Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, Oh my! Now entrepreneurs have so many ways to reach out and talk to the world. Entrepreneurship is all about building a platform of loyal advocates who are excited about listening to your message and hopefully buying from you.
That said, the five biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make on social media all come down to one important lesson: You talk too much (at least on social media). Stop talking and start listening and you will turn your use of social media into a lean, mean, money-making, advocate-building, client-relationship machine. Avoid these social media mistakes and build a wider following:
1. Avoid me, me, me; it’s all about me. Take out a sheet of paper and write down your last 10 social media posts. Whom have you written about? I bet most, and probably all, your posts are about you, your company and your greatness. Stop writing about you. Instead, use your platform as an opportunity to promote others. My personal method of doing this is through blogging about amazing people.
Every week I choose an interesting business person to reach out to and interview for my blog. By doing so I guarantee that every single week I’m offering awesome content about other people and so my friends, followers and connections get way more than they bargained for when they followed me because my posts are not just about me. A side benefit to doing this is that I also strengthen my bonds with some amazing people.
2. Pivot from always using your lips not your ears. Most entrepreneurs use social media as their lips, not their ears. Instead of spending 30 minutes a day posting, spend that time scrolling through posts by friends, followers and potential clients to see what’s going on in their lives. When something awesome is happening in the life or business of one of your followers, act on it! Send a card or pick up the phone to acknowledge it. I spend 30 minutes a day scrolling through my social-media feeds to see what’s happening in everyone else’s lives. When I see anything at all, like a celebration or a challenge in their life, I consider this to be a prompt that I must act upon.
3. Too good for social media? Forget that! Surprisingly there are still individuals and companies that are resisting social media. Wow, these individuals and firms are missing out on a free opportunity to build a following. I’ve had conversations with business owners like this and the big reason they have resisted social media is because they personally hate social media. My advice to them is to get over it!
I know lots of entrepreneurs who hate selling yet they realize that this activity is so fundamentally important to their business that they figure out a way to get good at it -- just as they should do with social media.
To build a tribe, you must be accessible in a way that people can easily learn about you and your business. The easiest way to do this is through social media. There’s a good chance that your competition is eating it up on social media, and so should you!
4. No sunshine when she’s gone? Stop whining. Do not post negative stuff via social media. Do not complain. Do not share negative articles about your competition. If you choose to post about your political preferences, do so only with the knowledge that you are probably eliminating 50 percent of your followers as potential clients. Presumably, you want to grow a following for your business. To do so, you must have posts that are inclusionary. Therefore, don’t give people a reason to walk away from your business.
5. Steer away from impersonal birthday greetings. A person’s birthday is the most special day of the year, for that person. Ten years ago, collecting a database of birthdays would have been time-consuming and cumbersome. Today, you have this information at your fingertips. Don’t miss out an amazing opportunity to honor your customers, employees and sphere of influence on their birthdays.
By the way, posting on their Facebook wall is almost equal to ignoring their birthday. Everyone is posting stuff on that person's Facebook wall. At a minimum, if you are going to post on someone's Facebook wall, put a photo or a video so at least it gets noticed among the flood of birthday wishes. Better yet, don’t post on their wall at all. Send a card or pick up the phone to offer a birthday wish.
Social media offers entrepreneurs a unique opportunity to build a tribe by listening, acknowledging and honoring others. Shut up, start listening and thrive!
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Facebook Isn't the End All, Be All for Social Marketing
Question: Given the not-so-recent changes in Facebook visibility of posts among fans, how useful is to still concentrate the part of social media effort on Facebook? Also, with your findings, how profitable -- from the traffic generation point of view -- is to invest in FB paid advertising?
Answer: A few years ago, you could say, “I’m on Facebook, that’s my social strategy.” Not any more. The majority of the online audience in the U.S. (52 percent to be exact, according to comScore) is using two or more social platforms -- about an eighth of the audience is using seven or more.
Should you be on Facebook? Yes, absolutely -- if you have content that’s appropriate for Facebook. But don't focus on all of your resources on Facebook. Instead, be everywhere. If you have photos, be on Instagram and Pinterest. If you have wisdom, be on Twitter. There are a lot of social platforms. (Have you heard of Secret or Whisper yet?) You should use them each if you’ve got something appropriate to offer.
But the buck doesn't stop at social, you should also use email (think newsletters), and you should also think about paid search and SEO.
I can’t speak to your specific company and your strategy, but I can give you this: Try everything and measure your returns so you can balance your mix.
If you are trying to sell product through an ad, you should measure everything in terms of ROI. That’s easy math. How much did you spend to get the returns you can track through those efforts? Eliminate the costly and double down on the efficient.
If you are trying to establish awareness or interest in your brand, the calculation is a little harder. What you care about here is how you can best deliver your message to the perfect audience. How much are you willing to pay to speak to the right audience, how can you be sure the audience you want is the one you buy and how do you measure the effect the message has on them? (Hint: Clicks don’t measure brand impact.) This also requires not just buying access to the audience but experimenting with what to say to them when you’re in front of them. The placement doesn’t make the impact, the creative does -- the placement gives your creative the eyeballs it needs to succeed.
Big companies have access to advertising opportunities that small businesses may not. But even small businesses have powerful advertising tools available to them through self-serve features on Facebook, Twitter, Google and others. Take a look at the ads you get on each platform -- you can bet many of those are from small businesses. Do they work? Well, some of them are priced on a cost per click, so if you are willing to pay the bid price for each click you get then they are very efficient. But the onus is on you to give them a reason to buy both before and after they click.
In closing, you need to keep track of sales on what works and what doesn't. If you test the market on a paid ad and it isn't working. Try something different or a new approach. Try all the platforms out there.
Answer: A few years ago, you could say, “I’m on Facebook, that’s my social strategy.” Not any more. The majority of the online audience in the U.S. (52 percent to be exact, according to comScore) is using two or more social platforms -- about an eighth of the audience is using seven or more.
Should you be on Facebook? Yes, absolutely -- if you have content that’s appropriate for Facebook. But don't focus on all of your resources on Facebook. Instead, be everywhere. If you have photos, be on Instagram and Pinterest. If you have wisdom, be on Twitter. There are a lot of social platforms. (Have you heard of Secret or Whisper yet?) You should use them each if you’ve got something appropriate to offer.
But the buck doesn't stop at social, you should also use email (think newsletters), and you should also think about paid search and SEO.
I can’t speak to your specific company and your strategy, but I can give you this: Try everything and measure your returns so you can balance your mix.
If you are trying to sell product through an ad, you should measure everything in terms of ROI. That’s easy math. How much did you spend to get the returns you can track through those efforts? Eliminate the costly and double down on the efficient.
If you are trying to establish awareness or interest in your brand, the calculation is a little harder. What you care about here is how you can best deliver your message to the perfect audience. How much are you willing to pay to speak to the right audience, how can you be sure the audience you want is the one you buy and how do you measure the effect the message has on them? (Hint: Clicks don’t measure brand impact.) This also requires not just buying access to the audience but experimenting with what to say to them when you’re in front of them. The placement doesn’t make the impact, the creative does -- the placement gives your creative the eyeballs it needs to succeed.
Big companies have access to advertising opportunities that small businesses may not. But even small businesses have powerful advertising tools available to them through self-serve features on Facebook, Twitter, Google and others. Take a look at the ads you get on each platform -- you can bet many of those are from small businesses. Do they work? Well, some of them are priced on a cost per click, so if you are willing to pay the bid price for each click you get then they are very efficient. But the onus is on you to give them a reason to buy both before and after they click.
In closing, you need to keep track of sales on what works and what doesn't. If you test the market on a paid ad and it isn't working. Try something different or a new approach. Try all the platforms out there.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Zero to 23,900+ Twitter Followers Without Spending a Dime
As social media is becoming more engrained in our everyday lives, it is becoming imperative for businesses to get on board. And Twitter is huge for companies, as it provides a place to share news, engage with loyal customers and attract new ones. But it isn't easy.
While some opt for quick fixes, like buying followers (something I have never done), I don't see the point in these sketchy tactics. It may offer short-term spike, but it doesn't provide the kind of engagement that organic followers do.
When I joined the social media movement I was just an observer for the first few months. But by remaining consistent and sticking with daily-following methods, my account began to grow. Now with more than 23,900 followers, people often ask me for advice on growing a following on Twitter.
Here are a few very simple ways to grow your following (along with the process of what I do on Twitter) that you could also implement on your other social channels.
Return favors. Follow people that retweet or favorite your tweets, especially when they take the time to read articles you've written and share a comment with you. Also take the opportunity to engage when possible. The more you reach out, the more folks will return and reciprocate -- by following or making comments. You can apply this across all your social networks.
Remain active. Follow new people every day even if you can only afford a few minutes on each network. I usually do this on my phone while I am waiting on someone.
Widen your net. People say quality over quantity? True, however, I would rather have both to maximize your reach. You must continue to build your community -- whether online or offline. I've met many of my community contacts from my tweets or share.
Make retweeting a habit. Although I have many followers to focus and respond to, I make my rounds every day to retweet at least one new person a day. This sometimes will give you a fan for life. You can apply this same exact method to grow your following and community on any of your networks. I love Instagram, I spent a month focusing on following, in no time my social media presence grew there very quickly. That said, you must be consistent in harvesting your following and engaging with others on a daily basis
Pay attention. Keep your eyes open for those who retweet you often or share your blog. Favorite a tweet to let the individual know you see them. At a later point in time, perhaps return the favor as time permits. How does this help with your following? The more people see that you appreciate their efforts, they will more likely retweet you whenever online. The more visible your brand or Twitter handle lands on other pages, the more likely you will generate more organic following.
Stay focused. Tweet relevant and high quality content. People will regularly visit your page to share your tweets. When people are excited to pass along your message, additional branding and visibility to your account.
Keep networking and engaging. Take it offline. These days, people share their love of food, nature and other passions. For instance, if you are passionate about photography, organize a photo walk. When you take social media offline, people will share photos of you along with your Twitter handle to their audience, in turn you will get more followers. This is a great way to start a conversation online and offline.
Showcase your skills. Twitter is a great place to show off your talents, especially writing and photography. If you are a writer with informative, pertinent content, put it on Twitter. Same goes for amazing photos. People will share your articles or images and this will give you visibility to more admirers.
Find influencers. Reach out to other thought leaders and feature 10 people on your blog. They will be happy to share your content to their readers and this will also grow your readers as well as followers.
Diversify. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. With this last point, apply these ten tips in other social channels where the methods may fit to grow your network. Technology changes very rapidly, it's smart to keep a pulse on the current social world.
I hope that these points will help you grow your brand. Remember the more seeds you plant, the larger the harvest. An hour a day focusing on following will give you a robust community.
While some opt for quick fixes, like buying followers (something I have never done), I don't see the point in these sketchy tactics. It may offer short-term spike, but it doesn't provide the kind of engagement that organic followers do.
When I joined the social media movement I was just an observer for the first few months. But by remaining consistent and sticking with daily-following methods, my account began to grow. Now with more than 23,900 followers, people often ask me for advice on growing a following on Twitter.
Here are a few very simple ways to grow your following (along with the process of what I do on Twitter) that you could also implement on your other social channels.
Return favors. Follow people that retweet or favorite your tweets, especially when they take the time to read articles you've written and share a comment with you. Also take the opportunity to engage when possible. The more you reach out, the more folks will return and reciprocate -- by following or making comments. You can apply this across all your social networks.
Remain active. Follow new people every day even if you can only afford a few minutes on each network. I usually do this on my phone while I am waiting on someone.
Widen your net. People say quality over quantity? True, however, I would rather have both to maximize your reach. You must continue to build your community -- whether online or offline. I've met many of my community contacts from my tweets or share.
Make retweeting a habit. Although I have many followers to focus and respond to, I make my rounds every day to retweet at least one new person a day. This sometimes will give you a fan for life. You can apply this same exact method to grow your following and community on any of your networks. I love Instagram, I spent a month focusing on following, in no time my social media presence grew there very quickly. That said, you must be consistent in harvesting your following and engaging with others on a daily basis
Pay attention. Keep your eyes open for those who retweet you often or share your blog. Favorite a tweet to let the individual know you see them. At a later point in time, perhaps return the favor as time permits. How does this help with your following? The more people see that you appreciate their efforts, they will more likely retweet you whenever online. The more visible your brand or Twitter handle lands on other pages, the more likely you will generate more organic following.
Stay focused. Tweet relevant and high quality content. People will regularly visit your page to share your tweets. When people are excited to pass along your message, additional branding and visibility to your account.
Keep networking and engaging. Take it offline. These days, people share their love of food, nature and other passions. For instance, if you are passionate about photography, organize a photo walk. When you take social media offline, people will share photos of you along with your Twitter handle to their audience, in turn you will get more followers. This is a great way to start a conversation online and offline.
Showcase your skills. Twitter is a great place to show off your talents, especially writing and photography. If you are a writer with informative, pertinent content, put it on Twitter. Same goes for amazing photos. People will share your articles or images and this will give you visibility to more admirers.
Find influencers. Reach out to other thought leaders and feature 10 people on your blog. They will be happy to share your content to their readers and this will also grow your readers as well as followers.
Diversify. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. With this last point, apply these ten tips in other social channels where the methods may fit to grow your network. Technology changes very rapidly, it's smart to keep a pulse on the current social world.
I hope that these points will help you grow your brand. Remember the more seeds you plant, the larger the harvest. An hour a day focusing on following will give you a robust community.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
5 Tricks to Get Influencers to See and Share Your Content
On the Internet, messages are meant to be heard. From high-powered advertising agencies to in-house marketing departments to individuals with a few hundred Twitter followers, everyone yearns for their message to be conveyed and shared. Finding a high-powered industry influencer can help jump start a sharing craze and kick your message into viral overdrive. A single retweet, blog link or public compliment can do more than you think.
So what can you do to improve your chances of an influencer noticing and sharing your content online? Start by following the five simple rules below.
1. Don’t expect a social media miracle.
Let’s start with an unfortunate truth for those on the hunt for influencers’ attention. Trying to reach out via social media likely won’t cut it. With anywhere from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand Twitter mentions and/or Facebook comments per day, influencers simply won’t have the time or opportunity to see your message. You can go ahead and try, but the chance of an influencer hearing you might be slimmer than winning the lottery. As for an in-person encounter -- forget it.
2. Instead, get creative to get an influencer’s ear.
Since simple social media outreach likely won’t do the trick, you’ll need to find ways to get creative. Getting in touch with an influencer’s official PR agency or management team is a decent step, as is mining closer connections for an introduction. But for most influencers, making contact in a unique or innovative way can be key to the introduction. Consider a self-promoting website with plenty of personality similar to Matthew Epstein‘s brilliant Google Please Hire Me.
3. Show some passion!
Hand in hand with showing off your creativity is finding a way to show insane amounts of passion for your work. Craft a pitch with just the right amount of passion and moxie so that the influencer you want to reach can’t say no. Venture for America, a program that pairs talented college grads with startups in burgeoning cities, asks this of their new fellows, most of whom are just weeks removed from receiving their diplomas. VFA’s “make contact” challenge saw one success story in a fellow who met with Dan Gilbert, CEO of Quicken Loans, by citing their mutual desire to rebuild Detroit. Another got in touch with Joe Kennedy, CEO of Pandora, by conveying his passion for companies at the intersection of tech and music.
4. Keep your content short and to the point.
Obviously, your content needs to be razor sharp and engaging. More importantly, it needs to be easily digestible. Getting the attention of a major influencer is a difficult task by itself but convincing them to wade through a lengthy introduction or setup to get to your main point is simply asking to be ignored. The elevator pitch is a decent solution to this dilemma, but even that may be too long. Consider using various forms of micro-content to get your concept across in seconds.
5. Flattery never hurt anyone.
Who doesn’t like compliments or a personalized pitch? Be sure to make any potential influencer feel good about why they should help you. Saying some nice words and having a good attitude is an incredibly low risk, high reward way to strike up a conversation with an influencer. Do your own research. Learn what they like and want. Then, make your move.
So what can you do to improve your chances of an influencer noticing and sharing your content online? Start by following the five simple rules below.
1. Don’t expect a social media miracle.
Let’s start with an unfortunate truth for those on the hunt for influencers’ attention. Trying to reach out via social media likely won’t cut it. With anywhere from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand Twitter mentions and/or Facebook comments per day, influencers simply won’t have the time or opportunity to see your message. You can go ahead and try, but the chance of an influencer hearing you might be slimmer than winning the lottery. As for an in-person encounter -- forget it.
2. Instead, get creative to get an influencer’s ear.
Since simple social media outreach likely won’t do the trick, you’ll need to find ways to get creative. Getting in touch with an influencer’s official PR agency or management team is a decent step, as is mining closer connections for an introduction. But for most influencers, making contact in a unique or innovative way can be key to the introduction. Consider a self-promoting website with plenty of personality similar to Matthew Epstein‘s brilliant Google Please Hire Me.
3. Show some passion!
Hand in hand with showing off your creativity is finding a way to show insane amounts of passion for your work. Craft a pitch with just the right amount of passion and moxie so that the influencer you want to reach can’t say no. Venture for America, a program that pairs talented college grads with startups in burgeoning cities, asks this of their new fellows, most of whom are just weeks removed from receiving their diplomas. VFA’s “make contact” challenge saw one success story in a fellow who met with Dan Gilbert, CEO of Quicken Loans, by citing their mutual desire to rebuild Detroit. Another got in touch with Joe Kennedy, CEO of Pandora, by conveying his passion for companies at the intersection of tech and music.
4. Keep your content short and to the point.
Obviously, your content needs to be razor sharp and engaging. More importantly, it needs to be easily digestible. Getting the attention of a major influencer is a difficult task by itself but convincing them to wade through a lengthy introduction or setup to get to your main point is simply asking to be ignored. The elevator pitch is a decent solution to this dilemma, but even that may be too long. Consider using various forms of micro-content to get your concept across in seconds.
5. Flattery never hurt anyone.
Who doesn’t like compliments or a personalized pitch? Be sure to make any potential influencer feel good about why they should help you. Saying some nice words and having a good attitude is an incredibly low risk, high reward way to strike up a conversation with an influencer. Do your own research. Learn what they like and want. Then, make your move.
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Niche Market / Keyword Info
This post is based on an important truths about search engine traffic:
Truth: When you enter a market (begin to target a set of keywords) for the first time you don’t know really anything about it.
You don’t know what keywords have traffic.
Yeah, Adwords Keyword Tool gave you some numbers, but in case after case, those numbers prove to be nothing more than symbolic. When you actually get into the market and start your SEO, you inevitably find that some keywords that apparently had “28 global searches a month” or whatever, actually bring hundreds of visitors and keywords that have “20,000 searches a month” don’t bring near as many.
Furthermore, you don’t know what keywords convert. You can make educated guesses, and based on principles, you can make intelligent assumptions, but until you’ve got the data, you don’t properly know.
This of course, is the reason why affiliates used to start a campaign by testing a market with instant PPC traffic. That allowed them to know their conversion metrics from the first week, and know the “real” numbers that Adwords doesn’t tell you straight away. Of course – and sadly – that’s no longer possible, so we need to take a different approach.
Think of this…
The BEST situation you can have in any market, is one where you know what keywords can provide easy search traffic, and you know what keywords convert for the affiliate offer you want to promote. As soon as those keywords are in your head, no one can take them from you. Yeah, your site can lose rankings, or get penalized, but who gives a shit? You know those keywords are profitable. You want what you did to get traffic from those keywords. And you can do it again. And again.
That in mind, here’s how you get to that point, without PPC, in a new niche, as quickly as possible.
Advanced affiliate marketers don’t do much “niche research”. They know their niches already. They’ve had profitable sites before, they know certain markets, they know the right keywords, they know what sells. They keep hitting the same markets over and over again and keep replicating the same results… Google slaps be damned.
If that’s not you, the first thing you need to to do in a new market, is bomb your site with content targeting as many keywords as you can, that you THINK might have traffic, and THINK might be profitable.
Then you start your SEO.
On a new site your SEO shouldn’t be too specific anyway. You should be working on building up the authority of your domain name, and building those root domain backlinks to set yourself up for the specific keyword domination that will come later.
Why do you do this? It’s like fishing.
You’re casting a bunch of lines into the water, in all different places, to see where you get bites.
At first, the new content you add will do nothing. It will sit there – anything from a week to a month – depending on your market. But as your domain authority grows (thanks to your link building), some of those posts will start showing up in the SERPS for some of those long tail keywords we always talk about.
THAT’S when things get exciting…
As soon as one keyword pops up… one keyword where you got traffic without even trying… that’s a sign.
You go back to that post, you consider the monetization, you try to improve it, you drop some internal links to that post (with the right anchor text) from other posts, and you see if you can grow that traffic… and if you can sell with that traffic. If you can’t improve the traffic or make sales… no problem. You wait for the next keyword to pop up. If you can. BOOM. You’ve got a keyword that’s in your bank so that you can draw on it and it’s potential FOREVER.
And if months pass and NONE of these keywords pop up? You couldn’t even get a few visitors from long tail keywords with all that content? It might be a sign that this market is too competitive to begin with. You take the hit, and you move on, happy that you didn’t waste even MORE time in that space.
Do you see why this is infinitely smarter than the alternative approach?
I mean the approach where you have some affiliate offer and you pick a keyword, then spend months SEOing it, riding all your hopes on that, only to rank for it and find that it doesn’t have as much traffic as you thought, or it doesn’t convert like you thought?
The approach I’m talking about in this post is one where you’re minimizing the possibility that factors out of your control – unexpected occurrences like the Adwords data being wrong – could hurt your profitability.
You’re maximizing the number of decisions you’re making that are backed by experience and data. It’s a TOTALLY different ball game.
Do some keyword research.
Grab 20 keywords. (adjust as per your budget)
Have 20 good articles knocked up. It’s a $100-$150 investment. Small for what you’ll get out of it.
Publish them on your site
Continue with your SEO
And watch your traffic stats.
Do this in enough market and you’ll be operating like a super affiliate before you know it.
Truth: When you enter a market (begin to target a set of keywords) for the first time you don’t know really anything about it.
You don’t know what keywords have traffic.
Yeah, Adwords Keyword Tool gave you some numbers, but in case after case, those numbers prove to be nothing more than symbolic. When you actually get into the market and start your SEO, you inevitably find that some keywords that apparently had “28 global searches a month” or whatever, actually bring hundreds of visitors and keywords that have “20,000 searches a month” don’t bring near as many.
Furthermore, you don’t know what keywords convert. You can make educated guesses, and based on principles, you can make intelligent assumptions, but until you’ve got the data, you don’t properly know.
This of course, is the reason why affiliates used to start a campaign by testing a market with instant PPC traffic. That allowed them to know their conversion metrics from the first week, and know the “real” numbers that Adwords doesn’t tell you straight away. Of course – and sadly – that’s no longer possible, so we need to take a different approach.
Think of this…
The BEST situation you can have in any market, is one where you know what keywords can provide easy search traffic, and you know what keywords convert for the affiliate offer you want to promote. As soon as those keywords are in your head, no one can take them from you. Yeah, your site can lose rankings, or get penalized, but who gives a shit? You know those keywords are profitable. You want what you did to get traffic from those keywords. And you can do it again. And again.
That in mind, here’s how you get to that point, without PPC, in a new niche, as quickly as possible.
Is Content Really King? Maybe. But In The Beginning? Definitely!
Here’s a secret some – maybe a lot – of new affiliates don’t know:Advanced affiliate marketers don’t do much “niche research”. They know their niches already. They’ve had profitable sites before, they know certain markets, they know the right keywords, they know what sells. They keep hitting the same markets over and over again and keep replicating the same results… Google slaps be damned.
If that’s not you, the first thing you need to to do in a new market, is bomb your site with content targeting as many keywords as you can, that you THINK might have traffic, and THINK might be profitable.
Then you start your SEO.
On a new site your SEO shouldn’t be too specific anyway. You should be working on building up the authority of your domain name, and building those root domain backlinks to set yourself up for the specific keyword domination that will come later.
Why do you do this? It’s like fishing.
You’re casting a bunch of lines into the water, in all different places, to see where you get bites.
At first, the new content you add will do nothing. It will sit there – anything from a week to a month – depending on your market. But as your domain authority grows (thanks to your link building), some of those posts will start showing up in the SERPS for some of those long tail keywords we always talk about.
THAT’S when things get exciting…
As soon as one keyword pops up… one keyword where you got traffic without even trying… that’s a sign.
You go back to that post, you consider the monetization, you try to improve it, you drop some internal links to that post (with the right anchor text) from other posts, and you see if you can grow that traffic… and if you can sell with that traffic. If you can’t improve the traffic or make sales… no problem. You wait for the next keyword to pop up. If you can. BOOM. You’ve got a keyword that’s in your bank so that you can draw on it and it’s potential FOREVER.
And if months pass and NONE of these keywords pop up? You couldn’t even get a few visitors from long tail keywords with all that content? It might be a sign that this market is too competitive to begin with. You take the hit, and you move on, happy that you didn’t waste even MORE time in that space.
Do you see why this is infinitely smarter than the alternative approach?
I mean the approach where you have some affiliate offer and you pick a keyword, then spend months SEOing it, riding all your hopes on that, only to rank for it and find that it doesn’t have as much traffic as you thought, or it doesn’t convert like you thought?
The approach I’m talking about in this post is one where you’re minimizing the possibility that factors out of your control – unexpected occurrences like the Adwords data being wrong – could hurt your profitability.
You’re maximizing the number of decisions you’re making that are backed by experience and data. It’s a TOTALLY different ball game.
Start Now…
If you’ve recently entered a new niche, or you’re about to do so: Give this a shot.Do some keyword research.
Grab 20 keywords. (adjust as per your budget)
Have 20 good articles knocked up. It’s a $100-$150 investment. Small for what you’ll get out of it.
Publish them on your site
Continue with your SEO
And watch your traffic stats.
Do this in enough market and you’ll be operating like a super affiliate before you know it.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
The Social Media Experiment
First of all, we hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend! Hope you guys were all safe and had some fun, but also had time to reflect and give peace to those that have served and payed the ultimate price.
Now on to this entry - 'The Social Media Experiment" - I wanted some facts to prove that women have it easier in marketing than men. Weather it be online, or in person. A sale is a sale, but why is it that women have a slight edge over men? Because they have certain features that lure men into buying almost anything? Or is it that they do have skill in the field? I've found that both are the correct answer.
I, myself have been in marketing now for over 4 years and have been fairy successful. However, it took countless hours of training, numerous sleepless nights of SEO, and many months before I started to turn a profit.
Last Sunday, I created a fictitious Facebook profile, made it a "classless" female with numerous inappropriate pictures and a fake background story. The point was to see how many friends I could gather and then launch a few campaigns to see if I could generate any profit.
The results were above and beyond what I had expected. In a mere 7 days, I had accumulated 3,300 friends, 700+ messages, and a handful of comments on the pictures, statues updates, and on the wall.
I then launched a few simple campaigns to see if I could gather intelligence on the traffic and if they led to any actual sales. In the end, I got some good traffic and even a few sales with minimal work.
The point is, is that anyone can make countless profiles, rinse and repeat this process, and with time and dedication you could add this to your stream of income.
The process can then be duplicated to other streams of social media, such as Twitter and Google+
With all this research done, I can safely say, that even with my 4+ years of experience and all the training I've done, a simple fake profile could ultimately out-sale me in the end with the same amount of effort.
I will keep conducting this experiment and also expanding it to add to my many income streams.
Remember guys, don't be afraid to try new avenues. Even if you fail at something, it could still prove to be useful in the learning curve.
Now on to this entry - 'The Social Media Experiment" - I wanted some facts to prove that women have it easier in marketing than men. Weather it be online, or in person. A sale is a sale, but why is it that women have a slight edge over men? Because they have certain features that lure men into buying almost anything? Or is it that they do have skill in the field? I've found that both are the correct answer.
I, myself have been in marketing now for over 4 years and have been fairy successful. However, it took countless hours of training, numerous sleepless nights of SEO, and many months before I started to turn a profit.
Last Sunday, I created a fictitious Facebook profile, made it a "classless" female with numerous inappropriate pictures and a fake background story. The point was to see how many friends I could gather and then launch a few campaigns to see if I could generate any profit.
The results were above and beyond what I had expected. In a mere 7 days, I had accumulated 3,300 friends, 700+ messages, and a handful of comments on the pictures, statues updates, and on the wall.
I then launched a few simple campaigns to see if I could gather intelligence on the traffic and if they led to any actual sales. In the end, I got some good traffic and even a few sales with minimal work.
The point is, is that anyone can make countless profiles, rinse and repeat this process, and with time and dedication you could add this to your stream of income.
The process can then be duplicated to other streams of social media, such as Twitter and Google+
With all this research done, I can safely say, that even with my 4+ years of experience and all the training I've done, a simple fake profile could ultimately out-sale me in the end with the same amount of effort.
I will keep conducting this experiment and also expanding it to add to my many income streams.
Remember guys, don't be afraid to try new avenues. Even if you fail at something, it could still prove to be useful in the learning curve.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Welcome Back!!
After a "minor" break...which was actually a long break. We have decided to re-launch the blog and assist people in changing their lives. When the blog first went live way back when, we received numerous feedback's and questions. After helping every single one of you, we want to get back out there and help spread the word again!
Starting very soon, we will be doing our normal posting and also adding some more info to the blog. We are going to do a little remodeling, but not much.
Stay tuned :) Lot's of things are coming your way!!
Starting very soon, we will be doing our normal posting and also adding some more info to the blog. We are going to do a little remodeling, but not much.
Stay tuned :) Lot's of things are coming your way!!
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