{"id":2209,"date":"2016-07-04T17:53:54","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T17:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/?p=2209"},"modified":"2020-09-11T05:28:40","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T05:28:40","slug":"productivity-hacks-analytics-theia-slideshows-and-time-saving-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/productivity-hacks-analytics-theia-slideshows-and-time-saving-tricks\/","title":{"rendered":"#6 Arbitrage Diary: Productivity Hacks – Analytics, Theia Slideshows, and Time-Saving Tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey there buddy!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Jake in the hotseat this week with the next installment of our arbitrage site set\u00adup…\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Over the past few weeks we\u2019ve gone through some of the fiddly necessary stages for\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>tracking and monitoring everything that we will be doing as this project goes on. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This edition\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>of our blog is a combo of two things \u00ad a step\u00adby\u00adstep of how we put together slideshows in\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>WP, and a few random bits of wisdom we\u2019ve acquired thus far. The next stage will be\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>spending money and running actual traffic, so now\u2019s the time to crib what we\u2019ve gleaned and\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>take it on board yourselves!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

First of all \u00ad odd bits of advice from various parts of this project:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Analytics Academy<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a background in writing (i.e. not with anything to do with computers beyond web\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>browsing and Word…), so looking at analytics was initially daunting, but now it\u2019s all hooked\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>up and linked together, it really does make sense to me now, and i\u2019ve learned massive\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>amounts in a really short time. Take the steps as they come and focus on nailing each one \u00ad<\/span><\/span><\/span>you\u2019ll learn more and things will be more watertight as you progress. And as we progress.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hopefully? Definitely!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Something that has really helped with the learning curve has been this:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com\/<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You might well know your way around this stuff, but as a couple of newbies to Google\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Analytics we didn\u2019t, so the classes provided by Google have been really helpful.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Though the first intro slides and vids are pretty basic, even for us, they pick up and start to\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>impart some pretty esoteric info. Endure the first couple \u00ad the course I\u2019ve taken the most from\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>is the \u2018Analytics Platform Principles\u2019 course, as it breaks down specific characteristics of the\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>data that analytics accumulates, and how best to delve into the most useful info [We will go\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>into more detail on what that is when we start to bring traffic in!].<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Each course takes about 6\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>hours, with teaching and a questions section you should nail before moving on. It\u2019s a little\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>time\u00ad consuming, but worth enduring it up front so you can make the most coming out the\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>other side. You can go from complete novice through to earning an industry\u00adlevel\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>certificate… I\u2019ve given mine to my mum to stick on the fridge. Don\u2019t mind it. But yea \u00ad swot up\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>and be ready to crunch numbers. Oh, and the guy hosting is super\u00adawkward. He knows his\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>stuff for sure, but if he\u2019s the most charismatic guy at Google, then their Christmas parties\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>must suck.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Productivity Tools<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re working in conjunction with others, we strongly advise making use of tools to make\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>your communication and planning easier. Since getting on Ad networks and realising the\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>variations in Time Zones, as well as coping with different aspects of projects at different\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>times of day, Dan and I have really come to rely on these two tools \u00ad Trello, and Slack. There\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>are other tools out there obviously, and whatever works best for you is great, but these have\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>been helping us no end.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/slack.com\/ \u00ad Slack is fantastic for communication and messaging, and allows\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>everything to be kept in one place, searched easily, and across different channels. It\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>sounded a bit \u2018corporate\u2019 up front but in essence it means we can have different chats\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>running on different topics, so it is easy to keep things in focus, and themed chats keep us\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>more clued up to the different threads of what is developing. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Even better, we\u2019ve synched our\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Skype accounts with it so it allows you to just dive straight into a call without having to chop<\/span><\/span><\/span>and change between accounts… and speaking of chopping and changing between\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>accounts, we are doing all our work in Google Docs \u00ad we can both jump in on edits, we stick\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>everything in a shared drive, and we get easiest access possible for our important\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>spreadsheets and docs (e.g. with all our account logins, and our profit and loss ((more of the\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>former less of the latter hopefully) etc).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

https:\/\/trello.com\/ \u00ad This is a great tool that serves as a pinboard for tasks and keeping track\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>of who is doing what. It\u2019s been invaluable for us for dividing work and keeping an eye on\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>what is finished and what is pending. It integrates with Slack too, so you can get real\u00adtime\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>updates when a task is completed. Recommended.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Screenshot of the wiki page because if i screenshot my Trello i\u2019ll give away a bit too much.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Forgive me).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[A kind of ridiculous anecdote that stems from productivity and staying on track… I had a\u00a0meeting with Peter from Native Ad Buzz to get some advice and to go over some Native<\/span><\/span><\/span>questions we had for him. Anyways, I\u2019ve got a bad back from an old sports injury, which was\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>playing up pretty badly as we went over our work. Completely out of the blue, Pete divulged\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>that he is a qualified masseuse and acupuncturist. Our meeting was derailed, and in ten\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>minutes he had me face down in his flat, and full of pins… an hour later I was pretty much\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>pain free and back in business… I guess the point (get it?) of the story is that if you are going\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>to veer from your designated tasks, make sure you get something equally beneficial from\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>your divergence haha! Anyways, cheers Pete. An unexpected afternoon… work\/life balance\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>at its finest!]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. PG 13 Stuff.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week we ran through how we got onto Adsense and Content.Ad. Something we have\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>realised while checking through the Adsense Ts and Cs is the importance of keeping the\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>material clean \u00ad A couple of blogs back we said PG\u00ad13. That\u2019s pretty much right, though\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>having seen what Content.Ad hosts on our site, their interpretation of PG\u00ad13 is pretty\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>liberal… To keep Adsense happy (they are going to be the main income stream for this\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>project, so we should play by the rules), we realised we can change the age settings for\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Content.Ad to make sure the ads hosted on our site are safer. Go to \u2018My Account\u2019, then pick\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>the \u2018Domains\u2019 tab and set the \u2018Default Rating\u2019.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve gone as safe as possible, and gone for the G rating \u00ad the ads being offered up on our\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>site are now much more appealing to all our users, which should help with monetizing things\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>as we go forward! This will depend somewhat on your niche, but good practice is keeping it\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>clean so use common sense on this as to what\u2019s your own best practice. For us, safety first!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. How to Make a Slideshow in WordPress<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the meat and veg of what we are going to be doing to make money [I say \u2018we\u2019… Dan\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>has done sweet F\u00adA on this front, and has left me to bear the brunt… he\u2019s making up for it\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>now, but yea… that\u2019s a taste of what I have to put up with…], so it\u2019s important to get it right.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a breakdown of the most faff\u00adheavy part for you…\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>First \u00ad install the Theia Post Slider plugin!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Great! Now, start a new post. Add an image to it. Then above the image, click blank space,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>then select the \u2018Add a Theia Post Slider title\u2019 like below. It\u2019ll insert the bit of code you need:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Next, below your image, click more blank space, and choose the \u2018Add Page Break\u2019 button\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>(just to the left of the Theia buttons). This is essentially the layout you need for each slide<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

within your post…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Then repeat! As you can see, I then repeated the same layout below the page break. Do that\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>for as many images\/slides as you need. AND see where the Theia code is added? Between\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>the two pairs of brackets, add text \u00ad this correlates to the little header that will sit next to your\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>navigation arrows. E.g. \u2018a little picture of a TV\u2019:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Any actual copy or bulk text you require should be typed below the Thea code, but above\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>your image (assuming you want it above your picture). Finally, select \u2018Gallery\u2019 as your WP\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>post type. Then get out of the backend and check your site, and you\u2019ll see you are in\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>business. Now you\u2019re sliding!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A time\u00adsaving method I have found really helpful \u00ad say you\u2019ve got a 20 image slideshow \u00adupload all the images into your post first, then go through and insert the page breaks and\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Theia title codes after. Uploading one by one is much more time consuming. I found out the\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>hard way…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s pretty much it! As mentioned previously, install the Yoast plugin as well, and it\u2019ll give\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>you all the guidance necessary to nail your content to be the most effective it can be for\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Google.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

5. Content Advice Bonus!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A word on content at this point \u00ad we got up and running with our articles a couple of weeks\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>ago, and to be approved on Adsense you need to hit their initial threshold of 15\u00ad20 articles.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Something we have noticed and are keen to keep on top of \u00ad slideshows will be our\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>moneymakers (lots of pics, lots of slides, lots of clicks, lots of money), but Adsense need to\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>be kept sweet, so we really advise churning out \u2018normal\u2019 content articles as well as\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>slideshows.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Keep a good balance of both on your site \u00ad don\u2019t let slideshows outweigh \u2018normal content\u2019 for\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>example \u00ad they don\u2019t like this. For the sake of an hour\u2019s work, you\u2019ll keep Adsense happy and\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>keep being able to get paid. I guess it was our initial rejection from them that has made us\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>super sensitive about staying in their good books, aan it\u2019s good practice! So yea, keep\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>abreast of their Ts and Cs and keep it clear that you\u2019re providing informative content as well\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>as slides.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Next time we will go through running our first paid traffic to the site, which is what it\u2019s\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>all about! Exciting times!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cheers guys!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jake<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey there buddy! It\u2019s Jake in the hotseat this week with the next installment of our arbitrage site set\u00adup…\u00a0Over the past few weeks we\u2019ve gone through some of the fiddly necessary stages for\u00a0tracking and monitoring everything that we will be doing as this project goes on. This edition\u00a0of our blog is a combo of two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,25,5],"tags":[48,59,41,50,53,60,82,49,42],"class_list":["post-2209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arbitrage","category-arbitrage-diary","category-marketing-info","tag-arbitrage","tag-arbitrage-diary","tag-how-to-guide","tag-native-ad-arbitrage","tag-native-advertising","tag-native-advertising-arbitrage","tag-productivity","tag-step-by-step","tag-step-by-step-guide"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nab-s3-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/11052822\/you-x-ventures-Oalh2MojUuk-unsplash.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2209"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3977,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209\/revisions\/3977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}