4 Reasons Why Many Self Published Products Fail > Product Creation

A lot of people publish all sorts of products on a self-publishing basis: They come up with a sales page. They come up with a landing page. They pay money for Facebook marketing campaigns. They do the whole routine. Still, after all this time, effort and money, nothing happens. Their self-published product does not sell.

Here are four reasons why they fail. I share this information so that you can spot these patterns and work around them. If you recognize them in how you’re doing things, you might want to mix things up. You might want to take a more active role and choose to do things differently

Bad niche targeting

A lot of self-published products fail because they are barking up the wrong tree. They offer things that are big deal solution to problems. The challenge is getting other people to agree with you. It may well turn out that people may not agree that this a problem big enough for them to shell out dollars for. You see how this works?

You may also be targeting a problem that a lot of people have. But these people are not really interested in paying a lot of money for the solution. Whatever the case may be, you targeted the wrong niche. The money may not be there. Or, there may be money, but it has a low return on investment. Also, there may be too much competition.

No reverse engineering

A lot of self-published products fall by the wayside because they were produced on a whim. The author got all excited about a particular concept and has put in the time and effort to write a book. He or she is convinced that the book is the best thing since sliced bread. Well, the book is published and nobody is buying. One reason for this is the fact that the author did not bother to look at other books or digital products that address the same problem.

How did they address the problem? How did they approach the problem? By copying and pasting the approach, the book can position itself in such a way that its prospective buyers would at least view it as familiar enough to consider.

If you don’t reverse engineer your competitors, your book may seem too weird, too unusual, or too innovative for them to bother with. They might think that you’re a genius. But that does not necessarily translate to them whipping out their wallets and buying stuff from you.

Untested sales page

It’s not uncommon for many self-published authors to copy and paste a sales page from a pamphlet. They just plug in their words, use a template, then call it a day. If this is how you do things, don’t be surprised that you are not making any sales. Sales pages are starting points. You can use a template to put them up, but you are going to have to run traffic through it, make changes, run traffic again and keep on optimizing it until it produces the conversions that you are looking for. Otherwise, if you put it up and forget about it, you’re not going to move that many products.

No relationship marketing through a mailing list

Make no mistake. A lot of affiliate marketers are only able to convert their traffic into buyers because they set up a mailing list. Do yourself a big favor. Set up a mailing list. Create a relationship between your content and your audience. The more credible your content is, the more likely the audience will trust you regarding the stuff that you are trying to promote. This is very hard to do with ads. This is very hard to do with blog posts. With mailing list, however, you can send updates after update to build credibility and authority to reach a point where your readers would click a link and buy stuff from you.

If you fail to wrap your mind to the reasons above, don’t be surprised if your affiliate marketing business and self-publishing efforts are running into challenges. You have to learn from the hard lessons described above.

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Using The Best Hashtags For Your TikTok Content – Social Media Marketing

Like other social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok uses hashtags. Hashtags are very important if you want users to discover your videos on TikTok so it is very important that you use the right ones. For marketers on the TikTok platform there are a number of ways that you can discover good hashtags which we will explain in this article. It is a good idea to use the correct hashtags to relate to previous posts you have made on the platform.

Why Hashtags are so Important on TikTok

There are a few reasons why using the right hashtags is very important on TikTok. The most important of these is to extend your reach and get more views for your videos. The best approach is to use a hashtag related to the content of your videos. By doing this other TikTok users will begin to trust you are more likely to follow you. Some TikTok users use misleading hashtags to try and get in on some trend. Usually this results in TikTok users staying away from their content after experiencing videos that had nothing to do with the hashtag used. Don’t do this with your content.

Being successful with TikTok is all about driving engagement. There is nothing wrong with using hashtags from trending topics on the platform as long as your video relates to it. With more views you are likely to get more likes (hearts) and more followers.

A lot of TikTok users search for specific videos on the platform. When you use the right hashtags you can help them find your content. Relevant hashtags are always the best as TikTok users do not like anything that is misleading.

How do you find the right Hashtags?

One of the best ways to find the best hashtags to use for your content is to really know your audience. Find out what hashtags your audience follows and then use these in the right situations. Never be tempted to just use random hashtags or you will end up with a low number of views to your videos.

After establishing yourself on the TikTok platform you can start to create your own customized hashtags and let your audience know about this. If you are new don’t start out by doing this as you will run the risk of nobody finding your content.

Have a good look at what your competitors are doing with regard to hashtags. Identify their popular videos and see what hashtags they used. The best marketers on TikTok always know who their competitors are and what they do to increase the number of views to their videos.

TikTok has a number of influencers that have millions of followers. You can look at their videos and see what they have done to become successful on the platform. Again look for some of their most successful posts and note what hashtags they used with them. With competitors and influencers you can also learn by their mistakes. Identify some of their posts that didn’t do very well and see which hashtags they used. You can also watch their videos to see if there are any clues to why they failed.

External Hashtag Suggestion Tools

There are a number of external tools that you can use which will suggest hashtags for you. They usually work on the basis of you typing in related keywords for your niche and then presenting you with hashtag suggestions. Two of the best tools for this are “Seekmetrics” and “All Hashtags”.

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How to Sell the ‘Value Proposition’ on Instagram > Instagram Marketing

The old saying goes that you ‘don’t sell hats, you sell warm heads’. This is one of the most useful sayings in business and one that everyone should always keep in mind. What does it mean? It means that you are not selling the materials themselves, but rather the way those materials make your customers feel and the way they improve their lives.

This is what makes any business tick. And the most successful companies are the ones that truly understand this.
And the great news is that there is no platform better suited to this kind of marketing than Instagram.

How it Works

The reason for this is that it’s much easier to communicate a value proposition – or to ‘sell the dream’ as it were – when using images. And to use an example of Instagram, we can turn to fitness brands. Fitness brands make money from selling products like clothing, supplements, or training tools. And the way they work, is by using images of people with six packs running on the beach with attractive members of the opposite sex. The viewer will then see those images and they will feel a sense of longing – they will wish that they could be that healthy, attractive, and happy. And in doing so, they will be moved to a) follow the brand for more inspiration and b) buy the product. This is a simplification, but it’s exactly what makes Instagram work.

How to Use This Strategy

So how do you use this strategy yourself? The key is to understand first and foremost what your value proposition is. What are you selling? How do you want to make people feel? Even if your business is a relatively straightforward and corporate one, there is still that value proposition. For instance, if you sell life insurance, then you are really selling peace of mind for family men and women.

If you sell EPOS systems, then you are selling the dream of having a restaurant, hotel, or similar. The next step is to identify your target audience – your buyer persona – and to understand what they want and who they are. Speak to their deepest desires and you will be able to sell them anything! Finally, make sure that your posts all work within that context and framework. That means that you should be taking photos that perfectly illustrate the point you’re trying to make.

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How To Create And Edit TikTok Videos – Social Media Marketing

The TikTok app makes it really easy for users to create and edit their videos. There are a number of features that you need to familiarize yourself with but these are all easy to understand and apply. You can either record a video “on the fly” from within the TikTok app or select a video you created earlier and then edit this before you post it. The more serious users of TikTok will record videos outside of the app and then edit them so that they are the best they can be. Sometimes on the fly videos can be very entertaining as well.

Recording a Video On The Fly

Open the TikTok app. You will see a “+” icon on the menu bar at the bottom of your screen. Tap on this and you will go to the recording screen. If you have never recorded a video using the TikTok app before you will need to let it find your camera and video recorder in your mobile device. You can set up a number of features before you start to shoot your video. The “Timer” feature is very useful for hands free video recording. You can also choose from the various filters and beauty effects and when you have made your choices you are ready to start shooting your video.

Now you need to select the length of your video as either 15 seconds or 60 seconds. There is a large red button which is round at the bottom of the screen and when you tap on this your recording will start.

When you have finished your recording it is highly recommended that you choose some music for the background. You will see a catalog of music clips that you can choose from. These are all short clips which you can add to your video.

Now you have finished your video recording tap on the red checkmark to enter the editing page. At the top right of this page you can choose another music clip, cut the sound and change the volume levels. Finally you can set one frame of your video as the cover that displays on TikTok and you can start to apply other special effects using the two buttons which are located at the bottom of this screen and to the left.

Uploading a Previously Recorded Video

The only difference here is that you will use a video you have already recorded rather than shoot one using the app itself. To do this tap on the “+” icon as before and then tap on the “Upload” icon located at the bottom of the screen on the far right. You can then choose your video from your mobile device.

Using FlexClip to Edit your Videos

If you really want to create a great video for TikTok then we recommend that you shoot your video outside of the app and then use the FlexClip app from Flexclip.com on your computer for some advanced editing. There are a lot more features you can use with FlexClip that are not available on TikTok. These include the adding of transitions, logos and voice over’s. There is also a wide range of royalty free music clips available to you.

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The Best Ideas For TikTok Videos And How To Increase Your Following – Social Marketing

There is no point creating a lot of TikTok videos if nobody is going to watch them. In this article we will provide you with some of the best ideas for TikTok videos and also show you how you can increase the number of followers that you have.

The Lip-Sync Video

With the previous Musical.ly app lip-sync videos were very popular and they still are on TikTok. What you can do here is to take a famous music clip and record yourself “lip-syncing” to it. Others will want to see this video and will let you know how well you performed with it.

Reaction Duet Videos

The Duet video is another very popular type on TikTok. All you need to do here is to open the video that you want to create a Duet reaction to and then find the “Share” icon and tap on it. From here you can tap on “Duet” and record or upload another video so that both videos appear side by side.

Videos about Pets

Some of the most popular videos on YouTube feature cute cats and dogs doing funny things. Well guess what? These videos are very popular on TikTok as well so always have your camera ready so that you can record your pet doing crazy stuff.

Trend Videos

If there is something trendy going on at the moment, such as a festival for example, you can record your own videos about it. If you attended the festival then you can shoot footage while you are there and upload this to TikTok.

Skills Videos

Do you have a particular skill that you want to show off to the world? Maybe you are great at baking or shuffle dancing. Whatever it is you can create a short clip and get it on TikTok. Remember that you can speed up or slow down a video for better effect.

Travel Videos

If you are going to be traveling then be sure to take some interesting videos when you are at your destination. Make these as fun as you can. Many TikTok users enjoy watching travel videos so give them what they want.
How to Increase your TikTok Following

The starting point here is to create videos that are fun and entertaining. TikTok users do not want to watch boring videos. You need to be consistent with your video creation and posting. Once TikTok users start liking your content then they will want more and more.

A video series usually works well. If you intend to create a video once a week then keep to this. Create a schedule using a calendar app to receive reminders that you need to create and upload your videos to TikTok. There are a number of influencers on TikTok that you can connect with to help spread the word about your videos. Approach them and see what they say. Some will be willing to help you by sharing your videos with their following.

We recommend that you share your videos on your other social media accounts. Also upload them to your YouTube channel. Take the time to like and comment on the videos of other TikTok users. Some users will reciprocate with your videos. Take the time to follow other TikTok accounts every day. Not only does this leave a footprint but a lot of users will follow you back.

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Avoid These TikTok Marketing Mistakes – Social Marketing

Marketing on TikTok can be very rewarding for you if you do it right. The platform already has over 500 million users and is growing all of the time. As a fairly new social media platform it is not saturated with marketers like the others are. But there are many mistakes that you can make with TikTok marketing if you do not do your homework. While there are a lot of cases of brands using the platform successfully for their marketing, there are many more cases where marketers got it completely wrong. In this article we will discuss the marketing mistakes that you need to avoid with TikTok.

1. Promoting the Wrong Products

You need to understand that the TikTok platform has a particularly young audience. The majority of TikTok users are under the age of 30 and many of them are teenagers or in their early twenties. They are only interested in products that suit their age group. If you try to promote products which are aimed at older people then you will fail. In time the platform may attract some older users but at the time of writing these are few and far between.

You need to work out if the TikTok platform is right for your business or not. If your target audience is Generation Z and younger Millennials then there is a good chance it will work for you. If you have a more mature audience then you should use another platform where these people hang out.

2. Posting Boring Videos

TikTok is all about fun and excitement. Nobody on the platform is going to be looking for presentation style videos and besides you only have 15 or 60 seconds to get your point across. The majority of TikTok users are going to want to participate on the platform and not just passively watch videos.

You need to plan your videos for TikTok. Take a look at the popular videos on the platform and work out why so many users like them. Are they funny? Do they encourage participation? Are they different? Put your creative hat on and think about how you can engage your audience.

3. Trying to Sell to TikTok Users

Nobody likes to be sold to. This applies to all social media platforms but particularly TikTok. You must avoid using pushy sales messages in your videos. This will not impress TikTok users and they will end up avoiding your content in the future.

There are other subtle ways that you can promote your products without being sales orientated. The trick is to engage your TikTok audience around your brand and products. Make a fun video with someone using your product in an entertaining way for example.

4. Not using a Music Sound Track

TikTok is an extension of the Musical.ly platform. The young people that use TikTok expect to hear background music with most of the videos that they watch. It is so easy to add a good music clip to your vides so make sure you do this every time.

5. Not using the Special Effects

There are a number of special effects available on TikTok. Users know this and expect videos to use at least some of them. You can make your video a lot more fun when you use effects such as speeding up and face filters.

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How to Sell From Instagram > Instagram Marketing

Instagram is an incredibly popular and potentially hugely powerful marketing tool. Did you know that Instagram has 1 billion active users? That’s 1/7th of the population! Moreover, Instagram is extremely effective when it comes to promoting products and brands that have any kind of visual appeal. This will allow you to create an account filled with pictures of people using your products or services, or living the lifestyle that you are promoting. That can be highly motivating and encouraging for your followers, and thereby ultimately encourage them to make a purchase.

But how do you go about turning those views into sales?

This is where things can get a little trickier, and the problem here primarily lies with the fact that Instagram doesn’t let you place live links in your descriptions. You can include the URL sure, but your users won’t be able to simply click that link in order to be taken to the store page. And what this means, is that they likely won’t make the effort to go there – and you can’t elegantly convert those views into sales.

So what can you do? What some marketers will do, is to add the buy link in their bios. The text that is used as the image description can then point to that link (link in bio!) and this way, interested viewers can follow it. This still isn’t perfect however, and what many creators will end up doing, is changing that link practically every day as they update their page with new offers. A better option then would be to link to a storefront, and then to simply move the hottest items to a more prominent position in the store as they are promoted on Instagram.

Better yet though, would be to link directly to the product. Thankfully there are a few ways to do this now. One is by using an Instagram story, which is an image that appears for a short duration of time. If you have 10,000 followers OR a verified account, then you can use this in order to link directly to any items you like – the user just has to swipe upward.
Otherwise, you might be able to use ‘Shopping on Instagram’. This relatively new tool allows images to directly link to buy pages through tags. It’s not available for everyone, and you will need your business to be approved first. But if you can manage it, this has huge potential for sales.

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How to Create an Instagram Account for a ‘Non Visual’ Business Model > Instagram Marketing

The appeal of Instagram for many, is that it is a visual medium. If you have a fitness business, if you blog about food, or if you are a travel writer, then this is an ideal way to share what you get up to in a way that is immediately eye-catching and engaging. People will see what you share and be instantly moved by it, making it the perfect way to grow your following further.

But for some businesses, this same visual emphasis is precisely what they see as a turn off. That’s because some businesses aren’t obviously visual in nature. A good example of this might be law, or perhaps insurance. If you run a life insurance company for example, then how can you express this in a visual way that will be interesting and engaging for your readers?

Do you post facts and figures? Bar charts? Statistics?

Likewise, if you are a corporate consultant, or an investment firm… how can you encourage people to get involved?
The answer is to find what it is that your business is really about and what it is that you are really selling: how does your service or product make people feel? What are the pain points or fears that drive them to buy from you? Understanding this is what will allow you to communicate the purpose of your business through images.

So to use the example of life insurance, this is a business that ultimately sells peace of mind to people who love their families. Therefore, the best way to promote yourself through Instagram might be to share posts of families that are doing things together. You could share ideas for activities and days out, or tips on how to provide for your family.

Did you know that the most popular hashtag on Instagram is love?

Likewise, if you are a business consulting firm, then you might want to promote the idea of successful business and exciting startup opportunities. That might mean posting images of attractive looking offices, successful business men, or tips for business.

The danger as some companies will see it, is that you stray too far from the product or service, or that you in some way make your business appear glib.

But this is the mistake. Embrace being interesting and attractive – that isn’t unprofessional! Remember that you need to provide value in order for people to follow your brand. If you can’t do that, then people won’t have any motivation to keep consuming your content.

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Why You Should Consider Creating an Online Course For Your Business > Product Creation

There are a wide variety of marketing methods at your disposal, such as blogging, video marketing, email marketing, Amazon FBA, SEO, and more. But an online course can be as profitable as any of them, possibly even more so. And they can be easy to create if you already have an eBook or educational material at hand. There are plenty of valid reasons to consider an online course for your business.

Return on Investment

Online courses can deliver a very impressive return on investment if they are done properly. Once you have the course created and uploaded to a site such as Udemy, then there is not much else to do aside from promoting the product. Ideally, the product will have been promoted before it is released. Online courses can be sold over and over and can deliver an income for years without much additional enhancement. However, it should be noted that creating a course is a little more difficult than it appears at first glance.

They Are Increasing in Popularity

More and more people are turning towards online courses to receive their education compared to other methods. Online courses are far cheaper and often contain a wealth of information that cannot be obtained anywhere else. While the online course niche is becoming saturated, there is still a lack of high-quality courses that deliver original content not available anywhere else. If you can give this to your target audience, then your online course will be a massive success. If you find yourself giving the same advice over and over again, then a course is a good way to streamline your efforts.

Build Authority and Credibility

If you do sell a course effectively, then you will have a built a reputation as an expert in the field. Even if it does not sell that well, creating your own online course is going to be a massive boost to your brand. As your business grows, you will be able to point your customers towards your course. You can use the course as an upsell or as a downsell with associated products and services. In many ways, it can be like having two separate kinds of business. While there can be considerable work involved in creating an online course for your business, it is definitely worth it.

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Top Types of Instagram Post That “Aren’t” Photos > Instagram Marketing

If you want to be a smash hit on Instagram, then you have to know how to take a good photo right? Instagram is a visual medium, and the nature of these images is photographic. If you don’t know how to take great photos, then you’re not going to be able to run a successful Instagram account. All sound about right?

Wrong!

There are actually a number of ways to get great images for Instagram without being an amazing photographer. But more than that, you can also make a successful Instagram account using different mediums entirely. Here are some examples.

Text

Instagram lends itself well to text. That could mean inspiring quotes, it could mean short stories, or it could mean funny memes. These could be added on top of stock imagery, or they could literally just be text on white backgrounds. If people respond to the quote you’re sharing, then you might get a follow!

Cartoons

While cartoons are struggling to thrive online right now, especially on sites like YouTube, Instagram represents something of a safe haven for them. Many different cartoonists are thriving on Instagram, so if you are a dab hand at digital art, then why not give it a go?

Video

Video actually enjoys greater engagement than photos on Instagram! So there you go: this really isn’t a purely image-based platform. You can make short videos with a smartphone, or with any other camera. You can even use screen capture for things like tutorials.

Boomerangs

A boomerang is a very short video that lasts just a couple of seconds and that bounces back and forth repeatedly. They’re very trendy right now, and there’s an app that makes it easy for you to make them.

Music

If you have musical skills, then you can share snippets of that music on Instagram. Post an image with the title and have it play in the background for up to a minute.

Stories and Live

While these aren’t really examples of the regular type of post, you can actually run a successful Instagram account that is primarily a place for stories and live feeds. This might mean bringing people along on your adventures, or perhaps showing behind the scenes of your business. If it’s interesting and engaging enough, then your channel will grow by word of mouth. You could even have a go at IGTV!

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How to Scale Your Online Business Successfully > IM Management

Most people have no idea as to how to scale their online business. There is a big gap between a startup and a medium-sized business. Scaling is an art that needs to be done carefully. Acquiring the wrong partner or business deal can have severe consequences. But scaling does not have to be expensive and there are many free and organic methods of scaling an online company. Online businesses have an advantage in that scaling the infrastructure often only requires a new hosting plan for a web site.

Outsource

Most solopreneurs think that scaling involves acquisitions or significant partnerships. But scale can be on a much smaller level. If you hire a virtual assistant to complete the tasks that you don’t want to do, such as social media or email marketing, then you have effectively scaled. You will now be freed up to do more of what you love to do and can expand the business in whatever direction you see fit. There are many freelancers available on sites such as Upwork who can deliver high-quality work for a very reasonable price. As you build a network of reliable freelancers, you only pay them for specific tasks that need to be done.

Collaboration

A good way to scale is to collaborate with people in your industry. Solopreneurs often fail to see the value of joining forces with other people in the same sector, often preferring to do everything by themselves. But establishing a network of associates within a particular field is ideal for long-term success and effective scaling. They might have skills that you do not possess or have a different way of looking at things. You can link to each other’s sites and perhaps even form your own company down the line.

Automation

Automation is another great way to scale your business. You can use an automation tool to complete tasks such as social media posting, email marketing, customer support, search engine optimization, and sales. Automation is one of the best ways to increase your output and it can free up your time to focus on the things that really matter. For example, Hootsuite and Buffer are among the better automation tools available in terms of social media management. You can see how your brand is doing across a large variety of social media platforms on one easy dashboard.

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Building Links To Increase Traffic And Page Rank > SEO & Traffic

Most sites have a links page – why? Well, there are two very important reasons why a web developer should consider having a links page.

1. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is only one way of getting the search engines to pick up that you are there. Something else that you must not neglect if you want your website to be noticed is obtaining links.

2. Your website is offering a service to your visitors – links provide them with other sites of interest which they may want to visit. Although the retail industry might say they want people to stay on their site, rather than going anywhere else, carefully chosen links may be able to get people even more interested in the product you are selling! You may have to think laterally!

In the eyes of a search engine there definitely seem to be good links and bad links. Good links will get you higher up the page rankings and onto the top of the listings, bad links at best will be ignored and at worst could actually could against you and your site be listed much lower.

– A good link is one from a site which has high relevance to yours, and which is has a good page rank.

– A bad link is one from an obvious link farm, and has no contextual links to your sites.

Before we go further, lets talk a little bit about page rank. Page rank is the ranking that Google gives to website pages and shows their importance as Google sees it. The Google Toolbar, which can be obtained from http://toolbar.google.com for free, is a useful tool as it can display the page rank of any web page you are looking at. The page rank (or PR) of a site ranges from 0 to 10 – 0 is where you start, 10 would be exceptional! Although Google keeps the algorithms for working out PR very close to their chests, the progression through the numbers is probably on a logarithmic scale – that is, a site ranking 2 is many times more important than that ranking 1, not just 1 point.

When you are link building you should be trying to get links to your site from sites with a higher page rank than yours. Links from sites with good PR will immediately signal to the search engines that yours is a site worth indexing! The more links the better!

So should you only link with sites with higher PR? Well, if everyone practiced this the chances of you getting any links for your embryonic site would be zero! A site may be 0 today, but that site may also be working hard to increase its rankings and you may benefit from their progress. Also, do remember your human visitors, a site may be useful to them, even if not for your purpose of increasing your rankings! So golden rules to remember:

– Aim to get links from high ranking pages
– Put up links from any site which has high relevance to yours.

First think of sites which it would be useful for your visitors to be able to go to from your site. For example, if you are a specialist site, are there some national organizations that promote your sport, hobby or industry? Your first step will be to email these organizations and ask if you can have reciprocal links with them.

Now this may a little bit of a David and Goliath situation, and many people feel put off because they think their new immature website is far too small. You may not get any response to your emails, you may get a response refusing you, but you may find a national organization with good page ranking agrees to link to you! Be very pleased with this!

Immediately someone agrees to have a reciprocal link with you, put up their link on your website – just in case they decide to check!

Now, think again about your customers or visitors – even if the big organizations have refused to put a link to you on their site, it may still be useful to put a link to them on yours for your visitors’ information. Always remember the whole goal of getting website traffic is to get and keep loyal customers or visitors – not just to attract search engine bots!

Now the hard work starts. Search the web for sites on the same subject matter as yours, but which are obviously NOT competitors. Keeping an eye on the Google Toolbar look for sites which have a better page rank than yours – ideally the websites you are looking for will be ranked about 4 or 5 (higher ranking sites may be a bit snobbish towards novice sites).

What about people who supply goods and services to you – can they link to yours? What about customers? Try and think outside of the box here – if you have a sporting site how about a link to a local photographer?

Sometimes you can do good research away from the computer (yes, you can turn it off sometimes!). Trade magazines are often a good start – write to any email addresses and ask for a reciprocal link. You may find even if they do not have a links page already they may decide to add one! It never hurts to ask!

When you are looking at websites check that they have a links page. If they do you may find there is a form on which you can submit the details on your website asking to be added to their links page or a suggest site add new link button so that it is simple to add your site. You may need to email a website if they don’t seem to be canvassing links. Don’t be too put off if there isn’t a relevant category for them to list your site in – they can always add more categories. If you don’t ask you don’t get! If you do ask – you may well succeed!

So don’t be worried about emailing and asking for reciprocal links – but do make sure you put up the links you promise! This may lead you to think a little about your site – some people don’t want to have their link at the end of a very long page. You should consider rotating banners so you can display more links, but keep the page simple. You make also need to restrict non relevant links.

If you know your subject show it! And one of the best ways is to join a forum. When posting or answering a topic on the forum always use a signature with your website address on it – if the forum users like what they read about you they will click on the link to visit your website, and hey presto – you have more links coming into your site! If your hosting company has a user forum, there may well be a section where you can showcase your new site – if so, you will get a number of visits through this. Lovely links for search engines and fodder for the link spiders!

Also, if you visit the Guestbook of a relevant site you can also leave your website address there. BUT PLEASE ONLY IF IT IS A RELEVANT SITE!

Article writing as a technique for building links and traffic is a less obvious area which a lot of people don’t know about or understand.

Presumably you are an expert in your area – or at least have useful information to share with others. So write an article! Not sure if you can? Well, start with the content of your site as a basis – you may already find you have done the hard work. Can’t think of a subject? Well think laterally again. If you are selling artistic candles, for example, what about an article about the history of candle making? If you think hard enough there probably is something you can write about! You made need to do a little research, but articles will really help build your traffic and ranking. (And of course you can use them as content on your own site!)

Articles do not need to be lengthy – in fact shorter is better. Probably no more than 600 to 1000 words. What you want to do in your article is write about something related to your site.

Now there are a number of websites that you will publish your article for you. Other websites can use your article for free, but they HAVE to include the author details – which off course means your website details. People using your article will form links back to your site – the more different sites using it, the better the links!

Better still you can submit your article to any number of article sites. Ezine Articles is one of the biggest, but any search on Google will reveal a number of others.

Now, no one can pretend that this is an easy activity – it does take time. No one is going to use your article if it is not well thought out and tells them something new. It must not be boring either. But article submission is a really excellent way of improving your website’s position in the search engines, and should not be ignored.

Of course articles are also important resources for Webmasters in another way – free content for your site! There are sites out there which cater for an amazing number of subjects, and in themselves can be very useful and informative! Free articles for web designing, for example, can bring you other hints and tips for making the best of your website.

If you use an article you must put on the full author’s bio and a link back to their site. But the benefit to you is ready made content hopefully keyword rich which will attract the search engine bots like bees to honey!

Web rings are another way of building links – again, check the page rank of the web ring you are joining. Web rings give you links, and also provide your human visitors with other sites of interest which they may wish to visit.

Let’s face it – website design and publishing is actually a lot harder work that you probably first thought when you started designing your home page. But there is nothing more demoralizing that having designed a wonderful site which you are extremely proud of – only to find you have no visitors at all!

You probably do want to spend all of your time fine tuning your existing pages, and putting up new ones, and anything which drags you away from this will be resented, but if you want a successful website link building is something which has to be done.

The best advice is to put one day a week aside for what we should call your marketing activities. Link building, along with SEO, are activities are extremely tedious. Build SEO into the way you construct your pages from the beginning (or in other words, consider not only the impact on the human eye as you design your page, but consider the spiders and bots at the same time!). And use your day a week to build links.

A tip from experienced developers in this area is not to aim to get hundreds of links in a short space of time – this will again make the search engines suspicious. Instead just aim to get one quality link at least once a month.

Website marketing is not a short sprint – it is more like a marathon. Many will start the race, but a large number will fall beside the wayside. But if you acknowledge it will be hard work and keep slogging away you will get to the end. There will come a time when you will receive a request from a reputable, well ranked website, asking for a reciprocal link from you! That may not be the end, but be assured that will give you a real buzz, and you will know then that most of your hard work will have been worth it!

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Simple Traffic Solutions – Step by Step Traffic Generation Guide

Niche Marketing Toolkit – Biggest and Best Niche Marketing Package

5 Tips That Will Make Your Instagram Account Grow More Quickly > Instagram Marketing

If you’re posting regularly to an Instagram account with beautiful images and you still aren’t seeing growth, then you might understandably find yourself feeling very frustrated. Perhaps Instagram just isn’t right for your business, you may think. Perhaps you’re doing something wrong? Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that organic growth on Instagram takes time. With that said though, here are five tips that can make a big difference and ensure you grow that bit more quickly.

1 Use Portrait Orientation

Taking photos with a portrait orientation is generally considered the best practice in Instagram marketing. If not, then you should at least choose square images. This way, your image will stay on the page longer while the users are vertically scrolling, meaning more engagement and hopefully more likes.

2 Post at the Right Time

Posting at the right time of day has been shown to be hugely important when it comes to your Instagram success. This way, you maximize the number of people who are awake and who are using the app. Research suggests that posting some time between 10am and 3pm on a weekday will net you the best results. BUT this doesn’t account for global time differences. If you’re aiming for a global audience, then posting at 6pm GMT might just be the smarter strategy.

3 Post Frequently

How frequently? Ideally you should be posting 2-3 times per day. This will ensure that there is a steady flow of content on your site, and that it doesn’t seem as though the page has been abandoned. What’s more though, is that posting this regularly will mean almost all of your viewers will see at least one image from you per day.

4 Use Hashtags

Hashtags make a big difference on Instagram, so make sure you use them often and use them well. One of the most important tips is to use as many as possible (30) in order to maximize your chances of a big hit. Find the sweet spot in terms of popularity too – 30,000 is a good number of posts to see.

5 Choose a Look

Many accounts are all over the place, with every image they post looking completely different and the end result being a page that has no consistency. Making sure the majority of your images have a consistent look – even picking the same filter for every photo – can prevent this issue and help people to better understand what you’re about and whether they should follow.

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How To Outsource Your Way to Financial Freedom > Outsourcing

Outsourcing has become an important trend in the last decade. While it is not an easy shortcut to the top, it is definitely something that all freelancers and online business owners need to take on board. The benefits are numerous and there are low-cost outsourcing agencies available that can deliver high-quality work with a quick turnaround.

Get Clear About What You Want

The first step to outsourcing is to get clear about what you need to get done. This means that you need to identify what you are good at and what needs to be outsourced, as well as what you are willing to pay to get the task completed. This will make it easier to communicate with outsourcing agents as there will be fewer communication difficulties. This will also mean that you can outsource what you hate doing and do more of what you love to do.

Outsource the Most Important Things First

There are most likely tasks that you really need to do but are afraid that you are not competent enough to do them properly. This leads to procrastination. Many first time bloggers can put off sales and marketing because they don’t know how to do them effectively. This is a huge mistake. There are many companies and freelancers who are excellent are marketing and sales. There are also paid advertising options available as well as alternative marketing methods. But because so many people are afraid of marketing, they don’t do it. So outsource these tasks to people who specialize in them. Your revenue will increase as you focus on what you are good at.

Establish a Network of Long-Term Relationships

Freelancers are great at doing a variety of tasks, from customer support to SEO to content creation. But sometimes there are communication difficulties and the freelancer is not a good fit for the role. This can waste considerable resources. Interviewing and hiring freelancers takes time, and you will also have to bring them up to speed on job specifications. Even if the freelancer has a good rating, they may not be able to complete the job for various reasons. This is why it is important to build relationships with freelancers so you can hire them on an ad hoc basis as needed. You know the quality of their work and that they can be relied on to complete it within the specified time period.

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7 Benefits of Becoming a Digital Nomad > IM Lifestyle

Ever thought of becoming a digital nomad? This is someone who works online, which thereby gives them the freedom to travel the world and work from anywhere they choose – whether that’s a coffee shop or a bar on the beach. If you’re still undecided though, then hopefully these 7 benefits will help you to make your mind up and take the plunge!

1 You get to see the world

This is the biggest and most obvious benefit of being a digital nomad – you get to travel and to see the world. There’s so much out there that’s incredible to see, so why would you confine yourself to one town or one country?

2 You become more worldly

When you travel, you become a better person. Travel opens your mind to the world outside your door and that helps you to know your place that much better. People will also be impressed by your cultural knowledge and your general experience!

3 You become emboldened

You also learn a lot when traveling – and specifically, you learn to be more courageous and more independent. This will improve every aspect of your life when you return!

4 You get to sample true freedom

We were born to be free and yet many of us feel trapped by our responsibilities. Imagine what it feels like to genuinely be able to go anywhere you choose… Isn’t this something that you should at least experience?

5 People will be impressed

Look, we shouldn’t do things just to impress other people. But the reaction you’ll get as a digital nomad is incredible. People love hearing that you have taken the initiative to not only start your own business but also to take it on the road and see the world at the same time. It’s inspiring and the sense of pride that comes from that is well-deserved and a great feeling!

6 You meet incredible people

When you travel, there is an incredible sense of camaraderie and you’ll find that you meet some amazing people and make life-long friends. It’s an amazing feeling and definitely worth the trip!

7 You’ll have the best profile photos…

Okay, so this shouldn’t be a primary motivation for going. But it sure is a cool bonus! Be prepared for your Facebook to be full of pure awesome. And you’ll have plenty of amazing photos to look back on too…

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