On this episode of the Dot Com Lifestyle Vlog, I head to South OC Cars and Coffee to check out the new 2019 Jaguar I-PACE electric SUV. This is Jaguar’s answer to the Tesla Model X. In addition to seeing a lot of other cars, I also ate mini donuts off the hood of a Mercedes AMG GT. Because that’s what you can do when you live the Dot Com Lifestyle.
A few months ago, legendary marketer and cool friend Russell Brunson sent a brief email to over 100 of his ‘Two Comma Club’ award winners. Inside that email was a single question. Here’s what it read:
“You suddenly lose EVERYTHING in your business (your money, your big name, your list, your affiliates and JV partners, all of it)…You have bills piled high, and people harassing you for money over the phone.
All you have is a roof over your head, a phone line, an internet connection, and a ClickFunnels account for only ONE MONTH.
Other than your vast marketing experience, you’re back to being a newbie…What EXACTLY would you do, from Day 1 to Day 30, to save yourself?”
He started reading through the crazy detailed plans, mapping out what they’d do day-by-day. They sent him incredible, creative blueprints for how to get their business back up and rolling again, and generating income and leads in just ONE MONTH.
Every Two Comma Club expert had a different answer, and used a different strategy (which is really, really cool!). Each of his 30 speakers are going to answer that question for you IN DETAIL during the summit.
They will lay out their step-by-step detailed ACTION PLAN (Day 1 through Day 30) for how they’d get their business up and rolling, and each plan is DESIGNED to start out from ZERO. Meaning, even if you have:
Even if you’re starting out truly from “Square One”, this summit is pre-engineered for YOU to succeed starting from SCRATCH!
THIS IS THE SUMMIT YOU NEED TO ATTEND!
Click here to reserve your spot for the free 30 Days Summit Event!
If your goal is to eventually build your blog into a well known brand, there are great tools available to help you scale quickly. You can start the process by utilizing the best WordPress plugins to grow your blog.
Plugins are essentially tools that you add to your website that serve a specific purpose. The best tools allow you to do one or more of the following:
Today we are going to look at 5 WordPress plugins that can change your blog from small-time to world famous.
Let’s dive in!
The first plugin we are going to look at is called MonsterInsights. As the name implies, this resource gives you insight into crucial data on your blog. This tool links your blog to Google Analytics so you can monitor information regarding people who land on your site.
You’ll be able to see how many sessions occurred throughout the day, the number of individual page views, where the visitors came from and how long they stayed, without leaving your WordPress admin area.
When you download this plugin, you’ll know where your visitors are coming from and who is linking to your content. If you can see how visitors are getting to your blog, you’ll be able to discover whether your ads are working, and where you can improve. The best thing about this plugin is its ease of use. It’s intuitive and makes finding data simple.
WPForms is our go-to contact form plugin because it’s so customizable without the need to write a line of code. You can simply drag and drop the fields and buttons that you need to make the form that you need. As a blogger, time is scarce, and with this plugin you can create a form for your Contact Me page in as little as 5 minutes.
The plugin comes packed with an array of options and settings that allow you to tweak your forms. You can change colors, size, format, and much more. It’s a breeze to make something that’s completely unique and suited specifically for your blog.
Driving traffic to your site is just the beginning of your content marketing journey. The question is, how do you convert the people who decide to read your posts once and leave? OptinMonster solves this problem by allowing you to experiment with different call to action styles to strategically help you convert more visitors into email subscribers.
You can design campaigns from the ground up or use the vast array of templates the software has to offer. You can create sticky headers, exit-intent popups, slide-ins, and more to catch the attention of your target audience. The best part is that you can A/B test different opt-in forms to see which ones convert the best and keep tweaking until your content is a conversion driving machine.
Now that you’ve figured out how to keep and engage your audience, it’s time to pump up those numbers and get more viewers than ever before. Yoast is a plugin designed for bloggers who want to rank higher in search engines. Using a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plugin is crucial for those looking to maintain a healthy, growing audience.
Essentially, you can target certain “keywords” and use them to your advantage to rank higher on Google search engines. Let’s say you have a cooking blog, you may want to focus on general cooking terms as well as popular food recipes. When a potential viewer searches a recipe, if done correctly, your page will appear high in their search results.
There is no better way to draw traffic to your website. Yoast is a must-have plugin for every serious blogger.
Have you ever commented on a blog post, wishing that you could be notified when someone replies? This plugin solves this precise problem by letting readers subscribe to those comments they deem interesting.
The visitor reading your comment section will see an opt-in box that says “Notify me of followup comments via email. You can also subscribe without commenting.” Once they opt-in they will receive information pertaining to the comment section of the blog post, helping your blog stay top of mind, and hopefully encouraging repeat visits to your site.
Now that you know the 5 best WordPress plugins to grow your blog, you’re ready to get started. Make sure to take your time tweaking options and experimenting. Every blog is different, but every blog has the ability to be popular and profitable!
We hope this article helped you discover new and exciting plugins. Looking for more information on how to develop killer content? Check out our post on Writing Content the Right Way.
It is one thing to show you screenshots of how much I make with affiliate marketing. However, it’s never really quite real until that money is inside my bank or PayPal account. With that in my mind, here’s a screenshot of how much ClickFunnels sent to my PayPal account yesterday.
The amount represents one week of ClickFunnels commission. Unlike most networks that pay their affiliates once a month, ClickFunnels does weekly payouts. This gets money into affiliates’ hands much sooner and helps to avoid cashflow crushes.
What To Look for In An Affiliate Program
While I use ClickFunnels as my main tool to create sales and landing pages, I have found their affiliate program to be among the best in the industry. One of the most asked questions I get is what I look for in an affiliate marketing program. While there are whole list of criteria, there are four main features I look for.
The ClickFunnels affiliate program gives you 40% of the customers bill for life. Not only do you get paid over and over again, but the customers you referred are yours for life. Anything they buy in the future, you will make money on.
The affiliate program is also free to join. However, I do recommend you to be a customer or at least sign up for the 14 day free trial so you can get to know the product better.
To help their affiliates, ClickFunnels has a 100 Day Super Affiliate Challenge. If you accept the challenge, they will guide to step by step on how to become a ClickFunnels super affiliate and retire in the next 100 days. I am in the challenge and my results so far has been pretty good.
The challenge is free to join and all the training is free as well. I recommend signing up even if you don’t plan to be a ClickFunnels affiliate because the training can be applied to any affiliate marketing program.
What Is ClickFunnels?
ClickFunnels is more than just a landing page creation software. It’s actually a complete business automation tool that brings your entire marketing system into a single, and tightly integrated, service. ClickFunnel is one of my foundation business tools and I wouldn’t be able to do what I without it.
If you wish to find out more about ClickFunnels and how it can help your business, then I recommend registering for a free webinar Russell and I are doing for ClickFunnels. If you wish to try out the service, then go sign up for the 14 day free trial.
Blogging is all about writing the best content available because if you don’t, you’re going to have a hard time engaging your readers. I’m a true believer in that with content writing skills, you can add more value to your readers. How? You’ll be able to provide depth that would otherwise be impossible. Today, we are going to be talking about something very special, and it has to do with content writing. Even though we have discussed this topic several times before, it’s important to note we are going to be learning from the best. I have done some research and gathered information that I know you’ll find very useful. I’ll be going over content writing skills that some of the top writers have so you can implement them into your blog. I’ll discuss anywhere from 4-5 skills and then go through some action steps you can take to start using them in your writing almost immediately. Here’s some of the things we’ll be discussing…
Content writing skills that create a buzz through…
These might not sound enticing, but I promise, if you stick around, you’ll be amazed at what you have learned. Let’s get started.
Many writers I know try to impress others by using big words, and this is the worse way to generate a buzz online. I believe writing using your own vocabulary is the best approach when building engagement for many reasons. Let me tell you why.
First, the Internet has allowed you to connect with people all over the world and this means some might NOT have a full comprehension of the English language. This means going out of your way to use big words will just confuse them, which is why I always say to forget writing content that isn’t your own voice. Many of us will agree that we often go out of our way to impress others by using big words, which is fine when you know the person or persons you are speaking to. However, with online content writing, you’ll have people from all over the world who are reading your content to solve a problem. They want to understand what you have written so keep things as simple as possible. Remember, eliminating big words doesn’t mean you can’t provide value, it just means writing in a language where people will be able to comprehend what you’ve written more quickly.
Next,
Not using big words doesn’t mean you don’t understand the fundamentals of grammar or punctuation. Many people think that writing with big words makes your content structure better, but it’s completely the opposite. I’ve noticed those using big words will usually fail to look at the smaller things like grammar, punctuation, and structure. I encourage all of you to focus on writing in-depth content, then focus on structure.
I’ll admit, before, I was the same way and it cost me several readers until I started to understand the demographics of my visitors. Many of them where coming from countries where English wasn’t the first language. It’s not that they didn’t speak English, but they just understood the fundamentals. For me to create some serious engagement on my blog, I had to be careful the way I would write content when adding value. It was important I write in a language where a majority of my visitors would understand.
One of the best skills some of the top writers have is their ability to engage readers by tapping into their feelings. Many of you DON’T know that marketing experts are the best at tapping into sensitive feelings then promoting a product or service. However, this can work to promote your content so that it engages your readers, and I’m sure many of you would agree. For example,
Isn’t it true some of the best content available solves a major problem within your niche? Many people are having a problem and need help so when they find a blog that can provide them depth, it’s most likely going to cause a serious buzz online. However, for you to understand your visitor’s feelings, you first have to know what they are looking for and this is where the following coming into play.
Research – This is the best way to really find out about your readers, and understand what they are looking for. By doing research the right way, you can understand what problems they face and what you can do to make sure they find the right solution. Here are a few ways to ensure you get the right information:
By answering all of the questions above, you’ll be able to pinpoint what your readers are looking for. This will help you write content based on their feelings, which will resonate better going forward. In short, when you can understand the reader’s feelings, you’ll be able to provide them value that resonates. It’s that simple!
The discussion of content length has been around for years, and there is NO real answer to this question. I believe content should be as long as needed to ensure you get the point across to your readers. However, I also believe that you need to ensure it’s over 1,500 words because that’s the only way you can offer the depth you are looking for. Visitors come to your blog because they are looking for a complete solution and you need to make sure you provide it for one simple reason. There is NO shortage of information available online and if your readers can’t find what they need on your page, they’ll simply go somewhere else. It’s really that simple! So, what is an adequate length for your content?
Again, this question has been asked so many times that I’ll provide my true answer…
Personally, the more research you do, the better because you’ll be able to gather even more information before going forward. Whenever I write content, I ensure I go through a series of steps that will help me write even lengthier content going forward. The more depth I can provide will depend on the questions I’ll be answering. For example, when writing about strategies to “make money online”, I’ll make sure I cover everything so my visitor will be able to find everything they need on my page. I’ll cover such things like:
If I write approx. 500 words on each topic, my content will be roughly 2,500 words, which is a lot of information. Right now, the longest content I have is approx. 10,000 words; however, it has generated a huge buzz online, which is obviously my bottom line.
Next,
Another way to add enormous depth is by reaching out to authority bloggers who’ll provide even more substance to your content. Authority bloggers have been around a long time and have a lot of value to provide so why NOT tap into their head about your topic? This will do two very important things for you…
First, it will add more content and value to your article. This will even increase the engagement and social shares because of the value it provides. Secondly, it will help build a relationship with the blogger, which will come in handy later on. Since my outreach program, I have been able to network with 10 authority bloggers within my niche, which has helped me build some serious momentum overtime.
In summary, it’s important to make your content as long as possible to provide value. From my experience, this usually means 2,000-2,500 words. However, you can always include images and videos instead of words because they’ll provide some serious value, too.
Many of the top content writers have enormous experience, which has allowed them to know what resonates with readers. In addition, with experience, your writing becomes much better, which is always important because it’ll help you get words down faster with very little errors. Anyway, we need to discuss what experience is important.
First, knowledge will allow you to provide more insight to your readers. With this, you’ll be able to translate your thoughts faster and in a way that it’ll be understood by visitors. Next, people will trust you more than others in the same niche because of your knowledge and experience. For example, think about the blogs you read and how long you have been reading them for. You’ve probably noticed many of the ones you read are those that you believe provide the best knowledge because their writers have years of experience. Their content is much easier to understand than others because they know how to put it down in a way that resonates with you as the reader.
For you to gain the experience you need, focus on the following in your niche. It’s very important to be active on the following:
Insight and Open Mind
These are two of the most important things, and you’ll soon know why. These two combined create a strong mind, especially one that is full of creativity. What do I mean by writers having insight and an open mind?
For you to be an expert writer, you have to know how to put things together. You have to combine life’s challenges, and be very creative in all your adventures. Some of the best content I’ve ever written comes from being able to combine different elements together. I’ll write about “making money online” and use examples from businesses that has excelled using strategic marketing. I was able to do this because online marketing can be tied to offline business marketing. However, it takes knowledge and creativity to put all this together in a way your readers will understand.
If you want to write extraordinary content, then you have to write freely, bringing in life’s experiences. When writing, use examples that tie your content together and keep building from there. Soon, it’ll be a breeze to write content that resonates with your readers.
I hope you enjoyed my content above and will implement what I’ve written into your content writing going forward. However, I always leave my readers with actions steps they can take to help them get started. Let’s go through a few…
First, I want you to go through the content again so you fully understand everything I have written throughout. I understand when people read content for the first time, they usually skim through, NOT fully grasping some of the important factors discussed. Go through and really understand the content.
Secondly, while going through, it’s important to create a list of the important factors in point form. This will serve as a guide that you can follow and will be very direct. For example, you want to make sure you can look at it and completely understand the content. The list should include some action steps that you’ll be able to apply quickly when needed.
Third, research some topic in your niche that you know will be special when you are done. For example, go through, finding a very important problem your readers are having. Then, go through finding answers, which you can present to them in a structured manner. This will help you write valuable content, and help you build brand awareness. When you provide value, you’ll be able to build loyalty much faster.
Forth, start writing your outline and keep the content writing skills in mind. However, here’s something else…
Valuable content is always structured and includes the following:
When you are done writing, then you can go back and look for the steps discussed in this article. Did you follow through and add the elements? The list should always serve as a guide, no matter what, so you can improve your content writing over time. Soon, you won’t even have to look at your guide because you’ll be able to write from experience.
At this point, if you are the least bit interested in almost any kind of marketing on the Internet, you should be getting into video (if you’re not already doing it). And while platforms like Twitch, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have certainly made some headway in this space, YouTube is still the undisputed king of online video at this point. It pays to dedicate at least some of your time and energy into building an audience on YouTube.
I’ve written quick guides to features like the end screen and YouTube cards, and how you should be leveraging these features for maximum benefit. From a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective, you should also be paying very close attention to the tags you assign to each video, just as you should be mindful about the title and video description.
And just like any other SEO practice, taking blind shots in the dark is probably not the most effective strategy you can take. Instead, you might consider a tool like TubeBuddy. It’s YouTube certified and you can get started for free. Premium plans start at $9 per month for additional tools and features.
Even with just a free account, TubeBuddy can be very helpful in maximizing what you get out of your YouTube videos. One of my favorite features is the Tag Explorer. Let’s use my vlog on comparing the Rode VideoMic Pro shotgun microphone with the Boya BY-M1 lavalier microphone as our example.
When I was going through the process of uploading my video and writing the accompanying title and description, I also took a little time crafting together the collection of tags I wanted associated with the video. In the past, I would just type in what came to mind. Some people might use the AdWords keyword planner or other similar tools, but those aren’t necessarily 100% accurate or relevant for YouTube. The TubeBuddy Tag Explorer is.
When you get near the bottom of the screen, you’ll see something called Tag Tools. That box contains a number of buttons like the ability to copy the list of tags you’ve already added, clear the list of tags, import tags from a saved list and so forth. In this context, one button of interest is “Suggest.”
TubeBuddy looks through your content to suggest tags for both “search” and “related,” showing the views received from this search term, tags used by similar top ranking videos, and words used in the video’s title and description. Simply click the green “plus” symbol to add the tag to your video.
Back on the main “edit video” screen where you add your video tags, you’ll also find a very useful feature. As you start typing out any tag, a window will hover on top to provide related search terms that “autocomplete” what you’re typing. With the free account, they’ll show three results at a time. You can upgrade your license to a paid plan to unlock more.
But you don’t even need to be on your own “edit video” page to take advantage of Tag Explorer. Whether you’re watching your own video or someone else’s, you can see the tags associated with that video on the right side. Clicking on any of the tags brings up the Tag Explorer. The window offers a summary, including the most used tags from top ranking videos for that tag, as well as a keyword score based on search volume and competition. It’s just like a keyword planner, because that’s precisely what it is.
This is perfect if you want to “spy” on the “competition.” Research tags that are attached to high-performing videos in your niche, videos that you may want to emulate. You can see not only what tags they are using, but what related tags you might assign if you produce a similar video. The Tag Explorer can also show trending tags, auto-suggested tags, and the current search results for that tag. This is all great research material.
Considering that you can get into vlogging for $200 or less, getting your feet wet with YouTube is well worth the investment of time, money and effort. Leverage tools like TubeBuddy to maximize your shot at success and reduce the guesswork of YouTube SEO best practices.
So you’ve designed your WordPress blog and it’s looking beautiful. You’ve got an awesome landing page, your about me is written to perfection and your first set of blog posts are all ready to go. But are you forgetting something? That’s right, you need a contact form.
A simple contact form is essential for your website. It’s how your visitors, subscribers and potential customers can reach you any time they have a quick question. There are a ton of contact form options for WordPress, so much so that it can be overwhelming to decide which one you should utilize and will work best for you. You want it to be simple to create, have the features you need and you want it to look snazzy too.
Don’t worry yourself over which contact form plugins are superior and which ones are duds. Here are the six best WordPress contact form plugins for your blog.
WPForms is one of the most user-friendly contact form builder that offers a wide range of features, making it a great option for beginners and pros alike. They offer free and premium versions starting at only $49 per year and the drag-and-drop builder is super easy to use. The free version is perfect for smaller blogs but the premium version will offer you a number of valuable features including the ability to integrate your forms with email marketing services like MailChimp, AWeber and Campaign Monitor.
Another awesome feature is the ability to capture leads from abandoned forms with their Form Abandonment tool. That means when a user visits your site and fills out your contact form but changes their mind and doesn’t click send, you still get a notification with all their info so you won’t miss out on any leads.
Contact Form 7 is one of the most popular, completely free WordPress contact form plugin available. This is a contact form for minimalists; it’s a very simple contact form that’s reliable but it doesn’t feature a ton of bells and whistles. But it does offer several unique contact fields such as CAPTCHA, quizzes, file submissions, drop-down menus and more.
Though the interface can be confusing for some WordPress beginners, if free is a big selling point for you as a smaller blogger then this plugin is your best bet. On the other hand if you’re looking for a more robust contact form that will allow you to do more, another one of these plugins would be a better option.
Formidable is another great contact form plugin with free and premium versions. You can start with a pre-built contact form or build your own customized form. You can also use their awesome style editor to change the colors of successful submissions for instance to match the theme of your blog.
With the premium version of Formidable starting at $49 per year, you get a bunch of extra features like email marketing integration, user tracking and user registration. But since Formidable is a newer company, they don’t offer as many features as some other plugins that’ve been around for longer.
This powerful plugin allows you to easily create all types of forms for your blog. With Gravity Forms you get access to more than 30 form fields and support for a wide range of add-ons and external integrations including Dropbox, Freshbooks and PayPal Pro and the pricing at $49 per year is great for all the features you get. It’s also awesome if you’re planning on accepting guest posts on your blog because the plugin allows for user content submissions.
This plugin also offers a ton of support including a full ticketing system, FAQs, language translation and documents you can browse on topics like configuring notifications, embedding a form, how to build save & continue forms and much more.
Wufoo is an awesome online contact form builder developed by SurveyMonkey. Wufoo offers all the features you love in a contact form including over 400 customizable templates, reporting, custom rules and the ability to accept payments too. They offer a free plan as well as plans that start at $14 per month.
Wufoo also offers a cloud storage database to its users who are on paid plans. The cloud is used to hold files uploaded through the file upload field in a contact form which would really come in handy if you’re accepting guest post submissions or allowing other types of file uploads on your form.
Pirate Forms, developed by ThemeIsle, is a great plugin to easily create engaging contact forms for your blog. Their free version is easy to use, fully customizable and offers features like reCAPTCHA, custom SMTP and more.
If you want access to premium features like MailChimp integration and custom form fields you’ll have to upgrade to the pro version starting at $39 per year.
Now that you have a number of amazing and powerful contact form plugin options for your WordPress blog, you should have no problem creating a beautiful form that’s inviting to your visitors and you don’t even have to know a thing about code. Get ready to be more engaged with your audience and have a busier inbox than ever before.
