Investing in a home business can be an exciting and rewarding experience, but it is important to take the time to make sure you are taking the right steps before diving into a new venture. Melinda Curle has put together some helpful tips and tricks to get you started on the right foot.
Investigate Before Making a Decision
Before investing any money into a home business, it’s important to do your research. Take some time to evaluate different business models and consider the pros and cons of each one. Consider your budget, skillset, resources available, etc., as these will all play a role in whether or not starting a home business is right for you.
Have a Strategy
Creating a detailed plan of action will help keep you organized when starting any new venture. Outline what needs to be done, as well as short-term and long-term goals that need to be accomplished for your business to succeed. This includes researching potential competitors, creating marketing strategies, obtaining necessary licenses or permits, etc. Having this information upfront can help save time and money down the line.
Establish Your Financial Limits
Setting a budget is essential for any business venture, big or small. It’s important to understand how much money needs to be spent upfront and to have a plan for overhead costs, supplies and equipment, and taxes. Establishing a financial limit is key for successful financial management in the long run.
Explore Tools That Kickstart Project Management
There are plenty of tools available online that can help simplify project management tasks, such as setting deadlines, tracking progress, and monitoring expenses. With project tracking tools, you can save time and energy that would otherwise be spent managing multiple tasks simultaneously without such software. Plus, they’re easily accessible via mobile devices, so you can stay connected no matter where you go.
Recognize Potential Risks
Starting any type of business comes with certain risks that need to be considered before investing money. This could include personal savings, loans from family and friends, or other investments. Industry trends can quickly change and may impede progress, while there could also be legal concerns, such as liability in the case of an injury on property owned by a home-based business that does not have proper insurance coverage. It is important to research these potential risks to properly prepare for any unexpected events.
Seek Advice From Established Business Owners
Networking with experienced entrepreneurs can be beneficial for any aspiring business owner. Reaching out through social media or attending networking events can help provide valuable insights on everything from tax deductions to creative ways of generating additional income. Learning from their experiences can help one plan to maintain profitability and scale up operations in the future.
Starting a home business can be a great way to take charge of your future and unlock new opportunities. To make sure you are successful, you should do your research and carefully plan for what lies ahead. With the right approach, starting a home business can bring immense rewards both in terms of financial success and personal satisfaction.
What matters most when it comes to copywriting and creating great titles and headlines is the ability to trigger an emotion. The right words will prompt readers to click on the title and take action.
Certain adjectives will trigger curiousity. Other adjectives will trigger a fear of missing out or allude to specialized knowledge. These emotionally charged words are powerful when you use them in your titles and headlines.
The right verbs and adjectives will turn an average blog post title into a clickable and shareable blog post title.
“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”~David Ogilvy
Nouns
Hack
Secrets
Tricks
Tips
Mistakes
Adjectives
Great
Urgent
Awesome
Super
Cool
Secret
Sexy
Rock-solid
Best
Top
Quick
Fast
Ultimate
Effective
Efficient
Amazing
Shocking
Explosive
Unbelievable
Stupid
Dumb
Exciting
Dangerous
Enticing
Funny
Free
Huge
Special
Massive
Exclusive
Pretty
Worst
Bullshit
Mega
Creative
Brilliant
Fantastic
Total
Continuous
Master
Proven
Bad Ass
Kick-Ass
Magnetic
Easy
Magic
Miracle
Sensational
Bargain
Remarkable
Descriptive words are more clickable. They entice the reader more because they entertain a reader’s imagination.
Today, I’m going to review the lessons that Marie Forleo teaches us in her video, Marketing Strategy: How to Write Copy That Turns Website Visitors Into Customers. She gives some great gems that all copywriters should be following.
It is always a good idea to look to other copywriters and more successful people for tips on how to improve your own writing practices.
Peanut butter is one of those things that gets the mind going in one of those directions.
These tweaks will help you connect better with your target market. She answers a question from Dr. Cheryl.
“Hi Everyone, I created my site 15 years ago without the help of this program. Marie goes over the website and critiques it in this video.
The Spotlight Method (1:34)
In business, the spotlight can either be on you or your customers. If the spotlight is on you, it is highlighting your passions, your goals and your cleverness.
When you shift the spotlight to your customers, you focus in on their aspirations, their goals, their passion. Your focus then becomes the people that you serve.
Most people get this wrong especially when it comes to our writing. In business, we know that our customers want to feel seen, heard and acknowledged.
Dr. Cheryl’s Website Example (2:37)
As you can see, Dr. Cheryl has a beautiful, clean website. The header reads, “Dr. Cheryl is the go-to Modern Day guru of mindful loving.” The problem with this header is that it is about Dr. Cheryl. It is missing a hook for the website visitor. If they’re coming to this website, most likely the visitor is looking for help with their relationship, not a mindful guru.
Most people don’t even know what a mindful guru is! Let alone how one would help with relationships.
So, how do we fix this?
Change the Header to Be Customer Focused (3:22)
Using the Spotlight method, we can write some new headlines that are more customer focused. Here are some ideas:
Need Relationship Help? Let me help you get your love back on track.
Get the Passionate Playful Relationship You Want. I’ll Show You How.
Relationship in Trouble? Let’s get your Love Life Back On Track.
You can see how these are more customer focused than Dr. Cheryl focused. If you landed on the page now, you would feel more like Dr. Cheryl understands and wants to help.
What are some other areas that can be customer focused?
The Navigation (4:26)
The navigation bar is another area where you can focus in on the customer. Many people may not even think about this.
The current navigation has “What I have to Share,” which is all about Cheryl and not about the customer’s problems. A simpler navigation inspired by the Spotlight method will include
About
Services
Couples Workshop
Resources
Connect
These are all simple things that the customer might be looking for when they land on her website. Services, Resources, Connecting are all clear, customer focused language.
Having a navigation bar will put the focus on the customer rather than you. :
How Can You Bring the Spotlight on to Your Customers? (7:23)
The last part of the video, Marie engages her audience. She asks, “What is one piece of copy on your website where you can use the Spotlight method?”
She also leaves us with a promotion for her program at http://thecopycure.com.
Remember, Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams!
A logo will help you to establish your brand. This can help to build trust. It makes you appear more professional as well. When we think of a company, often the first thing that comes to mind is their logo. Therefore, a great logo is important.
Today, I’m going to go over the steps of building a professional looking logo in LogoAi because I’m currently searching for the perfect logo for my own brand!
What is LogoAi?
LogoAi is an online logo maker that helps business owners to create professional logos.
How Artificial Intelligence can be used for creating logos?
I’m not sure what type of Artificial intelligence is used for the logos. They have many templates and concepts to select from. This will give you a lot of great ideas about colors, styles and symbols.
Once you have selected the logo that you want, you can purchase it through their website.
When not use a free logo maker online?
LogoAi allows you to use a clean interface. It also allows you more options and you can edit it to match your website colors for better branding.
Enter your business name into the box and click the “make logo” button.
After you’ve clicked the button, you’ll be taken to a page with 10-12 logos. The top of the page gives you the option to add a slogan and search for symbols.
Click on the one that you like the most and you’ll be give the opportunity to edit it.
You can enter a slogan for your business that helps to define what you do. I’m currently testing out the slogan “captivating copywriting” for my business.
I searched for some symbols that go along with writing and there was what looked like the tip of a fountain pen, an open book and what looked like a feather. Not a ton of symbols for the writing niche, but they did look modern and sleek.
Once you have entered your business name, slogan and selected a symbol, simply click on the “Make More” button.
They will make more logos for you. You can edit them and select a different font or change out the colors.
Below is the logo that I came up with for my copywriting website.
LogoAi is very simple and intuitive when it comes to creating logos. While I would have appreciated more symbols for copywriting, I was pleased with how easy it was to create my own logo.
Editing the Logo:
There are four ways to edit your logo on the editing page:
Text
Symbol
Font
Colors
The selection that you will have will be based on the logo that you choose. The text allows you to write in your name and slogan. You can change the font size, letter spacing and line spacing of your business name and slogan.
The Font section allows you to swap out the font that you use. you can select from vintage, futuristic, handwritten and modern type fonts.
The colors section allows you to select the color for the icon and text. You can also reverse and have the text colored with the background white. For this design, there weren’t a lot of colors to choose from. However, it was easy to test out different colors with the click of a mouse. Another great feature was the gradient. You didn’t have to have a solid color.
LogoAi Pricing:
Creating the logos are free, but if you actually want to use one you’ll have to purchase it. The pricing is very affordable for start-ups with the basic low resolution logo costing only $29.
The professional package will get you a high-resolution JPG, vector EPS and PDF files, black and white inversions and brand guidelines with the ability to make changes and re-download.
Finally, the Designer assist package costs $99. It provides you with the same things in the professional package along with 3 custom revisions with one of their designers for a personal touch.
Review:
LogoAi is a great way to get a logo for a new business. It will help you establish your online brand quickly at a low cost. LogoAi is perfect for startups, blogs, coaches and consultants who are establishing themselves online.
LogoAi Ratings
Overall
4/5
User Interface – Easy to Use!
Pricing – Affordable – great for startups!
Editing Features – Basic
Available Symbols – Limited in my niche
LogoAI’s user interface is very simple and straightforward. This will help you to quickly make the logo that your business needs.
The editing features allow you to customize your logo and really make it your own.
The pricing is perfect for any startup, online coach or new website blog. It is much more affordable than a designer and can be customized a bit more than the free online logo makers.
The one area that I wish was more extensive was the available symbols for the writing niche. However, they did have a few great ones that are easily recognizable and customizable.
Today, I’m reviewing the Youtube video by Ashlyn Writes. Ashlyn Writes gives you five simple tips to getting your emails opened in her video.
It is very important to get in touch with your clients through your newsletter. Once you build your list, you need to send out regular emails for your list. This will build a great relationship with your readers.
So, how do you get them to open your emails?
How can you serve your email list?
Come at the newletters with the attitude that you’ll serve your list so well that even if they don’t buy from you, you’ll be happy.
The First Tip is to Use a Formula. An easy way to know what to say with your newsletter is to start with the end in mind. Think about what your audience is trying to achieve. Perhaps you write 3 Tips to Get X accomplished or An Easy Action to Get a Win.
The Second Tip is to Use a Great Subject Line. The subject line is the first and only opportunity that someone has to interact with your email. Therefore, it is important to make it great. Ashlyn recommends starting a swipe file of outstanding subject lines.
The Third Tip is to write conversationally. Write to your audience as you would speak to them. Writing conversationally will help you to sound less robotic. We don’t read online like we used to. When it comes to sales copy, the grammar rules don’t always apply and they can be bent.
Use line breaks. It will help visually not to see a sea of text.
The Fourth Tip is to ensure that you Land in their Inbox. Let’s face it, you don’t want to go to all the trouble of writing a great email newsletter only to have it end up in spam.
There are four main things that can impact whether your email lands in the spam folder or not – subscriber engagement, limiting negative metrics, authentication, and content.
Think about content. Emails from Target, J Crew, etc. tend to end up in your promotion folder if you’re a gmail user. This is because they tend to have many images and complex HTML. Plain, simple emails tend to end up in the inbox.
The final tip that Ashlyn Writes recommends is that you keep it to one call to action per email. Make it super clear what you want the reader to do.
Bonus Tip: Split test your subject lines. ConvertKit allows you to easily put in two subject lines that will be sent to 50% of your readers.
This was a pretty simple video that shared easy to implement tips for beginning copywriters. It is nice that it was only 9 minutes. Ashlyn Writes promotes her favorite email service in it. So, you may want to check out ConvertKit.
Struggling with a low open rate is a real concern for businesses that are building their email list and trying to connect with their customers through email. Not only are you missing out on potential sales, but you are also paying for an email service without your list even reading your content. No good!
We’ve discovered some of the ways to get your emails to stand out in the inbox.
“When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tellwhat’s inside, and the worst subject lines sell what’s inside.” — MailChimp
11 Tips for Email Subject Lines That Get Opened
Promise something exceptional. If your free giveaway is run-of-the-mill, not one will bother opening it. However, if people know specifically what they’ll learn and it is outstanding information that will improve their lives, you better believe they’re going to click on your email. They’ll be dying to read more.
Use powerful words. Emotional and sensory words will attract attention. Use words that trigger emotion or involve the senses to stand out in their inbox.
Use a number. Numbers will stand out in an inbox because they aren’t words. Your eyes will be drawn to them and it will stimulate curiosity. Numbers tend to stop wandering eyes. Share a statistic or the number of benefits your readers will have when they read your email.
Generate curiosity. I tend to delete half of the emails that I read because I can tell from a bland headline that they will likely be selling me something I don’t need or care about. However, the great copywriters will trigger my curiosity with unique or bizarre words. They may share some unusual information that isn’t common knowledge.
Use common mistakes. Admit it, you’ve opened one of those emails that starts out, “Avoid these common mistakes when buying your…” We all want to be smart when making purchases. Therefore, we want to know what the common mistakes that other buyers are making. You want to be smarter than the average buyer out there.
Use simple and specific subject lines. Trying to be too clever or use alliteration in every subject line may be a bit too much for your audience. People want to cut to the chase quickly. They don’t want to waste their time. Copywriting isn’t about flowery language, similes and metaphors. Save that for English class. Be succinct.
Mix it up. After a while, the same things don’t work in email marketing. It is good to mix up your emails with a different style or different message. If you only send out sales promotions, your readers will stop reading them when they don’t want to buy something. However, if you send out some informational emails, some sales promotions and some useful training videos, your audience may take more interest in your emails. They may stand out a bit more.
Learn from the masters. Subscribe to your competitors email lists. Analyze and take note of their subject lines. You’re bound to learn something from your competitors.
Know your audience. Knowing your audience’s hopes, fears and desires is key to appealing to them. If your target market is senior citizens, they won’t be opening emails about how to pay for college. Most of them have already paid for college and are more interested in funding a retirement. Make sure that every email you send is targeted to your list.
Use a call to action. A call to action will generate a sense of urgency and a fear of missing out. For example, “Grab your tickets for X before they sell out!” The headline not only tells the reader to do something, it also lets them know that without action, they may miss out on a great event.
56% of brands using an emoji in their email subject line had a higher open rate than those that did not. Jazzing your subject line up with an emoji is a good way to draw attention to your email.
Subject Line Open Rate
1. I was right – and that’s not good for you 69%
2. 13 email marketing trends you must know 64%
3. Before you write another blog post, read this 61%
4. Are we still on for 12? 61%
5. You don’t want FOMO do you? 60%
6. We’re starting in 5 HOURS 59%
7. Missed you, how’s Thursday? 59%
8. How 35 influencers grew their sites from 0-10K visitors 57%
9. It’s time to rethink Black Friday 57%
10. How to Google-proof your mobile site in 2017 53%
As you examine these headlines, you notice that they use the 11 tips that I mention in their emails. Each email either promises something great, generates curiosity, is powerful or uses numbers. All of the subject lines are simple and to the point. Because they all follow these guidelines, they have a really high open rate.
Conclusion
Email marketing that doesn’t get opened is absolutely useless to your business. Your customers need to be drawn in by a fantastic headline. Then they need to be engaged in interesting, funny or useful content. Practice recognizing good headlines and writing them out. Before long, you’ll master engaging headlines. Your audience will be eager to read your emails.
“A subject line is like a newspaper headline, a title on a book’s spine, or the key slogan of a print media ad. It tells the user what this is all about. And it should do so in sparkling style — seamlessly channeling your brand.” — Win Goodbody, senior product manager, Sitka Technology Group
Great sales copy can make you a pretty penny, but only if it is done well. You will only make money if you have great copy writing skills.
Writing compelling copy can be a bit intimidating. However, if you start to incorporate some of these practices of excellent copywriters, it will get easier and even more enjoyable.
1. Write to an Individual
As you are writing copy, you should write as though you are speaking to a friend. Grab their attention by writing something that is near and dear to them. Share your knowledge in the best way to possible. Be very personal and add humor. This can help you to stand out in a sea of marketing emails.
2. Master the Basics of Good Copy
This is a step that I am working on. I’m taking a copy writing course to break down the basics of effective copy through AWAI. I’m also a member of the Wealthy Affiliate community. These two writer’s communities provide me with great training and feedback on my sales copy.
Good grammar and spelling are also important. Make sure that your grammar and spelling are on point when you write an email or blog post for your audience.
3. Join Writer’s Communities
It is easy to get discouraged when you write on your own. However, when you are working in groups towards a common goal, you can learn from other writers. Whether you are starting your own blog or freelancing for a company, it is a great idea to join a writer’s community to help you improve.
There are free writer’s groups on Facebook and Reddit. You can also join paid communities that offer specific training and specialized knowledge such as AWAI, Barefoot Writer, and Wealthy Affiliate.
4. Master Writing Headlines
Without a killer headline, your emails and blog posts won’t be read. People are inundated with promotional emails and don’t have time to waste reading a mediocre blog post. Therefore, you need to master writing email subject lines and headlines.
“On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” – David Ogilvy
5. Keep it Short and Sweet
Don’t write long paragraphs. People tend to have shorter attention spans. Keep it short, simple and sweet. People will be more likely to read it when it looks interesting and short.
Open your copy up with something engaging that draws in your attention. You can include an intriguing question, share some unusual statistics or an outrageous claim. This will spark the interest of your readers.
6. Imitate Great Copywriters
When you stumble across an email that grabs you and has you so interested that you are pulling out your credit card, you should save the email. Print it out and study the components of it. What is drawing you in? What is the unique sales proposition? How are the benefits articulated?
Does the copywriter use humor? Is it effective? Try to write an email that imitates the style of writing. Practice makes perfect and eventually you’ll have the skill of writing copy that converts.
7. Use Bullet Points and Numbered Lists
Bullet points and numbered lists are a great way to feature the benefits of a product. It also breaks up the texts and is easier on the eye. Many readers will scan down the page and look for bullet points. The bullet points will draw the reader to the most important benefits and features.
8. Edit, Edit, Edit
Your copy should be clean and easy to read. Therefore, you should go through it with a fine-toothed comb. Editing is a tough skill, but it pays off when you are able to articulate your point clearly.
Editing copies also can give you a ton of ideas about your writing level. Eliminate the extraneous words and make the sentences short. Ensure that your message is to the point. Be harsh on yourself and ruthless when you edit. You’ll love the results.
9. Research
Look up statics to support your claims. Make sure that you credit your sources and attribute the statistics to the articles that you find them. Statistics and supporting research articles will strengthen your copy.
When you are researching, do not plagiarize. You can gain ideas from other articles, but make sure that you are coming up with unique content.
10. Save Your Junk Mail
When you get sales letters and promotions in the mail, save them! These promotions are mostly working for companies. Take note of what grabs your attention in your attention in these mailings. Study the unique sales propositions.
Create a swipe file based on your junk mail and email promotions. Start a list of the headlines that worked well on you and what their components were.
Copywriting is more of an art than a science. Some of the things that work for one group fail with another group. Therefore, you will be continually testing out headlines and mixing up the body. For example, using the prospect’s name in an email subject line used to be very effective. However, now that everyone uses it, the efficacy has decreased a bit with that technique.
These ten tips can help to improve your copywriting skills and help you to increase your conversion rates. This will be very useful for you when it comes to writing affiliate marketing blog posts or creating a sales letter for a client.
I found The Blog-Fire Power Blogging Method to be a pretty good book about blogging. I gave it a C – 75%. There was a lot of useful information about blogging, but also a bunch of general information that I already knew.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Blogging Basics
Choosing Your Ideal Blogging Platform
Choosing a Niche
Setting Up Your Site For Success
Your Email List
Traffic and Your Small Army
What to Blog About
How to Write a Viral Blog Post
Best Uses of Images and How They Increase Your Viral Potential
Hack Your Editorial Calendar
Social Media Savvy for Bloggers
Make Money With Your Blog
Your Ultimate Guide to In-Person Marketing for Bloggers
The Good & the Bad
The Good:
This book is very easy to read.
It is very short – about 100 pages. You can get through it in a day.
It provides lots of great resources to increase productivity and traffic.
Some of the tips are real gems.
The Bad:
It’s so short! For $7.99, I expected a longer book.
Some of the information seems like it could be a bit dated. It almost seems like Angela Atkinson reused some of her blog posts as chapters. She doesn’t always get very detailed with the information.
Who is The Blog-Fire Power Blogging Method For?
This is a great read for anyone who is thinking about becoming a blogger or professional writers who just want to gain some extra tips to improve their craft.
It is for the person who wants to own their own blog and turn it into a profit generating machine. However, she does not talk about how to make money blogging for other people.
The Blog-Fire Power Blogging Method Training
All of the training that you will receive is in the book. However, as a Blog-Fire reader, you receive free lifetime access to the Blog-Fire resource center through OnlineWritingPro.com.
The Blog-Fire Power Blogging Method Price
The price seemed a bit high to me. However, Angela Atkinson does provide some great tips for bloggers who want to improve their skill and take their blogging to the next level.
My Final Opinion of The Blog-Fire Power Blogging Method
It is a light and easy read on blogging. It will take you through the basics and introduce some more advanced concepts for blogging. I really enjoyed it. I was somewhat disappointed when I finished it. It left me wanting more.
The chapter on writing a viral blog post didn’t talk about how to make it go viral. For example, where to post it and who to ask to share it. It simply talked about writing a quality blog post. She did include creating a seductive headline, which is half of the battle.
The resources were helpful for me. There is a whole list of WordPress plugins to help bloggers look better and share their work easier. Angela Atkinson also recommended some great productivity tools as well, such as Trello, Idea Growr app and Evernote.
VERDICT: LEGIT – Good book. It is a fairly easy read. If you follow the instructions, you could eventually become a great blogger.
Blogging does require commitment and dedication. For me, committing to Wealthy Affiliate’s affiliate marketing platform helped me stay on track with my blogging, improve my skills and take my venture seriously. It is easy to get discouraged when you are just starting out. It can take a few months before you build up an audience and following.
Wes McDowell is a web strategist for The Deep End. He has created a helpful video on email marketing for 2019.
He starts out with a statistic to get you enthused about your email marketing techniques. For every $1 a company spends on email marketing, they receive $44 on average in return. This makes email marketing an incredibly powerful marketing tool.
He provides six main tips for email marketing.
#1 Simpler or No Email Design
Every time you are putting together a new email for a client, they may want to create a fancy design. Email providers tend to have fancy templates. However, when they hit your inbox, they look like one big commercial.
No one emails their friends and family with a fancy template. Therefore, when you get an email without a design, you don’t automatically disregard it as marketing. This helps you to casually slip into your customer’s inbox as a friend or a helpful person that they can trust.
Send out boring, old, plain text emails. These emails are much more likely to be read because they look like a genuine email you would get from friends and family members.
Another great reason to ditch the templates is that they are a great way to be sent to your promotions filter instead of the email inbox. Remember, keep the images and links in the email to a minimum. No more than one link and preferably no images.
One way to add an image to the email to make it look special is to add a GIF. This can make it more fun and memorable.
#2 Storytelling (3:34)
Rather than simply delivering a tip or advice in the email, make it even more impressive with a story. There are whole parts of your brain that will light up when you hear a good story. It also makes it more relatable and personable.
Rather than just sharing how clients can sell their homes faster by staging their home, share a story about a past client that refused to do that and how their house sat on the market for a long time until they gave in a did. Then their house sold for $10K over the asking price.
Share the emotional roller coaster that went along with the story, such as how you felt and how your customer felt going through the experience.
#3 Incorporate Video (4:34)
Start incorporating video into your email marketing. Don’t simply put a video in the email, but include it in the subject line to improve your open rate.
Not only will it increase your open rate, but people will be more likely to consume your content and absorb your message. People like video format versus plain text. Almost everyone is more likely to retain information when they are seeing it and hearing it.
You can do this by taking whatever content you were going to put in your email and creating a short video. It really doesn’t have to be high production value either. That can trip up a lot of clients. Some people think they have to get a whole camera crew and spend hundreds of dollars on a video.
You can use your smartphone, and do a short selfie style video. It will convert just fine. You’ll get your point across.
Finally, just upload it to YouTube. Get a screen capture of your thumbnail and link it to your video.
#4 Play The Hits (5:35)
Many small businesses get intimidated when they start to think about putting together an email campaign. More often than not, they already have content that they can string together into a series and set it up once. Then it gets automatically sent out to new subscribers the moment they end up opting into it.
A new subscriber will opt in today with a new email every week until that series is over. If you already have great blog posts, webinars, or interviews, you can use those in your email campaigns.
If you don’t have any content yet, that’s okay. Just keep writing one new email per week for as long as you think the series should go for.
Split up the content here and there. Include some blog posts, some videos and some tips. You could link out to content that you had nothing to do with creating, just put your own spin on it in the body of the email.
#5 Simple Segmentation (7:06)
Another thing that is working right now is a simple segmentation. Let’s say your business has a variety of services or types of products that interest different customers.
For example, a landscaper may offer tree removal service, landscape design and weekly lawn maintenance. You could create three different lead magnets that are specifically geared toward each service. Then design an email sequence specifically for lawn care, design maintenance, etc.
This is really powerful because these are two different types of customers that have a different goal in mind. If you sent out a mixture of those topics to all of your customers, many of them may start to unsubscribe.
Another approach is to have one overarching umbrella freebie that is interesting to everyone. Then when they are downloading their freebie, you could have an option for them to indicate which service that they’re most interested in.
Your email provider would see which box they checked and that would put them on the email list for landscape design or tree removal service.
#6 Re-engage or Scrub (8:34)
When it comes to email marketing, it can be great to have a big list. However, quality is just as important. You want your list to be full of people who actually open your emails are excited to hear from you.
If you have a big list of people who aren’t really opening your email, you run a high risk of having your emails flagged as spam. You could also get high unsubscribe rates. These are really bad signals to email providers.
Email providers that notice you get a lot of unsubscribes and are sending spam will not deliver the emails to the inbox. Your emails may end up in the promotions tab or the spam folder.
If someone flags you as spam, they won’t hear from you anymore, but it will also impact the people who liked hearing from you. You’ll end up in their spam folder too.
Another advantage to having a smaller, more engaged list is that email marketing providers charge for the number of people on your list. The larger your list, the greater the cost.
Before you start kicking people off your list, you should run a simple re-engagement campaign. Segment people who haven’t opened your emails in 90 days.
Send out 4 value based emails with pure value. Drip out those emails over two weeks. Anyone who hasn’t opened your emails during those two weeks probably isn’t interested anymore. Now is the time to kick them off your list.
This can sound counter-intuitive if you don’t have a large list, but by getting rid of the people who don’t want to hear from you, it improves the deliverability of the people who do want to hear from you.
After providing all these wonderful tips, Wes McDowell concludes by asking you what is stopping you from building your email list? He also offers a free course on how to guarantee website ROI. This is a great video and well worth twelve minutes of your time. I highly recommend it!
As commerce is changing to be more and more online, affiliate marketing has become a booming industry. There are affiliate programs for almost everything available. You can make money from promoting any product that you use. Getting started as a beginner can be tricky. By far, the best free affiliate marketing training for beginners is one that will take you step by step through the process of the affiliate marketing basics.
Wealthy Affiliate offers their entire step-by-step course free for the first seven days. That is plenty of time for you to set up a website and get started. They do this in hopes that you’ll love their training and community enough to stick around after the free seven days.
The Affiliate Bootcamp Course (70 lessons)
Wealthy Affiliate’s Bootcamp course is designed to take you from zero to hero. It has checklists of things to do each day to get your website set up, your niche selected and your marketing content created. It shares with you ideas for how to drive traffic to your website.
One of the nice things about the Wealthy Affiliate Bootcamp course is there is a checklist to let you know where you left off. This keeps you on track and moving forward. There is something very satisfying about checking things off a list. You start to feel very accomplished.
Here’s what you will be learning in your first 10 (free) lessons:
Getting Started
Understanding How To Make Money Online
How to Select a Niche
Building Your Own Niche Website
Setting Up Your Website
Prepping the Website for the Search Engines
Creating Your Initial Content
The Menus on Your Website
Understanding Keywords & What They Do
Recap
Each lesson comes with its own video and task list. The items are broken down into easily accomplishable tasks.
Weekly Webinars
The free course that you’ll receive for signing up for Wealthy Affiliate is seven days long. You’ll be able to access one Wealthy Affiliate’s weekly training webinars with updates and tips for keeping up with the changing world of affiliate marketing.
The webinars offer the chance to interact with an expert in affiliate marketing. You can type in questions and wait for him to answer them. He also shares some valuable information about the techniques that are being used and how to apply them in your own marketing.
SiteRubix
Not everyone has the funds to buy a new site. Many people want to test out their site building skills without risking any money. The latest feature of Wealthy Affiliate includes SiteRubix. SiteRubix is a free website builder. This makes it extremely easy to test out your site concept without risking any of your own money.
The great thing about SiteRubix is that even after your free 7 days of premium wealthy affiliate content expires, you can still promote your site. Unlike WordPress.com or Blogger.com, once you have tested out your website’s content, you can move it to your own domain. I have done this with the assistance of Wealthy Affiliate’s help.
Site Comment Features
Getting traffic to your website is important. Having people comment on your posts is equally important in the eyes of Google. Wealthy Affiliate has features that allow you to easily exchange comments with other members of the community. This ensures that you’ll have comments on your website and that there will be some initial starting traffic to your website.
Free Keyword Tool
Wealthy Affiliate has one of the best and most realistic keyword research tools on the market. While I love Google Keyword planner and Ahrefs for a variety of reasons, they seem to inflate the number of searches. Wealthy Affiliate’s keyword research tool gives you a more modest estimate of whether you’ll be able to rank for the keyword and roughly how much traffic that you’ll receive if you rank on the first page with that keyword.
At first, it can seem a bit scary to think that you’ll be writing a 1000 word blog post and the Google SEO traffic will only 5-10 per month. However, it is much more realistic. It also helps you to realize that you need to be taking your own steps in order to drive traffic through either social media marketing or paid advertising.
The Free Starter Membership ($0 – free as long as you wish)
The free starter membership is $0 and lasts as long as you need. I recommend starting from this point. Everyone can join WA as a starter member. There is no credit card required.
While there are restrictions as a free member, there is enough information for beginners to get started in your online business. It helps you to make a determination whether you want to continue. This is the entry level membership of Wealthy Affiliate and I suggest you start from here. Anyone can join WA as a starter member.
I highly recommend joining as a starter member and then taking full advantage of the premium membership for the first week. Just check out the testimonials below.
The Paid vs. Free Training
While I do recommend that you get started with the free resources, there are some subtle difference between the free WA membership and the paid WA membership. You do have access to a bit more training, 24/7 support, private messaging and website security certificates.
Don’t get turned off by the freemium model that wealthy affiliate offers. Many of the online courses that are much more expensive have the same content. However, with Wealthy Affiliate, one of the biggest bonuses is that it comes with a community that is working towards success online. You have members that are willing to visit your website, give you feedback and comment on your posts. This helps your website to stay relevant in the eyes of Google. It also helps you to improve. Sometimes we don’t see the negatives on our website unless someone else points them out to us.
Getting Started with Wealthy Affiliate
It is simple to get started with Wealthy Affiliate. Simply click on the link and fill out your email address and select a username for yourself. This will be posted when you ask questions and chat with other members. Once you’ve signed up, you should click on the training button and go through the affiliate marketing Bootcamp. That will get you a good start with affiliate marketing.
