Another year comes to a close and it’s about that time to start thinking about the rewards you’d like to give others, or even yourself for your hard work.
Continuing with tradition, I’d like to share a list of the best products and services I’ve purchased in 2019.
These will cover the categories of business, personal, and books that have significantly made an impact on my year.
Business Purchases
Surfer
Surfer started making big waves (see what I did there?) in 2019 for its emergence into the market as a powerful onsite optimization tool.
It allows you to make data-driven optimizations to your website that are based on what the top-rankers in the niche are already doing.
It looks at word count, keyword density, backlinks, subheadings, and nearly everything else to give you a playbook on what you need to change in order to compete on page 1.
It also has a content editor that allows your writers to be guided by data when writing their content.
It’s a game-changer.
WPX Hosting
For the longest time, I was stuck on a terrible “premium” host, simply because of the inconvenience of migrating 20 sites.
I’d never out a business, but you know what? They’ve ripped me off multiple times so here it goes: WPEngine, you suck.
After 100’s of recommendations and knowing that Terry Kyle was running WPX Hosting, I took the plunge and switched over.
… and never regretted it.
WPX has solid pricing, a built-in CDN that kicks ass, and next-level support.
WPX’s support is so good, I almost feel bad for how much they’re helping me.
I even ranked them #1 on my top hosts for SEOs post.
Use coupon code “DIGGITY90” for 90% off your first month.
Accuranker
We switched over to Accuranker earlier this year.
It’s got a nice interface, and has all of the typical features you find in a solid rank tracker.
But what I really like most about it is their “Share of Voice” feature.
“Share of Voice is an indicator of how your most important keywords are performing. All keywords that rank between positions 1 to 20 are used for the calculation. The average CTR for the position is multiplied by the search volume of each keyword, allowing you to see if a high traffic keyword is losing rank.”
Rankings go up and down every day. But most of the time, it doesn’t matter.
Share of Voice gives you a quick way to assess whether or not you should actually care about these fluctuations.
Personal Purchases
Oura Ring
Hands-down, the best thing I’ve done for my life in 2019 is optimize my sleep.
Sleep affects everything: your energy levels, mood, hormone production, immune system, etc.
If sleep were irrelevant, why didn’t we evolve out of it millions of years ago?
Peter Drucker said “What gets measured gets managed.”
Optimizing your sleep starts with really understanding your sleep metrics.
How much deep sleep do you get? How many times do you truly wake up? And so forth.
Once you understand the data, the Oura ring gives you suggestions on how to optimize your weak spots.
Waking Up – Meditation App by Sam Harris
If you know me at all, you’d know that I’m huge on meditation.
I couldn’t imagine my life without it.
Meditation allows you to have control over your reactions… to actually choose which thoughts you give your attention to.
This app gives you a 50 day course in meditation, building up your skills one day at a time.
Unlike other apps, Sam’s “Waking Up” is very practical and straightforward.
It skips a lot of the fluff found in typical meditation apps and gets straight to the foundations, which allows you to see quick benefits.
I still use this app nearly every day.
Muse Meditation Headband
Keeping on the theme of meditation, the Muse headband is a wearable device that guides your meditation.
While using Muse, you hear the sound of the ocean.
The headband senses your brain waves and notices when you mind isn’t calm. It then feeds that back to the audio, making the waves crash harder.
When you hear the change, you know you’ve lost focus and you know it’s now time to refocus on the breath.
I’ve always shied away from long meditation sessions of 20min or longer, but because of this gamified system, I’m easily hitting 45min+ meditations with no issue at all.
Google Home Hub
I always brushed aside voice search.
But last time I went back home to Cali, I decided to pick one of these things up and give it a try.
Oh man, it’s addicting.
Once you experience the convenience of simply speaking commands to your search and home devices, it’s easy to get used to.
Get one of these things if you want to really understand where we’re going with voice.
Just don’t set it up in your office. :p
Niacin
This is where I come in and say that I’m not a medical professional and to always consult with your doctor and all that stuff.
Niacin is vitamin B3 – and its amazing for detox.
You pop the recommended dose of Niacin, then spend half an hour doing some light cardio.
This brings your blood and toxins to the skin surface.
Then you jump in the sauna for some major detox action.
Fair warning, you’re going to sweat a lot. But that’s a good thing.
Read up on the process here.
Standing/Sitting Desk
I spend a lot of time in my office. And they say “sitting is the new smoking”.
Sitting down for extended periods of time is extremely harsh on your back, posture, circulation, and general health.
I got this automatic standing/sitting desk to help me switch-things-up during the day.
The benefits have been outstanding (see what I did there, again?!).
Varier Kneeling Chair
When people come into my office, they almost always say “what in the hell is that thing?”
This chair forces you to have good posture.
If you don’t sit straight on a kneeling chair, you’re simply going to fall off.
It also takes pressure off your spine and spinal discs by distributing weight into your shins.
It’s surprisingly comfortable as well.
When I’m not standing at my desk, I’m using this weird ass thing.
Books
End of Jobs – Taylor Pearson
Oh man, I wish I had read this book 10 years ago.
I got this book on recommendation from at least a dozen friends.
It goes through the evolution of the primary skills that have been needed in the workforce throughout the ages.
Spoiler alert…
Right now, the skill you want to have is “Entrepreneurship”
If you haven’t quite decided to jump ship and become an entrepreneur, this book will help you make that decision with statistics and qualitative argument.
If you’ve already taken the leap, it will give you a valuable justification for what you’re doing and will help strengthen your resolve in the inevitable bumpy times.
Who: The A-method for Hiring – Geoff Smart
Ever feel like hiring is a trial-and-error process?
That’s because you’re not shooting for A-players.
A-players don’t drop the ball. They don’t quit when things get challenging.
A-players are the ones that will change your business for the better and help take things to another level.
This book helps you identify the right candidates for each position, filter out the bad ones, and conduct interviews through a well-designed process created by experts.
Since I read this book, I refuse to hire outside this system.
Thanks for reading this article. For more inspiration, check back on the previous years.
Have a great holiday season, and I’ll be back with you in 2020 with a huge post that could potentially change the way you look at affiliate SEO.
