Tutorial

5 Simple Techniques To Build A List From Blogging

Any online marketer worth his/her salt would have heard the line, “The money is in the list.” It has been repeated ad nauseam and still thousands of beginner marketers are clueless as to how to build a list.

To make matters more burdensome, most autoresponder software companies charge a monthly fee for their services. So, this is a recurring cost that must be recouped quickly to keep the beginner marketer in the green.

When you’re first starting out on your blog, you’ll not need to build a list. You should first track the amount of traffic on your website. The moment you’re getting 50 to 100 unique visitors to your blog daily, it’ll be time to sign up for an autoresponder. This will buy you some time if your budget is tight.

Using A Freemium As An Incentive

A freemium is a gift that you’ll give away for free in exchange for an email address. The freemium could be a short report, or a 3-part video training or a checklist, etc. What you give away has to be of value and congruent to the niche you’re in.

If there’s a disconnect between your freemium and what the reader wants, very few visitors will join your list to get the free gift. Spend time crafting a good lead magnet that attracts subscribers.

You can either outsource the job or create one yourself from scratch. Alternatively, you may use private label rights (PLR) content and rebrand it. This will allow you to create a product with your branding quickly while maintaining quality.

Connecting Your Autoresponder

Once your lead magnet is ready, you’ll need to create a landing page for it. You can do a quick Google search for ‘best landing page examples’ to get an idea to model. You may wish to get a cover image done for your freemium on Fiverr.com.

After your landing page is complete and looks great, you’ll want to sign up with an autoresponder like Active Campaign or Aweber, and embed the sign up form on your landing page. Most of these software have video tutorials to guide you. So, don’t get put off by the ‘tech stuff’.

Once the form is embedded, you’re well on your way to collecting leads and building a list.

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.

All Roads Lead To Rome

In this case, Rome will be your landing page and this is something that you own.

Whether you’re using a YouTube channel or Facebook group or Pinterest board to drive traffic to your blog – you should always be aware that you do NOT own these sites. You’re building your house on rented land, and that’s always risky.

To mitigate the risk, you’ll want links from these social media entities pointing to the landing page on your blog. In this way, you’ll be able to siphon traffic from these high traffic sites and build a list of subscribers who wanted your freemium. Now you have some degree of control and your own asset.

Opt-in Tools

One of the best tools you can use to build a list on your blog is Thrive Leads. The software has options for you to create a non-intrusive scroll mat that allows readers to sign up. Besides the scroll mat, there are also sticky bars and pop up options for you.

You may create a visual image to perk interest and spark a click through action which will trigger a 2-step opt-in. This increases the potential subscriber’s micro-commitment and is more likely to get the lead.

Thrive Leads is designed to help you get as many subscribers as possible from your blog. It’s a worthwhile investment that will reap dividends many times over.

Locking Your Content

This is one of those techniques that’s annoying to some people, but highly effective nonetheless. You’ll need to use a content locking plugin to execute this method. If you have Thrive Leads, you can use it too, with a few tweaks.

Basically, you’ll have an interesting and highly valuable blog post where you share some insider information. Somewhere around the center of the post (preferably the most interesting part), you’ll insert the content blocker.

This will hide the rest of the blog post and insert an opt in form at the chosen spot. The only way the reader can access the rest of the post will be for them to sign up to be on your list. Once they’ve signed up, the full blog post will appear and they can carry on reading.

Some readers may get put off and close the page, while others will sign up. Whatever the case, you’ll know that those who signed up are truly interested in what you have to say and you’ll be building a list of highly targeted subscribers.

By now you’ll realize that building a list on your blog is a piece of cake if you have traffic coming in. All you need to do is insert forms for them to sign up to your list (in a variety of ways). With the versatility of Thrive Leads, a good landing page and a value-driven freemium, and a solid autoresponder, you’ll be able to build a list of targeted and interested subscribers in just a matter of time.

Drops make an ocean. So, get started today and in a few months from now, you’ll have an email list that trusts you and buys the products you recommend. This is where you’ll find the money in the list i.e. the saying should more accurately be “The money is in the customer list.”

Copywriting For Beginners: How To Write Good Sales Copy

Learning to write good sales copy isn’t something you can learn by reading a quick tutorial – it takes practice. Although you probably won’t turn into a world-famous copywriter overnight, there are a few tips you can use to increase the response from your sales letters.

The first thing you should learn is that the headline is incredibly important. If your headline is terrible – or worse – boring, most people won’t even read the rest of your sales letter. A headline needs to be exciting, enticing, and intriguing.

It needs to grab the attention of your visitor quickly. Your headline might have shock value, ask a compelling question, or be the beginning of an extremely interesting story. “Six months ago, I was living on the streets of L.A., homeless after my Adjustable Rate Mortgage soared so high I couldn’t make the mortgage payments, but now I’m living in a sky-rise apartment twenty stories up that I paid seven figures for…”

This makes the reader want to know more – how did this person go from being destitute to being wealthy? Good sales copy usually tells a story that the audience can connect with. Copy ideally shouldn’t tell a fictional story, though.

You certainly don’t want to run into any trouble with the FTC or an attorney general with something to prove. Good copy gives people a reason to keep reading. If you tell an interesting, compelling story that’s somehow related to the product and how it will affect them, it will naturally appeal to your visitor.

Every single paragraph should lead into the next paragraph, drawing the reader further and further into the pitch.

Consumers usually buy based on emotion, and then they justify their purchase with logic. They rarely buy based on logic alone.

They don’t buy a product because of the features – they buy because of the benefits it will provide to them, the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) factor. If you’re selling a car, you can’t tell the buyer that it has Corinthian leather seats, ABS brakes, and a superior sound system.

You have to sell them on the fact that their neighbors and coworkers will be envious, girls will flock to them, and they’ll feel like the king of the world whenever they drive it. Then they’ll buy based on the fantasy you’ve just given them, and they’ll use logic to justify their purchase later.

Within each online sales letter, you’ll want to have a main headline, numerous sub-headlines sprinkled throughout, and aside form the written storyline, you’ll want to add sections of benefit-driven bullet points that break up the monotonous text.

So. the headline is incredibly important. But it isn’t the most important part of your sales copy!!

Any idea what that is?

The most important part of your sales letter is the ultimate claim you’re making throughout the sales letter.

This is the big idea – the main premise around which you’re going to build your sales letter.

I’m talking about the primary purpose and promise of your product. This is the desired outcome your prospects have been hoping for.

Without a big idea, your sales copy will be pretty much the same as anyone else’s which will make converting your prospects much harder.

But with a powerful big idea, you will be able to stand out and this gives your prospects hope that your product or service may be the one that actually delivers on its promises.

Combine the big idea with a unique mechanism and now you are really compelling. The unique mechanism is the way in which your product works to produce the desired effect.

This can make all the difference in marketplaces that are saturated and sophisticated i.e. they have been exposed to the same type of offer for years.

If you are in a niche that has a high level of marketplace sophistication, it is imperative that you are able to stand out and having a big idea and a unique mechanism helps you to do just that.

And you should be incorporating the big idea and/or unique mechanism into your main headline(s) to grab attention and arouse curiosity, so take some time to develop these to draw your readers in.

Don’t forget the call to action at the end and a Post Script (PS) or two that sums up the order in case they’re bona fide skimmers who hate to read.

In all honesty, most people will not read the entire sales letter, but skim to the things that grab attention such as headlines, bullet points and the PS which is why it is important to really work on these to either increase the pain points or clearly explain the benefits.

Go to some of your favorite sales pitch sites and emulate their style and approach. Bookmark it for your “swipe file,” where you borrow ideas (not content) from the original author and use it on your own target audience.

The best sales copy is a complex mix of marketing and sales messages. The marketing is about the prospect; their desires, pains etc. and the selling is about the product; features etc. so the best sales letters focus heavily on marketing.

The reason for this is that a good marketing message can create a lot of desire for the product before you even mention it and this makes selling much easier.

So, in future, think more about your prospect, what they feel and what they want and how your product can give that to them and you will find that your conversions and sales will be much higher.

And be reassured; writing good, persuasive copy is a skill that can definitely be developed by anybody. Like anything, it just takes time and effort to get good at it and hone your skills.

But if any skill is worth developing, especially online, it is being able to write persuasive sales copy, so I urge anyone reading this to seriously consider learning it as soon as they possibly can; it will pay dividends in the future, believe me.

How To Create A Facebook Business Page

Everyone knows that having a social media profile is pretty much a must have for any online business.

In fact, many business will have multiple profiles across multiple platforms. This is fine if you have the time to manage them all (this is why social media tools such as Content Studio are so popular to streamline posting to multiple platforms).

But, if you happen to be short on time (and who isn’t, right?) then the most important platform to focus on for the vast majority of marketers would still be Facebook.

It is pretty simple to set up a Facebook page, but you want to optimise it so it will perform as well as it possibly can.

So, with that being said, if you want an engaging Facebook business page, here are 15 things you need to know to get the best results:

1: Don’t Confuse Business Pages With Personal Profiles

If you create a personal profile for your brand instead of a Facebook Business Page, you’re going to miss out on content creation tools, analytics and paid promotional opportunities.

Worse yet, people will have to send you a friend request before they can actually engage with you.

Business pages are there for a reason; to engage potential customers and encourage them to take some kind of action, so don’t make the mistake of trying to use a personal profile for your business.

Of course, you can share content from your page on your personal timeline, and promote your page on there too so you can get more folks to your business page and you should be doing this, although do it sparingly.

2: Don’t Create A ‘Professional Profile’ Associated With Your Business

Let’s say you have a personal profile on Facebook and you want a second profile for professional reasons.

This goes against Facebook’s terms of service and could get you in trouble.

Yes, there are marketers who have multiple personal Facebook profiles, but if they get caught they could be booted off the platform so the risk isn’t worth it.

And why do it anyway? Facebook pages are free, so there really is no reason to try to use multiple personal profiles.

The only reason I can see people doing this is because Facebook does have a tendency to reduce the organic reach of posts from business pages because they want you to spend money on ads and boosting posts.

3: Choose A Friendly, Engaging Cover Photo

This cover photo takes up most of the room above the fold on your Page, so you’ll want a high-quality image that attracts and holds your visitors’ attention.

You might consider hiring a professional to create this image for you.

Keep words in the image brief and to the point.

Faces work well at holding attention, and bright colors are good, too.

You can also use video on your cover too so this may be a way to showcase your products and/or brand.

4: Use A Profile Picture That’s Easy To Recognize

It could be your logo or your headshot if you’re the face of your company.

Being recognizable is important to getting found and liked, so choose your picture carefully and then use it consistently.

Don’t get too caught up on whether to use your face or a brand logo; the key is to be consistent.

Personally, I think most would do well to at least start out with a brand and design a recognisable logo for it.

Personal branding works for some, but if you look at most traditional business, they are full of logos rather than personalities.

Whatever you choose to do in your business, keep doing it so people will be able to associate it with your business brand.

5: Fill Out Your ‘About’ Section

This isn’t visible anymore when visitors arrive on your page, yet it’s still one of the most clicked-on items when they want more information about your business.

Put in your general description, company information, your story or whatever fits for your business at a bare minimum, but the more you fill in the better.

Visitors will want to know about your business so give them the information they are looking for. If they can’t find it, they may decide to look elsewhere.

The internet is awash with potential competitors for your business so you need to make people trust you and being transparent and giving them as much information about your business as possible will help them to start building that trust.

6: Add A Call-To-Action Button

This is a great way to drive traffic to your website and build your list.

Your call-to-action button might be to have visitors watch a video, sign up to your list and so forth.

All your posts will ideally have some kind of call-to-action, whether that is to go and read a blog post or to visit a sales/squeeze page.

Getting people off Facebook onto a platform you own is a smart move as you have much more control on your own websites.

7: Post Often, But Not Too Often

If you don’t post for months at a time, then your business does not look professional. Heck, you don’t even appear to be in business anymore.

However, if you post non-stop, you’ll likely annoy people.

It’s a matter of finding that happy medium, and that can vary from one business to another.

You can post your own content, motivational quotes, funny memes etc. but you can also post other people’s content.

This is known as content curation and if you do this, you should always give the original author credit but it is a good way to be posting content on your page without you doing all the writing.

8: If You Have The Time To Respond, Then Let Fans Message You Privately

It’s an awesome idea to let your customers and fans send you private messages – this can result in better customer service, fewer complaints made publicly and even more sales.

However, if you don’t have time to respond to these private messages then it might be best not to enable private messaging.

The good thing about using something like Facebook Messenger is that prospects are highly responsive so it is definitely worth considering if you have the time.

You can also use platforms like Mobile Monkey or ManyChat to create an automated sequence that will automatically respond to your prospects when they message you. If you want to make the most of this kind of automation, consider picking up this excellent training course on chatbot marketing by JayKay Dowdall called Destiny.

9: Monitor Your Page And Respond To Comments Promptly

You can monitor and respond to comments using the ‘notifications’ tab at the top of the page.

If people are taking the time to comment on your posts, it means that they like what you are doing, so really make the effort to respond to any comments that are being posted.

This also has an effect on the Facebook algorithm and may even make your page posts more visible to people who like and follow your page so a win-win situation all round.

10: Pin Important Posts To The Top Of The Page

As you post, older posts get pushed down and buried. But there are times when you want a post to remain at the top, even after you’ve published new posts.

You can pin one post at a time and use these to promote events, offers and announcements.

Don’t underestimate the power of a good pinned post. Make it a strong one with a clear call-to-action as it will be the first post that your new visitors will see when they visit your page and you need to grab their attention and grab it fast!

11: Post Visual Content In Your Timeline

Photos and videos are up to 40 times more likely to get shared on social media, so take advantage of this fact and share lots of visual content.

Memes, GIF’s and motivational posts are always good content to post on your page, and if they are good, they may get shared and this will get more eyeballs to your page.

Video content can be particularly engaging for your viewers. Just try to keep them short and sweet; 2 minutes or under tend to work best on social media.

12: Consider Using Live Video

People typically spend more than three times more time watching a Facebook Live video than they do a recorded video.

You can even use tools to let your followers know that you intend to go live at a particular time.

Let them know in advance what the topic will be so they can come with their questions. This can be super engaging and Facebook puts a lot of emphasis on viewer engagement and will push your livestream out to more people.

13: Use Facebook’s Targeting Tools

You can target certain audiences with tailor-made updates.

Segment by age, gender, relationship, location and so forth, and then send highly targeted messages to those groups for a greater response.

These tools can be really powerful but may take a bit of getting used to.

However, it really is worth getting to know your audience so you can tailor your content to their needs.

14: Promote Your Page. A Lot

Create an ad to promote your page, choose your target audience and choose your budget. Make sure your ad is directly targeted to your ideal customer and test.

This is where knowing your audience comes into play, as you can get really targeted ads to a highly specific audience to maximise your ad spend.

You might also consider boosting a post once a week as this will again push your page into your followers newsfeeds so they don’t forget about you!

15: Measure Your Success

Dig into your page’s insights to track Facebook-specific engagement metrics.

Analyze and adjust as needed.

It might all sound complicated, but you’ll quickly get the hang of everything here.

So, there you have it. 15 ways to optimise and get the most out of your Facebook business page. If you only implement a few of these I’m sure it will make a difference but imagine what a difference it would make if you managed to implement them all!!

For more information on creating a Facebook business Page, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/business/products/pages

How To Get Traffic To Your Blog With Content Marketing

Blogging has truly revolutionized the way one experiences the digital age. There is apparently no limit to what you can do with the help of blogs. Even the smallest aspect of your daily personal life like recording journal entries has been given an entirely new dimension.

Going on from there, there is a lot of scope for picking up interesting debates and discussions through blogs. You can even start some of these discussions yourself.

And another great thing about running your own blog is that you can monetise it and actually make money by writing about things you are passionate about!

And it is easier to do than you might think. Honestly, it isn’t rocket science; you don’t need to be a scientist who posts revolutionary details about his latest experiments.

If you blog well, i.e. if you are engaging enough that people want to come and read it, you have a really good chance of making some money, by just going about your daily activity of posting blogs on areas that interest your readers in your niche!

Here are some of the things you can do to make sure that your blogging activities get rewarded by more than just comments and praises:

You could get yourself registered with a search engine. Doing this will virtually guarantee that your blog will get a great deal of free, organic traffic, and traffic is the lifeblood of any blog/business.

In this way, the higher the ranking your blog achieves, the more you are likely to get paid because more people will be able to find your content quickly.

While writing your blog articles you also need to keep a few things in mind. This is not only to ensure that you get a steady flow of traffic, but also for the fact that your blog readership can increase so that the ranking of your blog with search engines go higher.

Here are a few tips to help you with your blog content:

Reader Friendly Content: At all costs keep your content – articles, poems, photographs, videos – reader friendly, that is to say, it should keep more and more readers interested. Your reader must be at the center of you post in a way that your reader must feel that he is gaining something out of reading your post. This is the basic rule in marketing.
Make It Worthwhile: Never let the reader feel that he has been tricked into reading your post or clicking on your blog link. You are thwarting all your long term chances of that reader coming back to your blog, in which case your blog rankings over the long term are in a dicey position.
Check For Errors: Making grammatical and spelling errors can be a major put off for many readers. They may not visit your blog again simply because the errors that you make are too high. Always proof read your blog. A small typo here and there can be understood, but make sure you don’t make any major errors.
KISS: Or, Keep It Short and Simple. This is the thumb rule you must follow at all point. Long winding posts tend to get boring. And it may contain nothing that is interesting to the reader. Also no one has the time enough for your blog, no matter how well you write. In fact, your blog will be much more appreciated if you put your thoughts simply and shortly.
Make It Interesting: Make sure that you hold your reader’s attention by making your posts snazzy. They must not be written in a tone that is tiring to read. Write short sentences and keep then crisp and precise. Always hit the point immediately in the course of your article.
Link: Keep linking the blogs you read to yours in order to build a network those people will be in turn encouraged to link you. Remember, linking increases rankings.
Keywords: Using the keywords of your posts frequently increases the search ability of that particular article of yours which in turn leads more people to visit your blog.
Clear Thoughts: Make sure you put your thought clearly before the readers so that it does not become tedious for them to read.
Colloquialism: You can write in a friendly tone. Avoid using too many slang words, but otherwise, if your post demands it, you can be colloquial.
Post Title: A catchy post title or headline is half your business solved. It can glue a reader to your post almost immediately. However, do not put misleading post titles, or you will lose creditability.
Always Have A Call To Action: Writing an engaging blog post is great but remember that you want to make money from your content, so always have a call to action to click on a link that either goes to one of your own products or an affiliate offer where you will get a commission. You can see below that I have added several calls to action in this post, just like the one below where I am giving away a free checklist to keep you on track when setting up your blog, so click on the image below or click here if you want 🙂

So, be consistent with your blog content and watch the traffic start flowing in to your blog!

How To Create The Most Powerful Lead Magnet

Everyone probably knows the power of giving away something for free to encourage visitors to give you their email address.

But your lead magnet has to be a real no-brainer offer as people are more suspicious and untrusting than ever as they are constantly being bombarded with marketing from all angles and your free gift has to be incredibly valuable and, more importantly, useful, if they are going to be tempted to part with their valuable email address.

I’m going to use the online marketing niche as our example to explain this technique, but keep in mind this could work equally well in other niches, too.

Consider this: When people have a specific problem that’s driving them crazy, they’ll do almost anything to fix that problem NOW.

For example, a bride-to-be has an acne outbreak the day before her wedding – what wouldn’t she do to fix her problem?

A woman is in immediate danger of losing her job – what wouldn’t she do to convince her boss not to fire her?

Parents are losing their child to alcohol – what wouldn’t they do to save their child?

Pay Attention!

Their need is great and immediate. Do you think they might pay to find the solution? Of course. Do you think they would enter their email address into an opt-in form to get the solution? You bet they would!

So how do we use this knowledge in a niche such as online marketing? Simple: If you pay attention to forums and blogs, you’ll notice there’s always some sort of online marketing crisis.

For example, Google just changed how they rank websites, and now thousands of online marketers are losing tons of money. Think they might like the solution?

Paypal is suddenly seizing accounts without warning and freezing the funds. Would the account owners like an answer on how to unfreeze their accounts? Would everyone else like to know how NOT to get their accounts frozen? You bet.

Facebook just changed (fill in the blank) and now marketers are unable to (fill in the blank) or maybe they’re banned, or…

Aweber just did the unthinkable, and marketers everywhere are freaking out.

XYZ hosting site just got hacked, big time. Websites are down and backups are missing – what to do?

The list goes on and on. Keep tabs on the forums and you’ll find a new crisis every month and often every week.

Offer The Latest Solution

As you’ve probably already guessed, your lead magnet is going to offer the solution to the latest marketing crisis.

Just imagine how fast marketers will give you their email address when you have the answer they desperately want NOW.

Right about now you’re asking, “But how am I going to find the solution when they can’t?”

Good old-fashioned research, that’s how.

Go to the help sections of the websites involved in the latest crisis and find out everything you can.

If possible, call the website and ask all the questions you need to ask.

Hit the chatrooms and forums and glean all the helpful info that is available. If you find an expert who knows what s/he’s talking about, do a quick phone interview.

Act Fast

Timing is everything on this, and you have got to act fast.

If the crisis hits on Monday, ideally you want your lead magnet up no later than Tuesday to take full advantage of the tsunami of new leads you’re going to get.

And by the way, when you’ve got the solution everyone is desperately looking for, what does that make you?

The trusted expert and authority, that’s who.

Do you think people will open and read your future emails? You bet your life they will.

Spread Your Net Wisely!

Now here’s the trick to getting your squeeze page in front of as many of these marketers as possible:

Outsource people to search out forums and threads where marketers are talking about this problem. If someone is looking for help, that’s where you want a link to your solution.

Have your outsourcers post a link to your squeeze page offering them the answer they seek.

Yes, it’s that easy.

Oftentimes that thread and even your post offering your lead magnet will end up on page one of Google for that particular search.

Not bad, right?

Oftentimes that thread and even your post offering your lead magnet will end up on page one of Google for that particular search.

Not bad, right?

And here’s the best part – your opt-in rate will be sky high. It will almost certainly top any squeeze page you currently have.

One more thing – if you want to take this just one step further, it can blow wide open.

Get On Record!

Get podcasters to interview you and do guest posts on as many blogs as possible.

Think about it – this problem is all over the online marketing community. What podcaster or blog owner doesn’t want to have someone with the solution to offer their listeners and readers?

Just one post on a major blog or podcast can result in a thousand subscribers in 48 hours.

Remember to position your solution not just as the answer to the problem, but also as the way to AVOID the problem for all those who aren’t already experiencing it.

This way you’ll be able to grab not only the marketers looking for a solution, but also everyone else who wants to avoid this headache.

Wealth loves speed. Now go find the latest crisis, research the solution and start building that list.

A side benefit of doing all this research is that you will always be on the cutting edge of whatever is going on in your niche and this is a great place to be.

Too many marketers rest on their laurels and regurgitate the same tired old tactics even though the marketplace has evolved and many of the tactics may no longer work, although the underlying strategy probably does.

Keeping yourself informed will help you to constantly be on the lookout for new trends in your niche and you can jump on these fast as you will become aware of them quickly, so don’t underestimate the power of being “in the know” as it can keep you way ahead of the competition.