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8 Pinterest Marketing Tips To Boost Your Visibility

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Pinterest Marketing Tips

Pinterest is a growing social network that can no longer be overlooked, and more brands are recognizing that. Several brands such as Nordstrom and Buzz Feed use Pinterest to get more exposure. Buzz Feed said that compared to the other social networks, Pinterest was its second best traffic referrer. Although Buzz Feed has over 300,000 Pinterest followers, it also has over 600,000 Google+ followers, two million Twitter followers, 4.5 million Facebook likes, and five million YouTube subscribers. With all of those numbers, Pinterest ended up getting the second most traffic amongst all of those social networks.

How does a business owner get the same results? How does an author use Pinterest to boost sales? How does Pinterest lead to more blog traffic? Success on Pinterest comes down to effective marketing, and if you want to effectively market yourself on Pinterest to boost your visibility, follow these eight tips:

 

#1: Longer, Optimized Descriptions

On Pinterest, you have a maximum of 500 characters. Although you shouldn’t use all 500 of those characters (using all of them would make a pin really long, and people don’t like reading long stuff on Pinterest), your pin descriptions should consist of more characters than a tweet. 200-250 characters is the sweet spot for getting more repins.

When you write a description, also make a point to optimize that description by fitting it with keywords, 1-2 hashtags, and a call-to-action (i.e. click on the picture to get led to the article). Including the keywords and hashtags makes it easier for Pinterest users to find your content through Pinterest’s search engine. Making your content easy to find on Pinterest’s search engine will lead to more exposure for yourself and your brand as a whole.

 

#2: Create Group Boards

One of the most underrated ways to market yourself on Pinterest is by creating group boards. Group boards get updated by you and the contributors that you choose. If you have enough contributors who are active on Pinterest, you could systematically grow your audience and get more pins on your board at the same time.

The group boards on Pinterest provide unparalleled capabilities that you won’t find on other social networks. Imagine thousands of people adding relevant content to your social networks for free, and when you promote a product or pin something from your blog, that pin reaches a larger audience.

 

#3: Be A Part Of Group Boards

Do you want to interact with tens of thousands of followers without putting in a massive amount of work to grow those numbers. What if you could be given a platform in which you could promote your content to tens of thousands of people? What if this platform was given to you overnight? What if you got the platform now?

Group boards thrive and get popular as more people contribute. The reason is that when people contribute to a group board, the group board appears in their profile. When a new follower clicks “Follow All,” that new follower follows every board on the profile—even the group boards. That’s why it is easy to get accepted to group boards with tens of thousands of followers. The people who created the group boards want more exposure, and more contributors means more exposure. They both go hand-in-hand.

When you become a part of group boards, you add a variety of boards to your profile that constantly get updated. This will make your profile look more appealing to a potential follower, and when you put a pin on the group board, you are putting that pin on a board with a new audience. Pinning on the group board often allows you to tap into that audience and get more people who follow all of your boards. If followers like the content you pin on someone else’s group board, they may follow you.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1O88Sty”]Joining a popular group board on #Pinterest is the easiest way to grow a large audience overnight.[/tweetthis]

#4: Pin Your Blog Posts

On social media, it is necessary to have an end-goal. Where do you want your visitors to go and what actions do you want your visitors to perform? One thing you must do is build the relationship between you and your visitors, and relationships get built as visitors read more of your content. I know who my repeat customers are, and I remember the seeds that led to strong relationships months down the road.

When you pin your blog posts, schedule them in advance. I typically schedule three pins every day for optimal times throughout the day (2 pm, 4 pm, and 8 pm are the three most popular times to pin something on Pinterest. This is notably different from most of the other social networks. For most social networks, it is good to post something at around 6-10 am eastern time.

 

#5: Repin The Most Successful Stuff

If something succeeded once, then why can’t it succeed again? You have pins that are doing better than others. That is true for every individual. There are also pins that are hot on Pinterest and getting attention. If you got one of those pins on one of your boards, then it would get attention.

Repinning the most successful stuff will lead to more repins. These pins may not necessarily promote your blog posts or anything of that nature, but if your followers get into a pattern of repinning your pins and returning to your profile, they will eventually repin your pins about your blog posts. This may seem like a time consuming way to get a few repins, but if you stick with this method over the long-term, and hundreds of people get comfortable with repinning your pins, then imagine how much extra exposure your blog posts would get each time you pinned them.

 

#6: Lead People To Your Landing Pages

If you want to make a full-time income on the web, then you must have an email list. There is no way around it, and having hundreds of thousands of social media followers won’t do any good unless you get those followers to subscribe. One of the most effective ways to get your social media followers on your email list is to lead them to your landing pages.

Every other day, you should pin a picture of the free incentive you offer on your landing page and then urge people to click and enter their email in the pin’s description. That way, you have your call-to-action which will boost the amount of conversions you get from Pinterest. Remember, you have up to 500 characters to describe the free incentive, why your followers would want it, and how they would get it.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1O88Sty”]Using #Pinterest to lead people to your landing pages allows you to build strong relationships with your followers.[/tweetthis]

#7: Go Beyond Your Niche

Pinterest is a different social network because you can go beyond your niche. Pinterest provides its users with capabilities that allow profession and hobbies to seamlessly coexist on the same profile page. Going beyond your niche and into your hobbies allows your followers to paint a better picture of who you are as a person.

Many individuals are only known for their professional background, but one of the best ways for relationships to build is by creating some boards that are based on your hobbies. I also mention some of my hobbies and personality traits in my bio. I mention that I am a dog lover, and I can’t tell you how many conversations I have had with other social media users about dogs. Dogs have nothing to do with my niche, but being a dog lover allows me to interact with people who I would have never interacted with if I didn’t mention “dog lover” in my bio.

 

#8: Pictures Are Key

The picture is the most important part of the entire pin. If your picture is unappealing, then people won’t take the time to read the description or click on the picture and be led to another webpage (i.e. one of your blog posts). Even if you wrote the best description on the web, and the blog post you promote is of top value, Pinterest users will skip over it if the picture is unappealing.

When I create my pictures for my blog posts, I always use Canva. Canva is a great tool that allows you to customize pictures and add text to them. In all of my blog posts from this year and a bunch of them from last year, I used Canva, and that allowed me to add the title of my blog posts within each picture. Now, when people view the picture on Pinterest, they already know what the article will be about before they even click on it or read the description.

 

In Conclusion

With 70 million users as of late 2013 (more than a year ago), Pinterest is continuing to grow, and it shows no signs of stopping. If you have not taken Pinterest seriously, it is time for you to start. If you have been on Pinterest for a while, now you know how to get more visibility. In the end, these methods will only have as big of an impact as you make them have on your Pinterest audience.

Which of these methods was your favorite? Do you have any other methods for growing a Pinterest audience? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

10 Ways To Get More Google+ Followers

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How To Get More Google+ Followers

Google+ is the second largest social network on the web, but not everyone understands how they can utilize the social network behemoth for their brands. Not only is Google+ the second largest social network on the web, but it is owned by Google. Google has made it clear that a +1 share from Google+ has more impact on SEO than any other social share. In addition to providing an advantage in SEO, Google+ is also a great place to grow your audience. There are hundreds of millions of people who could potentially read your Google+ posts which means at least a million people on the platform are a part of your target audience.

At this point, you may be wondering how you would reach your target audience and get more Google+ followers so your content can spread, get more Google+ traffic, and reap the SEO benefits. If you want to get more Google+ followers, follow these 10 tips:

 

#1: Post Often

Posting often is a great way to get more exposure on Google+. Posting often on Google+ creates the possibility of your current followers sharing your content with their audiences and coming back for more of your content. Posting often also makes your account look more attractive because it is active. If your last post was from a month ago, you won’t get as many followers because not posting in over a month shows inactivity. However, if you are posting four times every day, people can expect to see you in their feeds when they follow you.

 

#2: Post Spreadable Content

When you publish Google+ posts, you must publish spreadable content. This is the type of content that people in your targeted audience would want to share with their followers. Getting more +1’s for your content serves many benefits. The first benefit is SEO. You will get more blog traffic from Google if your followers share your blog posts on Google+. The second benefit is that more people see your content as your followers share your content with their audiences. The third benefit is that your account now looks more attractive to potential followers. If all of your Google+ posts are getting +1’s and comments, that social proof will tell a potential follower that a lot of people like what you have to offer. As a result, more potential followers will follow you.

 

#3: Schedule Your Posts

Scheduling your posts on Google+ is important because your content gets put in front of an international audience. Of course, any person with a Google+ account is able to follow you, regardless of which continent that person is on. However, someone following you and someone seeing your posts are two different things. Many people only schedule posts to their timezone convenience. Many people schedule their posts in the morning and the afternoon, but few would think to schedule a post at 2 am.

The argument is that everyone would be asleep at that time, but that only applies to the people in your timezone. 2 am in California means 10 am in London. Sure, people in California are sleeping at 2 am, but at that same time, people in London are waking up (and some check their Google+ accounts right when they wake up). You can schedule a Google+ Page’s posts with HootSuite, and DoShare is great for scheduling Google+ on your personal account.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1ylaUEE”]Scheduling your #SocialMedia posts in advance allows you to communicate with an international audience in real-time.[/tweetthis]

#4: Follow Other People

One of the easiest ways to get someone to notice you on Google+ is to follow them. Of course, if you follow someone with 1 million followers, you may not get noticed because those people get hundreds of new followers every day. However, if you follow someone who has a few hundred followers, that person will probably notice you. Many of these people still choose to receive an email each time they get a new follower. These are the people who are likely to follow back.

When you follow other people, make sure you are following people who are following other people in your niche. These are the targeted followers—the group of people who would appreciate your content more than any other group of people. A targeted audience is the best type of audience you could possibly have.

 

#5: Do More Google+ Hangouts

Google+ Hangouts are cool. You get to interview people and then immediately publish the video to YouTube. The transition is easy to make, and when you post the Google+ Hangout to your Google+ account, your followers will take a look at your hangout. You can also broadcast a live Google+ Hangout and respond to questions as people ask them through their comments.

 

#6: Be Active On YouTube

Google+ has an entire tab dedicated to your YouTube channel. If you go to my Google+ account, you will see a YouTube tab, that when clicked on, will show you some of my videos. The more YouTube videos you publish and add to this tab, the more valuable it becomes. You want to give your followers a variety of options so when they go to that tab, one of your YouTube videos is bound to get their attention. Being active on YouTube also helps you tap into a new audience.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1ylaUEE”]Being active on #YouTube adds value to your #Google+ account and allows you to tap into a new audience.[/tweetthis]

#7: Interact With Your Own Audience

Strengthening the connections you have on Google+ is critical to getting people to share your content often. By engaging with the people who engage with your content, people who engaged with your content in the past will be encouraged to engage with your content in the future. Few people take the time to interact with the people in their audience. When you interact with one of your followers, that follower is more likely to remember who you are and what you do. These people will continue following you and let their friends know about you.

 

#8: Comment On Other People’s Posts

When you leave a comment on another Google+ user’s post, that’s more exposure for you. If you comment on dozens of Google+ posts every day, you could get numerous followers in a given month from this one strategy. If you want to get noticed on a social network, then you have to be social. If you don’t have the audience to interact with yet, you can interact with other people and their audiences.

 

#9: Have An Effective Bio

Many potential followers read your bio before they decide whether to follow you or not. For many of your potential followers, your bio is the decisive factor. You only have a sentence or two to explain who you are and what you do. The best bios are the ones that list your expertise, hobbies, and awards one after the other. Here is an example of a good bio that I use:

17 Year Old Entrepreneur, Author, Blogger, Digital Marketing Expert, Instructor, Speaker, @HootSuite Ambassador, Runner, Dog Lover

Although I don’t have a period at the end of the sentence and this is a sentence fragment, it is a bio that lets my followers know a lot of things about me in a short amount of time. Effective bios lead to more followers.

 

#10: Avatar And Background Pictures On Point

Using the default avatar and background pictures won’t get you noticed. You must use a professional picture of yourself as the avatar and use a relevant background picture that showcases one of your products, lets people see what you do, or promote an upcoming event. The most successful people on Google+ are not using the default pictures. They use their own pictures. If you want to easily create a Google+ background for free, then look no further than Canva.

 

In Conclusion

Google+ is a powerful platform to promote your content on and reach a larger audience. Not only will you get traffic straight from Google+, but all of the traffic you generate from the social network will have a big impact on the amount of search engine traffic your blog generates. Just like any other social network, it takes time to master Google+, but when you master Google+, your content will spread and reach more people.

Are you on Google+? Which tip was your favorite? Do you have any additional tips to get more Google+ followers? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

7 Ways To Connect With Successful Bloggers

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Connect with successful bloggers

Connecting with successful bloggers and building relationships with those bloggers can lead to long-term benefits. Some of these bloggers may decide to go on a joint venture with you that allows your products and ideas to be seen by more people. Others may leave a testimonial for your product. Testimonials from successful bloggers boost the credibility of you and your product.

How do these connections happen? How do successful bloggers connect with other successful bloggers? How do up-and-rising bloggers make connections with the top bloggers? First off, you should only try to connect with successful bloggers in your niche. The successful bloggers in your niche would be the most open to promoting your products and sharing your expertise with other people. With that established, here are the seven ways to connect with successful bloggers.

 

#1: Go To Business Events That They Are Speaking At

Going to businesses events that successful bloggers speak at is the easiest way to start connecting with those bloggers. At the end of the blogger’s presentation, you can interact with that person and start the connection. Hand the blogger your business card. Don’t ask for a joint venture or for the blogger to promote you right away. Relationships need to build before they reach that point.

 

#2: Email Them

If you saw these bloggers at speaking events, email them to continue the relationship. If you decide to email a successful blogger who you did not see at a speaking event first, then go for it. Send the email. The worst thing that can happen is that the blogger does not respond. When you email successful bloggers, make the emails human. You can thank the blogger for providing valuable content instead of doing a product pitch.

 

#3: Interact With Them On Social Media

Successful bloggers have a few things in common. One of the things they all share is ownership of their own social media accounts. Many of these bloggers use Twitter to promote their content and interact with their audiences. If you see a successful blogger interacting with his/her followers, then that successful blogger is someone who would probably interact with you if you take the initiative to start a conversation.

You can interact with a successful blogger by thanking them for writing a particular article or asking them a good question related to the niche you both are in. I would start a social media conversation with a successful blogger once every week, and as the blogger responds to more of your conversations over a period of a month, have one conversation every five days. Every month, increase the frequency of conversations you have with this blogger until you eventually have one conversation with this blogger on social media every other day. The time it will take for a blogger to respond to you is dependent on how active this person is on social media, so choose to implement this method with the bloggers who are on social media often.

 

#4: Know More People

Our world is more connected than ever, but it is also smaller than we realize. Some people you interact with may be friends with the successful blogger you are trying to interact with. It is a small world after all, and you never know who knows who. It is entirely possible that the person you recently talked to on social media knows a successful blogger in your niche and can arrange for you to have a quick conversation with that blogger. I use social media to reach out to more people. You never know what types of opportunities will come your way.

 

#5: Subscribe To Their Email Lists

When you subscribe to a successful blogger’s email list, you get all of their latest emails. Plenty of those emails will contain valuable content that can help you get better at your niche. One thing few people know is that you can reply to most of the emails a blogger sends, and that blogger will see your email. I use iContact to send emails to my subscribers, and if a subscriber respond to an email I send, I get to see the response. I also have the ability to reply to an email that a subscriber sends me. Many services are set up in this manner. If a blogger sees you in her inbox often, that blogger may respond to you, but only if you send emails to the blogger in the same manner you would have an in-person conversation with your friend.

 

#6: Talk About Them On The Web

Some bloggers choose to get notified every time they get promoted on someone else’s website. Other bloggers check their notifications tab to see who mentioned them on social media. There are also a handful of bloggers who do both. By linking to these bloggers’ blogs and mentioning them on social media as you share their content, these bloggers will notice. Some may reply to you.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1b36yrn”]Promoting successful bloggers on social media may lead to you getting a response.[/tweetthis]

#7: Comment On Their Blog Posts

Some bloggers make it a point to respond to every comment their blogs get. If you go through the comments section for my blog posts, you will see that I respond to everyone’s comment. It’s simply the right thing to do. If you leave a meaningful comment on a blogger’s blog post, that blogger may respond to you. You should leave a comment regardless of whether the blogger responds or not, but if you want to know the chances of getting a response, look at the blogger’s past blog post comments and see how many comments the blogger responded to.

 

In Conclusion

Building a strong relationship between you and a successful blogger starts with the first interaction. This is your first appearance—the only thing a blogger knows you for during your first encounter. Once the first interaction is done, you must continue interacting with that blogger, but only in a meaningful way. Remember that successful bloggers are people with emotions just as we are. They want to be treated respectfully, and starting a conversation just to ask for more exposure doesn’t fit in that category. Promote the blogger’s content and social media posts. Ask good questions and leave thoughtful comments on the blogger’s blog posts.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you have any additional tips for interacting with successful bloggers? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

5 Tips For Affiliate Marketing On Your Blog

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Affiliate Marketing On Your Blog

One type of marketing people under-utilize and take for granted is affiliate marketing. Most affiliate marketers only get a few dollars from their efforts which isn’t enough to generate a full-time income. After analyzing other affiliate marketers who make six-figure incomes from promoting other people’s products, I came up with five tips for affiliate marketing that you need to implement in your blogging strategy.

 

#1: Search For The Higher Commissions

The successful affiliate marketers I analyzed like to promote other people’s training courses and products to get a higher commission. Some people who create training courses will give affiliates 50% of the commission each time a customer buys the training course through the affiliate link. Plenty of training courses get sold for $100 which means you would make $50 per affiliate sale. Udemy offers an excellent affiliate program where you get to make about half of the profit per sale…by promoting training courses that you did not create. It is practically impossible to find a reasonably priced product that you could make $50 per sale through the Amazon Associates program. Udemy currently uses LinkShare for its affiliate program.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1EB73p3″]Look for affiliate opportunities that give you a high percentage of the commission. LinkShare is a good one.[/tweetthis]

#2: Only Promote Products Related To Your Niche

When you promote other people’s products, you must only promote products related to your niche. If you promote too many products that are too different from each other, your visitors won’t understand the meaning of your brand. When it comes to affiliate marketing, it is better to offer specific products than a wide range of products. A brand that is not specific has a vague meaning. Getting specific allows you to develop a clearer identity for your brand and offer more products that your visitors are more likely to buy. You may wonder if you could possibly find affiliate links of enough of your products if you get really specific, but in reality, there are thousands of products (if not millions) that you could promote as affiliate links. Running out of products to promote won’t be a problem that you come across. If you do come across that problem, then you need to use more affiliate platforms. You could also start creating products to fill in the gap.

 

#3: Don’t Over Promote Affiliate Links

Your blog is a place for people to read your content and develop a greater appreciation for what you stand for. If you primarily think of a blog as a money-making platform, then your blog is not going to generate money. Success on the web starts with your desire to empower others, and as you learn new techniques, money becomes the by-product. It took me several years and mistakes before I finally thrived on the web.

If your blog is filled with affiliate links, then you will ruin your readers’ experiences on your blog. The best readers are the ones who will come back to your blog and read your content often. These readers don’t stick around because you have a bunch of affiliate links on your blog’s sidebar. They stick around because they appreciate your content.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1EB73p3″]Visitors will only stick around if they appreciate your content, not because of affiliate links.[/tweetthis]

#4: Don’t Rely On Affiliate Marketing

One of the most common mistakes I see affiliate marketers make is that they rely on affiliate marketing for their income. Some affiliate marketers are successful with this method and make six-figure incomes. However, the revenue affiliate marketers generate is dependent on products being available at desirable rates. If one affiliate generates half of your revenue, and that affiliate suddenly no longer becomes an option, then you lost half of your revenue just like that. If an affiliate decides to reduce the commission rate, then you lose more revenue. Although this is true for any marketer (even if the marketer creates his own products), these types of changes have a stronger financial impact on the people who rely on affiliate marketing to make sales.

Affiliate marketing is wonderful, but you must also create your own products. I promote other people’s products, but I also have over a dozen books on Amazon and a few training courses on Udemy. These products account for the bulk of my revenue because I get the best rates on my own products and I get to control the product creation rate.

Having your own products serves as a way to give you more options. You can still promote a fellow entrepreneur’s Kindle book and make 4% of the commission, but once you write your own Kindle book, you can promote that Kindle book and get up to a 70% commission per sale (KDP’s standard commission rate for a book priced between $2.99 and $9.99. You’ll make a little more by using your own affiliate link). Other affiliate marketers may decide to promote your products, and then you will get more sales in the short-term and the long-term. When affiliates promote your products, more people see them. More people seeing your products may lead to returning customers and word of mouth marketing. As you get more customers, you will build an authority on the web that will be impossible for others to ignore.

 

#5: Promote Products With Different Price Ranges

When you become an affiliate marketer, you need to promote three types of products: low-priced, mid-priced, and high-priced products. These three different price points depend on your niche, but some of the products you promote need to be priced at over $100. The more expensive products typically lead to greater commissions per sale but a lower volume of sales while the less expensive products attract a greater volume of sales but lower commissions per sale. Offering the perfect mix of these products will ensure that you get more sales and revenue when potential customers see your affiliate marketing in action.

 

In Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is a powerful type of marketing in which you don’t have to put in any work to create a product, but you can make revenue by promoting other people’s products to your audience. However, affiliate marketing only leads to a full-time income if you use it effectively. Moreover, affiliate marketing is by no means the right basket to put all of your eggs into. That’s too risky, and your earnings are dependent on affiliate platforms sticking around and keeping their commission rates at the same values. Affiliate marketing combined with product creation is one of the most effective ways to make money in today’s era.

What are your thoughts on affiliate marketing? Which tip was your favorite? Do you have any affiliate marketing tips for us? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

6 Reasons To Start A Podcast

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start your own podcast

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to create a podcast by the end of 2015, and for a good reason. After seeing the growth of podcasts on the web and successful podcasters such as Pat Flynn of The Smart Passive Income Podcast and Steve Scott of the Self-Publishing Questions Podcast, I decided I needed to have a piece of the action (you’ll see a podcast from me by the end of 2015; I haven’t given up on that New Year’s resolution). Here are six reasons why you would want to start your own podcast:

 

#1: You’ll Tap Into New Traffic

Podcasts are popular on the web, and some podcasts get millions of downloads. If you put your podcast on the iTunes Store, you would instantly tap into a new audience. As your podcast becomes more popular, more people will first hear about you through your podcast. Some of the people who first hear about you on your podcast may decide to subscribe to your blog and buy your products later on.

Not only do you get to tap into a new audience, but you can lead this new audience to your landing page. At the beginning of all of your podcast episodes, you have the opportunity to introduce yourself to new readers and promote your landing page at the same time. Just give your listeners a brief summary of what you offer on your landing page and then include a link in the podcast’s description to your landing page. If you get hundreds of people to download your podcast on iTunes every month, that’s hundreds of people who could potentially subscribe to your email list.

 

#2: Audio Content Is Becoming Popular

Audio is becoming more important than ever in a busy world filled with multi-taskers. In most multi-tasking scenarios, we do two things not as efficiently compared to our level of efficiency when we choose to focus on one thing at a time. Audio is different. If you go out for a walk, a run, or drive to the grocery store, then you can’t read a book at the same time. Reading and driving is the perfect formula for disaster. What is the substitute for reading? The answer is listening to podcasts.

Each time I run on the treadmill, I either listen to a podcast or a playlist of my favorite songs. Most of the time, I either listen to Pat Flynn or Steve Scott while running. I run for over an hour every day so I can listen to multiple episodes on their podcasts within a given week. In car rides, I either listen to Joel Osteen DVDs.

It is easier for us to listen to things than it is for us to read things. That’s why social media posts with videos get more engagement than social media posts without videos. That’s why YouTube is very popular. Audio content is easier for us to consume. You can listen with your eyes closed while lying on your couch.

 

#3: More Credibility

Having your own podcast gives you a new level of credibility. Why would you want more credibility? The simple answer is that credibility makes us look good. Would you rather buy the Twitter book from the person with 1,000 Twitter followers or the person with 10,000 Twitter followers (assuming the books were the same number of pages and both at the same price)?

The longer explanation is that credibility is easy to gain nowadays that we need more of it to truly stand out. Having a big social media audience isn’t enough. Having a popular blog isn’t enough. Having your own book isn’t enough. Having your own podcast isn’t enough. Many of the highly credible people in our niches have all four of these things, and more. You need to do more things of great value within your niche to really stand out.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1BybH3l”]You need to do more things of great value within your niche to really stand out.[/tweetthis]

#4: More Interaction With Your Audience

One thing I really like about the layout Steve Scott uses for his Self-Publishing Questions podcast is that he starts every podcast with a listener’s question. Starting with a listener’s question is a great way to come up with episode topics while encouraging more interaction. Steve encourages his listeners to ask their own questions to possibly get featured on his podcast and get their questions answered.

At the end of every podcast, you have the ability to encourage interaction. If you have a comment section at the bottom of every episode, then encourage your listeners to respond in the comments section. If your episodes don’t have comment sections, then encourage your listeners to contact you via email. As you continue to grow your audience, more people will take the time to interact with you.

 

#5: Podcasting Is A Big Deal

Podcasting is a proven, reliable method to reach more people and interact with your audience. As a whole, we have downloaded over 1 billion podcast episodes, and that doesn’t even include all of the podcast episodes we listen to without downloading. I don’t download Pat Flynn’s or Steve Scott’s podcast episodes. Instead, I listen to their episodes on their respective websites.

I think some people aren’t taking the plunge into podcasting because they are unaware of how big podcasting has become. Podcasting is a big deal, and based on its growth in recent years, podcasting has a great future.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1BybH3l”]Podcasting is a big deal, and based on its growth in recent years, podcasting has a great future[/tweetthis]

#6: You Can Interview Experts

When you start your own podcast, you give yourself the ability to interview experts in real-time for free. Instead of asking an expert questions via email or paying for a consultation session, you get to ask them questions 1-on-1 for the whole world to hear. Interviewing the top experts in your niche will boost your credibility, and you can potentially start joint ventures with some of these experts. Even if you don’t get the joint venture, many of these experts will promote your podcast episode that they got featured in. Your podcast episode now reaches new audiences, the audiences of the experts who you interview.

Interviewing the experts in your niche also allows you to learn more about your niche. You can think of these 1-on-1 conversations as 1-on-1 consultation sessions in which you ask the questions and get detailed answers from the experts. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about topics that you don’t fully understand. The job of an expert is to empower others with their knowledge. You can be more than sure that the podcast hosts learn new things from the experts they interview. If you want to become successful in what you do, you must constantly learn more about what you do, no matter how much you think you already know.

 

In Conclusion

Having your own podcast is a big deal. Having a podcast will boost your credibility and allow you to tap into new audiences. With a podcast, you have the power to provide your audience with audio content that they can listen to while exercising, driving, or doing a wide range of other activities. Although blog posts get their points across, readers can’t effectively exercise or drive while reading blog posts. When blogging, podcasting, social media, an email list, and a few other things mix together, you’ll have the recipe for success.

Do you have a podcast? Do you want to start a podcast? Do you have any tips for newbie podcasters? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

10 Easy Ways To Get More Product Sales

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how to get more sales

Is getting product sales on your mind? With a massive inventory of products and millions of products getting created every year, it is harder to stand out in a world that gives us countless choices. In fact, it will be impossible for someone to buy and use every product that will get created this year. Getting more product sales requires you to stand out and grow an audience, but there are various components that go into standing out and growing your audience. In this article, I will discuss 10 easy ways for you to get more sales for your products.

 

#1: Create Landing Pages With Autoresponders

Landing pages are effective pages that are optimized for getting email subscribers. Landing pages are simply pages that promote free products and have a form where people can enter their email address. The only way to access the free product is by entering an email address which is why landing pages are very attractive.

If you are using a service like iContact or Aweber, you can have your new subscribers go through an autoresponder. An autoresponder is a series of emails that are spaced out by a day or two. These emails allow you to strengthen your relationship with your readers. At the end of your autoresponder must be a product related to the free product you just offered.

If you have more than one product, then you can create multiple landing pages and autoresponders. I have landing pages and autoresponders set up for multiple training courses, and I will continue to create landing pages and autoresponders for my future products.

 

#2: Test Out One Variable Every Week

Sometimes, one small change can make a big difference. If you want to get more sales, you need to test small changes to see which ones will lead to more sales. You need to test out one variable for your product every week and see how many sales it gets. If your product makes more sales that week, then the one small change you made is a keeper, and you should apply that change to some of your other products. If your product makes fewer sales, then you should go back to the old way. It is important for you to only test out one variable every week because if you make multiple changes to your product in a short amount of time, then you won’t know which change resulted in an increase or decrease in sales. Maybe you averaged the same number of sales by testing out multiple variables, but one of those variables could have halved your sales while the other one could have doubled your sales—still giving you the same average amount of sales. You want to keep the variable that doubled your sales, but you won’t know what that variable was if you change too many things at once.

 

#3: Promote Your Product On Your Blog

The best way to promote a product on your blog is through the menu. That way, your product doesn’t take up too much space on your blog, but it takes up just enough space on your blog to be noticed. I am careful about promoting my products on my blog because I don’t want to be over-promotional. Moreover, I want people to visit my landing page and subscribe that way so I can lead them through the autoresponder sequence. It’s still good to promote your product on your blog and occasionally reference it in your blog posts. Some people buy my products because they heard about them on my blog before hearing about them anywhere else.

 

#4: Get On Joint Ventures

Joint ventures are growing in significance. In a joint venture, you and a marketer agree to promote each other’s products to your email lists. You tell your subscribers about someone else’s product and that same person tells the people on her list about your product. Joint ventures allow your product to reach new audiences and generate more sales in the process.

 

#5: Connect Your Products Together

Many people like to list their products. At the end of the public speaking event, the public speaker may mention some of the products he created and list them one by one. That’s not connecting your products together. That’s simply listing what you have.

Connecting your products together is far greater than listing them. When you connect your products together, you are letting your customers know that your products properly segue from one into the other. Think Part One’s and Part Two’s, but every product you create properly fits somewhere in the sequence. You may have two unrelated products, but if you can create a bridge in between those two products filled with the proper segues, you can get the two most unrelated products to be connected. What’s the segue from a Twitter book to a Pinterest book? What’s the segue from a photography training course to a Javascript training course? What products would you need to (and want to) create to form the proper bridge? If you don’t want to create products that create the necessary bridge, you can simply expand on those two areas. For the photography training course, you can create more products relating to photography while for the Javascript training course, you can create more products about coding languages. Just make sure no product stands alone.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1NM9pnK”]Connect your products together so none of them stand alone. [/tweetthis]

#6: Build An Email List And Communicate To It

A landing page is a great way to grow your email list. Here’s one of my landing pages (the free product will show you how to get more email subscribers, so it’s relevant here). However, a landing page and an autoresponder can only go so far. Many of the people who go through your autoresponder will choose to not buy your product. Then again, that’s with practically every product. Most people who see a product won’t buy it. That’s simply the nature of the game.

When you have a large email list, and you communicate to the people on your email list, you are opening the door to returning customers. Once every six weeks, you should promote your products to your email list. The money is in the list, but only if you interact with the people in your list in an effective manner.

 

#7: Use Social Media To Promote Your Products The Right Way

Social media is not the place to say, “Buy my product! Buy my product!” Social media is a place where posts with pictures and stories rule. If you can turn your product marketing into an effective story or advice in the form of pictures, your efforts will really pay off. Take for example Kim Garst who recently published Will The Real You Please Stand Up, got the book on multiple bestsellers lists. For part of her book’s promotion, she went on Twitter and tweeted to her large audience of over 300,000 followers. The tweets were valuable, contained pictures, and promoted her book all at the same time. Her tweets spread, got attention, and led to more book sales. Here is an example of one of her tweets about the book.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1NM9pnK”]You can use #SocialMedia to promote your products, but only if you use it the right way.[/tweetthis]

#8: Offer Discounts

Why doesn’t love discounts? Discounts are attractive because they make us feel like smart buyers who know how to effectively spend our money. Offer discounts to your subscribers and social media followers so they are more likely to buy your products. Discounts may not generate as much money, but you’ll get a sale, a customer who can spread the word, and your product will get more exposure.

 

#9: Over Deliver

When you offer a product, be sure to include bonuses and give your customer more than what he was expecting. Over delivering doesn’t necessarily change the amount of sales you make for an individual product, but your customers like when you over deliver. Some of your customers will expect an over delivery in your future products and become returning customers. Over delivering in your products doesn’t lead to much short-term sales, but for the long-term, you could get thousands of returning customers who expect you to over deliver and are grateful for all of the value you provide in your products. All you have to do at that point is consistently over deliver.

 

#10: Create More Products

One way to get more product sales is by creating more products. A second product opens the doors to returning customers. 20 products opens the doors to a higher percentage of your customers becoming returning customers. If you have one book about Twitter and one book about Pinterest, it is possible for you to get returning customers. However, some people will like Twitter and not care for Pinterest and vice-versa. If you have additional books about Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and a few other social networks, then there is a greater likelihood of a customer becoming a returning customer. One of the options is bound to attract a customer’s attention.

 

In Conclusion

Getting more product sales is on the top of many marketers’ strategies. Part of getting product sales is the marketing itself, but another part of getting product sales is the experience you provide for customers who buy your products and the experience you provide just before someone buys your product. It takes a lot of marketing to get numerous sales for your products, and in some cases, the marketing is more challenging than creating the actual product.

Which tip did you like the most? Do you have any additional tips for us? Please share your thoughts and advice below.