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11 Ways To Use ThriveCart To Get More Sales From Your Website

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Getting sales is the key to sustaining and scaling your business. Money pays the bills, and you can use it to run ads to reach even more people.

I’ve used a variety of softwares in the past to help me achieve this singular objective. Some were better than others. However, for most of the top end options, the monthly payments didn’t make sense.

Then I came across ThriveCart. Unlike most software, ThriveCart is a one-time purchase for lifetime access. Most other comparable softwares charge at least $97/mo. You stop paying…you lose your stuff. ThriveCart is not like that.

I decided to give ThriveCart a try a while back and haven’t turned back since. I’ve used it for my virtual summits, product launches, and everything in between.

Since I started using ThriveCart, I’ve optimized the process of using this software to boost sales across my website. Here are the 11 ways you can start using ThriveCart to get more sales from your website.

 

#1: Set Up An Order Form

The first thing you’ll want to do on ThriveCart is create an order form. This is the actual page where people will buy your product. Here is a simple ThriveCart order form I used for my dividend investing spreadsheet.

ThriveCart gives you a variety of capabilities to enhance your order page to maximize conversions. This is just the starting point for making money with ThriveCart. You can connect with Stripe and PayPal so your customers have those payment options.

That can be done in the settings tab under the payment gateways area.

To create your order form, all you have to do is go into the “Products” tab and click on “Create Product.”

ThriveCart will then take you through the rest of the process.

Some of the previous softwares made this part of the process very tedious. Creating products, adding integrations, and making it look nice were very difficult.

On ThriveCart, it is much quicker and easier to create these types of pages. Their dashboard is easier to navigate than the other options I have tried.

 

#2: Include An Order Bump

The easiest way to use ThriveCart to get more sales is to tap into existing customers. Customers who commit to buying something with you are likely to buy more from you in the future. However, you can “speed up” the future by adding an order bump on your order page.

An order bump is an extra offer at a lower price point than the initial offer. It’s the equivalent of an optional add-on that will increase your average revenue per customer. I always add an order bump to my virtual summits and can attribute them to a 20% increase in summit revenue.

The best part about these order bumps is they’re not hard to make at all. When you go into ThriveCart’s process of creating the order form, one of their options is the order bump. This is where you can customize the appearance, name your offer, and set a price.

 

#3: Redirect Customers To An Upsell

It is imperative to note that when someone buys something from you, they are more likely to buy more things from you. This is a key fact for using ThriveCart to get more sales for your website.

One of your options in ThriveCart is to decide where people will go after they complete the purchase. ThriveCart refers to this as the success page. You can either create your own or use ThriveCart’s built-in success page builder.

You can customize this success page to include a video, text, and other elements.

So far I’ve created my own success pages using OptimizePress to sell my next level offer.

Anytime someone buys an All-Access Pass from me, they get sent to a page like this…

Upon scrolling down, the customer sees that I’m offering something new. In this case, I’m offering the Virtual Summit Blueprint (VSB) since this customer just purchased the All-Access Pass for one of my summits.

Several people who bought the All-Access Pass have taken me up on the Virtual Summit Blueprint offer.

The idea is to have another offer on the other side. If you sell something or $47, have an offer for $97 or $197 on the other side. The focus of the success page is to thank the person for buying your product. However, you can mention another product at the same time.

Part of using ThriveCart to get more sales from your website is to get multiple sales from the same customers.

 

#4: Include Benefits And Testimonials On The Order Page 

Benefits and testimonials are two of the best things to add to an order page to boost sales. Benefits give your potential customers an idea of what they’ll get. Testimonials reinforce social proof.

Earlier on, I shared my dividend spreadsheet order form. On that order form, I include the benefits right below the picture of the product.

I’ve put the picture down here to save you from scrolling back up…

The benefits appear under the What you get part and have green checkmarks next to each of them. Sometimes the benefits will be enough to turn a visitor into a customer.

However, you will boost your conversion rates with testimonials because of the social proof they’ll generate.

I recently bought ConvertBox which is a great software for boosting opt-in rates. Sure enough, they used ThriveCart for their order form and had some testimonials at the bottom…

You do not need too many testimonials for a ThriveCart order form to have the desired effect. ConvertBox only has these two testimonials on their order form at the time of writing.

 

#5: Include A Multi-Pay Option

ThriveCart gives you the ability to add multiple payment options for the same product. Depending n how your product is priced, not everyone can make the one-time payment.

However, some of these same people can buy your product under a payment plan. In most payment plan set-ups, you’ll get paid less in the beginning but end up with more money at the end of the plan.

One payment plan I recently incorporated for my summits was two payments of $25 instead of paying the $47 upfront. People have taken me up on the payment plan already, and instead of making $47 right away, I make $50 in two months.

Not only is that a 6.38% increase in revenue from doing virtually nothing extra, but I’m also getting customers who weren’t able to take me up on the one-time $47 payment.

For higher priced offers like training courses, you can get a higher ROI with the payment plan while getting more customers.

Some of the people coming out with $1,997 training courses will also have a 3 month payment plan of $797/mo. At the end of those 3 months, the total comes to $2391 instead of $1,997 which is a 19.73% revenue increase at the end of those 3 months.

 

#6: Receive Recurring Payments From Your Customers

The only problem with chasing sales is that you have to continue hitting a certain number of sales each month to continue making a certain amount of revenue each month.

Recurring payments solve this problem.

You get the customer once and the customer continues to pay you monthly. This type of payment model is commonly seen in coaching, services, softwares, and membership sites.

Having this type of model on your side will allow you to earn more with ThriveCart. In the pricing options, ThriveCart allows you to set payments to recur monthly.

This is how it looks on my end for the Advanced Influencer Mastermind which happens to be $47/mo.

This works great for automating the monthly payments of coaching, services, or any of the other types of recurring revenue offers.

 

#7: Add A Countdown Timer To Your Order Page 

One of the strongest human drivers is urgency. If you give people a short amount of time to make a decision, they will make a decision sooner.

ThriveCart allows you to add a countdown timer to your order page. When the timer hits zero, you can choose where to redirect the visitor if they have not completed their purchase.

You can create a countdown timer in the customization tab of your order form.

One important feature of the countdown timer is that you can set the countdown to a certain date or base it on a period of time after the first visit.

If you want to set a deadline such as the end of the year for a special promotion, you can create that countdown timer.

For my virtual summits, I set a 15 minute time limit for new visitors to buy the All-Access Pass at $47 instead of the usual $97. This countdown works very well for generating sales and can be a great asset for you as well.

 

#8: Add Buyers And Cart Abandoners Into Email Sequences

Earlier we talked about including an upsell so your customers buy more from you. Not all of your customers will take action and buy the upsell…in that moment. With the right nurturing, some people who passed up the upsell may convert a few days or weeks later.

Nurturing the relationship requires knowing in your system where that customer is along the journey. A while back, I created a Free + Shipping Page for my book Content Marketing Secrets.

I ultimately stopped promoting this because I was doing all of the work (filling in addresses, sending them out, etc.). The only way to delegate was by giving someone my Amazon password which is something I’m never doing

In any event, the order form looked like this…

Cool stuff, right? There was just one problem.

Some people who would opt-in and get to this point would abandon the cart and not pay for the shipping and handling.

Every person who opted in was added to a list of people who did not buy the book yet. They would receive an email about two days later urging them to get their copy of Content Marketing Secrets.

People who bought the book through this form were moved from the “did not buy” list to the buy list. This is something you can do with a combination of ThriveCart and ConvertKit (most emailing services work in this scenario).

On ThriveCart, you can select which list someone gets added to when they complete an order. On ConvertKit, you can set an automation so they when people get added to the buy list, they automatically get removed from the “did not buy” list.

That way, people who bought the book aren’t then getting urged two days later to buy the same book they already bought.

 

#9: Split Test Your Carts

One cool feature ThriveCart lets you utilize is A/B Split Testing. You can make a slight tweak to an order form and compare the two versions to each other. A single added benefit or slightly different copy can go a long way in boosting sales.

You can even test order bumps to see which order bump converts at a higher rate.

While I personally have not done A/B Split Tests yet, you can start your own in the ThriveCart dashboard.

You should wait for your A/B Split Test to get at least 100 visitors before making any final conclusions about which one is the better performer.

Once you find a winner, conduct a different split test to see if you can increase the conversion rate even more.

 

#10: Recruit Affiliates To Promote Your Products

This is my favorite part about ThriveCart. No matter how big your audience is, you are limited in how much exposure you can get on your own.

The best way to maximize your exposure and sales is to recruit an affiliate army to promote your products.

ThriveCart gives you the ability to add affiliates to your products and provide them with their affiliate links.

Recruiting an affiliate army goes beyond the scope of this blog post, but I do have something special. Each person who buys ThriveCart through my link will receive free access to my Advanced Affiliate Marketing Summit training. In this training, myself and over 20 other leading affiliate marketing experts share how you can boost your commissions, grow your audience, and recruit an army of affiliates for your products.

The Advanced Affiliate Marketing Summit training is one of the bonuses. I’ll talk about the others at the very end.

 

#11: Lead People From Your Website To Your ThriveCart Order Page

All that is left is leading your people to your ThriveCart Order Pages. If you want to sell straight from your website, include a link on your website that leads to the corresponding ThriveCart Order Page.

A more popular model is using your website to grow your email list. You then use an email sequence to build a relationship with new subscribers and eventually promote the appropriate ThriveCart Order Page based on what sequence the new subscriber is in.

Both of these approaches work. It’s your decision on how you apply them and which one you focus on.

 

ThriveCart has been one of the most critical softwares for my business. Without it, my summits and product launches wouldn’t make money.

…and since I am an affiliate, I decided to sweeten the pot and add these bonuses:

Bonus #1: Advanced Affiliate Marketing Summit Training

Discover how you can recruit an affiliate army for all of the products you put on ThriveCart. Over 20 top affiliate marketing summits and I will be joining forces to share how you can boost your sales, get more traffic, and recruit your very own affiliate army.

Bonus 2: Blog Traffic Domination Training 

A big part of making ThriveCart work for you is attracting traffic. An affiliate army will help you, but there are ways to bring your own traffic. The Blog Traffic Domination training will show you exactly how you can start driving a ton of people to your blog. These strategies also work if you are a podcaster or YouTuber.

Bonus #3: The Ultimate Profitable Content Repurposing Strategy

Repurposing content is one of the easiest ways to tap into multiple platforms and grow your audience. In this training, you will learn how to profitably repurpose your existing content so you can direct more people to your ThriveCart order pages.

I’ve been using ThriveCart for a few years now and love their software. To this day, I continue finding new ways to use this tool. If you encounter any new ways to use ThriveCart that I didn’t mention, let me know in the comments. I’ll give you full credit and mention you in the post.

I grateful for you being a part of the journey.

Click here to learn more about ThriveCart

The 3 Easiest Way For Nonfiction Authors To Consistently Create A Ton Of Content

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Creating content allows you to better serve your audience and reach potential customers. That’s no secret.

We know the benefit of creating content and distributing it to our community. However, it’s not always easy to remain consistent. For many creatives, time is the big issue. You only have so much time to create AND MARKET your content.

If you’re creating but not marketing, then what’s the actual point? I don’t want to be the guy who creates great content that never sees a soul.

For all of the nonfiction authors out there, you also don’t want to be the person who cranks out so much free content but can’t find the time to write and market your books.

The biggest block that holds content creators back is creating content without any purpose behind it. And no, serving your audience or being consistent are not viable reasons here.

I’ll put it this way.

I didn’t decide to write a blog post on this topic because I pulled this topic out of a hat. There’s a very intentional reason for me writing a blog post for nonfiction authors which I’ll get into shortly (no $997 course upsell here, but I’d be mighty happy if you grab your copy of The Wealthy Author and left a review).

Anyway, I’ll cover the three reasons here. By the time you read this entire blog post, you’ll know exactly why I decided to write this one.

 

#1: Hold A 1-2 Hour Workshop

If you can muster more than two hours, then more power to you. However, a one hour workshop gets the job done.

The workshop can either be a webinar or an in-person event. The webinar is definitely easier to organize from a logistics standpoint. Sit in your house and anyone from the world can join your webinar.

The in-person event is more of a hassle since you have to get local attendees and find a local venue, but you can make more money with in-person events AND learn more about your audience than with a webinar.

For the in-person option, it honestly doesn’t have to cost you anything. Reach out to local libraries, restaurants, and co-working spaces. For the majority of these venues, the price point will be somewhere between inexpensive and free. All three of these venue owners want more people in their buildings.

Libraries frequently hold events for authors.

If you can get customers inside of the restaurant during their off hours, they’re game.

If you can get side hustlers and business owners inside of a co-working space (potential customers), the co-working spaces see the need for you to hold a workshop at their place.

Regardless of how you decide to conduct your workshop, the important thing is to record yourself on video. That way, you’ve got a 1-2 hour video.

The cool part is that you can take that 1-2 hour video and turn it into a bunch of smaller videos.

I don’t think it’s farfetched for anyone to do a 1 hour workshop and end up with at least 10 short videos that are ready to be deployed on YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook.

Imagine if you did a webinar each month and got at least 10 videos from each of those webinars. For most people, that’s almost an entire quarter of YouTube videos done. All of that in just 1-2 hours with some editing to create those separate videos later on.

 

#2: Get More Intentional With Your Free Content

In this picture, there are two book covers. Guess what the books have in common…

“They’re by my favorite authors?” Yes. Fun fact: I own a pair of the Gary Vee sneakers

“These books have valuable content in them?” Yes. You’re getting warmer.

“They’re successful books?” Yes. That’s also true.

“The both have a lot of paper and black ink?” Yes. That’s also true, but now we’re getting silly

Okay, so there are a lot of things that these two books have in common.

But these two books aren’t like every book you’ll read.

Why?

These books are based off of the free content that the authors have posted online in the past.

You can find at least 90% of the from either of those books if you look in the right places.

Here’s the caveat…who is actually going to do that.

Gary Vee and Seth Godin come out with new content every day. Do you really want to go through thousands of blog posts, videos, podcast episodes, and other fun stuff to find all of the content from each of those books?

Or, if you really wanted to, would you just buy the books instead and save time?

Which brings us to this blog post.

Someday, I will shamelessly place this entire blog post, virtually word for word, in one of my future books.

There are a few reasons the placement will be shameless:

  1. Some readers will first learn about me through my book. This blog post would be new content for them
  2. Some visitors reading this blog post now might forget about it in two weeks. Placing it in the book would reinforce the tactics we’ve covered
  3. It’s a valuable piece of content. I’m not a fan of working so hard on something only to put it on the shelf after its initial promotion
  4. I have two choices for this content. I either include it in the next book and you can’t read it for several months until I release the book (that also implies you buy the book). OR, I release the content, provide you with consistent free value, build my tribe in advance, and then get to put it in my book later on.

This blog post is rapidly approaching 1,000 words. That’s 5% of the content for a 20,000 word book (I usually aim for between 20k-25k words per book).

Just by being a little more intentional, I now get to write blog posts and books at the same time.

 

#3: Quote Yourself

“Some really awesome quote.” — Me

So far, we’ve covered video and blogging. We’ve also indirectly covered podcasting because you can just turn your videos into MP3 files. And just like that, you’ve got a podcast too.

But there’s one form of content we haven’t covered yet.

And that’s pictures.

Sure, you might have a stash of great pictures on your smartphone that you can share with your tribe.

But a steady stream of quote pictures helps establish you as an expert in your niche.

Whenever I share a new podcast episode on Instagram, I always do it as a quote from the episode. Here’s what I’m talking about…

It took me less than five minutes to create that picture in Canva. I have an entire template in there so all I have to do is change the text and episode number.

While this method allows me to provide three great Instagram pictures to my audience each week, it’s not enough for my content schedule.

The ideal target for me is multiple Instagram pictures per day.

Two ways I’m doing this are quoting my content (think blog posts, videos, and podcasts, books, and training courses) and posting thought provoking tweets and turning them into branded Instagram posts.

Here’s what I usually do for the thought provoking tweets…

 

Pictures like these are super easy to create in Canva. And in one picture, I provide value while subtly promoting my Twitter, Breakthrough Success, and the Grow Your Influence Book Series.

You can do this with the content you already have up. Tweet a quote from it and turn that tweet into pictures for Instagram, Instagram Stories, and/or Pinterest.

 

In Conclusion

The big idea behind content creation is to provide your existing audience with value and reach more people.

However, if we spend too much time creating free content, we don’t have enough time to create products or promote ourselves.

Getting more intentional with your content and repurposing often will open up a lot more time and likely boost your income.

What are your thoughts on content creation? Do you have any tactics to share or a question for me? Sound off in the comments below.

7 Ways To Expand Your Blog Without Paying A Penny

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You can create a blog for free and grow it without paying a penny. However, the deeper you go into blog growth articles, the more likely you are to come across tools and options that cost money. Some tools cost over $100/mo and others cost even more. The go-to recommendation of using Facebook ads to grow your audience is effective, but the dollars add up.

Yes, you can invest in something like Facebook ads and make a strong ROI. However, this doesn’t help the shoestring blogger looking to make it without paying a penny.

If you want to expand your blog without paying a penny, follow these 10 tips.

 

#1: Grow Your Email List With MailChimp

Your email list is your most valuable asset. If you don’t have an email list yet and want to build one, I recommend using MailChimp to get started. MailChimp is free for the first 2,000 subscribers. If you nurture those subscribers and send them valuable content with the occasional product promotion, you’ll make a big profit by the time you surpass 2,000 subscribers.

#2: Reach Out To Influencers

Reaching out to influencers and building relationships with them increases the likelihood of more people sharing your content. I strongly recommend reaching out to influencers by having them on your podcast. It’s the best way to reach out because you build a healthy relationship, produce content for your audience, and learn more.

I use Libsyn for my podcast which costs as low as $5/mo, but in the spirit of everything free, you can use PodBean or BuzzSprout to host your podcast free of charge. Of course, you get very basic features and limited storage space, but they’re enough to host your own show and test the waters.

If you don’t want to go the podcast route, be everywhere to those influencers. Engage with them on multiple social media posts spread across the social networks, comment on their blog posts, videos, and other content, and send them an email.

When you build the relationship deep enough, some people will promote your content without you asking. It’s good to occasionally ask people for help with getting the word out if one of your blog posts is related to their niche.

#3: Publish More Content

When your blog is new, you need to publish as much content as possible. You’ll give your existing visitors a reason to return to your blog again and again. Having many blog posts available makes it possible for you to have a group of core fans.

Not only will core fans know they can keep going to your blog for epic content, but they’ll have more of your content to share with your audiences. If you only publish one blog post, you only give your core fans one piece of content to share with their audiences.

#4: Mention Other People And Articles In Your Content

And then tell them you did so. People love consuming and sharing content that they are in. It’s better to follow this approach with micro influencers—people who are influential but not so influential that they won’t have time to respond to your email let alone share your content.

Linking to prominent publications and blogs will also give you a boost on Google since they see you’re linking to authority content.

#5: Get Active On More Social Networks

It doesn’t cost us a penny to post on social media and grow our audiences. Many people post on 1-2 social networks very actively and aren’t so active on the others.

If you want the potential for generating massive traffic, get active on more social networks and grow your audiences on those platforms. You should also jump right into new social networks because if you’re a big influence on a small social network that eventually grows as big as Instagram, you’ll get a big stream of traffic from that social network.

#6: Write Guest Posts

Some blogs accept outside contributions. These blogs, otherwise known as guest blogs, rely on these outside contributions to showcase more content to their audiences. Basically, they need content, and you are one of the people who can provide that content.

Look for guest blogs in your niche by typing “[your niche] guest blog” and [your niche] write for us” into Google. Anytime you read blog posts in the future, pay attention to if they accept outside contributions.

Some of my guest posts have been shared thousands of times and given me new business. I know for a fact they can do the same for you if you align yourself with the right ones.

#7: Write Better Headlines

The headline determines how successful your content becomes. Great content with a bad headline won’t make it.

To get better at writing great headlines, examine your niche and see what headlines grab your attention. This will help you craft better headlines for your blog post. For each new blog post you write, come up with 5-10 potential headlines. You’ll get the bad ideas out quickly and eventually come across a powerful headline if you use this approach.

In Conclusion

There are many paid tools that will help you grow your blog. However, the free ways mentioned give any blogger, even bloggers on shoestring budgets, a chance to grow their audiences and catch up to the big guys.

By taking massive action, these tactics can result in thousands of people visiting your blog every month.

What were your thoughts on these tactics? Do you have any other tactics we can use to get blog traffic without paying a penny? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

The Anatomy Of An Addictive Blog Post

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Not all pieces of content are created equal. Some blog posts are easy to skip over while others are addictive. They keep us engaged and leave us craving for more.

By crafting addictive blog posts, visitors will spend more time on your blog, and the trust between you and your audience will grow as the minutes go by. Once people trust you, then they buy from you.

Addictive blog posts help you generate and build upon that trust. All addictive blog posts follow a similar structure.

 

An Addictive Headline

We’ve read many headlines in our lives. You need to be very creative with your headline to attract people to your content.

Understand now that the headline you use for each blog post wields more influence than anything else when it comes to engagement and getting people to stick around.

I have two favorite tactics for crafting an addictive headline. The first tactic is to see what everyone else is doing so you know what to steer away from.

While I still have much to learn, I am getting better at removing words like tactics, tips, and similar words from my headlines. Those words are too common in current headlines for information-based content.

I could have called this blog post “X Ways To Make Your Blog Posts More Addictive” but that uses a common style. Addictive headlines shake things up.

If you want inspiration on what to do, look at BuzzFeed. They get so much engagement from their site, and their headlines play a crucial part in that engagement.

The second tactic is to write 10 headlines for each new piece of content you create. The first few headlines will be very bad, but as you write more headlines, you’ll start coming across deeper headlines. You’ll force yourself to think beyond common headlines since you probably wrote those headlines first.

The winning headline is almost never the first one you think of.

 

Content To Back It Up

Now, what if I named this blog post “You Won’t Believe What Happened To This Iguana After It Touched A Porcupine”?

To take a quick time out, if someone has that headline and an actual video, I’m curious myself.

Headlines like this make us want to learn more. However, you need the content to back up the headline.

If you come to this blog post expecting a video of an iguana touching a porcupine, you were very disappointed. However, if a blog post by the same title existed, and the iguana didn’t touch the porcupine, you’d also be very disappointed.

Addictive headlines without substance behind the content are nothing more than clickbait. Sure, you’ll get visitors, but they won’t stick around. Some will very publicly denounce your content if you use clickbait.

I know that you’re far beyond using clickbait. But it needs to be said. Make sure your content backs up the headline.

To flip from a negative like clickbait to a positive, the more you back up the headline, the more addictive your blog post becomes. I could have written three sentences for this blog post.

If I did that, it wouldn’t have captured the same value that you’re getting now. Some things can be said in three sentences. This is something that can be said in three sentences but much better said with several sections and paragraphs.  

 

Easy To Read

Notice how my paragraphs are very short? Technically, a paragraph needs to be at least four lines.

Did you see how I started one of my sentences with but when talking about clickbait? Grammatically, I should have made it a conjunction and turned those two sentences into one sentence. But that would result in a long sentence.

Long sentences and paragraphs are hard to read.

Most of your visitors will be skimmers. You need to make it as easy as possible for visitors to glean the highlights. If your blog post is really good, you might get some skimmers to slow down their pace.

You can also use bullet points and bold font. I don’t always utilize these features. But I aim to use them when I can.

To make up for that, I have clearly laid out sections in each blog post. If you don’t like a particular section (i.e. the one you’re reading now), you can just skip to the next one. Speaking about the next section…

 

Beyond The Written Word

Blogging is a writer’s dream. While writing content about a topic you enjoy is very fun, you need to incorporate multiple media formats into each blog post.

Most people only use the written word in their blog posts. Some people add a picture at the top of their blog posts and that’s about it.

That’s not enough. Nowhere near enough. At least, if you want an addictive blog post.

You need a new piece of media approximately every 300 words. That ensures your visitors aren’t just looking through a wall of text.

And notice how I said new piece of media and not just a new picture. There’s nothing wrong with including videos within your blog posts. If you include enough videos, you can turn each of your blog posts into mini training courses.

Depending on the videos you choose (engagement, total minutes, etc.), some of your videos may spend more than 20 minutes on a single blog post.

I also recommend choosing YouTube videos because YouTube is good at getting people to continue watching videos. They offer tailored suggestions which would then be offered on your blog.

Some of your visitors may watch more of the videos YouTube suggested all while on your blog. That’s a lot of time to spend on one place, and that’s how trust builds at a rapid pace.

 

In Conclusion

Addictive blog posts are meant to keep people on your blog for as long as possible. The only way people will stick around is if you give them multiple reasons to do so. You can provide a legendary experience, massive value, and a stream of additional content.

We need to advance beyond creating valuable content. Valuable content is important, but we all know that creating valuable content is important. We need to think more about the experience and optimizing our content for minutes viewed.

Long form content is better optimized for a boost in minutes. But if you include engaging videos within your content, you’ll reach the next level in engagement.

What are your thoughts on the anatomy of addictive blog posts? Do you have any advice to share about making blog posts more addictive? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

3 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t As Successful As You’d Like

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The only blog growth stories we hear are the ones where the blogger went from zero visitors to over 100,000 visitors within a timeframe. These success stories dominate what we read, but there are more stories of bloggers not growing their audiences and feeling stuck.

You don’t hear much about these stories because they’re not on Page 1 of Google’s search results.

You might be in that situation right now. You’re producing valuable content but don’t see the traffic returns you’re hoping for.

The success of any content brand is based on your ability to drive traffic and conversions. All of the tactics for growing your content brand go back to these two principles.

So why do most blogs struggle? Why do most people feel stuck and not like they’re hitting their traffic goals. In this blog post, you’ll learn three key reasons this is the case.

 

#1: Not Enough Content Marketing

Most people follow what Brian Dean refers to as a “Publish and Pray” approach. These people create great content, put it on the web, and that’s it. At the most, a random tweet promotes the new piece of content.

If we want people to take the time to engage with our content, then we must take the time to effectively share that piece of content with our audiences. Before you publish your next blog post, plan out how you’ll promote it.

List all of your social networks on a piece of paper and how often you’ll promote the blog post when it goes live. One picture on Instagram, four tweets, one Facebook post, and one Pinterest pin are some of the options. And don’t forget about your email list.

When you come out with a new piece of content, approach from all touch points. However, the way you promote the content when you publish has the same importance as the post-publish plan.

How do you promote a blog post you wrote three months ago? For me, I frequently tweet my older content and pin it on Pinterest. Right now, those are my two major social networks for promoting evergreen content.

However, I also make it a point to link to my older content in my newer content. When my new content racks up visitors from all of the promotion I’m doing, some of those visitors will trickle to the older blog post that I mention in the newer blog post.

A lack of content marketing is often the main reason why content creators don’t get the traffic numbers they’re aiming for.

 

#2: You Don’t Leverage In-Content Relationship Building

While this is technically content marketing, it deserves it’s own section. That’s how important in-content relationship building is.

This is more than just responding to your visitors’ comments. This is mentioning people in your content and letting them know that you mentioned them.

This one strategy alone is amazing for building relationships, and some of these people may decide to share your content.

Even if they don’t share, they read your content and know who you are. Have a lot of relationships like that, and a lot of surprising opportunities and visibility can come your way in the long-term.

Force yourself to mention at least three people in each blog post you write. That includes outbound links as you can tell someone that you mentioned their content within your content.

When I publish a blog post, part of the marketing is reaching out to all of the people I mentioned. I’ve formed healthy relationships from this one tactic. The results have included social shares and guest appearances on my podcast.

Relationships are key in any niche you’re in. The most connected people in your niche are still looking for ways to get more connected and meet more people. In-Content Relationship Building allows you to do that.

 

#3: You’re Not Putting In Enough Time

What you put in determines what you get out. For some people, it’s not putting in enough time in the right areas.

I recently learned that when people say they never have enough time, that just means they aren’t using enough of their current time properly. If I go for a long stretch without doing any work (i.e. over an hour), I will also feel like I don’t have enough time in a day to get everything done.

You have enough time. The question is how are you using your time. Are you using at least an hour of your day to promote your content? Are you focusing on the right tasks or focusing on necessary but small impact tasks that can be delegated?

If you are not achieving the results you want, it always goes back to how you are using your time. Even if you think you’re using every minute to the best of its ability, you’re doing something wrong if you’re not achieving the results you want to achieve.

The first two tactics hold true for most people, but sometimes we need to take a deeper look at our work ethics and everything we do to find the answers we seek.

 

In Conclusion

Just because you may not be hitting your goals now doesn’t mean the script always has to read that way. Taking a deeper look at what you’re doing and continuing to self-educate yourself will help you in any area.

For blog traffic specifically, it comes down to consistently creating high value content and then promoting that content to your audience. Once you figure out what works best for you, it all comes down to how much time and effort you put in towards your goals.

Chances are you put in time and effort already, but even if you feel like you’re putting in a lot, chances are you need to put in even more.

What are your thoughts on these reasons most bloggers feel stuck? Do you have any tactics for overcoming stagnant traffic growth? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Important Elements of a Perfect Guest Post Contribution

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guest blogging pitch

This is a guest contribution from Hugh Beaulac

You’ve found your niche, and creating new content on your own site brings you joy, but you also don’t forget to find reputable websites to submit guest posts.

And you want to contribute to top blogs that match your niche, right?

It takes time and energy to rank, and proficient bloggers understand how valuable that is in terms of link juice, and if a blogger accepts your submission, you enter an already-established community, sharing your message.

In short, guest posting gives you many opportunities, and here are some other reasons why it is great:

  • It allows you to build your writing portfolio and get your name out.
  • Collaboration with top-notch blog owners helps to become a better writer.
  • It helps to establish contacts with other bloggers and find new readers.
  • It’s a way to find potential clients.
  • You can get a backlink for your site.

Although blog owners also know core benefits to accepting guest posts, they want to collaborate with trustful writers only. If you can prove your expertise and knowledge, you can be featured on top-notch websites.

But…

How to create a perfect guest post contribution? You’ll learn how to craft it in this blog post.

 

#1: Do Research

Have you found a website you want to contribute to? Great!

It’s time to roll up your sleeves and do research before bothering a blog owner. The more you know about the website, its owner, its values, and writing style, the more chances you have to hook a blogger.

How to do research:

  • Read submission guidelines to follow the instructions;
  • Analyze published content to find what topics have been covered on the site;
  • Pay attention to a content calendar to understand what type of content is in demand;
  • Find contact info and blogger’s name.

Before contacting the blog owner,  analyze the website to understand more about its audience and their needs. If applicable, follow guidelines closely as it’s a proven way to show your interest in contributing to the site.

 

#2: Write an Eye-Catching Email Pitch

In the business environment, we write many emails daily.

If you don’t get as many replies as you might want, just imagine:

The more popular a blog owner is, the more emails he or she receives daily.

What does it mean? You need to send an eye-catching email pitch that will be both interesting and useful!

Writing emails that don’t convert is just a waste of time and effort, so do your best to send a solid email.

So, how to write a brilliant guest post pitch?

  • Personalize an email by adding blogger’s name;
  • Introduce yourself;
  • Describe the purpose of your email;
  • Write down several guest post ideas that might be a good fit for the site;
  • Create a short outline for every topic;
  • Provide a blog owner with the best links to your recently published articles.

guest blogging pitch

Sending an email pitch, you make an impression on bloggers and help them make the final decision whether they need your assistance or not. Once you start writing better emails, you can reach influencers and get your topic approval.

 

#3: Craft a Well-Written Article

Once a blog owner has chosen a blog post topic, it’s high time to start crafting a well-written article as writing a post gives no guarantees of acceptance.

Criteria for a well-written article:

  • Comprehensive and smooth content that offers new perspectives;
  • Actionable tips and pieces of advice;
  • Statistics proofs;
  • Visuals that support ideas (infographics, screenshots, images, etc.);
  • Links to other posts on the blog;
  • Improved readability of your article (headings and subheadings, the text is divided into chunks,  short sentences, bold/italic/underline font styles, etc.).

If you need the ultimate guide to writing a compelling blog post, here it comes:

  • Analyze your potential readers, their needs, and problems to give them what they crave.
  • Do research and collect useful information, statistics, data, case studies, etc.
  • Create an outline to put down all important insights and make your writing easier.
  • Write the article, adding visuals.
  • Give it some time and proofread/edit the text.

If you offer evergreen, unique and compelling content, people will read it with a big pleasure. Plus, it’s more likely they will share it on their social media which means attracting new visitors to the blog. All in all, publishing a well-written article gives many advantages for a blog owner, readers, and the author.

#4: Promote on Social Media

Congratulations! Your article went live on the blog!

You’ve put much time and effort into it, but it’s not enough to satisfy a blog owner’s needs. After publishing the article, it’s time to promote it to attract more readers!

Don’t hesitate to share your article via social media.

By the way, do you know the power of social media?

All the above-mentioned stats prove that sharing articles on social media helps to attract more readers and promote your text without investing money. If you help to drive traffic to the website, a blog owner might be thankful and, therefore, you can be invited to write another post in the future!

#5: Communication with Readers

Experienced bloggers know that putting readers first is a surefire way to create a perfect post. If you write an article thinking about your audience’s needs and expectations, you should stick around and respond to comments on the post after it has been published.

For a variety of reasons, communication with readers is crucial, and you’d better reply to their comments as fast as you can.

If readers interact with you after reading a blog post, it’s a great sign that the material was interesting for them. Encourage people to leave comments and involve them into communication to hold audience’s attention and make them want to check the website over and over again.

In Conclusion

Being a successful guest blogger pays off, so try to contribute to profitable websites and always think about benefits a blog owner may get with you.

If you need to understand top reasons guest content is declined, pay attention to picture below:

guest post requirements

Learning from common mistakes most guest contributors make is a great way to stand out from the competitors and be featured on top websites.

Have we left something off the list? Share your thoughts in comments!

Hugh Beaulac is a writer who runs MC2 blog and writes on various topics. He contributes to different websites, so Hugh knows how to give a blog owner what his/her audience craves.