all at once. You’ll drive yourself mad.
Delete the Facebook App from your iPhone. It’s unbelievable how much time we spend on Facebook. The best thing I’ve done in my life is deleting the Facebook App from my phone. Not only did I find inner peace staying away from the Facebook “blink-blink”, but I also solved the common problem of the iPhone battery! The Facebook app is probably the #1 energy monster app. OK, to be fair it’s not the app itself; it’s our addiction of checking Facebook on our phones.
Don’t check your sales every 5 minutes. As an entrepreneur you strive for every sale. You want to see your income increase. It’s your dream. You don’t want to go back to office job. You want your financial freedom like nothing else.
In the beginning, I was addicted to checking the sales every minute. How many more sales? I used to check sales on multiple sites every hour. I used to get up in the morning and check the sales in my computer with my eyes half-closed. All this checking takes so much time and as email checking kills your quality of work. All this checking adds zero value to your business. Dedicate every minute on how you can make your product better. Spend your time on that and only that. Check your sales once a week, or once in two weeks.
It’s the same with running a race. If you constantly look around you while you run to check on others, you lose focus. For those who run 100m even a thought can cost you the race.
Launch it. then make it better. Have you heard of the concept of the Minimum Value Product (MVP)? Don’t wait to launch your product until it’s perfect! It will never be perfect. There will always be something more to do before you launch it. Create a product that adds value to the people. Gauge interest. Listen to the feedback. Your customers will tell you how you can make it better. Again I recommend some further reading here. What else? The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.
Outsource. I’ve said this again before. You can’t do everything on your own when you run a business. I know you can do this task very well yourself. And that task. And that task. I know it will take you just an hour. But it will be an hour that you could devote to something else that could add more value.
This is how Muller explains it: “Take the time to eliminate the pointless, the superfluous, the questionable. Then decide what you can hire out or delegate. Then focus on the work that only you can do, that you can do best, and that you can do for the most impact on your business.“
That’s all for now. This post is about the Minimalistic Entrepreneur. It shouldn’t get too long.
If this post gave you some good tips, can you share it now please? It will take you 5 sec.
Kindness and smiles,
Angelos
Joe Pulizzi in the book Epic Content Marketing explains the secrets of creating a successful blog (Click here to for book info).
1) Encourage conversations.
2) Hang out on other blogs.
3) Loosen up. Express a personal opinion. Be authentic.
It’s essential to define well your audience.
4) Who will be your reader?
5) What are your reader’s needs?
6) What keywords is your reader searching for? Follow these using Google Alerts.
7) Do you contribute to the conversation on the places your readers hang out? Do you leave comments there?
8) You should have consistency. Can you commit yourself to publish an article twice a week? The worst thing you can do is to start and stop later.
9) Use killer titles. Controversial titles are also good. Make titles based on what people search on Google (Use Google Keyword Planner for this).
10) Don’t use too much bluff in your posts. Less is more. Remember: Edit Edit Edit before posting.
11) Each post should have a call to action. What do you want reader to do after they read your post? A call to action can be to download an ebook, to sign up to your newsletter, to follow your social media page, etc.
12) The blog post should be written in such a way so the content can be repackaged later to an ebook, a course, something more substantial. Plan ahead for that.
13) Guest post on other similar blogs. Choose the top 15 in your niche. Never turn down an opportunity to do a guest post.
14) Measure with Google Analytics. What are the most popular posts? Do people sign up? On what page?
15) Outsource. Most successful blogs outsource content. You can’t do everything on your own.
16) Refer people to good quality content that’s not yours. Always focus on adding value to your people.
What other strategies do you think are successful?
Leave a comment below!
Kindness and smiles,
Angelos
Hi Divers,
I just finished reading Joe Pulizzi’s book Epic Content Marketing.
Do you want to increase traffic to your blog?
Do you want to increase sales of your product or service?
Do you want to build awareness of your brand?
Then this book is for you.
Customers don’t care about you. They care about themselves and their problems.
It’s not about you and your awesome product. It’s about them.
Stop selling to them.
Focus on their needs. Add value to them. Serve them.
Inform them, engage them, amuse them.
Make them more intelligent.
This is the only way to build trust. Once you build trust, selling becomes effortless.
Provide content that makes people stop and read what you have to say before you even think to sell anything to them.
Epic content is helpful, relevant, compelling, educational.
It’s not about finding customers, it’s about finding fanatic customers that will trust you 1000%.
Use storytelling. Storytelling shows why the brand exists. And that’s beyond any products or services.
You need to emotionally engage people. They have to see themselves in you.
Do they above six points sound obvious? Yes, but who applies them to their marketing strategy?
It’s all about the brand. How cool we are. Why we are the best. What our product can for you.
NO!!!
Listen first. Then see how you can help and add value. Maybe sell later. They will buy from you. Why? Because they trust you.
Finally, Pulizzi says that epic content usually has some additional characteristics. It’s real time, fact-driven, efficient, visual and curated. Read here for more.
Really disruptive book. I learned a lot from it. Read it.
Kindness and smiles,
Angelos
[soundcloud id=’310690388′ artwork=’false’ height=’false’ color=’#ff7700′]
Μάλιστα. – Понятно, хорошо.
Τα λέμε. – До скорой встречи. (бук. обсудим их)
Εντάξει. – Хорошо, ок.
Φύγαμε. – Пошли!
Πάμε! – Пойдём!
‘Αντε, πάμε! – Давай пойдём! – Ну что, пойдём!
Ευχαριστώ – Спасибо.
Ευχαριστώ πολύ! – Спасибо большое!
Παρακαλώ. – Пожалуйста.
Με συγχωρείτε… – Извините, простите, …
Τι κάνεις; – Как дела?
Όλα καλά. – Все хорошо.
Μια χαρά. – Отлично. (Бук. одна радость – одно счатсье)
Κατάλαβα. – Понятно. Понимаю. Понял. (Бук. Прошедшее время – Понял)
Καταλαβαίνω. – Понимаю.
Συγγνώμη. – Извиняюсь.
Καλή όρεξη. – Приятного апетита.
Πόσο κάνει αυτό; – Сколько это стоит?
Που είναι η τουαλέτα; – Где туалет?
Πάω για ύπνο. – Ложусь спать.
Γειά μας! – на здоровье!
Σε αγαπώ. – Я тебя люблю.
Σ’ αγαπώ. – Я тебя люблю.
Μου λείπεις. – Скучаю по тебе.
Δεν ξέρω. – Не знаю.
Σε παρακαλώ πολύ. – Очень тебя прошу.
Ϊσως. – Наверно.
Δεν ξέρω, ίσως. – Не знаю, наверно.
Τώρα. – сейчас
Σήμερα. – Сегодня.
Αύριο. – Завтра.
Μετά. – Потом.
Νωρίς. – Рано.
Αργά. – Поздно.
Είναι νωρίς. – Еще рано.
Είναι αργά. – Уже поздно.
Έλα! – Давай! (Бук. Приходи!)
Έλα εδώ! – Приходи сюда!