Marketers, like most professionals, find their work a mental challenge - not unlike playing chess or other games of strategy and tactics. A favorite mental game that marketers play is called "How would I do it?" Want to play?
The rules are simple. Just observe how others are marketing and ask yourself, "How would I do it better?" Okay, ready to play?
On your way home from work this evening, I'll bet that you need to stop at the grocery, the drug store, or the cleaners. As you approach, start playing the Marketing Game by judging the store's appearance and the images you see. Observe as you zoom through the aisles; is the entrance inviting, clean, and well organized? Are you welcomed or ignored by staff? Is the signage clear? How's the housekeeping? Ask yourself how your customer experience could be improved.
Open your mail; look at the catalogs and brochures. Judge what catches your eye and what specifically captures your attention - graphics, message, or offer? Consider what would help make both your eye and your thought process linger, leaving you to ponder and perhaps make a purchase.
At lunch, read the menu critically - how do they attempt to entice you with mouth-watering extras like appetizers and that crave-able piece of "Mom's Famous Apple Pie" with a scoop of ice cream?
Look at the ads in the newspaper, those that pop up in your cell phone, and the ones you see on TV. Read the messages and look at the graphics. Each time, attempt to understand their strategy, check if their message is communicated effectively, and ask yourself, "How would I do it better?"
Play the game every chance you get. Think through the marketing challenges for each. How would you improve the strategy? What do you think the message should be? How could you improve the word usage, graphics, attitude, or media usage?
Of course, it's very easy to play the Marketing Game at a business you are not involved in because you don't need to deal with the constraints of time, money, and projects competing for your attention and effort. You are just being the critic.
As you continue to play the game, transfer the thought process to your business. Think about your overall strategy and ask the same questions about message, media, attitude, words, graphics, etc. The longer you play the game, the more you think like a marketer. Over time, you will become better at it. Better marketers win!
Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, "Front Lines with Larry Galler". For a free coaching session, email Larry for an appointment - Larry@larrygaller.com. Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com.
Reaching customers and creating awareness is something that determines the success of any business. The access to customers has become significantly easier over the years thanks to the development of social media platforms. These platforms have given businesses a way to reach out to their customers in an effective and efficient manner. This is the reason why it has become significantly important for businesses to come up with campaign ideas for their viral marketing efforts and implement these ideas by teams that have been specifically designed to take care of viral marketing efforts of the business.
All of the famous brands worldwide have successfully built a strong viral presence and that is exactly what you need to do in order to succeed and take your business forward. In this article, we discuss tips that will enable you to design and implement a strong viral marketing campaign thus creating awareness for your business and making a place for it on The Virality Map.
Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience
The first step of making a strong viral presence is doing the background work that will help you understand your marketing goals. This includes identifying and understanding your target audience. As well all know anything that goes viral catches the attention of millions of people. However, you need to specify the audience that your campaign intends to target to guarantee success. Do a detailed analysis of your target audience including the demographics, psychographics,and other behavioral factors.
Once you have identified your target audience, it is necessary to understand the kind of material they are likely to share and be interested in. Find out more about your target audience in order to come up with a campaign that is sure to grab their attention.
Step 2: Pick the Right Platforms
After identifying and understanding your target audience you have to decide on the kind of platform you will be using for your marketing efforts. There are a number of options that are available to marketers in terms of social media platforms. However, the kind of platform you choose will depend on the kind of marketing technique you will be using to move your message across.
Instagram will, for example, give you an option of choosing a picture story whereas LinkedIn can be used if you have written content that you wish to use for your campaign, Facebook can be used for video messages as well as other strategies. While choosing the right platform also keep in mind the interests of your target audience in order to guarantee success. You can seek help from consultants who can help your determine the right strategy to be used when dealing with the different platforms available.
Step 3: Create Engaging Content
Most of the social media platforms suggest content to their users based on their interests and behaviors. This is done by using an algorithm that gives ranking to different content going viral according to the needs and interests of the user. So, in order to reach the target audience, it is necessary for you to create the kind of content that will be surely enjoyed by your target customer. It is also important to keep the content interesting and exciting for the target audience. This can be done by using catchy headlines or using content that will make the audience feel emotionally connected. You can also use the services of different independent creative consultants to help you create the perfect content for your needs.
Step 4: Post at the Right Time
Timing is extremely important in determining the success of your viral marketing campaign. In order to make your viral efforts successful, you need to keep yourself updated about the latest trends and news based on the interests of your target audience. If there is a hot trending topic that seems relevant and beneficial for your post you can plan the posting in such a way that it coincides with the trending topics.
Do not forget to use those hashtags! However, if there is no such trend, you can plan your posting accordingly. Just make sure not to post it at a time of tragedy. Nobody wants their business to be associated with a negative event.
Step 5: Use Ads To Create Visibility
Another way of creating awareness for your business/brand could be by spending some money on paid ads that will help you gain some visibility. This can help your content becoming viral however it will require some amount of investment from your side.
Step 6: Engage Influencers
Using an influencer in order to gain visibility and awareness for your brand is an effective and time-saving strategy. With the advent of social media, there has been an increasing trend of influencers creating awareness of different brands to their target audience. You can use the help of a social media influencer who can help you introduce the brand to the target audience. However, it is extremely important to choose the right social media influencer. This can be done by going back to your research done in Step
Step 7: Track And Measure
It is also imperative to keep track of your viral marketing efforts to ensure effectiveness. Once the viral marketing campaign has started you need to use different analytics tools in order to determine the success. Do not expect yourself to reach your goals with the first campaign. If you find something to be unsuccessful in a particular campaign that does not produce desired results, you should immediately make changes accordingly in the strategy. For this, you will have to keep tracking and measuring the performance of your ongoing viral marketing campaign.
Step 8: Add Calls To Action
Do not leave your audience hanging after grabbing their attention. Make sure you add a call to action factor in your viral marketing campaign that will motivate the audience to take a step. This can be done by offering discounts on their first purchase, offering them free membership or a free trial.
Step 9: Attract More Attention
Once your viral marketing campaign has reached a considerable number of views, you can then move on to attracting more attention for your campaign by contacting different news organizations and bringing their attention to the success of your marketing campaign. However, before contacting any news organization, it is a good idea to work on developing a press release that is sure to get attention and does not lack content and authenticity.
Step 10: Use Content To Create Originality
Nothing great comes from plagiarizing and copying the efforts of others. Similarly, it will not be beneficial for you if you use content for your viral marketing effort that uses the ideas of others. A campaign that lacks originality will not be welcomed by the audience and will have a difficult time becoming etched in their minds. Hence, make sure your campaign uses new ideas and thoughts. If you require ideas and innovation in your campaign you can use the services of creative consultants who are known for creating and designing successful viral marketing campaigns. li
http://www.mattiabaggiani.com
In the end, it can be established that the use of viral media marketing in developing awareness for the business cannot be undermined. So plan your campaign with the help of creative consultants such as Matta Baggiani http://www.mattiabaggiani.com and witness the success of your business.
We're already at the end February (and the countdown to spring is on!). If you're like most small business owners, you kicked off January with a new and improved plan for your business, and most likely that included marketing to new prospects and collecting leads.
There are several challenges we're seeing with small business, specifically around marketing:
Small business owners don't have time to market online -there's a tendency to get lost on social media, in fact some refer to it as noisy.
Small business owners don't understand how to make the most of the marketing they're doing - This really comes down to strategy, what do you post when? If you're investing the time, you want to time it when you'll have the most eyes on your feed.
SMBs don't have a clear plan for market online (specifically with social media) - its not just what to post when, but it's the connection between the platforms that seems confusing. This is why a plan is essential.
Small businesses understand the need for automation, but don't like the feel of automation - you know what we mean here, there are emails you receive that just feel canned and generic. How can automation work when it feels so impersonal?
The learning curve is steep and continuous - even those of us who work in social media daily need to work to keep up on changing algorithms, so we get it!
What can you, as a small business owner, do right now?
Watch the efforts of someone you admire, how are they marketing?
Actively analyze what they're doing by examining when they post and what they post.
Do you see any trends behind their efforts, for example curated content versus original?
Time of day?
Tone?
Accept that you'll always be learning and look to subscribe to a blog or podcast that regularly posts about social media trends. Endeavor to try something new every month (yes, that may mean video!).
Embrace video, that's YouTube, Facebook Live and Instagram. Everyone feels uncomfortable at first, but when you start seeing the results, you'll quickly embrace it. Remember, people want to connect with you before they buy, and sometimes that seeing and hearing you!
Don't feel like you must do everything alone, do what you do best, outsource the rest.
Create a content schedule and mix planned content with spontaneous content.
Struggling to create a schedule? Read last week's blog that will help you get back on track!
Still not sure if you've got the hang of digital marketing? Give us a call! We can have a quick chat about what you're doing now, and help find ways to fine tune your efforts for making impact (and efficiency!).
Affiliation is an automated and robotized marketing program where an online website advertiser, merchant or entrepreneur engage webmasters (the person who keeps a specific website) to place their banners ads or buttons on their blog or websites. Webmasters will receive a referral fee or commission from sales when the customer has clicked the affiliate link to get to the merchant's website to perform the desired action.
Generally, make a purchase or fill out a contact form, desired action varies from merchant to merchant and according to their offers or promotions. In other words, we can say that, it's an online business center for thousands of affiliate programs on the web. Now a days, affiliate marketing has become a multi-billion dollar industry and it's the best way to monetize your blog or website. All the affiliate networks system have their own tracking, reporting, and payment system.
Affiliate programs or associate programs is an agreement between an advertiser and a webmasters, if a company or organization has generated, produced or designed a product and they are promoting and trading it via your website then you can also generate extra income by inviting your website visitors to promote it in exchange for a commission.
Moreover, if you are monetizing your website or blog with the absolute affiliate program then it can make a lot of money with a slight effort. For this, you need a healthy, bountiful and rich content website with a handsome amount of targeted traffic.Advertisers finance in affiliate programs for initiation of consumer interest or inquiry into their products or services of a business, it is also called lead generation. Different advertisers provide different kinds of affiliate programs. All affiliate plans do not work in the same way or pay the same rates. If you join a search engine affiliate program you most likely will be placing text links or banners to their advertisers and you'll work on a pay-per-click fee. Similarly, some of others allow you to set up a shopping or store page that offers products related to the content of your website.
Basically, in association of any affiliate merchant means you are paid a commission per sale on the advertiser's website and pay-per-click affiliate programs reward the minimum amount, as affiliates are usually paid per thousand clicks (CPC).
There are lots of other affiliate marketing programs than the ones that have been mentioned below, but these are the ones that are extremely successful and has been short listed on the behalf of advertiser's worth and valuation, Alexa traffic rank, user experience and off course visitor's strength.
1- CJ Affiliate by Conversant (Commission Junction) - Since 1998
CJ Affiliate by Conversant is an extensive, largest and highly paying affiliate marketing network in North America, it operates globally. CJ Affiliate is one of the oldest advertising company that is why it is preferred affiliate network of more than 500 companies and major online stores on the internet. I will recommend it personally because it has unmatched hub of advertisers, beautiful and easy to understand user interface, unworried payment system and the customer support that we cannot find anywhere.
CJ Affiliate has a very large variety of products to promote and merchants (advertisers) frequently pay high amount of commission rates for CJ publishers when we compare to other marketing affiliate companies or even their personal in-house affiliate program.
CJ Affiliate Network is free to join and you can simply sign in to CJ Account Manager once your application is approved and apply to different affiliate programs. Some of the advertisers approve publishers immediately while others approve manually after reviewing your account/website. But you need to link a quality website with healthy and rich content to get approval for individual affiliate programs.
2- ShareASale - Since 2000
Alexa Rank: 1,008
Minimum Payment Amount: $50
Payment Method: Check, Direct Deposit
Programs Offered: CPA, CPL, CPS, CPC
Referral Program: Yes
ShareASale is another popular and most accepted affiliate network with a large amount of product choices. It has collected an excellent ratings, with the company's outstanding persona, safety, morality, customer service, and ease of commission payment receiving glowing reviews. In fact, it is the well-known affiliate marketing company with over 3,900 merchant programs and more than 40 different categories. There are lots of other affiliate programs on the internet that are very distinctive to ShareASale.
ShareASale also provides you an extra feature that you can add products to your "basket". It means, you can keep all information about specific merchants or products that you'd like to apply for, review, or export later on.
If someone is unfitted or failed to find an appropriate advertiser on CJ then most apparently it will be here at ShareASale. Moreover, to get start joint affiliate program with ShareASale is not complicated. There are couple of important and easy steps to get started. Essentially, you have to verify that you own your website before you can join any of them, which involves placing a key code in your website's header tag.
3- Rakuten Affiliate Network (LinkShare) - Since 1996
Alexa Rank: 2,138
Minimum Payment Amount: $50
Payment Method: Check, Direct Deposit, PayPal
Programs Offered: CPA, CPL, CPS, CPC
Referral Program: No
According to writers and online surveys, Rakuten Affiliate Network Company has been declared and listed in one of the largest affiliate network, with over 10 million affiliate partnerships. Rakuten Affiliate (LinkShare) took the number one spot in the 2012 Affiliate Networks because of platform stability, support quality and ability to spread all around the world with more than 4,000 affiliate programs which allows you to manage your own program using the company's various service and support options.
Rakuten is not the quickest to sign-up or the simplest to navigate, but there's a lot of helpful guidance as you go. You have to sign-up with each separate advertiser before you can boost their products. This reveals that quality is important here.
Rakuten Affiliate has a lot of physical products to promote, including some big-brands. They provide access to thousands of publishers recruited daily worldwide. Search by product category, traffic, consumer geography and other criteria significant and relevant to your online affiliate campaign. They provide patented tracking technology, easy tools to upload ad links, coupon links or product feeds and reliable online payment options.
4- AWIN.com (Affiliate Window) - Since 2000
Alexa Rank: 17,848
Minimum Payment Amount: $20/£20
Payment Method: Check, Direct Deposit, Wire Transfer
Programs Offered: CPA, CPL, CPS, CPC
Referral Program: Yes
AWIN.com, Affiliate Window is one of the best affiliate network in Europe and prominently increasing around the globe with over 2,100 advertiser and 75,000 publisher respectively. It provides instance access to nearly 77 sectors in 11 territories. This affiliate program is at the top because of its unique traffic light system which is providing visibility on payments, low threshold payments available in multiple currencies twice a month, simple user-friendly platform, interface with real-time reporting.
In 2013, UK buyers made 150M purchases via affiliate websites. Monetize your website and join the thousands of bloggers by adopting affiliate marketing as a way of monetizing your website in an intelligent and excellent way.
Affiliate Window is incredible to work with because this affiliate program understand that independent publishers have different demands and will work with the advertiser and publisher to ensure the program works for both. It has dedicated publisher services team with sector specialists, access to more than half of the UK's biggest brands* (as listed by IMRG 2013 survey), live chat support and multiple range of tools to create links.
5- Click Bank - Since 1998
Alexa Rank: 3,414
Minimum Payment Amount: $10
Payment Method: Check, Direct Deposit, Wire Transfer
Sell Products: Globally
Referral Program: Yes
Click bank a well-known affiliate network and has a huge statistics with 200 million customers, it features over 6 million digital products, such as e-books, software and membership sites. With their network of 500,000 digital marketing experts in over 190 countries, digital product will reach customers around the world. They help you to set commissions that maximize the network of digital marketers promoting your offers and together watch your sales grow. Click Bank has delivered lifestyle products to customers around the globe.
After joining Click Bank affiliate program, you can get up to 75% commission on all sales. Find particular informational lifestyle products with just one click, obtain advice on any topic, immediately access products and there is no need to wait.
ClickBank sells lifestyle products that are produced by fervent entrepreneurs. Their products give innovation and instruction on topics ranging from training the family dog and Paleo cooking recipes to workouts to become a better surfer. With each click and every sale, their products improve the lives of customers around the world. They stand behind the products and strive to deliver unparalleled customer satisfaction.
6- Zanox - Since 2000
Alexa Rank: 9,099
Minimum Payment Amount: €25
Payment Method: Check, Direct Deposit, Wire Transfer
Programs Offered: CPA, CPL, CPS, CPC
Referral Program: No
Perhaps the largest European network and a partner of Affiliate Window and eprofessional, zanox supports more than 4,300 international advertisers in the successful marketing of products and services on the internet. However, it is not very much familiar with USA but has a growing terrific reputation gradually. Globally, more than 700 people work for zanox and its partner companies. Moreover, zanox champions the establishment of international quality standards with its own Code of Conduct for all participants in the network.
Affiliate networks becomes important when they have an exclusive relationship with a brand. The most famous handmade marketplace Etsy.com's affiliate program is powered by Zanox. So you will need a Zanox publisher account to become an affiliate of Etsy.
Simply, display ads on your website and earn money for generating sales and leads. You gain maximum reach via Zanox global publisher network with a wide variety of publisher models. You will be given maximum benefit from their global network of high-quality brands and attractive promotions and their statistics enable you to track and improve your performance. They also provide great importance to trust, network quality and transparency.
7- Affiliate.com - Since 2008
Alexa Rank: 465,669
Minimum Payment Amount: $100
Payment Method: Check, Wire, ACH, PayPal
Programs Offered: CPA, CPL, CPS
Referral Program: Yes
Affiliate.com only works with top and high quality affiliates and provide some of the most sought after campaigns across various verticals, including campaigns for more than 100 different countries. They provide world class affiliate support, whether you are looking for a particular offer or are in need of a fresh new creative, their affiliate managers are your number one resource for helping you to generate the highest level of revenue. Lots of other affiliate networks suffer from disconnection, not so from this network.
Affiliate.com oblige anyone from beginner level to advanced affiliates. They have a very helpful staff that take each case on an individual basis. So, if you do not have much experience yet you should probably be best to try one of the other networks first.
Affiliate.com network declares more than 2,000 live campaigns in different categories, so there is definitely a large selection to choose from. To become a part of Affiliate.com you have to fill out an affiliate application form, your application will be reviewed within 2 business days. You'll get a call to confirm all of your information and be assigned to an affiliate manager. They also offer domain parking and redirect monetization services.
8- Vig Link - Since 2009
Alexa Rank: 9,959
Minimum Payment Amount: $10
Payment Method: PayPal
Programs Offered: CPA, CPL, CPS, CPC
Referral Program: Yes
It is very much similar to Skimlinks, complete the sign up process and then simply add one line of code to your website or blog and VigLink will automatically turns existing links on your pages into revenue generating links. VigLink can also insert new links on relevant terms and phrases to capture purchase purpose. You can also earn from purchase intent created in your app, the content created and shared over mobile apps drives purchase. VigLink's Rest API opens up a new revenue stream for publishers by allowing them to earn from this created purchase intent.
VigLink manages a publisher network of over 2 million sites and apps, as well as an advertiser network of over 50,000 brands and merchants. It is also backed by top investors including Google Ventures, Emergence Capital, and RRE.
VigLink believes that it links out every feasibility so what seems to be a simple and normal link to you can be turned into a monetizing affiliated link with them. It takes a 25% cut of the affiliate commissions generated from your website or blog. You get 35% of what they earn for a year from your referral. Moreover, VigLink identifies commercial products mentioned within content and links them to destinations determined in real-time, advertiser-bid auctions.
9- Valuleads - Since 2009
Alexa Rank: 996,763
Minimum Payment Amount: $50
Payment Method: PayPal, Pay Check, ACH (Direct)
Programs Offered: CPA, CPL, CPS
Referral Program: Yes
ValuLeads is an energetic and widely growing, achievement based advertising agency founded in 2009. Their basic goal as a team is to provide the best value possible to every organization they work with. ValuLeads understand that each client, whether advertiser or publisher, has different needs and wishes. Therefore, they work with their customers on a one-on-one basis to create a completely customized system or campaign designed to maximize value and results. ValuLeads is committed to getting the top payout for each and every campaign.
At ValuLeads, every publisher in the network is distributes as though it were their most important customer. No matter, what the size of your campaign, they will always provide you the best possible support and guide you through all the ups and downs.
They also offer on-time payments, as well as flexible payment options and provide weekly payments (for qualified publishers). At ValuLeads dedicated experts and quality service continues from 8 A.M until 12 A.M, seven days a week. Fill out an application to set up a free consultation an affiliate manager will call you to discuss what offers to run, and how to work together to make you some money. They also offer referral program.
10- JV Zoo - Since 2009
Alexa Rank: 3,517
Minimum Payment Amount: $50
Payment Method: PayPal, Stripe or Authorize.net
Programs Offered: CPA, CPL, CPS
Referral Program: Yes
It is free to become an affiliate at JVZoo. It provides one affiliate link and instant access for all products in a sales funnel. JVZoo having little resemblance to ClickBank. Because, it's a network for affiliates and sellers based around digital products. It's easy to manage, just like with ClickBank, you can check out the marketplace to get an idea of the products you could promote before you have even signed up. After joining, you can have access to the JVZoo Affiliate Product Library, which contains products from a wide variety of categories.
Their affiliate product library gives you up to the minute conversion and EPC details for all products. Know what you can expect from a promotion by seeing network wide performance data. When you promote a vendor's product, you are automatically cookied for all of that vendor's products.
As an affiliate, see exactly how your campaigns are accomplish in real time. You can even generate multiple trackers for the matching product, using our Tracking ID System. You can keep an eye on your campaigns with an instant sales notifications. Notices are sent to your email's inbox each time an affiliate sale is made. Vendors deal directly with buyers, so there is no need to provide customer support for people that purchase from your affiliate links.
Note: "Commission rates, payment method, offered programs and referral programs may change according to affiliate marketers new promotions and policies. Also, Alexa Ranking will not be consistent it keeps on changing with the variation of your traffic performance."
We all know that website or blog traffic is the only key to generating life changing kind of money online. And one of the preferred methods among super successful affiliate marketers is commenting because you can reach millions of visitors, you just need to look in the right places.
You will have access to 5 sites within the online marketing niche later in this article. Combined, they have over 150 MILLION Visitors per Month! But you also need to know how to do your own research because that will enable you to reach these kind of sites in Any Niche.
You need to know whether the particular site is in fact indexed in Google. You need to know the page rank and both the quantity and quality of visitors to that site. Visitor origin is extremely important, next to a product in demand (On Your Blog).
In another Blog Post I demonstrate a certain research method that will show you just How to "Look In the Right Places". You need to research the sites you wish to comment on, and by using the simple tools as demonstrated above, I was able to come across sites with as much as 85.3 MILLION visitors per month.
But get this, they all allow comments and most even allow you to share your website and blog URL. Be careful though because the more professional the site, the less tolerance they will have to unprofessional conduct. This includes desperate sales pitches and a flood of random affiliate links, you only EVER share a URL to your own blog or website in any comments you make.
Most professional sites will provide you with one of 2 most used commenting options;
An On-Site Contact Form - That will allow you to share your URL by providing an option to do so, these forms normally require your name, email, URL and of course your comment.
Comments Feed Plugin - This is when you leave a comment by having to log into a particular social profile or Gravatar account to do so. And as these commenting options do not allow a special window for your URL, you DO NOT share any URL in these comments.
Within context however, you may want to suggest a certain idea and have other people respond to your comment. Should that discussion lead to an increased interest and request to view your site, then you share the link to your personal blog or website.
When You Comment - You always stay on topic, and blend with the discussion at hand. That can only be done by actually reading the particular post you wish to comment on. Don't just barge in with a desperate sales pitch or offer, it mirrors desperation. Keep your comments as professional as possible, and you will never have to write another sales pitch.
Professional commenting (And Actually Getting results) is a time consuming exercise and must never be done hastily. Apart from researching the sites you wish to comment and even guest post on, you also want to read other comments. Find what a particular audience is looking for so that you may be able to offer a suitable and obvious solution (That Actually Works). And make sure this offer is available On Your Blog, preferably with a proper discussion because you want to inspire your visitor to want to Know More.
The purpose of your comment must be to get the visitor to your own blog or website, you then need to ensure your content is interesting and useful enough to keep your visitor there. A great way to check this is to pay attention to your visitor/view ratio. Your visitors should be less than the views because it indicates that you're on the right path, it means you have returning visitors.
Now I did promise to provide access to my personal 5 commenting favourites, but I strongly advise you master that research method we discussed earlier.
Moz- This site offer an On Site Comment window that allows you to share your URL as a Hyper Link. Do not enter a raw URL (And Especially an Affiliate Offer URL) anywhere, because this is also a great way to get Moz to recognize your Blog or Website. Share the link to your personal site by means of the Hyper Link option provided.
Once signed up and inside your membership, you need to visit the Moz Blog to be able to comment and share your thoughts. You will also be able to answer questions because this is a site that offers great engagement, I can tell you that.
The Penny Hoarder - This site uses a Facebook comment plugin. You will need to login with your Facebook credentials to comment here, so be sure your profile is as complete and professional as possible. You will not have to register an account with the Penny Hoarder, only Facebook login to comment. And remember to only share the link to your blog or website when asked to do so.
Pro Blogger - And this is a perfect example of the on-site comments window where you have the option of sharing your blog URL. Once your comment is approved, your site will be accessible to reader when they click on your name in the comment. Pro Blogger, like Penny Hoarder requires no registration.
Money Talks News- Another high value site that does not require any registration. Like The Penny Hoarder, Money Talks too uses the Facebook comments plugin so the same rules apply. Only share the URL to your blog when asked to do so.
Always remember that content is the King of sales conversion, and unique content is what will have your site stand out. Content is the single most important part of actually generating money online, and endless research is the only way to be able to provide your audience with the relevant content. You must do the research, so your reader does not have to.
And that is how you can now leverage commenting to your profitable advantage.
Success Means Going From Failure To Failure Without The Loss Of Enthusiasm - http://easyinternetmoneyandjobs.com
Now that you have seen the Keyword Research Tool, we can discuss the importance and role of keywords to the level of your achievement. It is also important to decide on a niche, so you know which direction to take. Direction is so much more important than speed because 97% of affiliate marketers are going nowhere fast. The only difference is that the 3% built their Online Empire with Keywords as the foundation. You are looking for keywords with a high search volume and a low competition within your niche.
There are three kinds of Primary Keyword Research Steps known as;
Short Tail Keywords - Are single keywords and often referred to as Primary Keywords. These are the keywords that you want present in your domain name, but be objective and precise. Let's use the Dieting Niche for demonstration. Good Short tail keywords will then be Health, Diet and Weight. These three particular keywords get searched around 982,000 times on Google Per Month. That's almost a Million Searches, can you see where this keyword thing is going?
Long Tail Keywords - These are normally no more than Three Keywords making up a Keyword Phrase. Within the Niche we're using for demonstration, lose weight, losing weight, lose weight fast, and fast weight loss are excellent Long Tail Keywords. They are searched around 564,100 times on Google Per Month. But you will have to research the keywords relevant to your niche, which means your results will be different. Long Tail Keywords are being used in your Site, and Posts Title. It works really well if the Long and Short tail Keywords are combined.
Anchor Text - These are Longer Keyword Phrases and refer to the phrase someone will type into their browser to search a specific interest. The kind of search someone would enter when they are much more likely to buy. For this demonstration, how to lose weight, how to lose weight fast, and want to lose weight are great examples. Anchor text is what must be present on your site's home page, the Google Spider love seeing this and it helps with ranking. These anchor texts are searched 852,300 times on Google Per Month. Now combine the results of the three tests we've just done.
Yes, 2,398, 400 Searches on Google Per Month for the three search categories combined. By now you must realize the potential of proper keyword research, and why the 3% get to make those disgusting amounts of money online! This article will Simplify the Basics of SEO, what to include in Headers with Titles and even Categories, Tag Lines and Single tags. There is also the Site Map within Google Search Console.
Identifying the H1 Heading - May sometimes also be a Post or Blog Page Title but this usually refer to the Blog, Site or Video Title. The H1 Heading is where you include the Primary Search Phrases you wish your Site or Video to Rank for in Google within 15 - 65 Characters. It is important to preferably keep the H1 Heading within 60 Characters, because the H1 Heading will appear at the top in Google Search Result pages. Make the H1 Heading both Easy to Read and to Remember.
Identifying the H2 Heading - This is usually the Blog Post Title and once again the desired Search Phrases and Keywords need to populate this Heading. Numbers play a huge role with H2 Headings, and strangely enough uneven numbers have a more striking effect, combine this with a "Reason Why" kind of suggestion and you have a winner H2 Heading.
Identifying the H3 Header - Post Titles often also make up the H3 Header, along with Widget Descriptions within the Blog Side Bar. When you use the Text Widget to load HTML code, then the "Alt=" Attribute usually appear as an H3 Header.
A Blog post Title also appears as an H3 Header when you use an SEO Plugin like "All in One SEO Tools" and your Blog Post Title appears after the forward slash (/) to the Primary Domain. Using an SEO Plugin will allow you to submit all your individual pages, posts, tags and categories as individual site maps.
Identifying the H4 Header - This can be defined as something like the Tagline to you Blog Title Tag or H1 header. A Logo image is also often accepted as an H4 header within certain Plugins which may display a logo icon.
The Site Map Description - Your Blog Site Map is extremely important, and for this you simply install the Plugin "Google XML Site Maps". This Plugin will share an updated your Blog Site Map to the Google Search Console each time you make changes, but the changes may take a while (Normally 2 - 3 Weeks) to show up in Search Results.
It is however important to manually check for the Site Map Acceptance from inside the Google Search Console, even with the Google Site Maps Plugin Activated. There may be times when certain errors occur with your Blog Site Map inside Google, which means Google cannot find your Blog.
You have to then test the site map with the tools provided from within the Google Search Console, fix the errors found from inside your Blog C-Panel and test the Site Map again. When the results return with Zero errors found, you simply delete the old site map and upload the new site map.
Accessing the Google Search Console you will need a Google account, as with all the Free Tools Google gives you and it's a Lot. You simply need to look in the right places and then take your time getting to know how to use the tools. Simple Search your Browser (Preferably Chrome) for the search phrase "Google Search Console" and simply follow the instructions after opening the link on the search result page.
The Blog Site Map is what Search Engine Spiders use to Crawl your Blog so it can be categorized correctly, sending the right visitors your way. This is why the presence of Keywords and Search Phrases are so important throughout all content on your Blog, just the right ones in the right positions.
We all know that commenting, and especially the writing of eBooks and Articles are among the absolute favourites among successful affiliate marketers with no exception to Blogging. Driving visitors is one thing, but getting those visitors to actually convert is quite another exercise all together.
Problem is that many newbies are commenting and publishing on sites and with publishers that aren't even indexed in Google yet. This completely defeats the purpose in its entirety, simply because the chances of actually getting visitors from such efforts is exceptionally little to none at best.
Now the best part is that Google already provide you with all the tools you need at absolutely no cost, in fact most tools used by professionals are free tools. You simply have to look in the right places, but that is also the reason most newbies find it difficult. It is not the tactics behind the method of making money online that is all that difficult, but more the time consuming factor that renders it an exercise less sought after.
The Page Rank Checking Tool - This is where you use the Google Page Rank Checker to ensure that sites are in fact indexed and even ranking in Google. But you need to apply a few simple rules.
When you enter a Domain into the page rank checker, you want to focus on the Primary Domain only and disregard anything after that. Now a Primary Domain will end in (.com) (.info) (.org) (.net) (.co.za) to name but a few examples, but you should pick up on the simplicity. Anything with a forward slash (/) after the primary domain must not be entered into the Google Page rank Checker, and preferably no Non S.E.O Friendly characters like (?_!*%&). S.E.O Friendly characters are only numbers, letters and any character entered without the use of the Shift button on your keyboard.
You may also notice that some URLs will start with (https) as opposed to the normal (http), and in such cases I would strongly advise in removing the (S). Failing to do so will result in an inaccurate search result and you may just be losing out on a high ranking site.
Even a 0/10 result from a possible 10 is clear indication that the site is indexed in Google. Now, do not make the mistake of underestimating sites with a 0/10 result, as I have come across some of these sites that has Millions of monthly visitors per month.
We will take a look at how to establish that with the second tool later in the article. You will have various kinds of results and after opening the Google Page Rank Checking Tool. Now, simply enter the URL you wish to analyse into the window provided and click on search. Next you will simply fill out the caption and proceed to search the URL of your choice. When you have the search result returning with a score indicating (N/A) that is a clear indication that the site is in fact Not Indexed in Google. These are the kind of sites that may just result in you wasting your time commenting on and publishing with.
You may also end up with a result page indicating the (N/A) result as discussed above, but with a big red colored block along with the result. You want to steer clear of these kind of sites especially, because back-links from such sites will do much more harm than good to your own site's Google Rating. These kind of back-links may even result in your site being flagged as unsafe by Google, and that means Months of Hard Work down the drain.
How To Know How Much Traffic A Site Gets - This too is done by using a free tool called Similar Web, where you also enter the URL you wish to check. Only with this tool you need not concern with the (https) and (http) sections of the URL, but do still focus on only the Primary Domain URL.
Similar Web Tool. Now simply enter the URL and click on "Start", and the Similar Web Tool will do the rest. You will have ranking results and category ranking analytics but may find in some cases that there are no results available for a particular site yet.
But don't just disregard such sites, it only means that the site is fairly new and not necessarily a danger as a back-link to your own site. You must however ensure that the site is in fact indexed in Google with the first tool presented and discussed in this article.
Two simple, but exceptionally effective tools to leverage more appropriate visitors which will result in better conversion and even sales. Now the "Trick" to getting those converting visitors, apart from using these two tools is to ensure your targeting is done right. Target the right audience by means of your keyword research. Keyword Research can be done with another free tool Google gives you to work with called the Google Keyword Planner.
Keyword Planner Tool allows you to search the three most important keyword categories namely;
Short tail Keywords - These are normally single words, and are also the kind of keywords you want present in places like your site Domain Name and Site Title. This makes it easier for Google to know what your site is about and it helps with your ranking within a specific Niche.
Long Tail Keywords - These are normally no more than 2 - 3 keywords combined in a phrase. Short tail keywords may be something like "Internet", "Online" and "Marketing" where the Long Tail Keyword can be something like "Online Marketing". Long Tail Keywords are the ones you may want to include in things like a site H1 and/or H2 heading, and especially in Blog Post Titles.
Anchor Text - Now to best illustrate anchor text, it's the kind of phrase someone within your niche may enter into their browser for a specific search. As illustration, let's go with something like "How to Work from Home". This means the person searching is looking for something specific, they are interested in working from home. This is also what professionals call, buyer traffic. When such a search result lead that visitor to your site, and you have a proven program that will interest them they will be most likely to purchase from you. Anchor Text are the kind of search phrase you want to use in populating the content of your Article and/or Blog Post.
That brings us to the conclusion of some great tools to use in actually making money online. But, do spend time and learn how to use these tools correctly, because they are tools. It's a proven fact that any tool only works as good as the person using it, so invest the extra effort and research properly.
Success Means Going From Failure To Failure Without The Loss Of Enthusiasm - http://easyinternetmoneyandjobs.com
Do blogs really matter? A website will market your products and services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. But people do business with people they know, like and trust. Blogs are usually less formal in tone than the text on business websites, giving business owners a chance to really connect with their audience.
Blogging is a relationship-building tool. A blog, either on its own or as part of your website, can illustrate that you are a specialist in your niche who really knows what you are speaking about. It can also show that you have the skills and experience to create quality products.
Content Is King
Content is the main driver of effective marketing these days. And a blog provides content and helps your target audience find you. And that means content in all forms. This includes your videos, reports, eBook, infographics, image names, and more.
Free Traffic
In terms of getting a continuous flow of traffic, the more posts to have, the better. As soon as you have published one, you can share links to it on social media and via email. Provided that the quality of the content is good and relevant to your target audience, you should have no trouble driving traffic to your blog.
Your Blog Posts Are Free Samples
If you sell any types of information products, your blog posts will give a clear idea of the quality your customers can expect. Information products include items like eBooks, reports, videos, audio files etc. Your blog reader will see the quality of what you provide for free and will directly relate that with the quality of your paid products.
Your Recognition
Innovative and well-researched blog posts let readers know that you're serious about your business and know what you're doing. This confidence in you will not only make your audience more likely to buy from you, it will also give them a reason to spread the word about your blog and your business.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Due to their ease of navigation and frequency of updates, the search engines and will crawl your blog often, sending new traffic your way. In many instances, these will be people you haven't connected with yet. Studies have shown that shorter posts might rank in the top 20, but longer posts that are considered highly relevant will usually get into the top three slots.
Are you are ready to be a better blogger? Discover 21 different one-a-day tasks and activities for getting more traffic, more prospects, more customers and more sales. Download my free checklist, 21 Days To A Better Blog, at https://jonallo.com/better-blog
Most of the time, businesses start blogging as a way to build an audience. However, the reverse seems to be happening. More and more people with blogs are starting to monetize their traffic. It makes sense because one of the hardest things to do as a business owner is grow your traffic. If you grow your blog first, you already have a solid following to support your business idea.
Starting a blog is easy, but if you want to make money later, you need to think about your strategy and set yourself up for success. It's important to know what you need to grow your blog and grow your traffic.
What is a Blog?
A blog is a weblog of content updated regularly. It's an online publication written in a personal tone, meant to share opinions, teach others, develop a personal brand, or sell products or services. Blogging is fulfilling, but it also requires commitment.
It's important to be consistent, no matter how often you publish. Your audience grows to expect your posts, so keep at it, and don't disappoint them.
How to Start a Blog
Finding the time to flush out your ideas and do it consistently is the hardest part of blogging. Once you find the time, starting a blog is straightforward. Consider your opportunities to monetize your blog, determine your audience, and plan a publishing strategy.
You need to think like an entrepreneur to make this venture profitable in the future, so map out the groundwork for your distribution and monetization now.
Ways to Make Money
Most people think of running ads on their blogs as a way to make money, but there are other ways. Building a loyal audience is more important than building a big one, and you won't earn the trust of your followers by spamming them with ads all the time.
Instead, think of ways you can sell physical or digital products that align with your audience. Sell your services as a writer or designer. Publish a book. Create subscription-based packages with platforms like Patreon. Do paid reviews or become an affiliate for other brands.
You have to enjoy blogging for it to succeed. Dedicate yourself to serving your audience as best you can.
Pick a Niche
With all of the information on the internet, it's hard to stand out. Try to choose a topic that's hard to find elsewhere. It's also critical to choose a niche audience. There are so many internet users that it's impossible to appeal to all of them.
You can focus on a specific location, present your content in a different style, or focus on a smaller segment of a bigger market. For instance, writing about steakhouses in Kansas City that serve steaks larger than forty-two ounces allows you to focus more deeply on your topic that choosing to write about steakhouses in general.
Choosing a Platform
When it comes to hosting your blog, you have two choices. You can host it yourself or host it on a paid platform. If you host it yourself, you have more customization options. You still have to pay a fee, but it's less than a paid platform, and you have more flexibility in design.
Using a service to host your blog is the best option for those who don't know a lot about design or HTML. Some options include Blogger and WordPress. Think about how you want to monetize your blog because not every platform gives you what you need.
You can also use free platforms like Medium or Tumblr. They have built-in audiences, making it easier for you to get started, but they provide less customization, and your blog design ends up looking like everyone else's on the platform.
Picking a Name
This is a great time to think about what you want to name your blog. Unless you plan to build a personal brand or portfolio, don't use your name. Think of something catchy, fun, and descriptive of your brand. This name should reflect your blog's identity, add personality, and be easy to remember and type.
Groundwork for Growth
Thinking about how to grow your blog and having a solid plan in place helps you to build momentum quickly once you get started. If you don't have a plan, you may end up struggling with distribution because you don't have a strategy. Publishing is nerve-wracking, but having a plan can alleviate some of that.
Planning for growth involves collecting emails as soon as possible. Use a service like MailChimp to store your subscriber list and make distribution easy. It's free for up to two thousand subscribers. You can also use MailChimp for signup forms, which is a critical piece of capturing this information.
Embed your signup forms directly into your content with a call to action to subscribe, so the experience is seamless for your audience and easy to manage for you.
Blogging can be stressful, but it's also a blast. Use these tips to think about how you can grow your blog to make money later. The great thing about starting a blog is that you don't have to quit your day job until you start making money. If done right, once you start making money, you'll grow quickly.
For more instruction on blogging for profit, click SmallBizCourses to choose a course that's right for you.
To your success,
Gail
Whether you're a newbie entrepreneur wondering how to get leads, or still trying to figure out what kind of business to start, click https://SmallBizCourses.com today to see which course is right for you... and don't forget to get your FREE report while you're there!
Blogging has advanced as a capable apparatus for expanding your website improvement, building up your aptitude, and producing leads for your business.
Be that as it may, blogging removes time and assets from different things your independent company can do to create more leads and deals. You need to make your content profitable to your optimal clients - What keeps them up at evening time?
When you know this and how you, your organization, or your item or administration can help them, you can make content that answers those inquiries. By understanding your optimal client's needs, picking the correct watchwords and expressions to concentrate on, and after that utilizing them in the titles, body duplicate and connections, you'll enormously enhance your internet searcher rankings and activity.
They'll likewise discover your blog through your web-based social networking movement when you share your post on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Once they've found your blog, it's your goal to inspire them to subscribe to it through email.
STEPS TO GET STARTED BLOGGING
Is it true that you are having challenges with beginning a blog for yourself? Here are five essential strides to help you through to kicking your blog off.
i. Select a name for your blog
The initial step to finding a decent blog name is picking your area of focus. You can choose a suitable blog theme though you're the things that you get a kick out of the chance to do best, your wants, and something that you have encountered in life.
ii. Get your blog on the web
Since you have a name chosen, it's an ideal opportunity to get your blog on the internet. This ideal opportunity may sound hard or specialized, yet the means underneath will walk you directly through and make the procedure simple. To get your blog up and running you require two things: blog facilitating and blogging programming. Fortunately, these ordinarily come bundled together. iii. Customize your blog
To begin with, you should login to your blog. If you are uncertain of your login name or watchword, check the email that is sent to you from Blue-Host that has this data.
iv. Write and distribute your first post!
To start composing another post, tap the "Include New" connection. You are presently on the post editorial manager screen. Enter the title of your post in the best box and after that start composing your content in the lower box.
On the off chance that you might want to add a photo to your post, tap on the "Include Media" catch and snap "Select Files" to transfer a picture from your PC. You can influence changes by the photo to estimate on the following screen.
v. Promote your blog
Making an all-around planned blog and composing remarkable substance is quite the beginning. Keeping in mind the end goal to get users to your blog you will require investing some energy advancing it, particularly when you initially begin. Some approaches to get users to my blog is to post interfaces on my online networking accounts like Facebook and Twitter.
How often do you update your social media pages and publish new website content that is useful to your followers?
If you wait to get in the mood before working on them, you could be missing out on the opportunity to increase engagement and conversion.
A new study that was conducted by software company Adobe revealed that online consumers are drawn to brands that create authentic and relevant content. This is especially true for Generation Z who spend nearly half of their waking hours online.
The company surveyed 1,000 consumers to study their content consumption habits and found that Gen Z read, watch and share content online for 10.6 hours, while their millennial counterparts spend 8.5 hours doing practically the same thing.
Moreover, mobile turned out to be their favourite tool for consuming information online, spending an average of 5.9 hours every day.
But because of the proliferation of fake news, only a small percentage of young people share content. 58% of the respondents say they would share something posted by a family member or friend, 29% would share content from a YouTube star, and 19% say they would if information comes from a publishing source.
Who doesn't appreciate a piece of well-written content or an absorbing subject matter on a YouTube video?
Online content is basically the digital equivalent of sales associates in bricks-and-mortar shops. eCommerce businesses should carefully craft what they roll out on their website and social media pages, making sure that it gives potential customers a wonderful experience.
Such material prompts online consumers to take a positive action; 46% of UK consumers say it would trigger them to make a purchase, 24% say they would share it, while 21% say they would subscribe to the email list of the brand behind it.
However, if there is good content there is also a crappy one that bears the following qualities which, for many customers, are big turn-offs:
Content that is badly written (49%)
Irrelevant (44%)
Poorly designed (35%)
Paying attention to the devices people use in consuming content is just as important as the information and the manner in which it is presented on the Web.
79% of Adobe's respondents say they would like to use a home entertainment streaming device to consume online content, 63% of them prefer a voice assistant, while 51% aspire for connected home devices.
Technology is really advancing at the speed of light, and hence online businesses have no choice but to keep up. However, don't lose sight of the fact that it's pointless to be available on the latest device if your content is immaterial.
John Watton, senior marketing director at Adobe EMEA, explains it better below:
"Whether it's across social, online, blogs, or email communications, branded content has to be well-designed, optimised for the device, and offer a genuine experience that goes beyond selling products. Brands that succeed will drive customer acquisition and loyalty; those that don't will see customers swipe their screen in search for content that offers them a better experience."
So how are you satisfying the insatiable appetite of Gen Z?
Multichannel marketing is the quickest route to reach your customers, so don't be left behind. Find tutorials on Magento, M2E Pro, Magmi and other eCommerce tools that will help you sell and earn more on Amazon, eBay and your own website at UnderstandingE.
Using SEO is one of the best ways to make sure that your website turns up in search engine results because if someone's looking for a site like yours, you want to make sure they find it.
But it's no good turning up in search engine results if you're listed on the 100th page, or worse, the 500th page because no one looks at these pages.
At most, people only look at the first 2 or 3 pages.
So how can you make sure that your web pages turn up in these first few pages of results?
It would be easy to think that you need to find the most popular keywords with the highest amount of searches each month.
Wrong.
Doing that would make it almost impossible for you to succeed because there are already thousands of other marketers using them and because their web pages have been up longer than yours, they are already generating a lot of traffic and so their popularity is already m loving them up to the top results spots.
So if you want to get your web pages showing up on the first pages of search results took here is what you need to do.
Find Long-Tail Keywords. These are words that are more specific to what you're selling and it's usually a phrase of 3 or 4 words. For instance, if you're trying to sell a sofa, there'll be a lot of competition for that word. So instead you could use a more exact phrase like "Queen Ann Antique Sofa." While such exact phrasing will yield you fewer searches, they will be more target specific and tailored to people who are probably more likely to make a purchase.
Aim For Moderate to Small Competition. In addition to using long-tail keywords, also look for phrases that have little or even no competition. This will help to make sure that your web page turns up at or near the top of search engine results. For example, if there are only 8 other marketers using your exact phrase and the search engines show 10 results per page, then your page should be on the first page of results.
See What Keywords Your Competition Is Using. It's always a good idea to check out the competition to see what other keywords they're using and the content they're using to attract more customers.
To help you find keywords you can use Google's free Keyword Planner which you can find by going to Google's homepage and clicking on "Advertising." That will take you to opening an AdWords account so that you can use their keyword software.
And although you won't get many visitors to your site by using long-tail keywords, isn't it better to get on the first page in front of a few highly targeted prospects, then to end up on the 100th page of generic web surfers who will never see your website link anyway?
Ruth Barringham is a writer and author from Queensland Australia. Subscribe to her website for blog updates and articles for writers at http://RuthIsWriting.com where you'll find information and inspiration to help you achieve your writing dreams. When you subscribe you'll also instantly receive 5 free writing eBooks to assist you in becoming the wealthy writer you've always dreamed of being.
Acceptance, Communication, Success
DO NOT Let Failure Affect Your Self Worth
"Success is failure turned inside out."
Author unknown.
I honestly wish I knew who wrote this so I could thank him for giving me a guide to what success looks like. I was a freshman in high school when I read this quote and it stayed with me, not only stayed with me... but it changed my life. It was so clear, things can really be that simple!
Whoever wrote this must have known about a young girl who wanted to be successful but had no idea what success looked like. She thought her life was full of failures but in reality, the failures were really successes. It's like holding a t-shirt in your hand and you're about to put it on but than you realize it's inside out. What do you do? Well, you fix it and you put your shirt on the correct way. Then you go about your business, never giving it a single thought.
My friend, it is that simple. All you must do is take the failures and turn them into successes. Why is it so hard for you to turn your failures into success? Because you've tied your self worth to both the success and the failure.
Here's the problem. As humans, we give everything way more meaning than it should carry. For example, let's say your marriage failed and you started blaming yourself. You ask: How come I did not see this or that? Shouldn't I have known better? All the signs were there, so how could I have missed it? I'm such an idiot... and on and on... the madness goes. Pretty soon, you begin to feel badly about yourself. You start calling yourself dumb, idiot, loser, etc. You begin to think about all the people you let down and what they must think of you. Sound familiar?
What if you didn't give it any meaning at all? What if a failed relationship was just a failed relationship? What if a bankruptcy was just a bankruptcy? What if losing your job was simply that. What if none of it had any deeper meaning at all?
Here's what you should do to keep the failures in your life from affecting your self worth. First, you must stop taking everything personally. This was huge for me. When I stopped taking everything personally, and looking at them as "things that happen in a broader context" I could look at things more objectively. The failures aren't personal. It's all part of this thing call "life". Everyone who takes on this human incarnation is going to have a certain level of failure as well as success.
The second thing to do is to look at the failure objectively. It has no meaning except for the meaning you give it. I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to work with T. Harv. Ecker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. One of the things T. Harv. Ecker taught me was that nothing had any significant meaning at all. He constantly reminded me of this simple fact. It's the same thing with failure and success. They have absolutely no meaning at all besides the meaning we give to them.
For a lot of people, having success means they've made something of themselves. they've proven to aunt so and so or their father that "I'm not a loser." Here's what I've learned. You don't have to prove anything to anyone, not even yourself. Just accept that your successes and failures are impersonal.
I meet millennials who seem to define themselves by their career. What they do for a living has become such a priority, they don't even realize how closely they've attached their self worth to it. Today, the pressure to get married has been replaced with the pressure to become successful in your career as quickly as possible. Sure, it's a good thing to be successful in your career, but you are not your career. There's more to you than the initials behind your name or the title of your job. When you are at the bottom of the totem pole at work, you can't translate that as to where you stand in life. This is where you are today. That's not where you will be five years or ten years from now, so why does it matter so much?
Here's a different take on it. You may lose your job, all your money, and all your earthly possessions, but you can never lose the ability within you that got you those things in the first place. And if you can remember that, then you can turn every failure into success. When I left Florida, I left with my Honda Civic, my clothes in the trunk, and a few toiletry items, and that's all I had. My tribe was very upset because they felt like I had thrown away everything I had worked so hard to achieve. What they didn't realize was that my ability to get those things was still within me.
I don't know how I knew this but I knew that I could own another home. I knew that I could recreate an even better life than the life I'd had in Florida, and I did. I want you to awaken to the possibility that you can create better. You can always have better than you had before. The ability to get a great paying job is inside of you. The ability to start a new business after you've lost a business that you've worked hard at is all inside of you.
Last year I had the opportunity to interview Angela Martindale. She transforms lives from ordinary to extraordinary. She's a highly sought-after nutritionist, and fitness coach to Hollywood moguls and models. She's the creator of Chi Yoga Flow. The one thing that stuck with me during our interview is the fact that she lost everything after her divorce. Angela moved in with her parents with only a backpack crammed with a few personal items. This is after she had built a thriving business. But what she still possessed was the ability to create the results she had created before! Although her ex took her earthly possessions, he couldn't take her ability to rebuild both her life and her business. Angela anchored herself down and rebuilt not just her life, but also her business, and today she is happier than ever. In the process, her work has truly transformed my life and the lives of many other women.
If you want to turn your failures into successes all you have to do is detach your self worth from both the failures and the successes. You've heard of child actors or other performers who committed suicide or became drug addicts and alcoholics because their career started to slide. This happens because their self worth was attached to their job. When your self worth is not attached to your job, your career, or your bank account, you are free to turn your failures into successes. The next time you find yourself down, just remember Angela's story and remember what my mentor, T. Harv. Ecker said: "Nothing has meaning except the meaning you give it." Stop giving your successes and failures meaning, just live your life. Enjoy the successes when they happen and when you fall down, just get back up, dust yourself off, and get back in the game.
