Business Casual

How do you hack the YouTube algorithm? Tom Martin joins the show to teach us everything he knows about YouTube SEO and do a live teardown of Matt's Swim University YouTube channel. Tom is the YouTube mastermind behind several multi-million subscriber YouTube channels, including BBC's Mr. Bean. He shares strategies for getting viewers to binge watch your videos, designing thumbnails with great click through rates and increasing the total watch time on your channel. If you're looking for a step-by-step guide to YouTube SEO and growing a channel to Mr. Bean-level proportions, consider this episode your hands-on tutorial. Enjoy!P.S. Tom was generous enough to offer a few YouTube intro course to MoneyLab listeners at VidPro.com/MoneyLab. Thanks, Tom!P.P.S. Follow along with Matt's YouTube Optimization experiment here: Moneylab.co/Youtube-Optimization

There's money to be made in the advertising world. But is it the right business model for everyone? Both Matt and Andrew have made a living selling sponsorships and advertising through their online businesses. But over the years, they've both realized that it's not the right fit for their businesses or the way they like to work. Why did they abandon that business model? And what is the right business set up for making money through ads? Spoiler: it may just be peddling your own wares. Enjoy!P.S. This episode is brought to you by... Money Lab! (Spoiler). If you want to support the show, check out the extensive menu of Money Lab courses here: Moneylab.co/Products

Ooh, piece of candy! As entrepreneurs, we're constantly being sold on new ideas. And some of us end up "impulse buying" those new ideas. It's classic Shiny Object Syndrome. Like an excited little puppy running after a bouncing tennis ball, it's super tempting to chase after new and exciting business ideas, tools and projects. Matt and Andrew talk about how they've fallen victim to Shiny Object Syndrome and how they avoid running after every idea that comes their way. Enjoy!P.S. If you're looking for a new business idea to run after... check out Matt's course, SEO for Bloggers! But seriously: if you're in the market specifically for SEO training, this is the perfect course for that.

YouTube is soooo hot right now. Matt's noticing an uptick in sales, traffic and ad revenue from the new YouTube videos he's produced and published for SwimU. So he's running an experiment to see if he can make more money through the 'Tube on both of his affiliate websites. Will producing YouTube videos again pay off in the long run? How the heck does YouTube SEO work? And how can you measure if it's working? If you're YouTube curious, this episode is for you. Enjoy!P.S. Check out Matt's sweet new pool videos here on YouTube.P.P.S. Here's a link to the Veritasium YouTube video analyzing why YouTube videos go viral.

FOCUS, PEOPLE! Both Matt and Andrew have historically sucked at setting boundaries with their businesses and focusing on what they actually need to do. But all that's about to change! And Andrew's about to start a family, so he's got extra incentive to figure how to manage his time. They both love working on their businesses, but it means it's easy to get lost in their work or go down a rabbit hole with tasks that aren’t actually that important. So what are the critical areas they need to focus on with their business? And how do they start working smarter (not harder) with the hours they have? The clock starts... now. Enjoy!P.S. Parkinson's Law is the old adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Definitely not "Oslo's Law," guys.P.P.S. If you need some organizational help with your online business, check out Matt's course Asana for Bloggers: Moneylab.co/Asana

You've got business questions, we've got business answers! Matt and Andrew bring all the A's to your Q's, including a deep dive into measuring click-through rates and why goals might be more distracting than helpful. How do you improve affiliate marketing conversions on your website? How do you protect yourself from getting your ideas stolen on the internet? And how do you deal with running a niche website with traffic that dries up in the winter? Keep the questions coming and we'll keep the answers flowing. Enjoy!P.S. Matt mentions his post on website optimization. Check it out on Money Lab here: Moneylab.co/Website-optimizationP.P.S. If you haven't already checked out Matt and Andrew's latest software Lasso, check it out at GetLasso.co

Matt needs money! He's already trimmed his costs down to the bone in his business and now he wants to focus on efficient ways to ratchet up his revenue. So how can he increase the flow of his existing income streams on his websites? Should he focus on micro changes, like optimizing click through rates? Or is it something bigger, like monetizing his video content on his YouTube channel? In this conversation, Matt and Andrew debate ways to increase their revenue without adding additional costs and by leveraging their super powers. Enjoy!P.S. Want to create some affiliate marketing income streams in your business? Check out Matt's affiliate marketing course at Moneylab.co/Affiliate

Getting to $15,000 monthly recurring revenue in 6 months... piece of cake, right? Matt and Andrew have challenged themselves to get their product Lasso into the hands of 300 customers by the end of November. It's a time crunch, which means not relying on long-term SEO and focusing on strategies that'll get more customers in the first few months. What tactics will get them the quickest and most impactful results? And how can they leverage their personal superpowers to get to that 6 month finish line? Enjoy!P.S. You can read about the entire $15,000 MRR challenge at Moneylab.co/MRRP.P.S. Jump on the Lasso waiting list at GetLasso.co. Giddy up, cowboy.

You know you should have processes in place for your business. So why does every entrepreneur avoid this? At what point is it time to create better processes versus always fixing things as you go? Matt and Andrew break down the process of creating processes, including how to trick yourself into doing the really un-sexy work of building a business operating system. Matt has a literal gasping ah-ha moment in this one and maybe even solves the reason why Andrew has avoided this work. Enjoy!P.S. Need better business operating systems? Have you seen Matt's Asana for Bloggers course? Check it out here: Moneylab.co/Asana

Spoiler: classic email marketing tactics don't work for every online business. Can complex marketing funnels, slow drip campaigns and content upgrades actually hurt sales? Matt and Andrew dive into the details of Matt's multi-month experiment trying to optimize his sales funnel at Swim University. They pick through Matt's sales stats, walk through his elaborate email set up for converting readers to customers and debate why a complicated funnel wasn't the right move for his website. Get ready to talk UTM codes, conversion rates and customer avatars. Enjoy!P.S. Check out Matt's full write up about his email marketing experiment here: Moneylab.co/email-funnels