5 Don’ts of Making Money Online

In your journey as a professional blogger and Internet marketer, you’ll come across a lot of reasonably sound advice (and also a lot of trash). You’ll be told that while it is important to optimize your website for search engines, for example, you should also be writing your content for actual human readers and not just to cater to some search algorithm or bot. You should have an online presence on social media and you should try to get consistent handles across platforms.

But what about all the things you shouldn’t do? Everyone’s situation is going to be different, but here are six general rules of thumb for what you don’t want to do if you want to make money online.

Don’t Wait for Permission

Contrary to what you might be quick to conclude, this does not mean that you should go around breaking all sorts of rules on purpose. At least not necessarily. The problem with a lot of unsuccessful people who are stuck in a rut is that they are waiting for something or someone to give them permission to do something. You’ll still want to do your due diligence and generally err on the side of caution, but it is equally true that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.

If you want to do something, just do it. Don’t wait until someone says that you can. Just be prepared to deal with the consequences.

Don’t Wait to Be Asked

Here is another very common pitfall that so many would-be Internet entrepreneurs suffer from. Let’s say that you’re building up an online brand through your blog and you’re working to establish yourself as an expert in your field. That’s good. Maybe you’ve even published a book on your niche.

And now you’re waiting for those opportunities to come flooding through your email inbox. You want to get paid for speaking engagements. You want to work with companies as a brand ambassador. You want to do sponsored posts on your blog for big bucks. And yet, nothing is coming in.

Don’t wait for these brands, companies, and event organizers to ask you if you want to work together on something. Go ask them. If you want something, just ask.

Don’t Stay in the Echo Chamber

Especially with the way that social media algorithms work these days, it’s easy to fall deeper and deeper down into the same crowd of people who all agree with one another on everything. This can feel good, because it’s all so self-affirming. And yes, it pays to associate yourself with other successful people because of the power of association. But this is also inherently very limiting.

Branch out and meet people with different experiences, different expertise, and different points of view. You may not (and should not) agree with them on anything, but this will give you a much better sense of perspective on the world at large. When you get stuck in the echo chamber, you’ll start to assume that everyone actually thinks and acts the same way. They don’t.

Don’t Think You Have to Do It Yourself

You know what is one of the greatest appeals to the dot com lifestyle? It’s this sense of ownership and autonomy. This is my business and I’m going to run it the way I want to run it. I have to answer to no one, because it’s all mine. That doesn’t mean, however, that I’ve got to do it all myself. In fact, I shouldn’t.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help with what you don’t know or with what you don’t want to do. Truthfully, outsourcing can save you money, because it means that you likely not only get more done (and the end product is probably better than what you would have achieved), but it also means you can focus more on the things you actually enjoy doing and are good at doing.

Don’t Give Up

You’ve probably heard this a million times before, but it’ll still ring true on time #1,000,001 as it did the first time you heard it. It’s not how many times you fall down; it’s how many times you get back up. Especially when you strike it out on your own with your own online business, you’re going to face a lot of hardship and failure along the way. No one said it was going to be easy, nor should it be.

The temptation is to throw in the towel and quit. If things don’t work out in the first couple weeks, months or even years, you might feel like you’re just not cracked up for this. And you’d be wrong. Anyone can do it and it’s the people who persevere and are left standing at the end who are able to reap the benefits.

Yes, you might have to pivot and you’ll definitely need to adapt, but a certain level of stubbornness is positively invaluable. Stick with it and approach each day with the same level of enthusiasm and passion as you did when you first started. You’d be surprised by the results you can achieve.

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

How To Increase Sales Through Long-Tail Keyword SEO

Generating positive product reviews ultimately increases sales. SEO can drive up your profit margin by optimizing on customer satisfaction, and we know this can help you achieve the bottom line. Product perception is fundamental in maintaining long-term business success. A positive review has the potential to draw in more business as customers are consistently looking to previous purchasers to determine product effectiveness. This is why many stores will always have testimonials, and reviews posted visibility in front of the shopper. A good example of this is when…

Crazy Egg was able to sustain a $19,380 revenue within a 12-month period merely based on growing customer satisfaction reviews, and they knew how to maximize on this potential. As opposed to an auto financing company which lost $176,779 over a 6-month period due to extremely poor customer reports through search engine displays.

From both these examples, you can see how important the right reviews are in producing the best results.

Here are a few simple steps to help you use SEO to your advantage.

STEP – 1 CREATE A STRATEGY

• Create effective landing page strategies for your own site.
• Get other people to create landing pages on their sites about your product by;
• Give away a product or service
• Run promotional offers
• Create a grants program
• Create pay per click campaigns

If you do a quick search within Google, you’ll be able to find a solution to every question discussed above. There have been case studies done on effective landing pages, finding the right products, PPC programs, etc.                               

STEP 2 –  BUILD LINKS FOR YOUR LONG TAIL KEYWORDS

Long tail keywords are like any other “keywords” so it’s important you have a plan in place to build links to them going forward. This means you have to ensure the anchors are in the right place.

• Build links using the right anchor text
• Build internal links throughout your blog
• Make sure you mix up the variations

STEP 3 –  FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS ON OPTIMIZING YOUR HEAD TERMS

The main long-tail keywords are the ones you should be focusing on going forward. We’ll be discussing this in further detail going forward. Let’s look at these “3” factors in closer detail.

Step 1 – Creating The Right Strategy

Create Effective Landing page strategies

Landing pages are very important fixtures, and this applies whether you develop them yourself or have someone do them for you. It’s even more important that you do your research before creating them because this will help you implement the right elements. For example, here’s what I’ve learned overtime about effective landing page:

• Add the right headline
• Have a video
• Illustrate only the main points
• Use call-to-action buttons

Tools to Help You Create Landing Pages

If you don’t have a system in place to help you manage landing pages, then you might want to check out Unbounce. This tool or service will provide several useful templates to get you started and keep in mind that your landing pages must be focused around your long tail keywords. When you are done building your first main landing page, it’s important to go back making sure you have the right keywords in the right places.

WordPress is yet another approach you can use to answer your landing page dilemma. Understanding what drives customer queries can help you design effective tools to bring customers to the solutions for which they search. As a matter of fact, WordPress offers several plugins to help you get started with landing pages, and also an effective way to test them all.

Landing Pages Others Create

Harnessing a variety of methods to direct positive customer reviews is vital in the online marketing world these days. Utilizing others landing pages can help facilitate more traffic to your webpage and increase sales exponentially. With this strategy, you are paying an authority blogger to help you build your list, sell a product or service. It’s effective because some people have enormous traffic coming to a page, and will sell you some space to help you get started. However, you need a budget to get going with this strategy.

Whatever the case, here are a few things you can give to people landing on a page to build retention or increase subscribers.

Give Away a Product or Service to Bloggers

A great product and service will speak for itself. Giving away freebies allows others to see firsthand what you have to offer. Bloggers are in the position to write effective positive reviews and thus are an excellent target market for free products and services.

Run Promotional Offers

Running promotional offers directs potential customers to your site and is therefore a very effective strategy in the development of positive reviews. Sites such as Coupons.com and Retail Me Not have the ability to list discount codes and coupons for your product on their landing pages thus increasing product awareness through multiple avenues.

In the end, once the visitor is directed to your site through these coupons, you’ll be able to ask them for a review to post on your site afterwards.

Create a Grants Program

Bloggers are important components to building positive reviews. Whether they are sampling your product themselves or writing a review on a new service you are providing, their opinion counts.

Another strategy to illicit positive reviews from bloggers is to focus on goodwill initiatives. A grant program which offers people getting started online free training or money is an awesome way to build your brand. When you think about what’s the hardest thing when starting online, you’ll notice the lack of funds for people. Offering funding or free training will get people to share your product or service effectively. Next,

Just the fact you offered them a FREE option will encourage more reviews. People in general are way more grateful when something is given to them for FREE, and adds value at the same time.

Create a PPC Campaign

Pay per click campaigns are alternatives to landing pages. This is a unique way to create a positive ROI for your business. Google searches will ultimately bring up your pay per click ad and thus drive interest in your product.

Step 2 – Links to Long Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords are only effective when they direct potential customers to your site. Some of your long term keyword variations will already rank on their own. Developing links with specific anchor-text to your pages is the next step. This is just like building authoritative links, however with a long-tail anchor text to give it more juice than ever before,

Here are a number of different ways to accomplish this strategy.

Vary Your Internal Links

Keeping your core term consistent is important when creating variations. Strive to include your head keyword within each variation so search engines know this is the main focus keyword.

Important Modifier in Your Headline

Many search engines use the headline of your article as anchor text. What does this mean? You have to stand out in the headline because this is what people will be seeing within the search results. By standing out, you’ll get the click over your competition and this is what helps you with your bottom line. Always include the “target” long-tail keyword going forward.

Create External Links

There are many different ways you as a site owner can control your anchor text. Here are a few examples to get you started are; company listing, and directory listings. Both are elements you can control because when you need to change them you can easy by clicking on the “EDIT” button. Some directories rank high within the SERP’s which is great for you.

The objective for long term keywords is to rank high in web searches. Utilizing article submission websites can help you to accomplish this if done the right way. Do a quick search within Google to learn of quality ways to build these links.

Another method is to use low-quality external linking sources with keyword-rich anchor text. This alongside internal links on authoritative websites can allow your long tail keywords to acquire a high ranking.

Step 3 – Optimizing Your Headlines

Long tail keyword creation can add significant value to your business. Keywords direct traffic to your site and therefore are vital marketing components. Focus your SEO efforts on optimizing head terms, and remember that a number of your long tail keywords are simply variations on your head keyword phrases. This means centering your efforts on creating effective long tail keywords can increase your online presence.

It is also helpful to track your head keyword phrases as well as the total number of different keywords that are drawing potential customers to your site. Your first priority is to ensure that your site is well constructed. Good content, naming and site structure are staples of a well-built site. If you have covered your bases in this regard you should see an improvement in the total number of keywords that consistently converting browsers to buyers.

Increasing sales through long tail SEO is the main objective. The focus here needs to be on utilizing high-converting pages. The emphasis is on quality not quantity. This is where understanding your market comes into play. The number of visitors may not be significant but if    the right keyword phrases are employed the conversion rate will speak for itself.

Generating sales through Long tail SEO is a process that takes time and dedication but if done correctly can bring your business a great deal of success. I’ll admit getting started with this approach is going to be hard, but you should keep in mind what’s important to your business. Go back, and figure out how you’ll apply long-tail keywords to your marketing, and get started. Getting started almost immediately will ensure you are setup before your competition, and have more than enough time to test out what’s working.

I have worked with many people, and one thing I’ve found is their inability to focus on the bottom line. They get caught up doing things which don’t matter, and this delays the results they want to achieve. I’ll tell you from my own experience that long-tail keywords is very effective strategy in building momentum, however you need to know how to apply them to your blog.

Read through this content finding ways to use what you have learned above, however make the required notes first. Read through make notes, apply, and tweak so you create a strategy which not only helps you rank within the SERPs, but increases your sales, conversions and momentum. Ever since I applied long tail keywords to my content, and started to do serious SEO, I have seen more traffic come from different channels. What’s even more awesome is this traffic has increased my sales and dominance online.

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2TVW8RT
via Daniel

Can You Make Money with a Drop Shipping Business?

In this episode of Driving with John Chow, I explain what a drop shipping business is, how it works, and how you can make money from it by leveraging its advantages.

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2FOqDq1
via Daniel

What IGTV Needs to Be a True YouTube Competitor

To be perfectly honest with you, I’m doing all kinds of things wrong on YouTube, but I am working to improve on a lot of what I do there. And despite how much people might complain about the algorithm or getting unexpectedly booted out of the YouTube Partner Program, YouTube is still far and away the reigning champion of online video and they offer a good deal of support for people who are successful on the platform.

And while there have been some snippets of success from alternatives like Vimeo or even Vine, nothing has come anywhere close to knocking YouTube off its elevated pedestal. Instagram thinks it can and that’s why they announced IGTV in June 2018. With already a gigantic user base demonstrating monumental levels of engagement, and with the significant backing of Facebook working behind the scenes, IGTV could be poised to be a real YouTube competitor.

But it’s still missing a few pieces.

Monetization Options for Creators

In some ways, you could say that creators have been spoiled with the monetization program at YouTube, even if most creators don’t make money on YouTube. And even among those who do, the AdSense revenue share is still a relative pittance unless you’re consistently raking in millions of views. Even so, it’s nice to get some pocket change as a reward for your work.

Right now, there is no direct monetization available to creators on IGTV, at least not at a public level like how the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) works. To be fair, there also are not any ads in IGTV at the moment (though there are on Instagram, of course), so that may change. What might be interesting is if Instagram partners with someone like Patreon as a monetization model, or if they integrate with vendors like Amazon on a revenue sharing basis for linked products.

Creators can still work out their own brand deals and sponsored content, like how they can on every other platform, but having something baked into the system has always been of tremendous appeal to YouTubers, especially those without millions of subscribers.

Better Search Capabilities

It should come as little surprise that one of the biggest appeals of Google-owned YouTube is the incredible search function. This is true both from the perspective of someone creating the videos (and hoping to be found) and someone who is looking for videos to watch (and hoping to find what they actually want to watch). Search on YouTube is far better than you’d find with Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or practically anywhere else.

For the time being, while there is some level of discoverability by way of hashtags for IGTV, the actual search function itself is limited to finding the “channels” (read: accounts or profiles) of the Instagram users creating video content for IGTV. Sure, it’s great if you can find the channel for your favorite vlogger or brand, but what if I’m looking for a particular video on a particular subject? YouTube still wins, both based on volume and based on the ease of finding it.

And this is true, to some extent, to Instagram as a whole too. You can do a search based on location or user or hashtag, but more complex queries for specific content aren’t really possible. If you want to truly compete with YouTube, you need to compete on search at least at a basic level.

A True Desktop Experience

Instagram has always approached the market in a very measured way, so I totally understand their decision on this. Remember when the app was only available for the iPhone? Remember when your photos had to be square? Remember when they started introducing video? Or Stories? Or the ability to finally check Instagram on your computer?

With vertical video and the way the interface is designed, it’s obvious enough that IGTV is coming from a “mobile first” attitude for a “mobile first” user demographic. This could appeal to the Snapchat generation, at least at first, but at some point, IGTV needs to expand to a proper desktop experience as well. People spend more time on their mobile devices than on their computers, but they are still on their computers.

Right now, you can upload from your desktop, including your thumbnail and description, but that’s about it.

I’m not entirely sure how vertical video can best translate — if I did, I’m sure I’d be making a lot more money as a consultant or executive or something — but it needs to happen if they want IGTV to elevate to the level of YouTube. Can you imagine if you could only watch YouTube on your computer and not on your smartphone or tablet? Can you imagine if you could only get on Facebook through your phone and not on your laptop?

Where Vimeo, Viddler, Vine and even Google Video have come up short, IGTV could be a real player in this online video space. Realistically, I don’t see it usurping YouTube altogether. Instead, I think the two platforms will be able to complement one another and offer different experiences for creators and consumers alike.

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2rc2bok
via Daniel

3 Tips to Boost Email Conversions on Your Site

One of the most valuable parts of your business is your email list. Here is where the gold is; you have a list of people who have told you by handing over their email address that they trust you with it. They’re invested in your brand to the point where they’re more than willing to receive emails from you. That says a lot.

Email is a great way to get in touch with your customers because it offers a personal touch that your website and other forms of communication can’t. The open rate for email increases year by year. In 2018, the open rate for email reached 25 percent and will continue to rise.

So how can you boost the email conversions on your site? Here are three tips to get you started.

1. Implement A/B Split Tests

Also known as A/B testing, this allows you to test out two different variations of the same template. This could be a landing page, the button color of a call to action, website copy, and more. This lets you see what brings users closer to opting into your email list and what grabs their attention.

SimCity is a video game company that implemented A/B testing to figure out how they could increase online sales. In the first version, they implemented a huge banner at the top with a $20 discount for the customer’s next purchase. In the second, they got rid of the banner entirely and the discount no longer appeared.

Here’s their shopping page with variant A:

And here’s variant B:

Now, if you didn’t know this particular gaming audience, you’d think the version with the discount would bring in more conversions. However, it was the version with the deleted offer that brought in 40 percent more conversions in online sales. This is because this audience wasn’t looking to make another purchase; they just wanted their video game.

So, by doing research on your audience and knowing what they’re looking for, it’s easier to create content that turns email conversions into paying customers. A/B tests are a great way to figure this out.

2. Give ‘Em What They Want

You can’t expect visitors to come to your site, see your email optin form, and sign up right away. That’s just not how it works. It takes time, trust, and interest. If you’re lucky, it’ll take less time while building more trust.

To gain your audience’s trust, you have to show them that the relationship you have with them is sincere; you’re not just in it for the profit. You want to build a list of reliable, faithful customers because they’re the milk and honey of your business. They keep everything flowing and prosperous.

A great way to do this is to create a lead magnet, or a free piece of content in exchange for an email address. This could be anything, really: ebooks, landing pages, checklists, resource lists, and more. The possibilities are endless for things you can offer your customers.

Ask yourself what your target audience is in need of or what they could use help with. What questions are they asking? What else would they like to know? Ask them. Anything that benefits them and makes them feel welcome by your brand is sure to get you email conversions.

A lead magnet is the first thing you see when you visit Neil Patel’s blog. He tells his audience what benefit they’ll receive by opting in (knowledge on how to generate 1,702,148 visitors a month) and the freebie they’ll receive by doing so (a cheat sheet on ranking #1 for “online marketing”).

3. Go Mobile Friendly
If you’re looking to boost your conversions, you have to optimize your emails for mobile users. 61 percent of emails are read and opened on mobile phones today, so if your content isn’t mobile friendly by now, you’re missing out on a lot of potential traffic and customers.

In this example by jewelry company John Madeiros, you can see the difference between their email on a desktop versus mobile. They made a lot of changes in their optimized mobile layout, such as getting rid of the image and formatting the text, making it easier for mobile users to consume.

A report by Super Office found that only about 20 percent of email campaigns are mobile friendly. That’s a lot of wasted potential and you don’t want to be mixed in with that group.

So what can you do? A few options are:

• Removing obnoxious text, images, and colors.
• Having a clear subject line and purpose.
• Making text big and clear.

Use a tool like Litmus to help you see what looks good with email on mobile and what doesn’t. You can test your emails on over 90 apps and across multiple devices to ensure that only the mobile-friendly versions of your emails go to your subscribers.

Moving Forward

So, if you’re looking to boost email conversions on your site, you have to remember what’s important to your audience. You’ll want to test different variations of your copy, offer something of value for free, and optimize for mobile. There are tons of different aspects of your email list to play around with, and with the right tools, you’ll see a huge amount of growth in loyal consumers.

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

Tesla Road Trip To Ostrichland USA

Ostrichland USA, located in Solvang California, is a great place to check out when on a Tesla road trip. Five dollars to get in and only $1 for a big bowl of food to feed the Ostriches and Emus with. But be careful when feeding because those birds are hungry buggers!

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2ArMc9R
via Daniel

Is Creating Online Tools Better Than Writing Content?

There are so many ways to make money online, however, you have to figure out what you’re passionate about first. Personally, I love blogging so I have set up 4-5 personal blogs to help people with blogging, mental awareness, and more. The funny thing is, I know people in my niche who have done the same thing, but continued to make a better living through selling SEO tools. I must admit that this is really a lucrative business if you implement the strategies the right way. In recent years, this business has grown bigger, and much of this has to do with the expansion of the Internet. For example,

People are able to set up blogs quickly, and with very little investment. This means they require tools to help them build their online profiles through social media, keyword research, and writing content. There are even tools to help you find HOT trending topics online so you can create something better. It’s amazing how I’ve seen things changed within the last 10 years. Look at the evolution of search engines, and you’ll know how they have transformed over the last several years…right?

With that said, I’ll like to explore this question: Is Creating Tools Better than Writing Content?

You’ll be surprised by why creating tools might be the direction to take if you want to explode online. Let’s get started.

Audience

With the right tools, you are NOT limited to the audience you have. When you focus on a niche, you’ll have to attract people and other bloggers who are in the same niche. You’ll have to write content catered to them, and even focus on attracting the same type of people going forward. However, with the right marketing tools, you’ll be able to attract people from all different types of niches. For example,

If I create an online keyword research tool, then I have every blogger at my disposal simply because everyone needs to research keywords. This doesn’t matter if you are in the health niche, online marketing, money, relationship, MLM, etc. You’ll need to research your competition to find out how you can get an edge on your competition…right?

The same applies to tools that have been developed for “website backup and speed”. No matter what niche you’re in, you’ll need these tools to ensure your website is running optimally, and that all your data is backed up. It is estimated that the Internet is available to over 75% of the world, and this means you have more people going online to search or even start a business. This is probably why search engines like Google blew up quickly because everyone is getting Internet access, with all of them having to search for information.

When you look at things more broadly, you’ll understand how the right Internet tools can make a huge difference online. They’re even massive for the bottom-line.

Retention

One thing I’ve noticed is that when you develop a tool, the retention rate is very high. Hosting companies probably have the highest retention rates because once you start a website, you’ll probably have it for the rest of your life. This means you’ll have to host online, and have a domain name…right? Even if you are NOT starting a website for business reasons, you’ll have a personal blog or host your resume online. The thing to remember is whatever reason you have to go online, you’re MOST likely going to stay online for a long time. Hosting companies are very smart because they understand how important customer retention is for their business.

When I first started to host with GoDaddy 7-8 years ago, I never knew I would still be their client. I’ve found way better deals, but it’s the work involved to switch that threw me completely off. For me to switch over, I would have to move my domains, databases, website files, email accounts, etc. This was way too much work for the difference of a few dollars. Here’s my point,

I consider hosting companies an online tool because you won’t be able to do anything withinout the right hosting plan. With so many reseller hosting accounts available, it’s NO wonder anyone can jump into the hosting business. Writing content doesn’t retain customers as much as online marketing tools.

This is NOT limited to just hosting, but even auditing tools, backups, link trackers, etc. The value they provide is so high that once you’ve started using them, it’s hard to move away.

Huge Options

When writing content, the only options you have is how to write the title, body, and conclusion. You have to make sure you’ve targeted your niche so your audience will find your content engaging…right? When they find your content engaging, then you’ll start to grow as a business, but this is NOT the case when creating online marketing tools.

You have such a huge market because there are so many niches online that I can’t keep track of them all. For example, here are just a few from the top of my head:

• Health
• Wealth
• Relationships
• SEO
• Blogging
• Online marketing
• Airplanes
• Yoga

All of the ones I’ve mentioned above can be narrowed even further. However, you understand the point I’m making as it applies to niches. If you are creating a SEO tool, you’ll have the option to target any of those niches. I can create an online app to count weight loss calories, or even create a keyword research tool, which targeted all of them. I’ve noticed there are so many tools that target all the niches at once, and this goes back to my first point of “Audience”. You truly have no limitation when businesses decide to go online. Here’s another example,

If you create a link building tool, you can pretty much target every single niche…right?

Depending on your passion, you can shift your efforts to focus on creating the right tool for your niche. You’ll notice that most tools are online because they are easier to access compared to conventional tools.

Huge Profits

You’d be surprised what the profit margins are when creating your own online tool. Some products are anywhere between $20/month to $199/month, and this is even more when they upgrade their plans. I know this might not seem like a lot at first glance, but remember that once the tool is created, it’s all about maintenance. For example,

The highest investment for anyone is to actually develop the product because after that, you don’t have to upgrade on a daily basis. You are NOT shipping anything, and you don’t have to make cold-calls unless you have time to burn. This is why once the product has been developed, you’re able to cash in almost immediately once it hits the market.

Imagine selling a product for $199.00/month on a recurring subscription, and having more than 1,000 customers. Let’s do the math…

This works out to $199,000 per month every month as long as the customer stays a subscriber. However, again, keep in mind this is NOT including the upsells with each product. If you’re a smart business, then you’ll know how to get the MOST out of your customers. With that said, here are a few things you should consider:

First, make sure you create a product high in demand because this will help you gain access to a bigger market. No point in creating a market that won’t appeal to the masses because you’re cutting into your market share. Secondly, you should always tap into a growing niche like health, wealth, and love. If you take a close look at these “3” niches, then you’ll know these categories have been growing almost every year, and access to the Internet has only helped them expand. Third,

Make sure you create a product that is significantly better than your competition. You’re only going to be able to excel when you know you can destroy your competition.  In content marketing the first lesson we learn is to research our competition so we find ways to make our product better than everyone else. We need to add elements that others are missing, which will allow us to get a competitive edge over our competition. When this happens, we know we’ll be able to succeed where others have failed.

Wrapping it up

In the end, you have to think about the two options you have in front of you. I’ve often been asked  about writing content or developing a product, and I always answer this way. What are you more passionate about? Next, even though you’re passionate, do you have enough resources to set up a product that will transform your niche? I’ll admit, starting your own product will take enormous time, and it will require loads of money, which many people don’t have right now. With that said,

Let’s look at the following things:

Niche – Is your niche big enough that your product will translate into enormous profits down the line? I know many niches that are too small so whether if you have a product or not, you’ll still have a hard time making money. The way you can answer this question is by researching your niche, and finding what other types of products are available.

What will work? – This is another common question you should ask before getting started. There are so any products on the market, and you have to create something unique or better. Before you can, it’s important to find out if your product is needed within your niche or if it will just sit there without anyone seeing its importance. The more of a sensitive area it touches with customers, the better chances you’ll have of selling your product.

Profit margins – It’s all about the bottom line so I always think: How much can I make from this product? For example, what should I sell my product for so it’s attractive in price? Too expensive, and people won’t be able to afford it but too low, and you won’t be making a profit going forward…right?

I would research different products, and see how they have priced their products, and then see where you fall in between. It might even take some trial and error to find what price range gets the most conversions.

It’s time to go back through this content, and make a list of the important elements discussed. Go back through, and answer some of the questions I’ve asked so you can see how they apply to your niche. As you start to research your niche, you’ll get good idea of what you want to do going forward. Either you want to stick to writing content for your readers, and convert them by selling someone else’s product, or, you know you have a huge enough audience to start developing your own product, which is a completely different ball game.

I would start by doing a quick search on Google so you can find resources on effectively start your own online product. Freelancer.com is a great place to find people to get started with because people can be found from all over the world with different levels of experience.

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

Insane Ice Cream Dessert At Twirl Swirl Hollywood

Sally and I check Twirl Swirl, one of the most insane ice cream shops along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They make some really unique desserts and is a must visit when visiting California. They also serve bubble tea!

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2r3QWy0
via Daniel

Don’t Ask Your Audience What They Want

Market research. Consumer research. Customer surveys. Focus groups. Whatever you want to call it and whatever form it takes on, the objective of this kind of research is pretty clear. You want to find out what your customers like, what they don’t like, what they want, and what they don’t want. Armed with this information, the thinking goes, you are better equipped to deliver just the right product that’ll sell like hotcakes.

Except it turns out that your customers aren’t really all that interested in classic breakfasts anymore, so you end up focusing on selling hamburgers instead… only to get totally burned by some girl in pigtails. Go figure.

But here’s the thing. When you go ahead and ask your customers what they want, you oftentimes end up with a bland, boring product that’s designed by committee. It’s like regression toward the mean, except you get something that’s average, by definition, in every sense of the word. And it’s hard to stand out and be noticed when you’re average, which is just another word for mediocre. Do and be like everyone else and you can only hope to be average at best.

Henry Ford famously once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Some people have disagreed with this sentiment and there’s not even substantial evidence to indicate that Ford ever said this, but he’s still got a point. Average Joe Consumer doesn’t really know what he wants, because he only knows what he knows… and he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. And then he doesn’t know what to do with the thing he thinks he wants once he gets it.

Ask the overwhelming majority of people what they want and many of them will tell you that they want to be rich or famous or rich and famous. You can’t blame them. But then you have people who suddenly achieve some level of fame and they don’t know how to deal with all that attention. Years ago, we witnessed in this in the stark contrast between Eminem’s first two albums.

And there’s a reason why so many lottery winners go broke shortly after coming into those big bucks. They weren’t very good with a dollar, so they end up being that much worse with a million dollars. They don’t know what to do with themselves, because they don’t actually know what they want to do with that money. So they blow it on frivolous purchases and don’t think it through.

If Ford actually took his customers at face value, we may not have ever had the Model T. That said, what the customers were really saying was that they wanted a faster mode of individual transportation. In that sense, Ford delivered.

Here’s another iconic quote from another iconic visionary. Steve Jobs once said that “people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” It was from this “think different” mindset that we eventually got our hands on the iPod, iPhone, MacBook, iMac and all the rest of it. Again, some people will disagree with this sentiment and their arguments are perfectly valid.

But if Apple were to have turned to its customers and asked them what they wanted, they would have never taken that bold step of removing the headphone jack from the iPhone 7. Yes, they received a lot of hate at the time, but it set off a new trend in smartphones without headphone jacks. If Apple asked customers what they wanted, no one would have said they wanted the “notch” in the iPhone X and yet, here we are.

I’m not necessarily agreeing with Apple’s decision to ditch the headphone jack or to implement the notch. What I am saying is that it takes a little bit of stubborn egocentricity to push innovation forward. You need to think in ways that no one else has, going to places that no one else even imagined. You might falter, you might stumble, and you might fall flat on your face. Or you could stand head and shoulders above the rest.

The best thing you can do for your brand is to be true to yourself. Be the best “you” that you can be, because no one can do “you” better than you can.

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2TA8uim
via Daniel

HostGator Black Friday Sale – Start Your Blog for $2.08!

It’s back! HostGator (they host this blog) is kicking off an early Black Friday with 65% off all new hosting plus $5.99 for select domains. Plus they’re doing one hour flash sales thought out the weekend where you can pick up a new domain for only $2.99 and get a whoppin’ 70% of all new hosting plans! That means you can start a blog for only $2.08 a month!

70% Off Flash Sale Schedule

• Thursday 11/22 – 12AM CST
• Thursday 11/22 – 10AM CST
• Thursday 11/22 – 2PM CST
• Thursday 11/22 – 5PM CST

If you don’t want to wait for a flash sale, you can take advantage of the 65% Black Friday deal and start your blog for only $2.43 a month. However, if you really need to save that 35 cents, I fully understand. Either way, if you order your hosting thought this blog, you get some nice bonuses.

Free WordPress Installation and Setup

Order your web hosting with HostGator right now and I’ll set up your new blog for you for free! Not only that, I will also install for free the following plugins to get your blog started on the right foot:

• All In One SEO
• Google Sitemap
• W3 Total Cache
• Show Top Commentators
• WordPress.com Stats
• Akismet
• After The Deadline

All In One SEO is the ultimate SEO plugin for WordPress and will help your blog rank higher with the search engines. In addition, I’ll set up your new blog with search engine friendly URLs. Google Sitemap will help get your blog pages indexed quickly on Google. W3 Total Cache will make your blog load a lot faster and handle more traffic. Show Top Commentators encourages readers to comment on your blog. WP Stats will let you know who is visiting your blog. Akismet kills off the comment spam and After The Deadline will proof read your blog post for grammar and spelling. These are some of the best WordPress plugins available and they’re included free with the WordPress installation service.

All you have to do is order a web hosting plan from HostGator, then forward me the login information to johnchow [at] johnchow.com, and I’ll install WordPress for you. Afterwards, I’ll email you back the login information for your new WordPress blog and you can start blogging!

I will also include instructions on how to change all your login passwords. I will not keep any of the forwarded information from HostGator. Once WordPress has been set up, I will destroy the email.

$100 of Google AdWords Credit To Promote Your New Blog

Not only will you get your blog hosting at a once-in-a-year discount, but every hosting plan at HostGator comes with $100 of Google AdWords credit that you can use to promote your new blog. Start your blog for up to 70% off, get WordPress and plugins installed for free and get $100 of AdWords credit. You won’t find a better web hosting deal anywhere!

The sale is on now! If you were thinking about starting your blog, RIGHT NOW is the time to do it! Order your web hosting plan and let me set up a new WordPress blog for you. Happy Black Friday!

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

Why You Shouldn’t Buy Anything On Black Friday And Cyber Monday

Black Friday and Cyber Monday is just around the corner, and consumers are looking forward to lining up for hours in front of a Walmart to save a dollar or two on 100 rolls of toilet paper. In this video, I explain a better way to take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2zn1WLH
via Daniel

How To Create A More Likeable Brand And Attract More Customers

Your brand is very important when building a business because it will sky-rocket your product growth, and even your bottom line. However, many people simply don’t spend enough time understanding their brand, and what they can do to increase awareness. Even though, this won’t destroy your bottom line, it will definitely take longer to get people attracted to it. If you ask any business owner, they’ll tell the MOST important thing you can do for your business is build a “LIKEABLE” brand. When people love your brand they’ll be comfortable purchasing products, and services going forward. For example,

When we think of Donald Trump we think of luxury hotels, casinos, and condo’s…right? When we think of Apple, we think of innovation and excellent products with longevity. Your brand once marketed the right way can carry your business to a completely new level. However, it’s important you know how to do this to get optimum results because there is NO point in marketing if you can’t show any results.

Let’s get started, and go over some of the best ways to create a likeable brand online.

Your feedback and opinion will be greatly appreciated.

The Value Matters

Many people start purchasing products because they see the value it brings to whatever they are doing. This means it’s important outlining the value whenever you get a chance. As a matter of fact, this should be your number one objective going forward because this can translate into enormous revenue. For example, many of us try to get the conversion, and fail to show people the value, however this approach will destroy your business. Here’s why?

When you focus on conversions your still NOT securing the purchase or deal. Someone buys a product and/or service because they see the value it brings to their business or even personal life. We buy iPods because it helps us run longer since we can listen to the music we want. The iPhone brings everything at our finger tips which is important because it helps us run our business more efficiently. Using a word pressor makes it easier for content writers to get things written down with very little error because of the “review” tools built in.

Whatever the case, it’s important you always show people the value so they need to purchase instead of having a choice. The more they feel it’s too valuable, the more they feel they’ll need it in their life which will just increase conversions going forward. Next,

Here are some constructive ways to ensure this get’s done correctly…

Create a video – one of the best ways to show value because you can cover so much in a short period of time, and in great details. Video tutorials are way better then text because they are to the point, everyone understands them, and NOT everyone wants to read lengthy content.

Free Trial – Many of the top companies offer FREE trials so people can test out the product. I have bought so many after testing out what it can do for me. I recommend offering a FREE trial so people can play around with the interface pulling out the value.

Testimonials – A great way to show people the value is by having people who have used the product leave reviews. When others see what it has done for regular consumers, they are more tempted to buy in the long run.

Brand Engagement

You’ve noticed how many online businesses or even corporate ones are going out engaging with people marketing their brand. It’s because people love to buy a product or service which they are familiar with, and know the people running the business. This is why corporations like Apple, Coke, IBM, Facebook, and others all throw huge events to promote their brand. The more you are physically engaging with people, the more momentum you can build. You might be wondering how this can apply to your business online…right?

Facebook.com is an online business, and they still throw events to engage community people. Same with aWeber.com (I’ve been invited), and this has helped them build a connection with me because I’m still a customer till today.

Here’s the point I’m making:

Your going to have huge competition in your niche so it’s important you build a strong relationship with your customer base. A personal relationship can be the defining factor between you, and your competition.

Here is one of the MOST cost effective ways to do this right now:

Make sure you have a comment box on your website or blog because you can answer questions as they are written. For example, anytime a product or even content is written, you are going to have people leave comments, it’s important you answer all of them. This way you are clearing up a debate or even providing more information on a product you are promoting.

In the end, it’s important you build engagement with your brand because people will appreciate your business more if there is a face to put with it. Many companies work from the front end, but you never really find out who the person is behind the brand. This can backfire as people still don’t feel comfortable when buying going forward.

Understand The Changing Tides

One of the ways people destroy their brand is NOT utilizing some of the key marketing channels they have available. Everything is constantly changing because technology is moving very fast so it’s important you keep up to date with all the trends. As marketing changes people start using other platforms to find information, and if you don’t market your brand on any of the new ones, then your brand becomes obsolete. This means it’s important you are always up to date with how, and where you should be marketing your business.

Here are some things to keep a close eye on which I’ve noticed:

Content writing – The way we write content is changing so fast that we should incorporate the new strategies as they become popular. For example, recently the usage of long-tail and LSI keywords is very important because these help attract people to your brand. The more people you can attract to your website, the better for your brand.

Networking – This is very important these days because it’s all about getting your product in front of people. I’ve noticed social media has made everyone more valuable so people are looking to network to promote. Do some serious outreach, and connect with others in your niche who are willing to promote your brand. Remember, this does work both ways, so make sure you know what you’ll be offering in return.

Video Marketing – Think about how much marketing is done on YouTube.com? You can post a video showcasing your products, and this can generate enormous buzz to your business. However, you have to ensure you use the tools to get videos done, and don’t wait around because your competition will steal your audience.

Changing Your Brand

The most successful brands are always changing as time goes on, and this has allowed them to keep their customers while attracting new ones. If you look at Apple, for example, they have always introduced new products, and been able to conquer the tech world. It’s this ever changing progress which allowed them to come back from almost going bankrupt a few years back. Steve Jobs new survival has to do with giving your customers what they are looking for, and making sure you stay ahead of your competition. With that said,

What are some strategies you can use to stay ahead of your competition, and change your brand?

First, I would research my competition, and find out how they are changing the products we share. I always look at email service providers because you have so many of them available. What I’ve learned is that one will make progress, and the others will soon follow. I believe they all research each other finding ways to improve their product while NOT falling behind.

Next,

Pay close attention to products and services which reflect your brand or are relevant. For example, when I build a computer I’ll always pay close attention to what new hardware is available to add. The same can be applied to your business by looking at how advances in technology can help create a better product. Tech companies use this approach all the time. They’ll add:

• The newest processor
• The newest motherboard
• Better display
• And others

In order for people to continue to like your brand, it’s important you continue to change your brand so it’s attractive. The more they feel it’ll provide value, and make their life easier the more they’ll stay loyal to your brand. However, many businesses fail to stay ahead of the changing trends when it comes to the products they develop.

Incorporate Consumer Opinion

Always collect feedback on your products, and make sure to incorporate what your customers are saying. In the end, your products are going to be purchased by those who find them valuable so when they provide feedback it’s usually a great way to improve your brand going forward.

You’ve noticed every time you buy a product you’ll have a survey to fill out about your experience…right?

This is because companies understand the value provided by their customers, and how this can help increase the bottom line. People buy your products, and the less they buy the bigger the IMPACT on your profits. I encourage all of you to send out a survey to your customers or even readers asking them about ways you can improve their experience. Once you have gathered all the results, it’s important you implement what they have said. I would start from the MOST common, and move down the list then ask new customers for their opinion to see what they suggest. You’ll notice over time you have tided all the loose ends together.

Final Thoughts

In the end, it’s all about finding what works for you, and what doesn’t. Companies spend millions of dollars building their brand, and much of the money is spent finding ways engage the customer. The more you engage them, the better for your brand.

For example, when a customer “LIKES” your brand, it increases:

• Profits
• Longevity
• Value
• Momentum
• Retention
• Acquisition

If you haven’t started to implement these strategies, then you might want to do the following:

Start by going over all of these strategies again, and start to implement them into your brand. The key is to do this ASAP so you can start to track the results. It’s only when you start tracking the results, you’ll be able to find out what optimization strategies you should be sticking with. It will take some time to implement all of these strategies, however going forward you’ll be able to increase brand “LIKEABILITY”.

The strategies you ultimately use will depend on the type of niche your involved in. Some will work better then others, however building credibility for your brand is very important to keep growing as a business.

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

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2Q8NoZH
via Daniel

Free Time and the Dot Com Lifestyle

Growing up in your family home as a child, the only space you likely had to call your own was your bedroom. That is, if you didn’t have to share it with a sibling or two. This meant you were mostly confined to somewhere around 100 square feet. Within those 100 or so square feet, you’d put up posters of your favorite rock stars, display some of your favorite toys, and wish you had more room for your growing accumulation of stuff.

More Room for Everything?

When you moved away for college or got your first full-time job, you may have moved into a humble one-bedroom apartment with 700 square feet. You suddenly had all this “extra” room and yet you quickly found a way to fill it. You found more places to put your collectibles, more space for your accumulating library of books, and a couple more closets for even more clothes. But you filled it. And it was full. And let’s be honest. Most of it was junk.

Eventually, you upgrade to a starter house with 1,500 square feet, then a bigger house with 2,000 square feet, and so on and so forth. Each time that you do, you experience the same feeling. Look at all this “extra” space! You get all excited about having all this extra room. Inevitably, you find a way to fill it all with furniture and knick-knacks, and you feel like you’re running out of space again. And so, the cycle renews again and again.

And there’s no turning back. By the time you accumulate that incredible Internet wealth and buy a $2 million house in cash, there’s no way you’re ever going back to that 700 square foot bachelor pad. There’s just no room for your big living room furniture, your giant home office desk, or your custom poker table. If anything, now you need even more space so you can get a pool table.

The Perception of Time

So, what does any of this have to do with making money online and the dot com lifestyle? It’s because time and technology work in exactly the same way as how we treat the square footage in our homes. Modern advances in technology have greatly helped us become far more efficient than ever before. Instead of sending an important document via courier, which could take a few days to get to its destination, we can email a PDF instantly. Instead of waiting to develop film from our cameras, we can see the photo we took instantly on our camera’s LCD display. Everything is faster and more efficient.

We should have all sorts of free time, but each time we “free” up some time, we inevitably find a way to fill it all up again. And then, once again, we run into the all-too-familiar situation where we feel like we don’t have enough time to do the things we want to do. If only there was a way to be more efficient and free up our time, right?

It’s true that blogging is not passive income, but developing a steady flow of residual, passive income is the ultimate goal when it comes to achieving the dot com lifestyle. It’s figuring out how you can remove yourself from your online business so that it can effectively run itself… or at least scale it in such a way that you don’t need to work nearly as much as everyone else and still earn more than everyone else.

Spending Where It Matters

How you choose to fill your time is just as much a personal decision as is how you choose to fill your home. It makes sense that you want to upgrade and expand along the way. It’s perfectly logical that you don’t want to be stuck in a single 100 square foot bedroom for the rest of your life. But you do expand and get yourself more space or more time, be much more mindful of how you choose to fill up that space.

Are you going to spend it creating memories with your loved ones? Growing your business further? Or are you just going to fill it with more mindless garbage and nonsense that won’t actually add any happiness to your life?

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

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2r4WEQt
via Daniel

3 SEO Tips to Drive More Traffic in 2019

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the most essential parts of your digital marketing strategy. It’s how websites and pages get ranked on Google and other search engines and greatly affects one’s visibility, engagement, and conversions.

SEO makes it easier for search engines to find the best content, bring in organic traffic, and match consumers with their appropriate business. Without it, it would be nearly impossible to get your stellar content noticed — even if it is the best.

But times are changing, and with that, so are SEO trends. As Google continues to revise its algorithms, the structure for how to rank higher and boost visibility changes. It’s essential to keep up to generate more leads and bring in conversions.

Here are three tips to drive more traffic to your content in 2019.

1. Optimize your site performance

You want to make sure that when someone clicks through to your website, there’s as minimal lag as possible. If we have the attention spans of goldfish, then one of the most essential parts of driving traffic is having a website that loads quickly. Google includes page speed in their search ranking algorithms because it’s essential to the user experience (UX).

It’s helpful if you use a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights to track how fast or slow your site loads for users.

Image optimization

By now we all know that images are great for helping our content come alive. However, images if not optimized for web can slow down your site big time. Thankfully, there are tools to help you compress your images and make your site load faster, which is crucial for SEO.

Check out tools like TinyPNG or Kraken to compress your images for faster loading times.

Content delivery network

A content delivery network, or content distribution network (CDN), could also help you optimize your site performance for better traffic. It’s a system of servers distributed to deliver web content to users depending on their geographic location. In other words, a CDN keeps your web pages sturdy, speedy, and reliable so that they load for users no matter where they’re at.

Cloudflare is a popular CDN you can use that moves static files closer to visitors for a more secure internet experience. It accelerates mobile links, uses its private network to navigate visitors through the simplest, least congested paths, and adjusts how content is delivered to users based on what device they’re using.

2. Revamp content with vigor

There are many ways you can optimize your content to drive more traffic:

Rewrite old articles that have the potential for success. Put more focus on keywords and centering your articles around them for better search engine rankings.

Create long-form content. It not only performs better in search engines for greater visibility, but studies show it also earns more backlinks and is more engaging to your readers. When it comes to content promotion, long-form brings in more shares and user engagement. Think about it: if your content is longer, it makes sense that users will spend more time interacting with it. Overall, it’s an important part of SEO optimization because it increases conversions.

Utilize other forms of content in your posts like audio, video, and images. In a study done by Render Forest, it’s expected that by 2019, 80 percent of Internet consumption will be video on a global scale. Images are a good way to spice up content and give it a refreshing look.

3. Invest in keyword research

Keyword research is everything when it comes to SEO. It tells you what phrases and keywords attract customers, what they’re looking for, and why they’re interested. It shows you what topics are high and low in demand and you can use that to your advantage to rank higher in Google. You need to know all these things if you want to drive more traffic to your site next year.

Using refined keywords also ensures that the right kind of audience is being directed to your site. It’s a waste of time for someone searching up local plumbers to get redirected to a hair salon. Keywords make sure that only the best, most fitting content gets ranked to the top of search engines, and that’s why it’s so important.

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to search for keywords that are most sought after but need more content.

Next, you need to create a list of keywords that your consumers are looking up in relation to your content. Long-tail keywords, which are longer and more detailed phrases, are essential for SEO as they’re more specific and get noticed by search engines faster.

According to Wordstream, 50 percent of searches are four words or longer. That means it brings in organic leads and traffic that convert to paying customers easier than other methods because the consumer is coming directly to you. The more targeted, the higher the conversion rate.

Once you’ve created a list of keywords to use, let’s say for a blog post, come up with similar phrases. This is to see if similar phrases or keywords rank high with low competition compared to the others. If so, that’s your goldmine.

Over to you

If you’re looking to boost traffic and leads to your site, these tips will help get you started. It’s critical not to overlook things like content length and page speed because these either enhance or break the UX. Optimizing already existing content also helps your visibility rate. With the right strategy, your content could be first ranked on Google.

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

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2DwWY1v
via Daniel

DMC Lamborghini Aventador and More Crazy Cars at Cars And Coffee

There were some really crazy cars at this week’s South OC Cars and Coffee, including an insane Lamborghini Aventador with a DMC body kit, and a Lotus with the craziest shifter mode I’ve ever seen. Check the video to see it all, and more!

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

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2Dtv6vi
via Daniel

Dot Com Lunch At Krave Asian Fusion Restaurant

Krave Asian Fusion Restaurant in Irvine serve crunchy, savory and non-greasy Korean Style Fried Chicken. They use a special frying technique that renders out the fat from the skin and transforms it into a thin crackly crust. Then they hand brush the sauce of your choice onto each piece of chicken.

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

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2S2yDVD
via Daniel

5 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Efforts Will Fail

Content marketing is a tough strategy to implement because there are so many small things you have to keep in mind. These factors will influence how successful your campaign is, and the future of your company. Many bloggers don’t pay close attention to the small factors, and then when their content marketing fails, they scrabble to find out what happen. Over the years I have worked with so many bloggers in different industries making sure they easily transition into content marketing. I have learned a lot, and would love to share some of the key reasons why many of them failed within their efforts.

It’s important to note, I have also failed several times with content marketing because I truly underestimated the game.

Out of 20 or so reasons, I have narrowed it down to the top 5 which you should be paying close attention to. Some of you are already in transition, so it’s important you make the tweaks right away. One of the strategies you’ll hear about is your ability to track results. This is very important because you need to find out which factors influenced your bottom line. If you have a clear indication of this, then you can make the tweak to better improve your chances.

Let’s get started, and your feedback will be greatly appreciated within the comment box below. If you have any methods which you feel work better then others, I would love to hear about it below.

Budgeting

One of the main reasons why content marketing has failed is because you have chosen NOT to think about the budget. I’ll emphasize it’s important to make sure you plan your budget weekly, and monthly or you’ll fail at content marketing. Many of the failing companies chose to plan budgeting every month, however this has cause them to drain their budget very quickly. Even though content marketing can be done for free, it’s important to note, you have the option to invest money in paid advertising. One of the best ways to do this is on Facebook.com through social media. Why?

It’s so easy to target specific niches, and even your audience which is amazing to collect all the statistics you need to move forward with your strategy. However, Facebook, if not controlled, can be very expensive on your budget. I have seen budgets of $2,000 (planned for the month), drain within a week.

It’s because the PPC fluctuates quickly since different rates apply to different days, times, competitors, etc. Next,

This is the same with other PPC networks so you have to keep a close eye on your budget or you’ll drain out very easily. The bottom line is you have to keep a close eye on your budget and plan hourly, daily or even weekly so you can start making the tweaks more quickly. The faster you can optimize the more CTR and conversions you’ll get which is better for your bottom line going forward.

Competition

I must admit competition does have two very scary faces. What do I mean?

First, competition is awesome if you’re just starting out because you can learn a lot from them. By researching your competition, you can find out about your audience, traffic, content, social media followers, etc. This means you can streamline the rate at which your blog will grow because you have all the information you need. One of the hardest things when starting a blog is to find out what works and what doesn’t, however your competition has essentially laid out the blueprint for you. Use this to your advantage and gather all the details you need to push your content marketing in the right direction. However,

Here’s the problem.

When trying to fully copy your competition when it comes to content marketing, you’ll be bidding against someone who has a larger budget then you. Your competition has probably been in business longer which means they have more money to burn. If you’re just starting out and marketing on those same networks or channels, then you will pay a very expensive price. This might even destroy your complete budget which will slow down your marketing efforts. This is why I have always encouraged my clients to have their own system in place. It’s important to be creative with their strategies because if you don’t then you’ll be doing the same EXACT thing like your competition.

This is NOT hard to apply because you have to do a few things:

• Research new marketing trends developing so you beat your competition to them.
• Time when your competition is marketing, then change around the time when you market your content
• Slow down how much you are investing so you don’t burn everything. Growth will be slow, but your brand will still be visible.

In the end,

Your competition can be both good and bad for your business. It’s important you are patient so you can pull out the good from both these areas. If you can than you’ve just increased the likelihood of survival in an industry which is very tough.

Traffic vs Conversions

What does this mean?

Here’s something to think about the next time you are looking over your traffic data…

How much of that traffic is actually converting into sales, profits, etc.? No point in having loads of traffic coming to your page if none of it is converting. This is a waste of time and effort because you rather have little traffic, but it puts money in your pockets…right?

As content marketers, we make the mistake at viewing the wrong data because in the end traffic should equal conversions. When we see a lot of traffic we lay back and don’t bother optimizing, however you are losing on valuable conversions using this approach. This is why I encourage all of you to make sure you are constantly tracking so you can tweak afterwards.

Here’s a few things you can do right now to improve your chances…

First, you have to have a solid tool to track what’s been going on when visitors arrive on your site. Without a way to track your visitors, it’s going to be even harder to make those tweaks which ultimately will convert. I would suggest using a tool like Google Analytics because they will provide you with all the information you need like: location, referrals, bounce pages, landing pages, and even search queries. With GA, you’ll be able to build a solid profile of what has been working, and what hasn’t.

Next,

It’s time to implement some of the content marketing changes you know or have learned in the past. The key is to implement these changes then make sure you are tracking the conversions so you know if they work or don’t. This will take time because you’ll need solid data accumulated over 30-60 days. Anything less won’t give you a chance to really test out the strategy so you can end up making a huge mistake. This will be hard in the beginning, however as you start to implement some content marketing strategies, you’ll know what to look for going forward.

Here’s the bottom line,

Make sure you know how to differentiate between traffic and conversions. You have to know these are two separate things because in the end it’s all about conversions. It’s this which brings in the profits helping you establish your bottom line.

Let’s jump into the final factor…

Networking Matters

I have expressed this several times because outreach can connect you with the right people in your industry. These people can put the word out about your content which will drive enormous traffic to your blog. Not to mention, this traffic will be for free WITHOUT any monetary investment from your side. However, I still see so many people NOT take the time out to network with those influential people within your niche.

Next,

Without reaching out to the right people in your niche, it’s going to be hard to get those solid backlinks which will have a benefit on your content marketing. Sometimes what’s needed is a solid organic push to get your content marketing going in the right direction. It’s important to note at the same time, the less time you spend on outreach, the more your competition will be spending. For example, all the missed opportunities have to go somewhere, and in MOST cases your competition will be reaching out to these influential bloggers.

Do a quick search in Google, and start building a list of bloggers you can reach out to. This will keep things clean, and right to the point. You can track the entire progress by writing down emails sent & received within excel. This spread-sheet is a great way to keep an eye on these which you have to follow-up with at a later time.

Get started now by heading over to Google, and doing very niche specific searches within your industry.

Final Thoughts

Now that you have a solid breakdown of why your content marketing efforts will fail, it’s important you start by going through the list writing down the main points. Why is this important? Simple…

It will make it much easier for you to implement the strategies right away. The last thing you want to do is have to read through this content, and pull out the tips when you are ready to get started. By creating a list, you’ll be able to stay 100% focused, and research each factor further before you get started. I’ve noticed when I write down things first, or even summarize then I have an easier time acting on my vision.

Secondly, it’s a great habit to get into to because blogging has a lot to do with organizing. If you can organize your material, then you’ll be able to access more quickly. This means you’ll have a jump start on your competition which will give you an edge later on. Remember, with solid organizing, you’ll be able to schedule topics, write content, hire employees, and keep an eye on everything at the same time.

Third, when you have things written down in a neat organized way, you’ll have an easier time tracking the results which again is very important when blogging. For example, you want to know which strategy works compared to others, and the way to do this is to track each element. You want to keep a close eye on location, audience, landing page, search queries, etc. After you have all the data, you’ll be able to eliminate which content marketing strategies don’t respond to your bottom line. I always track because in the end there is NO point in wasting time since it can be used somewhere else more productive.

Here’s what you need to do step by step…

Read through this content, and make notes on all the important factors. Go through each of them, and apply them to your blog. Make sure you take time so it’s done properly, and you can start to track results at the same time. You need 30-60 days of data to find out what’s been working, and what’s not. With this data, you can pull out what strategies you want to keep because they help with your content marketing, and you can continue to optimize going forward.

If everything is done properly, you’ll see growth in your content marketing which will help you accomplish your bottom line going forward.

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

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2Ft6aXs
via Daniel