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Jason’s Tips
Why You Need To Start Building Your List Today
Why You Need To Start Building Your List Today
List Building is an amazing tool that can help your business stay in touch.
Below, are some amazing benefits, as well as some shocking facts that will help you get the most out of List Building on behalf of your business.
You Own Your List
One of the very best benefits of creating and building a mailing list is the freedom that it grants you to manage it.
It might happen that you manage communications with your clientele pretty well through social media sites, but what if one of those social media sites goes out of fashion?
Social media platforms come and go, but email is prevalent. You have to also consider that while not everybody is on Facebook or Instagram, everybody using the internet has an email address, so it will always be good to capitalize on it.
What’s the first thing people check in the morning? Email!
Email Is Simple To Use
One of the greatest advantages of using email to communicate with your customers is its straightforward nature. Just make sure you have great content to send, and you’re done.
As for your clients, they might not know what a “hashtag” is, why they should comment on a picture, or maybe they’re just not that interested in “liking” something on Facebook and will ignore your posts, but they sure do know how to click on an interesting piece of content that you just sent to them.
You also have the advantage of getting their focus. On blogs or social media sites, users can get distracted and lost among the amount of information that they are bombarded with… even stuff that is related to yours, which may even come from a competitor!
With email, they can read from top to bottom without turning their finger in another direction. They’ll get your information in a condensed format that will only take them to where you want them to go!
It Grants You Exclusivity
When you think about what kind of content you want in your email inbox, or when you think about what individuals or companies you give your email address to, you don’t think about it as a free for all, right?
You think about it as something sacred, since years and years of receiving email junk has taught you to not expose it willingly. You have to think that your customers think about their email inboxes exactly the same way.
It Is Great For Making Announcements And Selling Products
Mailing lists are very good for sending out information that you don’t want to be buried under lots and lots of other trivial pieces of content.
People check their emails daily, and you can reach them much more easily this way.
Reminders for events, offers, announcements, contests and miscellaneous news, like items back in stock, are best sent through email.
Chances are you’ll get an immediate response, especially if you get your customers used to looking for your emails!
It Is Cost Effective
Building and maintaining a mailing list is one of the cheapest ways to market across the board.
You can use a regular service and even keep it free, or you can use a paid mailing list service and make use of better and more advanced features for keeping up with your customers.
If you are serious, you need to invest in a good autoresponder service such as Active Campaign or Aweber
This, of course, will depend on how you are planning to reach your customers, and to make sure they get the most out of the service.
It’s Private And Can Be Targeted
One of the best things about a mailing list, and more specifically about using email, is the privacy aspect, which people care about a lot. It works both ways, because you can directly address somebody and he or she can do the same with you.
People prefer it this way, because they can ask you something or complain to you without it needing to be on a public wall or post. You can also create a channel that can be exclusively dedicated for this kind of communications, which customers will be thankful for!
You can also target emails to certain people or groups of people, hence knowing their preferences and habits will be crucial. This will enhance how you communicate with them, and in turn will also change how they perceive you.
Finding The Right Balance Between Delivering Value And Selling In Your Emails
Every email marketer has to find the right balance between delivering value and promoting products. That’s the only way to ensure the longevity of your list and the loyalty of your subscribers.
If you keep mailing out for offer after offer without giving any value, you’ll appear ‘spammy’ and many of your subscribers will get annoyed and leave.
If you keep providing value and giving out freebies, you’ll condition your list to only expect free gifts and they’ll not be inclined to purchase anything from you.
So, finding the right balance is of paramount importance to keeping you in the green. Most subscribers innately know that you’re running a business and will have to promote offers every now and then to cover your business costs and generate profits.
In fact, if you do your email marketing well, your list will be supportive of your business and will purchase your products or the products you recommend. Email marketing is all about having a relationship with your list… and just like every relationship, there must be give and take.
In this section, we’ll look at 3 methods that you can employ to strike the right balance between providing value and making money through promotions.
Provide Tools And Tips
Your subscribers are on your list to learn from you. They’re looking for information that can help them with whatever their goals are.
If you have a weight loss list, your subscribers will want to know tips and tricks to lose weight. If they’re on a gardening list, they’ll want to know the latest methods to grow healthier vegetables or have a better garden.
Your job as an email marketer is to share pertinent, useful and applicable information to them on a regular basis. It’s imperative that your knowledge be shared so that they can learn something from you.
Share with them what works for you. This will keep them hooked to your emails and they’ll be less likely to leave.
Giving Gifts Or Bonuses
If you’re an affiliate marketer, you may need to give attractive bonuses to woo your list so that they buy through your link. This is especially true if you’re in the make money online niche and the product launches are highly competitive. Potential buyers will look around for the best bonuses before they make a purchase.
So, you’ll want to set up a good bonus as and when you can. That said, you do not need to provide a bonus every single time. If you’ve been providing enough value, your subscribers should purchase from you just because they like you.
It is a delicate balancing act here to get the list to purchase without always expecting a bonus… but it can be done.
If you’re in other niches, you could give out gifts like free reports or discount coupons or get special deals for your list that isn’t available elsewhere.
Offer Help When You Can
One of the best ways to increase engagement in your list is to be contactable. If you’re a successful marketer, you may hire a virtual assistant to help out here. Ask your list to contact you if they have questions or need help… and when they do, help them out.
If you recommend a product, you can always help them with any issues they may face using it. Be proactive and do what you can to make your subscriber achieve their goals.
Finding the right balance is all about showing that you care. Overdeliver and help whenever you can… and when you have something to sell, your list will support you and not unsubscribe because they think that you’re only looking out for number one.
“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar
If you want to know more about nurturing you list, check out the featured resource below for a free Simple List Building report; download, read it and take action 😊
Are You Addicted To Work?
Are You Addicted To Work?
Work addiction is just like most other addictions. It’s hard to break and you’ll need to be mindful about it at all times so that you can wean yourself off this addiction.
The good news is that unlike smoking or drug addiction, it’s easier to stop being a workaholic. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy… and in these times, with the workload and stresses that abound, Jack just might go mad if he doesn’t take a break.
The first step to understanding why you’re addicted to work will be to self-reflect on why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Understanding Your Feelings
Very often, there are feelings of guilt or fear associated with working too much. You may feel guilty at not earning enough to provide for your family. Or maybe you’re working long hours just to please your boss because you fear losing your job.
If you’re an entrepreneur who works 12 to 16-hour days just to speed up the process and earn six figures a month, your lack of patience might be taking a toll on your physical and mental health.
Once you understand what’s making you work such long hours, you’ll be able to understand how to fix the root cause of the problem. In some cases, it would be a good idea to speak to a professional for guidance.
Following A Schedule
The best way to break work addiction will be to have a fixed schedule that you blindly follow. This will mean starting work at the same time every day and stopping at the same time.
Ideally, you shouldn’t be working more than 8 or 9 hours a day. You could push it up to 12 hours, but not beyond that. Even 12 hours is extreme.
If you work a day job, leave the moment work ends. Staying longer at the office is not a reflection of your dedication, but a display of your lack of productivity.
All work you need to complete for the day needs to get done within the working hours. Then it’s time for you to switch off and wind down.
You MUST be extremely strict with this routine of starting and stopping work at the same time daily. This will help you break your addiction to work and help you to let go of the need to keep hustling and grinding to do more and more to a point where it’s a never-ending cycle.
Increasing Productivity
You can get more done in a shorter time by increasing your productivity. Very often, people spend time at the water cooler gossiping, or attending unnecessary meetings that are time wasters.
Eliminate all time-wasting activities from your work schedule. Use a pomodoro timer to keep you on track and focused.
You want to be doing work that matters and not just ‘busy work’ that makes it look like you’re working – but what you’re doing is irrelevant, and you’ll need to spend more time doing the relevant work later.
Delegating
Whatever can be automated, should be automated. Whatever can be delegated, should be delegated.
Time is your most important resource. Micromanaging and perfectionism will only stress you out. Pass off your mundane tasks to someone else if you can, and only focus on the highly important tasks that matter.
You may need to pay for software or hire help (workers, freelancers, etc.) to handle your workload. The investment will pay for itself many times over by freeing up your time so that you’re not overworked.
Exercise
Exercise is fantastic for giving you a mental break from the stresses at work. It’ll also release dopamine in your body.
Try to end every workday with a 20-minute exercise session. It could be yoga or sprints or just some bodyweight training. These 20 minutes will help your body stretch the muscles, get the heart pumping and the blood flowing.
You’ll feel better and less stressed out. You’ll also have something to look forward to after work, provided you enjoy the activity you’re doing. So, find one that’s fun.
“Workaholics are addicted to activity; super achievers are committed to results.”
– Charles Garfield
Are You In Denial About Being A Workaholic?
Being a workaholic can have many negative repercussions in your life if you do not get your addiction under control. Just like most addictions, very often, the person who is addicted to work doesn’t see their addiction for what it is.
Their reasons for working so hard are often plausible on the surface. They’re trying to progress in life, or provide for their family or they love their job and so on.
While all these reasons sound good, the results in their life reflect something totally different. They’ve let their health slide because they’re overworking themselves.
Relationship with the spouse is strained and they’re a stranger to their family members. They’re also highly stressed out and life seems to have lost its purpose… and work is the only thing keeping them going.
It can be extremely hard admitting to yourself that you’re a workaholic. A few common signs have been listed below. If you agree with 2 or more of them, you’re probably a workaholic and will need to take steps to remedy this problem.
You’re Always Working
This is the most obvious sign. You can easily work 12 to 14 hours a day and it seems normal to you. In some cases, it could go up to 16 hours or more.
While some minimum wage jobs have 12-hour shifts, these are mandated by the company, and you’re given rest days too.
However, when you’re working from home and subjecting yourself to such long hours daily with minimal rest, you’re a workaholic.
You Have No Time For Your Family
Most workaholics put their family commitments in second place. Work always comes first. Family events, communication, dinner time, etc. are all distractions that get in the way of the work.
A workaholic believes that his family is holding him/her down when they’re desperately trying to provide for them. It’s a strange contradiction – because in the process of providing for their family, they almost end up losing them.
If you often let down your friends and family because of work, you just might be a workaholic.
What’s A Holiday?
Workaholics are so busy working they rarely even think of taking a vacation. If the last time you went on a holiday was years ago, you’re probably a workaholic.
You Think About Work All The Time
If you do go on a vacation, but keep thinking about work, you’re definitely a workaholic.
Be where you are and enjoy the mental break. Leave the stress of work at the workplace.
A workaholic thinks about work while having their meals or talking to others or even watching TV. They can’t think of anything else besides their work commitments.
Addicted To Stimulants
Most workaholics are either addicted to caffeine, alcohol or nicotine.
Very often, caffeine is used to keep them alert so that they can keep going even when they’re tired.
Alcohol and cigarettes help them to calm down because the stress at work gets to them and these deleterious habits are their coping mechanisms.
You’re A Perfectionist
Workaholics tend to be perfectionists, or they have unrealistically high standards for themselves. The work can always be better and improved upon.
They dislike delegating their work because they don’t want to lose control and feel like others will not be able to do as good a job as them. As a result, their hands are full and their workload never decreases.
If you see yourself displaying any of these signs, it’s time to accept that you’re a workaholic and take steps to fix the problem. Speak to a professional and find alternatives to your way of life.
Recognition and acceptance of the problem is the first step. From there, it’s just a matter of better time management, increasing your productivity and learning to delegate more so that you can maintain a good work-life balance.
Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and maintaining a healthy work life balance is a small part of that. And if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂
10 Tips To Make Your Blog Posts More Interesting
10 Tips To Make Your Blog Posts More Interesting
“I learned that by being entertaining you make a connection with another person.” – Robin Williams
There are several reasons why someone would start a blog. Maybe they wish to build an audience or an email list. Or maybe they wish to have an authoritative site and make money online with affiliate marketing.
Whatever your reason for building a blog, ultimately, you’ll want people to see it. To attract people to your blog, the content needs to be excellent and your blog has to look great.
In this article, you’ll discover 10 ways to ‘spice up’ your blog posts and your blog overall. Apply these tips and you’ll definitely make your blog more interesting and attractive!
By the way, if you are serious and want to take your blogging to the next level, check out the Rapid Blogging Blueprint. This is a premium level training that takes you through each and every step of setting up your own highly profitable blog and profiting from it. You can check it out here.
Are you ready to get started? Let’s go…
Use Attractive Images
A picture says a thousand words. If you want your blog to be interesting, you absolutely MUST break up the text with images – and ideally, all your images must have a caption between them.
When was the last time you came across an image and didn’t read the caption?
Almost never. People like making sense of the image and the caption reinforces their perception of what they’re seeing.
There are 2 types of images you can use on your blog:
- Creative commons images (free)
- Royalty-free stock photos (paid)
You can get creative commons images from sites like Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash, etc. You won’t need to pay a cent for them and can use them in your blog posts.
Some of these sites will allow you to use their images for free, but you’ll need to credit the image creator. You can do this in the caption.
Royalty-free stock photos can be purchased from sites such as IstockPhoto. Generally, these photos tend to look much better than what you’d find in the free sites.
Furthermore, the sheer variety of images in the paid image sites will mean that you can find photos that very closely match your content.
Use photos in all your blog posts. They’re one of the best ways to make your blog posts ‘pop’ and capture the readers’ attention.
Use Quote Images
People love quotes. Social media is replete with motivational quotes. Even the latest trending, “Let’s go, Brandon!” is a quote. Ingenious marketers are using that quote on mugs, t-shirts, etc. and making tons of sales.
You can always do a quick Google Image Search for quotes related to your blog post. For example, if you’re writing a blog post on productivity, a quick search for ‘productivity quotes’ will bring back these results.
Now all you need to do is compile a few quotes and verify that the quotes and the attribution is correct.
You’ll then need to create your own quote images for your blog. Do NOT use the images you find via Google Image Search. Most of these will be copyrighted images. You need to make your own… and it’s easy.
There are 2 excellent solutions for creating quotes:
Canva is free to use. Stencil and Snappa are paid options.
There are also other websites that you can use such as Quotefancy, Quozio and MediaModifier.
Quote images have the same purpose as stock photos – to break up the monotony of the text and add a dash of color and ‘punch’ to your blog posts.
Memes And Gifs!
Memes have been all the rage for the past 7 years or so. They show no signs of waning in popularity. Because memes are shared all over social media and they’re usually humorous, people automatically look at memes hoping to be entertained.
You can make free memes with a meme generator such as Imgflip or Kapwing. It’s best to have a good sense of humor when creating memes. If you lack ideas, you can visit Me.Me for inspiration.
An important point to note is that not every niche lends itself well to memes. If you’re in a serious niche such as ‘coping with grief’, you’ll want to be very careful using memes. You might be able to get away with one or two memes just to lighten the mood, but you don’t want to appear flippant.
There’s a fine line to walk here. You’ll have to exercise common sense when using memes. The same applies to using gifs that you can find on Giphy, which you can embed in your blog posts.
Remember to use memes and gifs in moderation. They work wonderfully well for grabbing attention, but too many of them can be distracting.
Break Up The Text
Reading text on a screen is a lot more stressful on the eyes than reading a paperback. This is why it’s imperative that you break up the text in your blog posts.
For starters, keep your paragraphs 3-5 lines long. Forget what you were taught in school about paragraphing rules.
When you’re online, readability is everything – and if the reader gets tired reading your content, they’re just one click away from Facebook or Kim Kardashian’s Instagram account.
And they’ll leave your blog and you’d have lost them. So you definitely want to break up the text on your blog post into smaller bite-sized chunks.
As mentioned earlier, you can use images, quotes or even have sub-headings (H2, H3,etc.)
The sub-headings will make the content easier to read for skim readers and you can have an extra line break before every sub-heading so that there’s more white space in your blog post.
You’ll want to maintain the same format of headings and sub-headings throughout your blog so that there’s uniformity and consistency throughout your blog.
Use Videos
Nothing grabs more attention than a video. These days, most people prefer watching videos over reading. So, you’ll definitely want to embed a video in your blog post.
There are two ways you can do this:
- Create your own video (RECOMMENDED)
- Use someone else’s video
Creating your own video is the recommended option because it puts a face and a voice behind the blog. People like watching other people.
Even if you’re shy and prefer to do a screen recording using a tool like Camtasia, your voice will still engage your readers. Just make sure the video is interesting.
One of the benefits of creating your own videos and having your own channel on YouTube is that your videos will attract traffic. You can then have links in your video description that points viewers to an opt in page to build your list. Or you can point them to your blog posts.
If you decide to use someone else’s video on your blog, you’ll probably be embedding a video from YouTube. This is legal and nothing to worry about.
Just click on the share button…
Then click on ‘Embed’ and you’ll be given the code to copy and paste in your blog.
The video will show up in your post with the play button. You can use a video to break up the text on your blog.
Quality And ‘Flow’ Of Content
No matter how many attractive images and engaging videos you use, at the end of the day, the quality of your written content will decide how interesting your blog post will be.
The content needs to flow well and should not feel like a mishmash of clunky paragraphs virtually stapled together to form a post.
Each point needs to lead to the next and so on. That will make the reading process smooth and seamless. Being a proficient writer will definitely help here.
If you dislike writing, you can always hire expert writers on sites like Freelancer. Always make sure that the content reads well, and is interesting and engaging.
Many marketers try to optimize their blog posts for SEO (search engine optimization), and they end up adding keywords in parts of their content just to rank well. Very often, these keyword-rich sentences don’t fit in well with the content and can sound awkward.
So, if you’re trying to rank your blog posts for specific keywords, make sure the keywords are woven seamlessly into the content so that the reader experience is good.
Use Infographics
This tip is especially useful for content that needs to be simplified. Any listicle can have an infographic created on it.
When creating an infographic, you’ll want to distil the blog post and use the most important points as your infographic’s data points. Keep your points short and succinct.
An infographic doesn’t require too much text because the icons and symbols in the image will convey the message effectively.
What matters is that the infographic is a derivative of your content. This will make the it congruent to the entire blog post.
Once the infographic is completed, you’ll insert it in your blog post (somewhere in the middle or at the end. This will help to break up the text or sum up your content in one neat image.
If you have no idea how to make an infographic, you can easily hire a freelancer on Fiverr to create an infographic for you. It’s very affordable.
Typography And Readability
The font you use on your blog needs to be legible and easy on the eyes too. There are countless articles written about fonts and font pairing. You may wish to use 2 different fonts – one for your paragraphs and one for your headings.
The most popular and effective fonts for a blog are:
- Tahoma
- Arial
- Verdana
Avoid using cursive fonts or other fonts that look stylish but when used in large blocks of text becomes difficult to read (e.g. monotype corsiva).
When it comes to readability, the font size matters too.
Avoid making your font size too small. Many older people will find it difficult to read your content. 14pt is the new 12pt!
When your font is legible, reading the content becomes less taxing on the eyes – which means your readers will not get tired easily. Your blog’s bounce rate will be lower and this will give your blog posts an SEO advantage.
The color of your font makes a difference too. Avoid using light grey font on a white background. Some websites will mention that having lighter text is easier on the eye. That may be true, but if it’s too light, it’ll strain the readers’ eyes instead. So exercise common sense here.
Your WordPress Theme
If you’re using WordPress for your blog (and most people do), the theme you use will play a huge role in your blog’s appearance. Avoid using free themes. The paid ones have more features and usually look much better.
There are thousands of themes on the market. You’ll need to decide what theme you want, depending on the type of blog you’re creating.
Many of the most popular themes have a lot of flexibility so that you can toggle between the different options and make your blog look exactly the way you want it to.
Some of the most popular themes are:
A good theme will not only give your blog a clean appearance and make it look professional… but it will also load fast. We live in a day and age where people want everything fast.
If your blog takes ages to load, you can bet you’ll be losing visitors by the boatload. They’ll just close the page (while it is still loading) and will never see your blog. So, use a WordPress theme that has a fast load speed.
You can check the speed of your blog here: https://gtmetrix.com/
Your Opinions And Stories Matter
People love watching and listening to others. It’s why Oprah is a billionaire with her talk show. It’s why Joe Rogan’s podcast gets downloaded millions of times… and it’s also why reality shows still remain as popular as ever.
As a species, we’re curious to hear and watch what other people say and do. Why else do you think social media is so addictive?
When you’re writing a blog post, even if it’s a serious topic, you’ll want to inject your opinions and stories within the post. If you have no stories of your own, tell other people’s stories.
There are many movies based on other people’s life stories. Rocky, The Pursuit of Happiness, The Blind Side, and many other poignant movies are stories about people’s trials and tribulations… and how they overcame all odds.
There are always opportunities to add your own stories and opinions. It’s better to be opinionated than to have no opinions. Even if your opinions are polarizing, you’ll still benefit by building a tighter audience who agrees with what you’re saying.
They’ll feel that you’re authentic and are on the same page as them. This is the type of ‘loyalty’ you want. You don’t want your blog to be sterile and bland like vanilla. You must let your personality shine… and your readers will enjoy reading it.
In Conclusion…
These are just some of the many ways you can make your blog posts interesting. Always remember, you’re writing for other people. You want their experience on your blog to be an enjoyable one.
If you can do that, your blog will always have a loyal following, and if you monetize your content, you’ll see sales and profit.
It all starts with giving the people what they want.
“The currency of blogging is authenticity and trust.”
– Jason Calacanis
If you really want to know more about the power of blogging, you can take a look at the Rapid Blogging Blueprint training course or if you just want a few pointers for now you can grab the featured resource below for a free blogging report; download, read it and take action 🙂
3 Negative Beliefs That Hold Entrepreneurs Back
3 Negative Beliefs That Hold Entrepreneurs Back
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
– J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Our lives are a reflection of our beliefs. Most of us know this, and yet, we cling on to old negative beliefs – even when they hold us back.
Discarding them and creating new beliefs seems to be a Herculean task.
These beliefs (which are usually assumptions and misconceptions) color our world views and justify our actions.
Yet, if we stopped to think about it and ask ourselves, “Where did we get these beliefs from?” … we’d realize that most of them were ingrained in us by our parents, teachers and other ‘well-meaning and sensible’ adults when we were young.
In most cases, these self-limiting and defeatist beliefs will impede your progress when you decide to become an entrepreneur. You’ll be setting yourself up for failure from the get-go.
Let’s look at some of the most common beliefs that are injurious to your goals…
Money Makes Money
This is probably the biggest fallacy of the lot. This misconception creates a catch-22 situation. You want to get into business to improve your financial standing… but you need money to get into business – and that’s money you don’t currently have.
So you’re doomed.
But is this reasoning valid? Do you really need money to start?
A quick look at some of the biggest business successes on the planet will show you that most of them invariably began from humble beginnings. They started off small and slowly built their way up.
In the same vein, nothing is stopping you from starting off small and climbing the ladder of business success. It’s resourcefulness and not resources that you need.
Do not count yourself out just because you lack the finances. Rest assured that enthusiasm, confidence, passion and hard work will help you find the resources you need, and you’ll be able to employ them to forward your business.
And when you do start to see some financial reward, don’t take it and spend it! During the early stages of your business it pays to put it back into the business, whether that be with outsourcing the stuff you don’t like or can’t do, or investing in tools that can move your business forward quickly.
Following Instead Of Leading
The world loves a winner and tends to put them up on pedestals. The media gives them coverage. Books are written about them and so on.
Parents, teachers, etc. often tell us to model successful people and read biographies. The goal is to be like these larger-than-life people who define the epitome of success.
Millions of people dream of being the next Michael Jordan or the next Elon Musk. Or the next pop star… and so on.
And yet, if you asked Michael Jordan who he wanted to be, he’d most probably say that he wanted to be Michael Jordan.
Herein lies a contradiction – the leaders of the world (whichever field they may be in) are almost always trailblazers who march to the beat of their own drum.
They’re so focused on being the best they can be that they don’t have time to try and be like someone else.
Using a role model to inspire you is a start… but if you want to truly see success, you’ll need to lead rather than follow. You’ll need to put yourself in the limelight and be willing to be seen by the masses, rather than quietly skulking in the shadows.
You’ll get the accolades and recognition, but you’ll also get brickbats and hate. This is par for the course. Just remember, leaders lead. You must lead if you want massive success.
Now I know that many people reading this will not want to become leaders, but if you truly want to succeed at the highest level, you simply MUST step up and become a leader in your niche.
Expecting Overnight Success
A lack of patience has sounded the death knell on more goals/dreams than any other cause.
The current society we live in encourages impatience.
Instant notifications, text messaging, microwaves, instant meals, entire 22-episode seasons of Netflix shows presented all at once, etc. have made us believe that anything can be had fast.
We want results and we want them now. Preferably yesterday.
Life, however, has quite a different set up. Any worthy goal will take you time to achieve. Usually, it will take you longer than you believe. SO, you must have patience, lots of patience!
Like Jeff Bezos said, “All overnight success takes about 10 years.”
You can’t shrink the journey to fit into a 90-minute Hollywood movie. There is no rousing soundtrack to inspire you. Success is an ugly, dirty fight where you’ll have to claw your way to the top.
It has ALWAYS been that way.
So, if you start on an entrepreneurial journey and are expecting overnight riches without struggle, you’ll be in for a rude shock. It’s just a matter of time before you discover pitfalls, hurdles, pain, struggles and a myriad of other problems that you’ll need to constantly overcome.
You may wonder, “Why is this happening to me? Why is it so hard?”
The truth is that it doesn’t just happen to you. It happens to every entrepreneur who wishes to level up. This is the turbulence you need to get past until you reach cruising altitude.
And it will take you time. So, if you lack patience, it’s time to tell yourself that you’re in for the long haul.
Try breaking down what you want into smaller chunks. Not only does this make your chances of success much more achievable, it also allows you to have some quick wins along the way which can satiate the desire for instant gratification that plagues so many of us nowadays.
Now that you’re aware of these 3 negative beliefs, you can take steps to fix them and be on your way to success.
Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and overcoming negative thoughts and self doubt is a small part of this. So, if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂
7 Ways To Cut Costs In Your Online Marketing
7 Ways To Cut Costs In Your Online Marketing
There’s a common misconception that you can make money online for free. This is possible but in actuality is very difficult to pull off.
In order to have control over your online business, you’ll need your own domain, hosting, autoresponder and so on. Leveraging other people’s web properties for free will mean giving up control of your content and so on.
Building your house on rented property is NEVER a good idea and this includes using social media, such as Facebook pages or groups.
So it goes without saying that you’ll be spending money to build a successful online marketing business. That said, it’s nowhere as expensive as a brick-and-mortar business.
In fact, with around $200-$500, you’ll be able to build your very own online business from scratch and bootstrap it up to a 5 or even 6 figure business.
Below you’ll find 7 tips to help you reduce your costs so that if you’re on a tight budget, starting an online business will not seem so burdensome.
Start Small
This is the most important rule of the lot. When buying a domain name, use an affordable service like Namecheap. Choose a 1-year plan rather than choosing 5 years just because you get a discount.
When choosing hosting, go with a starter plan and pay monthly rather than paying yearly because you want a cheaper price. Use good providers such as A2Hosting or Siteground.
This is what starting small is all about. When your business is doing well, you can opt for the annual payments to enjoy cost savings – but not when you’re a beginner who’s scraping by.
Don’t Follow The Herd
The online marketing space is filled with sheep who will jump on every bandwagon that comes their way. You need to be more astute and alert.
When you’re first starting off, you may need a page builder for your sales pages. Software like OptimizePress or Thrive Architect are one-off payments that are much more affordable than Clickfunnels or Convertri.
Yet, you’ll see marketers praising the latter 2 all the time. The question now is, “Are you ready for these expensive options if you’re a beginner?”
The answer is probably no. So choose the cheaper options that work for you and reduce your recurring bills as much as you can.
Track Where Your Money Is Going
If you’re paying by PayPal, most of your recurring bills will be automated and it’s easy to lose track of your pre-approved payments.
Make a list of all the monthly expenses in your online business. You may be shocked to find that you’re paying for services you no longer use. For example, you may have a Stencil or Snappa subscription, but you’re hiring graphic designers from Fiverr.
So you’re wasting money here. By tracking your expenses, you’ll eliminate wasteful spending.
Making The Most Of Free Trials
A lot of software, tools, etc. come with free 7-day, 14-day or even 30-day trials. Make sure you use these free trials to save money – but before you sign up, ensure that you’re ready first or you’ll be wasting the trial.
For example, if you have a 30-day trial for an autoresponder, make sure your opt in pages are ready and you’re getting traffic before signing up for the 30-day trial.
In this way, you’ll hit the ground running from day 1 and build your list instead of wasting precious days getting the other components in your funnel ready.
Quality Is Important
You get what you pay for. Sometimes, it’s better to pay more for a product to get a better service. You’ll often find cheap self-hosted autoresponders sold by dodgy marketers.
Their selling point will be that you only pay a one-time fee. That’s true. But once you start using their software, you’ll find that the cheap software breaks down or has atrocious deliverability rates and so on.
You’d be better off paying monthly for a solid service like Active Campaign, or Aweber or and you’d have not wasted money on junk. You must find the balance between cost and value here and it might not always be easy.
However, if these services are making you money, and, more importantly, more money than you are paying for them, they are an investment rather than an expense.
Shop Around For A Bargain
You may find that some infoproducts, courses, etc. are priced differently in different places.
For example, you may find a PLR store selling you a resell rights product for $9. That same product may be sold in another website for $3.
This happens all the time and is no different from a can of coke costing 3X more in a cinema than at a supermarket. Shop around and see if you can get the product at a cheaper price.
Look Out For Coupons
Another way to save money will be to do a Google search for ‘product name + coupon’. You may find coupons that help you get a few dollars off.
Always be alert. Sometimes software is discounted during times like Black Friday, etc. Now is the best time to grab the opportunity and save yourself some money.
But it is important to only buy things that you will use in your business immediately. Don’t grab a bargain just for the sake of it because the likelihood is that you will never use it and probably forget that you even own it!
Alternatively, you can contact the product vendors directly and ask for discount coupons, etc. Many vendors will accede to your requests if you’re polite. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
At the end of the day, you want to run a lean, effective online business that makes money round the clock without incurring too many costs.
One of the easiest ways to increase your bottom-line will be to trim your expenses and when you start looking, you may be shocked at what you are wasting money on!
Constantly look for ways to do this and your business will see higher profits and you’ll be able to earn more and save more.
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