Online Business – Page 3 – Launch Digital Freedom

Why WordPress is the Easiest Way to Build Your Website?

A website is one of the fundamental parts needed to build an online business. It is the digital space you can showcase your business, share information and news, share images and videos to demonstrate what you do. This is the new business premises. So there is no surprises when you realize that there are now almost 2 billion websites on the web. No small number. And its climbing everyday as more and more people and businesses build their digital presence.

What do you Need to Setup a Website?

A domain name. This is the name of your site. Example: launchdigitalfreedom.com
A hosting package. This is where you can place your domain to be accessible worldwide.
A website. This is the actual site you will load on to the server at the hosting provider.

Now you have a few options to create a website:

Code the website yourself from scratch.
Pay someone to code a website from scratch.
Install a Content Management System or CMS ,to create a website.
Get someone to install, setup and customize your CMS site.

Now if you are the adventurous type and have some tech-savvy skills you could take on the challenge of setting up your own website using a CMS like WordPress.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is one of the leading CMS frameworks used to setup blogs and websites.

WordPress was founded back in 2003 and its purpose was to create a user-friendly platform for people to publish their personal content. Since then it has matured into a robust content publishing system that is use on millions of sites throughout the web. According to WordPress themselves “It is also the platform of choice for over 42% of all sites across the web.”

What makes WordPress an attractive platform for building websites is its easy to install platform, available on pretty much all leading internet hosting companies. It is fairly easy to navigate for even beginners and also allows more competent developers to further customize and modify code as necessary.

If you new to website design and are looking for a way to build a blog or website, WordPress can offer you a platform to do so with even limited technical skills. Find out from your service provider if they offer basic configuration support to help you setup the basic site. Once setup you can learn more about how to setup your blog by accessing the website.

Designed Content Creators

What makes WordPress especially appealing is the easy with which you can create content. It take simply selecting a new post or page. In the old days of creating websites you would have to code in HTML to create a page on a site. WordPress takes the headache of coding away and allows you to focus on writing your content.

Adding images, animations and video is also seamless as you can simply choose to add your media and then upload it from your computer with the click of a button. Even embed YouTube videos from your YouTube channel or embed relevant videos.

WordPress Themes

One of the cool things about WordPress is its ability to change the look and feel of your entire website simply through changing the theme. This will change numerous variables including layout, fonts, colours, menu position, and many more.

You have two options for getting themes, use a freely available theme, preferably download from wordpress.org, or buy a paid theme.

Paid vs Free Themes

As with all things, you get what you pay for! For some a free theme may fit their needs. Many free themes offer limited features and require you to pay for the full set of features. If you want there are still many ways to customize a free theme. For example you can have a custom header, or featured images for each page. Often for simple sites a free them may be good enough.

If you require more robust features and would like more freedom then a paid theme will be a better choice. If you interested in finding a solid paid WordPress theme for your site, ThriveThemes offers a large variety of conversion focused WordPress themes.

WordPress Plugins

One of the advantages of WordPress is its impressive library of plugins available to add further enhancements. From analytics to design features, security and forms, you will find a massive array of options to pimp your site. And although you may be carried away to add multiple plugins, I’d suggest to keep the number of plugins to a minimum. As the more plugins that are running the more resources they need which could adversely affect your sites performance.

Google Site Kit Plugin

The Site Kit plugin is an official WordPress plugin from Google which provides insights about your site traffic and how people are finding you online. Site Kit plugs into Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Page Insights. Therefore the data that it provides is both accurate and inline with how Google is seeing your website. Its simple and easy to install and is free for use. Definitely a plugin to get loaded straight from day one.

WooCommerce

If you planning to sell products on your WordPress site then the WooCommerce plugin is without a doubt the plugin of choice. It is the world’s most popular open-source eCommerce solution and is free which means you retain full ownership of your store’s content and data forever.

WooCommerce allows you to build online retail stores which can blend your blog style site with e-Commerce like features. One of its key benefits is the availability of information for users and simplicity to implement. A worthy choice if you planning to start a business on a budget and need the tools to build your store.

Who Should Choose WordPress

If you are a absolute beginner looking to get your own website up WordPress is a great choice. It provides a simplified framework that is user-friendly to use, is opensource, widely used across the world, and is supported by a large community around the world.

What ever your take on WordPress, its a platform here to stay and only set to grow in strength.

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My Successful Affiliate Marketing Journey So Far

It’s been 8 months since purchasing the monthly Six Figure Mentors All-In-One package. Is it all it’s cracked up to be? And is it worth the money? What do I get for my $100 per month?

First off, there were two options I had right at the beginning. Utilise paid ads to generate traffic and build an email list, or SEO and Content Strategy for organic growth to build an email list. Having no space in my finances to do paid ads, I chose the slower SEO and Content Strategy. This one is long term and allows Search Engines to recognise your site as an authority over time. Eventually, the web will be recommending your site and services more often on search engines.

1. What have I learned in my spare time over the last 8 months?

How to Build a WordPress Site

After following the step-by-step tutorials, I selected my domain name, published the default site, and customised it. I did what was suggested and got it up and running. When I needed help, the six-figure mentor’s community was there to assist. With a desire to learn it, anyone can do it.

How to create a Sales Funnel

Choosing to market the SFM system, I was able to leverage a done for you sales funnel. You can see the Sales Funnel here. All I had to do was link it to my WordPress site. Then make sure it was connected to my Email marketing account (Get Your AWeber account). If you want to market your own products, there is a section on how to build sales funnels from scratch. Stuart from the SFM says just do it! It doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to work.

How to plan your marketing

Then be consistent. So, I quickly moved onto marketing. The part I probably did and still do need to most help with. Learning from the tutorials, I was able to build up my customer avatar. Now I knew exactly who I was talking to. After some research into my customer avatar, I could identify with him and knew exactly where to find him. Turns out LinkedIn! Knowing what they want, I was able to start producing targeted content for my customer. It’s what I am doing each week so far this year. The more quality content you produce, the more search engines love you!

Find out more about: The Best Ways to Learn Digital Marketing Online?

Cost-value graph made with white chalk on a blackboard.

2. What does it cost me each month?

I did not have spare cash after my initial $100 investment each month. So, I had to do all the work myself. Some of my early blogs were about lessons I would need to learn along the way to free up time and money. Blogging was hard at first, and all over the place. But going through the process allowed me to learn blogging skills as well as time and money management skills to get this business going. Not to mention SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) needed to make sure my content is noticed by web crawlers.

Through applying the money management skills I had learned, I was able to free up cash and start to outsource. I have brought in an online SEO and content specialist to do my blogging and SEO now, but my budget doesn’t feel the impact! And my blogging is much better and more consistent because of it. It frees me up to focus on the social media and email marketing part of my business. Eventually, I will outsource that too.

I have also made extra income by building websites for friends and family businesses.

My Investment So far

Although I have invested $1145 for the first half of 2021, I have cleaned up my personal expenses and it now costs me less than $100 per month.

I have not made a sale yet, but the traffic in building to my site! My 11 subscribers make me confident it’s working. And I am proud of that.

The program so far has been amazing, and I keep learning each day. There are moments where I feel completely overwhelmed, but I just remember why I am doing it. To find my own path in life.

What I get for my $100?

Site Hosting
Free Tool to build Sales Funnels
Getting Started Modules
Weekly Training (Mindset, business etc)
LinkedIn Learning Free
A community of like-minded people happy to answer my questions
Access to Content Writers
And much, much more!

I will publish another blog at the end of the year to show my progress updates again, but for the time being, I need to…

Stop Doing

Overtraining, and underdoing. The more time I spend on consuming, the less time I work on producing. The name of this game is to produce content often, and of good quality. 80% of your time needs to be spent on the things that build your business. Only 20% needs to be spent on learning.

Keep Doing

Keep outsourcing. There are so many people who are better than me at each digital marketing discipline. Just leverage them. Keep doing the things that you are good at in the business and outsource the rest.

Start Doing

Focus on Email Marketing and Social Media consistency. Once you have some followers you need to keep giving them value and offering worthwhile products and services. They want to know you are there. I am also going to utilise Social Media more effectively in the next half of the year.

Also, write more content. I will start to produce more content to complement what we already produce.

So was it, and is it all worth it?

You can probably find all this information to start an online business free on the web.

But, the bottom line is it helps to learn from the ones who have succeeded. And to be a part of a great community of people to share your successes and to help you through the tougher time. Definitely, the best investment I have made in years.

Find out more about: The Best Ways to Learn Digital Marketing Online?

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

Online Business Ideas for Stay at Home Moms

Being a mom is a twenty-four-seven, three sixty-five kinda job. The problem is you might need extra income. While you are at home you have the opportunity to pursue a part-time gig. The question is what would be the right fit for you. In this article, I will look at a few business opportunities for stay at home moms that you might want to consider that will give time to take care of your little ones.

The Digital Business Model

You want a business that you can run while taking care of your children. It needs to be flexible enough to take care of your daily responsibilities and still offer you an opportunity to work. Digital businesses offer you the platform to build services that can be run from home or anywhere. It also offers protection from the dangers of contact with the outside world. So let’s assess what would make a good business.

Flexible Work Hours

You want the flexibility to work when you have time, or once you have a gap in the day. This means you need a business that allows you to have a flexible schedule.

Minimize Contact with People

You also want a business you can minimize contact with new people. You have children and want to keep them safe from exposure to people during the pandemic.

Leverage your Passion

Passion drives us not only through good times, but through tough times. You want to be driven to succeed. And being passionate about your business is key to long-term success. Choose something that gets you up and keeps you motivated. Maintaining enthusiasm is key.

Be Purpose Driven

Having a strong purpose for your business is key to keeping you motivated and focused. Knowing what you do is important, and has purpose, will help you maintain perspective. It will help guide all your decision-making.

Find out more about: A Blueprint to Start Your Online Business Faster

Business Ideas for Stay At Home Moms

You might have experience in a specific field, like administration, sales, or technology. You could consider looking into opportunities in the field you already have experience in. Use your experience or passion to build a virtual service.

1. Administrative Business

If you have a background in Administration, you could build a business offering relevant services to businesses. You could consider offering Administrative services for clients either locally or elsewhere. Research what specific services are in demand. Once you know more about which services to promote, structure your business around these services. Focus on the high demand and lucrative ones, and offer the others as secondary.

You will be able to meet with clients through video calls and be able to submit your work to clients electronically via email or sharing of documents. A great business if this is what you enjoy.

2. Consulting Business

If you have experience in a field that could require consulting services, you could offer clients applicable services. If you have experience in managing software development teams you could offer team managers, consulting services around your expertise. If you have experience in sales you could offer organizations solutions to improve the performance of their sales teams.

Whatever your experience maybe you could offer it as a service to help customers that are struggling with problems that arise from a particular function. Assess your skills and experience and look for what problems you could help businesses solve.

This business could also be run remotely and could be a flexible option for those moms with a depth of experience in a specific field.

3. Online Teaching Business

Since the pandemic, video calls and conferencing have exploded. And its application is far and wide from private group meetings, online workshops to business meetings. This trend has also created a great opportunity for anyone wanting to start offering remote learning. If you have a teaching background or have skills you could teach, this could be a great way to put your knowledge to work.

In fact, the list of online classes is really diverse. As long as you can find students to teach, you can turn this into a business.

Here are some examples of online teaching:

Language Classes – know a language, teach other to speak it.
Fitness Classes – have a passion for fitness, help motivate and train others.
Computer Classes – have a specific technology skill, teach others how to get started.
Baby Classes – are you a passionate and experienced mom, help other moms who are struggling.
Online Tutor – Help other parents with tutoring their children.
Art Classes – Passionate about art, why not teach others how to get creative.
Music Classes – Know how to play a musical instrument, show others how to play music as a hobby.

The sky is the limit and all it takes is a skill, passion, and the right setup to start making money!

4. Sales Agent

If you have a knack for selling and have a background in sales, why not offer your services to companies struggling to get sales leads. Offer your services to businesses that can’t yet afford full-time staff, and help them expand their operation. Today more than ever with the pandemic, businesses are hesitant to employ staff unless they are certain they can afford them.

Your services would help companies grow but at a lower cost. You could work remotely and still be available for your family while earning income on the side. You could work a flexible schedule and set meetings at optimal times when everyone in the house is busy or sleeping. Draft a plan and approach businesses you think will benefit from your services. If you don’t try you’ll never know!

Learn more about : Affiliate Marketing as a Passive Income Source.

5. Promote Affiliate Products

Building a business that sells and delivers products can be a challenge. It generally requires plenty of capital and logistics. But there is an easier way! Promoting affiliate products and earning a commission.

Affiliate programs are free to join and can be set up quite quickly. Where the work lies is in marketing these products online. This could be through a blog or on social media. You could also use email to send information to potential customers. In fact, you can get quite creative in how you promote these products as long as you follow the guidelines provided by each affiliate.

Why Affiliate Marketing can be a great model:

You can work in your own time.
You don’t have to deal with customers.
You focus on educating and promoting products online.
If anyone follows a link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission.
It is highly scalable as there is no limit to how much you can sell.

Find out more about

You can do it!

If there is a will there is a way. And starting a home based business isn’t going to be a walk in the park. Find out where you can add the most value, that’s where to start! Make a list of skills and talents you have, and find at least two you could offer as a service. Do your research and find out if there is a demand for it.

Then, go for it!

Good luck!

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

A Blueprint to Start Your Online Business Faster

If you are starting out on your journey into the online business world, you might feel like you swimming in an ocean of confusion. The internet is filled with amazing content and no shortage of answers, except that you never get the information in a structured and organized way. In fact, often the content is too short and superficial. Other times the content is too technical without practical advice. If you want to get started you need the right amount of knowledge with practical advice. You want a logical path to follow so you can build a profitable online business.

So what is the alternative to random YouTube videos or endless Googling that just leads you from one rabbit hole to the next?

Save Time and A Learn Faster

One of the biggest problems that Six Figure Mentors solve, is the wasted time you spend searching for answers. Time is money. And why waste hours, days, weeks, and months trying to figure something out when you can scale your results quickly. There is a better way!

The way I started my journey into building an online business was through following their program and learning what I needed. It provided me the knowledge and the step-by-step plan to start building my business. It also saved me from the frustration of digging through piles of websites and YouTube videos to figure out where to start and how to be profitable.

The educational platform they offer is a great way to better your knowledge and skills on all things digital. It covers digital marketing to social media to web design. They offer high-quality video lessons that you can take at your own pace, with no stress. The lessons are easy to understand and you can then apply them to your business straight away!

My previous post on – Is Affiliate Marketing a Legit Way to Make Money?

Follow A Proven Formula for Success

As I’ve mentioned it offers you a clear path that is easy to follow even if you are a total novice. The goal of the program is to help you grow from a total notice to a functional business, and therefore the content is easy to digest.

As someone who has attempted to start an online venture a few times, it has helped me stay focused. This is a challenge when you don’t know everything. It is easy to wander from one thing to another. The clear set out steps has helped me move forward in a logical fashion learning what is relevant to my journey.

Is Six Figure Mentors for You?

The reason I signed up for their program was simple. I want to leave the high-stress work environment of Software Development and focus on building a business I can run from anywhere in the world.

But I needed a framework to build it. I didn’t want to have to guess or crawl around in the dark trying to figure it out on my own. I wanted to learn what I needed to, and get started sooner than later! Like many things in life, we procrastinate when we don’t have answers.

Six Figure Mentors offered me the answers I needed to get started!

So if you are ready to start your own online business, see How Six Figure Mentors Works and make your idea a reality!

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

How To Find Stock Images For Your Social Media Posts

When posting on social media or even on your blog including images is a great way to add some color to your content. People respond better to visually pleasing content than they do to heaps of words without images. It is easy enough to find and add photos to your content, so why not do it? The question is where can you find high-quality stock images to use and is free from copyright restrictions? Well, there are many websites and apps available for anyone from marketing agencies to home businesses. I list a few credible sites that you can get started with.

Copyright Permissions

One important point to consider is that images are generally subject to copyright and you can not simply download any image and use it. People forget this due to the ease with which one can download images from the web. If you are a business, be cautious and make sure you can use the images without infringing any copyright laws.

Take Your Own Photos

We all have smartphones with cameras and why not take some photos of your own to add some authentic images to your blog and social media posts. It’s free, you can quite effortlessly take photos to add some spice to your content. And these photos can be edited and you can even overlay text over them, for creating your own MEMEs.

Use Stock Images

If you are looking to add photos and images to your content the best sources are from stock photo websites. They offer vast collections of images and they offer free rights to use the images. Just remember to confirm the policy of the website you are downloading from, not all are the same!

Pixabay

Pixabay is my first resource for images, and it integrates nicely into my WordPress site. It has a vast range of over 2.5 million high-quality stock images, videos, and music, covering numerous topics. I’d definitely recommend it as a great place to start!

Rawpixel

Rawpixel prides itself on having the most diverse range of stock photos in the industry! It has made it a mission to create a library of images that best represent our society at large. They also believe in making a positive impact on the world through their (one) world face project. Both Free and Premium images are available and have what they call, boards which are basically collections of images. There is a section called Public Domain, which lists images that have a Creative Commons License.

Freerange

Freerange Stock provides high-quality stock images for free and has a community of over 750,000 users. Their site includes photos, textures, and illustrations that can be freely downloaded. They state on their site that all images are “licensed for broad commercial use without attribution”. Worth putting on your list of sites to mine for images for your posts!

Create MEMEs

MEMEs can attract attention by highlighting something with an image and text. MEMEs have taken the internet by storm as they have spread through instant messages and social media. A MEME is essentially just an image with a statement. These can help grab a viewer’s attention and increase interest in your content.

Conclusion

Images are a powerful way you can brighten up your posts on social media or on your website. They are easy to find, easy to insert into your content, and are likely to increase interest in your content! So why not add images to spice up your posts starting today!

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

How to Start an Online Business Doing What Your Love?

Last week I touched on the starting point for building an online business for parents. What we covered was how to start brainstorming ideas around finding products to sell. This is important as you need to be enthusiastic about what you are doing. If you love to learn and share what you are passionate about, then it will make it so much easier to market what you do. So if you haven’t already, go and read the article: A Guide to Starting a Home Business? Today I will be expanding on that topic and discussing how to start building a digital service.

Identify Your Skills and Experience

We all have skills and knowledge that we have gained from years of work experience. Those skills can often translate into services we can market online. A great exercise to do is to list all the skills you have. Then look for either niche services you could create that are inline with your interests and passions.

For example:

Perhaps you have experience as a teacher, and love children. Maybe you could offer teaching services for children at home to assist parents. Many parents during lock-down found it difficult to manage their children’s schooling. A remote teaching service would add so much value to parents, as this would help get their children to focus on school as it is a “School Lesson”. To provide a service like this is both feasible and also has zero health risk to their children.

You could even expand this and offer classes for groups of children, either by subject, or for students in your area that follow the same curriculum. This approach could help you reach more students and help you be more productive and ultimately more profitable.

The key is brainstorming and finding different angles to how you can add value to your customer, in this case parents with children. If you can make their lives easier, and help your students learn better, you on your way to building a first-class service!

What You Need to Get Started?

Your requirements will obviously be a strong internet connection, remote conferencing software like Zoom. A website would be a great place to organize your learning material in one place and as a showcase of your services to new prospects. At least one social media page will be a great way to market your business and connect with your students and parents.

Try to setup an office where you can work and not be disturbed or where you wont be disturbing anyone in the house. The more organized your working environment the clearer you can think and more efficient you will work.

The success of a business like this would be dependent on your determination and persistence. Your current skills, knowledge and experience will help you to get started, but if you lack any skills and knowledge, you can simply take the time to learn as you go.

To Sum Up!

Play to your strengths, find a service around what you know or are good at!
Dig into how you can offer value to your clients.
Get connected and make sure you setup the software you need.
Set aside an organized work area to focus.
Start assessing what you need to do to deliver your service.

Now spread the word.

Good Luck!

8 Social Media Platforms to Promote Your Business

If you want to promote your business on social media, you might feel overwhelmed by the number of available platforms to use. I have summarized some of the biggest platforms available at the moment. There are many more platforms that offer different user experiences. Many favour different types of media formats.

Here is a list of the most popular social media platforms to promote your business:

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social media platform with a user base of over 2.8 billion monthly active users (Statistica) and growing. For this reason, it is a powerful platform to reach huge audiences from around the world, whether you are a personal or business brand.

You can easily create various types of profiles from personal profiles, business, or public figure profiles. User groups are a way for you to expand your reach and connect with people based on common interests, professions, or other topics. If you are a business looking for a very target advertising platform, then Facebook is a worthy platform to consider as you can be very specific with your ads.

Facebook is also known as one of the best platforms for building communities, for promoting both businesses and non-profit organizations.

Instagram

Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has approximately 1 billion active monthly users (Statistica) and is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms. Instagram is primarily a visual platform where you can share images and video content. It is popular with the younger generation and is also used by many brands to build online communities around their business.

If your business or service is very visual in nature, Instagram is worth considering. If you are an artist, designer, build houses, sell products, or any profession where visually displaying what you do makes sense, consider Instagram.

Twitter

Twitter is a fast-paced social media platform that allows you to post short-form posts called tweets of 280 characters. If you have longer content you create threads where you string multiple tweets together to share longer topics. You can also share images and videos with your tweets when desired.

“As of the first quarter of 2021, Twitter had 199 million monetizable daily active users worldwide. The most-followed Twitter accounts include celebrities such as Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and former U.S. president Barack Obama.” – Statistica.

Twitter is more fast-paced than other platforms due to its short form and is widely used for posting the latest news updates like current events. It also can function well as a personal or business micro-blog.

LinkedIn is a social media platform aimed at businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals or anyone looking to grow their professional network. B2B businesses are very active on the platform and it has seen rapid growth over the past few years.

LinkedIn has over 700 million members. “It’s not the largest of the social networks, but with a specific business focus, it’s an audience worth noticing. . .” – according to Hootsuite article.

The main use of LinkedIn is to network and make connections with professionals. You can have a personal and business profile page and can also search for available jobs from anywhere in the world. LinkedIn has also become a place where professionals share knowledge, experience and advice in their fields and can be a great source of quality industry information

Tumblr

Tumblr was founded in 2007 and is another leading social media platform. As of January 2021, social network Tumblr had 327 million unique visitors worldwide, up from 347.5 million in January 2020 – Statistica.

In a nutshell, Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform for posting all kinds of written or visual posts. Many people use this platform as a way to connect with like-minded individuals, express their opinions, and discuss cultural topics.

YouTube

I don’t think anyone has not yet watched a YouTube video, in fact, Youtube videos are often shared on other social media platforms and are the undisputed leader in video sharing. Over the pandemic, Youtube saw massive increases in usage as in-person events were canceled. Many companies held live Youtube webinars and events to make up for the lockdowns that were in place.

What YouTube allows users to do is upload their videos and share them with the world. They can also like and repost videos under their channel or profile, or only select people to view content by making it private.

According to Hootsuite “YouTube has more than 2 billion logged-in monthly users” and the range of users varies from young to old, with many parents saying their children watch Youtube regularly.

Although WhatsApp is a messaging app that many people use to send messages, share pictures, documents and send voice notes. Since it was bought by Facebook the platform has introduced various features making it an even more robust communication tool.

“There are currently more than 2 billion WhatsApp users around the globe and rising (WhatsApp, 2020). With 1.5 billion in 2018 and 1 billion in 2016, this number of WhatsApp users has been increasing at half a billion every two years.” – Oberlo

Whatsapp has the option to great groups and even setup a business profile. Recently it has added the option to make calls with multiple users, which will no doubt compete with Zoom.

TikTok

TikTok has literally exploded into popularity as a video-sharing platform. It is a Chinese video-sharing platform that was launched in 2016 but has taken the world by storm. It used to only allow users to publish 60-second videos but has now extended the duration to 3 minutes due to the demand from creators.

TikTok has become incredibly popular with the younger generation but has also started being used by businesses and brands alike to create content to market their services.

Get Social

If you are looking to promote your business on social media to build awareness for what you do, consider the type of content you want to share (written, images, or video) and then select one. Many businesses feel they have to be on every social platform, this is not true. Choose one platform that best suits your needs and grow your audience by publishing content regularly.

Good Luck!

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

How Social Media Can Accelerate the Growth of Your Business?

Social media has become a vital part of our daily lives, and its influence is set to only increase in the future. So why is this important to you, or even your business? Well, it’s simple. Social media offers us interconnected networks where it is possible to be connected with most of the world’s population in the palm of your hand. And if you want to sell anything from products to services that’s something you might want to leverage. Yes… and it is free to use if you need a good enough reason to get started?

What is Social Media?

If you are unsure what social media is, let’s break it down.

Social media is a web-based platform designed to allow people and organizations, to share information and media, seamlessly via an interconnected network. This network allows people to find, connect, engage, share and communicate on a common platform. Where the internet allows you to find separate websites, social media brings all the people on a platform together. And this is where the true power of social media lies. In the interconnected nature of its platform.

That means if you are in the US you can effortlessly connect with people in Europe, Africa, or Asia by searching for content, people, or businesses. You can instantly interact, comment, or message a social media user. This creates huge opportunities to communicate with people from around the world.

How Brands are Using Social Media?

Social media enables businesses to share information about their products or services. And many brands have created community based initiatives to encourage interaction and sharing to gain greater exposure.

Dove is a brand that has used social media as a platform to create exposure through various social campaigns.

In 2004 they launched the “Real Beauty” campaign. Dove has used it to challenge people to not only see beauty as an aesthetic quality.

Dove launched its latest campaign in 2020 to highlight a message to look deeper than aesthetic beauty! Their campaign “Courage is Beautiful”. It was launched to honour healthcare workers that had sacrificed their time, and energy to serve others during the global pandemic.

Another way brands use social media is to encourage users to post images of themselves using the products they buy. This can further promote their products. Often these brands offer prizes or some form of recognition for their customers, which further grows brand loyalty.

At times brands have gone viral over posts they shared due to the controversial or humorous nature of the post. When this happens a brand may achieve massive overnight exposure through simple marketing campaigns.

Encouraging customers and prospects to interact with their content, brands can create greater exposure leading to greater sales and revenue!

Why is Social Media a Powerful Marketing Tool?

If you doubt the importance of social media in our lives and business just look at the numbers. Statistica states the following about the growth of social media usage in the next three years:

“The power of social networking is such that the number of worldwide users is expected to reach some 3.43 billion monthly active social media users by 2023, around a third of Earth’s entire population”

Many people consider social media for young people and question whether it is even a good strategy to use to grow their business. This couldn’t be further from the truth as both the younger and older generation are using social media to consume content, and engage with others.

Since the time of the pandemic many more people streamed to social media to not only keep updated with current affairs but also began engaging and sharing due to the lockdown restrictions which prevented us from interacting face to face.

According to Statistica not only is the number of users on social media platforms growing across the world but the amount of engagement from users as well. This has prompted brands to leverage opportunities to grow their businesses by using content marketing and advertising to take full advantage of this massive phenomenon.

“Despite the ubiquity of social networks, market potential is still increasing, as not only user figures but also user engagement continues to grow. On average, global internet users spend some 144 minutes per day surfing social networks. This prompts worldwide brands and their marketers to use that time and screen space to promote various products and services via social media marketing or social advertising.”

More organizations are investing in social media campaigns due to the massive reach and almost universal usage of the platform.

Social Media Benefits for your Business

To put the above into perspective from your business, here are some ways that social media can drastically benefit your business and complement any existing marketing efforts.

Opening a social media account is free.
It is simple to use.
You can use it on your computer, tablet or phone.
You can brand your profile.
You can post written content immediately.
People can engage and give you feedback.
You can share multimedia based content including audio and video.
You can potentially reach a vast audience.
It shows prospective customers what you are doing.
Create a sense of transparency.
Can help you promote events.
Can help you promote your products and services.
Can help you build a community around your business.

How to use Social Media to Market your Business?

There are many ways to use social media to grow your audience and gain exposure for your brand, here are a few points to get started:

Post original content about your business or industry.
Respond to customers or prospects’ comments.
Share news and content that is relevant to your business or industry.
Interact with others posts and grow your reach through engagement on other’s posts.
Contact potential customers directly.

So if you are thinking of marketing your business, seriously consider how you could use social media to grow your reach online. Start simple and grow, one post is the first step, and will start you on your journey!

Article Credits: Statistica Article about Social Media Growth.

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How To Start Posting on Social Media?

In my last post, How Social Media Can Accelerate the Growth of Your Business?, I discussed what social media is, and how it can help you grow your business. In this article, I will help you get started with posting on Social Media. I will share some pointers to kick start the creative process, and help you get more focused on what to post for your business.

How to start Posting on Social Media?

As you start out you may feel overwhelmed and not know where to start. The best is to start in the most obvious place.

What type of venture do you have?
Do you sell products or services?
What do most people not know about your products or services?
What is the most important product or service you sell?
What convenience do you offer your customers?
Do you offer free delivery?
Do you have a guarantee on your service?
Do you over remote services?
Are you available 24/7?

Brainstorm by asking yourself questions about the business you run and find aspects of your products and services that you can share with your prospective customers.

Another way to brainstorm ideas is to think of problems that your customers may be struggling to solve, and then show how your product or service solves them. Create a reason for them to use your products or services. It can be a motivation for them to solve their problem.

When to Post on Social Media?

This is an important question and the answer to this will depend on several factors.

Are you a local business?
What time zones are your customers in?
When is your audience most likely to engage?
What times and days do you find the highest engagement?

You might have to test this for yourself and find what works best for your business. For example, maybe you are a local business. Then best times might be 10h30 and 13h00 when your customers have a tea break or lunch. Your target audience will determine which times are best. Research and test.

Scheduling Posts to Get Ahead

One way to get on top of posting content is to schedule posts ahead of time. Many social media platforms have built-in scheduling tools that allow you to do this. This can dramatically reduce the pressure to create a post daily, as you can plan ahead. For example, Facebook and Twitter offer users the ability to schedule posts which can help you to create posts in batches.

If your social media platform doesn’t support scheduling, you can try one of the many scheduling platforms available. Some require monthly subscriptions while others are free and offer different levels of control and features. One scheduling app to try is Crowdfire. It offers a free plan for up to three social media accounts, with limited functionality, but is possibly good enough to just get started.

Get Posting!

So there you have it, a few points to get started and spread the word. See social marketing as sharing information. Make it fun! If you find what you post is informative, interesting, and enjoyable then a good chance your customers will enjoy it too. Try to balance growing awareness and interest with promotion. Any try not to fall into the trap of always trying to make a sale, this will only chase prospects away.

The key is to get started, evaluate what works, and change where necessary!

Good luck!

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How to Decide on a Home Business for Parents?

Over the past year, many people have been affected by the devastating effects of the global pandemic, which left millions of people without jobs. This was a knock-on effect from the limitations imposed on businesses, forcing many to close their doors. We all saw firsthand how quickly things can change in the world, and affect our financial stability. These changes forced many people to redefine what financial freedom is and seek new ways to earn and secure their money.

Many parents found themselves stuck at home without work or sufficient income. This created a need to seek out home based business opportunities leading parents to look for ways to work from home, and still be able to assist their children with their schooling.

One trend that has happened since the pandemic is that people are purchasing more online than ever before. This is what Statistica states about the trend in e-commerce over the past few years:

“Over the last few years, e-commerce has become an indispensable part of the global retail framework. Like many other industries, the retail landscape has undergone a substantial transformation following the advent of the internet, and thanks to the ongoing digitalization of modern life, consumers from virtually every country now profit from the perks of online transactions.

As internet access and adoption are rapidly increasing worldwide, the number of digital buyers keeps climbing every year. In 2020, over two billion people purchased goods or services online, and during the same year, e-retail sales surpassed 4.2 trillion US dollars worldwide.”

Statistica goes on to explain the impact of the Pandemic on online retail:

“In June 2020, global retail e-commerce traffic stood at a record 22 billion monthly visits, with demand being exceptionally high for every-day items such as groceries, clothing, but also retail tech items.”

The pandemic and the global lockdown has motivated a massive shift in the economy that has changed the way we work, do business, and how our children learn.

The biggest challenge has been for parents working from home and having to educate their children. This has been both a challenge and an opportunity to find new solutions to new challenges.

It is a great time for anyone looking for opportunities to earn an income online. Everyone should start investing in digital skills and knowledge. The better you understand the digital world, the better you will understand how to build a business online. You will be in a stronger position to adjust to the strong digital transfermation that is taking place.

Where to Start?

There are a few ways to approach this answer. The simplest place to start is to list your passions and experience.

Let us dig into this question a bit deeper.

Start with Your Passion?

The easiest place to start is with things you passionate about? I will use an example to help you follow the process of establishing what your interests are, and how to dig deeper into those interests.

Lets say you have an interest in health and wellness. You might enjoy learning and sharing health tips to positively impact peoples lives.

Find sub-categories of your Passion

Now that you have settled on a passion, start brainstorming the various aspects of your passion. Break down the subject into sub-topics and exploreit further.

Healthy Foods
Supplements
Exercise Advise
Coping with Stress
Herbs
Treatments
Natural Remedies and more…

Once you’ve broken down the topic into sub-topics, take some time to research each one on Google, and see what products and services are available online. This will give you some perspective on what other people are doing.

How could you monetize Your Passion?

Once you have your lists, start brainstorming what products or services you could sell within each topic and sub-topic. Again, you might have to take some time to research this deeper.

For example, one of our sub-categories is Supplements. So you could find products that you’ve used or interest you and list them as possible products to sell or promote.

In this way, you could slowly structure a business plan around an interest you have. Once you have an idea of what field of interest you want to build your business around, you can then research the demand around those products. If your interest is something very unusual that isn’t in high demand, you might find it harder to grow your business.

Once you’ve decided what you want to do, the next big question is:

Are you going to create your own products?
Are you going to sell vendor products from an online store?
Are you going to promote affiliate products?

Depending on how you answer these questions is going to take you down a different path.

If you going to create your own products, the next question is:

Are you selling a digital product or a physical product?

PHYSICAL PRODUCT

You going to need to have to figure out the costs involved in creating that product in the volumes you need.

What kind of capital will you need to create your first amount of product?
You will need to know how profitable it will be to produce your product.
You need to know who your competition is and the demand for such a product.
You will need to know what the cost of shipping your product will cost.

Essentially you will have to do a lot of research and make sure you have the numbers in front of you and will need money upfront and take on all the risk if your business fails.

DIGITAL PRODUCT

What kind of digital product do you want to create?
What skills do you need to create your product?
Is it content based product?
Does it require coding and advanced technical skills?
Or are you selling your knowledge or skills?
What kind of capital will you need to create this product?
What is the possible sale price of your product?
What is the demand for your digital product?
How will you distribute your product?

You will have to do research to determine the viability and how to position your product against your competition, the deeper you go the better prepared you’ll be.

If you are ready to take action to build an online business I would highly recommend Six Figure Mentors, designed to help guide you through building your own business online with a step-by-step blueprint.

Good luck!

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