Evernote is a simple, easy-to-use task manager that provides its 75+ million users with a complete office all wrapped up in one tiny little green package. The majority of these users integrate Evernote into their corporate or professional business lives.
Daniel Gold is an exciting, knowledgeable author that has several successful published works under his name. He is the author of “Make it Happen: How to Write, Publish and Sell Your eBook” and “Evernote: The unofficial guide to capturing everything and getting things done.”
Make it Happen: How to Write, Publish and Sell Your eBook
In “Make it Happen: How to Write, Publish and Sell Your eBook,” Daniel Gold lays out a step-by-step process for people that are looking to successfully publish their eBook. For authors that are already published in hardcover or paperback, they will discover the simple process of how to turn their book into an eBook. Daniel Gold’s method is a proven success among readers that have taken his advice and made it work for them.
Evernote: The Unofficial Guide To Capturing Everything And Getting Things Done
Selling over 14,000 copies in its first year, “Evernote: The Unofficial Guide To Capturing Everything and Getting Things Done,” is now in its second edition and has an additional 30 pages of updated content. The purpose behind this eBook is to help Evernote users learn new uses and show users how to use Evernote’s vast amount of organizational features to become more productive in their everyday home and business lives.
Author of the eBook, Daniel Gold, uses cloud computing services like Evernote, Dropbox, cloudHQ, Google Drive and GDocs. We recently got the chance to chat with Daniel to get his thoughts about the success he had with his eBook, and his personal experience with cloud services, especially Evernote and cloudHQ.
- How did you come into productivity, presentation and social networking, and at what point did you decide that it was time to go out on your own and become a consultant?
Great question! In 2008, I started a blog about things that I was passionate about: productivity, technology, creativity, and how to build and deliver great presentations that have no bullet points or 1983 clipart. It was nothing more than a hobby at first, and quite frankly, I didn’t pay much attention to it. That changed around 2010, when I noticed spikes in my readership whenever I talked about a time management methodology called Getting Things Done (GTD), and note taking apps like Evernote or Springpad. Upon this realization, I decided to pay more attention to the blog and focused my writing primarily on these topics. As I got more entrenched in this industry, I noticed a huge gap in the digital organization marketplace that I decided to capitalize on. In 2011, I decided I would dedicate every free minute I had while traveling for my day job on airplanes, in hotels, in the car, and late nights at home on my book about Evernote and Getting Things Done (GTD).
The success of my first book in a very small niche market taught me that I had a trusted voice in the productivity space. It taught me that I was quickly becoming regarded as an expert in both Evernote and time management skills. This was the funnel that led me into other ventures including public speaking, webinars, podcasting, and consulting work for CEOs, small business owners, and exceptional individuals.
- Time organizational skills is your mantra. What project has been your most difficult, and what did you do to make it successful? My biggest project is and definitely always will be my family. It sounds so cliche, but I want to ensure that I’m not only a successful business writer and communicator, but am also an awesome dad and a fantastic husband. There are so many sub-projects and sub-tasks in this portion of my life, that it’s definitely classified as my biggest and certainly my most important project. Everything I do around my life is geared toward successfully completing all my tasks in this crazy and fulfilling project called “Family”!
- What inspired you to write about your latest book, Make it Happen: How to Write, Publish and Sell Your eBook?
My wife was my biggest inspiration! I dedicated it to her because like most of the great ideas in our household, this one too, was hers (husband brownie points for that one)! My wife is the one who first suggested it to me a year ago, so that I can help other people make their self-publishing dreams a reality by walking through my story and the steps I took to sell 14,000 eBooks over the past year.
- What solutions did you use to backup your ebook while it was still in the development phase? This was so important to me. As you can likely imagine, I was a bit paranoid that something might happen to my drafts since over 60% of draft deletions are due to human error! I leveraged Evernote and Google Drive for my drafts, and the glue that tied it altogether for me was cloudHQ. It’s such an easy solution for backing up Evernote, Google Drive and Dropbox in one sync while safeguarding any previous draft versions in a separate file so that nothing is ever lost. You can even set up syncs to be one-directional and bi-directional between all your cloud storage services.
- What do you think of Evernote’s social networking approach on social media sites like Twitter or Pinterest? This was a smart move by the Evernote Team. Evernote allows people to share individual notes on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or make the notes public. Interestingly, you can also use your notes to create entire websites using 3rd party partners such as Postach.io. It’s a great way to be able to leverage one’s expertise, product, and general thinking with the world. My guess is that this may ultimately become a bit more like Pinterest and Springpad soon enough.
- What is your definition of success? My definition of success extends way beyond economics, way beyond just checking things off a to-do list, and just closing a deal or getting projects done ahead of schedule. My definition of success comes down to being mindful of the little things in life; appreciating the small moments. Your child’s smile, or an impromptu ‘I love you’ from your spouse, the fresh smell of the morning air, or even the look of gratitude after helping a complete stranger. If you can get there, then I believe anyone has become successful. As the saying goes: “Succeed at life. Live your passion. Love what you do.”
The cloudHQ team thanks Daniel for his time during this interview, and especially for sharing his intricate knowledge with our readers.
Here’s where you can get your copy of Daniel Gold’s eBook, Make it Happen: How to Write, Publish and Sell Your eBook and your copy of Evernote: The unofficial guide to capturing everything and getting things done