How to get Started with Search Engine Optimization?

search engine optimization, seo, google, search

The internet is an unimaginable library of information and media. It’s a never-ending rabbit hole. An unrelenting landscape of information that can distract us from our lives. But it is also a fantastic resource of knowledge that we can use to grow what we know. Its fragmentation can keep you running in circles at times but it’s a treasure trove of anything and everything. And its here that the search engine is the indispensable tool that helps us find the information we are looking for. Its not only an enormous expanding index of information, but an intelligent tool that uses artificial intelligence to figure out what exactly you looking for and what information best suits your request.

Today our response to most questions is to Google it, and our phones are the primary device we use to search.

You see, search engines have become the interface for us to interact with the web and find what we want. So now lets flip that on its head for a moment and ask the question:

If I want to build my website for my online business so that people can find my content or website, how do you do that? Well, that leads us to Search Engine Optimization.

What is Search Engine Optimization or SEO?

In short it is the skill of structuring your website, content and building authority for your website. It includes both content related techniques and technical aspects that can enhance your websites content for search engines and help you rank higher.

Keywords the Sign Posts for Search Engines

One of the starting points for enhancing your SEO relevance is using words called keywords. These specific keywords can help to improve how Google ranks the content on your web pages. But it also helps search engines rank the relevance of your content in order for them to show your web page in the search results when people search for related information.

Keywords are like road signs to search engines. They give them an idea of what the content is about and help build a ranking for your content. Search engine use these keywords to understand your content and to position the content against other content using similar keywords. Google wants to show you the best content for your inquiry.

  • Each keyword has data about the amount of times its searched for monthly, called search volume.
  • Each keyword has a ranking difficulty, for how difficult it is to rank for that keyword in search engines.
  • Each keyword has a paid search ranking, for example how in demand that keyword is in demand to use for advertising.

Also to take keywords a step further, using longer phrase keywords can help rank for more specific search intent and qualify higher quality traffic as not everyone searching using a specific keyword will have the same intentions.

For example:

  • One person will use “dog” in there search query looking for dog related products.
  • Someone else might search to find images of dogs for a wallpaper?
  • Another person will search for dog breeds as they decide what kind of dog breed to buy.

A very important part of using keywords is not just the word, but the reason why they are using that word or phrase to search. This is referred to as “search intent”.

Keywords you can use to better rank your content the more effective your content will be, and the better it will rank. Unfortunately its not just as simple as loading keywords into your content and expecting your website to pop up on the first page of search engines. Keywords are critical part of writing content and is a critical aspect of SEO, but is definitely not where it ends.

There are numerous keyword tools available with a simple search on Google you’ll find many to try out.

One of the things that helps Google rank the importance of pages on your site is the number of internal links to a specific page. By linking internal pages allows for a better user experience and a quicker way to your content. This will improve the ability for visitors to get to your content and will allow Google to find your pages.

Another way to build authority for your site is back-links, they are links that come from other websites and can improve your SEO Ranking if those back-links have high SEO Rankings. You see, if high quality sites link to you then you gain SEO authority as Google will believe that those sites must regard your site as authoritative or trustworthy on some level.

Back-linking can come in various forms, for example:

  • A guest post on a magazine site, industry blog or news site.
  • A business directory you have listed your business on.
  • A suppliers page, or vendor you are registered with.
  • A local news blog.

Depending on your business and industry it might be more or less challenging to achieve some of these, with business listings being the easiest.

Be aware though, that you don’t want to list you business on any directory site, as there are many that have low quality content, SEO ranking and will negatively affect your SEO if they are not good sites.

Quality is always better than quantity. Take a look at the business directory site before diving in and listing your site. Often it is possible to determine a site quality by the layout and type of content, and the number of ads. If there are more ads than you can keep up with, it’s probably not going to do much to promote your business.

Social Media as an SEO Indicator

Social media can also affect your ranking on Google, for example, if you are very active on social media Google will rank your social media page when people search for you or services relating to your keywords.

Social Media will give you exposure and improve the traffic to your website. Sharing content from your website on your social media pages is a way to build visibility and to encourage people to visit your site. The more people share your content the better for your brand, or project. So in a way social media shares and mentions can be an indicator to Google of your popularity.

Conclusion

Search Engine Optimization is a highly technical field, but there are basic steps you can take to help improve how search engines see your content. If you want to improve your SEO on a deeper level you will need someone knowledgeable in the field to truly get into the technical aspects of your website. Hopefully, you know a little more about what SEO is and how you can begin to improve your website.

Want to grow your knowledge of Search Engine Optimization and how to grow your business online, I recommend the Six Figure Mentors program for learning and growing your business online. Take a look at what they offer, you can even sign up for free to get an overview of their program before committing to it.

Are you ready to Launch into CyberSpace?

How to Improve the SEO of your Website in 7 Steps?

PageRank is the algorithm developed by Google to rank webpages based on the number of links pointing to them from other pages. The higher the webpage’s ranking in search results, generally means that webpage has more incoming links. If you want to boost your webpage ranking in search results, there are several things you can do:

In this article we will be covering the following:

  1. Optimize Page Titles and Descriptions
  2. Create Link-Worthy Content
  3. Optimize for Keywords
  4. Submit A Sitemap to Google
  5. Add Social Media Buttons
  6. Link to other Webpages
  7. Use SEO Plugins

How to improve the SEO on your webpages:

1) Optimize Page Titles and Descriptions

Both of these should include words you want to rank for in search engines. Google analyses keywords of webpage titles and meta-descriptions to determine how relevant they are to the search intent of the user. The more relevant the keyword you’re trying to rank for, the better.

2) Create Link-Worthy Content

The more backlinks your webpage can get from high page rank websites, the higher your page rank will be. Content that is interesting and informative will inspire people to share it on social media and in blog posts, generating links and thus boosting up your page rank.

3) Optimize for Keywords

While you can’t easily boost your webpage ranking in search results, you can optimize it to make search engines find it easier. Use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to find out what keywords people are using to reach your webpage, and use those keywords throughout your content so that your webpage ranks better for those important searches.

4) Submit A Sitemap to Google

A sitemap is a list of pages on your website, submitted to search engines. This tells search engines where all the important content they should be indexing is located on your page, making it easier for them to crawl and rank your site.

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

5) Add Social Media Buttons

The more people share your amazing content on social media, the higher it will rank in Google’s image results. Social signals are considered a ranking factor by search engines, although they have never been confirmed as such by Google or Bing.

6) Link to other Webpages

When you reference another webpage in your content, Google sees that as a sign of relevancy and will give your webpage a higher rank. Obviously, random links to sites just to create links will only be seen in a negative light, so use them naturally and appropriately.

7) Use SEO Plugins

You can also use SEO plugins like tools like All-In-One SEO to help optimize your webpage for relevant keywords and create meta-descriptions and titles that will help you rank for those terms.

Conclusion

While there is no guaranteed way to increase your site rank, the methods listed above can be very helpful in improving how search engines rank your webpages. SEO takes time and is a long-term strategy rather than a quick way to get traffic. The time that it will take to improve your rankings in search engines are influenced by many variables.

The key is to take time regularly to see how you are ranking in Google, using analytic tools to monitor and pick up opportunities to improve your site ranking. Start today and see how things improve over time.

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5 Easy and Profitable Online Business Ideas for the Software Developers

Are you a software developer looking to start your own profitable online business? Let me start by stating first: Business is always going to have its challenges. And it will be hard to continue at times. But once you have looked at all profitable online business ideas, picked one and pushed hard at it for several years, you’ll look back with pride at what you have achieved.

Maybe you have already tried to develop code for a friend’s business in your spare time. (Probably for little money) And it can be tough. Developing 8+ hours a day at your full-time job, then having to do it nights and weekends too. That can be taxing for anyone and will put undue pressure on your family and social life.

Although you might be in a very specific discipline, like Java, there are many alternatives to making money online other than coding. Your skills are very adaptable to many types of online business. There are many profitable online business ideas, but here are the ones I like. I’ve even made money from a few of them. After coding each day, it can be refreshing to focus on a different type of venture.

5 lucrative online business ideas

Web Development\Design Services

You can create Websites using classic programming languages like Java, Python or c#, but most of the time this is overkill. Many clients out there just want a website, landing page and maybe a sales funnel. All these components already exist in many free, or cheap, content management systems (CMS)

Solutions like WordPress have taken all the hard work out of creating a website, online store (WooCommerce) and blogging. The hardest thing to get your head around using these products is that there is minimal code. Most of the time you a building pages using a page builder and installing plugins.

It’s so easy these days, even non-technical persons can get into it with a bit of effort.

Thrive Themes is a plugin for WordPress that provided you with templates to build your websites. If you want to learn to build with Thrive Themes click HERE.

Online Software Development Course

If you are good at teaching what you know, create a course, and sell it. You can use WordPress Technologies like Thrive Apprentice (another one of those WordPress plugins) to house your online course. There is a yearly cost for Thrive Apprentice, but you can use it over and over and it does it all for you.

Here are a couple of my favourite online authors. Courses I have bought and used in the last few years of my software dev journey.

Josh Moroney, Ionic Expert, and independent creator. He leverages online technologies to showcase how to use Ionic. He has a blog with many posts on specific aspects of Ionic, and a full paid-for course on how to create solid, secure mobile applications using the Ionic Framework.

Another favourite of mine, Marco Behler utilises online technology to share his expert knowledge on Java and specifically Spring Boot Framework. With a free chapter or 2 in his course, I bought the rest because it helped me understand the framework and how it was built.

SEO Consulting Business

SEO is one of my favourite topics right now. I’ve been learning and implementing this in my business for the last couple of years now. But I have also been able to apply my knowledge to other businesses and gain them a competitive advantage, bringing them customers.

SEO is a long-term project for your website that will bring organic internet traffic to your site over time. Long-term means anywhere for 6 months to 2 years depending on your business type and competition in it. Consistency up to that point and beyond is key to SEO success.

SEO Requires:

  • Links – Relevant Links to both external and internal pages. They help Search engines like Google to qualify your authority. Site owners are only likely to link to reputable sources. So, you need to build your clients reputation with other sites too so they link back to your site.
  • Content – Search engines crawl your web pages to find relevant information that they can provide to a user doing a search. The closer the wording of your content is to a search, the more likely the search engine will rank you. The more people visit your site, the more the search engine will see you as an authority and push you higher in the search. Your aim is to be Number 1 in popular searches.
  • Page structure – The third component of SEO is page structure. Pages are written in HTML. So, when Google crawls your pages, it sees the HTML Tags. In HTML 5, the tags were enhanced to indicate much more information to the search engines. So, if you structure correctly, and embed the correct metadata, Google can index more correctly. This will in turn help you when being ranked. WordPress has plugins that allow you to set this data without ever looking at the code!

And of course, there is no contest when it comes to quality content. The more users use your information and the longer they stay on your page, the more authority you will gain over time. i.e. Higher up on the Google Search.

How to Improve the SEO of your Website in 7 Steps

Online Technology Writer

So, you have all the tech jargon and savvy, and no one to share it with?

Why not hone your skills as a writer, and deliver difficult to communicate information with a diverse audience of people?

You can write anything from Software manuals, API documentation, support documentation for systems. People buy these skills. It’s often easier to outsource to maintain quality.

You can check out Upwork if you are looking for a contract of any length. And you will never run out of new technology, so it’s an endless business (what you want!)

Digital Marketing Business

Digital Marketing is a broad term for helping your client, or yourself, sell your products or services online. It is focused on getting you to stand out from the crowd.

But in essence, you need a:

  • Platform Where can you find your prospects? Where are they likely to be hanging out online? It can be Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or any other social platform. Here you can either run paid ads or simply post relevant content to your audience. If they like it, you need a call to action. Usually, a link to your landing page (fancy word for sales funnel/website)
  • Landing Page The landing page has a more detailed sales copy. It will highlight your product or service benefits and perhaps you’ll give away a gift to capture their name and email.
  • Ongoing Marketing Strategy This part is the key. You are unlikely to make a sale just because they gave you an email address. Once you have an email, you can market to them weekly. (Just don’t spam) You must manage your email list and provide the prospects with value every week. You also must keep offering your products or services. When they are ready, they’ll buy.

The Best Ways to Learn Digital Marketing Online?

With that…

Software Development is a great career to be in. It often allows you to work from home, and with a team worldwide. And the pay is great.

But not everyone wants to program forever, like me. Some of us want to learn new skills in writing, client management, online authority and managing a business.

All these skills mentioned can be self-taught, you just need to apply yourself and learn.

Happy decision making!

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What is the Easiest Side Hustle For A Beginner?

It would be a bit of a lie to say that any side hustle will be easy. But, if you can find something you like doing or it takes you away from pain, then it could be seen as easier. We all want time and money freedom, but it only comes with putting in extra hours somewhere early on. So, what is the easiest side hustle then?

What is an easy side hustle?

5 Secrets to Side Hustle Success

No two hustles are the same. And not all are equally easy. What is the measure of an easy side hustle?

It can be done in your spare time

When deciding on a project to earn extra cash, you need to know you have the time out of your busy day to do it. Especially if you are working full time with a family. 

Something you are good at

It pays to work with skills you already have. By doing so, the learning curve will be quicker, and you’ll be able to make more money quicker. If you are good at building websites, perhaps this would be your starting point.

Something you are willing to learn

If you don’t think you have any real skills (very unlikely), or you want to learn something new, pick an area you are interested in. When I was building computer applications, it often took me to clients’ sites. From there I realized that I actually like communicating with clients. So I started a side hustle consulting on the side. I outsourced the actual work to better programmers than me.

Can fit in with your schedule

That same consulting business eventually could not fit into my schedule. It was just too time-consuming and not making enough for it to be worthwhile. So I focused on my job again. My current hustle in affiliate marketing is much better suited for me. I can do my 2-3 hours each day when I can fit it in. (Mostly in the morning when my brain is fresh!)

The question “What is the Easiest Side Hustle” has been answered for me.

Affiliate Marketing

If you are willing to put in consistent effort, over time you will learn all the skills necessary to be successful. And you just need to know a little about them all. When you start making money, you can outsource the ones you don’t like.

The main skills you will develop over time

Although you can do this on your own, it’s always better to get the help and support you need to get it running like a pro. Six-Figure Mentors have guided me all the way. Their All-In-One Package costs $97 per month and gives you the following:

  • Hosting for your Website
  • Web Design Tools for WordPress
  • Training on how to build a Website
  • Training on where to find affiliate programs
  • Training on Email Marketing
  • Training on Social Media Marketing
  • Online Ads Training (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more)
  • Mindset Program (Your Best Life Blueprint)
  • LinkedIn Learning (Any training you like!)
  • Weekly Training Webinars
  • A community of like-minded people building their online dreams

I hope you find joy in affiliate marketing. Don’t forget to have fun while you work.

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5 Mistakes “Stucking” People in Affiliate Marketing Online Business

Do you make these mistakes in Affiliate Marketing Online Business?

I heard that people make them, I made them, and I stopped making them. But I am sure you can learn from me. They are common. But if I can change, so can you!

1. Waiting Too Long to Launch Your Affiliate Marketing Online Business

Trying to be perfect stops you from earning money early in online business. If you are like me, you always need things to be perfect.

5 Secrets to Overcome Perfection Paralysis and Anxiety

In one of my previous “business ventures”, onthemark, I made this mistake and it cost me. Designer custom logo, business cards, and a pretty website. This all cost me time and money. The time I should have been getting customers. The time I should have been promoting. Soon I was out of money and frustrated.

Even if you have no money for advertising, share your links on Social Media. Send out a weekly email to all your friends and family. Connect with new people on Social Media sites. I still chat with all my new and old connections on LinkedIn and see if there is a fit for them in online business.

Get whatever you have in front of someone and get feedback.

2. Forgetting Your Story in Affiliate Marketing Online Business

You got into online business for a reason. Do you need extra cash? Do you like the idea of being the star of the show? Or you got “gatvol” of your job. (Gatvol is an Afrikaans word meaning, without being rude, fed up)

And of course, there was a build-up to that too. Your childhood, your failed marriage, and even a drug story or two. But don’t forget the good. The promotion, your new partner in this world. Your furry friends are always around to cheer you up. We are all made up of so many intriguing life moments that we remember as stories.

These all make you who you are.

Great marketing is great storytelling.

Tell a story that your customers can connect with and share with others.

That’s how you expand your message beyond your own borders.

3. Focusing On The Little Stuff

Like I eluded to earlier, don’t waste time on things that don’t make money! Just because it’s fun doesn’t mean it makes money! Focusing on things like branding and website design and layout won’t help you early on. Make sure you focus on the money tasks. Blogging, advertising, customer support, and getting it in front of your audience.

And a new one I learned recently; I’m busy creating a strategy around it, guest post blogging to drive traffic back to my site. Backlinks build authority.

SEO Guide – Seach Authority

4. Inconsistent Emails in Affiliate Marketing Online Business

Smart marketers build an email list. Even smarter marketers build a relationship with that list.

Are you only sending emails when you have a new product to offer? Or are you only sending emails once a month? Stay in regular contact with your people. 2-3 times at least these days. Give them regular values. Link them to your latest Blog, Podcast, or video.

5. Doing Everything Yourself

businessman holding modern city building skyscraper on shoulders real estate agent concept. Humans are building cities on their shoulders. Concept of creating the world of humanity.

You’ve got to treat your online business, like a business. Sounds easy right. But that means stepping out the way when you can benefit in time from someone else doing a better job at something than you!

Are you the content creator, webmaster, customer support, and still working a job?

You don’t have time to do it all. Learn the basics of a skill, then outsource it. Bring in extra money doing things you like and use that money to pay for outsourcing.

Even if it means trading your time for money in a skill you are good at. Use the money to pay a professional for something you are not good at. i.e. If you are good at web design, build sites for other up-and-coming businesses. Use the money to pay for something you hate, blogging or SEO.

How to get Started With Search Engine Optimisation

And don’t forget to enjoy the journey

Six-Figure Mentors recently brought these mistakes back to my attention. Most people don’t make it online because they try to do it all, and forget the reason they were doing it in the first place.

And yes, I am guilty too.

It’s amazing all the mistakes you can make in this online world and still make money.

SFM has a FREE video series that explains how anyone can start an Affiliate Marketing Online Business!

Free bonuses include: Special invitation to their next streaming Masterclass, walking you through the EXACT steps and skills you need to learn to make your first 10 sales online.

Seeing you launch your Affiliate Marketing Online Business.

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An Introduction to Email Marketing for Beginners

One of the challenges of affiliate marketing is building opportunities to generate leads for the products you promoting. Everyone today has an email address. And this means if you can collect someone’s email address you can send them news and information about what you selling. Email Marketing has been around for a long time and has matured over the years. And it is in no way losing its importance in marketing.

Why Email Marketing is Effective?

One of the reasons why marketers, bloggers, and affiliate marketers use email is because of its accessibility. Once you have someone’s email address you can communicate with them directly. You don’t need to be on social media or any platform to send an email.

It’s straight to their inbox!

Email marketing essentially gives you flexibility and control of how you can market to your subscribers, it has many benefits over other channels of communication.

Here are five reasons why email is an effective marketing channel:

  • Is a personalized marketing channel which can build trust.
  • This helps build lasting relationships through one on one communication.
  • You can measure its effectiveness through various metrics.
  • You can test the effectiveness of different campaigns to refine your strategy.
  • The cost of most email marketing platforms is reasonable compared with advertising.
  • You have full ownership over it unlike social media channels.

Email Marketing Platforms

One of the ways to simplify the process the creating and distributing email content is by using an email marketing service.

They offer you a one-stop platform that gives you the ability to:

  • Collect email addresses in a secure way
  • Create professional looking emails in a user-friendly interface
  • Manage your subscribers
  • Segment your audience for greater personalization
  • Track your email open rates, and other metrics
  • Automate welcome messages and other types of email communication.

Here is a list of popular email subscriber services:

Each one has its strength and weaknesses, but most offer similar features for varying prices. Most offer free trials or plans that allow you to get started and get a feel for the product.

Recommended Reading: Is Affiliate Marketing a Legit Way to Make Money?

Build Your Email List

One of the first places you should collect email addresses is on your website. You will either use a plug-in or embed code to create a subscription box on your website.

Once you have a subscriber box you can begin to collect email addresses from visitors. You could also share your subscription link on social media for your follower to easily sign up for your newsletter.

The key is to advertise your newsletter and make people aware where ever possible to increase your chances of attracting new subscribers.

Keep Your Subscribers Engaged

If you want to maintain loyal subscribers, you need to create interesting content. You want to provide value to your subscribers that will have them looking forward to each email. It’s your chance to share information and insights that your audience wants or you going to lose their interest.

You can even encourage your subscribers to share their ideas or ask questions that you can use as content for your future newsletters.

Conclusion

Email is a powerful marketing channel, and it’s not dead. It’s undoubtedly here to stay. And that means if you building an affiliate business or any other venture, email marketing can be an effective way to market to your ideal customer.

Start small, and build it slowly.

A monthly newsletter is perfect to get started!

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How to Grow your Online Presence with Content Marketing?

The internet has without a doubt become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Searching and sharing content is happening at scale from individuals to large corporates. Social media buzzes and pulses all day long with content that is posted and shared more times than we can fathom.

So the question is… is content really king?

Here are nine reasons that content marketing could very well be worth investing in:

Content Creates Visibility

The more you create and share content online the more people will see your content? It’s the medium through which your audience can connect with you. In fact the more you post, the more likely they will be to engage and interact with your content.

If you consistently create content on social media platforms or your blog you will be building a foundation that will build a strong online presence. And that means more opportunities for you in the long run.

Recommended Reading: Is Affiliate Marketing a Legit Way to Make Money?

Content Helps Establish Trust

Before you can sell your products and services you need to establish trust with your audience. This doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not a once of activity. Trust is built over time, and this is why creating content should be a long-term strategy to build your business. To build trust you need to be consistent, publish good quality content, engage with your audience, and add value on some level.

People are more likely to trust people or brands that have a consistent and established online presence. It’s a signal to people you are in this for the long run.

Content Can Help Build Your Brand

Content can be used to establish your brand both visually and verbally. By applying consistent design to your content you can help readers immediately recognize you by your visual signature. This can extend to the voice of your content. Is it funny, witty, edgy, or professional?

Your content gives your brand an opportunity to establish your voice and speak the language of your audience. It’s this brand that builds fans, followers, and customers. It establishes a clear way of communicating with your audience that will help you connect with the right people. The stronger this connection, the more likely they will be to support you, follow up and buy from you.

Your brand is your personality and the way you communicate. It’s that energy you express through your content. It can act as a magnet, if you use it well, you will certainly grow your audience.

Content Educates Your Audience

One of the most important functions that content serves is educating prospects. It offers you a medium to share information that is relevant to your reader. You can organize this information in ways that can help your audience to understand what you sell and do.

People are searching for answers every day. They are searching right now on Google for answers to questions they have. This is an opportunity to create content that your audience may be looking to find.

In fact, using keyword research tools can give you more detailed insights into what exactly people are searching for in Google. And this can help you figure out how best to structure your content.

Content Helps Your Audience

Probably the most valuable content is the content that helps your audience solve a problem. So when you start creating content you should be asking yourself the following:

  • How does this content help my audience?
  • Is it adding any value?
  • Why would my audience want to read this?
  • Does this help my audience achieve anything?
  • Would people find this interesting?

At the end of the day, you are sharing content to attract people to your social media page or website. If you understand what content will serve your audience best, you will be better able to grow your following.

Content Can Be Repurposed

One thing you can do with your content is to repurpose it. And that means taking content from one medium to another. For example, a collection of blog posts could become an ebook. This ebook could become a lead magnet on your website.

You could create a video from the content you posted on your blog and share that on social media. The point is that your content can be used in different ways and doesn’t have to stay a blog post or a video. It can be used to create even more content in different mediums.

Content builds community

When creating content on social media you will find people start to follow you. As these few people grow from a few hundred to thousands, you begin to have a stronger and stronger influence. This means you have the ability to leverage more and more opportunities as you communicate with more people.

Your following can then be monetized through offering your products, services or promoting affiliate products.

Content Improves Your SEO

By regularly posting content on your blog you will be improving your SEO. Google rewards websites that post regular content as it sees your site as active. If you want more traffic, post more content! Make sure it’s good quality and that people will find it interesting. You are primarily writing for your audience, but if you ensure your content is SEO friendly it will help rank your content better.

Recommended Reading : How to Improve the SEO of your Website in 7 Steps

Content Can Be Monetized

If you want to make money from your content, you can, by using affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is really promoting products and services that you either use or relate to the subject of your blog.

The more you write on specific topics the more people will find your content. When they read your content, there could be banners or links to products or services that are relevant. And there is a very high chance that people will want to buy these products.

This is how bloggers monetize their blogs. And it’s an industry that is growing every day as more products and services are available to market.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, content marketing is a powerful medium to create visibility for your business or blog. It can attract the audience you want to connect to and build authority in a chosen field. Whether you are building a brand, launching a venture, or monetizing your blog, content done right can not only build a global audience, it can earn you income.

Why not start today!

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8 Components of Digital Marketing (In the Affiliate Space)

My journey into online business has brought me to the conclusion that there are many components of digital marketing that need attention when it comes to online business. Some areas need work at the beginning, some of them need work consistently, and others can come later. Each aspect can require specialised sets of skills. Even if you must do all of them at the beginning, which is a good thing, you will be better placed in outsourcing them one at a time as you start to earn money. (Re-invest into your business)

You don’t need all areas running at once, but you do need to get started. I’ll order them in the way I think is best to get started.

So, let’s get into the areas.

Product, image, brand, and primary message.

If you need to define your vision and values it can help to utilise a professional. A virtual meeting can go a long way. Try Tricia Jones, she helped me really become clear about what I wanted from my business. I’ll touch more on creating your vision and values in a future post.

The following components house your values, vision, and mission.

Sales Funnel

A Sales Funnel is essentially a page on the internet that has some marketing of your products or services. Its primary function is to get the user to perform an action. Normally it’s to get a name and email address.

To get someone to enter a name and email, you often need to entice them to do so. Perhaps offering them access to a free webinar or a free PDF that has extreme value to that person. Getting the name and email is key to your online business. This person might not buy today, but because you have their email, you can provide them with value and offers until such time as the person decides to buy or unsubscribe.

Email Marketing

We have an email address now (Hopefully many!)

The cool thing about online business is you can automate your email. Write once and send it to your subscribers as they join up. Over time, your email sequence can grow. If you write 1 email a week for 1 year, you have a decent sequence. (You can go back and modify when needed)

You can also send them broadcast messages too from time to time. These can be used to push special offers or updates to your subscribers.

A great product I use is Aweber. They make it easy to create, publish and monitor.

Website

If you can push traffic to your funnel, and implement the email marketing aspect, you are essentially in business. You can market and try to make sales.

But supplementing the funnel with context builds trust in your target audience. This is done with a website the houses your Vision, Mission and Values. It provides valuable content to show that there is a real person (or business) behind the scenes.

Another key aspect of the site is a contact page. You need to be contactable and converse with your potential buyers. The more you engage with your audience and show a willingness to assist, the more trust you build. And in the end, all business is done on trust. (Launch Digital Freedom Privacy Policy)

Aspects that drive traffic

What drives an audience to your funnel, website, and email list? There are a few ways you can target your audience. Some of them cost money, the others will cost you time (consistent time)

SEO

In short, it is the skill of structuring your website, content and building authority for your website. It includes both content related techniques and technical aspects that can enhance the content of your website for search engines and help you rank higher.

It includes your keyword research. The words your audience will be looking for in the search engine. For example, if you are selling Canon Cameras online your audience might search:

  • High-Quality Cameras
  • Canon camera for a far distance shot
  • What camera should I use?

Your site and content will need to target these keywords and phrases. With time, consistency and quality content, your site will show up in search engines higher up and more often.

SEO also includes making sure you link to internal and external sites for reference. If you want to know more about search engine optimisation, visit this post, How to get Started with Search Engine Optimization?

Content

On the side of not spending money, you would have to create quality content over time. Consistency is key. The more you produce, the more quality you have, time will bring you internet traffic.

Types of content online include

  • Blogs
  • Listicles
  • Ebooks
  • Infographics
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Guides
  • Case studies and many more.

Begin with one and stick with it for 3 – 5 years. Become an expert.

The content shows search engines that you are committed to producing value, and your reward will be traffic. This together with your keyword strategy is key to your online success without spending money.

Learn how to Promote Affiliate Links On Your Blog

Social Media

With your Sales Funnel, Email marketing, and content in place, we can find other ways to bring traffic to your products. Once again, there are a whole lot of options available. Don’t try and market on all of these at once. Rather, find out where your audience hangs out and target them.

In my SFM business, my audience is full-time employees that know there is a better way to make a living. And so, LinkedIn provides the best opportunity for me to find my audience. Do a little research on how to use your social media platform effectively and be consistent.

Find out which platforms you might be able to find your customers. 8 Social Media Platforms to Promote Your Business

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

Online Ads

If you have the cash flow to run ads, it’s the perfect way to bring a targeted audience to your sales funnel. Most of these platforms allow you to pick specific details of your audience. Age, job title, interests and much more.

It helps to be very specific in your audience and speak directly to that person (Your avatar). If your Ad images and content appeal to your target, it will interest them, and they will click your ad. It will take them to your sales funnel, and you can get their email.

Once you have a list of emails, you can nurture that list over time and generate commissions.

Monitoring

An overriding aspect of digital marketing is measuring what you are doing. If you can measure it, you can adjust what’s not working. Most of the components mentioned above have metrics that you can measure over time.

For example, your email marketing lets you know how many emails were opened, how many people clicked your link and even if emails were not delivered. When you run ads on LinkedIn and Facebook, it measures the success of your ad. In fact, the more successful your ad the cheaper the cost to you! They allow you to measure impressions, clicks and even the position of ads on platforms that were successful.

To Finish

As you can see, there is lots to consider in an online business, but you don’t have to have to all running in 1 day! Take your time to learn and implement each aspect one at a time. There is plenty of support on the internet on how to do everything, but don’t fall into the habit of overlearning. It’s something I still catch myself doing from time to time. The best way to learn is to do.

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

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

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

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.

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