Unlocking Your Future – the Key to Working from Home
Guest Post by James Martell
In my dad’s day, a businessman commuted from the suburbs to the office for hours each week, often traveling on business trips to meet with clients or suppliers, and spent more time away from home than he ever did with his family. Those days are disappearing, and it’s time to embrace a new normal.
Blast from the past
Back in 1998, when I first started understanding how the internet would be the future of business, everyone was a bit leery of it. When I did my first promotion for a company in the United States, everybody thought it was crazy for a Canadian like me to do business with someone from another country, not to mention someone I had never even met. I must admit I had my own doubts about it, but they were all laid to rest when the first check cleared the bank.
Today’s Information Age
Flash forward twelve years and the internet is the way we all do business, so why are so many of us still leaving our homes and families to punch a time clock in an office? Working from home is the key to your freedom and happiness; you just have to follow some simple guidelines and success can be yours.
Create your own space
Start by creating your own work space. Working from home is great, because it allows you the freedom to manage your own time and do with it what matters most, but you can’t treat your work time like home time. Creating a separate space to be your work area is essential, and allows you to mentally focus on your work, as well as keep things organized.
Some people I’ve talked to prefer to create their own office, complete with a nice home office computer desk and filing cabinets. Others prefer to make a section in their garage or a corner of the bedroom their work area. However much space you need, or the tools you require, just make sure it is a space that is all your own, and dedicated solely to your work. No setting up on half the kitchen the table and pretending you can eat dinner around it or the kids won’t scatter it. It just doesn’t work!
Social marketing
Use the internet to work for you. It’s important to realize that there’s a lot of competition out there these days, and you’ll need more going for you than just a well written landing page if you’re going to be a success. You’re going to have to make what you’re offering look appealing to the consumer and convince them that others think it has value too. Whatever you’re selling, whether it’s a product or a service, one of the best ways to sell it is with social marketing.
Just as our parents turned to the yellow pages or watched ads on TV, today everybody goes to search engines like Google when they want or need something. It’s the first place many of us get our information now.
When we want to know if the information we gathered from the web is credible, we rely on people we know for endorsements. The power of word of mouth has grown immeasurably since the advent of Facebook and Twitter. Millions of consumers are turning to these resources before making purchases and more and more of us are doing the actual buying or ordering on the internet as well. I’m sure you’ve found this to be true in your own life just as I have. These are great tools that you can use to your advantage. By getting people to talk about your product or service and consumers will seek you out.
Tools of tomorrow, here today
If all this sounds like a lot of work, just remember, you don’t have to do it all alone. Working from home isn’t for hermits or the antisocial. Thanks to today’s technology, it is as vibrant and active and social as you want to make it.
- Increase knowledge and education with webinars.
- Bring the boardroom right into your home by holding meetings and networking with them through business video conferencing or Skype.
- Utilize smart phone apps or laptops to access everything you need anywhere you go.
Do all the things you want to do with your life, and still have the access to handle all your business needs and communicate with the people you need to accomplish it all. Social networking is first and foremost about keeping social as much as you can.
Follow these guidelines and you’ll be on the path to success, and free to enjoy it when you achieve it. Your future is just waiting for you.
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James Martell, author of the Affiliate Marketers Handbook works from his home office computer desk teaching others how to make money with affiliate programs utilizing powerful tools like business video conferencing.
Read MoreWhat You Should Know About Industry Conferences
Guest Post by James Martell
Do you ever hear about conferences for your particular industry and wonder if you should go?
Do you worry about whether a trade show is worth the time and expense involved?
I was struggling with those issues when I went to my first affiliate marketing conference in 2002. I had been an affiliate marketer for about three years, and I wanted more information on growing my business. Yes, I enjoyed the travel opportunity. Yes, the weather in Santa Barbara was gorgeous and the hotel was nice as well.
Seriously, though, if I were only looking for a short vacation, Seattle is closer and Portland is much more affordable.
Specific to my situation, I would have had a hard time convincing my wife Arlene to cut me loose for three days if all I could promise her on my return was a suitcase full of dirty laundry.
Fortunately, I was able to attend the conference because both Arlene and I knew why I was going. Better yet, our expectations for the trip were met and then exceeded.
Reasons to Attend Online Marketing Conferences
When I returned from my first Commission Junction University, Arlene and I were more than satisfied with the benefits I brought home. That’s why, when I returned to CJU the next year, I was accompanied by Arlene and 40 other people.
These days I attend several marketing events every year, and I advise all of my affiliates and colleagues to attend at least two per year. The primary reasons include;
- The time spent at these conferences is actually an investment. When you get back to the office, you’ll be working better, working smarter, and you’ll be far more motivated.
- The money you spend attending these conferences, to include travel and meals, is normally tax deductible. If you happen to own the business, I don’t have to tell you how important that is!
- You’ll have the opportunity to speak with and listen to leaders in your industry, and will probably come away with a few new ideas.
- You’ll be able to tap into a knowledge and experience base far larger than anything you would be able to accumulate on your own.
- The most important reason to attend an industry event, however, is the same reason I kept going back to the Commission Junction Universities; We need to grow.
Over the last decade, I have attended many trade shows and industry conferences, and I have listed a few of my favorites below. I have personally attended each of these events, and I have been invited to speak at several of them as well.
Whether you are an affiliate marketer, or are just interested in what the Internet can do for your business, one of these events offers something you can use.
The Best Online Marketing Conferences 2011
Affiliate Summit
This event is described as the premier affiliate marketing conference, and with good reason. The Summit is held in New York and Las Vegas, and offers a variety of educational events in addition to top industry speakers and acres of merchants and vendors.
Blog World Expo
The Expo gathers bloggers from the four corners of the earth to Las Vegas for three days so they can take advantage of networking events, presentations, and of course, vendors and merchants galore. You don’t need to be a blogger to enjoy this conference, though. If you are just looking for a way to use social media to promote your business, you should plan to attend.
Webmaster World’s PubCon
Most people expect this to be a publishing convention, but the first one was actually held in a pub, so the name actually describes a group of colleagues around a pub table. Well, Webmaster’s World has outgrown the pub, but it still provides an informal, relaxed venue to share marketing strategies and advanced SEO methods.
Commission Junction University
I cut my teeth, so to speak, on this event, and if you actually need a reason to spend three days in Santa Barbara, this conference is a really good one. You’ll get a chance to meet with over 800 industry leaders and top Commission Junction affiliates, like me. You should attend just to find out what affiliate marketing can do for your business.
AffCon
The cool part about newer industry shows is that they’re usually inexpensive, and this one is free, for the moment. This may not last long, though, because AffCon is still packed with leading panelists, all the usual vendors and merchants, and lots of great information for beginners as well as experienced affiliate marketers.
ShareASale Think Tank
What is the difference between a Think Tank and a regular conference? Imagine the level of creativity inspired by great parties, a sports event or two, and one of the best assembled brain-trusts in the industry. Affiliates, managers and merchants would all benefit from this event.
Every business relies on marketing, so it’s likely that your business would benefit from any of these events. If you’ve never attended these or any other online marketing conferences, 2011 might be the year your business really takes off.
Of course, if you aren’t a full-time marketer, there are probably other gatherings which are more focused on your specific industry. You should also least check out the ones that sound interesting.
Shopping for Your Own Trade Show
Matt Papas is an associate of mine who has a weight loss website. Matt could benefit from nearly any Internet marketing conference, but he could also get some great information at fitness or medical conferences. For instance, he could learn more about how to market to clients who are looking for a Medifast coupon code, or looking for the right answer, complete with details, to the question, “Does the Nutrisystem diet work?”
Arlene, of course, attends some events with me, but occasionally she should take in other events as well. Arlene’s website, epliepsymoms.com, offers support and information for parents of epileptic children, so she could also benefit from medical conferences. She could also add conferences specific to epilepsy support organizations and other childhood diseases.
Regardless of your industry or interest, finding the right trade show could only take a minute or two on your favorite search engine. Search for a phrase like “Restaurant Trade Shows” and you’ll find a list of events and probably a Facebook page or Twitter account you can connect to as well. Someone out there is dying to show you how to attract more customers using Google Plus or how the right color of interior paint will keep customers in your store longer.
Will You Be Attending an Industry Conference This Year?
Well, why in the world not? If you have yet to attend one of this year’s online marketing conferences 2011 is not quite over yet . The amount of time and money you’d put into a conference will be more than justified by the ideas and motivation you’ll bring home. The only real question, then, is;
Which of these conferences will you attend?
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Author and website developer James Martell is the President of Net Guides Publishing Inc. and is a popular speaker at many national events all over the country, including Commission Junction University and the Affiliate Convention. When James isn’t working or traveling, he enjoys the coastal life just south of Vancouver, BC with his wife, Arlene, and their four children.
Read MoreFour Good Reasons to Try Photo Sharing on Google Plus
Guest Post by James Martell
We’ve waited long enough, don’t you think?
Google has had several false starts with Google Wave and Google Buzz, but it appears that Google Plus just might be some serious competition for Facebook.
At the moment, Google Plus is accessible by invitation only, so it’s hard to predict just how many Facebook fans will be willing to make the conversion. Based entirely on the response from habitual pic posters, however, I think Facebook ought to be sitting up and taking notice.
Charlie Sorrell offered some insight from his listening post in the Gadget Lab at Wired.com; “It has been said that the biggest feature of Google Plus is that it’s not Facebook. However, there’s another feature that may be of interest to all you Gadget Lab photo nerds out there: the photo integration. It turns out that G+ is a pretty sweet way to manage and view your shared photos.”
Since photo sharing is the most commonly used application on Facebook, it makes sense that Google Plus should launch with its photo sharing applications up and running. The question I wanted to answer, though, is how Google can improve on Facebook’s well-established and familiar photo gallery function.
Conveniently enough, I found four answers.
Google Photo Images Will Upload Faster.
The difference in loading time per picture between Facebook and Google plus isn’t impressive. Google won’t require you to toggle or configure pictures before loading them on Google Plus, while Facebook will. For the causal user, this will amount to no difference at all. However, if you come back from your Alaskan cruise with 200 pictures to post, an extra second or two per picture will make a difference.
Google Photo Images Will Look Better.
The difference between the visual display on Facebook and Google is very impressive. Google will accommodate high resolution shots of up to 2,048 pixels, so kittens on a laundry basket will look more adorable and your latest experiments in digital infrared photography will look like they came from NASA.
I have a friend and colleague in Brooklyn named Vinny, who recently attended the 4th of July fireworks show over the Hudson River. He took plenty of pictures with his Android and was able to upload them to Google Plus directly from his phone quickly and easily, and with stunning results.
Google Photo Images are Android-Friendly
As my friend Vinny discovered, you can easily access and upload to Google Plus directly from an Android. As several thousand annoyed consumers have discovered, iPhone and Blackberry users aren’t so lucky yet. Google has assured us that the iPhone and Blackberry apps are on their way, but Google’s favoritism may have been a good thing for the Martell household.
My son Justin loves his Android, and has been using it to educate me about the shortcomings of my iPhone. I may not be a fast learner, but I have finally decided that my next phone will be an Android, so I won’t lose much sleep if Google takes it’s time developing an iPhone app.
Google Photo Images are Easier to Share (or Not)
You and I are both aware that photo sharing is wildly popular, and we also know that it should be done responsibly. Google knows better than to promise a perfectly safe method of photo sharing, but they have come up with a few improvements over the Facebook model, and one in particular that has my attention.
Facebook allows you to categorize your visitors as “friends” or not, but Google allows you to place people in circles. The circles let you to share certain images with certain people and other images with others.
Of course, Google offers the same opportunity for tagging and re-sharing pictures, so you still shouldn’t post anything you don’t want your boss to see. However, using selective “circles” could keep your co-workers from getting too much information about your escapades at the Comic-Con last summer.
This Should be Interesting..
Google Plus is much more than a new Google photo gallery, and it will take more than photo sharing options to get folks to switch from Facebook. However, if the photo sharing options are any indication, Facebook could have a fight on its hands.
Google plus’ photo gallery will appeal to nearly everyone who posts snapshots. Grandparents will be able to safely post and share birthday party pictures, and whether the shots come from camera phones or infrared digital cameras, they’ll all look like they could be posted on the National Geographic site. Sort of.
So, is Google Plus the new Facebook killer? David Seaman from BusinessInsider.com weighs in with a measured response; Google Plus “.. will be a huge success, and Facebook is in trouble – although by no means obsolete.” It appears that only Facebook
can decide whether Google Plus will kill it or just make it stronger.
Hopefully, Facebook will respond with equal amounts of innovation and marketing savvy. If they do, then both the Facebook faithful and the Google groupies will be able to enjoy the same outcome; more toys for everybody!
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James Martell is well known as an affiliate marketing specialist in outsourcing and SEO. He is a sought after speaker, affiliate marketing trainer and podcaster. James is host of the longest running affiliate marketing podcast on WebmasterRadio.FM (since 2003), and creator of the Affiliate Marketers “SUPER BootCamp”, where he teaches others how to make money with affiliate programs. James lives in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on west coast of Canada with his wife, Arlene and their 4 kids.
Read MoreIncreasing Your Profitability: The #1 Strategy
Guest Post by James Martell.
It’s a safe bet one of the biggest reasons you chose to go into business for yourself is to live by your own schedule. For many people I’ve spoken to since I started out in 1999 online marketing is a great way to stop punching the clock.
In fact, this is a great way to love not only what you do, but to also have a chance to enjoy life. Setting your own hours, leaves you free to spend time your free time as you see fit. An unscheduled day off in the middle of the week won’t get you fired. 🙂
Having this sense of control, and building your own paycheck means a lot less frustration. It also makes you far more productive. It’s important not to let old habits you might have learned in the 9 to 5 mindset hold you back.
Making Your Time Work For You
It’s easy to return to the grind that kept you bogged down in work that you don’t enjoy, or will take you more time than it would a pro with more experience in certain areas. From clerical help to an artistic makeover you can build your business using skills readily available to you from professionals at reasonable costs.
Use the 15-Minute Rule Guide
I’m not overly technical. I found that when I try to do something that requires that type of aptitude I’ll spend hours basically just making the situation worse, and then realize later that I’ve wasted time I could have spent on another task.
There is no reason to struggle this way because there are thousands of talented artistic, clerical, and yes, technical professionals waiting to do jobs exactly like the one causing me a problem. For these individuals it takes just a few minutes to complete a job that could keep me away from higher level, profitable work.
What I love best about the trainings I give is getting to talk to people active in online marketing. I know from these conversations that this is a struggle for a lot of people, but really, it’s unnecessary. If you find yourself wearing thin on the task at hand then try what I call the 15-minute rule.
If I am still frustrated after working on a problem for 15-minutes, and can’t resolve it, or get a project to work the way I it need it to, I will hire a service provider I can trust to do the job for me. Hiring one of the many experienced professions on sites like Elance, takes less time, and in the end, less money than it would if I squandered my day away struggling with an issue, and not getting anything done.
That 15-minute rule has worked well for me, because of the professionalism I found on websites such as Elance. In fact, one job in particular I contracted illustrates exactly what I mean as far as saving money and time working on even a small issue when you can find someone to complete any kind of job in no time at all.
Working on an Excel spread sheet I realized that I needed some of the files separated so I could work with them. As I kept working on different ways to accomplish this and getting frustrated, I realized I was in violation of my rule. I was also letting other projects wait while tried to work on this one issue.
After posting the job on Elance and reviewing my bid options, I accepted the bid of a gentleman to complete the assignment for $20. I was sure the job could be completed in 24 hours for that amount.
Except, after setting the terms for the job at 24 hours, I forgot one crucial part of the job, and I neglected to send him the file. Now, for the provider to be paid within those terms he would need to finish within that timeframe, and if I’d remembered to send the work itself I’m sure he could have done so.
Perhaps, being a professional he’d encountered this problem before, because instead of letting the assignment go when he couldn’t reach me to get the file, he wrote a short program.
What this program did was separate the files, and I all I had to do was install it. The files were separated and I could work with them right away.
If you take this one story, and then realize it happens daily on Elance thousands of times a day you will see why this is a valuable tool.
On these sites, there are thousands of professional service providers actively looking for your jobs, and they are knowledge about how best to help your resolve problems you might be having right now.
Outsourcing Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive If Done Right
Imagine you need a retouching photoshop for a banner add. After trying for awhile with no success it would be easy to exclude this from your website, and you would lose this item you want for your business only because it falls outside your own expertise.
When you only concentrate on what you can do alone due to either time issues, or know-how you’re limiting the professional quality of your endeavor. This is dropping the level of what you can do to promote and run your business, and crippling the vision, you have for all your projects.
One of the important points I make as part of my outsourcing course is that you don’t need to limit your business to those areas of expertise you don’t personally hold. Perhaps unlike me, you are a computer wizard. Chances are good you aren’t also a photo retouchers professional, writer, or software designer. You can go without being all those things, but your business will at some point need all those skills and more.
So many qualified providers and professionals with various skills sets willing to share their abilities with your site or business for a very reasonable price, that finding someone who has a specially skill or even time saving clerical support is too easy and too inexpensive to do without.
Really, the numbers of experts and professionals waiting to bid on your project is astounding. The process is simple and low in cost if you follow a few important tips.
Outsourcing Tip #1: The Myth of Expensive Outsourcing
Many people’s first objection to hiring a professional is based on the myth that outsourcing will be too expensive. Outsourcing is not expensive if you use sites like
Elance, or others where pros bid on doing your job for you. Through this process, you pick the price you want to pay.
As a job provider, you have control of the service providers you hire and how much you will pay.
The nice thing about most of the bidding for hire sites is that when you post the job, you can take the bid that appeals to you to based on the qualifications and how much you think the work is worth.
Outsourcing Tip #2: Outline a Clear Idea of What You Want
This is tip number two, but it is the number one mistake made by new job providers. A vague, undefined job posting will not get you the results you want.
Very clearly, describe what you want. A website designer for example, bidding on your project might be very good, but he or she cannot know in advance what you want without direction, and while this provider will try to give you a great results, it might not be what you need.
Instead, picture how you would like the end-result of your project to look like and write a short spec page outline with 15 or so points listed to let the writer what you want the job to include.
Outsourcing Tip #3: Protect Your Money by Setting Milestones
One very important tip is to protect your money by setting milestones, and using escrow. A milestone can be set for each phase of project. The total payment for the job can be split per each milestone performed.
On sites like Elance, the escrow system allows you to keep your money protected since you only release the funds when a milestone or the project is completed to your satisfaction.
When my wife Arlene first started outsourcing she found that through this method she had better control of each phase of her website. Since she needed many different new aspects to her site, having approval of each element from the banner to the links on the page was a useful tool for her, and is for anyone with a definite picture of what they want.
Outsourcing Tip #4: Use Feedback to Get To Know the Pro
Before you select who will work on the project check their feedback. As providers bid on your project, you can use the system to read what others they have worked for say about them. In a way, the feedback works much the same a reference.
Personally, I avoid those service providers who do not have any feedback, since their abilities, and work ethic are yet unknown.
Outsourcing Tip #5: Chose Your Own Price Through Negotiation
Negotiate the price. You can ask bidders to lower their bids through the system. Sometimes an overpriced bid represents a misunderstanding of what the job will entail or what kind of budget is possible for this work. Most bidders are open to some element of negotiation due to the competition for jobs and good job providers on the site.
One of the main reasons that my wife Arlene developed this knack for negotiation was in her experience working with her own site EpilepsyMoms.com.
Arlene noticed a need for a place online where parents could share information about Epilepsy, it’s treatment, and trade tactics for dealing with this condition. She wanted an easy to navigate site, a forum, and a recorded message that greeted visitors as they entered.
Going through some of the services out there could have been expensive, and doing this work alone would have difficult. She found that through discussions with the services providers she could get a price that was reasonable, without sacrificing expertise.
Outsourcing Tip #6: Keep in Contact and Respond to Messages
Elance provides a private message system. This function allows private emails between you and the service provider. Here you and the person working on the job can discuss aspects of different assigns and keep up with each step along the way.
The pro’s goal is to make you the customer happy, and this will mean touching base with you occasionally. Keeping in touch with the provider also lets you know that the project is staying on track, and that you will be happy the job’s results.
Elance holds these messages in the system allowing you and the service provider to keep a running record of your communications.
While it happens very infrequently, if you and the service provider disagree at any point these records are valuable in assisting Elance in resolving the dispute.
Outsourcing Tip #7: Everyone Likes to Get Paid—Pay Fast
After outsourcing more than 400 projects, I know that money is a motivator. Once you have a technical person, writer, data entry clerk, or any other sort of service provider you may very well want to become a repeat customer. Paying fast ensures the service provider would put your name at the top of their list of projects to bid on when he or she sees your posting.
When you are paying you can stagger the amounts allowing you to pay a part of the total agreed on price a step at a time, but there’s one other important tool that milestones give you. Once you’ve paid an initial deposit you can give feedback. If things start going wrong on the job, this tool allows you to have a motivator when working with the service provider.
Feedback on Elance works much the same as with other systems like eBay in which bad feedback can cost the provider future sales or work. Once you’ve made a payment through the system you have this added incentive for the service provider to do a great job.
Outsourcing Tip #8: Never Leave The System
There’s no legitimate reason for either the job provider or the service provider to want to leave the system either Elance or other service provider website has set up. If you leave you can’t use the many safe features the site provides for you.
A service provider might ask you to leave in order to avoid paying. Job providers only pay for the service provider, while Elance takes it’s fee from that total before paying the service provider.
Leaving the system is denying Elance it’s fee, and it takes away important safety features from you such as dispute resolution, a safe, private message center, and the ability to give feedback.
When service providers are used to getting good feedback they have no reason to leave the system, since while they are paying a small fee, the free advertising from a satisfied customer’s comments ensures them more work.
Outsourcing Tip #9: Build Service Provider Relationships
When you are a good client who pays on time and gets good feedback you will never have trouble getting great bids for you jobs. Once you know whom you want to work with from experience you can invite them back to work with you again,
On her own site this was a great discovery that Arlene made, once someone knows you, it’s easier for the person to produce work you will appreciate. In the case of her site past services providers who already knew her needs and her site could produce the work quickly.
Outsourcing Tip #10: Your Feedback is Important Too
Just as you are checking out the feedback of the service provider, they are looking at your past feedback to determine if you are someone they want to work with on the job you’re current listing.
Some comments such as being slow to pay, or not responding to messages can hurt you in finding future good professionals to help you. From the service providers perspective they are taking a chance that you will honor your agreement, and the best proof of that is an outstanding past record.
Your Incentive to Outsourcing
- Thousands of technicians, writers, network specialists, coders, copywriters,artists, web designers, and more professionals are competing for your business.
- Competition keeps the costs down.
- There is no cost for posting your job. The service provider pays the fee for the job.
- Feedback is an extra incentive for the service provider to do a great job for you.
- Elance has provided safety nets to ensure your privacy, and that disputes can be settled within the system.
People Like to Earn Money
From the start like many in this industry, I wanted my wife to also take part in the business. She wasn’t interested until one day she saw something she really wanted. A sofa that would exactly fit her plans for decorating. I think everyone can relate. We all see those things we want, and need then go looking for ways to achieve our dreams.
In this case the dream was at a reasonable price, but she also knew I had money set aside for the writing several articles I needed. She came to me with an idea, she could do the articles, and we both get a sofa.
She’d written before so this was a skill she possessed. We made the trade. In this case, I not only got the articles, but in writing those articles, Arlene saw what affiliate marketing was all about and started taking a big part in the business herself.
You don’t always have a professional or expert in the family, and even when you do drawing on them all the time can have a downside. You can draw on the professionals at Elance or a similar site whenever you need to for almost any type of service or skill.
Sometimes it might just be a person to go through a few administrative details to free up your time. Or you might someone to design your entire website. Either way, it doesn’t have to be too expensive, and this can immensely increase the productive or image of your site.
Over to You
What questions do you have about outsourcing? Tell us your thoughts on this way to increase your productivity.
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Recognized as a leading expert in affiliate marketing training, James Martell is President of Net Guides Publishing Inc. and host of the “Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp.” A sought-after speaker, James has presented at Commission Junction University, Affiliate Summit, The System Seminar, Digital River Lab, Webmaster World’s PubCon, Affcon, and more. He is also the host the “Affiliate Buzz”, the 1st ever and longest running affiliate marketing podcast in the industry. James relies on outsourcing for the creation of his websites, graphics, articles, podcasts, and video in order to streamline his business, enabling him to break away from the daily grind.
Read MoreFive Strategies for Return Traffic
Guest Post by James Martell.
With over a decade’s experience in the online marketing business, I can tell you that things have changed. Just a few years ago, the best way to have success online was to get a high volume of unique visitors on a regular basis. To an extent, this is still important, but the key to success today is to have your visitors come back to your site on a regular basis.
Websites with a devoted following of users are among the most successful today, with a prominent example being daily deal sites such Woot or Groupon.
The significance of return traffic
In a recent interview I did for my Coffee Talk series with Ryan Allis, co-founder and CEO of iContact, a leading provider of email marketing software boasting more than 700,000 users, he told me that you will never see a whopping 70% of your traffic ever again if you don’t get them on your list. In other words, your time and effort would be best spent on getting your visitors to return to your website on a regular basis.
In general, if a product or service is expensive or complicated, a consumer must be exposed time and time again to the product or service before they will truly consider purchasing it. If a visitor to your website never comes back, they will not likely result in a sale or increased advertising revenue for you.
Search engines also play a very large part in this equation. Google and other search engines continue to monitor information about your website’s visitors, including how many times they return. Ranking highly in search engines for topics such as car insurance quotes, lift chairs, inflatable boats, wood routers, or doll houses requires you to get your users to come back.
In this article, I will discuss the five best strategies for creating effective return traffic.
1) Make use of RSS to Email
This is a fantastic piece of email automation software that can inform members on your list about the new content that you post. Best of all, you never have to lift a finger, with many options for automation.
Creating a weekly or monthly newsletter or sending email auto-responders can be incredibly difficult and time-consuming.
Fortunately, RSS to Email allows you to send out newsletters and auto-responders, but in a much simpler and easier way. Their automated service can allow you to notify your list members every single time you add new content to your website. This is a fantastic way to get your readers to return to your website and check out the new content you have posted.
My favorite feature on this program, however, is the scheduling tool. This allows you to send out a regular newsletter automatically with little to no work on your part. The scheduling tool can run as little or as often as you want, and it can crawl a number of websites, effectively combining different pages of content into one handy newsletter. It can even send out a newsletter to your list automatically, but you can also have it send you a preview newsletter so that you can approve its content yourself.
2) Release podcast updates
Considering the amount of people with online businesses today, very few marketers are making use of podcasts. However, they are easily one of the best ways to engage your visitors and have them return to your website.
Currently, I am the host of one of the longest running podcasts about affiliate marketing (The Affiliate Buzz) as well as my own series (Coffee Talk with James Martell). I use these podcasts to pique my visitor’s interest and convert them into devoted followers.
You could put together a 30-minute podcast in under an hour fairly easily. However, shorter podcasts (5 to 10 minutes) are becoming more and more popular. It is also very easy to automate your podcast publishing, allowing you to update your list members with very little work on your part.
3) Comment on your own blog
Users that are involved in your website will return regularly. One of the best ways to get your users involved on your website is to reply to comments on your own blog.
Thousands of visitors might read a post on your blog, but it’s typically quite rare for a reader to get involved and post a comment. For this reason, it’s important to write out thoughtful replies when someone takes the time to write a comment on your blog.
If you’re having trouble keeping track of comments on your blog, I would recommend WordPress plug-in called “Subscribe To Comments“. This plug-in can notify your website’s visitors when someone responds to their comment. It doesn’t cost anything, and it can be a fantastic way to deepen your website’s sense of community and get your visitors involved.
4) Utilize chat forums
Bulletin boards and chat forums have played a large role online since the birth of the internet. However, many online marketers tend to neglect internet forums. However, they remain one of the most effective tools for building a community on your website and getting your visitors invested. They also allow you to communicate with your visitors and have your visitors interact with each other, giving them valid reasons for returning on a regular basis.
My wife Arlene and I have had great success in building online communities with chat forums. Arlene’s website, EpilepsyMoms.com, has thousands of chat forum members that regularly participate in discussions about parenting children with epilepsy. These are the type of invested returning visitors that I consider to be the most valuable type of traffic.
5) Provide useful information
In today’s world, content is king. However, it is important to provide your users with well-written, informative content.
Try to remain open and interested to your community members, and provide useful information to all of your visitors. Through various forms of media, such as video, audio, or simple written articles, you can provide helpful advice, useful information, and fun, interesting content to your users, prompting them to come back on a regular basis.
Keep the visitors you have
If you wish to increase the traffic of your website and rank high in search engines for topics like car insurance quotes, Pride lift chairs, inflatable boats, wood routers, doll houses, and arc welders, it is likely a good idea to shift your focus from new visitors to return traffic.
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James Martell is a successful author, podcaster, and speaker. He’s a leading expert in affiliate marketing and outsourcing as well as a specialist in SEO. James is host of the Affiliate Buzz podcast on WebmasterRadio.FM (the first ever and longest running podcast about the affiliate industry), and creator of the Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp where he teaches others how to make money with affiliate marketing. He lives in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on west coast of Canada with his wife, Arlene.
Read MoreHow to Add Twitter Followers Every Day…And for Free!
Guest post by James Martell.
If you have a Twitter account but are clueless about how to get more Twitter followers, then you’ve come to the right place! I’m going to share with you three very useful strategies that will enable you to get free Twitter followers, guaranteed.
Be Careful:
Even if, for some reason, you decide not to use my strategies, I do want to caution you about using software programs supposedly designed to increase your Twitter following. Most of these programs don’t work, and they certainly don’t teach you how to get more Twitter followers.
What’s worst of all is that they are almost always against Twitter’s term of service. This means that they can actually cause you to lose your Twitter account, leaving you even worse off than when you started. So stay away from these programs, and instead follow my steps for how to increase Twitter followers.
What’s Twitter?
I have to tell you that I was once in your shoes – maybe even worse. Just a few years ago, I didn’t get the “Twitter” thing at all. But I decided it would be a good idea to at least try it out.
Now, it’s a huge part of my business. I might not have millions of followers like all the major celebrities, but I do have 5,403 loyal followers to date. Also, since I’ve started using the three strategies we’re going to discuss, I’ve watched my following grow a little each and every day!
I can promise you that no matter what you’re promoting with twitter- whether it be kids rocking chairs, dental services, or joovy caboose reviews – my strategies can and will work for you.
Strategy 1: Syndicate an Online Newspaper
So, let’s get going with Strategy 1! For this strategy, all you have to do is syndicate your own online newspaper based on a Twitter list, user, or a keyword. Then, you publish the newspaper to your Twitter followers each day.
My newspaper, The Guest Blogging Daily, was created using paper.li, my Twitter account, and a Twitter list. You can check it out here: http://paper.li/JamesMartell/1308523225.
I absolutely love paper.li, and I can’t recommend it highly enough!
Not only does the site create a lovely paper, but it’s so very easy! Everything, and I mean everything, is 100% automated, so you barely do any work at all. The site posts to your Twitter when each daily paper is released, and it even tweets to your followers.
Plus, contributing authors are tweeted as well. These writers will often follow you and –best of all- retweet the newspaper. This means that not only will you gain the writers as followers, but some of their followers as well!
It doesn’t get any better than this. So, start out with strategy 1 today! Simply pick an interesting and informative topic for your paper and then use paper.li to get your idea up and running!
Strategy 2: Become a Guest Writer
There are a lot of sites out there – this one included – that are always on the lookout for guest writers. Also known as guest blogging, writing for such a site is an excellent way to gain positive publicity and, best of all, more Twitter followers.
When acting as a guest writer, make sure that you are a good communicator and that you provide worthwhile information to your readers. Take the time to respond to their comments and/or emails. The more they feel they know and can trust you, the more likely they will be to follow you on Twitter.
Of course, it’s up to you to ask them to do just that! A great place to include the invitation is in your author bio. I guarantee if you follow these steps, this will gain you more followers, so get started today!
Strategy 3: Using Your “Thank You” Page
The easiest and most effective strategy is the last one. Once you hear it, you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it yourself- it’s really that simple. I can’t take the credit either, though. It was my friend, Joshua Sloan, the former Director of Online Marketing for the world’s largest and fastest growing hosting company, 1&1 hosting, who shared the idea with me.
To carry it out, you simply set it up so that visitors who fill out your option form, either to request more information or sign up for a newsletter, are redirected to a “thank you” page.
On this page, you then invite them to follow you on Twitter. Remember that these visitors went the extra step to find out more or request more information, and they gave up their contact information in order to do so. This makes it very likely that they will follow you on Twitter if you only ask.
The Choice is Yours:
I’ve laid out my three proven strategies, and they couldn’t be any more simple! Now it’s up to you to put them to work and to make them work for you. I personally guarantee that no matter what you’re promoting – and I mean anything from a Bumbleride indie twin stroller to dental services to bar stools – these strategies will work!
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James Martell is well know for his podcasts and affiliate marketing trainings, as well as outsourcing and a specialist in SEO. James is host of the Affiliate Buzz podcast on WebmasterRadio.FM (the first ever and longest running podcast about the affiliate industry), and creator of the Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp. He lives in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on west coast of Canada with his wife, Arlene.
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