I started looking into online business models around 20 years ago. Initially I started out with eBay the auction giant. I bought and sold from the site and made a bit of extra money in between jobs.
After a while I decided there had to be a better way to earn money using the internet. I bought an eBook and decided this was probably the best model for selling online. It was a sale which didn't require anyone to personally be there. It was completely automated and because of the digital product it could be sold internationally, with no postage costs.
Although I knew nothing of how to operate a business like this successfully, I had stumbled on the best possible model for selling online. Nothing could stop me learning and despite many failures, I persevered until I found a business model which works.
It's called affiliate marketing and allows anyone to sell someone else's products over the internet. By linking to another product and recommending it, anyone can earn a commission if their link takes a customer to a product and makes a purchase.
Affiliate marketing is a bit like recommending a friend to a nice restaurant. Only, with affiliate marketing, you get to earn a commission if your friend goes to the restaurant which you recommended.
Despite finding this business model shortly after moving on from eBay, it was a while before I found any lasting success with it. I think that's partly because, at the time, there was very little help available on the internet for affiliate marketers. There were many "how to" courses which I bought, and some were more useful than others. Despite all my "failures", I persevered and found a good community to learn from.
This, I believe, is a major key to the success of many online entrepreneurs. They don't do it alone, they have help. I struggled for years because I didn't know who to turn to for help. It is possible to have success with an online business quite quickly, if you know the best possible route to take, and of course if you have the courage to go through on all the action steps.
The ultimate goal of course, with an online business, is financial freedom. Initially though this wasn't my goal. My goal was to be earning enough to survive from the internet without a job. I also wanted to earn in a way which was conducive to my happiness. Many of the jobs I had done had been stressful and lowly paid. The internet offered a means to earn from the comfort of my own home. At the time, just having a purpose and a direction was enough, even if it didn't make money immediately.
As time wore on though, I did wonder whether all this effort was really worth my time. I had made some progress, but there were many times when I thought about throwing it all in. I'm sure this is the same for many others who are out there working away at their various online pursuits.
What kept me going was the simple idea of the eBook I had bought. Someone, somewhere had made a commission from me buying that eBook and downloading it. I was going to do the same thing over and over.
One of my early successes was selling an affiliate marketing "how to" course which I sold using AdWords adverts and a landing page. The automation involved is one of the best things about an online business. It allows you to build a scalable business from anywhere in the world! I ran an advert which sent people straight to a landing page. From there I collected the emails with a piece of software known as an auto-responder.
Emails were automatically delivered to the subscribers and I started selling a few courses. I was just at the point where I could start increasing my budget to make more sales and my advertising platform got shut down. I was inconsolable! It hit me hard and I went through a long period of just having given up. I couldn't reinstate my account whatever I tried!
The internet is very forgiving though. Before long I was purchasing another course and learning something new. I did get stuck in learning mode for a long time. But, I still use the skills I learned years ago even now.
I got onto another course. This one taught a different approach. It was called The Keyword Academy and the course taught how to target specific keywords with articles and rank them on Google. It's a long time ago now and I'm sure the techniques are outdated. Things change quickly on the internet. After a good 6 months to a year I got almost nothing for all my work. I had built several websites but most of them were utterly useless!
I really don't know why I kept going and most (sensible) people would have given up. What kept me going was the idea of a business which ran itself, selling digital products over and over again.
I eventually found the aforementioned community and that's where I am now. If I had only had access to other people back then! A mentor is definitely what you need with an internet business. It's far too hard to go it alone. Get access to a community and learn by watching and modelling people who are already being successful.
Tim Halloran is an online marketer and martial artist. See his.: his website here
"Affiliate" revenue / websites have gone through a number of iterations to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the "web".
What used to be a simple "content" website, now needs to include elements of branding in order to ensure people are able to attribute its underlying value with a SOCIAL following.
In fact, "SOCIAL" has really changed the game when it comes to the Internet. It no longer pays to be an anonymous avatar hiding behind a nondescript username - you really need skin-in-the-game; which essentially means using your own name/face to promote the ideas you put forward with your sites. The relationships garnered through this approach is where the value lies.
Obviously, using your own name opens you up to competitors... but the trick now is to ensure that people have MORE of a reason to use your content/services than anyone else's. This comes from either posting TRULY sublime stuff, or focusing on creating as SCINTILLATING service as humanly possible. The latter (service) is where "price comparison" affiliate sites come in.
Affiliate Marketing = 110% Give, 1% Receive
To fully appreciate how this works, you need to understand that in order to "earn" money, there are TWO things you need:
Audience - group of people who are actively engaged in an activity (HINT: MOST people will gladly "try" something new if it inspires them)
Product - something said people would be willing to BUY (HINT: NEVER worry about the product. The product will "sell" itself if it's good)
The way that "affiliate" marketing works is where you will "recommend" a product to an audience and if any of them purchase it - you'll receive a cut of the profits.
The problem with affiliate marketing is that it has bred a large number of "skim" marketers; who don't really "do" anything except hype up the next FAD product (diet pills/live chat/gambling/betting etc) and do everything they can to get people to sign up.
The issue with this is that whilst it "works", it's NOT sustainable over the long term, and leaves many people HATING the hyperbolic tactics used to trick them into buying things they didn't need.
The level at which you're able to provide insight, solutions or underlying benefits to a particular audience is how much they'll reward you with revenue. The only way to do this is to forget yourself and identify a "service" through which you're able to determine the
Affiliate PRICE COMPARISON Sites
The most important thing to consider regard to how "affiliate" sites work is that there are pretty-much 3 types of site you can create (each varying in difficulty):
Content Sites (pure content sites focused on providing specific articles to solve problems for people who may be searching through Google etc)
Community Sites (blogs etc - typically focused on provision of lifestyle-centric solutions // content, connectivity, etc)
Product Sites (focused either on the reviewing of products, discussion of products or dissection of products/industry news)
Now, the key to all of this is that the effectiveness of each of the above is generally measured by how deep your relationship becomes with the reader/buyer. This is the secret ingredient where "SOCIAL" comes in.
In terms of why this is important - it's vital to appreciate that if you're looking to start earning money online, one of the SIMPLEST ways to go about it is to deal with products which are *ALREADY* selling. This used to be done by creating "review" websites and trying to get them ranked on Google.
Whilst this worked, the big problem was that 1) the sites themselves were very "THIN" (had no real resonance) 2) relied on a SINGLE source of traffic (mostly Google).
Without the MASSIVE draw of Google, the majority of "review" sites would never receive traffic. People used them because they had no other choice... but with the "social" web (Trustpilot / Yelp / Twitter / FB / YouTube), the majority of people now have a CHOICE as to where to find information about products they may wish to buy - meaning that if you want to "capture" any of this HUGE amount of traffic, you need to offer a compelling reason for people to actually look at what you're producing. This is where "price comparison" affiliate sites come in.
Price comparison sites have been around for a LONG time - if you've ever bought insurance, personal finance, real estate, flights, hotels or various other packages online - you'll have likely used websites which essentially "tailor" the product results to the criteria you submit. THIS (partly) is what price comparison functionality is about -- giving people the opportunity to discern EXACTLY which products, prices and suppliers would be best for them.
This functionality lies at the crucible of what I've been working towards, in regard "affiliate" price comparison sites...
Putting VENDORS & PRODUCTS First
The "new" affiliate price comparison model is actually very simple...
Create a website with a CORE focus on the most EFFECTIVE solutions in an industry... and then track their prices from *ALL* vendors
The way it works is very similar to many of the previous "affiliate" systems we've used in the past (review sites) - except the core point of value is that you give the consumer a complete overview of what the "best" products are for a particular problem / issue / solution.
You cut out the hearsay & speculation (no one wants to hear your life story - they really just care about themselves) - you begin to cultivate a "following" through the likes of social media.
If you don't provide a service, or are looking at doing something to earn money on the side - working with the PROMOTION of PRODUCTS online is one of the most effective things you can do. However, to do it effectively takes MORE than just putting up some one-sided "review" about the features of a product which *may* be effective. You need to appreciate the *depth* that you can imbue into the service. This is what the new "price comparison" model does.
The "new" price comparison sites that I've been working with the past couple of years are centered around the provision of a single SERVICE through which users are able to experience exactly what they want without having to trawl through masses of text to get it.
Simply, you provide users with a central "system" through which they're able to identify the "best" products in a market, and see their historic prices across a large number of vendors. These prices can be gleaned from either native API integrations, or just from "web scraping" (essentially how Google gets all of its data). Whilst this has already been done 1,000's of time before - the problem with *MOST* "price comparison" sites is that is all they offer.
What we found was that when you combine an effective service - the ability to actually delve deeply into someone's desires & resolve them - with the ability to match their requirements against products that actually work - you have a resource that many people end up wanting to use. If you're able to blend this with a decent "social" presence, you'll be able to operate in any "market" with authority and gravitas.
Getting In Front Of The "Right" Traffic
To summarize - the BIGGEST problem for people starting in business is a lack of footfall / traffic / throughput.
Whilst this isn't a problem for the "smart" ones who build a business step-by-step over time, it *is* an issue for those without any real direction (end up jumping from project to project).
The absolute key to making any sort of "business" work (both offline and online) is to get in front of the "right" traffic.
To do this, you basically need to flip the problem on its head and focus on creating "content" which you share on a variety of platforms (Google / Twitter / FB / YouTube etc) through which people are able to come and visit your "site" to gain insight on the further steps they can take to deal with what you have/know.
The way to do this most effectively is to show what you can DO on the "social" web (if you "review" products - actually go out of your way to video the results of how the products work)... after doing that, you need to then create some sort of resource which is so potent that they will actually want to click through and consider what you have to say.
The best way for this to be done is to create a compelling "resource" through which the readers gain access to information they will NEVER get anywhere else. This is done primarily by creating an effective service through which people are able to identify the products and vendors whom they wish to deal with. If you do this effectively, you'll earn revenue by virtue of anyone who buys the products that you recommend on your site.
Want to increase your affiliate earning but don't know how to? Well, you are in the right place as the following tips will boost your affiliate earning to the next level.
Do not be afraid to mention things that you do not like about a given product or service. Rather than lose any points for you, this will make your recommendation more realistic and will tend to increase your credibility.
Furthermore, if your visitors are really interested in what you are offering, they will be more than delighted to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how the product will benefit them.
When you are recommending a certain product, there are some things to remember on how to make it work effectively and for your advantage. Sound like the true and leading expert in your field.
Remember this simple equation: Price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your visitors feel and believe that you are an expert in your niche, they are more inclined to making that purchase. On the other hand, if you are not exuding any confidence and self-assurance in endorsing your products, they will probably feel that same way and will go in search of another product or service which is more believable.
How do you establish this aura of expertise? By offering unique and new solutions they would not get anywhere else. Show proof that what you are promoting works as promised. Display prominent testimonials and endorsements from respected and known personalities, in related fields of course.
Avoid hype at all costs. It is better to sound low key and confident, than to scream and seek attention. Besides, you would not want to sound unprofessional and have that thinking stick to your potential customers and clients, now would you? Best to appear cool and self-assured at the same time.
And remember; prospects are not stupid. They are actually turning to experts and may already know the things that you know. If you backup your claims with hard facts and data, they would gladly put down hundreds, or even thousands worth of money to your promotions. But if you don't, they are smart enough to try and look at your competitors and what they are offering.
While recommending a product, it is also important that you give out promotional freebies. People are already familiar with the concept of offering freebies to promoting your own products. But very few people do this to promote affiliate products. Try to offer freebies that can promote or even have some information about your products or services.
Before you add recommendations to you product, it is given that you should try and test the product and support. Do not run the risk of promoting junk products and services. Just think how long it took you to build credibility and trust among your visitors. All that will take to destroy it is one big mistake on your part.
If possible, have recommendations of products that you have 100% confidence in. Test the product support before you begin to ensure that the people you are referring it to would not be left high and dry when a problem suddenly arouse.
One of the more important ways of increasing affiliate marketing bottom line and sale is through the use of product recommendations. Many marketers know that this is one of the most effective ways in promoting a certain product.
If the customers or visitors trust you enough, then they will definitely trust your recommendations. Be very careful in using this approach, though. If you start promoting everything by recommendation, your credibility will actually wear thin. This is seen especially when recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit.
Have a look at your affiliate market and look at the strategies you are using. You may not be focusing on the recommendations that your products need to have. You plan of action is sometimes not the only thing that is making your program works.
Try product recommendation and be among those few who have proven its worth.
Charlie Alexander is a freelance professional writer for multiple companies and websites. He is an expert on topics like marketing, business, writing, making money, and more.
To make money online don't have to create, own or stock your own product. You can direct potential customers to websites already selling products that have been created by other people and if somebody buys the product following your referral to that website, the product owner will pay you a commission.
The product owner also organizes the customer payment, delivery and fulfillment of the product. This is called affiliate marketing and it's your job as an affiliate to connect prospective customers with products or services that they're looking to buy.
Before you start to look for products you can sell, you have to determine your target audience or niche. What problems do the audience in your chosen niche want to resolve? The affiliate products you promote should offer the solutions they're looking for. You can find a huge number of products to sell from affiliate marketing companies like Amazon, CJAffiliate, ClickBank and JVZoo.
Start Small
You won't make hundreds of thousands in a single day. Start small and keep improving your online reputation. Develop and provide high-value content on your website and social media. There are affiliate programs that do not require a website, but your own website makes it possible for you to concentrate on being authentic so that you come across as being reliable and professional.
Build An Email List
Concentrate on developing an email list of prospective customers from your website and social media accounts. You can send emails to your list whenever you want. This is the most effective way you'll have people buying the products and services you recommend.
Treat It Like A Business
Even if you only work it part-time you need to treat it like a real business and not something you play around with. It's okay to play around at the beginning to see if it's right for you and it's a good way to learn. But eventually, if you want to create a real online business you'll have to treat it that way.
Think 'Telling' Not 'Selling'
Be helpful, friendly and care about the things you promote. Look at it as more about 'telling' rather than 'selling'. When you put it in the perspective of helping people find what they need or want, you take the strain off yourself to be continuously selling. This will allow your efforts to flow from genuineness rather than looking overeager in trying to make money.
Companies are happy to pay commissions to people just like you, in return for selling their products and services. You have the potential to make a great income when you choose the right niche, stay committed, and understand your audience. For a no-nonsense, kick-start guide to getting started, download my free checklist, Affiliate Marketing For Beginners at https://jonallo.com/affiliatechecklist
As the year 2018 has started it makes sense that in this new year what could be the biggest social media changes that can be expected.
Typically, the world of social media has witnessed a continuous growth in technology and innovation. Every day some new innovations are seen, or new announcements are heard.
So, let's discuss the prospective trends that can follow in this year and ways in which the social media managers can plan for these changes.
1.Continuous growth in the Live video content.
Recently Facebook announced some changes to its News Feed algorithm that will change itself based on the type of content users that shifting from the user's friends and families to the type of content or pages which the user's followers. This further implies that it is going to initiate an intensive discussion among the users as they share a content in their own private network.
2. Messaging apps will be an important mode of communication.
Today there are various messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat etc. Almost 4 billion people use these kinds of messaging Apps to communicate with the each other. These kinds of Apps provide a much faster and easier way to contact people. In fact, using messaging for customer service is more far more scale and lesser to cost especially for businesses and customer services.
3. Virtual reality on the rise of better marketing experiences.
In the era of Artificial Intelligence Virtual Reality is making the headlines. With its unique features, it creates a memorable experience unlike other mediums in the field of marketing. In fact, due to this brand are instantly acknowledging its value.
As the development continues the voice-powered devices which are quick in responding to the verbal commands are heavily dependent on Artificial Intelligence. As we can see in the market that some voice controlled for personal help are being built into a few devices that we use such as smart speakers, TVs etc.
The other innovation where Artificial Intelligence plays an important role is in autonomous vehicle technology continues to progress. Based on this technology, it is apparent that voice activation will be certainly used for the self-driving cars too. As these kinds of vehicles will be equipped with voice-powered capabilities that will allow the drivers to execute other functions like making phone calls without taking your hands away from the steering.
5. A boom in Live Streaming
There will be an outgrowth of Live streaming and we are going to see a lot more to it. The presence of Live Streaming will increase as it works. For instance, through this technology, we get an upgrade in the phones every day.
6. Online Hangouts will be the order of the Day
The online hangouts are trending fast with the Generation Z which believes in more of socializing and partying. In fact, Online Hangouts goes hand in hand with the VR.
7. Influencer Marketing will be at the Focal point in the Social Media Engagement
The influence of marketing is a Big business with a billion-dollar riding on it. In fact, there are many people mint money up to 6 figures through influencer marketing.
It has a huge impact on the millennials in making their career choices and kind of choices they make in everyday life such as the kinds of products they want to buy.
8. Making stories with Instagram
From a marketing standpoint, the Instagram stories will have a lot of relevance as compared to another marketing platform. There is a flood of Instagram stories which accounts for almost 10,000 followers.
There are endless ways you can reach your audience, there is no secret formula as such. Applying the 80-20 rule should always be an integral part of your social media marketing strategy. In short it means 80% of your content should be engagement oriented which gives something valuable to read to your viewers and engage them in conversations or participation and only 20% should be dedicated for your business promotion.
It is necessary to establish the fact that people come to social media platforms for social interactions and not to read your sales pitch! Social media marketing is more inclined to building relationships, trust and authority online rather than annoying your audience with repeated sales pitch.
80% Content - informative & interactive:
This part of the marketing strategy mainly aims at sharing good content related to your business. Simply put, look over for the content that interests your audience and share the same across various social networking platforms. Think about re-tweets, re-sharing posts, links to reviews, inspirational quotes, greetings, polls, trivia & contests and other such engagement oriented ideas. If confused how to come up with such posts, do as listed below:
Follow top influencers in your industry, watch their posts, tweets and design your own or probably re-share them as a good piece of information.
Share your own interesting facts, content amongst your own page followers and get them engaging.
Make your content reach out to your influencers and try to connect them.
Organize trivia, competition and award the winners which compels the audience to engage in the activity and gain confidence in your brand.
20% self promotion:
While working on this section, include information which "benefits" your audience by providing discounts, special offers with a call to action button leading to your website which will enable them to learn more about your services/products. Publish your products/services advantages, reviews, testimonials, specifications and all other information you need to keep your reputation.
The bottom line:
If a brand focuses too much on its sales and irritates the audience on social network with non stop sales pitch is sure to drive away visitors and referrals. Audience will simply jump in and out of your social media page without even landing on your website (traffic to your website is the sole motive of any marketing strategy). Give your audience what they want to read at regular intervals and you shall see a spike in your brand's followers and authority and maintain a consistent social media presence.
Nowadays there is huge competition prevailing in the online marketplaces. Thus, it has become very important to improve your online sales process and provide a better user-friendly experience. However, you will need effective tips to connect with your potential customers on your social media channels. By using the right plan, you can improve the experience of your visitors and create more sales.
1. Use messaging services to offer excellent sales support
You must focus on providing sales support by using native chatting within every social network. By using conversational e-commerce you can use the messaging services that will help you to personalize, automate and customize your communication. These messaging apps have become great go-to-choices for many customers. It helps them to directly interact with companies as these apps have increased engagement and retention rates.
So, if you aren't using messaging apps to automate confirmations and for selling, you're losing a big social e-commerce opportunity. However, make sure to be careful while using automated chat apps such as Facebook Messenger Bots.
2. Analyse conversations about your brand and services
When it comes to participating in conversations with your customer's social media is the most effective tool. However, the continuous attack by customers make it difficult to determine the useful information. Thus, keeping an eye on your users online activities will help you to understand the confusing situations. You will be able to generate more leads and create effective marketing strategies.
Brand listening is the skills of developing important insights by analysing your clients' conversations about your services, brand, and competitors. However, you will need to need to focus on more than simply monitoring your official social media accounts.
3. Encourage your users to share their personal experience
There is no doubt that the success of every social media is not based how much they talk about themselves. Instead, it depends on how much their customers talk about their services and brand. Thus, you must provide your customers an option to share their experience before, during and after making a purchase.
A recent evidence has shown that 1 out of 3 Facebook user has first shared, liked and commented the product prior to purchasing it.
4. Provide easy and quick buying options on your social channels
These days we can see a great expansion in retail sales that are driven by social channels. In these channels buying buttons play a major role in generating more sales. With the help of the buy buttons your clients can make smooth and secure purchases from within the social networks. This reduces the need to follow a multi-step process and limit it to a single click sale process.
5. Feature User-generated content (UGC)
The content that is created and shared by your customers, followers and fans on social channels also generate content - User-generated content (UGC). They either create it instinctively or through other options like giveaways or contests. Curating UGC's work effectively for e-commerce businesses. Usually, people who see UGC are 97% more likely to buy your services, according to Business Insider.
The content generated in the form of images by the customers also work effectively. In fact, 77% of online shoppers choose Instagram pictures when they were to make a choice between UGC (like images posted on Instagram's) and professional images (given on the pages of product description). When you use authentic pictures it works as a social proof, enhance your ad performance, attract high-intent visitors from Instagram to product pages and improve on-site conversion rates.
6. Develop seasonal and business-related content
Almost all eCommerce businesses create effective business-related according to the seasonal calendar. They perform very well in generating sales, creating special offers, incentives and emails. They also outdo at stocking their social channels with announcements about all related seasonal e-commerce activities.
Nearly all businesses using social streams are hard pressed to create social-friendly content. As users are more knowledgeable and they avoid generic stock images. According to a Chute Digi day Study over 70% of users find it at least two times more effective to use pictures than only written content alone.
However, the problem arises when a web owner is not able to hire a professional designer. In that case, you can consider using Buffer's Pablo, which offers more than 600,000 royalty-free photos to choose from. On the other hand, if you need pictures for graphics and infographics, using Venn gage will be a great option. It offers hundreds of design templates to generate detailed images quickly. These templates are usually are categorized into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. So, you can choose pictures according to your level of expertise.
Media companies, entertainment firms, and IT organizations to some extent, are literally getting more and more distraught in the modern era. It is because of the Digital Transformation factor, which they are being forced to consider. More specifically, the Information, Media and Entertainment (IME) channels are totally watchful of the current situation and are playing a safe game.
Generating quality content is not just enough. Remember that it requires a lot of efforts to produce top-notch content after a lot of research. Why not take financial advantage of the situation by publishing the content generated and earning revenue from it through the best available subscription plans.
Multidimensional content that is ultra-rich in quality besides being effective and informative with a faster reach will have maximum impact. Creating the initial impressions in the minds of the readers ahead of the rest gives your company the competitive advantage that is quintessential. The below-mentioned tools are ideal and helpful in this regard.
Every customer will have a definitive objective as far as their content requirement is considered. Leveraging the content and matching it with the operational aspects of the corresponding businesses will be highly effective. The focus should be on creating different content strategies fitting in a single framework yields best results.
A centralized editorial system is your platform for creating content. However, you cannot go on producing content in a context where reusability plays a huge role. A single piece of content could be considered across platforms helping you to gain more traffic.
Maximize Your Technology
Going digital is not an easy task to manage as it requires to consider multiple domains with respect to technology. It is possible to drive increased user engagement as bots take care of a majority of your requirements resulting in a comprehensive automated experience.
Revamp Your Market
Reconsidering a business decision from a new perspective will play a huge role in your future growth. It should not be forgotten that business trends constantly impact current market situation. Hence, it is a must for business processes to scale up and obtain maximum savings.
If you have any questions about the different marketing services or just don't know where exactly to start, reach out to Aptiva Corp for a consultation.
Whether you're running a large or small business, one of the things that can effects your success is getting your brand and voice right. If you're in a sector that's very competitive, it's vital that you know how to make your brand stand out and what you can do in order to get the most from your advertising and marketing, consumers and business in general.
Appeal To People's Feelings
People like it when they feel they can relate to somebody or something. This means showing the human side of your brand. If you're a one-person business then that might mean showing your personality. If you're a bigger organization, you can still add emotion and character to what you do.
Tell An Interesting Story
To make your customers more interested and engaged in your business, tell them an interesting story. It could be something to which people can easily relate, or you might want to tell a story that really pulls at the heartstrings and makes your brand and voice memorable. Despite the fact that people might not think of you as the most successful company in the world, they'll be able to remember you, and that can often be much more important
What Are The Strengths of Your Business?
Think about the strong points lie within your business. For instance, you might not sell the lowest priced type of your product or service when compared to your competitors, but perhaps you offer the best support to your customers. Or maybe you really shine in explaining things in a simple and easy-to-understand way. No matter what your strengths are, use them in your branding.
Product Differentiation
A strong brand can quickly be seen as distinctive from its competition. Know where to be competitive, whether or not it's on cost, support, or some other key elements. Be very clear on precisely what advantages your business provides over other businesses and communicate these elements in your marketing messages.
Be Consistent
You want your audience to see to your brand across multiple channels. Your brand needs to deliver them with the same basic message and experience. If your brand is different on social media than it is in your email messages, the end result is confusion. Confusion drives people away. That's not your objective. Consistency builds brands.
Show Your Passion
The joy and focus that your passion brings your product and service will support your business during both bad and good times. Your passion will also enable you and your team to provide top-notch customer care and continued product and service development.
There are billions of people who are using internet for professional purposes. It is called online reputation management. No matter what field of work you are in, online content is powerful in making and marring the image of a person. Though no specific rules define professional behavior online but it is advisable to follow some basic steps in order to look more like an expert and less like an amateur. Here is a guide to help you put your best foot forward on the Web-
The best stands out
The internet does not filter out items you don't want other people to see. If somebody key in your name into Google then it will deliver the most relevant results. So, load the web with professional content that reflects well on your name.
Maintain your reputation
Your privacy and reputation should be taken care of. This process is time consuming but try to dedicate some time to find out and remove dubious content. For e.g. If your friend an objectionable photo on Facebook, try and remove the tag yourself. Make sure, no questionable content should be available related to you on web. Though it is virtually impossible to entirely remove the content once published online but your best option is to keep negative materials from ever hitting the web at the first place.
Protect personal information
Protecting password and other vital information is of supreme importance on the web. If anyone gets access to your account, it may ruin things beyond repair. People get victims of identity theft, sometimes financial resources get stolen and other times computers are hacked. So, the password should not be easy-to-guess thing. Keep on monitoring all accounts on daily basis.
Branding is must
Maintaining online reputation is not just being safe about your data but think of your online reputation as a product that needs to be marketed continuously. Creating a business fan page on Facebook, joining professional sites like LinkedIn, writing a blog are some of the effective ways to manage your professional presence. It will be great if colleagues and clients review your services or goods. Honest reviews are powerful. Never forget smart web surfers can quickly spot fake reviews. Try to be consistent with messages and profiles. While writing content, make sure you use the same logos, slogan and even fonts. When anybody offers criticism, respond amicably and figure out the solution to solve the problem.
Cash your expertise
It is important to be online to pump up your reputation in unlimited ways. There is no better way to present yourself as a well-rounded, trustworthy professional than blogging about a topic that interest you. This initiative will help you establish as an expert on a relevant subject. Even you are not among world's top experts but putting a thought and value into online content is always appreciated.
The internet memory is accurate
Internet never forgets. If you put write anything online, it is there forever. So be cautious and vigilant what you are feeding it. Not everyone is happy with the internet's long memory but your vigilance is your best protection.
Reshali Balasubramaniam
Head of HR, HR Counselor and adviser at https://jobpal.lk and EFutureTech Systems. Submit your resume online and be contacted by prospective employers.
Reaching our goals helps us to believe in ourselves and setting goals is a great way to fuel our ambitions. It isn't just about creating a plan for our success in life, it's also to give us the inspiration we need to reach out and reap more than we ever thought possible. Goals focus our acquiring of knowledge and help us to set our time and resources in an order to get the very best for our situations.
In this article we'll discuss:
Guidance in your niche selection
What are niche goal projections and outcomes?
Are you busy or productive
Ninja productivity hack revealed
Video - Goal projections and outcomes
Guidance in your niche selection
What do you like to do? What are your habits, hobbies, or passions? There are a number of niche choices within any main topic when you break it down.
An example could be Baseball which is a very broad term with lots of competition. If we break that down there are many niche selections to choose from within that keyword: baseball teams, major or minor league, kids, uniforms, statistics, jerseys, caps, equipment, collectables, magazines, etc.
All of these baseball niche can be fine selections to build a website around and can be quite profitable. I have an entrepreneur friend that has a number of sites, one of which is a website about football snack helmets, which has been doing well for a few years now.
Niche - The topic or category that you've chosen for your site.
Goal - The end result that you are seeking.
Projection - An estimation of when the end result will occur,
for example:
First commission sale within 30 days.
>>>>By writing an article per day for 30 days.
First page ranking with my targeted keyword within 30 days.
>>>>By writing posts three times a week for four weeks, with each having an internal link to my targeted keyword page.
What exactly are you going to do to reach your goal? Or what are you willing to give up in exchange for the desired goal? Maybe turn off the TV for a few hours each day, or trade in some wasted time for, that same time being spent to reach your goals.
The law of sowing and reaping
There is a time for sowing and a time for reaping. The time spent sowing, or creating the business can be for years depending on the project and the desired result. Once the sowing time is up, the reaping time can start and be indefinite.
There are many tasks that need to be done with any set goal and each one takes time and effort to complete. I've heard that "excellence is a commitment to completion", so we need to be good finishers of each task and reach our goals.
The time spent sowing can be less depending on the effort given to it. If we sow little we will reap little also. If we are building a website and posting to it once a week it will take quite a while longer to reach our goals of filling it up with quality content, as opposed to posting 3-4 times per week.
Are you busy or productive?
The definition for:
Busy - actively involved in doing something, or having a lot of things to do.
Are we busy doing many things without a proper order or timely, continuous task completion?
Example: spending hours on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and also additional hours on other things without making posting quality content for our viewers our #1 priority.
It's easy at times to get involved or over-involved in a project that ends up taking a lot more time than we thought but aside from that we'll be more productive and reach our goals quicker if we properly structure our time and always make posting fresh quality content a priority.
Create clear niche images
We need to do some internal and external research and visually see some other website businesses within our niche. This will give a look at how the other niche sites are presenting themselves and their products. The internal research is making a list, over a couple or few days, of things that we love to do, or what are we passionate about. It's best to select a niche that you would like to spend a lot of time and energy on, not one that you'll get bored with or become disinterested with. We can also choose to create a nice affiliate website setup to inform about and promote products, or have a non-profit or personal site (.org). Many website owners have multiple sites.
Create a vision board
Do you have any wall space at home to devote to a vision board? They're great to increase motivation and energize your efforts as you pursue goals.
Take a nice area of wall space and fill it up with goal related images and headlines and pictures that inspire every time you look at it. See, visualize, and feel the goal being reached as you look at the board and are inspired to move forward and achieve. Keep on adding and replacing inspiring images and text to keep it fresh, in sight and also in your mind.
Websites like Pinterest are great for creating vision boards and one can create as many boards as they want for fun, or to keep private.
Ninja Productivity Tip
I guess it doesn't matter what type of business that you are promoting but all have dozens of tasks that need to be done continually and properly. Many have multiple internet businesses and always have a list of things that need to be done asap. Well here's a great tip I've used and recommend to you.
Plan ahead and:
Remove all distractions or find a place where you can be uninterrupted.
Choose only one thing to focus on completely for an hour and set a timer.
Stop when the timer goes off and leave it for the next time. Don't think about it anymore.
Take a short walk or take a non-sitting break, unless you've been using a standing desk. Lying flat on your back might feel good too.
Start the next task and repeat the process.
If a little more than 60 minutes is needed go ahead and finish the task before taking a break. If it needs much more time to complete put it away until next time. After you've powered through a focused hour and taken a break to refresh, you can set the timer for another 60 minutes and continue where you left off or move to another task.
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If your marketing efforts are failing over and over again, check to see if you have too many projects in mid-air with none of them paying your bills.
Never attempt to build a lot of AdSense websites, e-books, software, member sites... at the same time!
The only approach to get the desired income accomplished and become successful in your 'on-line' life will be to concentrate on one area, a single niche and one particular method before switching to the next 'opportunity'.
Whatever your ultimate goal is, you are not going to have much (if any) progress when you are juggling five or ten different projects!
'You absolutely must concentrate on one particular thing'!
Quit thinking like this: 'This project is actually 95% finished... now I can also work on this different idea and come back and finish up the remaining 5%!
The truth is, when you find yourself totally into the next project, it will take you forever to get back to completing the earlier one.
You need to concentrate on accomplishing one thing and doing it to the best of your ability, then automate that project before you proceed to the next idea when the initially project is actually 100% complete!
Creating a checklist will help you concentrate on some level, but you may well still become seriously unfocused.
Why won't the checklist work?
Simply because the record you have created will normally have a mixture of numerous projects, ideas and therefore it does not work.
Whenever you are considering the purchase of a cool new product, program, e-book, etc.
Or maybe considering the beginning of a new venture, simply ask yourself,
'Does this move me nearer to things I want or perhaps away from it'?
The answer to that question will tell you what you need to know!
Then you will make the right decision on a purchase or change of focus.
When you have reached a decision as to what you should be doing to 'Improve Your Online Marketing Success', you will become more focused, and you will be able to find a lot of the tasks you have been postponing completed, which will help you to stay motivated.
Joyce is a freelance writer, who writes for several quality web sites on an array of subjects.
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In this digital age, the importance of data to a business/website should never be underestimated. In fact, without proper tracking of website traffic, a business is literally lost, especially when it comes to how to optimize the website and make full use of it.
Whether your website is run in the form of a personal blog, news portal, business or corporate page, ecommerce store, Google Analytics is considered an essential tool for every website. The more you use this highly powerful Google tool, the bigger advantage you have.
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. You can create goals and conversion tracking to get the most of your analytics information and use it to improve your website's content, user experience and optimization for better online sales.
Out of so many features in Google Analytics, I think the ability to identify the Source / Medium to your website is one of the best website tools. Based on the data shown, you can find out if your marketing efforts have been paid off or not. This can provide a solid reference for your next decision making in enhancing your website performance.
Google Data Studio
Trust me, for beginners, you might be overwhelmed by all the amount of data shown in Google Analytics. To be frank, sometimes you just need a simple report with chart, graph or pie to summarize the performance of your website.
Here is a free tool from Google called Google Data Studio, which gives you everything you need to turn your analytics data into informative, easy-to-understand reports through data visualization.
Analytics has always been a challenge for digital marketing, however, Google Data Studio allows you to create customizable data visualization and report. Besides, you can even share with your clients - a huge plus especially if you are working in a big group.
Quick tip: You can check out Google Data Studio Gallery to duplicate their samples and modify to your website use. After that you will be able to change and edit the metric according to your needs. Quite amazing, right?
Google Search Console
Previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, now rebranded to Google Search Console, this free web service is designed for webmasters. It allows you to check the indexing status and optimize the visibility of your websites.
This free tool is a MUST for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The power to track your site's search performance is the most precious data to understand what the audiences want for your site.
Once the website is tracked by Google, you'll be able to view your organic search results right alongside the performance statistics for the organic search queries. This information helps you better understand how paid text ads and organic search results work together. If you analyse deeply enough, you will find many opportunities like identify relevant search queries that have low organic traffic volume and target these keywords in Google AdWords. This will increase your overall traffic, tailored to the objective of your website.
Google My Business
Are you operating a brick and mortar business? If you are, this free tools from Google is one of the most local SEO strategies to strengthen your website. Google My Business is a powerful tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, like Google Search and Google Maps.
As smartphone penetration in Malaysia approaching 100% by 2018, the majority of Malaysians are using smartphones for navigation, searching for instant answers or browsing social media platforms. Your business and brand need to be found online with the correct information.
Make sure all the listed information is correct, up-to-date and reflect your business. Remember, those info will appear when people search for your office or physical store via Waze or Google Map. We often see some of the business hasn't updated their address, phone number and business hours to the latest. Wish to gain my traffic to your website?
You should try the new the features from Google My Business called "Posts". The published content will display your image and short description with call-to-action link to your intended URL. For example, blog post "Should I hide or even remove client inquiry on my Facebook?" will appear at the bottom of our business info.
Google Keyword Planner
Building a website without keyword research is exhausting and time wasting in long-term. In order to reach the right customers with the right keywords, you should use Google Keyword Planner to discover relevant keywords. Inserting those keywords into your website will ensure your content remains relevant.
*To access Keyword Planner, you need to sign in to your Google AdWords account at http://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner. Create the account is free of charge and fast.
Yes, it's completely free, you can find new keyword ideas that are relevant to your product, service and target customers. Keyword planner will show you the search volume data in historical statistics which is one of the most important key factors for your website.
Furthermore, the data from keywords ideas is a useful tool for SEO to your website. Analyse the information and turn it to your next content marketing strategy. Based on the search terms data, you should have plenty of ideas what should can be inserted to your text to make it more relevant to your audience.
Google Tag Manager
This free tool helps you update tags and code snippets on your website and mobile app quickly and easily. You can insert JavaScript and HTML tags used for tracking and analytics on websites in Tag Manager without touching the back end of the website.
Many websites do not deploy tracking function or have unreliable data collection because of messy codes injection. To solve this, we highly recommend using Google Tag Manager to consolidate and manage all your tracking codes or scripts.
The best example of using this tool is to use Facebook Ads. While more and more businesses are spending on Facebook Ads, most of them do not install Facebook Pixel into their website for conversion tracking, optimization and remarketing purposes.
Facebook Ads is already integrated with Google Tag Manager for smooth and easy installation. All you need to do just click and follow the instructions given without any need for complicated coding.
Test My Site from Think With Google
In order to rank well in mobile Google Search, your website should have fast loading speed and a mobile-optimized website. Use the Test My Site tool from Think with Google to check your website score on mobile performance. After a few minutes, you will receive recommendations on improving website performance across all devices.
Nobody wants to wait for slow websites or browse non-mobile friendly websites. The suggested time is 3 seconds from Google, which means if your site doesn't load completely within 3 seconds, most people will most probably go elsewhere.
Just insert your email address and you will obtain the detailed analysis about your website. The content of the report is simple, but provides valuable insight into how Google ranks your website speed.
The report will become a crucial reference to your webmaster or web developer to further optimize the website. If you need even more in depth report about how Google renders and indexes your website, you should use the PageSpeed Insight tool.
Google PageSpeed Insight
If you have web developers or web designers that really want to understand the factors to increase your website speed, give PageSpeed Insights Tool a try and check your score on your website's speed and optimization.
The latest version now shows the data from your First Contentful Point (FCP), the measurement when a user sees a visual response from the page. DOM Content Loaded (DCL), as well as the measurement when HTML document has been loaded and parsed.
PageSpeed Insights is handy in providing insight on how Google indexes your website differently for desktop and mobile versions.
Here are some website speed optimization tips from PageSpeed:
Avoid landing page redirects
Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold contents
Enable compression
Leverage browser caching
Minify CSS
Minify HTML
MInify JavaScript
Optimize images
Prioritize visible content
Reduce server response time
Google Trend
Wish to see the latest trends and data from Google? You can search anything via Google Trends and even narrow down to specific country or category. This tool is useful to identify latest trends or viral news in your location.
Ideally, once you identified a trend, you can craft new blog posts, new promotions or ideas that reflect the said trend.
Don't forget that you also can view the interest traffic of search terms using Google Trends.
With this, you can spot the best time to launch specific campaign. This is helpful for seasonal campaign or annual promotion because you can discover the best timing for your ad hoc digital marketing campaigns.
Google Alert
If you want to be aware of a particular topic and all the related information that bubbles up in the news, you can have them all automatically delivered to you with Google Alert and get notified every time when your keywords or phrases have new updates.
Google Alert is good for simple keyword monitoring, with updated on every mention of those keywords being sent to your email inbox for almost real time notification. Of course, you can choose the frequency at which you'll receive them - once per day, once per week or even get them as they just happen.
A useful tip when creating the Google Alert is to avoid using generic keywords but create alerts that are more unique to your website. The more precise the keywords, the more relevant are your alerts. For that, you should utilize the search filters wherever possible, such as languages, region or sources.
Summary
So, that's it, above are the 10 must-have free Google tools to improve the performance of your website. Make full use of all tools from analysis, research or monitoring to achieve the objective of your site.
What are your favourite tools from Google? Do you know any other Google tools that we should cover? Let us know in the comments below!
Original post if from https://www.exabytes.digital/blog/10-must-free-google-tools-websites-2018. Feel free to contact me anytime. Hope you learn something new from my list to improve your website.
