Image source: http://www.anyfoo.com/happy-new-year-2015-hot-colors-on-black-background/
Wednesday 31 December 2014
Tuesday 30 December 2014
Five Internet Marketing Trends That Will Rock In 2015
In 2014 we all saw that business marketing emerged as a roller coaster ride. There were plenty of new things that people saw such as new platforms, new roles and channels, tools that popped all over the place, etc. Innovation is speeding up and thus we all are surrounded by opportunities now and these can really help businesses in meeting with their potential clients. 2014 is going on in a pretty exciting way and now all are looking forward for 2015.
Here are five trends for 2015 that you would like to have a glimpse of. With these marketing trends people will get huge marketing advantage.
Smart things will take over
You might have heard about the web of things, but the point here to consider is that, are you participating on the internet as a marketer or consumer. If you are for the marketing purpose on the internet, it is vital that you keep an eye on the things that are changing in terms of consumers expectations. New gadgets are going to come up in 2015 and these gadgets can play a vital role in reaching your audiences effectively.
Content marketing still in the game
This is one of the trends that have never changed despite the fact that some transformation can be seen. In 2014, many businesses tried to come up with the new content marketing strategies. Many of them succeeded as well. From this, new tools are going to emerge in 2015. This is also going to increase plenty of resources that will help businesses. New forms of the content will keep on growing the next year and they will gain huge amount of opportunities.
Beyond responsive designs
In 2013 and 2014 we saw a huge change in the mobile marketing as well as mobile analytics. This means that a new Omni channel benefits are waiting for the webmasters in 2015. In 2015 people will have to think beyond responsive web designs. Supplementary apps are going to emerge. All this raises a question that how businesses are going to face the mobile challenges? The answer is compatible cross devices you will have to learn taking advantages of the feedbacks, capturing data and personalizing it.
Influencer marketing
We all know how powerful social marketing can be if used in the right manner. Marketers will have to come up with something new such as things that can really catch the eyes of your customers. According to the experts hand written thank you gifts are going to build a strong relationship in between the companies and customers.
Visuals still dominating
Beautiful web designs are going to flourish in 2015. Every internet user feel delighted seeing beautiful web designs. Consumers expect amazing experiences when they are browsing the internet. Functional web designs are no more in trend. People desire something new and businesses will also have to focus more on their web designs if they really want to stand out of the crowd.
These are the five trends that we can see emerging in 2015. Technology is also advancing and so are the trends.
Monday 29 December 2014
Online Business Checklist: How to Know if You’re Ready to Market Your Website
Today, becoming an entrepreneur is more accessible than ever thanks to the Internet. There are plenty of online business opportunities, since just about anyone can buy a domain name, put up an e-commerce page, and begin selling their merchandise. However, because of this, the competitive landscape is fierce.
According to Business Insider, less than five percent of all online businesses actually make money. This is due to the fact that the entry point to create one is so low. Don’t be fooled: starting an online business may look easy, but if you don’t have the right tools and knowledge, the millions of other websites, as well as your competitors, can drown you out.
Before you build your website, you need to have an online business plan. The following are some key pointers, as well as an online business checklist, which can help you succeed in the rough terrain of the World Wide Web.
Do Your Research
You might have looked into different online business ideas and decided what yours is going to be. You’ve also met all of your legal requirements, which includes choosing a business structure, looking at what taxes you’ll have to file, and meeting all of your state guidelines. Basically, you know how to start an online business, but you might not know why you’re starting it.
If you don’t know why your company should exist, why customers need your product, why they would buy it from you, and why they need it now, then you might need to go back to the drawing board. Customers can’t decide the “why” for you, and they won’t stick around waiting for you to determine it either.
You have to figure out whether or not you’re adding value to the lives of your potential customers with your online business. If you’re providing what a bunch of other companies are already putting out there, you’ll find that customers may go to them instead, especially if the prices are lower. Once you have the “why” covered, you need to determine exactly who your demographic is, where they hang out online, and how you can reach them.
Choose the Right Web Platform
Chances are, you’re not a top-notch web designer as well as an entrepreneur. Most small business owners aren’t, and it’s by no means a requirement.
Before you choose a host like WordPress or Wix, consult with other online business owners, as well as web designers, as to which platform will be the easiest for you. You want to look for something that’s simple for you to modify, as well as effortless for customers to navigate. The site should also be fast, since customers won’t put up with slow loading times, and have a descriptive domain name that customers will be able to remember.
Develop a Marketing Strategy
Even with your online business website live, no one will know about it unless you have a strategy for marketing it. This is where knowing who your audience is comes in handy.
For example, let’s say you’re hoping to reach young mothers. You’d want to target them on parenting and women’s websites and blogs. You could also try out sites for children. If you’re not much of a writer, you can hire one to create content (such as an article) for these sites and within the article, insert a link that goes to your online business. Hosting a blog for your audience on your site is another option. Just keep in mind that your content needs to be different in order to stand out. You don’t want to post what’s already readily available on other sites. And it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with copyright law and what constitutes infringement.
You’ll also want to look into where your customers reside on social media sites and set up shop there. Engage by tweeting back at customers when they ask you questions or have complaints, and thank them for commenting on your Facebook page. You should also connect with influencers in your niche who have a lot of followers and ask them if they’d like to do some cross promotion. For a more targeted approach to marketing, you can try out paid search ads on Google and hire a search engine optimization expert to optimize your content.
Reassess Your Progress
Once your site is up and you’ve done a good amount of marketing, it’s time to assess whether you’re getting the results you need.
This is where Google Analytics comes in handy. This online platform can tell how many visitors you had on a particular page, how much time they spent on your website, how many pages they viewed, how many visitors you received in a given time period, and more.
If you haven’t met your sales goals for the month in your e-store, try expanding your marketing efforts. Reach out to customers on social media and see if they have any suggestions. Running an online business is constant work, and you have to stay on top of your game in order to be recognized amongst the competition.
Are you ready to start your online Business in 2015? Just let me know!
Source: https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/online-business-checklist-ready-to-market-your-website
According to Business Insider, less than five percent of all online businesses actually make money. This is due to the fact that the entry point to create one is so low. Don’t be fooled: starting an online business may look easy, but if you don’t have the right tools and knowledge, the millions of other websites, as well as your competitors, can drown you out.
Before you build your website, you need to have an online business plan. The following are some key pointers, as well as an online business checklist, which can help you succeed in the rough terrain of the World Wide Web.
Do Your Research
You might have looked into different online business ideas and decided what yours is going to be. You’ve also met all of your legal requirements, which includes choosing a business structure, looking at what taxes you’ll have to file, and meeting all of your state guidelines. Basically, you know how to start an online business, but you might not know why you’re starting it.
If you don’t know why your company should exist, why customers need your product, why they would buy it from you, and why they need it now, then you might need to go back to the drawing board. Customers can’t decide the “why” for you, and they won’t stick around waiting for you to determine it either.
You have to figure out whether or not you’re adding value to the lives of your potential customers with your online business. If you’re providing what a bunch of other companies are already putting out there, you’ll find that customers may go to them instead, especially if the prices are lower. Once you have the “why” covered, you need to determine exactly who your demographic is, where they hang out online, and how you can reach them.
Choose the Right Web Platform
Chances are, you’re not a top-notch web designer as well as an entrepreneur. Most small business owners aren’t, and it’s by no means a requirement.
Before you choose a host like WordPress or Wix, consult with other online business owners, as well as web designers, as to which platform will be the easiest for you. You want to look for something that’s simple for you to modify, as well as effortless for customers to navigate. The site should also be fast, since customers won’t put up with slow loading times, and have a descriptive domain name that customers will be able to remember.
Develop a Marketing Strategy
Even with your online business website live, no one will know about it unless you have a strategy for marketing it. This is where knowing who your audience is comes in handy.
For example, let’s say you’re hoping to reach young mothers. You’d want to target them on parenting and women’s websites and blogs. You could also try out sites for children. If you’re not much of a writer, you can hire one to create content (such as an article) for these sites and within the article, insert a link that goes to your online business. Hosting a blog for your audience on your site is another option. Just keep in mind that your content needs to be different in order to stand out. You don’t want to post what’s already readily available on other sites. And it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with copyright law and what constitutes infringement.
You’ll also want to look into where your customers reside on social media sites and set up shop there. Engage by tweeting back at customers when they ask you questions or have complaints, and thank them for commenting on your Facebook page. You should also connect with influencers in your niche who have a lot of followers and ask them if they’d like to do some cross promotion. For a more targeted approach to marketing, you can try out paid search ads on Google and hire a search engine optimization expert to optimize your content.
Reassess Your Progress
Once your site is up and you’ve done a good amount of marketing, it’s time to assess whether you’re getting the results you need.
This is where Google Analytics comes in handy. This online platform can tell how many visitors you had on a particular page, how much time they spent on your website, how many pages they viewed, how many visitors you received in a given time period, and more.
If you haven’t met your sales goals for the month in your e-store, try expanding your marketing efforts. Reach out to customers on social media and see if they have any suggestions. Running an online business is constant work, and you have to stay on top of your game in order to be recognized amongst the competition.
Are you ready to start your online Business in 2015? Just let me know!
Source: https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/online-business-checklist-ready-to-market-your-website
Tuesday 23 December 2014
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Successful 2015
I am enjoying my holiday abroad, but will be back soon!
Monday 22 December 2014
12 Keys to Successful Forum Marketing
How to market your business using online forums
Forum marketing is a great way to make your online business stand out from the crowd. Forum users are generally net savvy and open to making online purchases. Many forum users are also respected experts and bloggers in the specific topics covered by the forum.
Forum marketing is a high ROI strategy because making a good impression in front of this savvy and influential audience can help your marketing message spread far and wide.
Follow this step-by-step guide to effectively use forum marketing as a part of your overall online marketing strategy and avoid some common mistakes.
1. Find the right forums
Not all forums are worth your time. Successful forum marketing means finding the right community for your business.
Look for popular forums that cover your niche topic. Start by asking your employees, suppliers, and customers which online communities they hang out in. Also try searching forum hub sites such as Board Reader, Big Boards, and Board Tracker using niche-specific keywords.
Narrow your list to 5-10 forums that will be worth your time using the following criteria:
2. Create an account as soon as possible
Seniority is important in forum communities. Users with older registration dates are given more deference than newer users. Some forums even prevent new users from posting for the first few days after their initial registration. Given the tremendous advantage of early registration, you should create your forum accounts as soon as possible.
Effective forum marketing means that it is part of your long-term strategy. Think of forums as a permanent marketing channel for your business, instead of just one of many targets to blast your hot new advertising campaign.
3. Check the user agreement and posting guidelines
During the registration process you will be asked to agree to the forum's user agreement and posting guidelines. Read these rules and guidelines carefully. There is a lot of boilerplate legal language in these documents, so it is tempting to just skip over them and click yes without reading. However, many forums have unique guidelines that you need to pay attention to.
Some of the most important issues to look for include:
4. Pick a good user name and avatar
Your user name and avatar are the first things other users will notice about you. Pick a user name that is easy to remember and pronounce. Using your real name might be appropriate, especially if your name is closely identified with your brand. Stay away from bizarre number combination or weird misspellings. Do not pick user names that only have meaning for you but would otherwise be nonsensical to everyone else (e.g. your favorite grade school teacher's initials).
Avatars are small pictures attached to all your posts. A good head shot of yourself or cute pictures of your kids or pets make the best avatars. Avoid using any pictures that might be considered offensive or controversial.
5. Create a compelling profile
A good profile can help you establish credibility on the forum. Provide a solid description of your expertise and experience. Feel free to add in a couple of personal tidbits to humanize your profile. Information like your hometown, your pet's name, or your favorite sports team are good ways to break the ice. Stay away from sharing potentially polarizing information such as political or religious affiliation.
Provide contact information so other users can get in touch with you if they are interested in learning more about your business. A lot of spammers and identity thieves search through forums for personal information. Therefore, you should only share information you wouldn't mind being made public, such as a throwaway webmail address.
6. Introduce yourself
Many forums encourage new users to introduce themselves to the community by making an introductory post. This is usually done in threads especially designated for welcoming new members. These threads are usually called some variation of "Say Hi Here," "How Did You Find Us," or " New Members Check In Here."
Your introductory post should include a brief description of your expertise and an explanation of why you joined the forum. Let the other users know that your main goal is to contribute to and learn from the community. Do not make any marketing pitches in your first post. If you try to sell anything in your first post you will very likely get banned.
7. Spend some time lurking
Resist the urge to start posting right away. Forums are tight-knit communities that tend to shun and haze newcomers. Spend some time reading the forum to get a sense of the community's special quirks and cultural norms. Figure out who the influential users are and note which topics are perennial favorites. Learning this information will help you fit in more quickly.
8. Make valuable contributions to the community
This is the key to successful forum marketing. Whenever anyone asks a question related to your products or services, dazzle them with incredibly useful answers. These situations are opportunities to demonstrate your expertise and to generate good will. Backup your advice with links to trusted sources, and respond to follow up questions quickly.
Leave out your sales pitch in the beginning. Any hint of bias in your initial posts will erase all your hard work. By keeping your answers objective, the entire community will start thinking of you as a trusted expert. They will soon start asking you for your recommendations. When you get direct inquiries for recommendations you may then safely mention your business without appearing biased.
9. Put your website's address in your signature
Forum signatures are blocks of text or graphic that are attached to the end of all your posts. Most people use signatures to display their favorite quotes or links to their favorite websites. Some forums also allow users to use signatures to promote their own websites. If you are in a forum that allows self-promotional signatures, make sure you take full advantage of this opportunity and create a forum marketing signature that works.
Do not abuse this opportunity by putting flashy images or long advertising messages in your signature. An accurate, short description of your business and a link to your website is the best way to go.
10. Stay away from drama
Do not get drawn into heated arguments. It would be a shame to get banned just because you started arguing whether Han shot first with some 14-year-old kid from Scranton. Here's how you can avoid the drama:
11. Create win-win marketing campaigns
Once you have the respect of the users you can start more aggressive marketing campaigns. Focus on marketing techniques that provide a benefit for the forum community. For example, offer the forum members special discounts, free samples, or fun contests. Be sure to get the permission of the forum's moderators before you start these campaigns.
12. Be careful how you outsource forum marketing
Many marketing firms use bots or low-skilled foreign workers to spam forums. This is not the type of marketing you want. Forum spam may bring in a little temporary traffic to your website, but in the long run these campaigns can seriously damage your reputation. When you hire a marketing firm, make sure they understand that you will only accept ethical marketing practices that will enhance your image.
Source: http://onlinebusiness.about.com/od/gettingtrafficmarketing/tp/forum-marketing.htm
Forum marketing is a great way to make your online business stand out from the crowd. Forum users are generally net savvy and open to making online purchases. Many forum users are also respected experts and bloggers in the specific topics covered by the forum.
Forum marketing is a high ROI strategy because making a good impression in front of this savvy and influential audience can help your marketing message spread far and wide.
Follow this step-by-step guide to effectively use forum marketing as a part of your overall online marketing strategy and avoid some common mistakes.
1. Find the right forums
Not all forums are worth your time. Successful forum marketing means finding the right community for your business.
Look for popular forums that cover your niche topic. Start by asking your employees, suppliers, and customers which online communities they hang out in. Also try searching forum hub sites such as Board Reader, Big Boards, and Board Tracker using niche-specific keywords.
Narrow your list to 5-10 forums that will be worth your time using the following criteria:
- Look for forums that have at least 1,000 members and 10,000 posts.
- Make sure the forum gets at least ten to fifteen new posts on a daily basis.
- Ignore forums that are overrun by spam.
- Avoid forums hosted by your direct competitors.
2. Create an account as soon as possible
Seniority is important in forum communities. Users with older registration dates are given more deference than newer users. Some forums even prevent new users from posting for the first few days after their initial registration. Given the tremendous advantage of early registration, you should create your forum accounts as soon as possible.
Effective forum marketing means that it is part of your long-term strategy. Think of forums as a permanent marketing channel for your business, instead of just one of many targets to blast your hot new advertising campaign.
3. Check the user agreement and posting guidelines
During the registration process you will be asked to agree to the forum's user agreement and posting guidelines. Read these rules and guidelines carefully. There is a lot of boilerplate legal language in these documents, so it is tempting to just skip over them and click yes without reading. However, many forums have unique guidelines that you need to pay attention to.
Some of the most important issues to look for include:
- Are users allowed to place links in their posts?
- Are users allowed to promote their own businesses?
- Are users allowed to post commercial messages in their signatures?
- Are users allowed to contact other members for commercial purposes?
- What restrictions are placed on new users?
- What special privileges are given to veteran users?
4. Pick a good user name and avatar
Your user name and avatar are the first things other users will notice about you. Pick a user name that is easy to remember and pronounce. Using your real name might be appropriate, especially if your name is closely identified with your brand. Stay away from bizarre number combination or weird misspellings. Do not pick user names that only have meaning for you but would otherwise be nonsensical to everyone else (e.g. your favorite grade school teacher's initials).
Avatars are small pictures attached to all your posts. A good head shot of yourself or cute pictures of your kids or pets make the best avatars. Avoid using any pictures that might be considered offensive or controversial.
5. Create a compelling profile
A good profile can help you establish credibility on the forum. Provide a solid description of your expertise and experience. Feel free to add in a couple of personal tidbits to humanize your profile. Information like your hometown, your pet's name, or your favorite sports team are good ways to break the ice. Stay away from sharing potentially polarizing information such as political or religious affiliation.
Provide contact information so other users can get in touch with you if they are interested in learning more about your business. A lot of spammers and identity thieves search through forums for personal information. Therefore, you should only share information you wouldn't mind being made public, such as a throwaway webmail address.
6. Introduce yourself
Many forums encourage new users to introduce themselves to the community by making an introductory post. This is usually done in threads especially designated for welcoming new members. These threads are usually called some variation of "Say Hi Here," "How Did You Find Us," or " New Members Check In Here."
Your introductory post should include a brief description of your expertise and an explanation of why you joined the forum. Let the other users know that your main goal is to contribute to and learn from the community. Do not make any marketing pitches in your first post. If you try to sell anything in your first post you will very likely get banned.
7. Spend some time lurking
Resist the urge to start posting right away. Forums are tight-knit communities that tend to shun and haze newcomers. Spend some time reading the forum to get a sense of the community's special quirks and cultural norms. Figure out who the influential users are and note which topics are perennial favorites. Learning this information will help you fit in more quickly.
8. Make valuable contributions to the community
This is the key to successful forum marketing. Whenever anyone asks a question related to your products or services, dazzle them with incredibly useful answers. These situations are opportunities to demonstrate your expertise and to generate good will. Backup your advice with links to trusted sources, and respond to follow up questions quickly.
Leave out your sales pitch in the beginning. Any hint of bias in your initial posts will erase all your hard work. By keeping your answers objective, the entire community will start thinking of you as a trusted expert. They will soon start asking you for your recommendations. When you get direct inquiries for recommendations you may then safely mention your business without appearing biased.
9. Put your website's address in your signature
Forum signatures are blocks of text or graphic that are attached to the end of all your posts. Most people use signatures to display their favorite quotes or links to their favorite websites. Some forums also allow users to use signatures to promote their own websites. If you are in a forum that allows self-promotional signatures, make sure you take full advantage of this opportunity and create a forum marketing signature that works.
Do not abuse this opportunity by putting flashy images or long advertising messages in your signature. An accurate, short description of your business and a link to your website is the best way to go.
10. Stay away from drama
Do not get drawn into heated arguments. It would be a shame to get banned just because you started arguing whether Han shot first with some 14-year-old kid from Scranton. Here's how you can avoid the drama:
- Constantly remind yourself that your mission here is to build good will for your business.
- Stay away from charged topics like politics or religion.
- Resist the urge to respond to criticism. If you have to answer, at least give yourself a couple of hours to cool off before responding.
- Use emoticons to indicate when you are being facetious.
- End discussions the moment you sense that it is getting contentious. Just say you agree to disagree and that you want to move on to other more pleasant topics.
11. Create win-win marketing campaigns
Once you have the respect of the users you can start more aggressive marketing campaigns. Focus on marketing techniques that provide a benefit for the forum community. For example, offer the forum members special discounts, free samples, or fun contests. Be sure to get the permission of the forum's moderators before you start these campaigns.
12. Be careful how you outsource forum marketing
Many marketing firms use bots or low-skilled foreign workers to spam forums. This is not the type of marketing you want. Forum spam may bring in a little temporary traffic to your website, but in the long run these campaigns can seriously damage your reputation. When you hire a marketing firm, make sure they understand that you will only accept ethical marketing practices that will enhance your image.
Source: http://onlinebusiness.about.com/od/gettingtrafficmarketing/tp/forum-marketing.htm
Friday 19 December 2014
Article Marketing Tips – How To Create Online Content That Generates High Traffic To Your Website
Article marketing is an online advertising technique widely used by successful businesses today and one of the best ways to enhance the visibility of your website, thus generating more website traffic and increasing your sales. With the following article marketing tips, we would like to help you make the most of this efficient tool that can make your site rank high on any search engine.
Including Relevant Content on Your Site
The first of our article marketing tips is to provide relevant, useful articles on your website. This is the first step of establishing yourself as a great, dependable seller or service provider. One of the most important things before building awareness to your site with the help of other tools is to make your website attractive and informative, and the texts published on your site are the best way to achieve this.
You can choose from several ways to make your site interesting with the help of article marketing. You can include pages on your site that give useful advice, tips or suggestions about your niche; you can have pages that contain testimonials and reviews, but whatever type of articles you choose, you must make sure they are 100% original and relevant to your niche.
The articles you publish on your site also need to be written correctly – you don’t want to read poorly written articles about the topics you are interested in and neither do your prospective customers. The style and the content of the articles is also important: you should try to make them interesting and fun to read, and you should also try to come up with real problems that your readers might face, then provide solutions, raising the reader’s interest in your products or services.
Article Marketing Tips to Create Texts Structured the Right Way
Do not forget about the structure of your articles, either. Organize your texts in a clear, informative manner – including subtitles and bullet-points are great ways to keep the reader interested.
Another thing you must bear in mind when you create your articles is keyword usage. Internet users type keywords into their browser when they are looking for information. If your articles are structured around the right keywords, the sites these articles are published on will appear among the first hits in the user’s browser, so the more relevant the keywords are, the more likely it is that the user will find your site and visit it.
And how to find the right keywords? The internet provides many different tools that you can use for keyword research. These tools allow you to enter keywords that you consider relevant for your topic and they will display the competition level and the number of searches for that keyword, also providing alternative keywords to use. A good article contains primary, secondary and long tail keywords as well, so you should come up with several different sets of keywords grouped according to their relevance for your topic. You must introduce keywords into the title and the subtitles as well – the title should always contain your main keyword, to tell search engines what the text is going to be about.
Once you have found the right keywords, it is time to organize your unique article around them. You will have to enter the keyword with a certain density into the text, the recommended percentage being 1% (the keyword entered once every 100 words in the article means a 1% density).
Backlinking with Your Articles
Our article marketing tips continue with suggestions about how to use your articles the most efficiently. Once you have created content about your activity and you published it on your own site, there is another efficient way to attract make your business more visible: to publish articles on other websites, with a technique called building backlinks. This tactic consists in posting relevant, interesting, well-formulated articles structured around the right content and containing the URL of your domain, on other, authoritative websites with the purpose of driving traffic towards your site. You can start posting your articles on social media sites and professional forums. and you can publish them on blogs as well, each of these posts pointing towards your site, encouraging visitors to check out your products.
Using Article Submission Services
If you consider the task of creating your own articles energy and time-consuming, you can hire other companies to leverage their experience in the area to your advantage. These companies are experts in finding the right keywords for your content, writing high-quality, properly structured articles and publishing them on authoritative sites to generate the highest possible traffic for your web site. They usually offer different packages so that you can choose the one that best suits your objectives and your budget, but all these packages have two things in common: the articles included are written in a professional manner and they will be published using the most sophisticated online marketing tools.
Forget about those newfangled article marketing or submission widgets – see what Google’s Matt Cutts thinks about them.
Article marketing is one of the most efficient tools of website promotion, so our best tip is to start using it. Whether you write and publish your articles yourself or you hire professionals to do that for you, good articles can boost your sales within a very short time.
Source: https://www.prchecker.net/article-marketing-tips.html
Including Relevant Content on Your Site
The first of our article marketing tips is to provide relevant, useful articles on your website. This is the first step of establishing yourself as a great, dependable seller or service provider. One of the most important things before building awareness to your site with the help of other tools is to make your website attractive and informative, and the texts published on your site are the best way to achieve this.
You can choose from several ways to make your site interesting with the help of article marketing. You can include pages on your site that give useful advice, tips or suggestions about your niche; you can have pages that contain testimonials and reviews, but whatever type of articles you choose, you must make sure they are 100% original and relevant to your niche.
The articles you publish on your site also need to be written correctly – you don’t want to read poorly written articles about the topics you are interested in and neither do your prospective customers. The style and the content of the articles is also important: you should try to make them interesting and fun to read, and you should also try to come up with real problems that your readers might face, then provide solutions, raising the reader’s interest in your products or services.
Article Marketing Tips to Create Texts Structured the Right Way
Do not forget about the structure of your articles, either. Organize your texts in a clear, informative manner – including subtitles and bullet-points are great ways to keep the reader interested.
Another thing you must bear in mind when you create your articles is keyword usage. Internet users type keywords into their browser when they are looking for information. If your articles are structured around the right keywords, the sites these articles are published on will appear among the first hits in the user’s browser, so the more relevant the keywords are, the more likely it is that the user will find your site and visit it.
And how to find the right keywords? The internet provides many different tools that you can use for keyword research. These tools allow you to enter keywords that you consider relevant for your topic and they will display the competition level and the number of searches for that keyword, also providing alternative keywords to use. A good article contains primary, secondary and long tail keywords as well, so you should come up with several different sets of keywords grouped according to their relevance for your topic. You must introduce keywords into the title and the subtitles as well – the title should always contain your main keyword, to tell search engines what the text is going to be about.
Once you have found the right keywords, it is time to organize your unique article around them. You will have to enter the keyword with a certain density into the text, the recommended percentage being 1% (the keyword entered once every 100 words in the article means a 1% density).
Backlinking with Your Articles
Our article marketing tips continue with suggestions about how to use your articles the most efficiently. Once you have created content about your activity and you published it on your own site, there is another efficient way to attract make your business more visible: to publish articles on other websites, with a technique called building backlinks. This tactic consists in posting relevant, interesting, well-formulated articles structured around the right content and containing the URL of your domain, on other, authoritative websites with the purpose of driving traffic towards your site. You can start posting your articles on social media sites and professional forums. and you can publish them on blogs as well, each of these posts pointing towards your site, encouraging visitors to check out your products.
Using Article Submission Services
If you consider the task of creating your own articles energy and time-consuming, you can hire other companies to leverage their experience in the area to your advantage. These companies are experts in finding the right keywords for your content, writing high-quality, properly structured articles and publishing them on authoritative sites to generate the highest possible traffic for your web site. They usually offer different packages so that you can choose the one that best suits your objectives and your budget, but all these packages have two things in common: the articles included are written in a professional manner and they will be published using the most sophisticated online marketing tools.
Forget about those newfangled article marketing or submission widgets – see what Google’s Matt Cutts thinks about them.
Article marketing is one of the most efficient tools of website promotion, so our best tip is to start using it. Whether you write and publish your articles yourself or you hire professionals to do that for you, good articles can boost your sales within a very short time.
Source: https://www.prchecker.net/article-marketing-tips.html
Thursday 18 December 2014
Best Affiliate Programs 2015 | Adam Chats About Top Affiliate Products
How do you feel about promoting High ticket Affiliate Programs?
Wednesday 17 December 2014
Top Tips for Bloggers Considering Becoming Affiliates
In theory, using affiliate commission to boost your income could not be easier or more straightforward. However, in reality, in such a saturated market, it’s important that one is 100% sure of the things to take into account before committing to affiliate sales.
Here are the top questions you should consider:
- Are you doing it for the right reasons?
It’s all well and good thinking that your blog is at the stage where it could start making you money, and it’s true that affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to make money online.
However, simply because you want to ‘make money’ should not be the sole reason for wanting to continue a blog. Blogging and writing insightful and imaginative articles that strike a chord with your audience should be the ultimate driving force spurring your blog on. Readers will see through posts that are too promotion-heavy.
- Do you have a wide enough following?
In order to start making some money from your blog, you don’t necessarily need to have thousands and thousands of existing subscribers. In our experience, much of the engagement and comments left on a lifestyle blog will be from individuals who have organically discovered your site through social media pages and not by those who are already subscribed to your blog. If you feel as though your content is generating enough unique views, engagement and comments from a wide plethora of readers, then becoming an affiliate site is absolutely something to consider seriously.
- Are you driving enough traffic to your blog from social media platforms?
We cannot highlight enough the important role that social media will play in whether or not a move into the realm of affiliate commission is a successful one. By staying active and sharing original content on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google + and Pinterest, you can make sure you are continually building your following and chances of making commissions through sales made through your site. It is also worth actively encouraging shares, retweets and re-pins of particularly popular posts, especially by other high-profile bloggers who may follow you.
- Is your content engaging enough for your audience?
If you are seriously interested in making money through your blog, you will need to start writing reviews of products and services with affiliate marketing in mind. You cannot simply throw links out randomly and expect a wave of commission to start rolling in. It is far more effective to think of the affiliate links as added resources that compliment your existing copy, and not the sole reason you have written the piece in the first place.
- Do you have the extra time to dedicate to your blog?
Perhaps a rather straightforward point, but chances are you already juggle writing and managing your blog with full-time work or studying. Therefore, an important question to ask yourself is whether you can dedicate the required amount of time to monetising your blog, especially if it starts to do very well for you. Would you be willing to forego the odd night out or shopping trip with friends in order to stay in and work on your blog? If the answer is no, then you might want to re-think your options.
- Would you know the kinds of affiliate programs to approach?
Affiliate links will earn you commission if you successfully drive a sale to the merchant, which means that a blog reader will need to click on one of your embedded links, and either purchase or sign up to something before you see any kind of commission. Therefore, the more relevant your affiliate ad is to your reader’s likes and preferences, the higher the chances they will click on the link and make a subsequent purchase.
Source: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-features/top-tips-for-bloggers-considering-becoming-affiliates/1264
By Mark Russell
Here are the top questions you should consider:
- Are you doing it for the right reasons?
It’s all well and good thinking that your blog is at the stage where it could start making you money, and it’s true that affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to make money online.
However, simply because you want to ‘make money’ should not be the sole reason for wanting to continue a blog. Blogging and writing insightful and imaginative articles that strike a chord with your audience should be the ultimate driving force spurring your blog on. Readers will see through posts that are too promotion-heavy.
- Do you have a wide enough following?
In order to start making some money from your blog, you don’t necessarily need to have thousands and thousands of existing subscribers. In our experience, much of the engagement and comments left on a lifestyle blog will be from individuals who have organically discovered your site through social media pages and not by those who are already subscribed to your blog. If you feel as though your content is generating enough unique views, engagement and comments from a wide plethora of readers, then becoming an affiliate site is absolutely something to consider seriously.
- Are you driving enough traffic to your blog from social media platforms?
We cannot highlight enough the important role that social media will play in whether or not a move into the realm of affiliate commission is a successful one. By staying active and sharing original content on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google + and Pinterest, you can make sure you are continually building your following and chances of making commissions through sales made through your site. It is also worth actively encouraging shares, retweets and re-pins of particularly popular posts, especially by other high-profile bloggers who may follow you.
- Is your content engaging enough for your audience?
If you are seriously interested in making money through your blog, you will need to start writing reviews of products and services with affiliate marketing in mind. You cannot simply throw links out randomly and expect a wave of commission to start rolling in. It is far more effective to think of the affiliate links as added resources that compliment your existing copy, and not the sole reason you have written the piece in the first place.
- Do you have the extra time to dedicate to your blog?
Perhaps a rather straightforward point, but chances are you already juggle writing and managing your blog with full-time work or studying. Therefore, an important question to ask yourself is whether you can dedicate the required amount of time to monetising your blog, especially if it starts to do very well for you. Would you be willing to forego the odd night out or shopping trip with friends in order to stay in and work on your blog? If the answer is no, then you might want to re-think your options.
- Would you know the kinds of affiliate programs to approach?
Affiliate links will earn you commission if you successfully drive a sale to the merchant, which means that a blog reader will need to click on one of your embedded links, and either purchase or sign up to something before you see any kind of commission. Therefore, the more relevant your affiliate ad is to your reader’s likes and preferences, the higher the chances they will click on the link and make a subsequent purchase.
Source: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-features/top-tips-for-bloggers-considering-becoming-affiliates/1264
By Mark Russell
Tuesday 16 December 2014
How To Create Information Products That Sell Themselves
You want to make money online, right? Start by realizing that the Internet is the way to go in terms of creating, marketing and selling merchandise, i.e. information products.
The Internet has become the place where consumers prefer to purchase things. If you want a piece of that multi-billion-dollar-a-year business, then you need to have an online product that people will want to buy. You can certainly market and sell products manufactured by other companies and individuals (affiliate marketing), but when you produce your own information products, you earn the largest profit margin.
Once you understand the basic fundamentals, you will be able to determine what information product will be ideal for you to focus on. Creating your own product is fairly straightforward and don’t cost a tremendous amount on money to produce – it’s just information in product form…
Make Sure You’re Information Products Offer Both Quality And Value
If you want your product to make an impact, you will want to focus on quality. Just as in the world of brick and mortar stores, merchandise that is made with cheaper materials tend to detract from the quality. The manufacturer will be able to charge less for it, which attracts consumers looking to save money, but it will not earn a positive reputation.
When it comes to information products created for the Internet, quality is measured differently. They can include e-books, videos, music, applications, games, and other downloadable items. Generally, when a consumer makes a purchase, they can have them downloaded to their computer within minutes. That the huge advantage of this type of product – it’s available immediately.
As a result, quality will be determined by the content and composition of the information. If you take time to produce a quality product with polished content, an attractive cover or image, and something people will find useful, then you will tend to find more success with it than with something that is just thrown together.
Deciding On What Information Product To Create
You may have some great ideas to market online, but you’re biased. Each of us thinks that we have the best ideas and that all it will take is investing in it with time, effort, and money, and people will be flocking to buy it. The problem with this mentality is that innate bias.
We tend to become too excited about certain ideas we have that we believe are winners. It’s important to get some opinions from people who won’t have a vested interest in the idea. Friends and family can sometimes be ideal to ask, but it will be important for you to make sure they know you will want their honest opinion.
If your idea is considered unique or ideal, then begin to research anything that may be similar already on the Web. You may think that it’s unique, but other people may already have something similar out there. That doesn’t mean you have to abandon your idea though; instead, determine how your idea is different and better than the others.
The Power Of Online Information Products
Products that are specifically designed for sale online are unique in that they can be downloaded by the consumer as soon as their transaction is complete. That means that marketing will be as important as the product itself. When you market your product, you will want to speak directly to a need your target audience has and how what you are offering fills that need.
Blogging is a great way to promote your information product. Knowing how to start a blog or becoming involved with web hosting is essential to online marketing. Keep these thoughts in mind as you move forward with your idea.
Know The Market
It is critical that you know the market you will be targeting. What age range will be most interested in it? Will it be men, women, or both?
If you create something that would be perfect for middle-aged professional women, but you focus on young, college-aged men, then your merchandise will not sell. Even if you realize that you targeted the wrong audience, make adjustments to the product and your marketing campaign; don’t simply abandon it. The great thing about most things created for Internet sale is that they can be altered without a tremendous amount of expense or effort.
As mentioned, marketing is as important to the success of your product as quality. Before you put together this incredible information product that is going to sell like crazy, you should think about marketing. If you promise something of value to the reader, the marketing will become much easier.
Develop a balance in which the marketing complements the product. Testimonials are a great way to show prospective buyers that what you’re offering is worth the investment. If you don’t have customers yet, then consider giving some copies away in exchange for those valued testimonials.
Solve A Problem
As noted earlier, anything marketed for consumers needs to solve a problem. A novel solves the problem of quiet entertainment. An e-book on how to become a successful affiliate marketer solves the problem that inexperienced professionals may have.
You should conduct market research to determine precisely how to solve that problem for the consumer. See if there are other products similar to yours that were successful as well as any that weren’t successful. There are often great lessons to be learned from both.
Creating a product that you intend to sell online demands a great deal of research on the market before it is actually created. An adage by Benjamin Franklin states that, ‘Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.’ That idea you have may be incredible, but you still need to do a serious amount of work before you will achieve success with it.
You can get rich solving other people’s problems!
Source: http://blogsuccessjournal.com/make-money-online/information-products/how-to-create-information-products-that-sell-themselves/
The Internet has become the place where consumers prefer to purchase things. If you want a piece of that multi-billion-dollar-a-year business, then you need to have an online product that people will want to buy. You can certainly market and sell products manufactured by other companies and individuals (affiliate marketing), but when you produce your own information products, you earn the largest profit margin.
Once you understand the basic fundamentals, you will be able to determine what information product will be ideal for you to focus on. Creating your own product is fairly straightforward and don’t cost a tremendous amount on money to produce – it’s just information in product form…
Make Sure You’re Information Products Offer Both Quality And Value
If you want your product to make an impact, you will want to focus on quality. Just as in the world of brick and mortar stores, merchandise that is made with cheaper materials tend to detract from the quality. The manufacturer will be able to charge less for it, which attracts consumers looking to save money, but it will not earn a positive reputation.
When it comes to information products created for the Internet, quality is measured differently. They can include e-books, videos, music, applications, games, and other downloadable items. Generally, when a consumer makes a purchase, they can have them downloaded to their computer within minutes. That the huge advantage of this type of product – it’s available immediately.
As a result, quality will be determined by the content and composition of the information. If you take time to produce a quality product with polished content, an attractive cover or image, and something people will find useful, then you will tend to find more success with it than with something that is just thrown together.
Deciding On What Information Product To Create
You may have some great ideas to market online, but you’re biased. Each of us thinks that we have the best ideas and that all it will take is investing in it with time, effort, and money, and people will be flocking to buy it. The problem with this mentality is that innate bias.
We tend to become too excited about certain ideas we have that we believe are winners. It’s important to get some opinions from people who won’t have a vested interest in the idea. Friends and family can sometimes be ideal to ask, but it will be important for you to make sure they know you will want their honest opinion.
If your idea is considered unique or ideal, then begin to research anything that may be similar already on the Web. You may think that it’s unique, but other people may already have something similar out there. That doesn’t mean you have to abandon your idea though; instead, determine how your idea is different and better than the others.
The Power Of Online Information Products
Products that are specifically designed for sale online are unique in that they can be downloaded by the consumer as soon as their transaction is complete. That means that marketing will be as important as the product itself. When you market your product, you will want to speak directly to a need your target audience has and how what you are offering fills that need.
Blogging is a great way to promote your information product. Knowing how to start a blog or becoming involved with web hosting is essential to online marketing. Keep these thoughts in mind as you move forward with your idea.
Know The Market
It is critical that you know the market you will be targeting. What age range will be most interested in it? Will it be men, women, or both?
If you create something that would be perfect for middle-aged professional women, but you focus on young, college-aged men, then your merchandise will not sell. Even if you realize that you targeted the wrong audience, make adjustments to the product and your marketing campaign; don’t simply abandon it. The great thing about most things created for Internet sale is that they can be altered without a tremendous amount of expense or effort.
As mentioned, marketing is as important to the success of your product as quality. Before you put together this incredible information product that is going to sell like crazy, you should think about marketing. If you promise something of value to the reader, the marketing will become much easier.
Develop a balance in which the marketing complements the product. Testimonials are a great way to show prospective buyers that what you’re offering is worth the investment. If you don’t have customers yet, then consider giving some copies away in exchange for those valued testimonials.
Solve A Problem
As noted earlier, anything marketed for consumers needs to solve a problem. A novel solves the problem of quiet entertainment. An e-book on how to become a successful affiliate marketer solves the problem that inexperienced professionals may have.
You should conduct market research to determine precisely how to solve that problem for the consumer. See if there are other products similar to yours that were successful as well as any that weren’t successful. There are often great lessons to be learned from both.
Creating a product that you intend to sell online demands a great deal of research on the market before it is actually created. An adage by Benjamin Franklin states that, ‘Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.’ That idea you have may be incredible, but you still need to do a serious amount of work before you will achieve success with it.
You can get rich solving other people’s problems!
Source: http://blogsuccessjournal.com/make-money-online/information-products/how-to-create-information-products-that-sell-themselves/
Monday 15 December 2014
Home Based Business Ideas Using The Internet
Let’s quickly go over 5 legitimate online home based business ideas that you can use to make money from home using nothing but the internet.
We will also see how to cleverly integrate a number of the best online home business ideas together into a powerful money making system, suitable for any newbie.
1. Writing Articles – I first started out in my home business by providing an article writing service to other marketers. I am a quick writer so was able to charge low prices for simple articles for website content and still earn a respectable hourly wage at the same time. There is a high demand for article writers out there right now, since more content equals more traffic and sales for websites.
2. Paid Surveys – Companies are always on the lookout for people to fill in surveys for them. This is either for market research purposes or so that they can capture contact information of people who fill out these surveys for future promotions. Either way, you can earn regular money from home on the internet if you consistently fill out these suveys each and every day.
3. Affilate Marketing – This home based business idea is now moving away from doing work from home jobs for others and instead becoming your own boss as an online entrepreneur. Affiliate marketing is one of the most newbie friendly ways to make money from home because you simply send people to existing proven product pages and earn commissions when sales are made based on your recommendations. You don’t need to handle orders or deal with customer support issues directly.
4. Network Marketing and MLM – In the home based business industry, the MLM and network marketing business models are very popular. This is largely due to the fact that of the leverage gained from being part of a team. Instead of only making money when you make your own sales, with online network marketing you also make money when your team members make sales. It is about leverage the work of others for a predictable monthly residual income.
5. Selling Information Products Online – Instead of promoting other peoples products with affiliate marketing, it is worth looking into creating and selling your own information products. An information product can be an ebook, audio or video series. It is simply your expertise converted into a format that others can follow in a step by step fashion in order to learn a new skill and follow a process to generate results for themselves in whatever it is that you are teaching. Infromation marketing is very popular because you just create the product once and sell it over and over again. You can either get other affiliate marketers to sell your products for you.
One of the best home based business ideas that many beginners see success with involves taking advantage of a “business in a box” that lets you pre-designed affiliate products as part of a professional sales funnel.
Source: http://recomp-project.eu/?p=78
We will also see how to cleverly integrate a number of the best online home business ideas together into a powerful money making system, suitable for any newbie.
1. Writing Articles – I first started out in my home business by providing an article writing service to other marketers. I am a quick writer so was able to charge low prices for simple articles for website content and still earn a respectable hourly wage at the same time. There is a high demand for article writers out there right now, since more content equals more traffic and sales for websites.
2. Paid Surveys – Companies are always on the lookout for people to fill in surveys for them. This is either for market research purposes or so that they can capture contact information of people who fill out these surveys for future promotions. Either way, you can earn regular money from home on the internet if you consistently fill out these suveys each and every day.
3. Affilate Marketing – This home based business idea is now moving away from doing work from home jobs for others and instead becoming your own boss as an online entrepreneur. Affiliate marketing is one of the most newbie friendly ways to make money from home because you simply send people to existing proven product pages and earn commissions when sales are made based on your recommendations. You don’t need to handle orders or deal with customer support issues directly.
4. Network Marketing and MLM – In the home based business industry, the MLM and network marketing business models are very popular. This is largely due to the fact that of the leverage gained from being part of a team. Instead of only making money when you make your own sales, with online network marketing you also make money when your team members make sales. It is about leverage the work of others for a predictable monthly residual income.
5. Selling Information Products Online – Instead of promoting other peoples products with affiliate marketing, it is worth looking into creating and selling your own information products. An information product can be an ebook, audio or video series. It is simply your expertise converted into a format that others can follow in a step by step fashion in order to learn a new skill and follow a process to generate results for themselves in whatever it is that you are teaching. Infromation marketing is very popular because you just create the product once and sell it over and over again. You can either get other affiliate marketers to sell your products for you.
One of the best home based business ideas that many beginners see success with involves taking advantage of a “business in a box” that lets you pre-designed affiliate products as part of a professional sales funnel.
Source: http://recomp-project.eu/?p=78
Friday 12 December 2014
15 Tips for a Powerful LinkedIn Profile
Not getting the traction you'd like to see on your LinkedIn page? Try these 15 tips for a powerful profile.
1. Segment Your Connections.
This simple tip can save you a mountain of work later. Let's say you're on LinkedIn to meet:
If you don't segment your connections, they're all going to be lumped into a folder LinkedIn calls "Untagged." Then when you want to contact potential JV partners, you'll have no idea which ones those are.
So you'll want to segment all of your connections - new and old - into appropriate folders to take maximum advantage of LinkedIn's ability to hook you up with the right people.
2. Certain Keyword Placement has a Bigger Effect Than Others.
Keywords in your name, your headline, your company name, your job title and your skills rank higher in the search results than keywords in other sections. Be sure to use a variety of keywords and terms in describing what you do, and also offer to show up in a variety of search results.
3. Don't Annoy Your Contacts.
When you're updating your LinkedIn profile, your contacts are alerted to every little change as you make them unless you do the following: Open your privacy controls and turn off activity broadcasts, and change the setting for "select who can see your activity feed" to "only you."
4. Widen Your Scope.
Join groups so you can connect with people who are in your target audience but are not contacts. Then reach out to these people and ask them to join your network.
5. If You're Ambitious...
Join 50 LinkedIn groups which can boost your ranking.
6. Highlight Your Best Info.
You can add, remove and rearrange entire sections of your profile any way you prefer to lead with your strengths. When in edit mode, hover your mouse over the double sided arrow that's next to the edit link for each section and you'll see a 4 arrowed icon. Click, drag and drop it to another position in your profile. Or customize your profile with personalized sections of your own making.
7. Hit The Magic Number.
Your goal is to get at least 500 connections, for two reasons. First, it widens your audience. Second, that magic number 500 has a psychological impact on people viewing your profile. Once you hit 500, aim for 1,000 for the same reasons.
8. Use Your Aliases.
Maybe you've changed your name or people commonly misspell your name. Or maybe you've got nicknames or more than one version for your first name, such as Dave and David. Include all of these names in your summary to make it easier for people to find you.
9. Accept Messages From Anyone.
It used to be that LinkedIn members could only contact you if they were connected to you or if they purchased InMail messages. But now Premium Users are automatically opted into an Open Profile setting, which will let anyone message you for free. And as a Premium member, you can always select to switch this off at any time.
10. Track Who Is Viewing Your Profile.
Premium users can now access a list of who's viewed their profile for the last 90 days. You might want to contact some of these members back and start a conversation.
11. Distinguish Yourself From Competitors.
Where appropriate, integrate your personal point of view into your summary and possibly your experience. Then join groups where you can share your point of view as it relates to your expertise. You'll stand apart from the crowd and attract your own tribe of like-thinkers.
12. Use Premium As Needed.
If you want to reach out to people but you can only contact them through Premium, then sign up by the month. Do all the reaching out you need to do and then cancel your premium subscription.
13. Wait.
Don't reach out to potential contacts until your profile is sparkling. You only get one chance to make a first LinkedIn impression, so make it a good one. But don't let this be a reason to procrastinate, either. Set a deadline to get your profile together and then immediately start reaching out to others.
14. Create a Company Page.
If you have a company, you need a company page.
15. Publish Company Status Updates. This gives LinkedIn users more reason to follow your company page. Plus, you can use segmentation to tailor your updates to specific audiences as well
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8584260
1. Segment Your Connections.
This simple tip can save you a mountain of work later. Let's say you're on LinkedIn to meet:
- Customers
- JV partners
- Media contacts
If you don't segment your connections, they're all going to be lumped into a folder LinkedIn calls "Untagged." Then when you want to contact potential JV partners, you'll have no idea which ones those are.
So you'll want to segment all of your connections - new and old - into appropriate folders to take maximum advantage of LinkedIn's ability to hook you up with the right people.
2. Certain Keyword Placement has a Bigger Effect Than Others.
Keywords in your name, your headline, your company name, your job title and your skills rank higher in the search results than keywords in other sections. Be sure to use a variety of keywords and terms in describing what you do, and also offer to show up in a variety of search results.
3. Don't Annoy Your Contacts.
When you're updating your LinkedIn profile, your contacts are alerted to every little change as you make them unless you do the following: Open your privacy controls and turn off activity broadcasts, and change the setting for "select who can see your activity feed" to "only you."
4. Widen Your Scope.
Join groups so you can connect with people who are in your target audience but are not contacts. Then reach out to these people and ask them to join your network.
5. If You're Ambitious...
Join 50 LinkedIn groups which can boost your ranking.
6. Highlight Your Best Info.
You can add, remove and rearrange entire sections of your profile any way you prefer to lead with your strengths. When in edit mode, hover your mouse over the double sided arrow that's next to the edit link for each section and you'll see a 4 arrowed icon. Click, drag and drop it to another position in your profile. Or customize your profile with personalized sections of your own making.
7. Hit The Magic Number.
Your goal is to get at least 500 connections, for two reasons. First, it widens your audience. Second, that magic number 500 has a psychological impact on people viewing your profile. Once you hit 500, aim for 1,000 for the same reasons.
8. Use Your Aliases.
Maybe you've changed your name or people commonly misspell your name. Or maybe you've got nicknames or more than one version for your first name, such as Dave and David. Include all of these names in your summary to make it easier for people to find you.
9. Accept Messages From Anyone.
It used to be that LinkedIn members could only contact you if they were connected to you or if they purchased InMail messages. But now Premium Users are automatically opted into an Open Profile setting, which will let anyone message you for free. And as a Premium member, you can always select to switch this off at any time.
10. Track Who Is Viewing Your Profile.
Premium users can now access a list of who's viewed their profile for the last 90 days. You might want to contact some of these members back and start a conversation.
11. Distinguish Yourself From Competitors.
Where appropriate, integrate your personal point of view into your summary and possibly your experience. Then join groups where you can share your point of view as it relates to your expertise. You'll stand apart from the crowd and attract your own tribe of like-thinkers.
12. Use Premium As Needed.
If you want to reach out to people but you can only contact them through Premium, then sign up by the month. Do all the reaching out you need to do and then cancel your premium subscription.
13. Wait.
Don't reach out to potential contacts until your profile is sparkling. You only get one chance to make a first LinkedIn impression, so make it a good one. But don't let this be a reason to procrastinate, either. Set a deadline to get your profile together and then immediately start reaching out to others.
14. Create a Company Page.
If you have a company, you need a company page.
15. Publish Company Status Updates. This gives LinkedIn users more reason to follow your company page. Plus, you can use segmentation to tailor your updates to specific audiences as well
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8584260
Thursday 11 December 2014
Common Email Marketing Mistakes: Why Your Emails Aren’t Getting Results
Picture this: You’ve just hit the send button on a new email campaign for your business. You’ve got killer content, a great call to action and an attention-grabbing subject line… or so you think. As you watch your analytics, it becomes clear that your email isn’t getting the results you want.
What went wrong?
Whether your open rates are suffering or you’re not getting enough click-throughs, there are lots of common email marketing mistakes that even experienced marketers make. The good news is that they can be easily fixed to increase engagement.
The mistake: Your content is too self-promotional.
If you send an email announcing your new software update, who cares? But if you send an email announcing that it’s possible to cut video upload time in half because of your software update, people will pay attention. It’s all about showing the value of your services while promoting your business.
So, how can you do both?
The solution: First, identify your audience’s biggest problems. Let’s say you work with a recruiting agency. Your subscribers need resume help, so why not give them a checklist to help them fix common resume faux pas? Brainstorm content ideas based on real problems your customers are having, then show how your services can fix them. From there, you can create an editorial calendar for your email campaign that will help create focused, useful emails.
The mistake: Your readers think you’re a robot.
What does your From address say? Is it from your own name, your business’s name, or something else? If your open rates are suffering, it could be because your emails lack a personal touch. Your email’s content plays a key role here too. Are you speaking directly to your target audience, or are you using jargony, impersonal industry terms?
The solution: One easy way to make your brand more human is to personalize your From address – no one wants to talk to donotreply@email.com. To sound less robotic and more human, write in plain terms. For example, you wouldn’t described someone as economically marginalized, you would say they’re unemployed. Uncomplicated, easy-to-understand language wins over pretentious buzzwords any day.
The mistake: Your call to action isn’t very… actionable.
Take a look at this email from Studio Fitness.
There is no link to the nutritionist or personal trainer they introduce us to, and while they encourage us to sign up for a plan, there is no link to help us do that either. Oh, and we can’t access the Studio Fitness website from this email. Since there could be any number of gyms named Studio Fitness, leaving subscribers to find their website on their own is probably not a great idea.
The solution: What do you want people to do when they read your email? Should they visit your website, sign up for a trial, take a survey? Your call to action needs to be strong and authoritative – people need to be told what to do! Make your call to action loud and clear.
The mistake: You’re inconsistent.
How would you feel if you received a weekly newsletter and then, without warning, weekly emails turned into 10 emails a day? You wouldn’t be very happy, would you? It sounds a little ridiculous, but it happens more often than you think. Readers tune out and unsubscribe when they don’t receive what they signed up for.
The solution: Deliver the emails you promised in your sign up form and stick to an editorial calendar if possible.
The mistake: Your follow up series is nonexistent.
Let’s say you have a customer who starts a free trial of your software service, but they never follow through and make a purchase. Sad story, right? It certainly will be if you don’t have a triggered-based follow up series in place.
The solution: While you can’t control a customer’s behavior, you can control how you react to it. If you set up a follow up email that will automatically send to that customer at the end of their free trial, you have a better shot at keeping them engaged. If they had a question about your service, the email could prompt them to contact you, giving you another opportunity to make the sale.
The mistake: Your subject lines are boring.
Look at the subject line below. What does it tell us about what lies within the email?
Absolutely nothing. It’s not creative or relevant to the content inside, so there’s nothing about it that would make someone feel compelled to open it. And see that preview text after the subject line? (“If you’re having trouble…”) That space could’ve been used to tease the email too.
The solution: You have about 35 characters to work with in your subject line, so make them count! Your subject line needs to grab attention and tell the reader something about the email itself, because that what will sell them on opening your email.
The mistake: You’re not using personalization.
What’s the best way to get someone’s attention? You address them by their name! It works the same way with email. If you’re not using personalization on your most important messages, you’re missing a real opportunity.
The solution: Just like adjusting your From address to your real name, using personalization in your emails is another way to make your business more human. Notice how the email below uses personalization and takes advantage of preview text.
The mistake: You’re sending to the wrong people.
If you own a burger joint in Philadelphia, you wouldn’t send newsletters to vegetarians in San Francisco, right? This is why segmenting and list management is key, especially for those with growing email lists.
The solution: Tell people exactly what they’re signing up for on your sign up form and stick to it. You can also use your form to segment people based on location, interests, or any other preference. If you only want to send emails to those who opened a particular message, you can segment based on open rates too. Once you’ve hit your sweet spot of segmentation, ask your readers for feedback so you can continue sending them content they want.
Chances are, you’re guilty of at least one of these mistakes. But don’t sweat it! You can put solutions to work by using an autoresponder like Aweber and readjust what you send to your readers.
What tips do you have for driving engagement in your emails? Share them in the comments section!
Source: http://blog.aweber.com/articles-tips/common-email-marketing-mistakes-why-your-emails-arent-getting-results.htm
What went wrong?
Whether your open rates are suffering or you’re not getting enough click-throughs, there are lots of common email marketing mistakes that even experienced marketers make. The good news is that they can be easily fixed to increase engagement.
The mistake: Your content is too self-promotional.
If you send an email announcing your new software update, who cares? But if you send an email announcing that it’s possible to cut video upload time in half because of your software update, people will pay attention. It’s all about showing the value of your services while promoting your business.
So, how can you do both?
The solution: First, identify your audience’s biggest problems. Let’s say you work with a recruiting agency. Your subscribers need resume help, so why not give them a checklist to help them fix common resume faux pas? Brainstorm content ideas based on real problems your customers are having, then show how your services can fix them. From there, you can create an editorial calendar for your email campaign that will help create focused, useful emails.
The mistake: Your readers think you’re a robot.
What does your From address say? Is it from your own name, your business’s name, or something else? If your open rates are suffering, it could be because your emails lack a personal touch. Your email’s content plays a key role here too. Are you speaking directly to your target audience, or are you using jargony, impersonal industry terms?
The solution: One easy way to make your brand more human is to personalize your From address – no one wants to talk to donotreply@email.com. To sound less robotic and more human, write in plain terms. For example, you wouldn’t described someone as economically marginalized, you would say they’re unemployed. Uncomplicated, easy-to-understand language wins over pretentious buzzwords any day.
The mistake: Your call to action isn’t very… actionable.
Take a look at this email from Studio Fitness.
There is no link to the nutritionist or personal trainer they introduce us to, and while they encourage us to sign up for a plan, there is no link to help us do that either. Oh, and we can’t access the Studio Fitness website from this email. Since there could be any number of gyms named Studio Fitness, leaving subscribers to find their website on their own is probably not a great idea.
The solution: What do you want people to do when they read your email? Should they visit your website, sign up for a trial, take a survey? Your call to action needs to be strong and authoritative – people need to be told what to do! Make your call to action loud and clear.
The mistake: You’re inconsistent.
How would you feel if you received a weekly newsletter and then, without warning, weekly emails turned into 10 emails a day? You wouldn’t be very happy, would you? It sounds a little ridiculous, but it happens more often than you think. Readers tune out and unsubscribe when they don’t receive what they signed up for.
The solution: Deliver the emails you promised in your sign up form and stick to an editorial calendar if possible.
The mistake: Your follow up series is nonexistent.
Let’s say you have a customer who starts a free trial of your software service, but they never follow through and make a purchase. Sad story, right? It certainly will be if you don’t have a triggered-based follow up series in place.
The solution: While you can’t control a customer’s behavior, you can control how you react to it. If you set up a follow up email that will automatically send to that customer at the end of their free trial, you have a better shot at keeping them engaged. If they had a question about your service, the email could prompt them to contact you, giving you another opportunity to make the sale.
The mistake: Your subject lines are boring.
Look at the subject line below. What does it tell us about what lies within the email?
Absolutely nothing. It’s not creative or relevant to the content inside, so there’s nothing about it that would make someone feel compelled to open it. And see that preview text after the subject line? (“If you’re having trouble…”) That space could’ve been used to tease the email too.
The solution: You have about 35 characters to work with in your subject line, so make them count! Your subject line needs to grab attention and tell the reader something about the email itself, because that what will sell them on opening your email.
The mistake: You’re not using personalization.
What’s the best way to get someone’s attention? You address them by their name! It works the same way with email. If you’re not using personalization on your most important messages, you’re missing a real opportunity.
The solution: Just like adjusting your From address to your real name, using personalization in your emails is another way to make your business more human. Notice how the email below uses personalization and takes advantage of preview text.
The mistake: You’re sending to the wrong people.
If you own a burger joint in Philadelphia, you wouldn’t send newsletters to vegetarians in San Francisco, right? This is why segmenting and list management is key, especially for those with growing email lists.
The solution: Tell people exactly what they’re signing up for on your sign up form and stick to it. You can also use your form to segment people based on location, interests, or any other preference. If you only want to send emails to those who opened a particular message, you can segment based on open rates too. Once you’ve hit your sweet spot of segmentation, ask your readers for feedback so you can continue sending them content they want.
Chances are, you’re guilty of at least one of these mistakes. But don’t sweat it! You can put solutions to work by using an autoresponder like Aweber and readjust what you send to your readers.
What tips do you have for driving engagement in your emails? Share them in the comments section!
Source: http://blog.aweber.com/articles-tips/common-email-marketing-mistakes-why-your-emails-arent-getting-results.htm
Tuesday 9 December 2014
Surviving School Holidays When You Work From Home
Working from home is great in terms of flexibility, and once your little ones are at school, it can be a fantastic alternative to having to juggle childcare arrangements as well as your work load.
Of course that’s all well and good until the holidays roll round! Even the most organised work at home parent can be forgiven for a slight groan at the thought of entertaining the kids full time while still trying to keep their work life in order too. Don’t panic though, it can be done, and here are some top tips to help:
Plan Ahead! The more work that you can get off your plate ahead of the holidays, the better! Anything that can be done ahead of time, scheduled in advance or even postponed until the kids are back at school will make life easier. Pulling a few late nights before the holidays might not be fun at the time, but they’ll be worth the effort in the long run!
Prioritise: Be realistic about what really has to be done, and what can probably wait. Knowing that the important tasks are taken care of will help you take things easier while the kids are off.
Schedule time to work: If possible, schedule times throughout the holidays that you’ll be working – whether that’s an hour a day or a couple of days a week, and stick to them! Don’t be tempted to ‘pick at’ bits of work outside those hours – give yourself a break and enjoy the time with your family.
Ask for Help! See if a family member is free to take your tots out for a day – it’s amazing how much you can achieve if you know you have a dedicated block of uninterrupted time to use! Grandparents love to take the kids out, or why not come to an arrangement with your child’s best friend, where you each take all the kids for a day so that the other can get on with everything else?
Get the kids involved! Children love to be treated like grownups, so let them take on some new responsibilities during the holidays – for example, they could set the table for dinner while you take ten minutes to check your emails.
Have a back-up plan: Those wails of ‘I’m bored!’ can be an inevitable part of the holidays, so stock up on a few ‘emergency activities’ for the times you need to keep your little ones occupied without giving them your undivided attention – a jigsaw puzzle, a sticker book, even just good old fashioned colouring, can all provide you with a precious 20 minute window if something urgent crops up.
Outsource: Handing the reigns to someone else for a few days might sound scary, but so long as you use an experienced company, you can be confident your business will be in safe hands. Social Sparkle offer a wide range of support to small businesses – from keeping your Facebook page updated to adding content to your blog.
What are your top tips for working from home when the kids are on holiday?
Source: http://www.mumpreneursnetworkingclub.co.uk/articles/20140403
Of course that’s all well and good until the holidays roll round! Even the most organised work at home parent can be forgiven for a slight groan at the thought of entertaining the kids full time while still trying to keep their work life in order too. Don’t panic though, it can be done, and here are some top tips to help:
Plan Ahead! The more work that you can get off your plate ahead of the holidays, the better! Anything that can be done ahead of time, scheduled in advance or even postponed until the kids are back at school will make life easier. Pulling a few late nights before the holidays might not be fun at the time, but they’ll be worth the effort in the long run!
Prioritise: Be realistic about what really has to be done, and what can probably wait. Knowing that the important tasks are taken care of will help you take things easier while the kids are off.
Schedule time to work: If possible, schedule times throughout the holidays that you’ll be working – whether that’s an hour a day or a couple of days a week, and stick to them! Don’t be tempted to ‘pick at’ bits of work outside those hours – give yourself a break and enjoy the time with your family.
Ask for Help! See if a family member is free to take your tots out for a day – it’s amazing how much you can achieve if you know you have a dedicated block of uninterrupted time to use! Grandparents love to take the kids out, or why not come to an arrangement with your child’s best friend, where you each take all the kids for a day so that the other can get on with everything else?
Get the kids involved! Children love to be treated like grownups, so let them take on some new responsibilities during the holidays – for example, they could set the table for dinner while you take ten minutes to check your emails.
Have a back-up plan: Those wails of ‘I’m bored!’ can be an inevitable part of the holidays, so stock up on a few ‘emergency activities’ for the times you need to keep your little ones occupied without giving them your undivided attention – a jigsaw puzzle, a sticker book, even just good old fashioned colouring, can all provide you with a precious 20 minute window if something urgent crops up.
Outsource: Handing the reigns to someone else for a few days might sound scary, but so long as you use an experienced company, you can be confident your business will be in safe hands. Social Sparkle offer a wide range of support to small businesses – from keeping your Facebook page updated to adding content to your blog.
What are your top tips for working from home when the kids are on holiday?
Source: http://www.mumpreneursnetworkingclub.co.uk/articles/20140403
Monday 8 December 2014
My top 11 blogging tips
Alright, so I’m taking a slightly different direction today. I was going through some emails this weekend, poring through questions from the best readers on the Internet (this would be you). I have quite the back log of fantastic reader questions and post suggestions, and I hope to tackle a number of them this fall.
Quite a few repeated themselves about the same subject — blogging. Apparently, some of you think I know how to blog daily while keeping a dust-free home and perfectly groomed children who love each other and never fight.
I have absolutely no idea how one does that. I’ll keep my eye out for the answer, but in the meantime, I I’ll compromise and answer the overarching blogging question, which basically asks, “How do I blog well?”
I don’t know everything about blogging. But I do know some things. Here are my best tips about blogging while still miraculously getting dinner on the table.
1. Decide your reasons.
Think through your purpose in blogging. Blogging for fun looks a bit different than blogging to promote your Etsy site, which also looks different than blogging to practice your writing skills and maybe land a book contract, which – guess what?, looks different than blogging to make a little side income with ad revenue.
You can have more than one reason, of course, so long as they don’t conflict. But if you’re blogging simply to share photos for the grandparents (a great reason, by the way), don’t be disappointed when the ad networks don’t come flooding your email inbox.
Likewise, if you’re blogging to earn revenue (and you therefore want to build an audience), don’t be frustrated when your readers move on when they haven’t heard from you in six weeks.
Blog consistently with your main purpose in doing so.
2. Flow with the seasons.
There are some seasons in life that are more conducive to more in-depth blogging. Enjoy those, and reap their benefits by reading and writing all you can about the topic. For me, I started Simple Mom when my second was a newborn. I nursed all day long, so during those long periods of sitting, I read and read and read some more about blogging.
I started with ProBlogger and went from there, in case you’re wondering.
It wasn’t long before Reed was walking all over the place and scooting the step stool up to the kitchen counter holding the knife block, so needless to say, I was up on my toes much more then. I didn’t read much on the subject of blogging any more.
Go with the season you’re in. Don’t fight it. Another season is probably just around the corner.
3. Marry and keep an amazing man.
Joking. Well, sort of. Honestly, one of the reasons I started Simple Mom — and why I can continue to keep it up — is because my husband Kyle is my most loyal reader and fan. He is a big reason I can write regularly throughout the week, and he sees himself just as much a part of the blog because he helps with the laundry and dishes and carpooling.
I am blessed in that we both work from home. We tag-team our approach to work and parenting, and every Sunday evening we dig up the weekly calendar to decide who works when.
I know not everyone can do this. But I add this to the list because I want you to know that he helps an enormous amount, so I definitely don’t “do it all.” Not by a long stretch.
4. Be you…
Don’t try to be Heather Armstrong, or Ree Drummond, or Ann Voskamp, or Amanda Soule, or Alli Worthington. Be you. Write like you. It’s way more fun. You’ll definitely stick with it longer, and people will enjoy reading you more.
5. …But keep your readers in mind.
This is particularly true if you’re writing with the purpose of generating a community or earning revenue in some form. Yes, in some way you’ll still write for you, but if you’ve created a place where people feel like they belong, like they’re in a community — it’s almost like they have part ownership.
That doesn’t mean you worry yourself to sleep making sure everyone likes you. You still write for you, and the things that interest you. But keep the readers in mind who are blessing you with their time and their eyes.
If they’ve expressed an interest in a topic, go with it.
And also — you can’t say thank you enough. Thank your readers all the time. I slacked off showing my gratitude the first half of this year, and it showed in my writing. Plus, I missed saying thank you, and it made blogging less fun.
Thank you, by the way.
6. Get to know people, and ask good questions.
I’ve rarely met an unfriendly blogger. I’ve met extremely busy bloggers, but I can’t imagine any blogger I’ve met who knows a thing or two honestly wants to withhold major blogging secrets or not reach out and say hello.
Don’t think of bloggers with big audiences as anyone different than you. If you have a good question, just ask. Get to the point, and don’t expect an answer right away, but don’t let intimidation or cynicism stop you from initiating a conversation.
Also, make friends. Blogging is much more fun when you make blogging friends. Email or tweet a blogger, and see if you hit it off.
A hint on this last tip: Reach out to a blogger that seems to have about the same size audience, or who writes about the same topic as you. That way, you can share ideas and experiences as you journey together. (But you never know, really — Alli and I are fantastic friends, yet our blogs could not be more different.)
7. Drink water, get exercise, and sleep.
Blogging is a sedentary activity, and if you’re not careful, you’ll spend hours and hours of your day not moving much. Move a little every day. Drink water constantly, and keep a cupful right by your laptop. And go to sleep. Shut off that computer and enjoy the three-dimensional world before hitting the pillow.
8. Organize yourself.
If you want to create a blog that posts regularly, has a specific niche, and fosters a community, then you’ve got to plan a bit in advance. Pencil in regular writing, editing, and networking times throughout your week.
Write an editorial calendar. Right now my posts for Simple Mom are more-or-less planned for the next two months, and I keep track of them on a separate calendar within my Google calendars.
Oh, and don’t leave your email client, Facebook, or Twitter open while you write and edit. You’ll never stay focused.
9. Use “use” instead of “utilize.”
Edit, edit, and then edit some more. For every hour I spend writing, I spend about three editing. Choose your words carefully. Spell correctly. Use adverbs where there should be adverbs; adjectives where there should be adjectives.
Get to the point — I’m regularly surprised how much deleting I do before I publish a post. I’ve already deleted paragraphs from this post, in fact.
Don’t use too many exclamation points, and don’t use emoticons — unless you’re blogging for yourself, or for fun. Or if this is your genuine style of writing (see point number four). Then go nuts.
And almost every time, “use” is more appropriate and more pleasant to the ears and eyes than “utilize.” I’m just saying.
10. Don’t forget about the kids.
Remember your priorities. What good is an enormously successful blog if your family is left in the dust? It’s a blessing if you can contribute to your family’s income through your blog, but not to the detriment of your relationships, well-being, and unity.
Close the laptop regularly, and give your kids quality face time. Go on dates with your spouse. Continually kindle your three-dimensional friends.
11. Keep it fun.
This last point is definitely not the least important. Because at the end of the day, if you don’t have a ball running your blog, then you’ll fizzle out, and it’ll show in your writing.
If you’ve noticed you’re no longer having fun, change it up. Take a little break (if your blog is more than just a hobby, re-run posts at least a year old, or find some guest posters). Try vlogging, or taking more photos.
Listen to music while you blog. I do. It makes it a lot more fun.
I could say a bit more about blogging, but I’ll stop for now. There’s already so much out there about the subject — if you’d like to learn more, I’d start with ProBlogger, Blog Coach, and Blogging Basics 101.
Really, at the end of the day, you’ve just got to be you. Your blog, your family, and your self will be all the better because of it.
Alright, fellow bloggers, now it’s your turn. What’s your best blogging tip?
Source
By: TSH
I love this post and it has been such an inspiration for me, thanks TSH!
Quite a few repeated themselves about the same subject — blogging. Apparently, some of you think I know how to blog daily while keeping a dust-free home and perfectly groomed children who love each other and never fight.
I have absolutely no idea how one does that. I’ll keep my eye out for the answer, but in the meantime, I I’ll compromise and answer the overarching blogging question, which basically asks, “How do I blog well?”
I don’t know everything about blogging. But I do know some things. Here are my best tips about blogging while still miraculously getting dinner on the table.
1. Decide your reasons.
Think through your purpose in blogging. Blogging for fun looks a bit different than blogging to promote your Etsy site, which also looks different than blogging to practice your writing skills and maybe land a book contract, which – guess what?, looks different than blogging to make a little side income with ad revenue.
You can have more than one reason, of course, so long as they don’t conflict. But if you’re blogging simply to share photos for the grandparents (a great reason, by the way), don’t be disappointed when the ad networks don’t come flooding your email inbox.
Likewise, if you’re blogging to earn revenue (and you therefore want to build an audience), don’t be frustrated when your readers move on when they haven’t heard from you in six weeks.
Blog consistently with your main purpose in doing so.
2. Flow with the seasons.
There are some seasons in life that are more conducive to more in-depth blogging. Enjoy those, and reap their benefits by reading and writing all you can about the topic. For me, I started Simple Mom when my second was a newborn. I nursed all day long, so during those long periods of sitting, I read and read and read some more about blogging.
I started with ProBlogger and went from there, in case you’re wondering.
It wasn’t long before Reed was walking all over the place and scooting the step stool up to the kitchen counter holding the knife block, so needless to say, I was up on my toes much more then. I didn’t read much on the subject of blogging any more.
Go with the season you’re in. Don’t fight it. Another season is probably just around the corner.
3. Marry and keep an amazing man.
Joking. Well, sort of. Honestly, one of the reasons I started Simple Mom — and why I can continue to keep it up — is because my husband Kyle is my most loyal reader and fan. He is a big reason I can write regularly throughout the week, and he sees himself just as much a part of the blog because he helps with the laundry and dishes and carpooling.
I am blessed in that we both work from home. We tag-team our approach to work and parenting, and every Sunday evening we dig up the weekly calendar to decide who works when.
I know not everyone can do this. But I add this to the list because I want you to know that he helps an enormous amount, so I definitely don’t “do it all.” Not by a long stretch.
4. Be you…
Don’t try to be Heather Armstrong, or Ree Drummond, or Ann Voskamp, or Amanda Soule, or Alli Worthington. Be you. Write like you. It’s way more fun. You’ll definitely stick with it longer, and people will enjoy reading you more.
5. …But keep your readers in mind.
This is particularly true if you’re writing with the purpose of generating a community or earning revenue in some form. Yes, in some way you’ll still write for you, but if you’ve created a place where people feel like they belong, like they’re in a community — it’s almost like they have part ownership.
That doesn’t mean you worry yourself to sleep making sure everyone likes you. You still write for you, and the things that interest you. But keep the readers in mind who are blessing you with their time and their eyes.
If they’ve expressed an interest in a topic, go with it.
And also — you can’t say thank you enough. Thank your readers all the time. I slacked off showing my gratitude the first half of this year, and it showed in my writing. Plus, I missed saying thank you, and it made blogging less fun.
Thank you, by the way.
6. Get to know people, and ask good questions.
I’ve rarely met an unfriendly blogger. I’ve met extremely busy bloggers, but I can’t imagine any blogger I’ve met who knows a thing or two honestly wants to withhold major blogging secrets or not reach out and say hello.
Don’t think of bloggers with big audiences as anyone different than you. If you have a good question, just ask. Get to the point, and don’t expect an answer right away, but don’t let intimidation or cynicism stop you from initiating a conversation.
Also, make friends. Blogging is much more fun when you make blogging friends. Email or tweet a blogger, and see if you hit it off.
A hint on this last tip: Reach out to a blogger that seems to have about the same size audience, or who writes about the same topic as you. That way, you can share ideas and experiences as you journey together. (But you never know, really — Alli and I are fantastic friends, yet our blogs could not be more different.)
7. Drink water, get exercise, and sleep.
Blogging is a sedentary activity, and if you’re not careful, you’ll spend hours and hours of your day not moving much. Move a little every day. Drink water constantly, and keep a cupful right by your laptop. And go to sleep. Shut off that computer and enjoy the three-dimensional world before hitting the pillow.
8. Organize yourself.
If you want to create a blog that posts regularly, has a specific niche, and fosters a community, then you’ve got to plan a bit in advance. Pencil in regular writing, editing, and networking times throughout your week.
Write an editorial calendar. Right now my posts for Simple Mom are more-or-less planned for the next two months, and I keep track of them on a separate calendar within my Google calendars.
Oh, and don’t leave your email client, Facebook, or Twitter open while you write and edit. You’ll never stay focused.
9. Use “use” instead of “utilize.”
Edit, edit, and then edit some more. For every hour I spend writing, I spend about three editing. Choose your words carefully. Spell correctly. Use adverbs where there should be adverbs; adjectives where there should be adjectives.
Get to the point — I’m regularly surprised how much deleting I do before I publish a post. I’ve already deleted paragraphs from this post, in fact.
Don’t use too many exclamation points, and don’t use emoticons — unless you’re blogging for yourself, or for fun. Or if this is your genuine style of writing (see point number four). Then go nuts.
And almost every time, “use” is more appropriate and more pleasant to the ears and eyes than “utilize.” I’m just saying.
10. Don’t forget about the kids.
Remember your priorities. What good is an enormously successful blog if your family is left in the dust? It’s a blessing if you can contribute to your family’s income through your blog, but not to the detriment of your relationships, well-being, and unity.
Close the laptop regularly, and give your kids quality face time. Go on dates with your spouse. Continually kindle your three-dimensional friends.
11. Keep it fun.
This last point is definitely not the least important. Because at the end of the day, if you don’t have a ball running your blog, then you’ll fizzle out, and it’ll show in your writing.
If you’ve noticed you’re no longer having fun, change it up. Take a little break (if your blog is more than just a hobby, re-run posts at least a year old, or find some guest posters). Try vlogging, or taking more photos.
Listen to music while you blog. I do. It makes it a lot more fun.
I could say a bit more about blogging, but I’ll stop for now. There’s already so much out there about the subject — if you’d like to learn more, I’d start with ProBlogger, Blog Coach, and Blogging Basics 101.
Really, at the end of the day, you’ve just got to be you. Your blog, your family, and your self will be all the better because of it.
Alright, fellow bloggers, now it’s your turn. What’s your best blogging tip?
Source
By: TSH
I love this post and it has been such an inspiration for me, thanks TSH!
Saturday 6 December 2014
The State Of Digital Marketing In 2015
Planning ahead for 2015? Don't miss these key trends in digital marketing, as examined by columnist James Green.
The digital marketing industry is experiencing a major transformation.
The current state of digital is directly tied to data. Data are everywhere, informing marketers about audience interests, consumer intent, and device activity.
As mobile use continues to increase and media is progressively being bought programmatically, consumers expect a seamless and entertaining online experience.
With marketers and their agencies well underway with planning for the year ahead, here are a few trends that likely will be top of mind in 2015.
1. Big Data Will Become Bigger
Companies are sitting on massive amounts of analytics related to sales, purchase history, search activity, site interactions and more.
While this data is valuable, any single data point taken in isolation can give you a very warped view of the customer.
Linking data together and leveraging a historical trail of data points allows you to obtain bigger insights into what your customers are looking for and where they are going next.
The world of big data gives marketers the most complete obtainable customer profile, which informs audience strategies, smarter media buying and creative decisions.
Big data will only become bigger and bigger as data sources are combined.
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2. First- And Third-Party Data Will Be A Hot Topic
Within the world of big data is the combination of first and third party data sources. Brands will be retargeting customers based on their buying patterns, combining their own customer data with intent data from around the web.
Marketers want to know when their customers are in market for a good or service so that they can sell to them before they visit a website.
Incorporating data from social, location, search and site will improve the ability to attract customers at multiple stages of the consumer funnel, improving and optimizing your retargeting strategy for both prospecting and retention.
3. Automation Will Continue To Increase
Eventually, all media buying will become automated.
The swapping of insertion orders will be replaced by systems that seamlessly communicate with each other to reduce the duplication of work and improve accountability, measurability and efficiency.
The more interesting trend to watch will be how much media will switch to RTB. Over time, it’s likely that 100% of direct response advertising will be bought in real time; but how far up the funnel this trend will go remains to be seen.
There will always be a place for Super Bowl ads and other high-impact units on high-impact sites. However, these ads will be bought where there’s a large audience and will not be based on individuals, so they won’t be bought through RTB.
That said, over time, more and more advertising is going to be bought in real time, even TV.
4. Ad Fraud Will Still Be A Concern
Ad fraud won’t be much more than a blip on the road to RTB dominance. There are many companies and organizations fighting it.
Fraud, or suspicious activity as it’s sometimes euphemistically called, is simply a duplication of what happened to search at the turn of the century.
Search was easier to control because there was really only one provider (Google), and they fought it directly.
Now, fraud is recognized to be 5-10% of all search clicks. Display fraud is more complicated because of the large number of players in the space: publishers, ad servers, Supply Side Providers (SSPs), Demand Side Providers (DSPs), ad exchanges and other intermediaries.
As of now, there are a myriad of providers that can help, and only the reckless few don’t use these tools to avoid fraudulent activity.
Unfortunately, there will never be a real “crackdown” on fraudsters because these players are based in countries where these activities are not necessarily illegal. So, chasing them down seems unlikely to happen.
5. The Need For Personalized Advertising Will Grow
The opportunities for personalized advertising will continue to grow as the adoption of apps, location based advertising and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) increases.
There are so many data elements available to advertisers, enabling them to transform generic advertising into relevant marketing in real time, regardless of their device and location.
We will see this trend continue into 2015, as purchase, product level and search activity are used to predict consumer intent and therefore, inform which ad to show, and when, as well as what creative elements should be optimized within the ad itself.
In 2014 we witnessed new platforms, channels and technologies that led to major shifts in the industry and positioned data as the main ingredient for finding, reaching and engaging customers.
The biggest theme of 2015 will be “big data” as we see data sources coming together to create meaningful 360-degree customer views and actionable analytics that inform and even transform your marketing strategy.
Sourse: http://marketingland.com/state-digital-marketing-2015-109130
By James Green
The digital marketing industry is experiencing a major transformation.
The current state of digital is directly tied to data. Data are everywhere, informing marketers about audience interests, consumer intent, and device activity.
As mobile use continues to increase and media is progressively being bought programmatically, consumers expect a seamless and entertaining online experience.
With marketers and their agencies well underway with planning for the year ahead, here are a few trends that likely will be top of mind in 2015.
1. Big Data Will Become Bigger
Companies are sitting on massive amounts of analytics related to sales, purchase history, search activity, site interactions and more.
While this data is valuable, any single data point taken in isolation can give you a very warped view of the customer.
Linking data together and leveraging a historical trail of data points allows you to obtain bigger insights into what your customers are looking for and where they are going next.
The world of big data gives marketers the most complete obtainable customer profile, which informs audience strategies, smarter media buying and creative decisions.
Big data will only become bigger and bigger as data sources are combined.
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2. First- And Third-Party Data Will Be A Hot Topic
Within the world of big data is the combination of first and third party data sources. Brands will be retargeting customers based on their buying patterns, combining their own customer data with intent data from around the web.
Marketers want to know when their customers are in market for a good or service so that they can sell to them before they visit a website.
Incorporating data from social, location, search and site will improve the ability to attract customers at multiple stages of the consumer funnel, improving and optimizing your retargeting strategy for both prospecting and retention.
3. Automation Will Continue To Increase
Eventually, all media buying will become automated.
The swapping of insertion orders will be replaced by systems that seamlessly communicate with each other to reduce the duplication of work and improve accountability, measurability and efficiency.
The more interesting trend to watch will be how much media will switch to RTB. Over time, it’s likely that 100% of direct response advertising will be bought in real time; but how far up the funnel this trend will go remains to be seen.
There will always be a place for Super Bowl ads and other high-impact units on high-impact sites. However, these ads will be bought where there’s a large audience and will not be based on individuals, so they won’t be bought through RTB.
That said, over time, more and more advertising is going to be bought in real time, even TV.
4. Ad Fraud Will Still Be A Concern
Ad fraud won’t be much more than a blip on the road to RTB dominance. There are many companies and organizations fighting it.
Fraud, or suspicious activity as it’s sometimes euphemistically called, is simply a duplication of what happened to search at the turn of the century.
Search was easier to control because there was really only one provider (Google), and they fought it directly.
Now, fraud is recognized to be 5-10% of all search clicks. Display fraud is more complicated because of the large number of players in the space: publishers, ad servers, Supply Side Providers (SSPs), Demand Side Providers (DSPs), ad exchanges and other intermediaries.
As of now, there are a myriad of providers that can help, and only the reckless few don’t use these tools to avoid fraudulent activity.
Unfortunately, there will never be a real “crackdown” on fraudsters because these players are based in countries where these activities are not necessarily illegal. So, chasing them down seems unlikely to happen.
5. The Need For Personalized Advertising Will Grow
The opportunities for personalized advertising will continue to grow as the adoption of apps, location based advertising and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) increases.
There are so many data elements available to advertisers, enabling them to transform generic advertising into relevant marketing in real time, regardless of their device and location.
We will see this trend continue into 2015, as purchase, product level and search activity are used to predict consumer intent and therefore, inform which ad to show, and when, as well as what creative elements should be optimized within the ad itself.
In 2014 we witnessed new platforms, channels and technologies that led to major shifts in the industry and positioned data as the main ingredient for finding, reaching and engaging customers.
The biggest theme of 2015 will be “big data” as we see data sources coming together to create meaningful 360-degree customer views and actionable analytics that inform and even transform your marketing strategy.
Sourse: http://marketingland.com/state-digital-marketing-2015-109130
By James Green
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