Exploring Avenues for Your Online Business
So you’ve been wondering how to make money online. You’ve heard about people starting businesses and running them from social media and websites. Some claim to be pulling in some decent bank. Could you?
Can someone really make six or even seven figures a year running a business almost exclusively online? The answer is yes... but the real question, whether YOU can be someone who does this, remains to be seen. If you’re up for the challenge, give it a go.
Everyone has to start somewhere, and even if you pull a few thousand from your first attempt, it will be a learning experience that changes you. Plus, you’ll have more money than you did before!
You’ll have lots of different factor at working to determine whether your online business will be a success. First, what do you consider a success? The measure of this is more than just the amount of sales you pull in. Many other factors will balance out the equation.
These include...
• How much capital will you invest up front?
• How much time will you invest?
• Will you juggle this endeavor along with a full-time or part-time other job?
• Will you partner up as a joint venture, or be a solopreneur?
• Will you sell services, digital products, physical products, or a combo of all?
• Do you already know your way around web based, tech-based business? Or are you starting from scratch?
• Do you already post content to a niche that you now plan to sell products for?
• Will you create all of the related content from scratch, buy some, hire experts to create it for you, or something else?
• If you fail at first, will you keep going?
• Do you intend to sell just one product? Or will you develop a full product line with services to match?
• How quickly do you learn from mistakes?
• How willing are you to try something new or deviate from the original plan?
• If your business grows slowly, are you willing to pace yourself to that slow growth?
• If your business grows very quickly, will you be prepared to sustain the momentum?
These and many more questions will be answered in due time. But even if you barely hit 10K your first year in business for yourself, you still have the opportunity to expand over future years.You can do this by perfecting what works well, nixing what doesn’t, and implementing the systems, teams and processes that mean success for your enterprise.
If you’re still up for creating a business or offering freelance services online, then let’s move ahead to the next step. Let’s match your talent, skill and willingness to learn, to the opportunities before you. There’s never been a better time to customengineer an online business or freelance career, at your own pace and from the comfort of home... or wherever you happen to be.
Ready to explore your options? Let’s go.
Create and Run an E-commerce Store: Make Your Money
Moves
Creating and running an E-commerce store is a great way to make money
online. The hardest part is getting started. You have the vision in your mind. You can hear the chaching of online orders coming in. But yet there’s so much advice out there. Where to begin?
The best way to tackle a money-making scheme of creating your own e-commerce store is to have 1. a vision, and 2. a list of first steps to work from. Each of these will definitely have its own process that you’ll delve into with some amount of detail. In the beginning, you’ll be doing a good amount of research, and trying new things. With the essentials in front of you, you can make sure you’re doing everything in order without missing something important.
Creating and running an e-commerce store involves the following:
• Choosing the right products to market and sell
• Setting up your store’s payment processing and shipping process
• Ensuring your store is optimized for search engine visibility
• Preparing everything you’ll need for social media promotion.
Fortunately, with a little bit of knowledge and effort, you can create and manage an e-commerce store that will generate a steady stream of income and provide customers with a convenient shopping experience.
Choose Your Products
The first step in creating and running an e-commerce store is to decide what products you want to sell.
What are some examples?
Apparel. Pet products. Gardening supplies. Crafting kits. Hats. Sporting goods. What are you into? You can go in any direction with this, but if you’re new to the game you should probably start simple. What do you know, love and can you handle?
Things to think about as you develop your product line:
What’s my niche?
Think of your product in terms of a niche that you love to talk about, and could share endless knowledge of. So if fitness and wellness are your jam, you might
consider listing exercise equipment, workout clothing, exercise videos and such.
Who am I marketing to?
Having a clear vision of your perfect customer will help you narrow down your product line. If we’re talking about apparel for instance; this is rather broad. Maybe you prefer to market to women. And maybe you want to start simple, with some shirts.
So what kinds of women will be your perfect customer? What types of shirts would they want to purchase? It might help to create a full profile of your perfect customer.
Ask yourself these questions before settling on a few basic products (in this case, shirts):
• What’s her budget?
• What type or style of apparel would she typically have a need for?
• What’s her personality like?
• What are her values?
• What is her preferred color scheme?
• What sense of humor does she have, if any?
• What does she love the most?
• What’s her “personal slogan”? (or a few of them)
• What times of year/ occasions will she most likely buy for?
• What is her price range for the type of merch you’re offering?
• What kinds of deals would she bite for?
Once you’ve narrowed down what you plan to sell and have a few prototypes in mind, you can move forward with your plan to stock the first supply. You can either choose to sell products you already have in inventory, or you can source products from other suppliers. If sourcing products from other suppliers, it’s important to ensure that you select reliable suppliers who can provide high-quality products at competitive prices.
Ways to do this:
• Do a little research homework and see who other people use.
• Spy on a few different supply companies to see what types of reviews they get.
• Ask around the e-commerce network online to see which companies other people recommend, and why.
You should also consider the shipping and delivery times, as well as any other costs associated with each product.
Set Up Your Online Store: Essential Steps
Once you have chosen your products, it’s time to set up your store. This involves choosing the right platform to host your store on the web. The more reputable the platform, the better chance you’ll have of coming away with happy customers and a good amount of sales.
E-Commerce Platforms to Try:
• Shopify
• BigCommerce
• WooCommerce (WordPress plugin that integrates with your blog or website)
• 3D Cart
• Etsy
• Amazon
• Squarespace
• Salesforce
• Wix
Your storefront should be based off a website that you own and have access to the control panel. For this, you must choose a web hosting provider and create a domain name.
If using a platform like Shopify, you don’t have to make a website right away. Shopify lets you name your store and then tack on their domain name to the end of the URL.
So if your company name was possibly going to be Fred’s Bagels, your shopify storefront might look like this: fredsbagels. shopify.com.
Later, once you decide whether you’re headed in the right direction with your e-commerce adventures, you can lock it in with an actual domain name and website.
Once you’ve selected your platform and hosting provider, you will need to set up your store so people can purchase items there.
This involves the following tasks:
• Add product descriptions.
• Decide on options to include in drop-down selections -like type of shirt, color, size, men’s or women’s etc.
• Set inventory numbers. Some e-commerce platforms have the ability to stop accepting orders once stock runs out.
• Set up payment and shipping options. You might have a specific platform you’d like to use - such as PayPal.
• Configure taxes and other settings
• Set up affiliate commissions if you plan to grow your sales via affiliates.
How to Search Engine Optimize Your Online Store & Attract Buyers
Who Want What you Sell
Optimize your store for search engine visibility. This involves adding search-friendly page titles, meta descriptions, and content for keywords related to your products. You should also ensure that your store is mobilefriendly and that it loads quickly. Test if your online
store is easy to navigate and that customers will be able to find what they need without getting lost or going in loops.
Optimize Your Website for Conversion
Optimize your website for conversion. To do
this, live the customer experience. Below find a few pointers:
• Make sure your store easy to navigate. Round up a few website testers who can provide feedback on how their user experience played out.
• List out the basic steps to help your customer get from a to z.
• Provide helpful information at each step of the checkout process.
• Add trust signals such as customer reviews and ratings, to reassure customers that they are making the right purchase.
Check for the following, and correct as you go:
Does the walk-through of your online store present logically?
Does each step (click here, learn more, sign up, go here, check out) move the customer forward to the next step with no glitches or getting stuck in loops?
Do all buttons and links send the customer where he or she needs to be next?
What happens if the customer closes a window, exes out something or hits the back button?
Does the message on each page explain clearly what the customer must do next to complete the action or place the order?
Are emails arriving in the inbox? Does the content clarify and spur on the next needed action?
Have you made sure to tell customers to check their email?
Did you remind customers to add you to their safe senders list?
Did you present a clear explanation of what to do and who to contact if there’s a problem with the order?
Does the checkout process work? Does payment go through? For this you’ll want to actually have a tester (friend or someone you hire) order each of your products to be sure everything works.
Make sure the message that you include with all of your automated emails is clear, relays the correct info, and contains no spelling or grammatical errors.
Promote Your Store
Once you’ve optimized your store for conversion, it’s time to promote it. Many newbies to e-commerce think that after your store is up, you can stop there, and orders will just start coming. This is not the case.
Promoting offers is a big
part of online selling success. This involves setting up a social media presence and engaging customers through content, such as blog posts and videos.
Here’s how to take a promotional approach.
Select one product and create an offer around that product. The offer should have a start and end date and include details that are easy to understand.
Example: you’re selling an anti-aging eye cream. So you want to introduce the product by:
• Explaining what it is and how it works.
• Sharing the ingredients and telling what each one does.
• Showing before and after photos from customers who have used the product to a successful end.
• Publishing positive words about the product, from customers who had a good outcome after using it.
Once you’ve painted a clear picture of what this is, what it’s good for, how it works and who
should use it, you want to present an offer and create a sense of urgency.
To do this, list the regular price. Then explain the special offer that people will want to take immediate action on so they can get this product into their hands.
Some common types of offers:
• Introductory pricing such as X percent or dollars off (with start and end date)
• Buy one, get one free or half price
• Buy in bulk and receive a discount
• Refer five friends, get yours free or half price
• Get this product free when you order a bigger package
• Try Before You Buy sample order (with a few follow-up emails prompting them to order the bigger size)
Organize messages, images, and any video content you’d like to develop to explain the product and promote the offer.
Decide which platforms you’d like to post to. For this you must set up each account and attend to all
the necessary details. Have your branding at the front of mind when you do this. This is about your brand and who you’re trying to attract.
Use the video platforms to drive traffic to your email list. List-building and email marketing will be the biggest moneymaker. People will likely need repeat contact before they feel like they know you and are ready to buy.
Note: you can also share links to your videos as part of your email marketing. This will give you the opportunity to share your message in a variety of ways, in addition to and in lieu of, writing everything down.
Once you get the hang of creating and promoting a single product for a single span of time, you can bring influencers and affiliates in to increase visibility.
Monitor Your Store
Once you have set
up, optimized, and promoted your store, it’s important to monitor it. This involves tracking metrics, such as page views, sales, website traffic, and customer satisfaction. Keep an eye on your competitors and adjust your strategy accordingly. Adjust your prices and promotions to be sure you’re generating the maximum amount of revenue from each customer.
Creating and running an e-commerce store takes time, effort and lots of trial and error before you get it right. Start small, explore different methods, and find out what works.
In time, you’ll create a store that generates a steady stream of income and provides customers with a great shopping experience.
Seriously Strategic Social Media Tips
Does the idea of selling on social media really interest you? Maybe you’ve already launched a social media campaign. Or maybe you’re doing your due diligence now before taking the plunge. With so much happening on Facebook in particular at all times, you may wonder how to create a viable strategy for your business.
Plenty of detail goes into this. Your particular plan of action will depend on the type of business that you run, and the specific audience you’re trying to reach. Let’s jump in right now with a set of questions to help you set goals. Use these as a starting point for your social media marketing effort.
What is your purpose in using social media?
There are many different answers to this question. Yours won’t be the same as another person’s or another company’s answer. In business, most people would answer “to generate sales...” but in order to do
that we need to go a little deeper. Take a look at your company values and mission to get clear on your purpose. Your purpose will be the underlying reason for why you choose to share certain messages in certain ways, on your social media pages and in your groups.
What
is your timeline for achieving your projected social media goals?
A timeline is a good jumping point because making a goal timely means you’re more likely to set mini goals and take forward steps to achieve what you want to do. Don’t get caught up in a pass-or-fail mindset. If you project that it will take you 12 months to reach a goal but you end up only halfway there, then extend the goal.
The point of this is to set and track your forward momentum. Later, you’ll know how much time it takes to accomplish a certain thing using social media. So the next goal you set will be more accurately timed.
What type of content will you post, and from where will you source it?
You will definitely need content if you’re going to be posting on social media. Right from the beginning, you should have a good idea of where that content will come from. Having a source of content will ensure that you don’t tap out within a few weeks or months of getting started.
Content publishing on the social media networks is quite timeconsuming. You’ll have more success, and be more consistent about content publishing, if you plan ahead. Think about the following: What messages will you share and when? What types of media will you choose to communicate from? How often will you post? How detailed will
your post be? What will your SEO (search engine optimization) strategy consist of? What will your strategy be for building a following?
Most people want to generate funds on social media. But you have a few preliminary steps to reach before you can do that. One of the first steps is to build a following. To be successful at that, you need to offer something of value that people will want to share.
How to figure out what your audience values? You could research other businesses in your industry and see what they offer. You could join relevant social media groups, observe the conversations and ask questions. You could send out a survey.
Getting Thousands of Eyes on Your Social Media Posts
There is a short way and a long way to get a lot of views on a particular social media post.
• The short way is by joining a lot of relevant groups, and posting to those groups.
• The long way is by
building a following slowly over time.
The short way begets the long way. It’s a snowball momentum effect. In the beginning, you’ll have to work hard to be seen. Once you’ve reached a substantial number of followers, your social media reach will grow with far less work.
Joining social media groups is a way to build your authority in a niche. The types of social media groups that you join should ideally join will be determined by what you offer and where your audience is typically found.
Local groups are very different from special interest groups. If you intend to do business locally, and you want to have an immediate impact, join a whole bunch of local groups in neighboring towns.
How will you know which groups are important to join? It depends on the area you serve. If you serve a wide range, then join all of the groups where you would hope to attract clients.
If you only serve a small
area, your impact will be within a shorter radius. Worried that you only serve a small area? Don’t be. Just because your target is more refined doesn’t mean you can’t hit hard with a message and reach the people that want what you have. You could be a company serving a small number of clients spread out all over the map. Or you could be a company serving many clients within a small area.
The more people who like and follow your page who are also relevant as potential customers, the bigger reach and stronger impact you’ll have with your perfect target audience.
Timing Your Social Media Posts for Maximum Impact
Timing is key in the world of social media. It is true that anybody could be looking at anything you share online from anywhere in the world at any time of day or night. However, if your business or organization is location-specific, then time applies to the relevance of what you share because exposure will be greatest during
peak hours for your physical area.
A local business who seeks to reach a local audience should post during the normal business hours when people would be looking and clicking.
It’s also helpful to think of social media as experiencing surges of activity over the course of the day. Ideas for how to use this to your advantage:
Show up first thing in the morning to reach the early risers.
Lots of people check in on social media at the start of their day. And yes, the rumors are true... many happen to be using the facilities at this time.
Most social media users won’t act on your posts, meaning reach out to you as a client or sign up for your event, at this moment. But that’s okay because your morning posts will plant the seeds for when they check in later on in the day. Later, they’ll have more time to follow up and take action on whatever interests them.
The next surge of social media check-ins could be close to lunch time. (You’ll get eyes on your posts and visitors to your page at any time of day... but there are definite surges and midday is one of them.)
Afternoon is not a great time for your audience to take action. At this time, people might be doing things like finishing up work projects and
To catch the morning crew’s attention, prepare your posts in advance. Then make a quick task of logging in, posting and getting out.
tasks; chauffeuring kids around after school, or commuting home from jobs.
Post-dinner is probably the next-best time for people to see your posts and either perform an action that you want them to do (like sign up); or make a plan to engage with your company on another day.
Time is Wonky on Social Media. This is Why Lead Capture by Email is Critical
Wondering how relevant timing of your social media posts is to your business success? Timing factors in, but there are other problems.
You’ve probably experienced the common issue of seeing an announcement from a local business about a day or two after the event has concluded. “We’re running a cookie sale!” (but it was yesterday). This is due to some kind of time-lapse phenomenon on social media which doesn’t lend itself well to running time-sensitive events and promotions.
What is the reason for not
seeing the post until after the fact?
It could be that the news isn’t showing in your feed in a timely fashion based on what you’re normally reading and what the site thinks you want to see. It could be that you’re not logging on and checking in to social media at the time when these updates are broadcast.
Reasons for why social media functions the way it does can be across the board. That said: if you know that other companies’ posts aren’t reaching you in a timely fashion, then if you’re posting on your own business page, your own social media followers might not be getting the news on time, either. What to do about this? Start collecting email addresses.
How
to Capture Leads and Get Them from Social Media to Your Email
Signup Form
Being able to send a mass email will result in bettertimed announcements that create positive action from customers such as showing up, signing up, and participating in what you offer.
How to capture email addresses from your social media pages:
Step 1: Sign up for an email list manager such as Aweber, Mail Chimp or ConvertKit
Step 2: Log in, set up and create your list.
Step 3: Add a sign-up form.
Some social media sites like Facebook give the option to copy and paste form code onto your page. Or, they give you button code to configure with your own link to a page where people can sign up and get on your list.
Another way to get signups via social media: Post relevant content to your social media page. Add a call to action and link to your landing page with email signup, in the body of the post.
The Ultimate Goal of Social Media Posting No Matter What Your Business
There is an ultimate goal for posting on social media that applies to every business, every organization and every
individual that posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the other networks with a purpose.
Every time you post new info or share something on your page or in your social media group, you want to have an action in mind for users to take after reading your message.
Remember the goal EACH time you prepare to post on social media.
Newbies to social media marketing assume that the simple act of posting SOMETHING on your business page is enough. They think that if they post a meme with a funny or compelling caption and hashtag, that will work to bring action from their perfect customer.
It is true that some people might see what you shared on social media, keep you in mind, and then seek you out later of their own accord. But you really must remember that social media is a very busy place and full of distractions.
People are only partially paying attention while
surfing around. Someone could mentally be only halfway focused on your carefully crafted post.
To understand your social media followers, step into their user experience... Let’s try to imagine what the user experience is really like for those who may seek you out as a business.
A person could have a specific need to research whatever it is that you offer. They could seek and find you, deem you worthy of paying
attention to... and then get distracted and completely forget the name of your business.
For this reason, it is really important to drive traffic on every single post with the goal of leading the visitor SOMEPLACE. You MUST direct traffic each time you post.
Even if they don’t take the step now... even if they don’t take action, you want to tell them what to do and then you want to give them a destination. Because later, they might
come back if they were impressed enough at what they saw.
When they come back and find your post, that means they’re READY. So you must have an action in mind that you want them to take.
1. Tell them what to do (issue the call to action).
2. Give them a destination (your link or contact info to call/ email.)
Expert Tips on Posting on Social Media
What To Do as a Newbie to Social Media Marketing
Are you new to social media? Did you start a business page, but now you’re not sure what to post or how to drive traffic and business?
Here’s a good rule of thumb if you are not sure what approach to take to your new social media venture. Always go back to the questions that a newbie to your industry would have.
Your best bet for establishing your authority is to post valuable information. Of course, not everyone reads. But those who are interested will read, and become your customers... which is the whole point.
The good news is that you won’t lose the non-readers in this new, post-pandemic generation of social media marketing. Instead, you have the option to keep those types of learners by continuing to post written information... AND, you also have the opportunity to attract non-readers with different forms of media - like video and images.
What kind of content can you post? Videos, short reels, memes, etc. But if you aren’t ready for audio-visual content, then just focus on creating written information and getting it out there as a way to establish yourself.
A good plan of action: keep a swipe file. Stash a swipe file of questions that your target audience would have. Google docs is super useful for this purpose because it’s totally portable. Each day, select a question and then take some time to answer it. Post your Q&A on your social media page. Or post it on your blog or website, then drive traffic from your social media to your website, and collect email addresses from there.
But what if you don’t like to write, or don’t have time?
If you’re busy in other aspects of your business then there are other ways to obtain informational,
written content of this nature.
• You can hire a freelancer to write it for you.
• You can purchase articles with private label rights.
How to choose a really good writer to create content for you:
• Don’t just go for the lowest bidder. There are a lot of really bad writers out there. Bland content won’t get you the engagement and results you want.
• Choose someone with a strong writing voice that matches your niche. Ask for samples.
• Offer a long-term contract. You’ll pay a lower rate if your writer knows she can rely on you for steady business.
How to tune up prewritten content for your social media posting:
If you choose to purchase PLR content,
you’ll want to inject some life into the content you buy. A lot of junk circulates the internet. You don’t want to be associated with weakly written drivel. Instead you want to differentiate yourself.
For this, you must really engage. Turn a lackluster piece of content into something compelling and intriguing. To do that, just take a few moments to insert your own ideas and inject an authoritative voice into the piece.
Typically what you’ll find from PLR content writers is bland, factual content that often does not contain a lot of detail or specifics.
The content might lack a particular hook or angle.
If yours is a company or organization immersed in strong values, then when you grab content like this you want to inject your point of view and position into the
content to make it your own.
Social Media Favors Local Businesses. So How Can You Target Locally as a Freelancer?
Social media favors local business pages. This means townspecific, brick-andmortar businesses, and virtual businesses that target customers within a specific locale.
If you run an online business that serves customers virtually and globally, you may have difficulty getting your posts approved and seen on local groups.
This is because the people who run local groups are part of the community. Unless you are enmeshed within the community, they might view your business solicitations as spammy. The problem is that you are seen as an outsider.
Target special interest groups
If you’re having a conflict between global and local marketing on social media, it may be time to reassess. Refine your target audience.
If yours is a global audience, meaning if you offer remote services for people anywhere in the world, then you’re really going to want to target special interest groups that match what you offer.
The challenge with this is that you will have lots of competition on these groups. How you handle this really can factor in to your success. Some tips:
Focus on the most commonly used keywords
Create online business friendly products that can either be shipped as physical products, or emailed as digital products (information and advice).
Localize your approach
If you’re in a local group
and your purpose is to capture business from local clients, then you should localize in your approach. That means that if you have one website that you reached the world with, you might want to actually have another website, or another business page, that shares local information and targets local business.
Your local page could look very different from the page or the website where you target for a global reach. And that is okay.
True success on the web is based on the ability to niche down. Hard targeting converts bigger percentage of sales to a smaller audience.
Taking a more generic approach attracts a wider audience with more diverse needs and interests, but a smaller percentage of sales from that slice of the market.
Take Action and Never Give Up
Krista Mashore is an entrepreneur, author, coach and real estate agent. She has been in the real estate industry for over 20 years. In her coaching business, she focuses on teaching others how to get started in real estate and how to sell high-ticket. Krista shared advice on how to be successful and inspires others by reminding them that anyone can achieve their goals with enough determination.
Dennis Postema: What initiated your entrepreneurial journey?
Krista Mashore: I was thrown into it. It wasn’t something I’d planned. I was a teacher before getting into the entrepreneurial world and had an unfortunate situation happen with my then-husband, so I threw myself into real estate to make ends meet. I had to take care of my daughters.
Dennis: Did the market look different when you got into real estate than it does now?
Krista: Yes. Back then, the internet was there, but
not like it is now. Social media barely existed, and videos weren’t so pervasive. Myspace came into play 10 years after I was a real estate agent. I was still using the Thomas Guide to find out about my properties.
Dennis: Do you think technology has improved or worsened the real estate industry?
Krista: I think it’s better this way. People don’t realize it, but they need real estate agents now more than ever, especially with everything happening around the National Association of Realtors, Multiple Listing Service databases, and new regulations coming into play.
People bash real estate agents, but it’s a complex transaction. You deal with so many parties. I think it’s good because people have more information at their fingertips. Buyers can conduct more research on different neighborhoods and much more.
you used to be able to and give them more exposure, locally and beyond. I would never be my own financial planner, dentist or tax consultant. Why people think they can manage being their own real estate agent is beyond me. They lost a substantial amount of money. Trust me—both sides need an agent.
Dennis: Tell us about your businesses.
Krista: I run a few businesses. I have a business coaching real estate agents and lenders, and I have an EXP organization. I have 750 agents underneath me through EXP.
You can market your properties better than
Additionally, I have a business called The Proven Model where I teach people how to monetize their experience and expertise, and I show them how to scale and sell high-ticket offers. I help people who are ready to leave the workforce and share their knowledge and people who want to become an expert or a coach learn how to scale.
Dennis: Which business is most personally fulfilling to you?
Krista: I like it all. I love working with real estate agents because I did it for so long and I can make a difference. But I love entrepreneurs because I can help them make an impact on a larger scale. I want to help the world, and I can’t do it alone, so when I help others do it, they can assist their people. I want to reach the masses. I love that.
Dennis: What access do you offer to your real estate agents?
Krista: All the agents working under me are independent, but there are different levels through EXP. I have people at the front end bringing others that have more access to them in addition to extra support. I meet with my agents every Monday. We have a call where I hype them up and talk about innovations and ideas. I also hold several calls per week with my coaching students, either with me or my team. I hold two three-day events every month, one for Realtors
and lenders, and one for aspiring coaches and consultants.
Dennis: What advice would you give to someone interested in building a career in real estate?
Krista: This sounds cliché, but you need help. You need a coach or a mentor. Real estate is one of the most lucrative industries, but it is extremely competitive and harder than you think. They don’t teach you anything about running a business or how to be a real estate agent after you receive your license.
Hire a more experienced agent. They’ll show you how to stand out from the crowd, how to market yourself, and they’ll give you the tools you need to convert. It’s unbelievable, but no one knows what to do first, so of course it’s difficult. You’re given a license and people say, “Go sell,” and you’re like, “What do I do?” I’m creating a course to give to sellers and buyers to position themselves as the authority. We teach them to write books and we give them a book. It’s
huge. One of my biggest sales into high ticket was my book. I push my students to write a book. Do it. Create a funnel for yourself by tapping into narrow niches and specific neighborhoods. Make yourself stand out; that is what people are looking for. It’s easy to position yourself as the authority when you’re doing things that your peers aren’t doing.
Less than 1% of the population are authors. When you’re an author, it elevates your authority. People see you as more. When others see you as an authority figure, they’re more comfortable taking advice from you and doing what you tell them, listening to you, and accepting your advice and feedback. There are many ways to position yourself as an authority in your industry, and having a unique differentiator is important, especially in a competitive industry.
Dennis: How did your first book impact your marketing plan and improve your authority?
Krista: I wrote a book on
short sales when I was a real estate agent. That book, along with other things, helped me land thirteen different asset management companies and banks, and I sold all their foreclosures.
When I went into real estate coaching, I hired a New York Times bestselling editor to help me write more.
They say the lifetime of a book is about five years. I’ve been writing them for over six years now. Recently, I had a meeting with my team, and my salesperson said, “Krista, people still talk about your book Sell 100+ Homes a Year, and they love it because it’s still relevant.”
We hand that book out at events. We used to use it to help agents sell. They’d read the book, jump on a sales call, and we’d sell them a coaching program for anywhere between $18,000 and $25,000. It still works.
Ten years ago, I was at a seminar. An author was doing a presentation onstage, and when he
finished, he sold his books outside. People lined up to purchase his books and ask for his autograph. I was one of them. I felt starstruck. You see authors as authorities, but there’s a caveat: Their work must be well done. It cannot be some ghost-written crappy book you slap your name on. If a book isn’t well done, it can harm you. Hire people to help you make it good.
Dennis: Tell us about your most recent book.
Krista: I finished writing a book titled Top Producer Secrets. I talked to real estate experts from across the United States who have used my strategies, and they’ve expanded upon them and improved on them. They detailed their processes in the book.
I finished drafting another book for experts, coaches and consultants, teaching them how to start an online information knowledgebased business. I’m editing it right now. I have written eight books in total.
Dennis: What were your mentors like when you became a real estate agent?
Krista: I have spent just shy of $1.6 million on my own personal coaches, experts and consultants in the past six and a half years.
When I started, I found experts outside of the real estate industry quickly. I did well in real estate because I was always trying to be different. When I got my license, I thought, “What is working for other agents? How can I emulate it and improve it? What are other agents missing?” I looked at what people in unrelated industries were doing and thought, “I could use that for real estate.”
Becoming a marketer was crucial to my success. Getting exposure and attention on myself and my properties was the key. It’s underutilized and undertaught in the industry. People are only taught to do one-on-one marketing, like holding open houses, cold calling, door knocking, but what really helps is learning
how to spread the word and market to many people at once.
Dennis: What advice would you give to somebody wanting to sell high-ticket?
Krista: I believe people don’t see themselves as experts. It doesn’t necessarily need to be in business, but have something you know you’re an expert in. Maybe you’ve gone through something traumatic. You got divorced, learned how to get through it and came out on top.
I was a top 1% real estate agent for 19 years in a row. I knew how to do it. I was good at it. Coaching was the next logical step for my career. In real estate, there is so much to learn about marketing. You really need help. My $1.6 million investment has all gone into hiring people to help me over the past six years. I will hire somebody who is the best in the world at whatever I’m trying to learn. I’ve done it with TikTok, YouTube, funnel builders, sales and copy, and more.
You don’t need to spend $1.6 million, but when you’re starting something, you’ll lose $1.6 million down the line if you don’t invest something. Hire help. You need guidance.
Be careful about who you hire. “Those who can’t do, teach,” is a common phrase for a reason. Many people are teachers because they couldn’t get the work done well enough themselves. Make sure you hire someone that has proven experience and achievements in their field.
In Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon talks about how a mastermind takes the skills, knowledge, experience, money, time, investment and the network of someone else. When you mastermind, you are saving years’ worth of time. By hiring the right mentors and being in the right rooms, I have a company that has made $64 million in six years. There is an expert in every topic if you search for one. It makes such a difference.
I’m not trying to sell anything, so take this for what it’s worth: You’re going to pay either way. You’re going to pay for the coach, or you’re going to pay for the lack of one for the rest of your life. People say they can’t afford a coach. What are you talking about?
People go to college to learn skills, and many graduates never end up using the skills they learned. Figure out what you want to be proficient at and hire an expert. Hire an expert to help you spend the money, or you’ll be spending the money for the rest of your life regardless. Same thing goes for those who say, “I don’t have the time.” If you don’t have the time now, you’ll never have it. You have to create that time. I’m passionate about it because I will tell you it’s been everything.
Six years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined making the money I make now. It took 14 years for me to make $1.8 million as a real estate agent. When I got into the coaching business, it took me
11 months to make $1 million. There was probably no profit in that million. No one tells you that.
When you’re starting out, it costs money to make money. You’ll lose a lot.
Three months later, another $1 million. Two months later, another $1 million. We’ve had ups and downs in between. It’s been a good ride, but I invested time, energy, resources and money to get here.
Dennis: How important is networking and how has it helped you?
Krista: Networking is huge. It’s one of the success principles Napoleon Hill talks about in Think and Grow Rich.
I’ll give you an example of a mastermind team: One of my mentors, Russell Brunson, took over 10 years to get in front of Tony Robbins. He was on what you call Dream 100, where you have people that you want to associate with because they have the list you want or you feel you can
mutually benefit from connecting with them. Russell Brunson sent a weird gift, and Tony Robbins was like, “Who’s this guy?”
And then he said, “Hey, let me build you a funnel for free.”
I joined Russell’s mastermind, and I had an opportunity. I was asked by Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi to do this launch, but they didn’t know who I was. Their team reached out to me for a contest where the winners got to go do a three-day mastermind with Tony and Dean. I asked Russell if I should do it. He said, “I would spend a million dollars just to be in a room with Tony.”
Two years in a row I entered this contest and placed top 10. I was in the room with Tony. What took Russell 10 years took me only six months, and I did it two years in a row. I won a place in his private mastermind with 14 other people.
I got that opportunity because I invested in the
right mentor, got in the right rooms, and took my mentor’s advice.
I was terrified of doing that challenge. I thought, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to lose. I’m going to waste all this money,” and I did. I lost money the month I won because I was promoting them and trying to win, but by winning, I got to speak onstage. They had over a million people registered for this.
In October I taught a training session on selling courses and high-ticket to their mastermind members.
By knowing the right people, you can collapse years’ worth of money and time. This would never have happened had I not been in the right room.
Dennis: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Krista: Anything’s possible. I have a crazy background. Anything is possible.
What makes successful people stand out is that
they aren’t afraid to fail, they start things quicker, and they take action.
I have a sign on my wall that says, “Do it now!”
That’s there to remind me to do things quickly. Successful people are relentless. They don’t give up. That sounds cliché. Everyone tells you the same things because what they’re saying is true. You have to start, you have to fail, and you can’t take failure as a warning sign that you shouldn’t be doing it. You need to be resilient and
give things the required time and dedication. It always takes longer than we want it to. It always costs more money, more energy, more resources. It’s like, “What the heck?” But that’s how it is.
Keep going. You’ll get there. Nothing is special about successful people. They’re relentless in their pursuit of growth and getting what they want.
Research says successful people take action before having all the answers. If they make 10 decisions, six of those
might have been bad decisions, but they made four good decisions. In the meantime, someone else hasn’t made any decisions because they’re still thinking. The successful person is four times ahead and they’re working on their next 10 decisions.
To learn more, find Krista Mashore on Instagram, @kristamashore. To attend one of her events, look online for the Million Dollar Month Model. Krista’s website is kristamashore.com.
The Social Media Impact
How to Gain a Social Media Following
There are different ways of looking at your social media audience. Generally you’ll hear the advice to start by making your friends like your page. Some initial likes will bump you up invisibility. A few hundred and gradually a thousand likes will definitely pull more eyes onto your page. Search engine love follows.
However, if you have a large following of friends and family then having them all like your page might not be the ideal way to generate actual business. Why? Because although your friends and family generally have the most love for you, in most cases, they are probably not always the people who are going to buy from you.
It’s true that friends and family make a good word of mouth referral for your business. But only if they possess the level of awareness that keeps them understanding how important this is to you. Many people are caught up in their own things on social media. You could be posting your heart out and your family and friends could be liking and sharing away. But unless you specifically tell them, “please spread the word,” they’re probably not going to do it.
Most people need to be told what to do on social media. Maybe they’re not thinking, or maybe they are thinking that there’s a reason why you’re not ready for a share (there well could be). So don’t be afraid to assert yourself when it’s time.
If you need family and friends to help get the word out about specific services that you’re offering, give them an action to take.
How to Attract Warm-toHot Business Prospects on Social Media
Do you want to know how to attract warm-tohot prospects on social media that are not your family and friends, but actual people who will likely buy from you? This is about targeting. The key to successful targeting on social media is to get known in your niche as an expert and authority. To do this, you want to post high value content. This cannot be more important. Low value content is vague, wishy-washy, sloppy, inconsistent, laden with errors, off-topic, uninspiring.
High value content:
• Makes people think
• Tells a compelling story
• Evokes emotion
• Inspires action
• Shares wisdom
• Teaches something new
• Offers great advice
• Inspires positive change
This is the type of content that you want to keep putting out there on social media and sharing with the world. But how are you going to target? That all depends on the types of keywords that you choose for your hashtags.
What are hashtags?
They’re a logic based tool for categorizing web content by topic.
The good thing about hashtags is they help you get found in your niche by people who are looking. The bad thing about hashtags is that they set you right along side of your competition.
This is sort of inevitable and it happens in the real world, but the nature of the internet makes this a very obvious fact.
The more you target using certain keywords the more you’re going to see exactly who is doing what you do and how they do it. Of course, there are more pros and cons.
One of the pros is that if you’re just getting started in online in business, you could learn a lot by finding out who your
competitors are simply by clicking on the hashtags and seeing what other people are doing and how it’s working for them.
You can decide to do something similar as they’re doing. Or you can observe that whatever they’re doing is not working out well... and you can decide to take an different approach even though your content exists within the same category of interest. Hashtags show you what’s trending. Hashtags are handy in that you get to see what is trending online, and what phrases people use in their web searches.
So let’s say for example you are a thrift shop. You want some keywords that will differentiate you in the thrift shop category. So you hit the pound key otherwise known as the hash key, and then you start typing the word “thrift”. Different words come up like “thrift shop,” “thrifty,” and other combinations. Some words may come up that you wouldn’t have normally used, like “#poppingtags” . This is actually really handy. Choosing the EXACT
words people use to search, will help you reach the people who want what you have.
Global Versus Local Hashtags in Your Social Media Marketing
An important thing about hashtags is that they can be local or they can be global. We talked about how the two types of (global versus local on social media) should be approached in different ways.
Hashtags are a good example of this. If you’re a local business and you really only want to focus on driving local customers then you may not really need all of those fancy hashtags that describe what you do. Instead you’re going to want to localize with your keyboard words by typing hashtags and the different cities and towns that you want to reach. What does it mean to go global on social media anyway?
It means that you have a website where you are selling either digital or physical products to people all over the world. So it could be mail order or it could be information
products delivered by email. But that’s what makes it global as opposed to a brick and mortar business who is serving a local group of customers that all live in one area or section of the map. If you’re global, you want to be strategic about the keywords you choose in your targeting. Let’s use the example of slow smoked BBQ. Local customers will behave differently, and take action on different things, than global customers. Your local clientele might show up to actually order slow cooked barbecue from you.
Your global clientele might purchase online recipe books for download, or they might order physical products that you sell, or physical products at other people sell, such as smokers, grilling implements etc, that share your link. So if you’ve chosen to go global on social media, you would really want to know all of the trending keywords that people are using out there that relate to slow smoked BBQ. Example, “slow and low” could be one and you could use a hashtag to help classify your biz as part of this niche.
Using Social Media to Drive Traffic and Business
Social media is a feed. It is basically a news feed that lives on a single page. Many people do not understand the difference between a website and a web page. On social media, you have a page. Just one web page. Because there’s only one page, the content shows up as a feed. The most recent news shows up on top at the top. You have to keep on scrolling to see older posts. The more you scroll and the lower you go on the page, the older the news.
If you have a business website, it’s not called a page. A website is a group of associated web pages all linked together.
Picture a pyramid. At the point of the pyramid is the homepage of your website. The next level of pages is About, Services, Products, Testimonials, Contact and whatever else you choose to be in your main navigation. These are called static pages. Again, they don’t show a feed of content.
From those static pages of your website, you would link to deep content pages such as individual articles, singlepage promotions, and other types of content. Again, this is different from a social media page because website pages are static. There’s no scroll. Many people now publish to a Blog format on their websites and use popular contact management systems such as WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix, and Weebly.
Content management systems such as these give the option of posting a news feed on
the homepage or on any page of your site where you would want one to live.
So in that case you would have posts, and an endless scroll, from any page of your website where you would want this to exist.
Now that we know the difference between your social media business PAGE, and your business SITE, let’s learn about driving business.
How does social mediawork to drive traffic to your website and get you new leads? Let’s explore the order of how this works. The first thing you should do set up your business WEBSITE. Your potential customers will expect you to have one.
Use the static pages of your website to explain who you are, what you do, who you help, and how you go about serving your customers.
Your website should be live on the web, at a domain that reflects your brand. So if you work as a dog trainer, your website URL could be doggydosanddonts.com or something like this.
Then you would create a social media business PAGE. Call the page Doggy Do’s and Don’ts. Link to your website FROM your social media page. That’s your very first action to take that will drive traffic from social media to your website.
This is the true purpose of social media. Because it’s so time-sensitive, it’s useful for configuring the feed to send people to your business site. From there, you would engage them and then capture leads. Later, you follow up. Email your list. Eventually you begin to convert sales.
To reiterate: your social media pages are the drivers of traffic that send people to your website.
This is an important goal of posting on social media. It’s why you do what you do. You don’t always have to be driving traffic to your website. But a major portion of your traffic should be driven there, because your website contains the information that people need.
A good example of a page of your website to drive traffic to, from social media, is your contact page. If you think about all the times that you are posting on social media and how the scroll takes people down and down
and down, from the most recent news to the oldest news, you’ll realize that this is not a good way to share information that is “changeable” - like your prices, or your contact info.
This is what PAGES are for. They’re static. Like a sales page, or again, your contact page. That is ONE spot where you can update ONE section of info that is important to your audience.
If you use Facebook, and type your contact info or your product info, like pricing, into every POST...
someone will show up at some time in the future, and whatever details you shared there may no longer be relevant.
So again, if you’re trying to get people to do something like sign up with a form... set up a form link on your regular website. Then, when you share on social media you can issue a call to action and then share the form link right in your post. This will take people from your social media post to the form where they would then fill out the information.
The Best Approach to Social Media Marketing
Setting a Content Marketing Goal for Your Social Media Business Page
Different types of social media posts will have different types of goals. Depending on what industry you work in or what the goal is for your social media, have different types of posts that you share at different times.
Let’s use the cooking niche as an example. For your social media marketing plan as a cooking blogger, decide on a variety of different posts to attract different types of people. The goal of your cooking site could be to grow your list and generate income from things like recipe books, kitchen tools, cooking lessons or whatever it is that you offer.
Variety is the spice of your cooking life... and your social media life as well. If you only post videos, you will only attract people who enjoy visual learning. That means that you are missing an opportunity to sell to people who prefer to read. This is a great reason to vary the type of content that you published on social media. It’s also a good idea to vary the general approach.
Sticking with the example of the cooking website, here are some different forms of media that you can offer. Written recipes that contain lists of ingredients, instructions and tips.
Ultimately, these recipes that you share should be listed on your blog and there should be lots of wonderful pictures because food is very visual.
When it’s time to post on social media, visit your blog first. Copy the link of a post you want to share (not the main link - click on the post first, then copy the direct link to that post). Then share an opening intro about that recipe, with a picture, and a link for people to click on that takes them to your blog where they can read the recipe and learn more.
Articles
The cooking niche lends itself well to sharing basic information. You could talk about any number of topics including basics of cooking... recipes from different regions of the world... advanced cooking techniques and more.
An example of a good topic for social media sharing: tips and techniques for making homemade pasta. Topics like these are best explained when you can provide a visual, in addition to written advice.
Video Content
Again, cooking is a niche full of possibilities. So if you want to grow your audience of foodie fans, then you will definitely want to post videos.
Options include:
• Short recipe reels
• Longer, instructional videos
• Meal montages in flipbook form
• Recipe pic and ingredient slide shows set to music
• Video recipe tutorials
• Cooking techniques as a tutorial
You have all kinds of options including making slideshows that have still images, sharing lists of ingredients with matching pics. You can also share videos of yourself or your team members cooking a recipe from start to finish. You have many possibilities and directions to go in when it comes to cooking. The truth is that everybody needs to eat, and many people LOVE talking about, and cooking food!
Memes
Visual memes have become popular over the last 10 years or so. This is where you post a picture with a short amount of text and then you hashtag it for a particular set of keywords. Meme posts are rampant on social media because
they are quick to make, they get clicks, and if hash tagged properly, they could help you grow an audience very quickly.
Search engines favor images categorized in this way. In fact, if you have a social media page that you have been sharing visual memes for some time, here’s how to see if your meme marketing is working. Do an image search on Google for specific hashtags that you have used in your posts. You should see that you see your page come up based on those tags. This is why it’s important to watch what you post on social media and be very targeted in your effort. Only use keywords that apply to the people you want to attract. If you choose the wrong keywords, you’ll have people coming to your page that are not ready to buy and have probably no interest in whatever you offer.
Now that we know the different forms of media that can be shared, we can also talk about the different approaches that you can take for your social media content marketing effort. We’ll
continue with the example of a food and cooking site.
A cooking website with a matching social media page/group might put the following into their content publishing schedule:
• Cooking techniques
• Seasonal recipes
• Interviews with experts
• Product montages
• Product recommendations
• Product reviews
• Entertaining content such as short video clips set to fun music What other ways can you approach content marketing on the social media networks?
• Short & Long content
• Content that is only posted on your social media page
• Content that drives traffic to and from blog friends in your niche
• Content that drives traffic to your blog
• Content that drives traffic to your signup page
All can be a part of your social media strategy that works to get you followers and sales.
How to Write, Publish & Promote
Niche Blog Content
With so many people having made the shift from writing to video creation, the blogging world has cracked wide open. The world needs writers to keep the content and information flowing. You have endless space to share your message and make an impact on the online publishing world.
Writing a blog and monetizing it can be a great way to make some extra money and share your knowledge and talents. Whether you’re an experienced writer or just getting started, there are some basic steps you can take to get your blog off the ground and start making money.
Choose Your Topic
Decide what type of blog you want to write. What’s your passion? What subject could you talk about endlessly? What do you take pictures of, share information about with friends, or find yourself chatting about to no end at social gatherings?
Ideas for what to write and create a niche blog about:
• Your cherished hobby - like fishing, knitting, boating, scrapbooking
• Something you’ve received formal training on and could teach to otherslike yoga, making calligraphy, fixing computers, refinishing furniture
• Your profession or skilled trade - working on cars, selling houses,
catering events, fitness coaching
• A passion - like breeding rottweilers, colonial history, marathon running, collecting vinyl records, thrifting, henna art, baseball
You should also think about the audience you want to reach and what kind of content will best serve that audience.
Examples:
• If your desire is to create a knitting blog, then you’ll probably want to share lots of instructional video content to help people learn how to knit.
• Your audience of knitters will also want plenty of ideas for knitting projects and patterns to work from.
• New knitters will require step-by-step basics to get the techniques down.
• Knitters always run into problems and questions - so that’s another type of content to create a lot of.
• Every knitter will be looking for needles, patterns, yarn and supplies to purchase & use in their projects!
Your need for great content to add to your website or blog is never ending. The more you add, and the better quality information you share and organize categorically on your blog, the easier it will be for web surfers to find you on search engines. Determine your niche. Then start writing. Try to create quality content that’s informative, entertaining, and engaging.
Approach the content writing plan in the following ways:
Write a list of questions your readers might have. Make it a good, long list, with lots of possibilities to develop content that drills down deep into the subject matter.
After your list is complete, make another list of categories that your content falls under. So if your blog is about Jersey shore beach vacations, your categories might look like this:
• Beach vacation planning
• Restaurants
• Beach reviews
• Family fun
• Night life
• Entertainment
• Water rides
• Boardwalks
• Lodging
• Amusements
• Nature
Until you have your blog set up and ready to go, you’ll be storing written content on your computer or remote storage to copy and paste later. The more organized you can be about this, the better off you’ll be later on.
Ready to build a blog? Let’s take a walk on the tech side.
Select Your Hosting Platform
Choose a blog platform. There are many free platforms available, such as WordPress and Google blogs. They’re simple to use, but they do have some limitations:
• Free blog platforms may not permit you to add your Googe Adsense code to monetize your blog’s content.
• Free blog platforms may not permit you to add a sign-up form to collect email addresses.
• Free blog platforms may not give you the control you want for tweaking fine details and search engine optimizing your blog.
• The usage rules change from year to year, so things may different when you read this.
• A free blog may deliver bulky and clunky links which are more difficult for people to remember and share.
• You may not be able to add search boxes, sign-up forms or other widget-type content additions to your blog.
People who have gotten their feet wet with free blog usually end up wanting more. They come to realize that having a simple domain and clearcut features are often the way to go as a blogger.
When ready, you can opt for a premium hosting provider. This will give you more control over your blog and allow you to customize and monetize it to your liking.
Set Up Your Blog: Basics
The most popular selfmanaged blog platform is WordPress - but that’s
not the only one by far. SquareSpace, Wix and Weebly all offer decent platforms that you can learn on the fly, assuming you have some amount of technical aptitude for online posting.
To set up your blog, this is what you need to do:
• Buy a domain
• Set up web hosting
• Install a MySQL database
• Install WordPress software on the database
• Set up a login and password for you to administrate your blog
You’ll likely spend a few days tinkering around with the following:
• Choosing a theme (layout, design, colors, fonts) for your blog, and customizing the look of everything.
• Making basic pages (called static pages) of your blog.
• Creating menus of pages that people can navigate from the top (main menu) and also possibly from the sidebar or footer.
• Adding widgets to your sidebar.
• Tweaking elements
that appear differently when switching from desktop to smart phone to tablet view.
You also should add a variety of elements to help bring passive income. Don’t skip these. They will be very important to your success:
• Google Adsense ads (if you don’t have an account, open one)
• Subscriber forms from a list management program that you pay for, like Aweber (not too expensivegrowing a list means you can market to people who sign up. This is how you make sales).
• A “Shop” or Store Page that shares Amazon, Etsy and other products (tagged with your affiliate ID so you earn a percentage if someone orders)
Promote Your Blog
Once your blog is up and running, you should promote it by sharing content on a variety of intriguing topics. This is not a one-time task. You’re basically going to be adding content to your blog, shouting
it out on social media, attracting sign-ups to your list, and doing this on a repeat cycle. The idea is to blast out to the social media world by flooding the internet with great, engaging topics of interest that you speak on in detail.
Your best approach is to post content in themes. So if the holidays are coming and you run a home organization blog, your theme could be planning and prepping for the holidays, so you can relax and enjoy.
• Post every day.
• Share links to specific posts on your blog, to social media sites that you belong to.
• Collect email addresses. You may want to offer an opt-in gift as an incentive.
The process, with a bit more detail:
• Create several free and paid-for products that speak to this audience and theme.
• Each time you post a new piece of content, like an article, share a link that leads people to sign up for your list.
• Share the article on all social media platforms
you have signed up for. Use hashtags to ensure that your content is found by people who want to read more about that topic.
• Post to various social media platforms to promote your blog and gain followers.
• Follow up by emailing your subscribers. You can send them tips, limited time only offers of yours, deals from complimentary publishers in neighboring niches, and run events that you host on your social media groups.
• Email challenges and ebooks are also popular and a way to share your knowledge and teaching, affordably, as paid products.
Consider using Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to share your content and reach out to potential readers. You can also join online forums related to your blog’s topic and share content there as well.
Once you’ve built up an audience for your blog, you can start exploring ways to create passive income.
Join an ad network, such as Google AdSense, and place ads on your blog. You’ll be paid for each click or impression the ad receives.
Set up services, like coaching, consulting, or administrative services, that people can order from you via email.
Offer products, digital and/or physical products, related to your blog’s topic.
Share your link to other people’s products and services and get set up to receive referral fees and commissions.
Pay Attention to SEO
When it comes to promoting your blog,
never overlook the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It sounds odd when you first get started blogging, but the mere inclusion of certain words and phrases in all the right places of your blog, will attract people on the internet who want what you have.
It won’t happen immediately. But over time, the more highvalue content you add to your blog, and the better you get at search engine optimizing using the right keyword combos; the more links that point to your blog from the outside, the higher your blog will rise on search engine results.
SEO is the simply process of optimizing a website to increase its visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). By utilizing SEO best practices, you can ensure that your blog is seen by more readers, helping you to get more engagement and potential business.
Do Your Keyword Research
To get started with SEO, create an effective and comprehensive strategy.
This should include keyword research to uncover the terms and phrases your target audience is searching for.
Work from a posting schedule. Select topics based on popularity. Post a series of blog posts on a single topic to build your credibility and attract traffic to your blog from people who want to
know more about that topic.
You’ll also want to optimize your content and website structure for these terms. This includes optimizing your page titles, headings, meta tags, and page content.
Build your inbounding linking strategy. Share links to your blog from other, well-ranked websites, to increase your blog’s visibility.
Don’t Lose Sight of Content Creation
Once your SEO strategy is in place, you should focus on content creation. Creating highquality content that incorporates your target keywords will help you to rank higher on Search Engine Pages. Make sure that your content is relevant, engaging, and informative to your readers. You should also use keywords in your content in a natural way.
Keep up the Social Media Marketing
It’s important to use social media marketing to its full potential. This includes posting links to your blog on various
social media platforms and engaging with your followers.
Ask questions and create polls to get people talking about your blog.
Offer opportunities for guest bloggers to contribute on a topic of interest.
Take quotes from experts that you find on social media and post them in your blog articles.
Use paid social media advertising to get your blog in front of more people.
Use Analytics
Employ analytics tools to track the performance of your blog and SEO strategy. This will give you a better understanding of what is and isn’t working, so you can make adjustments as needed.
By following these steps, you can use SEO to promote your blog and reach a wider audience. With a comprehensive strategy and effective tactics, you’ll ensure that your blog is seen by more readers and gets more engagement, leading to higher revenue.
