How to automate Browser Tasks – using Selenium and Python

Here you will learn how to control any browser application with a little Python and selenium. You can use this for creating your own Instagram Bot for example. We start with a few basics and end with a cheat sheet summarizing the most important code snippets. Let’s go!

Basic automation with “Selenium IDE”

One way to automate the tasks that are performed in the browser is to use a program that “records” your activities on the website and can play them back as often as you like. No coding is needed for this. Correspondingly stupidly the program executes its steps.

You can find a Chrome extension here, that allows you to record and play your tasks. Now this works for logging into Instagram well, but we need some kind of programming to make our automation a bit smarter.

Below I have added an example of how such a login via Selenium might look like. He notes all necessary HTML IDs to be able to access them directly later. If Instagram should change the IDs at a later time, the user will surely not notice it. The bot will still not find the individual parts again and will fail.

Automate via our own Python Script

First of all. We will not directly control the browser. We will write a script that uses a web driver to control a browser. For example, our Python script will use a ChromeDriver to control the web browser Google Chrome.

So we need Selenium and a Webdriver.

  • Selenium: You can install selenium via “pip3 install selenium” inside for example Powershell.
  • Webdriver: You can download it from the SeleniumHQ Website for your preferred Browser.

When using the program, you can set the path to the driver like this (Old way):

from selenium import webdriver
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="path/to/chromedriver.exe",
chrome_options=options)

There is a better way to start. Create a new python Script and let it download and set chromedriver by itself. For that, we need “webdriver manager”:

pip install webdriver-manager

Is this installed, you can now create a little Python file and run it to open a specific Website. In my case Instagram:

#Imports
from selenium import webdriver
from webdriver_manager.chrome import ChromeDriverManager

#Time for see that the Browser will open
import time
#Doing
driver = webdriver.Chrome(ChromeDriverManager().install())
driver.get('https://www.instagram.com')

#Closes Browser after one Second
time.sleep(1)
driver.quit()
Horray we now can open a Website, let’s see how we can log in.

Instagram as our playing ground

You can see the whole HTML Code right inside the Browser. Just right click and click “inspect”. You can also press “Ctrl + Shift + I”. You can use this to see all the IDs and points we will use to automate.

In Python, you now can use the “driver.find_element” to address exactly one spot. By their specific name or class or ID. Whatever suits you the most:

In my case, the Button doesn’t have any ID. So I have to target it via the “XPath” and search for the text inside the button. Each element has its own path. We can either search using the absolute path, which would result in errors if we changed the website structure. Or we search within our specified path for a word. Here the structure of the website can change as much as it wants, our word is always found.

In our case, it’s the word “next”. This way we can make sure that we notice when Instagram changes something as soon as possible because you have to change it so that it is changed for the user.

How to find your XPath and use it inside your Script

You now can find and click the button via the text the user can see, or via the XPath, you have copied above. The following Script will open Instagram, and waits 5 seconds till it clicks the Next Button. Of course, it won’t log in, because there is no data typed in.

Cheat Sheet

xxx will be your variable which contains the XPath or name. In our Example above it would be “python_button”.

Radio Button xxx.click()
Click Checkbox
Click Button
Textfield xxx.send_keys(“Hello World!”)
Getting Text xxx.get_attribute(“text”)
Dropdown by visible text xxx.select_by_visible_text(‘Germany’)
Dropdown by value xxx.select_by_value(‘1’)

Learn to say no is key for success

Did you say yes to another party without really wanting to go? You know yourself and will go, even if the evening doesn’t bring you anything value? Maybe you don’t even like most of the people there?

We all know that. To say “yes” to something rashly and regret it a short time later. How can we prevent this more effectively and thus lead a more relaxed and happier life?

The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything. – Warren Buffett

The changes with say “no” polite and honest

It’s about taking care of your own needs. If you don’t care about something, for example, this new series, then you won’t waste your time with it. Also money and/or energy. These are three very important values. You won’t waste two hours watching the new episode, won’t search for other information about the actors and won’t spend money on merchandise.

When deciding to that, you will use that time, money and energy for other things you do care about. Inside you is a house full of these three things. You spend it on things you like and thinks you definitely don’t like. The life is average. Not that happy, but also not sad. To get to a happier level, the bad things have to get away and make room for the joyful things.

The “not sorry” method

One way to do this is to use the “Not sorry” method. First: decide what you don’t care about and then in the second step just don’t care about them. Sounds simple, but sometimes it’s not that easy. First, we have to take a look at the bad feeling part of the others. As we learned in the “how to win friends and influence people” book: We need to be able to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes. We just can’t take care of anything right away, we have to do it with method.

If we cancel a party right before it starts and apologizes, it’s not very nice. Then we have to go if we’ve already accepted. We have to don’t care with honesty and politeness. Result: you do not have to feel guilty.

Quick example: you want to watch the newest episode on Monday because if you do not the spoilers online will hit you. Now friends have invited you this Monday evening. But you only have time and energy for one of these two things. You have to decide which of the activities will give you more joy. Now you could apologize in detail or cancel with the words “no sorry have something else planned”. No one will be angry about that. You were honest, polite and don’t have to apologize for it.

You can apply this to everything which fills up your house. Decide which brings joy and bring you a step closer to your goal. Make a list of the tasks you could do, decide what annoys you and then delete it. Nonessential stuff you don’t care about. Stop investing your time, money and energy in those things. Sure, things like go to work and clean up your place is necessary, but a meeting with a guy you don’t even like is not.

If you’re having trouble shortening the list, imagine how things are gonna work out. Many, including me, don’t think through most events and just say yes. With the result of wasting your time. And wasting your energy in beforehand for planning. Money on the event itself then. It would be more efficient to pause for a moment before every promise, to imagine it and if it is nothing for one with a “no thanks, I can’t do it” cancel.

This is a method where you don’t spend time you don’t have, with people you don’t like, doing things you don’t want to do. – Sarah Knight

This post is based on “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” and Stop Wasting Energy.

Five best sellers in a short summary – My five favourite books (DE / EN)

Read the German Version

In diesem Blogbeitrag habe ich für dich meine fünf Lieblingsbücher zum Thema Money management und Mindset kurz und knapp zusammengefasst.

1. Rich dad Poor dad

Die Reichen sind reich an Informationen, Motivation und Willenskraft.
Sie packen die Dinge an und ihnen ist es egal was andere um sie herum sagen. Im Buch spricht er von seinem reichen Vater, ein Unternehmer und seinem armen Vater, ein Lehrer. Von seinem armen Vater lernt er gut in der Schule zu sein, um einen festen Job zu bekommen. Für Geld zu arbeiten. Sein reicher Vater lehrt ihn hingegen, das Geld für ihn arbeiten zu lassen und seine Zeit nicht an Wert zu knüpfen. Den Unterschied von Wertanlagen und Verbindlichkeiten gilt es zu kennen und für sich zu nutzen. Er lernte früh zu investieren und weiter zu machen, auch wenn alle anderen den Kopf schüttelten. Vermögenswerte sind Dinge, die zwar etwas kosten, am Ende aber mehr Geld zurück lassen, als sie gekostet haben. Verbindlichkeiten ziehen dir nur Geld aus der Tasche. Sein berühmtestes Beispiel ist das Eigenheim. Für ihn ist das eine Verbindlichkeit, weil Schulden und Steuern ein Leben lang bezahlt werden müssen und es in Summe am Ende vom Monat nur kostet, statt Geld einbringt. Eine vermietete Wohnung hingegen, bringt Mieteinnahmen, ohne dass dafür gearbeitet werden muss.

2. The art of war – Sun Tzu

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the result of a hundred battles – Sun Tzu

In diesem Buch geht es grundlegend um Kriegsführung und deren Taktiken. Die Konzepte sind ohne Probleme auf das moderne Leben, beispielsweise die Unternehmensführung übertragbar. It’s a great book. Planung und Wissen ist alles um die halbe Schlacht zu gewinnen.
If you know the enemey…: Kenne deine Konkurrenz und deren Schwächen die deine Stärken sein können. Hat dein Produkt etwas, das die Konkurrenz nicht liefern kann, wird es dafür sicherlich Nachfrage geben.
…and know yourself…: Kenne deine Stärken und nutze diese im vollen Umfang. Kenne deinen Platz im spezifischen Markt und wie dieser funktioniert.
Eine wie ich finde wichtige Lektion ist das Frieden stiften und dann von innen heraus zerstören. Wir kennen das heute von Start-Ups die aufgekauft werden, deren Patente in den Mutterkonzern über gehen, und dann fallen gelassen werden. Eine andere Vorgehensweise ist es, die Konkurrenz niedrig zu halten, indem alle potentiellen neuen großen gekauft und damit geblockt werden.
Sehe schwach aus wenn du stark bist: überrasche den Markt mit einem doch schon ausgereiften Produkt und überhole die Konkurrenz. Sehe stark aus, wenn du schwach bist: Zeige einen Prototypen, der alles kann was in  der Präsentation verlangt ist, und nicht mehr. Als Steve Jobs das erste iPhone vorstellte, konnte es Mails schreiben und durch das Internet surfen. Es sah aus wie wenn es fehlerfrei funktioniert, auch wenn es noch viele Bugs gab. Was niemand wusste: Die Aufgaben funktionierten nur in dieser Reihenfolge…

3. Die 4h Woche – Tim Ferris

Viele die hier auf Medium unterwegs sind, werden das Buch sicherlich kennen. Nichts desto trotz ist es eines meiner absoluten Lieblingsbücher im Bereich Selbstentwicklung.

Den größten Impact hatte das relative Einkommen auf mich. In einem Beispiel verdient Alex 50k pro Jahr, sein Freund Becky 150k im Jahr – es könnte gesagt werden drei mal so viel. Ferris sprich hier das relative Einkommen an. In diesem Beispiel muss Becky für ihren Job an einem Ort wohnen, an dem die Mieten teuer sind, und 50h pro Woche für jemand anderes arbeiten. Alex hingegen ist selbstständig, und arbeitet wo er möchte, 5h pro Woche. Der Rest ist reine Mathematik bei 52 Wochen pro Jahr:
A: 50k € / 260 hours = 192.30€ per h ~ 200€ per h
B: 150k €/ 2.6k hours  = 57.69€ per h ~ 50€ per h

Alex nutzt seine Zeit also wesentlich effizienter als Becky und ist zudem nicht einmal an einen Ort gebunden. Wer ist nun reicher! Absolut gesehen ist es John, aber relativ gesehen, definitiv Alex.

 

4. Die Psychologie des Überzeugens – Robert B Cialdini

Kleine Geschenke halten die Freundschaft am Leben.
Werden uns Geschenke gemacht, sind wir eher dazu geneigt etwas zurück zu geben. Bekommen wir ein Geschenk zum Geburtstag, dann werden wir dieser Person auch etwas schenken. Auf diese Weise kann etwas kleines gegeben werden, und über die Zeit etwas größeres zurückverlangt werden.
Wir Widersprechen gerne anderen, aber ungern uns selbst. Haben wir im Vorfeld eine gewisse Meinung über etwas, gestehen wir uns sehr schwer ein, dass diese doch nicht ganz so richtig sein könnte. Letzte Woche war ich mit meinem Freund in meinem Lieblingsrestaurant. Ich habe ihm den ganzen Weg über erzählt wie toll dort die Pizza ist. Doch an diesem Abend, war die Pizza ausnahmsweise nicht wirklich gut. Ich wollte es mir aber nicht eingestehen, ihn in ein schlechtes Restaurant gebracht zu haben und betonte, wie schön doch die Einrichtung ist, und wie nett der Kellner ist.
Im Verkauf ist eine gängige Taktik, den Kunden im Vorfeld zu einer Meinung zu verleitet, die er dann zum Kauf hin nur schwer wieder ablegen wird.
Wenn alle andere von der Klippe springen, mach ich das auch.
20.000 Menschen haben für dieses Produkt fünf Sterne auf bewertet und es kostet nur die Hälfte. Das muss gut sein, auch wenn es auf dieser seltsamen chinesischen Seite angeboten wird. Dass die Bewertungen Fake sind, und wahrscheinlich nicht mal ein Zahnstocher ankommt, wird direkt ausgeblendet.
“Wer ist der größere Narr, der Narr oder der der ihm folgt”
In der Schule und im Job gehorchen wir blind dem Lehrer oder dem Chef. Er wird es schon wissen und er trägt schließlich die Verantwortung. Wir Menschen neigen dazu, einer Authorität (A) blind zu folgen und unsere Taten nicht zu hinterfragen. In einem Experiment wurden Versuchspersonen (B) vom Versuchsleiter dazu angehalten, eine Testperson (C) mit Elektroschocks zu bestrafen, wenn diese die geforderte Aufgabe nicht bewältigte. Dem B war durchaus bewusst, dass die Stromstärken bei jedem Mal erhöhr wurden, und dass es sich um lebensgefährliche Stromstärken handelte. Doch A  beharrte fest darauf, C weiterhin mit Strom zu bestrafen. Die Hand die den Schalter betätigte, war stetz die von B. Sie schockte den armen C bis hin zur maximalen Stärke, auch wenn C flehte und bettelte das Experiment zu beenden. Eins wusste B jedoch nicht, C war ein Schauspieler und er selbst war die Testperson. Es wurde getestet wie weit Personen gehen, nur wenn eine Authorität es sagt. Ganze 65% gingen bis zur maximalen Volzanzahl von 450 Volt.
“Equality is the soul of friendship” – Aristoteles
Wir kaufen lieber von sympatischen Menschen. Menschen mit den selben Interessen, sind uns direkt sympatischer. Tupper Partys werden ausscließlich von Freunden organisiert. Diese Partys sind auch ein Grund dafür, dass Tupper den Verkauf im Geschäft vollkommen aufgegeben hat.
“You can’t eat gold, but anyone wants it”
Wenn etwas wenig vorhanden ist, dann bewerten wir die Qualität davon höher, und würden auch einen höheren Preis dafür bezahlen. Gold ist selten und muss aufwändig aus dem Boden gegraben werden. Außerhalb Elektroindustrie hat es aber nicht wirklich einen wirklichen Nutzen. Eine Pizza macht uns satt, ein Pullover hält uns warm. Wir alle wissen, dass Gold selten ist und messen ihm daher einen hohen Wert zu. Im Verkauf werden Angebote mit “Limited Edition” ausgeschildert, um einen Mangel zu erreichen. You can buy one Lego Star wars set for 4.4k on ebay, because it’s a rare set.

5. Die Gesetze der Gewinner – Bodo Schäfer

Wenn man jemandem etwas verkaufen will: er muss dir erst einmal vertrauen. Dann sobald das erledigt ist, kann vom kaufen gesprochen werden. “Wir hassen es wenn uns etwas verkauft wird, aber wir selbst, kaufen gerne”
Wir agieren hier umgedreht: Wie schaffst du es, dass er etwas von dir kaufen möchte, statt es ihm anzudrehen! Erst helfen, was kann ich für ihn tun, dann kommen die Käufer ganz von alleine.

Scheitern: liegen blieben ist schlecht, hin fallen ist gut. Wir alle scheitern. Wenn ich Erfolg habe werde ich reicher, wenn ich Misserfolg habe werde ich Stärker.
Das Ding ist es, mit Scheitern umzugehen. Weine ich 3 Tage, 3h oder nur 3min und arbeite danach weiter. Problemlöser: löse dich vom Problem, lass es dich nicht kaputt machen. Es gehört dazu dass man sich mies fühlt, aber komm drüber hinweg, es gehört zum Leben hinzu. Ändere lieber den Fokus: Was kann ich ändern, was kann ich daraus lernen.

Was er seinem jüngeren ich auf den Weg geben würde: immer erst verkaufen lernen, dann führen lernen. Ich kann meine Ziele nur mit anderen erreichen, ich muss sie begeistern und motivieren können. Und dann etwas, wofür das Herz schlägt. Was kann ich gut und was macht mir Spaß! Damit kann großes geleistet werden.

In this blog post, I have summarized my five favorite books about money management and mindset for you.

1. Rich dad Poor dad

The rich are rich in information, motivation, and willpower.
They tackle things and they don’t care what others around them say. In the book, he talks about his rich father, an entrepreneur and his poor father, a teacher. From his poor father, he learns to be good at school in order to get a steady job. To work for money. His rich father, on the other hand, teaches him to let the money work for him and not to tie his time to value. The difference between value investments and liabilities must be known and used for oneself. He learned to invest early and to continue, even if everyone else shook their heads. Assets are things that cost something, but in the end, leave more money behind than they cost. Liabilities only take money out of your pocket. His most famous example is home ownership. For him, this is a liability because debts and taxes have to be paid for a lifetime and it only costs money at the end of the month instead of bringing in money. A rented apartment, on the other hand, generates rental income without having to work for it.

2. The art of war – Sun Tzu

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the result of a hundred battles – Sun Tzu

This book deals fundamentally with warfare and its tactics. The concepts are easily transferable to modern life, such as corporate management. It’s a great book. Planning and knowledge is everything to win half the battle.
If you know the enemy…: Know your competitors and their weaknesses which can be your strengths. If your product has something that the competition can’t supply, there will certainly be demand for it.
…and know yourself…: Know your strengths and make full use of them. Know your place in the specific market and how it works.
One lesson I find important is to make peace and then destroy it from the inside out. We know that today start-ups who are bought up, whose patents go into the parent company via and are then dropped are doing that. Another approach is to keep the competition low by buying and blocking all potential new big ones.
Look weak when you’re strong: surprise the market with an already mature product and overtake the competition. Look strong when you’re weak: Show a prototype that can do everything the presentation requires, not more. When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone, it could write emails and surf the Internet. It looked like it was working flawlessly, even though there were still a lot of bugs. What nobody knew: The tasks only worked in this order…

3. The 4h Workweek – Tim Ferris

Many who are here on medium on the way, will surely know the book. Nevertheless, it is one of my absolute favorite books in the area of self-development.

The biggest impact was the relative income on me. In one example Alex earns 50k a year, his friend Becky 150k a year – it could be said three times as much. Ferris refers here to the relative income. In this example, Becky has to live for her job in a place where rents are expensive and work 50 hours a week for someone else. Alex, on the other hand, is self-employed and works wherever he wants, 5 hours a week. The rest is pure mathematics at 52 weeks per year:
A: 50k € / 260 hours = 192.30€ per h ~ 200€ per h
B: 150k €/ 2.6k hours = 57.69€ per h ~ 50€ per h

So Alex uses his time much more efficiently than Becky and is not even tied to one place. Who’s richer now! In absolute terms it’s John, but in relative terms, it’s definitely Alex.

4. The psychology of Persuasion – Robert B Cialdini

Small gifts keep the friendship alive.
If gifts are given to us, we are more inclined to give something back. If we get a birthday present, we will give something to that person as well. In this way, something small can be given, and something greater can be demanded back over time.
We like to contradict others but dislike ourselves. If we have a certain opinion about something in advance, we hardly admit to ourselves that it could not be quite right after all. Last week I was with my friend in my favorite restaurant. I told him all the way about how great the pizza is there. But that evening, for once, the pizza wasn’t really good. But I didn’t want to admit to having taken him to a bad restaurant and emphasized how nice the furniture is and how nice the waiter is.
In sales, a common tactic is to tempt the customer in advance to an opinion, which he will then find difficult to discard when buying.
When everyone else jumps off the cliff, I do the same.
20,000 people have rated this product five stars and it costs only half as much. That must be good, even if it is offered on this strange Chinese site. The fact that the ratings are fake, and probably not even a toothpick arrives, is hidden directly.
“Who is the bigger fool, the fool or the one who follows him?
In school and at work we blindly obey the teacher or the boss. He will already know and he will eventually be in charge. We, humans, tend to blindly follow an authority (A) and not to question our actions. In an experiment, test subjects (B) were urged by the test leader to punish a test subject (C) with electric shocks if he did not accomplish the required task. The B was well aware that the currents were increasing every time and that they were life-threatening currents. But A insisted that C should continue to be punished with electricity. The hand that operated the switch was always that of B. It shocked poor C to maximum strength, even if C pleaded and begged to end the experiment. But one thing B didn’t know, C was an actor and he himself was the subject. It was tested how far people go only when an authority says so. A total of 65% went up to the maximum voltages of 450 volts.
“Equality is the soul of friendship” – Aristotle
We prefer to buy from sympathetic people. People with the same interests are directly more sympathetic to us. Tupper parties are organized exclusively by friends. These parties are also a reason why Tupper has completely given up selling in the shop.
“You can’t eat gold, but anyone wants it”
If it is little available, then we would value the quality of it higher, and would also pay a higher price for it. Gold is rare and has to be dug out of the ground at great expense. Outside the electrical industry, however, it does not really have any real benefit. A pizza fills us up, a sweater keeps us warm. We all know that gold is rare, so we attach a high value to it. In sales, offers are signposted with “Limited Edition” in order to achieve a shortage. You can buy one Lego Star wars set for 4.4k on eBay because it’s a rare set.

5. The laws of winners – Bodo Schäfer

If you want to sell something to someone, they have to trust you first. Then as soon as that is done, we can talk about buying. “We hate it when something is sold to us, but we ourselves like to buy.”
We act the other way around: How do you manage that he wants to buy something from you instead of turning it on! First, help. What can I do for him, then the buyers come all by themselves.

Failure: staying lying down is bad, falling down is good. We all fail. If I succeed I get richer, if I fail I become stronger.
The thing is to deal with failure. I cry 3 days, 3h or only 3min and continue working afterward. Problem solver: solve the problem, don’t let it break you. It is part of feeling bad but gets over it, it is part of life. Better change the focus: What can I change, what can I learn from it?

What he would give to his younger self: always learn to sell first, then learn to lead. I can only achieve my goals with others, I must be able to inspire and motivate them. And then something for which the heart beats. What can I do well and what do I enjoy! With it, great things can be achieved.

Search engine optimization #1 | Basics in five steps

Here we cover the question of “How you can find your perfect keyword” for your for example website. that google ranks it as high as possible.

What is SEO

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines. In one sentence: Let people find your side on google or yahoo searching for things they need.

Step #1: Keywords – how to feed the search engines the right way

Search Engines look up for Keywords. First, we want to know which Keywords are relevant to us. Here comes the tool “Keywords Everywhere” in place. It shows you additional information about how valuable your keyword is and how much competition there is. Lower than 0,3 is good, higher is not beatable. Up to 0,6, it is very hard but from 0,6 and more it is damn hard.
Furthermore, it shows you related Keywords and what people also search for. Great information I guess 🙂

First, we have to clarify some words

Bounce rate: You go to a side and leave without buying anything. You “bounced off the page”. Bad for the site owner.
Conversation rate: Go to a side, find something valuable and buy stuff. You got converted. Good for the site owner.

Broad Keywords: 1-2 words & high search volume. Example: chocolate cake.
Longtail Keywords: 2-8 words & more specific, so less search volume but a higher conversion, because of a higher chance of finding what I’m searching for. Example: chocolate cake for 5-year-old pirates.

Step #2: Where you can find keywords for your page or niche.

In school, they taught us Wikipedia is a bad source for information – I disagreed. Also, in this case, its a great source for finding good keywords to fill up our Keyword list. Just search for your topic and let’s see what highlighted words we will find there.
All these topics, all these words are connected to your topic you have searched for. One tip is to write down all these words down, we will use them later on. We will filter them by their value and place them on our webpage. Not just like a big text rubbish, we simply prefer these words over others with the same meaning but a higher value in search engines. We also convert the short ones into longtail keywords to increase the conversion rate even more.
Another good source is Ubersuggest for getting new keyword ideas. You can also find a good information about Cost per Click in your area for google advertising. You also get a list of other keywords you can use for making your own list bigger. Just download the ones which are interesting for your specific topic. Not blindly any of them.

Step #3: What you now can do with your keyword list.

We now filter them for the high-value ones.
Two words. Keyword Planner. It’s from Google and we can import in our list we have created and analyze them, and get also more ideas. You here can find new keywords or get search volume and forecasts. You now can filter for average monthly searches, competition, and cost per click. you now will end up with 5-10 good keywords, because we will compare five phrases at the same time in “Google trend” to find out the best ones. For example, you find five which have low competition but a good search volume.

So let’s get into google trends. Here we can see as a chart the interest for our searched topic. For example Bitcoin. You can see, that the coinmarketcap course and the interest on google for bitcoin look pretty much the same. A high peak at the end of 2017 and then a free fall till today.
One great thing about google trends is, that we can filter for categories, for example, finance. Next, we can also filter for the Web search. News Search or YouTube search for example. Great! We can find the funnels we want to promote our side and look at how the changes are back in time. Very valuable information.

We now can compare different phrases to find out the best ones on the basis of interest in the search channels. You also have a breakdown by region. If you run a german blog, only german speaking people are your target group, so you may prefer the keywords which are searched in Germany.

Finally, you now have 5 Keywords ranked by your special needs.

Step #4: Can we reach #1 on Google

Here a tool named MozBar will help us. It’s also a Chrome extension and when you now search for something you see under the websites additional information. Mainly “Page authority” (PA) and “Domain Authority” (DA). A DA of over 80 ist hard to come over, but for example, 50 is achievable. If there are pages with let’s say PA of 40 and DA of 50, we can get a high position on google, maybe #1.
So all you have to do is to write down your keywords and take a look at the PA and DA of the result.

Step #5: The best possible choice for our web page!

We now are ready for the keyword validation. Now it’s getting serious. Get back to Google Keyword Planner and click on “Get search volume and forecast”.
Now let’s say you want to place advertising on google. You now can look for each keyword how much it would cost per click, how many customers will see it, for an exact period of time. It will give you a good idea to select the best keywords for your case. You maybe choose one with high volume, because many will see it and low competition.
Now you search for this keyword you have chosen and look via MozBar if you can reach #1 because the competition sites have a PA lower than 45. After checking in google trends you now have ONE best keyword for your case. Not two, not three, only one.

Head is capital – Kopf schlägt Kapital | Booksummary

Concept and creative idea

Even a small idea that is simple but well thought out can do. IKEA serves as an example here. It was the first furniture store to offer its products for self-assembly. At that time nobody could have imagined having the customers set up the shelves themselves, it was far too complicated. It was then. The founder had to rethink the complete assembly concept and build a shelf that a customer can put together himself without the slightest experience. The idea was born, the rest is history.

Function instead of convention
Most people associate an idea with an idea, but that’s not what this is about. Apparently, the development of an idea can be approached systematically and brought to a successful conclusion. Alternatively, it is noticed early on that and what needs to be worked on, which saves time and effort. This is the first idea. He may be something fleeting, theoretical and perhaps idealistic. Great, write them down and think them through. Write down all the steps necessary for a first prototype and just start. You will be amazed how quickly you have something ready to test that allows you to get feedback from other people.
The Internet is the perfect medium for this, as friends and family are not always honest with you. So please write me on how you like this post and how I can improve them! Thanks 🙂

The bait must taste good to the fish, not the fishermen

Very important: the buyer decides on the economic success. The market determines the success or failure of any idea. Therefore, it is important to get feedback as early as possible and to adapt your strategy or idea if necessary.

Imagine we are back in the Stone Age, and see fish swimming in the water. We think good and want to catch one. Now we know that we love to eat berries ourselves, so why not the fish if they are so delicious. It should come as no surprise that the yield will not be too high, as would have been the case with maggots, for example. They just used the wrong bait. And exactly this is the art to find at the beginning. Just because you are super convinced of an idea yourself, the others do not have to like the idea automatically. However, it can be changed in such a way that interest arises!

3 final tips

Scalability
It must be possible to duplicate the idea without much additional time. This is why many people work with their own product, such as a DVD collection or software that is copied and released. The software only needs to be written once, and can be used by 1 million people and more without any additional effort. When I run a restaurant, the amount of customers I can serve is directly linked to my time or that of my employees. A scalable system here would be the well-known delivery hero or delivery command. The founders are not in the kitchen themselves, but earn money with every order.

Simplicity
“If you can’t just explain something, you haven’t understood it enough.” – This quote was written by Einstein and describes it quite well. For the masses to use it, it has to be simple, because they all have different backgrounds and levels of knowledge. There’s a rule that says if you can explain it to a 10-year-old, then you really understand. If an app is not easy to understand and use, the masses will uninstall it immediately and the customer will be lost.

Pareto – 80/20
Everything doesn’t have to be perfect. Didn’t you feel like you wanted to finish something, but needed the same time again towards the end, even though little has changed in the end result? In 20% of the time we achieve 80% of the result, said Vilfredo Pareto. And in a way that’s true. Too often we waste time with something that is ok and in this state is actually already finished. It is simply more effective to be satisfied with three 80% results than with a 98% result we are still sitting on. Done is better than perfect!

How to: Syncronise data on all your devices

We all know that. If we have more than one end device, in my case a laptop and a computer, files are missing on one side that has been used on the other. That can be time-consuming as hell. This problem can be solved with “Syncthing” a peer to peer network and a small Windows task. It is open source and decentralized. Your data is yours. Syncthing takes over the data synchronization and the Windows task set up to start the service in the background. Thus all devices are always up to date.
This is no sponsored post, I just love this program and use it frequently at home.

Setting up Syncthing

First download Syncthing, unzip and run it.
The IP Adress http://127.0.0.1:8384/ will open in your Browser. At the top right corner is a gear with “Action” next to it. Click “Show ID”. You will find a QR Code and a number. This is the number you need for connecting to each other. Any PC which runs Syncthing will get its own number.

This number is needed for the next step. Do this step on all devices you want to connect. That’s the Device ID.

Sync a folder on two devices (or more)

Remote devices

The first thing you wanna do is to connect the two devices. For that you click on “add Remote Device” in the right lower corner. You now can play with the “General” and “Sharing” Settings.

General: The “Device ID” is the number of your computer you want to connect with. “Device Name” is a local name you set for your own tidiness if there are many devices.

Sharing: Personally I check the checkbox “Introducer” and check all devices I want to connect with. You maybe won’t see anything under “Share Folders With Device”, because we didn’t create a folder yet. Now we click “Safe” and create a Folder we want to share.

Folders

We now can create our first folder. Anything in this will be synced. For this we click “Add folder”. Folder Label is just for your device local. The important thing is the “Folder path”. Here you set the parent folder which will be synchronized. Tip: This folder path can be different on any device and is set on each device separately. After choosing a path, set the checkbox on all devices you want to connect, click save and you are ready to go!

Task Scheduler for no manual start anymore (Windows)

Start Task Scheduler. You can just search and start it. What’s the goal: We want a task which will be started when the PC is running, without starting it manually.

First things first. Click on “Action” menu the “Create Task…”. Now we see different Tabs. On the General Tab, we just Name the task (for example ‘Syncthing’) and press the Button “Run whether user is logged on or not”.

Next, we are setting up a Trigger, which will – of course – trigger the task. Here we click “New…”, then set the “Begin the task” to “At Startup”,  make sure Enabled is checked and press “Ok”.

On the Actions Tab, we click “New…”, the Action is set as “Start a program” and finally we need to enter the path to syncthing.exe which we can easily find through “Browse”.

We skip the conditions and get right into the settings. In this Tab, I set anything you see in the picture below. Then type in your password, that the Task will get the right permissions.

Tip: Restart your PC and check if you can get access to your Syncthing IP Adress without starting Syncthing (in my case it’s http://127.0.0.1:8384/). That’s the proof your task is running 🙂

Finally, you have set up your connection yourself. All you need is Syncthing and a little Windows Task to set anything running.

The power of motivating yourself – Now and forever

After reading this, you may will be motivated as I am after finishing it. I’ve collected some of my favorite motivational tips I use in my life to get things done. Be it for school in the past, inside the job or for a side project. Without motivation to actually do it, it will be just a dream.

Create a big vision – a brief look back

Back in 2010, I was 15 and on the way to get my A-Level in three years. I was playing many games and wasting my time on it. I knew it was a kind of waste, but there was no other option to get so much fun. These games gave me a goal to reach in my spare time beside my sports. In one game, a farming browser game, I had to place crops, wait till they grew, harvested them and repeated this process. Soon I started to have more than one account, to play while the other account had to wait. I didn’t know something about programming, but my dad did. I asked him to write a program for me, which can do the login and farming thing for me, that I can do the other things in the game, which are way more fun. He replied he will help me doing it, but I had to do it by myself. He will help me with any questions I got and show me the basics of programming, but I had to do it on my own. My vision was created. I want to learn to programme to be the best player on the server. It was cheating ingame, but who cares.
I started to invest my time in programming and growing my farm accounts. Awesome! I was just a kid without any programming knowledge but thought I can do it, and finally did.

Think about who you like to be, your goals and write down or figure the steps out which are needed. Then simply start with it.

Basketball – think outside the box

As a kid, I played basketball as a hobby in my school. Sometimes, my trainer told me to dribble with my left hand, so the enemy can’t forecast how I will attack. I could only reply “no I can’t dribble with the other hand”. My Trainer: “of course you can, you just don’t try. To fear it won’t work as well as with the other hand is what you are doing.”
We all know this fear when it comes to trying something new, to developing a new habit in order to become more efficient. A new habit may seem a little strange at first, but if we don’t try it in the first place, we will never be able to use even the slightest success. And this way of thinking motivates me to try new things as often as I can. Only challenges will test us and make us better. 

Planning

If we got the plan who we want to be, we have to plan the steps for how we get there. Are there others who did it in a similar way? Is there a book which can get us a hint how to do it? When you plan your path, the purpose and intention should be written down and fixed. Planning an hour saves three hours of useless testing because you follow a strict path. In the beginning, it’s not about making everything perfect. It’s about finding a way for yourself that’s efficient and good for you. Well planned ways will motivate you more and more the further you go. Just try it!

Distraction

While I’m writing or creating something, I always search for a quiet place. Hearing music that sets my mind on a powerful level and covers me from distractions like other people talking or my mobile phone. With this music, your chemicals in your body will change and you feel good and happy. A very nice way to spend a few hours. Motivation and Energy will flow through your body. If you found a funny side of your work, your motivation is boundless… We sing because we are happy, so search for your favorite song and sing it!
As a kid, I was allowed to watch TV from 6:00 pm. The day ended for me from that time, because for years I did nothing else than watch TV in the evening. And my friends were fine. Appointment went a maximum of 5:30 pm because we all had to watch our favorite shows and movies.
Kill the television if you know you are watching too much. I assume you won’t because you are reading this, but if you haven’t, try it. You will have so much time in the afternoon, just for not turning on the TV.

Start with little steps

As I started with my whiteboard animations, my first video was just 10 seconds drawing something. But I finished it. Start in baby steps to actually start it. If can’t convince you to start walking, just convince yourself to take on your sports shoes … and the rest will follow. That’s the reason why so many games reward daily logging in. They know the player will stay once they get there. To start this little step is easy. You are more likely to start, and therefore it gets finished.

Run away from your friends

Leaving all your friends behind may be a little extreme. What I mean by that is find new friends to support your goals and build you up once you’re in a deep. When you’re friends are pessimists, your opportunities fly away and disappear. So look for friends who have the same or similar goal. Example: Steve Jobs would not have come this far without his partner Steve Wozniak who had the same goal.

Be happy first

Many of us think they will be happy when they reach a specific goal in the future. We think happiness is out there and will come to us. The problem here is that it may never happen. Find ways to fill your life with things that bring you joy. Fill your entire life with joy, not only with the goal of having it, in the end. You can bring yourself happiness. You alone 🙂