вторник, 31 октября 2017 г.

Why Shopify, Inc. Stock Fell Tuesday

“[W]e were unimpressed by the company’s response to Citron’s conclusion that Shopify sells business opportunities through affiliate marketers, and …

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The Power of Influencer Marketing in Ecommerce

In fact, experts believe that influencer marketing is the next big trend within the … has been more difficult than other strategies like affiliate marketing.

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How a Peer Group Transformed My Life & Business

I was running a small affiliate marketing company, Acceleration Partners, doing almost everything myself, and close to burning out. Though the …

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Need affiliate marketing set up on website

Details. I am looking for someone to assist me in adding affiliate marketing to an existing website. The site is getthrive.com, which is a health and …

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UK Affiliate Key Account Manager

Marketing & Commercial jobs at Betsson Group. We are hiring a UK Affiliate Key Account Manager to join our team of passionate and creative people …

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FERC Approves Affiliate Transaction Between SDG&E and Sempra

On June 30, 2017, Applicants requested authority for Sempra to sell Resource Adequacy capacity at market-based rates to its affiliate, SDG&E, after …

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Shopify CEO calls short-seller's claims 'preposterous'

… conclusion that Shopify sells business opportunities through affiliate marketers, and they depend on affiliate marketing to drive their growth metrics.“.

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6 Reasons Why Some People Think Black Hat SEO Tactics Work

*Not all affiliate marketers and ad publishers are black hat SEOs. But many SEOs that do the churn and burn are often affiliate marketers or ad …

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ALEA launches revamped affiliate program

Affiliates working with ALEA benefit from an arsenal of marketing tools, including real-time data and stats, promotions and free games, banners and …

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LiveLotto launches affiliate programme with Income Access

UK based iLottery operator LiveLotto has launched a new affiliate programme with Income Access, Paysafe’s marketing technology and services …

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New gambling ad guidance to target affiliates and promotions

The ASA is set to publish new guidance on how betting brands use affiliate marketing and promotional offers before the end of the year, as well as …

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Shopify dives after defence against 'preposterous' short-seller claims falls short with investors

Left brought particular attention to Shopify’s affiliate marketing program, which gives partners a cut of sales made through links they post to Shopify …

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14 Variations of the Classic Zip Fleece Jacket for Every Budget

Zip fleece jackets are available in a multitude of styles, patterns and cuts this season. The napped fleece (usually with a high collar) provides warmth …

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8 Affiliate Marketing Myths That Are Holding You Back Financially

8 Affiliate Marketing Myths That Are Holding You Back Financially

Affiliate marketing is a funny thing – it’s something you can either fall in love with, or get overwhelmed by.

Defined as an online sales tactic that lets a product owner increase sales by allowing others targeting the same audience – ‘affiliates’ – to earn a commission by recommending the product to others, it’s mainly controversial because there are so many myths surrounding it.

If you’re reading this post, I’m guessing you’re ready to launch an affiliate marketing program for your blog or business – either that, or you’re looking to earn better money from your existing one.

So in this post I’m going to debunk eight of the myths surrounding affiliate marketing and online joint ventures – the ones that frequently cause problems for brands and businesses. It’s important to understand these myths if you want to improve your sales and leads, and start seeing bigger money land in your bank account, so buckle up for the ride.

Affiliate marketing is effective not just because you can determine the amount of commission paid to your partners, but because it’s holistic, meaning that it can be leveraged across all channels (whether it’s through paid search, referrals like Amazon, affiliate networks or other channels).

So here are eight crazy affiliate marketing myths that you need to avoid.

1. It’s too competitive!

Some people assume that affiliate marketing is just too competitive to make money and that there’s no way to create a profit because you have to be louder than everyone else in a crowded marketplace.

Actually, the opposite is true.

Competition is a sign of user demand, indicating that there’s tons of money to be made in the industry.

According to a report by Emarketer, total online sales in Australia are set to reach $32 billion in 2017 – up 18% from 2014. The proliferation of new technologies will only continue to fuel the increase in consumption, providing publishers and merchants with even more opportunities.

2. It’s only about niche product targeting

It’s important to observe that many publishers rely on more than one product to sustain and grow their affiliate revenue.

Publishers need to be found to be profitable, which can be achieved using earned media (i.e., organic search and paid media channels through content), otherwise, targeting very niche products which aren’t found will set you back from day one.

So this is a big myth, as it’s only after you’ve found and have your own following that you can create a program that advertisers will demand and consider partnering with.

As an advertiser, you should take the time to get to know your publishers. This can help with creating flexible incentives for their audience, which can be mutually beneficial.

3. Affiliate marketing links aren’t good for SEO

One of the primary concerns for affiliate marketers is about link placement on their sites from an SEO perspective, given Google’s link scheme guidelines. The myth goes that websites may be penalized if they have a paid link from another site.

This is not true.

It’s important to understand that all SEO guidelines are proportional to the clout of your business (with both a user and commercial intent in mind). For example, if you had a new low-on-content e-commerce or blog site that was plastered with different advertisement links to external sites and prevented users from either reading a blog post or making a purchase, then sure, that site may be deemed untrustworthy and penalized. However, if you’ve got a well-built up site, it’s hardly overusing ads.

There are also technical parameters that you can incorporate into your affiliate marketing process as standard to prevent paid links from being crawled. These include:

  • Using a masked URL or a tracking URL for campaign tracking
  • Implementing a 302 redirect for all affiliate links to the site
  • Including a disallow line command for the URL path you’re using within the robots.txt file
  • Inserting a ‘no follow’ link attribute across all affiliate URLs

Ultimately, an affiliate site needs to be promoted and maintained, just like any other high-quality site.

4. People who use coupons don’t spend as much

We’re not talking about your grandma’s coupons here… these are coupons for the online community.

You can increase your customer’s basket value by providing them with the deal they are looking for and understanding that people who are looking to spend more are always going to go for an attractive offer.

A good tactic is to look at what your average order value is, round it up and then offer a percentage off this amount (for example, 5% off a $50 purchase or 10% off a $100 purchase).

Whatever your customers spend, make sure you’re offering them a discount and make them feel like they’re getting a good deal. It’s a core component of affiliate marketing.

Even if customers are already active on a dedicated coupon site, you can check that you have better deals than your competitors. This can encourage previous buyers to make another purchase and also attract new consumers.

5. Previous buyers can’t be persuaded to make a repeat purchase

As mentioned above, everyone loves a great deal. But if you’ve read stats about decreasing customer loyalty online, you might be convinced that previous buyers won’t return to your site. This is another myth.

When you think about it, someone who has purchased on your site after seeing a good deal is more than likely to purchase on your site again. The game-changer in this is actually how you personalize coupons and create better recurring user experiences.

A great example is offering customers a discount code on a special occasion, like their birthday, that’s exclusive to them and therefore likely to get used.

6. Offering people incentives to sign up to your newsletter won’t work

Emails have a longer content shelf life than paid ads in general and are more trustworthy because they’re a permission-based marketing scheme. According to Get Response, if you’ve got a big mailing list, and your email open and click-through rates are either reaching or exceeding the benchmarks (see the below image). That means you’re probably an excellent candidate for offering incentives through email marketing.

But should you? Maybe… it all comes down to credibility, credibility, credibility. If you can prove that the ads aren’t shaping the content that you’re sending out, that you have clear user guidelines and that you aren’t taking advantage of your authority, then this could be an extremely scalable avenue – especially if you work with affiliate networks.

Leading publisher powerhouses such as BuzzFeed increasingly put product affiliate links into their newsletters and are reaping the benefits of their blended content commerce monetization strategies – for instance, their yearly Christmas gift guides.

7. You need to have managed many affiliate programs to succeed

Charles Ngo, a prolific affiliate marketer, rolls his eyes when newbies ask him questions such as, ‘How do I get started?’ or ‘What tracking tool should I be using?’ It’s always nice to have a coach or mentor, but there’s so much information online, from YouTube videos, blogs and guides to offline events (including meet-ups) that you can take advantage of if you just open your eyes.

Once you have this, it’s all about working to build relationships and improving your affiliate product until it reaches the ‘aha’ moment to generate new and returning customers.

The difference between a good and a great affiliate marketer is not how much you know (although you need to know the basics), it’s how well you can execute your program. There are times when not having the right setup, expectations and conviction can hold you back from succeeding, but this is no reason to be discouraged. You only reap the rewards from what you sow.

8. Affiliate networks can make you rich quickly

Just like all other channels, affiliate networks and affiliate marketing programs – especially new programs – take time and effort. If you were thinking that all you would need to do is set up a site, choose an affiliate program or network and then get on your way, well, I’m sorry… but you’re deeply mistaken.

Affiliate marketing relies on bringing the right partners and fostering the right relationships. Do this by:

  • Bringing on new partner programs
  • Seeking out better and more effective partnerships
  • Devising a content strategy for up-to-date and fresh information
  • Effectively promoting these programs

At Commission Factory, we tell our clients that it takes anywhere from three to six months to gather enough data to see the effectiveness of our client campaigns and strategic suggestions on improving the return on ad spend. So think at least a few months ahead.

Wrapping up

Can we stop spreading these affiliate marketing myths, please?

I get excited thinking about how we can make the industry stronger and better; one where these myths do not cause brands and businesses to pass on these kinds of programs.

Get the foundational knowledge, put in the hard work and, if necessary, get some advice or help. You’ll be well on your way to improving your sales and leads by setting up a solid affiliate program.

Please share this article to help destroy these myths, and let me know if you think there are any I’ve missed!

Guest Author: Zane McIntyre is an Australian affiliate marketing veteran with 12+ years experience in affiliate marketing. He is the CEO and co-founder of Commission Factory.

The post 8 Affiliate Marketing Myths That Are Holding You Back Financially appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.



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Youtube for Affiliate Marketers -Grow an Audience & Monetize

Youtube for Affiliate Marketers -Grow an Audience & Monetize. The ABCs of using Youtube to generate commissions. Discover what videos work, how …

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Bitcomo Helps Brands Target the Right Audience

The inclusion of essential digital marketing techniques helps draw customers … is a decentralized affiliate marketing network based on the blockchain.

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Why Develop a Partnership with Your AM? – By Ken Weiss

It’s no secret that affiliate marketing can be a lonely business, especially if you’re just getting started. You can spend hours alone in your home office, …

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FTC Obtains Court Order against Deceptive Marketers Who Tricked Consumers with Ads for Non ...

FTC Obtains Court Order against Deceptive Marketers Who Tricked … They also must investigate any complaints about affiliate marketers and end the …

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Digital Analytical Manager

… advance into the new era of performance media and expand the business across SEM, SEO, analytics, performance display and affiliate marketing.

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Unfiltered: How to Show Up in Local Search Results

Posted by sherrybonelli

If you’re having trouble getting your local business’ website to show up in the Google local 3-pack or local search results in general, you’re not alone. The first page of Google’s search results seems to have gotten smaller over the years – the top and bottom of the page are often filled with ads, the local 7-pack was trimmed to a slim 3-pack, and online directories often take up the rest of page one. There is very little room for small local businesses to rank on the first page of Google.

To make matters worse, Google has a local “filter” that can strike a business, causing their listing to drop out of local search results for seemingly no reason – often, literally, overnight. Google’s local filter has been around for a while, but it became more noticeable after the Possum algorithm update, which began filtering out even more businesses from local search results.

If you think about it, this filter is not much different than websites ranking organically in search results: In an ideal world, the best sites win the top spots. However, the Google filter can have a significantly negative impact on local businesses that often rely on showing up in local search results to get customers to their doors.

What causes a business to get filtered?

Just like the multitude of factors that go into ranking high organically, there are a variety of factors that go into ranking in the local 3-pack and the Local Finder.

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Here are a few situations that might cause you to get filtered and what you can do if that happens.

Proximity matters

With mobile search becoming more and more popular, Google takes into consideration where the mobile searcher is physically located when they’re performing a search. This means that local search results can also depend on where the business is physically located when the search is being done.

A few years ago, if your business wasn’t located in the large city in your area, you were at a significant disadvantage. It was difficult to rank when someone searched for “business category + large city” – simply because your business wasn’t physically located in the “large city.” Things have changed slightly in your favor – which is great for all the businesses who have a physical address in the suburbs.

According to Ben Fisher, Co-Founder of SteadyDemand.com and a Google Top Contributor, “Proximity and Google My Business data play an important role in the Possum filter. Before the Hawk Update, this was exaggerated and now the radius has been greatly reduced.” This means there’s hope for you to show up in the local search results – even if your business isn’t located in a big city.

Google My Business categories

When you’re selecting a Google My Business category for your listing, select the most specific category that’s appropriate for your business.

However, if you see a competitor is outranking you, find out what category they are using and select the same category for your business (but only if it makes sense.) Then look at all the other things they are doing online to increase their organic ranking and emulate and outdo them.

If your category selections don’t work, it’s possible you’ve selected too many categories. Too many categories can confuse Google to the point where it’s not sure what your company’s specialty is. Try deleting some of the less-specific categories and see if that helps you show up.

Your physical address

If you can help it, don’t have the same physical address as your competitors. Yes, this means if you’re located in an office building (or worse, a “virtual office” or a UPS Store address) and competing companies are also in your building, your listing may not show up in local search results.

When it comes to sharing an address with a competitor, Ben Fisher recommends, “Ensure that you do not have the same primary category as your competitor if you are in the same building. Their listing may have more trust by Google and you would have a higher chance of being filtered.”

Also, many people think that simply adding a suite number to your address will differentiate your address enough from a competitor at the same location — it won’t. This is one of the biggest myths in local SEO. According to Fisher, “Google doesn’t factor in suite numbers.

Additionally, if competing businesses are located physically close to you, that, too, can impact whether you show up in local search results. So if you have a competitor a block or two down from your company, that can lead to one of you being filtered.

Practitioners

If you’re a doctor, attorney, accountant or are in some other industry with multiple professionals working in the same office location, Google may filter out some of your practitioners’ listings. Why? Google doesn’t want one business dominating the first page of Google local search results. This means that all of the practitioners in your company are essentially competing with one another.

To offset this, each practitioner’s Google My Business listing should have a different category (if possible) and should be directed to different URLs (either a page about the practitioner or a page about the specialty – they should not all point to the site’s home page).

For instance, at a medical practice, one doctor could select the family practice category and another the pediatrician category. Ideally you would want to change those doctors’ landing pages to reflect those categories, too:

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Another thing you can do to differentiate the practitioners and help curtail being filtered is to have unique local phone numbers for each of them.

Evaluate what your competitors are doing right

If your listing is getting filtered out, look at the businesses that are being displayed and see what they’re doing right on Google Maps, Google+, Google My Business, on-site, off-site, and in any other areas you can think of. If possible, do an SEO site audit on their site to see what they’re doing right that perhaps you should do to overtake them in the rankings.

When you’re evaluating your competition, make sure you focus on the signals that help sites rank organically. Do they have a better Google+ description? Is their GMB listing completely filled out but yours is missing some information? Do they have more 5-star reviews? Do they have more backlinks? What is their business category? Start doing what they’re doing – only better.

In general Google wants to show the best businesses first. Compete toe-to-toe with the competitors that are ranking higher than you with the goal of eventually taking over their highly-coveted spot.

Other factors that can help you show up in local search results

As mentioned earlier, Google considers a variety of data points when it determines which local listings to display in search results and which ones to filter out. Here are a few other signals to pay attention to when optimizing for local search results:

Reviews

If everything else is equal, do you have more 5-star reviews than your competition? If so, you will probably show up in the local search results instead of your competitors. Google is one of the few review sites that encourages businesses to proactively ask customers to leave reviews. Take that as a clue to ask customers to give you great reviews not only on your Google My Business listing but also on third-party review sites like Facebook, Yelp, and others.

Posts

Are you interacting with your visitors by offering something special to those who see your business listing? Engaging with your potential customers by creating a Post lets Google know that you are paying attention and giving its users a special deal. Having more “transactions and interactions” with your potential customers is a good metric and can help you show up in local search results.

Google+

Despite what the critics say, Google+ is not dead. Whenever you make a Facebook or Twitter post, go ahead and post to Google+, too. Write semantic posts that are relevant to your business and relevant to your potential customers. Try to write Google+ posts that are approximately 300 words in length and be sure to keyword optimize the first 100 words of each post. You can often see some minor increases in rankings due to well-optimized Google+ posts, properly optimized Collections, and an engaged audience.

Here’s one important thing to keep in mind: Google+ is not the place to post content just to try and rank higher in local search. (That’s called spam and that is a no-no.) Ensure that any post you make to Google+ is valuable to your end-users.

Keep your Google My Business listing current

Adding photos, updating your business hours for holidays, utilizing the Q&A or booking features, etc. can help you show off in rankings. However, don’t add content just to try and rank higher. (Your Google My Business listing is not the place for spammy content.) Make sure the content you add to your GMB listing is both timely and high-quality content. By updating/adding content, Google knows that your information is likely accurate and that your business is engaged. Speaking of which…

Be engaged

Interacting with your customers online is not only beneficial for customer relations, but it can also be a signal to Google that can positively impact your local search ranking results. David Mihm, founder of Tidings, feels that by 2020, the difference-making local ranking factor will be engagement.

engagement-ranking-factor.jpg

(Source: The Difference-Making Local Ranking Factor of 2020)

According to Mihm, “Engagement is simply a much more accurate signal of the quality of local businesses than the traditional ranking factors of links, directory citations, and even reviews.” This means you need to start preparing now and begin interacting with potential customers by using GMB’s Q&A and booking features, instant messaging, Google+ posts, responding to Google and third-party reviews, ensure your website’s phone number is “click-to-call” enabled, etc.

Consolidate any duplicate listings

Some business owners go overboard and create multiple Google My Business listings with the thought that more has to be better. This is one instance where having more can actually hurt you. If you discover that for whatever reason your business has more than one GMB listing, it’s important that you properly consolidate your listings into one.

Other sources linking to your website

If verified data sources, like the Better Business Bureau, professional organizations and associations, chambers of commerce, online directories, etc. link to your website, that can have an impact on whether or not you show up on Google’s radar. Make sure that your business is listed on as many high-quality and authoritative online directories as possible – and ensure that the information about your business – especially your company’s Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) – is consistent and accurate.

So there you have it! Hopefully you found some ideas on what to do if your listing is being filtered on Google local results.

What are some tips that you have for keeping your business “unfiltered”?


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понедельник, 30 октября 2017 г.

Why the Bears Might Be Right About Shopify Stock

The other element of the “affiliate marketing” risk factor is that Shopify itself is offering of up to $2,000 for referring new Shopify Plus members. Without …

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VLAD STRIZHEUS IS CHAMPIONING THE BEST OF AFFILIATE MARKETING

Vlad Strizheus who is also popularly known among his techy friends as ‘Cyber Vlad,’ is an internet marketer, blogger, mentor and online entrepreneur.

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Affiliate Marketing Executive

Affiliate Marketing Executive in Professional Services, Affiliate Marketing with Bloc Digital Talent. Apply Today.

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Unique identifier for affiliate marketing

We are working with different affiliate partners, they send traffic to our pages and thus generating new leads/ contacts. When it comes to attribution …

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Which Affiliate Marketing Model Fits Your Business?

Affiliate marketing is a huge industry, with many programs and models. One model is to rely on promoters with a specialized expertise and an …

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Cover the costs of your small business website by using affiliate marketing

Another way to monetize your website is to use affiliate marketing, where you send visitors off to external sites for them to make a purchase or sign up …

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eBay Partner Network Improves Affiliate Advertising Tools

The eBay Partner Network (EPN) is eBay’s affiliate marketing program that enables blogs to promote eBay products on their sites. eBay’s affiliate …

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LiveLotto launches managed affiliate programme with Income Access

… a new affiliate programme with Income Access, Paysafe’s marketing technology and services provider. The programme will be managed by Income …

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HubDigiTech Introduces Content Writing Services for Search Engine Optimization

… Online Reputation buildings ORM, Email marketing, Website or product review services, Affiliate marketing, Content-based marketing, Web services …

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5 Self-Branding Tactics For Beginners That Will Get You Noticed

5 Self-Branding Tactics For Beginners That Will Get You Noticed
As we all know, everyone has a purpose in life, and with constant focused effort, we can become what we wish to be.

Knowing what you are passionate about and becoming an expert on a particular subject is crucial. If you really want to make a difference and become a known personality, ask yourself these three questions:

  • What makes YOU stand out?
  • How are YOU different to other people?
  • How would YOU prefer to share your expertise with the world?

Once you know your answers, make a commitment to yourself. That’s right – it’s time for you to build a brand for yourself, a brand called YOU.

What is self-branding?

Self-branding is a strategy in which an individual works constantly and consistently towards creating a brand for themselves. It’s a process of positioning oneself with credibility and trust when it comes to a particular topic, or a constant endeavour to get better at a particular skill and making an impression on others.

It is not just about being excellent at your skill, but also about how well you share it with the world so that the world actually knows who you are. Hence, promoting yourself is the most important aspect when it comes to self-branding.

The importance of self-branding

No matter what industry you are in, you should always strive to be known for your skills and what you do. Come on – who doesn’t want to be a hero or look like one?

While many don’t understand the value of self-branding, some early adopters are enjoying sweet success because of the brand they have created for themselves.

Gary Vaynerchuk is one such person I can vouch for when it comes to self-branding. Gary knows his audience and understood the value of self-branding at a very early stage of his life. He knows and has implemented many ideas to become a brand himself, and the proof is in his videos and updates on social media getting literally millions of likes, views, and comments from fans around the world.

Once you have established a good follower base and credibility for yourself through self-branding, you can go on to act as an industry leader where you will have the power to influence thousands positively through your content.

Enough of the theory part. Let’s look at some incredible growth hacks and specific examples of how others have soared at self-branding.

1. You need a personal website with a unique home page

A personal website is like your home, it represents you and should look welcoming. It’s always better to have a domain in your name.

Your home page should talk about your life story – make it relatable so that visitors can easily connect with it. Add humor and anecdotes about your struggles, failures, wins and emotional milestones. Include a narrative about how you started it all, your passion for a particular subject, and your achievements so far.

Compelling professional pictures and a clear call to action at the end will help add more professional clout to your home page. While many people neglect this point, it is vital to make sure your website is polished-looking without any grammatical or spelling mistakes.

Let’s look at Leonard Kim, a marketing and branding expert, as an example. His website is an excellent example of self-branding. The home page talks about him, who is he, his early life and his achievements. You will also see a clear value proposition with his blogs centred in the middle and a clear CTA at the end to subscribe to his updates.

2. You should be smart and consistent on social media

Be sure to use social media in many varied and unique ways to see what works best for you. Know your customers and try to share updates by varying your formats. Sometimes an image and sometimes a blog post will work best. You should try to update your social media as often as daily.

Put your name as a signature or a watermark on your images to avoid plagiarism. Make sure to use your name or anything that represents you consistently on important updates. If you’re bored by inspirational quotes, come up with your own and make them look appealing in InDesign! And don’t forget to put an appealing cover image and strong profile description on all of your social media accounts.

Brian D. Evans is a serial entrepreneur and a marketing influencer. He uses social media consistently and efficiently. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, he uses different formats to share daily updates with his fans. You might want to take a look at his social profiles to see how well he maintains a daily schedule of posts and interaction with his audience. His cover images are also compelling and say a lot about him.

Brian Evans on Instagram

Brian Evans on Twitter

3. You should adopt a storytelling approach

Storytelling is an art that marketers often use to promote their ideas or products, and is considered the best growth strategy for a small brand. Stories are engaging, and can help create and sustain an emotional connection with readers. Great stories inspire people to change for good and take actions, and can really help you position yourself as a thought leader.

Apple uses the storytelling approach in the best possible way – everyone knows the basic history of Steve Jobs. Even an individual can use this method. Take an experience, build a narrative around it, and publish it on your social media platforms.

You cannot look past Gary Vaynerchuk, an American serial entrepreneur, when it comes to self-branding and the power of storytelling. Gary is a great storyteller who uses the storytelling approach to the best extent possible, and that is how he connects with his audience. He has gained a great follower base around the world through his talk, suggestions and entrepreneurial skills.

4. You need to guest blog on popular websites

Articles authored by Neil Patel

Guest blogging is still considered the best strategy to build a personal brand. You might have noticed that many subject matter experts don’t just blog on their own website but are always on the look-out for ways to share their knowledge and thoughts through other websites and platforms.

Guest blogging helps you build credibility. Start small, connect with local bloggers who are looking for contributors to their website, and focus on making connections with like-minded people. Once you build some confidence and success, move onto the bigger publications and approach them for guest posts.

Try these different variations to find opportunities for guest blogging:

  • Your keyword + Write for us
  • Your keyword + Contribute
  • Your keyword + Submit post

5. You need to create communities of conversation

In terms of building a voice in a community sense, one of the best places to look is the question-and-answer based platform, Quora. It’s a ready-made platform to share your insights and build an audience based on your expertise. You should also join any Facebook groups and forums that are relevant to your skills and what you do so that you can be there and chip in when someone is asking for advice or solutions.

Try to answer every question that you can when interacting in online communities and be generous when helping others with their problems through your replies and suggestions. This will enhance your credibility. When you start answering questions on a particular subject or topic regularly, people will get to know you, and you will become their go-to source for information on such topics.

Nicolas Cole, the founder of Digital Press, is one of the top writers on Quora. He will reach 700 answers soon with 20.2m answer views so far on Quora. Nicolas’s name has become a brand in itself when it comes to Quora. Nicolas’s answers are up to the mark, provide great value to anyone who is reading them, and generate a good number of ‘up votes’ from users.

Wrapping up

Knowing your true self is the key to effective self-branding. Once you know who you are and what you are really passionate about (and how you want to stand out in the crowd), you will be ready to build a brand for yourself.

Investing in self-branding is the best investment ever but it begins with understanding YOU.

Guest Author: Pavan Belagatti is one of the youngest growth hackers from India and a digital marketing influencer. He writes about marketing and growth hacking related topics as well as helps companies maximize their traffic and outreach. He is the owner of Growth Hacky and contributes to some top-notch websites around the world including TheNextWeb, Influencive, ThriveGlobal and Tech in Asia.

The post 5 Self-Branding Tactics For Beginners That Will Get You Noticed appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.



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Affiliate Marketing-Promoter in Appwingz

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Affiliate Marketing Website

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7 Digital Marketing Marketing Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore

7 Digital Marketing Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore

I would have written you a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time.

This quote attributed to many different sources sums up what we are facing in this now very complex world. But keeping it simple and short takes time and effort. Distilling the complex into something that makes sense in one sentence or even a six second video is an art form that is to be treasured.

But as marketers that is what you are confronted with. Increasing complexity. It is just one of the trends that will impact your business in the years ahead.

We also need the right tools, platforms and technology to help us scale the huge amounts of data and noise that now confront us online. Here are 7 digital marketing trends that you need to keep your eye on.

1. Increasing complexity

Tech is largely to blame for making marketing complex. But it’s also the answer. Making sense of tons of data, always on marketing and the many forms of splintered media is something tech platforms do well.

Right alongside that sits different categories of complex. Facebook advertising is a discipline on its own that requires focus. Then add the dark science of “Search Engine Optimisation” and understanding the many moving parts that require mastery.

The types of media we need to master includes live streaming, Facebook videos and GIFS and Infographics.  Then you need to master marketing automation and artificial intelligence tools and platforms.

2. Marketing technology

Marketing technology (sometimes called Martech) is continuing to grow. According to Venture Beat there has been over $134 billion invested in this category in startups in just 5 years. In 2018 IDC is predicting that CMO’s will spend $32 billion on buying and implementing Martech solutions.

But the category has 3 core categories. B2B marketing, B2C marketing and advertising technology. It should not be seen as one size fits all.

According to Ajay Agarwal in an article on TechCrunch there is an interesting divide between spending on marketing versus sales between B2B and B2C. B2B companies spend much more on their front end sales than on marketing at a ratio of  10:1. B2C spends a lot more on marketing than sales with an inverse ratio of 10:1.

Maybe we will expect to see Salesforce dominate B2B marketing tech as it is the dominant sales tool for B2B globally.

He sees the key trend and opportunity as one in which a B2C marketing company can create a B2C system of record from the start of the customer journey to sale.

3. The rise and rise of algorithms

The beauty at the the birth of social media networks was their simplicity. They flowed past you unfiltered.

Twitter was a distilled stream of unfettered consciousness. Facebook was a flowing page of diverse ideas and people.  And some sat outside your tent of ideas and interests.

But things have changed.

The need to make money from the platforms meant that algorithms needed to be programmed to ensure that the social networks could start to monetise their distribution. The organic reach that initially excited marketers, writers and entrepreneurs has been dialled back.

Also the volume of data has also exploded in the last 10 years driven by the two obsessive technologies of social media and smartphones. To make sense of that as finite humans means we need help from the machines. And they run on algorithms.

Why do we need algorithms?

The amount of data that confronts us each day needs filters to help us make sense of it. Here is the global digital snapshot of the size of the ecosystem that confronts us.

These platforms, devices and networks are producing this avalanche of data.

  • 5.97 billion hours of YouTube are watched every day
  • 4.3 billion Facebook messages are posted each day
  • 67 million images posted on Instagram every 24 hours
  • 269 billion emails are sent 24/7 each day

How algorithms are applied

Algorithms also help marketers and entrepreneurs break through the clutter. And they are used to reach your target markets on Amazon, Tripadvisor, search engines and even in email marketing .

  • Amazon – products or books you might like based on past activity and other secret codes.
  • Search – Content and information you want to find.
  • Social – People you want to hear from or see.
  • Emails – Gmail now uses an algorithm that sorts it into tabs and also sends it automatically to spam based on its filters.
  • GPS – Help us navigate a city or find our way to a hotel.
  • Choose a restaurant – Reviews on Yelp or on Tripadvisor.

So we need to keep studying how they work and learn to work with them as they continue to change and shape shift.

4. Platforms and apps

The web is moving away from an Internet of websites to an Internet of apps and platforms. You may not have noticed it but it is happening right before our eyes. In 2014 more people accessed the Internet though mobile apps than desktop computers for the very first time.

In 2017 over 86% of our time is spent on apps on our mobile phones.

This big trend is something that can’t be ignored and marketers are going to need to work out how they reach consumers via apps and platforms. The obvious answer to this in part will be the rise and rise of Facebook advertising from the platform and also applying marketing tactics to apps like Messenger and WhatsApp.

5. Artificial intelligence

There are two things that humans aren’t good at. Collating and making sense of the vast amounts of data and also scaling our humanity. That is what machines excel at and artificial intelligence allows humans to amplify themselves.

Watson, Einstein and Rank Brain are just three of the big players battling out for world domination in artificial intelligence . Watson is owned by IBM, Einstein by Salesforce and Rank Brain by Google. But underneath these giants who mostly use it for internal use sits a growing range of apps and platforms that are using AI for niche marketing optimization.

Chatbots were maybe the first obvious use of AI for marketing with their abilities to handle initial enquiries without the need for human inervention.  But what are some of the other ways AI is being used and imagined for improving marketing performance and scaling?

Robert Allen from CITU lists 15 ways in which AI can be used for marketing. 

But let’s take a closer look at just 3 ways you can use artificial intelligence .

Content creation

An AI program called WordSmith produced 1.5 billion pieces of content in 2016. The other challenge is not just creation but curation of content at scale. An AI tool like Rocco  can recommend content from social media that your followers are likely to love.

Pay per click advertising

Making sure that you are making the best use of your budget when performing paid ad campaigns with millions of dollars in spend means AI becomes an attractive option.

Albert and Frank are two marketing platforms that use machine learning to buy media and deliver ads for the best results. And this is done at scale and speed that no human could ever hope to achieve.

Email marketing

Making email smarter instead of a blunt tool for just broadcasting is something that AI can offer. AI can improve the delivery time for achieving the best open rates, target customers with the right emails and even product recommendations that they want to buy.

McKinsey research estimates that Amazon generated 35% of its revenue with email product recommendations driven by AI.

6. Video

Video continues to emerge as a visual marketing trend that sits in a variety of buckets. For simplicity we can place them in 3 categories. Traditional 30 second ad style, live and social pre-recorded for social.

Traditional

The traditional 30 second ad style video 20 years ago was typically created 4 times a year with a 2 million dollar budget for each. This continues but the 2 trends that are transforming video today are driven by social media realities of live streaming and 6 second videos.

Live streaming

Live streaming is the hot new trend with Facebook (Facebook Live), LinkedIn, Twitter with Periscope and YouTube with its “Live Events”

According to Globalwebindex.net “As ad-blocking continues to grow in popularity it’s more important than ever for brands to engage consumers via entertaining content and native advertising

And live streaming is one of those forms of content.

Image source: GlobalWebIndex

But the challenge with any form of video is doing it well.

The 6 second pre-recorded video

According to AdAge, Facebook has already been telling its video advertisers to hit people with faster messages. The 6 second video emerged as an ideal ad length in a recent test conducted with Tropicana.

Tropicana compared the results from Facebook ads that were 6, 15 and 30 seconds long. The shortest saw “higher brand metrics across the board,” Sandberg said.

Companies like Shuttlerock are using technology to scale 6 second Facebook video ad and are riding the wave of what the data is telling us is the most effective length for a video.

But the challenge for all video is still the messaging.  Video is now often watched in silence with subtitles running so people can read while viewing.

7. Influencer marketing

The rise of ad blocking means that reaching your audience via influencers is on the rise. A study by PageFair and Adobe shows that online consumers are becoming more and more frustrated with adverts interrupting their browsing experience. As of June 2015, 198 million people used ad-blocking browser extensions.

Today’s consumers prefer to make their purchasing decisions based on either recommendations from friends and family, or from online influencers they admire and trust.

Also the reason influencer marketing trend is becoming entranced is its performance. Just check out these stats on the effectiveness of influencer marketing:

There are also 2 distinct categories of influencer marketing. B2C which is generally about building brand awareness and B2B which often is more about lead generation and measurable results.

8. Storytelling

Despite all the tech there is a real movement to making our marketing more human. Companies are backing causes. Taking a stand whether it is for equal opportunity, ageism or sexism. Marketers and entrepreneurs are using “live” video to share their ideas and insights.

But the trend that I am enjoying is seeing the rise and application of storytelling being woven back into the digital marketing landscape. It is being used more in blog posts and online presentations. It is being written into emails to stand out from what is often an ocean of bland information and data.

We have been distracted too long by the shiny new tech toys and forgotten some of our humanity in the process.

It’s also time to tell better stories.

The post 7 Digital Marketing Marketing Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.



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воскресенье, 29 октября 2017 г.

Shopify to address short-seller accusations with quarterly results

Mr. Left, known as the “shock jock of short-sellers” for his incendiary attacks on publicly traded firms, criticized Shopify’s affiliate marketing program that …

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Casper Defends Its Lawsuits Against Mattress Bloggers

… did not directly address his company’s own extensive use of affiliate marketing, but said it was considering an investment in its own reviews site that …

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Affiliate Marketing Program

Details. I am looking for someone to help set up and maintain an effective affiliate marketing program for our Tax Resolution firm. Stephan Brewer.

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Affiliate Internet Marketing Can Pull A lot more Revenue From Your Internet site

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Personl Assistant - Affiliate Marketing for Dating Website

Personal Assistant needed to assist with Affiliate Marketing for dating / social website platform. Suitable candidate will set up and manage dating …

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Getting Out of The Canadian Oil Patch

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The NAU platform will provide an entirely new way of advertising

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суббота, 28 октября 2017 г.

Consultation: Wordpress themes, plugins for affiliate marketing, product display

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Shopify Stock Has a Lot to Prove on Tuesday

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Our 15 Favorite Sneakers For Fall & Where to Buy Them

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Chargebacks911, LimeLight to combat credit card chargebacks

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Digital Content Creator

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пятница, 27 октября 2017 г.

Affiliate Marketing

A to Z About Affiliate Marketing. … Fact Behind Electroneum ICO Marketing - Is Investing Online a Scam or Legit? Click Here To read more About …

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Report explores the Global online classified market forecasts 2017-2021

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How to Use the "Keywords by Site" Data in Tools (Moz, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.) to Improve Your Keyword Research and Targeting - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

One of the most helpful functions of modern-day SEO software is the idea of a “keyword universe,” a database of tens of millions of keywords that you can tap into and discover what your site is ranking for. Rankings data like this can be powerful, and having that kind of power at your fingertips can be intimidating. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand explains the concept of the “keyword universe” and shares his most useful tips to take advantage of this data in the most popular SEO tools.

How to use keywords by site

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we’re going to chat about the Keywords by Site feature that exists now in Moz’s toolset — we just launched it this week — and SEMrush and Ahrefs, who have had it for a little while, and there are some other tools out there that also do it, so places like KeyCompete and SpyFu and others.

In SEO software, there are two types of rankings data:

A) Keywords you’ve specifically chosen to track over time

Basically, the way you can think of this is, in SEO software, there are two kinds of keyword rankings data. There are keywords that you have specifically selected or your marketing manager or your SEO has specifically selected to track over time. So I’ve said I want to track X, Y and Z. I want to see how they rank in Google’s results, maybe in a particular location or a particular country. I want to see the position, and I want to see the change over time. Great, that’s your set that you’ve constructed and built and chosen.

B) A keyword “universe” that gives wide coverage of tens of millions of keywords

But then there’s what’s called a keyword universe, an entire universe of keywords that’s maintained by a tool provider. So SEMrush has their particular database, their universe of keywords for a bunch of different languages, and Ahrefs has their keyword universe of keywords that each of those two companies have selected. Moz now has its keyword universe, a universe of, I think in our case, about 40 million keywords in English in the US that we track every two weeks, so we’ll basically get rankings updates. SEMrush tracks their keywords monthly. I think Ahrefs also does monthly.

Depending on the degree of change, you might care or not care about the various updates. Usually, for keywords you’ve specifically chosen, it’s every week. But in these cases, because it’s tens of millions or hundreds of millions of keywords, they’re usually tracking them weekly or monthly.

So in this universe of keywords, you might only rank for some of them. It’s not ones you’ve specifically selected. It’s ones the tool provider has said, “Hey, this is a broad representation of all the keywords that we could find that have some real search volume that people might be interested in who’s ranking in Google, and we’re going track this giant database.” So you might see some of these your site ranks for. In this case, seven of these keywords your site ranks for, four of them your competitors rank for, and two of them both you and your competitors rank for.

Remarkable data can be extracted from a “keyword universe”

There’s a bunch of cool data, very, very cool data that can be extracted from a keyword universe. Most of these tools that I mentioned do this.

Number of ranking keywords over time

So they’ll show you how many keywords a given site ranks for over time. So you can see, oh, Moz.com is growing its presence in the keyword universe, or it’s shrinking. Maybe it’s ranking for fewer keywords this month than it was last month, which might be a telltale sign of something going wrong or poorly.

Degree of rankings overlap

You can see the degree of overlap between several websites’ keyword rankings. So, for example, I can see here that Moz and Search Engine Land overlap here with all these keywords. In fact, in the Keywords by Site tool inside Moz and in SEMrush, you can see what those numbers look like. I think Moz actually visualizes it with a Venn diagram. Here’s Distilled.net. They’re a smaller website. They have less content. So it’s no surprise that they overlap with both. There’s some overlap with all three. I could see keywords that all three of them rank for, and I could see ones that only Distilled.net ranks for.

Estimated traffic from organic search

You can also grab estimated traffic. So you would be able to extract out — Moz does not offer this, but SEMrush does — you could see, given a keyword list and ranking positions and an estimated volume and estimated click-through rate, you could say we’re going to guess, we’re going to estimate that this site gets this much traffic from search. You can see lots of folks doing this and showing, “Hey, it looks this site is growing its visits from search and this site is not.” SISTRIX does this in Europe really nicely, and they have some great blog posts about it.

Most prominent sites for a given set of keywords

You can also extract out the most prominent sites given a set of keywords. So if you say, “Hey, here are a thousand keywords. Tell me who shows up most in this thousand-keyword set around the world of vegetarian recipes.” The tool could extract out, “Okay, here’s the small segment. Here’s the galaxy of vegetarian recipe keywords in our giant keyword universe, and this is the set of sites that are most prominent in that particular vertical, in that little galaxy.”

Recommended applications for SEOs and marketers

So some recommended applications, things that I think every SEO should probably be doing with this data. There are many, many more. I’m sure we can talk about them in the comments.

1. Identify important keywords by seeing what you rank for in the keyword universe

First and foremost, identify keywords that you probably should be tracking, that should be part of your reporting. It will make you look good, and it will also help you keep tabs on important keywords where if you lost rankings for them, you might cost yourself a lot of traffic.

Monthly granularity might not be good enough. You might want to say, “Hey, no, I want to track these keywords every week. I want to get reporting on them. I want to see which page is ranking. I want to see how I rank by geo. So I’m going to include them in my specific rank tracking features.” You can do that in the Moz Keywords by Site, you’d go to Keyword Explorer, you’d select the root domain instead of the keyword, and you’d plug in your website, which maybe is Indie Hackers, a site that I’ve been reading a lot of lately and I like a lot.

You could see, “Oh, cool. I’m not tracking stock trading bot or ark servers, but those actually get some nice traffic. In this case, I’m ranking number 12. That’s real close to page one. If I put in a little more effort on my ark servers page, maybe I could be on page one and I could be getting some of that sweet traffic, 4,000 to 6,000 searches a month. That’s really significant.” So great way to find additional keywords you should be adding to your tracking.

2. Discover potential keywords targets that your competitors rank for (but you don’t)

Second, you can discover some new potential keyword targets when you’re doing keyword research based on the queries your competition ranks for that you don’t. So, in this case, I might plug in “First Round.” First Round Capital has a great content play that they’ve been doing for many years. Indie Hackers might say, “Gosh, there’s a lot of stuff that startups and tech founders are interested in that First Round writes about. Let me see what keywords they’re ranking for that I’m not ranking for.”

So you plug in those two to Moz’s tool or other tools. You could see, “Aha, I’m right. Look at that. They’re ranking for about 4,500 more keywords than I am.” Then I could go get that full list, and I could sort it by volume and by difficulty. Then I could choose, okay, these keywords all look good, check, check, check. Add them to my list in Keyword Explorer or Excel or Google Docs if you’re using those and go to work.

3. Explore keywords sets from large, content-focused media sites with similar audiences

Then the third one is you can explore keyword sets. I’m going to urge you to. I don’t think this is something that many people do, but I think that it really should be, which is to look outside of your little galaxy of yourself and your competitors, direct competitors, to large content players that serve your audience.

So in this case, I might say, “Gosh, I’m Indie Hackers. I’m really competing maybe more directly with First Round. But you know what? HBR, Harvard Business Review, writes about a lot of stuff that my audience reads. I see people on Twitter that are in my audience share it a lot. I see people in our forums discussing it and linking out to their articles. Let me go see what they are doing in the content world.”

In fact, when you look at the Venn diagram, which I just did in the Keywords by Site tool, I can see, “Oh my god, look there’s almost no overlap, and there’s this huge opportunity.” So I might take HBR and I might click to see all their keywords and then start looking through and sort, again, probably by volume and maybe with a difficulty filter and say, “Which ones do I think I could create content around? Which ones do they have really old content that they haven’t updated since 2010 or 2011?” Those types of content opportunities can be a golden chance for you to find an audience that is likely to be the right types of customers for your business. That’s a pretty exciting thing.

So, in addition to these, there’s a ton of other uses. I’m sure over the next few months we’ll be talking more about them here on Whiteboard Friday and here on the Moz blog. But for now, I would love to hear your uses for tools like SEMrush and the Ahrefs keyword universe feature and Moz’s keyword universe feature, which is called Keywords by Site. Hopefully, we’ll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com


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четверг, 26 октября 2017 г.

Gain Capital sees client assets rise in Q3 2017, plans Bitcoin trading launch

Gain Capital has just posted a solid set of metrics for Q3 2017, with some exciting novelties in store for the fourth quarter of the year, including Bitcoin …

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Income Access to visit Berlin Affiliate Conference

(PRESS RELEASE) – Income Access, Paysafe’s digital marketing technology and services provider, has announced that it will both attend and exhibit …

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What we learned analyzing 496470 hotel affiliate clicks

Here’s what we found from our own data, followed by our takeaways for affiliate marketers, CMOs, startups, and big brand hotel chains.

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Seven Ways To Generate Money Using Your Website Or Blog Content

With over 20 years of experience in the world of online branding and affiliate marketing, I’ve had the opportunity to test many different monetization …

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What You Should Know About Buying Online Businesses

That trend holds for other types of affiliate marketing sites, too. To better understand this buyer’s market, let’s look at how prices are set for these …

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Janet Thaeler on Newspapers, Bitcoin, and Grocery Bikes

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, …

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7 Common Reasons Why Your Email Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working

7 Common Reasons Why Your Email Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working

There’s no denying it.

With most email users using automated spam filters and emails getting sent directly into Gmail’s Promotions folder, the deliverability and readability of marketing emails has dropped drastically.

Does this mean that email marketing is losing its edge as the most efficient B2B marketing strategy? No!

In the B2B space, email marketing has a unique set of challenges – but once you learn how to turn the stumbling blocks into stepping stones, it is still a surefire way to win over customers and generate plenty of business.

What we need to understand is that is that email marketing campaigns do not fail because there is too much clutter to break through. They fail because of the inability of their marketer to chalk out a robust email campaign strategy.

Harsh, but true. If you have ever witnessed failures in your email campaigns, you need to read this post.

Below are the seven key reasons why your email strategy may not be getting the desired results.

1. Lack of insight into your target audience

A recent study from The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) revealed that 77% of ROI comes from segmented, targeted and triggered campaigns.

Not being able to identify your potential target audience could present a major constraint when it comes to sending out email communications. Marketers must do their homework before carrying out their email marketing operations – this means clearly defining who their target customers are, and what their needs, preferences, demographics and psychographic characteristics might be.

2. No personalization

Personalization is the way forward in today’s world – marketers can no longer rely on a ‘one-size-fits-most’ approach. The open rate for e-mails with a personalized message was 18.8% in 2016 as opposed to 13.1% without any personalization, says a Statista report.

The time-efficient solution for marketers is to divide their target market into different segments based on the similarity of interests, values, and preferences shared by the customers.

This will help you design and disseminate personalized, needs-specific messages to customers and stimulate the right triggers in customers’ minds.

3. Outdated email database

Every database goes through substantial depreciation over a period of time. An outdated and under-performing database impedes your campaign success and may lead to a very poor response rate, conversion rate and ultimately a lesser ROI. This means it’s imperative for marketers to make no compromises when it comes to acquiring quality databases.

If you already have a database, make sure it is well maintained and fully up-t0-date so that your sales teams are equipped with reliable data at all times. You may also opt for data appending services to capitalize on a reliable, accurate and error-free database.

4. Unappealing subject line

Image 2 - email marketing strategy

The average office worker sends or receives about 121 emails a day, according to a report by the Radicati Group.

Out of all these emails received, the likelihood of someone opening one with a naff or cliched subject line is low. People open based on the name of the sender and the subject line, and an un-catchy, vague, and misleading subject line can lead to low open rates and eventually encumber the success of your email campaigns.

The subject line of your emails must be clear, intriguing, and attractive enough to catch the recipient’s attention. Excessive use of punctuation marks, use of all caps and misleading phrases should be shunned.

5. Poor email design

If your target customers lack the motivation to read your emails, there could be something wrong with the design, look and feel of them.

Savvy marketers should have an arsenal of attractive email templates that best appeal to their target prospects. The use of the logo, colors, pictures, call to action buttons and other elements should be synchronized well, and experimentation in design must not be feared.

In addition, the body of the email (including the subject line) must clearly convey the intended message. You should also consider how many emails are opened on mobile devices and optimize them for better readability accordingly. According to Litmus’ Email Analytics report, the number of emails opened on mobile devices has risen and sits at 56% of all emails sent.

Image 3 - email marketing strategy

6. Unknown or ambiguous sender

Nearly half of all emails are deleted straight away if the identity of the sender is not known or appears dodgy. Sending emails from sales@XYZ.com, info@XYZ.com, admin@XYZ.com or any such name does not appear to be genuine and will often get marked as spam by the recipients.

Using a real person’s name and email address as the sender makes an email look more authentic and trustworthy. This small change will positively impact your message deliverability and readability rates – I guarantee it.

7. Lack of relevance

Quite often, an email is simply not given any attention by the receiver due to the lack of perceived value in it.

Before sending email communications out to a mass audience, digital marketers must segment their target market as well as keeping in mind their specific needs and preferences. They should design messages that personally appeal to them and address their individual challenges and needs.

Failing to do so could lead to an increase in unsubscribe rates, low open rates, low response rate, and eventually a low conversion rate on all email marketing efforts.

Wrapping up

Running an effective email marketing campaign is not exactly rocket science, but it is an art. It needs careful planning and meticulous execution.

Test out different email templates on a small group of loyal users if you’re thinking of tweaking your formatting or design to see how they respond to changes in the email design, subject line, or content. This will help you identify the templates that best serve your purpose.

Similarly, try to research the best time to send marketing emails: the time at which you send your emails directly impacts the open rate and response rate of your campaigns.

Guest Author: Sudheer Kiran is a digital marketing consultant & co-founder of the digital marketing agency DigitalVow, which offers digital marketing services to small and medium-sized enterprises. He is passionate about marketing, startups and entrepreneurship.

The post 7 Common Reasons Why Your Email Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.



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Raketech announce shift towards responsible affiliate marketing

Leading iGaming affiliate Raketech has announced the launch of a new brand identity, logo and website that will see the company place a firmer …

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Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing. * No Boss. * Part time or Full time. * Work from the comfort of home as long as you computer and internet connection. Go to this link …

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Stingray to provide the soundtrack for Mexican clinics, drugstores

Working with its local affiliate Marketing Sensorial Mexico (operating as Basha), Stingray said Wednesday that some 1,600 pharmacies and 1,600 …

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Raketech announces new brand and increases emphasis on responsible affiliate marketing

Raketech, one of Europe’s leading iGaming affiliates, today announced the launch of its new brand identity, logo and website to reflect the company as …

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среда, 25 октября 2017 г.

15 Steps for Creating a Successful Social Media Giveaway Contest

15 Steps for Creating a Successful Social Media Giveaway Contest

Social Media Giveaways continue to be hugely popular, although the online landscape has changed a great deal in the last few years. The growth of mobile internet traffic, in particular, is a game changer, making mobile responsive giveaways an absolute must.

For this reason one of your best options is to use Heyo to create your giveaway. Heyo’s contest apps are fully mobile responsive and intuitive to set up. And Heyo’s editor is entirely visual, which makes the process of creating your campaign more enjoyable.

Best yet, they offer a no credit card free trial.

Everyone loves getting something for free. In fact, one of the main reasons that people “Like” a brands Facebook page is so that they can either obtain a discount or win something.

The rise of social media allows businesses to easily create their own contests and giveaways that can:

  • Build links to your website (great for SEO)
  • Increase traffic
  • Create social engagement

This then can lead to increased brand awareness and the sharing of your contest on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.  So giving away something for free can result in free marketing.

In this article we will go through 15 steps to set up, promote, and use “giveaways” to improve traffic and social engagement.

Step 1.  Determine the goal of the giveaway

What is the primary purpose of the Giveaway?  Is your focus to increase social engagement to your Facebook or Twitter pages? Or are you interested in using Giveaways as a link building strategy?

The goal that you choose will determine the type of contest and entries that you will run.  Additionally, you also need to determine your budget for promoting the Giveaway.

Step 2.  What will you be giving away, and how long will the contest run?

Based on the goal of the contest, your margins, and your audience, you can select a giveaway product that people will love.

If you have an obscure product, giving it away may not be a sufficient incentive for people to enter your giveaway.  In that case you may choose to give away a Visa gift card or Ipad or something that everyone will want.

Additionally, you must determine how long your contest will run.  We find that 1 month is optimal, as it gives you enough time to get the most out of the giveaway, without being much too long thus causing people to forget all about it.

 Step 3.  Create your giveaway on Rafflecopter

Why Rafflecopter?  Because it’s awesome.  It takes minutes to create a Giveaway.  It gives you the ability to create multiple entries so that through one Giveaway you can fulfill various objectives, including link building and social engagement.  It’s very inexpensive.  And it can be integrated into your page, Facebook, and other blogs.

Creating a Giveaway Contest on Raffle Copter

Some of the entries that we recommend are:

  •  Tweet about the Giveaway
  • Leave a Blog Post Comment
  • Follow @yourname on Twitter
  • Easy entry for all YourName fans on Facebook (fangate)
  • Like this post on Facebook
  • Google +1
  • Follow us on Pinterest
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe to us on YouTube
  • Link to us from your Blog
  • Tell your Community (For 25 more entries, post a link to this giveaway on your blog,  favorite community, forum, facebook group, or any other place where you think people would like to hear about the chance to win! Note: You can do this once per day, but each entry must be a different community.)
  • Join Our Newsletter (We send the occasional newsletter with tips and specials that you’ll be the first to hear about!)

Step 4.  Add the widget to your site and to Facebook

Once the Giveaway is created, Rafflecopter will give you an embed code that you can easily copy and paste to your site.

TIP:  Upload the widget to a permanent page on your site.  After the contest is over, you remove the widget, but all of the links and publicity generated to that internal page of your site will remain.

Adding a Rafflecopter widget to your blog or website

Within Rafflecopter, you can select a button to Share to Facebook.  As easy as pie, Rafflecopter will create a Facebook app with the widget, including a disclaimer, necessary to run Giveaways on Facebook.

Be sure to create a banner on your home page or sidebar promoting the Giveaway, so all of your site visitors see the Giveaway and have the opportunity to enter.

Step 5.  Establish benchmarks

Before you launch your Giveaway, create a document for yourself with your benchmarks.  Here are a few that you can consider:

  • Number of likes on Facebook
  • Number of Google +1’s to the page
  • Number of Retweets to the page
  • Number of inbound links
  • Average monthly visitors
  • Conversion Rate

Image

Step 6.  Create an email announcing the giveaway to your email subscriber

Reaching out to your current customers and subscribers gives you an opportunity to “seed” the giveaway with existing fans.  Additionally, this gives your customers an opportunity to engage with your brand.

Step 7.  Submit your giveaway

There are a large number of sites that can be used to promote giveaways and contests.  Most are free, and some give you the option to pay to enhance the visibility of your contest.

Here are a few to help you get started:

Step 8.  Reach out to giveaway bloggers to promote your giveaway

There are many blogs dedicated to promoting Giveaways.  These are typically run by mommy bloggers or stay at home entrepreneurs that are dedicated to finding and promoting giveaways.

There are 3 types of Giveaways that you will encounter:

3 Types of Giveaways

It’s important for you to be clear when you are reaching out to cut down on emails back and forth and maximize your response rate.

To create a list of sites to reach out to, visit the sites above and click through their giveaways.  Create a list of these sites, with their contact info.  Then, email those people asking them if they’d be willing to promote your Giveaway.

Once you’ve had responses from people and have a database of potential sites, it’s important for you to validate these sites and to check out their statistics so you can select the most powerful sites to move forward with.

I use LinkResearchTools.com to check for a large variety of statistics:

Link Research Tools

It measures many stats including:

  • Inbound links from Unique C classes
  • Alexa Rank
  • PageRank
  • Facebook Likes
  • Pinterest Followers
  • Stumbleupon
  • ACRank
  • TitleRank (does the site rank for the title of the home page?  If it does, it’s a healthy site.  If it doesn’t, it may be banned or penalized in Google)
  • Link Velocity Trends

There are other tools you can use, including OpenSiteExplorer and Ahrefs

Step 9.  Determine promotions budget & track your outreach

It’s important to stay organized while you go through this process!  There will be so many emails back and forth, each at different stages of the promotions process, that things can easily slip through the cracks.

Personally, I use PODIO to keep track of each and every single potential giveaway partner.  Within podio I created a custom app for “Inventory”.  Any one that replies, I add them to the inventory including their contact info, site statistics, and notes.

Podio

By connecting Podio with gmail, as people reply I can create tasks in Gmail that get sent to Podio so I can follow up.  I also add notes to each of the partners, thus keeping the progress of each one up to date.  By keeping all of the data in Podio I can easily compare at a glance the price and power of each site.

When choosing how to spend my marketing budget, I will sort in Podio by different factors such as Alexa, Pagerank, Inbound links and AC rank to see what sites surface to the top for each. Then I will compare the price for each to determine the best way to spend my budget.

DOCUMENT EVERYTHING!  If you do not use Podio or a project management tool, it is very easy for the project to become very overwhelming!

You may even choose to add Paypal transaction ID and other such data and then create a Cost App in Podio to track the total expenditure for the project.

Step 10.  Promote your giveaway on a daily basis

Did you know that thousands of sites host “Linkies”?  By going to these pages, you can submit your giveaway through a “Linky” form on these sites.

Here is a list of Giveaways that we’ve created based on the day of the week:

List of Blog Giveaway Linkies by Weekday

Additionally, you may choose to advertise your Giveaway on a variety of platforms.  Here are a few options:

  • Promoted Posts on Facebook
  • Use StumbleUpon’s Paid Discovery
  • Reddit’s advertising platform
  • Promoted Posts on Twitter

 Step 11.  Email the giveaway entrants to encourage them to come back

Halfway through the contest, send out an email to all of the entrants to encourage them to return to your site for more entries.

You may choose to add a new “Mega Entry” to encourage people to participate, or simply by sending them a reminder you may generate more buzz.

By sending out an email, you may get some of the existing entrants to Tweet about the Giveaway, or post on their Facebook page, or Pin your contest, which will in turn generate more exposure to your Giveaway.

Step 12.  Select your winner!

If you’ve continued advertising your giveway and submitting to Linkies, you should have several hundred entries by the end of the 15-30 day period.  Depending on how many entries you made available will determine the total number of entries.

Within Rafflecopter there is a way to select the winner.  Once you select and verify the winner, Rafflecopter will display the winner automatically through the widget.

Notify the winner immediately and ask them for permission to use their picture in an email announcing the winner of the contest.

 Step 13.   Upload emails to your email list

If you included an email collector as an entry, or included in the Disclosure that entrants would be added to your mailing list, download the spreadsheet from Rafflecopter and add the emails to your email list.   Send out an email to your list announcing the winner and thanking people for participating.

Creating Rapport with contests

This is a great opportunity to start the process of converting them into customers.  Give them an amazing incentive to purchase from your site, by giving them a very large coupon code, or something for free.  Your goal at this stage is to make your email so appealing that people won’t immediately unsubscribe.

Start a rapport with the contestants and start warming them up to your brand!

Step 14.  Mail out the prize

Don’t just send out the product in a boring box.  Make it beautiful!  Add a personalized letter or something that will make the winner feel special.  Encourage the winner to share about winning the price, and to review your product on their site.

Step 15.  Remove the widget from your site

After you’ve sent out the email, remove the widget from your site.  You’re all done!

Conclusion

If you follow these 15 steps, you will be able to create a successful contest with thousands of entries.  Depending on the entries that you choose, you can easily increase your number of Facebook Likes, Twitter followers, Google +1’s, and Pinterest followers.

You can generate social engagement and buzz by having people view and follow you on your social media channels.  Additionally, you can generate links to your site by paid promotions as well as using “Link to Site” as one of the Mega Entries.

Gaining this exposure will give you an opportunity to find new Brand Ambassadors, Customers, and to increase your organic traffic from the search engines.  For a small price, you can gain an amazing number of permanent  links and followers!

Guest Author: Marcela De Vivo is a search engine marketing veteran with 14 years of experience.   She loves helping businesses gain exposure online.  She is Co-Founder of Gryffin Media. an agency dedicated to sharing resources and helping companies grow.  She loves to research new tools and ideas to generate traffic and social engagement.

Want to Learn How to Market Your Business and Blog for Free with Social Media?

My book – Blogging the Smart Way “How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.

It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.

I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 120,000.

You can download and read it now.

The post 15 Steps for Creating a Successful Social Media Giveaway Contest appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.



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