South OC Cars & Coffee San Clemente

This week’s South Orange County Cars and Coffee was full of supercars, especially Ferraris and McLarens. There was also a VW Bug (also known as a Punch Buggy) that was powered by a 427 cubic inch (that’s 7 liters) big block Chevy motor! That’s way too much motor for a bug, but it’s one way to pack a big punch into a punch buggy!

This episode of the Dot Com Lifestyle Vlog was filmed using the new Sony A7III and 16-35 F/2.8 super wide angle lens equipped with a Tiffen 82mm Variable ND Filter. Let me know what you think of of the setup.

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The Ingredients of High Converting Landing Pages

This is a great question often asked by the best bloggers within the industry. For those of you new to the world of blogging, “LP” stands for landing pages, which are often used to get visitors to opt in to a newsletter or subscription list. By having people opt-in, you are increasing the chances of sending follow-ups and building a more personal relationship with the visitor. This helps streamline your bottom line of creating conversions and profits more quickly. However, creating the right type of landing pages does take time and effort, which is why it is important you read case studies to find out what has worked in the past.

Over the years, I’ve had a lot of experience with landing pages and have tested what works compared to what doesn’t. Anyway, let’s look at a few key ingredients of a successful landing page so you can implement these into your blog going forward.

Meets the Expectations

What do I mean by this? The answer is very simple…

The visitor has arrived on your blog because they expect to find value and a solution to a common problem. It’s important that you meet all expectations when creating your landing page because this will increase the chances of getting a person to opt-in. For example, if I write content on “weight loss” and my audiences expects to find diet plans then I won’t be able to convert them with a landing page based on “automotive tips”…right? So, here is the first ingredient…

You have to make sure your landing page meets all requirements and expectations because this will help with conversions. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Remember your purpose
• Keep in mind the keywords bringing people to your LP
• Always try to meet expectations

To capture the visitor’s attention quickly, you should focus on creative headlines focused on the topic and reason they have come to your landing page.

Trust and Value

Landing page conversions are increased when you provide trust and value to your readers. There are a few ways you can achieve this and I’d like to discuss the two most valuable:

First, trust and value is achieved when you are sending loyal readers to your LP and these people are already familiar with your brand. This means they trust your content and are more likely to opt-in to your form. You’ll have different offers throughout your blog so sending a quick follow-up or popup to existing visitors is a great way to produce conversions. Secondly, testimonials and reviews have worked well for huge brands and they continue to utilize this strategy going forward. For example, if you are selling a product, then think about how easy it is to convert visitors when they know others have had a great experience on your blog. Consider how easy it is to convert visitors when they see others have found your products and services useful.

Converting is Easy

An optimal way to increase conversions is by ONLY asking for the information you need when they arrive on your page. For example, if you are offering a FREE eBook, there is NO reason to ask for phone number and address. This just complicates the opt-in process and forces people to move away. I like to keep my forms simple and don’t even ask for a name on my forms. However, the form you choose should, and will, depend on your niche and what type of subscriber the visitors are becoming. If they are signing up for a FREE trial, then you might need to ask for more information than the normal opt-in form does.

Here are a few more tips you should consider going forward:

• Keep your focus in mind when designing your landing page
• Only ask for minimum name and email (depends on type of opt-in obviously).
• Don’t be shy to split test different types of forms.
• Never forget to provide trust and value
• Keep statistics and optimize along the way

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

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How I Got Back On Google After Being Slapped

Yesterday, I told you the story of how Google nuked me from their search engine and how I was able to survive it. In this blog post I want to share with you how I got back into Google’s good graces and the lessons learned from it.

Since the challenge of building a blog without Google was pretty much done and proven, the new challenge was trying to get back into Google. Would Google even talk to me after I’ve made them look bad for three years?

The normal way for getting a banned/slapped site back into Google is to correct whatever got you banned in the first place and then send a reconsideration request using Google Webmaster Tools.

There is no assurance or guarantee that Google will reconsider you and let you back in. You just basically have to hope and pray.

This was something I didn’t want to do.

Instead, I talked to my friend Neil Patel. Neil told me the best way to get back into Google was just to talk to Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam team at that time. Neil told me that Matt is an extremely fair guy and would be open to the idea of letting me back in even after all those violations I pulled.

Neil facilitated an introduction and Matt and I exchanged several emails. I got the feeling that Matt must work 24 hours a day because every time he emailed me, it was after 10PM.

Neil was correct in saying that Matt was extremely fair and after correcting one misunderstanding, Matt informed me that a member of his team had submitted a reconsideration request on my behalf. The next day, I was back in Google!

There are two take-away lessons you can learn from this.

The first one is… It’s not what you know, it’s who you know!

Without Neil Patel, I would have never got an audience with Matt Cutts. Instead, I’ll be hoping and praying like every webmaster who submitted a reconsideration request. Neil allowed me to go straight to The Man and get my blog back in Google almost instantly.

This is why networking is so important to me, and why I attend a lot of industry events. Your network is your net worth!

The second take away is… Have an email list!

If I didn’t have an email list when Google slapped hit, I wouldn’t be around today. The list allowed me to survived three years with no Google traffic.

My email list is the foundation of my entire online business. Without it, I would be just another broke blogger making peanuts, instead of of a millionaire blogger living the Dot Com Lifestyle.

If you truly want to make money online and live the Dot Com Lifestyle, you MUST have a list. And you MUST start it from day 1 (that’s today).

My friends over at Constant Contact would like to offer you a free 60 day trial to test out their world class list building service.

The free trial will allow you to explore all the campaign types and features that Constant Contact has to offer. You can create as many campaigns as you want, and try out all the different campaign types available.

And, unlike other trials, you don’t need a credit card to sign up. Test it out for a full 60 days and then decide if you want to be a customer. I’m sure you will once you see how powerful the service is.

In upcoming post seris, I will show you how to take full advantage of all the unique features Constant Contact has to offer. Go set up your free trial now so you learn can along with the training. Remember, it’s free and no credit card is required.

Start Your Free Constant Contact Trial. No Risk. No Credit Card Required.

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Tomorrow’s Big Win Starts Yesterday

One of these days, you’re going to be the head of one of those newsworthy Internet startups that eventually goes IPO or gets bought up by Facebook, Apple or Google. One of these days, you’re going to be one of those big, successful online influencers who rakes in thousands of dollars for a single tweet or Instagram post. One of these days, you’ll be sipping on umbrella drinks on some tropical beach somewhere, as your autopilot online business generates consistent passive income to sustain your elaborate lifestyle.

One of these days. But you can’t today, because you’ve got to go and pick up the kids from band practice or you need to go to the grocery store to pick up some oranges or you need to catch up on the latest season of Black Mirror on Netflix. Seriously, Black Mirror is such a great show.

And then the next day rolls around and you discover another YouTube series you want to watch, another game you want to play, another cafe you want to relax at for hours at a time. Or maybe you have a goal of saving up to buy your first home or you want to launch that big blog or any number of other objectives. And yet, you never get around to getting started, because it seems like such a daunting task.

That’s the problem. And it’s a big problem, because it’s so easy to fall into the trap of putting off to tomorrow what you can do today. You put it off because it seems to scary and intimidating, so you decide that you’ll want for a better opportunity. You’ll wait until the circumstances are better. You wait until you have all your ducks in a row, so to speak.

But that will never happen. You will never encounter a situation wherein all the circumstances are perfectly aligned in your favor. There will never be a time when everything will be coming up Milhouse, as it were.

If you decide that you’ll get around to tackling these bold ambitions and these big dreams some day, then you will have to face the harsh reality that someday never comes. Put another way, there are seven days in the week and none of them are called someday. This is true regardless of the goal that you have in mind.

You might look upon people who have achieved great things, both online and off, and you might look upon them with a tremendous sense of envy. The thing is that this great success you see is only the tip of the iceberg. You see the big win, but you don’t see everything hidden beneath the surface. You don’t see the years of sacrifice and hard work that let to that “breakthrough moment.”

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was recently named as the richest man on the planet with an estimated net worth of $106 billion. The company has seen a lot of huge successes over the years, growing to become the biggest name in online commerce. But it also has not been without its share of failures and shortcomings.

Remember the Fire Phone? That was a pretty big flop. And while Amazon Prime Music and Amazon Prime Video have made positive strides, they’re still easily overshadowed by competitors like Spotify and Netflix. What we need to realize, on a more humble scale, is that the big wins are not things that will happen overnight.

It’s only when you chip away at these big goals over an extended period of time with a number of different tactics. It’s only when you endure a number of false starts, stumbly steps, innumerable setbacks, and tiny pick-me-ups that you move toward the grander vision. And at the end of the day, “lucky breaks” much more readily come to those who are prepared to meet such opportunities halfway.

Are you ready to win tomorrow?

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MOST Important Questions to Ask Before Starting a Blog – Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my series, where I’m exploring the important questions to ask before starting a blog. These questions will help you get a better idea of what you are trying to achieve with your business and audience. By creating an outline of your objective, you will have clear focus and this will help guide your content writing. I believe a successful business has everything to do with the ability for you to resonate with your readers. If this is clear, then you will have no problems achieving your bottom line. In part 1, we discussed the following:

• Importance of audience
• The purpose
• Why You’re Unique
• Different Content Types

Let’s jump into Part 2 and look at some other important questions to ask before getting started.

What are My Deadlines?

Blogging is very time consuming and requires enormous dedication. That’s why, before you start, it’s important to find out the type of deadlines you are working with so you can organize accordingly. From my experience, here are a few things to consider:

• How often you have to write content
• How often you should be publishing content
• How often you should research

Having a solid posting schedule and focused deadlines will ensure you keep a consistent flow of content, which is important to build momentum and brand awareness.

Do I Need to Hire Anyone?

Depending on the type of niche you are involved with, it’s important to explore your options. For example, you might be in a niche that you’re passionate about, but need to explore topics that require professional feedback. If you are writing about nutrition and dieting, then you might need to hire someone with a Ph.D. in nutrition to write content. I usually recommend people get involved in a niche they have experience, but it’s not uncommon for you to hire someone to write based on previous case studies, etc.

Whatever avenue you take, it’s important you do two things:

First, budget yourself so you’ll know exactly how much you’ll be spending on hiring people. By doing this, you are making sure you have a dedicated budget for your writing. Secondly, you can do research, making sure you hire the right people for the job. The most important thing is to find people who are experienced and actually provide value so your readers can pull substance out of your content. Once you have a handful of people right for the job, then you can continue to pay them to write content, but the hardest part is pretty much out of the way.

How Will I Market My Blog?

Before you start blogging, it’s important to explore ways to market your blog going forward. These days, you have so many options available to you so you need to find what works the best and will drive relevant traffic to your blog. For example, here are some options you might want to consider going forward:

• Social media
• PPC
• Forums
• Relevant blogs
• Banner ads
• Email marketing

Some methods will work better than others so it’s important to split test until you find the ones that work best. The methods you choose will also depend on your budget but the good news is you have free methods available like social media, forums, and blogs. Here’s the point I’m trying to make:

Before you start your blog, become familiar with as many marketing strategies so you can start implementing them right away. The more you know about them and their interface, the better you can apply them to your blog. Don’t forget to have a system in place to track results so you can optimize at a later time going forward.

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How to Think About Productivity as a Dot Com Pro

The basic concept of productivity likely rose to prominence some time during the Industrial Revolution. Sure, people who worked on farms up until that point were probably interested in how much their fields could yield each season or how many eggs they could get their chickens to lay, but the rise of manufacturing really got the bosses interested in how much they could produce each day.

Remember that the root of the word “productivity” is “product.”

In the context of manufacturing, the number of units a factory worker can output in any given shift is instrumental to how much money that company can make. If every widget you sell brings in five bucks, you’d certainly be making more money if the factory worker manufactured 100 widgets in a shift as opposed to 10 widgets. Let’s just set the complications of supply and demand aside for the sake of simplicity.

Today, this manner of conceptualizing productivity still rings through how most people approach the world of work. If you are in the business of making physical things, maybe it’s still relevant, but so many of us work in industries that deliver far more intangible value. Just getting things done isn’t enough and this is especially true if you want to make money online.

The way that we think about productivity has to change, because it’s not just about how many hours you put in each day or how many “units” you’re able to produce. It’s far more complicated than that.

One guy might be able to bust out ten different logo designs in one day, because they’re all from templates that he only alters slightly for each client. He delivers these logos to his customers on Fiverr for five bucks a piece, putting $50 in his pocket (before fees and such). That’s ten logos.

Meanwhile, someone else came up with a new logo for the City of Vancouver in 2017 and got paid $8,000 for it. Some people might think that rate is atrocious, given the similarity to the logo it replaces, but at the end of the day, that’s how much was paid.

Let’s assume the new Vancouver logo took more than a day. Let’s say it took 20 business days (one month). Even at that pace, the rate works out to $400 a day, eight times what the Fiverr logo designer is making. The Fiverr guy may be more productive in the traditional sense, coming up with 200 logos a month (if he keeps up the 10/day pace) for $1,000, but just a single City of Vancouver logo netted $8,000. Who’s more productive?

There is a reason why John focuses most of his energy on higher ticket value items for affiliate marketing. Convincing one person to spend a few thousand dollars on a training program is arguably just as much work as convincing someone to spend $5 on a widget, but the former results in a much heftier commission. If you’re going to put in the same amount of work, you want to maximize your earnings from that work.

That’s one point.

The second point that you need to understand as a self-employed online professional is that you cannot assign a dollar value to everything that you do. This is not an hourly job where you get paid simply for showing up to work (and that is arguably the greatest advantage to the dot com lifestyle, as your earning potential is literally limitless even if your time isn’t).

A great example of this might be if you are writing an ebook or developing a membership site.

A great example of this might be if you are writing a book or developing a membership site. You could spend days, weeks or even months (or years!) toiling away at this project without bringing in a single penny for your efforts. You may have written 200 pages, but can you really measure your productivity based on raw word count?

It won’t be until you actually publish the book or launch the membership site that you will have any idea how “productive” you really were. And even then, there are so many side benefits that extend far beyond the number of copies you sell or the number of paid memberships you’re able to get. Putting your name on the cover of a book adds credibility and developing that membership site adds to your skill set.

When you take on a longer term perspective, you may reconsider just how “productive” you were for those days, weeks or months you were working on the book or membership site. If the project is a total bust, maybe you weren’t being especially productive and your time could have been better spent. If the project is a huge hit, then maybe you were being way more productive than you could have imagined. You just never know.

Don’t worry too much about how “productive” you are each day. Don’t dwell on your daily earnings too much. Instead, look further down the horizon and think about how you can do better rather than simply doing more. Being busy is not the same as being productive.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

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MOST Important Questions to Ask Before Starting a Blog – Part 1

Blogging is a tough business and it becomes tougher if you don’t know your objective and mission. However, over the years, I’ve found there are certain questions I can ask that will help me outline my purpose so I’m better in charge of the questions I’d like to answer through my blog. I’ve been a true believer that if you want to succeed, then you should have a clear purpose that solves a common problem within your niche. Only then will you be able to attract the right type of audience and keep pushing forward. If you can attract traffic and build loyalty, then it just makes it easier for you to prosper in the world of blogging. If you don’t believe me, then simply ask some of the MOST success bloggers within the industry. With this said,

I’d like to start this “2” part series, where I go over some of the MOST common questions to ask before you sit down and outline your blog’s purpose. These are very simple questions, but they will have a huge affect on your success.

Let’s get started…

The Audience

Once you’ve established your audience, you’ll have a better idea of your purpose, which we’ll discuss in the next section. However, you need a great outline of your audience so you know which way to aim your focus. By doing some research beforehand, you’ll be able to find out who your audience is and then create content to stir their interest, which is very important for your success. Keep in mind, blogging is very competitive and the ones that survive are those that attract a wide enough audience. Here are a few things you can do to research your audience…

• Research “target” keywords
• Visit competitors and see what they are doing
• Use Alexa.com because they provide a good breakdown.
• Test of Facebook ads because they have a great filter system.

The Purpose

It’s one thing to know your audience, but a completely different thing to have a clear idea of what you are trying to do. For example,

• Are you trying to solve a problem?
• Are you creating a debate?
• Are you trying to make money?
• Are you selling products and/or services?

All these questions will allow you to guide your content writing and create something engaging. This is important if you want to build momentum and have a successful blog. However, purpose comes after knowing your audience because it’s only when you know who you are writing for that you can create what they are looking for.

Why am I Unique?

It’s no secret you’re going to have competition so you have to ask yourself: Why am I Unique? This will make you think long and hard about the things you can do to stand out compared to others within your niche. Some blogs will focus on “expert interviews” while others will focus on “infographics” so think of ways you can stand out. I know many bloggers who have done very well by doing live case studies.

If you can find ways to stand out then you’ll have a way to build momentum against your competition and this will help spurt your growth quickly. It’s a simple question to ask yourself and something you should think about before you start blogging so you don’t hit a roadblock afterward.

The Content Types

If you decided you’re going to be unique because you’ll be a tutorial blog, then you have to figure out the ways you will present your content. For example, you will solve common problems within your niche so now write down ways you’ll achieve this. At this point, you have many content types available, all proven to be very effective, like:

• Video posts
• Infographics
• Images
• Text content

These are all great ways to present content and some will work better than others. I encourage all of you to try different things and find out how your audience engages with each. By doing this simple trial and error, you’ll be able to find what works well and increase engagement on your blog. With higher engagement comes a better chance of building more social shares and conversions. Here’s a quick tip:

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing online because you have to split test to find out what works compared to others. After, it’s time to simply optimize and push forward.

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Exploring ROI Beyond the Numbers

If there is at least one thing you can learn from television shows like Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank, it’s that you should always have a great handle on your numbers. Whether your business is online or offline, physical or digital, you need to know your numbers. How much revenue did you pull in last year? How many units were you able to push last quarter? What is your profit margin on a per-unit basis? Can you get a better wholesale price?

These are all important figures to keep in mind as you determine the overall profitability of your business, because you need to know where you have opportunities to grow your revenue and reduce your expenses. You need to know what ventures or projects are worth investing your time and money into, and what opportunities are better off being pushed aside. What does your year-over-year growth look like?

Now, there are all sorts of different systems, software and programs you can use to track all of this kind of data. You’ve got plenty of spreadsheets and accounting software to help you stay on top of this sort of thing. If you’re into affiliate marketing and other similar avenues, you’re likely already using a number of built-in and third-party tools for tracking such key metrics as CTR, CPC, eCPM, and so on.

These all lead back to perhaps one of the most important metrics of them all: ROI. At the end of the day, return on investment is the number that really matters the most. If you bring in $10 million in revenue, but it cost you $100 million to get it, then you’ve probably got some pretty big problems. The kind of ROI you can expect will vary wildly based on a number of factors, but it is definitely something you need to keep an keen eye on.

But here’s the thing. Not everything can be summed up using raw numbers alone and return on investment (ROI) is no exception. Allow me to illustrate with a couple of key examples.

Several years ago, I agreed to co-author a book with John called Make Money Online. The book is largely from the perspective of John and his online journey up until that point, offering insights and advice into how to make a full-time income from part-time blogging. At the time, John basically offered me two main options.

First, he could pay me a flat rate (or a per page rate) to ghostwrite the book for him. I’d do the work, he’d publish the book, and my name would have never been attached to the project in any official capacity whatsoever. You’ll find that this is oftentimes the case with a lot of celebrity memoirs and other similar kinds of autobiographies. No one really cares about the ghostwriter. They want to know about the celebrity. Fair enough.

Alternatively, he could provide me with zero up-front payment whatsoever and I’d get a cut of the resulting royalties from book sales. Now, it would be easy enough to compare how much I’ve earned from my share of the royalties against how much the up-front payment would have been in a pure ghostwriting arrangement, but that’s only part of the picture. With this second option, which I chose, I would share the byline with John.

Instead of having just “John Chow” on the cover, the cover to Make Money Online reads “John Chow with Michael Kwan.” That’s huge. I cannot say with any real certainty how much work I’ve received as a freelance writer as a result of this shared byline or how “better known” I am as a result, but there is a definite intangible value to it, just like having my own byline for this blog post. The ROI goes beyond the raw numbers.

Here’s another example. In 2017, I set out to vlog each and every week. My YouTube channel has been around for years, but this was the first time I was sticking to a set publication channel. The content of the videos range from travel to fatherhood to local events, but the goal was to have a new personal video up every Monday morning. And I accomplished that goal.

When I first set out, I had hopes that this would help to grow my YouTube channel significantly and, by extension, grow my online reach and exposure in general. It helped, to some degree, but in all honesty, I haven’t exactly been getting as many views as I had hoped. Does this mean the vlog experiment was a waste of time and energy and effort? Not at all.

The intangible ROI goes far beyond view and subscriber counts. Through the vlog, I was able to connect with some other local YouTubers in Vancouver. Through the vlog, I was able to exercise a different set of creative muscles and learn so much more about video production, as well as video editing and the whole YouTube ecosystem. I learned a lot and these lessons can be applied to other endeavors I may have in the future. The ROI goes beyond the numbers.

Many people have the misconception that success is a straight road paved only by success after success. The truth of the matter is that the road to success is littered with innumerable failures and shortcomings, and it is through these experiences that you learn how to keep moving forward, taking the lessons with you to the next project or opportunity. That’s the real ROI.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

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These Email Marketing Statistics To Watch

I’ve always stated that email marketing is the best form of engagement. Many will agree, however, some will say with the introduction of social media, the conversion rate has been lowered. Every now and then, I like to set out to find some statistics to help prove and reiterate the power of email marketing. By understanding the power of social media, you can embrace for the future and make sure it is part of your marketing campaign. Let’s get started and explore some cool email marketing statistics that I uncovered over the weeks. If you have a solid email marketing program, then you can apply these into your next campaign.

Let’s get started and feedback will be greatly appreciated going forward.

Highest ROI

Did you know email marketing has the highest ROI in marketing?

If you didn’t, now you do, and much of the success can be attributed to the personal connection you have with the people on your list. You have built this list over time and many of the subscribers trust your judgement and this increases CTR. With social media, you are going head to head with competitors so you really need to do things to stand out. However, with email marketing, you know your readers and understand what they like. You can adjust your content to provide EXACTLY what they are looking for and this will increase ROI going forward.

Give it a try and see what happens by scheduling an email campaign and social media for the same date and time.

Email has 44% Customer Conversion

Did you know email marketing converts visitors to customers 44% better than social?

Remember, people on your list might not be customers but a solid email marketing campaign can convert them more quickly than simply going through a social campaign. Why? First, they trust your brand, which is why they opted into your list in the first place. Secondly, they trust your value and will MOST likely purchase any product you recommend going forward, which is important when converting visitors to customers. Here’s the problem with social media…

You have a lot of competitors all within your niche who could be promoting the same type of content. This gives people enormous options on content, products, and services. Next, you have NOT built credibility with many of them so the likelihood of them converting in a short period of time is very slim.

It’s been proven time and time again that email builds loyalty and converts visitors better compared to any other type of marketing strategies.

Email = Mobile Conversions

People are using mobile phones much more and this means people are reading, skimming, and clicking on emails on smart phones. Statistics show email opens have grown on mobile phones by 30%, which is awesome for people who have a huge email following. Now you don’t have to wait for subscribers to hop onto their PC to read your emails because this can be done through their phones. What does this mean? Simple…

• More conversions on products and content
• Increased traffic
• Increased engagement
• More brand awareness

All of this will be done more quickly compared to years back when everything had to be done through desktop PC’s.

Dynamic ESP’s

ESP stands for email service providers and we are now in a time where almost everything can be automated. This means NOT only will you be able to increase ROI, but you can automate the entire process, which is perfect for you. You can split test forms, landing pages, and create an optimized follow-up sequence, all with the click of a button.

In the end, email still provides more automation options than social media, which is why bloggers prefer to use it to build momentum to their blog. I’m not saying social media is NO good, but if you want to build true engagement, then consider using email as your first option before trying any other.

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Stop Trying to Be More Efficient

Technology continues to get more advanced and more tasks continue to get automated. I don’t have to boot up my computer, wait for it to the connect to the Wi-Fi, open up a web browser, type in the URL, enter my username and password, search for the item I want, add it to the shopping cart, and go through the checkout process entering my mailing address and payment information just to buy some more dish soap.

Instead, I can just say, “Alexa, reorder some dish soap,” and the magical smart speaker in the corner of my living room takes care of the rest. We’re living in the future, folks!

And yet, despite all these modern conveniences and seemingly miraculous developments, we find ourselves even more pressed for time than ever before. How is that possible? Because we have all these things we need (and want) to do, we are oftentimes tempted to be as efficient as possible. We’re constantly looking for so-called “life hacks” that can help us get more things done more efficiently.

That’s precisely why we are drawn in by the purported appeal of multitasking. We delude ourselves into thinking that we can totally check our email, write a blog post, listen to the latest podcast, and eat lunch at our desk, all at the same time. But of course that isn’t true. We can’t focus on more than one thing at a time, so when we divide our attention between multiple tasks, the net result of any and all of them will suffer.

But there’s so much to do! You want to update your blog. You want to post a new video on your YouTube channel. You want to work on your email marketing. You want to post on social media. You want to research new affiliate marketing opportunities. You want to do this. You want to do that. So you try to be as efficient as possible to accomplish as much as possible in as little time as possible.

Stop that. Stop it.

I’ve written on my blog on several occasions how I feel like there is never enough time to do all the things that I want to do, especially since become a dad. Balancing my professional responsibilities with my responsibilities as a father isn’t easy, not to mention that I still want to have some room for leisure activities and downtime, of course.

All this being said, lack of time is not the problem. It was never the problem. If you look around at all of the most successful people in the history of the world, they all had the same 24 hours to work with each day, the same 365 days to work with each year. They had just as much time as the least successful people in the history of the world too. Lack of time is not the problem.

So, what is it then? It really boils down to two main concepts.

First, we all need to stop trying to do as many things as we can as efficiently as we can, because that is ultimately self-defeating. Instead, you should try to do fewer things, but do them better. Instead of trying to score a 5 across the board, understand that life is a game of tradeoffs. Zero in on the small handful of things where you want to score a 10 and don’t worry too much about the zeroes you may be scoring on the other items. The 10s are where you’ll find success, not in a seas of 5s.

Second, when you have to work on something, actually work on that something. Don’t mindlessly scroll through Facebook. Don’t fall into the bottomless pit of YouTube. Don’t walk to the kitchen to grab yourself a snack. Focus on the task at hand and get it done, remembering that done is always better than perfect.

When you work a more traditional job, especially one that pays hourly, you get paid just the same no matter how much actual work you do. (Yes, you’ll probably get fired eventually if you slack off too often, but the general point here holds true.) When you work for yourself as an Internet entrepreneur, there’s no such thing as an hourly wage or a salary. You need to earn every dollar, even if that means putting in the hours to develop a passive income stream. Sitting for 40 hours in front of your computer isn’t going to do you any good unless those 40 hours are actually productive.

Efficiency is not the objective. It doesn’t matter if you tick 100 items off your to-do list if none of those items really moves the needle forward. Instead, strive to be effective. Do the things that matter and do them well.

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Content Marketing Changes to Keep an Eye On – Part 3

Welcome to Part 3 of my series and I hope you have enjoyed the previous content. This is going to be the final part of this series and I want to wrap it up by discussing “2” more important content marketing changes taking place within the industry. Many argue content marketing is NOT important, however, the MOST success bloggers have stated numerous times that content marketing is going to be the only thing that matters going forward. Through a solid content marketing campaign, you can do the following:

• Add value
• Marketing products
• Increase traffic
• Increase social shares
• Build momentum
• Increase brand awareness

The internet is all about information and today, this can be provided through images, videos, text, podcasts, or even infographics. All of these formats can be used going forward to build your brand, too. Let’s jump into Part 3 and talk about “2” more important elements. Your feedback and opinion will be appreciated so leave your thoughts in the comment box below. Let’s jump right in.

Analytics Matter Even More

I’ve always believed, no matter what type of content you’re marketing, it’s important to keep track of your statistics. Having data will help you optimize your campaigns going forward, which is important because this can help with increasing conversions. However, I’m surprised by the amount of people who don’t make use of the tools available to them and I think it can be for the following reasons.

• They don’t know about the tools available
• They are lazy
• They don’t want to keep statistics
• Not serious about their business

Keeping stats will help you get the MOST out of your user engagement, which is why I recommend everyone implement some sort of tool in their backend. For example, imagine having a landing page where you are offering an eBook in exchange for their email address. It helps to know what types of form, headline, colors, and information converts the best. This way, you can continue to do what needs to be done to get as many conversions as possible. Google Analytics is a great tool you can implement in your backend. It’s FREE and very easy to install using a simple code.

For you to achieve optimal conversions, I recommend testing what works and then optimize your campaign.

Content will be Interactive

This is a tricky one to understand, but many have mentioned content will be heading this way going forward. As a matter of fact, you can start to see interactive content implemented into blogs already. Why is this important and what does it do?

First, it gets people involved in your content and builds the personal connection. When you have interactive content, it’s a great way to provide value by making certain elements clickable and this will help readers understand the value better. Next, it’s a different type of content than the usual available online so people will find it more engaging. Imagine when people share it on social media platforms and the response you’ll get. The point I’m trying to make is you’ll have to think outside the box to engage a new breed of readers. Blogs are not new and reading content is something that has been around from the start. It’s time to publish different types of content that will catch people off guard, but provide value at the same time.

• Make content interactive
• Add charts and graphs
• Add movable objects

Final Thoughts

To implement each type of strategy will take time, but after analyzing the data, you’ll find how some work better than others. Then you can optimize and add the same strategies to other content when you publish because you know they have worked well in the past. Content marketing continues to grow so you have no choice but to add it to your blog. The only difference is finding what works better for you compared to others.

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Instant Gratification and Mountain Climbing

We live in a glorious age of technology where we can get (almost) anything we want. Not only that, but we can get (almost) anything we want nearly instantly. Want to listen to a certain song? You don’t have to wait for it to come on the radio and you don’t even need to rewind or fast forward through a cassette tape to find the right place. Just fire up your Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube and you can get that track right now.

Want to watch a movie? You don’t have to wait for a specific showtime at a specific movie theater in a specific location. Just fire up Netflix on your computer, TV, smartphone, tablet, or any number of other compatible devices and you can watch that movie right now. Want to watch a TV show? You don’t have to wait for it to come on at a certain time on Thursday night, because it’s right there on Netflix too. Not only that, but you don’t have to wait seven whole days for the next episode, because you can binge through the whole season (or seasons!) back to back to back.

All this instant gratification is tremendous, because it has allowed for an incredible level of choice and convenience. You can order almost anything on Amazon and have it arrive on your doorstep within a couple of days. Depending on what you want and where you live, you might even be able to get it within a couple of hours! But the problem with all this instant gratification is that we’ve come to expect it from every other area of our lives too. And a lot of things don’t work that way.

Want to have a deep, meaningful relationship with your significant other? You may have been able to meet one another by simply swiping right on a mobile app, but the kind of strong bond that you desire takes time and patience. You can’t just binge through your relationship like how you binge through every season of The Office on Netflix. You can’t just order a trusting, loving lifelong partner through Amazon Prime. It doesn’t work that way.

And as much as you may be attracted to the innumerable “get rich quick” schemes online, the truth of the matter is that anyone who achieves grand success with them will always be the exception rather than the rule. You stand at the foot of a path and all you see is the summit at the top. You turn a blind eye to the treacherous mountain between where you stand and where you want to be.

Because these kinds of obstacles and barriers have been removed from so many other aspects of your life. It used to be the case that you could only eat certain food at certain times of the year, because of the seasonality of crops and harvests. These days, you can import almost anything from almost anywhere and eat it all year round. Want to read a book? You don’t have to wait for the store to replenish stock, because you can have it delivered to your Kindle instantly. There’s no waiting. There’s no work.

Success in business doesn’t work that way. You might see the fancy cars, the big mansions and the extravagant trips, but you don’t see the years of hard work and dedication that went into building that kind of lifestyle. It is absolutely true that anyone can do it, but it’s also true that you’ve got to fight your way through some bad weather to get there.

But the view once you get there is pretty spectacular. And it’ll be all that much more rewarding because you’ll know what it took to get there.

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Content Marketing Changes to Keep an Eye On – Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my series and I am discussing some content marketing changes happening over the next few months that will impact blogging. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or experienced because you will have to ensure you start incorporating these changes to stay ahead of your competition. Content marketing can be awesome to generate traffic, conversions, and profit, but you’re still going to have competition. This means you have to continually tweak your content to understand the way your audience engages with it going forward. In Part 1, we discussed how the following:

• Mobile friendly blogging
• Images and infographics

This will help push you in the right direction and allow you to engage more people with your content. Please provide your feedback on Part 1 and let me know if you agree or disagree with my statement. Today, I’ll be discussing some more important elements of content marketing that you have to pay close attention to. Let’s get started…

Personalization

I can’t explain how personalization and building a connection with your audience is important when blogging. You have to find a way to stand out compared to your competition and building a “personal” brand is the best way. This is why many bloggers have decided to start a blog using their name, for example:

• JohnChow.com
• NeilPatel.com
• ZacJohnson.com

This strategy is NOT only important within blogging because you see other successful entrepreneurs doing the same, like Donald Trump. Personalization within content marketing is especially important because if you can build trust and credibility, it’ll help promote your content when your name is mentioned within inner circles. Imagine how many pieces of content you have read simply because of the author. This is because you know the author will provide value and you can trust their opinion on a product or service they are endorsing. I know many of you are asking how can you implement this into your content marketing…right?

Here are a few ways:

• Always provide value
• Be genuine
• Answer feedback
• Provide unique content that can’t be found anywhere else

Going forward, I can promise you that blogging and content will be more personalized going forward. You want people to hear your name and know right away that they’ll find something special on your blog.

Networking

Here’s a new trend developing and you might have noticed it if you are online a lot reading blogs. First, you’ve noticed many people are guest blogging on other popular authority blogs. It’s also not uncommon to find expert posts, interviews, etc., about influential bloggers within your niche. Building these relationships opens huge opportunities for both the experienced and beginners within the industry. This is why, going forward, you should try to network as much as possible so you can build your brand.

Here are a few ways this content marketing strategy can help going forward…

First, writing content on other bloggers builds your initial connection with them so the next time you reach out, you have a better chance of them replying. Secondly, by writing guest content, you have the potential to drive traffic to your blog, which, again, increases your brand and conversions. Expert posts help because after publishing, they often get shared, which is great to build social momentum. For example, here is a quick roundup I did months back: 14 Expert Bloggers Discuss Their Most Effective Link Building Techniques

Investing in Content Marketing

Here is a short one that I think will apply to those with a budget but is very important. Many bloggers and companies will shift how they spend their money toward content marketing. This change is, again, because they understand the importance and know how an investment now can produce long-term success. If you are starting, then you might not have the investment, but this won’t stop bigger companies from doing it. You should try and learn from them so you can maybe one day implement the same strategies into your content marketing.

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Beyond a Means to an End

If you were raised in a typical western family in a typical western society (and likely these days even if you weren’t), the expectations for how your life will go are pretty typical and generic. You’ll start school at a relatively young age, progress through the grades, and eventually graduate from high school after about a dozen years.

After you graduate from high school, you might attend some form of higher education, like a college or university, or you might go to a trade or technical school. Maybe you’ll land an apprenticeship somewhere. After you finish whatever program it is, you apply for and eventually get an entry-level job at some company. You’ll work your way through the ranks, aspiring for middle management and beyond, until you finally retire and aim to enjoy your golden years before kicking the bucket for good.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this kind of journey and it’s the kind of path that the overwhelming majority of people take, or at least some basic variation of it. And if you like the work that you do and it’s enough to pay for your desired lifestyle, then maybe it really isn’t so bad. But we all know that it doesn’t always work out this way.

For a lot of people, they end up pursuing an education or training in something not because they’re actually interested in it, but because they think it’ll be easy or that it’ll be lucrative. Or maybe they think it’ll be stable and reliable, exactly the kind of career you want to use to form the foundation for raising a family. Right? A job is just a job. Right?

But why can’t a job be more than just a paycheck? Why shouldn’t your livelihood be tied to your passions and interests, something that’ll keep you going not just today and tomorrow, but for years into the future?

I recently watched the documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond on Netflix wherein Jim Carrey recounts his experience playing the late Andy Kaufman in the 1999 movie Man on the Moon. At one point, the interviewer asks Jim about his father. Jim says that he was the funniest man in the room and he was a tremendous saxophonist, but he never really pursued a career on the saxophone, because it would mean uprooting the family to the United States (the Carreys are from Canada) and he didn’t want to do that. So, he took the safe and respectable route and became an accountant.

But that didn’t exactly work out as planned…

As time wore on, it wore him down, you know. It wore him down, and he got a little bit bitter, especially when he lost his job when he was 51. Uh, that really broke him. Not only was he compromising to raise a family, but when you compromise and you fail, it really hurts. It hurts even more than failing at what you love.

We all make sacrifices and compromises, especially when it comes to raising a family. You might forgo heading out to the local pub to catch the big game with your football buddies from college, because you need to take your daughter to her ballet recital. You might opt out of buying a wicked awesome new drone, because your son needs braces. That’s just life.

But when you make those sacrifices and you don’t get the intended benefit, it hurts that much more. You miss out on the big game, but it turns out your daughter’s ballet recital is cancelled anyhow. You skip out on buying a new drone, and your son’s teeth are as crooked as ever after paying for those braces. You can’t even get the consolation prize.

I learned that you can fail at what you don’t love, so you might as well do what you love.

Life is too short to be stuck at some dead end job where you are miserable for 40+ hours every week. Life is too short to be doing work that you hate, just because it keeps the lights on. You should do what makes you happy, so long as you’re responsible about it, and you can end up winning all around.

And truth be told, that’s what the dot com lifestyle can deliver and in spades. You enjoy the ownership of self-guided entrepreneurship, you enjoy the time and location freedom of working online, and you get to do work that is fulfilling and meaningful on your own terms, all while providing the life that your family deserves. And it’s pretty fun too.

Your job is more than a means to an end. What you do for a living should be a part of what makes life worth living in the first place.

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Content Marketing Changes to Keep an Eye On – Part 1

Content marketing continues to change over the years and we have been able to learn a lot. However, some beginners still need to know what to expect going forward because this will help them make the right decisions about their future content marketing implementation. I believe blogging is an “art” form that has to be changed with the trends so you have to stay well aware of the changes being made over time within your industry. Content marketing is the ability to promote products and services through your writing and this strategy has been growing enormously in recent years. Imagine ranking for specific keywords within your industry and selling a problem? This can generate enormous sales for you going forward.

Let’s get started and look at some changes to keep an eye on and how you should implement them into your blogging. I have split this content into a three part series so I can elaborate into each element deeper.

Mobile Users are Very Important

With the growing use of mobile users, it’s important your site and content is tweaked for these users. This means making sure each element is tested and tweaked numerous times to ensure it is optimized when seen by mobile users. Let’s think about it this way. Imagine 50% of those who arrive on your website come straight from smart phones and your website has NOT been optimized. This means you can lose a potential 50% readership and conversions, which is a staggering amount, especially when this is your main source of income.

Going forward, no matter what changes you make to your website and what content you publish, it’s important to make sure they are completely optimized for mobile users. Here are a few things you can do to get started…

• Test your mobile site on “Google mobile testing tool”. If there is an error, then you have to make some changes going forward.
• Research and find some mobile optimized themes that are easy to implement. This is much easier if you are using WordPress.
• Test using your phone, making sure the theme is optimized and run the Google test analyzing the results.

Going forward, I see the use of mobile phones growing so this change isn’t going anywhere. You should already find ways to implement mobile optimized tweaks into your website.

Content Marketing – Visual Content

Have you noticed the presence of images, infographics, and videos within the content you read online? This is because the way we capture the essence of the content is changing and we have to make sure we make those shifts, too. For example, visitors are looking for information swiftly so you have to find ways to attract them as soon as they land on your page. Next, you have to make sure your content can be understood by people all over the world and I believe there is a simple solution for both.

The use of images and infographics gives you the flexibility to add large headlines, colors, and to tell a story quickly. Going forward, it’s important to start making the use of both these features because they will help convert and build engagement. Many of the social media platforms have optimized the way they display images on their network, which is awesome for you when your content is shared.

In our time, creating images and infographics are very cheap so you should utilize them where you can. Remember, when your reader is looking for a quick solution, they won’t wait around to skim through 2,000+ words so provide them with a proven alternative. Infographics and images can get your point across quickly and build the initial engagement you need to increase conversions.

Once you implement these “2” quick strategies, then you can move into the other two mentioned in Part 2 of my series. Content marketing is the new trend and it’s important you start making the right changes immediately because I’ll guarantee your competitors definitely are.

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What Is Latent Semantic Indexing (And Why Should You Care)?

While you should most definitely be exploring any number of other possible traffic sources for your website, it is positively undeniable that search traffic is both one of the most valuable and one of the most elusive. Every time that you think you’ve got Google’s algorithm figured out, they push out an update that throws your plans straight into the dumpster.

This serves to teach you two key lessons. First, you should never write content with purely the search engine bots in mind. The content you create should be created for the readers and visitors to your site. Good content will always be good content. Second, trying to “game the system” is ultimately going to backfire and blow up in your face, so just don’t do it. Again, good content will always be good content.

All this being said, there are some fundamental principles that you should keep tucked away in the back of your mind as you do create content for your website. These types of principles outlast pandas and penguins with the best of them, and one of these principles is called latent semantic indexing.

The basic idea behind latent semantic indexing, or LSI for short, is that it is used to figure out the relationship between the different concepts and terms included in the content. It puts all those words in relation to one another to come up with a better overall picture of what the content is about and, by extension, for whom the content will be most relevant.

On some level, you could say that latent semantic indexing addresses the previous problem where so many website owners would simply stuff high value keywords in the meta tags and meta descriptions of their pages. They’d literally have hundreds of them in there in hopes of getting ranked for anything remotely related, even if many of these keywords had nothing to do with the subject matter on the page at all. With LSI, the spiders and bots are looking specifically at the on-page content and not so much at the meta tags. The content needs to be there.

Just like Google’s search algorithm, the specifics of how it leverages LSI remains shrouded in mystery. What we do know is that it looks for relevant synonyms to the title of the page or article, as well as the terms that you use in headers (h1, h2, h3, etc.), bold text, italicized text, and so on. Putting it all together, the algorithm can figure out what you’re trying to say and who should read it.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re writing an article about Tesla. That’s already a fairly specific topic, but it’s not really specific enough. Is the article talking strictly about the vehicles and, if so, which model in particular? Is the article talking about Elon Musk and his involvement at Tesla? Is the article discussing the business of Tesla from an investment standpoint? These types of articles approach three very different types of audiences and Google (and other search engines) need to know this difference.

Think about what other synonyms or related keywords would work their way into those three different topics. While you certainly shouldn’t shoehorn in relevant keywords in an unnatural way and you definitely should not use article spinning software, it is useful to keep the concept of LSI in mind when you go about writing content for your website. Getting to the top of those coveted search engine results pages (SERPs) isn’t easy. Remember that keyword stuffing could get you flagged.

Yes, as John has stated so many times before, if you live by the Google, you’ll die by the Google. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be friends with the Google in the meantime. It’s an open kind of relationship anyhow.

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Why Content Marketing Will Keep Growing Over the Years

Content marketing is huge within our industry and the importance keeps growing. Before to get your products and services in front of people, you had to create separate campaigns and would have to invest countless resources. Things have changed drastically because of content marketing and much of your success can be achieved by simply implementing one single campaign. However, people are worried about the future of content marketing because if it’s like other things, then it will have a relatively short life line. I personally think content marketing will continue to grow over the years because not only is it simplistic in implementation, but it also meets all of the requirements of search engines.

For those of you still not convinced, let’s look at why content marketing will continue to dominate over the years. Let’s get started…

People are Adding Value

Because one of the requirements of content marketing is to provide value, it’s able to make a huge impact online. By adding value, you’re essentially meeting the requirements of search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Content and success is about making sure your audience finds what they are looking for so content marketing is a great way to conquer this WITHOUT being too aggressive in your sales approach. Before, content would be short and aggressive, trying to push irrelevant products to earn commission but now the landscape has changed. Content marketing is lengthy, providing value of 2,000+ words and then recommending a product that NOT only helps, but also can help your readers achieve their objective.

As long as content marketing provides value, it’ll continue to grow no matter what.

Affordable

Content marketing doesn’t involve spending thousands of dollars each month, however, you can if you have the budget, but it’s a strategy that can be applied by anyone. The main thing you need to do well is patience and hard work putting together something special for your readers. If you have the mind to research and write content, then you can do a great job through your content. If you think about the major ingredients of content marketing, you’ll notice the following:

• Research
• Value
• Relevance
• “Targeted” keywords
• Social marketing

The above are FREE and only requires effort to implement, which anyone can do. Other marketing methods require thousands of dollars but this is not the case with content marketing. It’s affordable and this is why experienced bloggers and beginners will continue to apply it to their blog.

Search Engines Love It

I know I’ve talked about this above but keep in mind, search engines are very important to get your content in front of people. Google has been making tweaks over the last several months to encourage value and increase the user experience. Content marketing provides both of these, which is why Google will give preference to those who can create something special. Google relies on its users to dominate the web and these people want the best user experience. Google has started to implement the following and has been very strict about the following:

• Quality
• Relevance
• Freshness
• Social signals
• Quality links
• Keyword targeting

By having a solid content marketing strategy, you are truly fulfilling all of the requirements and this will encourage people to give preference to content marketing going forward.

In the end, if you can provide EXACTLY what search engines are looking for, you’ll be able to rank higher within the SERP’s. This means more traffic and conversions, generating profits for you in the long run.

With content marketing providing value, it being affordable, and search engines giving it preference, it’s no wonder the future looks great.

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How to Build a Better To-Do List

The dot com lifestyle means that you’ll be able to experience a lot more freedom compared to holding down a more conventional kind of job at a regular company. You’ll have location freedom, because you can work from practically anywhere in the world as long as you have a reliable connection to the Internet. You’ll have time freedom, because you’re not bound to specific office hours, freeing you up to take three-hour-long lunches on Wednesday afternoons.

And you’ll also be free from having a boss, manager or supervisor breathing down your neck every 30 seconds to make sure you’re staying on track and sticking with the specific plans and procedures that the higher-ups have dictated for you. This last point is a double-edged sword, of course, because it means that you become the sole source of direction. No one is going to crack the whip but you and no one is going to tell you where to go but you. That means you need to be decisive and you need to be organized.

This means you need to have a great to-do list. For my part, I tend to break this down further into a set of three to-do lists: daily, weekly, and monthly. The monthly is more like long-term goals, as those tasks and projects can easily spill over from month to month. For the purposes of today’s post, we’ll focus on the daily to-do list as it can cause a lot of people a lot of grief. To build a better to-do list each day, follow these key principles.

1. Actionable and Specific

Do you know what is one of the biggest problems with typical new year’s resolutions? They’re really vague. I want to exercise more. I want to lose weight. I want to eat healthier. What do any of these even mean? The items you put on your to-do list need to undergo the same kind of scrutiny such that they are actionable and specific.

Instead of saying that I’m going to “work on my website,” I’ll say that I am going to “write two blog posts” or “research and pitch three companies for sponsored content or influencer marketing opportunities.” You need to know when an item on your to-do list is actually done, so it doesn’t just go on into infinity. You need to know what specific action you need to take to satisfy it.

2. Keep It Tight, Y’All

Long to-do lists might give you this sense that you’re really out there hustling and you’re an especially ambitious entrepreneur, but it’s awfully deflating when you stare at one that’s incomplete at the end of the day, every day. You need to give yourself small victories to motivate you to keep going.

Extra short to-do lists are not any better, because they’re far too easy and you won’t actually accomplish very much. As with so many other things in life, you need to strike a happy medium and the sweet spot is usually somewhere around five items of varying difficulty and complexity.

3. Item Size and Length

Some items on your to-do list should be easy to do in a relatively short amount of time, like running through your main email inbox in less than half an hour. These are easier to tick off the list and can help you get a sense of positive momentum.

Other items should be a little more substantial and can take a little longer, like crafting the first three emails as part of a drip campaign for a specific affiliate marketing offer. This might take an hour or two. These are the bigger tasks that really help to move you forward.

Any item that you anticipate will take you more than two hours should probably be broken down into smaller, more manageable items.

4. The Schedule

I know. This is going to sound completely counter to the whole philosophy of the dot com lifestyle and I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t adhere all that strictly to this last principle. That being said, people who do will have a better shot and accomplishing their goals and achieving their dreams. Schedule your to-do list items.

In other words, it’s not enough to have a tightly organized to-do list with very specific, actionable items of varying complexity. Now, you need to decide when you will do what. And this will really depend on the kinds of things you want to do and the circumstances surrounding how best to do those things.

Let’s say that you want to shoot a video. Well, you might only be able to do that during a certain “sweet spot” during the day when you get the most natural light coming indirectly into your studio, for example. You could shoot at other times of the day, but it’d be less than ideal, so you might schedule your video shoot for those couple of hours.

Maybe you want to minimize computer time toward the end of the day, so that youc an reduce the screen time before bed and get a better night’s sleep. Maybe you want to do more invigorating, energy-intensive tasks earlier in the day. It’s really up to you, but by placing these items on a schedule, you reduce the chances of infinite procrastination and distraction. You increase the chances of holding yourself accountable.

And isn’t that the point of a to-do list in the first place?

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How to Stand Out in the Super Saturated World of Affiliate Marketing

Looking at the online marketing industry it’s easy to get lost in all of the details. There are many different ways to generate new leads and make money on the internet, but affiliate marketing has to be one of the most popular. If you are completely new to the concept of affiliate marketing, it’s easy to get lost within all of the information, resource sites and options to choose from.

For example, just looking at the various components of affiliate marketing and the many different labels associated with it can be a headache in itself. An affiliate network is there to provide you with offers to promote, affiliate marketers are the ones promoting such offers, advertisers and brands are looking to recruit more affiliates and of course you also have bloggers that create their own content and often provide guidance on affiliate marketing as well. Where do you fall into the mix?

No matter if you are a rich affiliate, a big name brand, or someone just starting out, it’s important to make sure that you stand out from the crowd —  especially if you are looking to get attention, increase business, or maybe even create a brand of your own.

Today we are going to break down several main components of affiliate marketing, while also giving some real-life examples and how you can start using similar methods to increase your personal or brand exposure.

As a platform/affiliate network

If you ever wanted to find a saturated market where everyone is always looking for more attention, look no further than affiliate platforms and the ad networks that are providing the offers. Back in the day, there were only a handful of networks to choose from — like Commission Junction, Linkshare, and Shareasale, but now it seems like they are all over the place. Often times, the only thing separating one network from another is the offers they promote and how much higher of a commission they can squeeze out for their affiliates.

When it comes to standing out from the crowd, some platforms might run their own contests or even sponsor an industry party. These are great ideas, but the ROI and long-term value usually aren’t there. Another example of how to stand out is to create an advanced platform or new tracking technology that benefits both the advertiser and the affiliate. Not only will this provide value, it will also likely get talked about and make its way through the industry as well.

This is exactly what Attrace is trying to accomplish where their new decentralized and blockchain technology-driven platform.

The concept of affiliate networks is nothing new, but the technology behind them and how leads are tracked is something that can definitely use improvement on. Advertisers and merchants can save money on this new type of ad platform, as the associated costs are a mere fraction of the 20 to 30% that you would typically see on other networks. Affiliates can also find improved earnings and faster payouts when using a decentralized platform like Attrace as well.

With so much focus on blockchain technology thanks to cryptocurrencies and coverage through big news media and financial outlets, there is no doubt that platforms like Attrace will start getting more attention and word of blockchain marketing technology makes its way around the industry.

The benefits of a dedicated public blockchain network over what’s currently in the marketplace right now, lies within the common issues we are seeing in relation to “attribution” and “payments”. With a decentralized platform in place, not only can a network offer super low transaction costs, it can even track clicks and leads that result in non-sales, which leads to further monetization and remarking options. In summary, a decentralized platform could potentially be one of the best ways for a network to not only benefit advertisers and affiliates the same, but also online tracking as a whole — with little to no chance for discrepancies or cash back issues.

As an advertiser

To create a successful business on the internet, you need to have a brand that audiences trust and actually purchased from. At the end of the day, if you want to make real money, there needs to be a monetization model in place, and actually selling something is one of the best ways to get there. This is something more affiliate offers and advertisers need to keep in mind when trying to scale their business and recruiting new affiliates. It’s no longer enough to simply create an offer and throw it on your favorite ad platform — instead, it’s all about the recruitment process and gaining the trust of your affiliates.

Sure, higher payouts are always going to be important, but it’s that personal relationship and getting private offers, payouts, landing pages and ad copy that is going to make a big difference. It’s also important for affiliates to be able to understand the product that’s being promoted, which is key when trying to sell or promote a ‘real product’ and not a fly-by-night weight loss pill of the month.

This is also a topic that Flippa recently touched upon, and recommended the following takeaways:

• How just asking for a raise often works best
• How to trade placements & promotion for higher payouts
• How setting incentivized goals benefits you both
• How shopping around can benefit your bottom line

One of the best ways for advertisers and merchants to accomplish this is to attend internet marketing conferences and also get active in online marketing forums. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the world of affiliate marketing is extremely saturated and competitive, and the more time and effort you put into this personal outreach and networking, the more likely you are to find success in the long run.

As an affiliate

Being an affiliate marketer is quite special. You have the opportunity to run your business from anywhere you like, and also promote whatever offers to return the most profit for you. There are also two important questions to ask when becoming an affiliate marketer:

1. Do you want to stay focused on being an affiliate marketer that is behind the scenes and simply make as much money as you can?
2. Or go the route of successful affiliate marketer to online guru/mentor, and show off your expertise and guidance to other — thus parlaying this success into a brand or creating a product of your own?

If you decide to go the route of creating your own products and trying to sell your expertise, it’s best to have a squeaky clean reputation and make contacts with some of the other top affiliates in your industry. After all, once you put yourself out there, there really is no turning back.

This is something Neil Patel has a lot of success and experience with. In addition to launching several successful companies and blogs at NeilPatel.com and QuickSprout, he is also launching new products and tools all the time. With the association back to his name, this keeps building his brand power and reach.

At the same time, don’t forget about the smaller players who are just starting out and might be looking to you for advice or motivation. The more time you can spend in these areas, the more likely others will start talking about you and sharing how they have learned from you. Get the formula right, and you might just be the next Gary Vaynerchuk in the making!

As a blogger

Content creation has always been one of the most powerful components of affiliate marketing. However, as more people are moving away from search pay-per-click marketing and organically ranking sites within Google, it’s more of a pay to play model when it comes to creating and promoting the best content possible. However, affiliate marketers and bloggers are still paving the way for content creation and sharing information when it comes to making money online.

A perfect example of this can be seen right here on John child.com along with other affiliate blogging Superstars like Pat Flynn, Darren Rowse, Neil Patel, who have all other created their own online brands, built massively huge blogs, and turned their expertise into real profits.

John Chow was featured on this list from SEJ as well. The great thing about John, is that no matter what happens to the industry or even the offers he promoted, he can always reflect back on the blog and brand he has built time and time again.

The secret success formula behind each of these examples is that they created a blog, put out amazing content and then promoted the heck out of it –thus further building a name for themselves. That expertise and passion have come out through their blogs, while also helping them build a massive social media following in the process.

If you want to create content and be a successful blogger, follow any of these top players and implement their winning efforts into your own process. But don’t forget to add your own style in the process.

What’s your gimmick?

From what we’ve gone through so far, you probably found that you fall into one of the four categories above. No matter what your gimmick is it’s important to never think that it’s too late for you to find success or that you will never have the following that you’ve dreamed of. Like everything worth doing, this all takes time.

At the end of the day, it’s not about being the first in any industry or market, it’s simply how you market yourself, your product, and provide value to your audience. New bloggers and affiliate marketers are entering the space every day and in a few months time many of them will find amazing success with either their new ad campaigns or the content and brands they start to create.

Stay inspired my friends and always work towards hitting your goals.

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2le16tf
via Daniel