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7 Reasons Why You Should Not Depend On Social Media For Blog Traffic

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7 Reasons Why You Should Not Depend On Social Media For Blog Traffic

Social media has been established as a powerful way to get more traffic and build an authority on the web. Many people have used social media to become the leaders of their niches and ultimately dominate their industries. Social media brings over 10,000 people to this blog every month.

Although social media is powerful, it is not something that we should rely on for blog traffic. There are several people who get all of their traffic from social media, or worse, one social network in particular.

The risk with relying on social media, or even worse, a single social network to bring in the bulk of your blog’s traffic is that you are putting all of your eggs in one basket. Although the basket may look nice and stable now, the basket can suddenly break, and then all of your eggs are splattered on the floor. Do you want that to happen to you? Chances are you don’t, and just in case that was not convincing enough, here are the seven reasons why you should depend on social media for blog traffic.

 

#1: Social networks change

One of the main reasons why I wrote this blog post was because I recently read an article about Twitter experimenting with an algorithm similar to Facebook. These algorithms enforce a pay to play system where growing a presence is no longer enough.

Facebook posts now only get seen by about 3% of your audience which means to have a big impact on Facebook, you need to have a ginormous audience. There was a time when Facebook did not have these algorithms and everyone was happy. With Facebook’s change, many people say a noticeable decline in Facebook engagement and traffic. Would you be happy if you had a Facebook Page with 300 fans, but only nine of those fans could see the posts on their home feed?

Does Twitter follow this exact path and create a pay to play system? Only time will tell, but Twitter talking about an algorithm suggests how little power we have in the decisions that popular social networks make. If Twitter decides to enforce the same policy as Facebook, then too bad. We will complain, but every social network has the final say in what happens.

 

#2: There are other options available

With the thought of a Twitter algorithm causing dissent amongst many users and a pay to play system being enforced, blogging has become more important than ever. Just because social media is powerful does not mean it is the only option.

With a blog, you still have the power to publish content and share it with the world. Blogging also gives you numerous advantages such as growing an email list and bringing in more sales. These advantages allow you to control the communication that you have with the people who stop by. On the other hand, social media has direct control over all of the interactions you have on it. If a social network decides to suspend your account, all conversations come to an end whether you want them to or not.

 

#3: All social networks get hacked

Many people look at Burger King’s success on the day it got hacked and aspire to be hacked themselves. Some accounts have even faked being hacked just to gain popularity. However, the latest hacks have not gone as well for the hacked accounts.

An example of this was when Uber Facts lost over 10,000 followers on the day it was hacked. Ouch! The worst part about hackings is that in most cases, they are not under your control. Some information leaks out of social networks. Remember Heartbleed?

Changing your password reduces the chances of your account getting hacked. However, anything on the web to get hacked nowadays, but if your social network gets hacked, and you have no other way of communicating with your audience, that spells trouble. Not only are you barred from your audience, but the hacker may use your account to insult your audience or post inappropriate content–all under your name.

 

#4: All social networks have bugs

There are some social networks that encounter strange bugs that make them perform differently. There are some Twitter users who get their accounts compromised every single day for no reason whatsoever. When these accounts get compromised, no tweets can be sent out. That means all of those tweets that got scheduled on HootSuite cannot be sent out because of a flaw out of your control.

No one is hacking into the account, and many of these Twitter users have resorted to 30 character passwords which still does not solve the compromise problem. If a bug affects your ability to post content on your social network, then you are losing blog traffic, interactions, and possibly sales.

 

#5: Not everyone will see your posts

No matter how much hard work you put into growing your social media audience, most of that audience will not see the social media posts that you publish. If every single one of my Twitter followers saw one of my tweets and clicked on the link, I would be getting hundreds of thousands of visitors every day (at that point, move over Huffington Post).

Too bad that is not the case. Unfortunately, no matter which platform you choose, not everyone will see your posts. However, social media happens to be a place where few people click on your posts and engage with you. I get over 10,000 visitors every month from Twitter alone. Assuming there are no repeat visitors (which is not the case), that would mean less than 10% of my followers see at least one of my tweets every month. The typical email list leads to more engagement than the typical social media account.

 

#6: Social media is addictive

Although social media is a great way to bring in more blog traffic, it is also extremely addictive. Some people spend hours on social media every week, and the amount of time people spend on social media takes time away from the big projects. Social media eats up more time than most people realize. Many people are spending three hours every day on social media while others are on social media for a longer amount of time.

When someone finally logs out after spending three hours on social media, that person may remember the blog post that needed to get published or the video that should have been uploaded to YouTube. If you are unproductively using social media for three hours every day, think about how much time you are spending unproductively on social media within a given week, month, or year. It adds up.

 

#7: Social media is not a direct way to make money on the web

When people think of making money online, they want to make money as directly as possible. Many people have tried turning social media into a direct revenue stream, but that’s not how social media works.

The function of social media is to build an awareness for your blog, get more traffic, and then have your blog optimized so it is able to bring in revenue. Since social media is addictive, it is entirely possible that the time you invest in social media does not necessarily result in more revenue.

 

In Conclusion

Just like the millions of other people who use them, I love social media. I am able to interact with my followers, build connections, and get more blog traffic. However, with the popularity of social networks, many people have become dependent on social media traffic for their blogs.

Regardless of how many visitors a social network is bringing in, you need to avoid having all of your eggs in one basket. If that basket gets dropped (whether it’s your fault or not), your blog traffic will suffer.

Utilizing social media while utilizing other avenues of traffic will allow you to become a successful blogger who is not dependent on one thing. Be sure to branch out by getting more traffic with different methods whenever you can.

How To Make Your New Year A Wild Success

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New Year

2014 is coming to an end. What a scary thought…

At the New Year, millions of people get motivated. Families gather around and write down their New Year’s resolutions. Businesses discuss what needs to be done this year in order to move forward. It is an exciting time of year filled with plans for the future.

The sad truth about the New Year is that the excitement rarely lasts for a long period of time. Many New Year’s resolutions require monumental leaps from the first day of the New Year to the last day of the New Year. Towards the end of January, when there is still a long way to go and that initial spark of motivation dies out, many people give up on their New Year’s resolutions. By the end of February, over 80% of people give up on their New Year’s resolutions.

I want you to be in the 20% bracket. I want you to stay true to your New Year’s resolutions. Goals that you set for yourself deserve to get accomplished. Accomplishing those goals will help you get from where you are to where you want to be. However, we cannot approach our New Year’s resolutions with the traditional process that most people use. The traditional process of setting New Year’s resolutions causes more harm than good.

The biggest mistake people make with their New Year’s resolutions is that they give themselves monumental goals without giving themselves the necessary stepping stones to get there. If you want to gain 10,000 blog subscribers this year, how are you going to get that many subscribers? What actions will you take to get more blog traffic? Grow your social media audience? Boost your SEO? Get people to stick around your blog longer? Optimize your blog so a higher percentage of its visitors subscribe? Those are just six stepping stones that I can think of on the top of my head, and there are plenty of other stepping stones to choose from.

Providing the stepping stones for your New Year’s resolutions is a vital step towards accomplishing your New Year’s resolutions, but even the stepping stones need stepping stones. Let’s take the example of growing your social media audience. Growing your social media audience would result in more blog subscribers, but how would you approach growing your social media audience? Would you focus on YouTube? your Twitter audience? Facebook Ads? Those are three stepping stones you can use to strengthen the stepping stone needed to get more blog subscribers. Writing down your New Year’s resolutions is good, but it is essential for you to have a detailed, highly organized plan that shows you step by step how to accomplish each of your New Year’s resolutions.

Once you create your plan and include the stepping stones, you will know what steps you need to follow to become successful. The only thing left to do at this stage is implement what you wrote down. This, in itself, is another hurdle that few jump over. After writing down goals, many people are fearful of failure, and upon a second glance, the work looks too extensive (that’s the excuse people use to get out of doing something). Many of these people give up on the goal early so they won’t have to admit failure later on.

Accomplishing New Year’s resolutions does not have to be impossible. There are only three ingredients you need to make the implementation easier. The first ingredient is urgency. If you give yourself closer deadlines to accomplish the same goals, and you stick with those deadlines, your mind will find a way to get the goal accomplished in a shorter amount of time. Constantly reminding yourself of the approaching deadline will only strengthen your ability to accomplish your goals.

The second ingredient is productivity. The more productive you are, the more you can accomplish. I have written numerous blog posts about productivity which can be found here.

The third ingredient is a series of daily, weekly, and monthly plans that strengthen your productivity. You need to identify day by day, week by week, and month by month what you need to accomplish. A plan like this could take a long period of time to create, so my recommendation is to only create an extensive plan like this once every three months, for the three upcoming months. If you start creating an extensive plan like this for January, then go no farther in your planning process than the first day of April.

 

In Conclusion

Your ability to accomplish New Year’s resolutions does not depend on how easy or challenging those resolutions are. Your ability to accomplish New Year’s resolutions depends on how much planning you put into the process and how many stepping stones you create. You want to have as many stepping stones as possible because it is the small wins that result in the big momentum needed to accomplish your New Year’s resolutions.

Creating a detailed plan will also boost the belief in your abilities to accomplish a goal. Although there are tactics and skills that move you farther, you must believe in your abilities in order to truly move forward.

5 Steps To Make Your Blog Go From Hobby To Business

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5 Steps To Make Your Blog Go From Hobby To Business

Some blogs on the web are money making machines that allow bloggers to bring in six figure incomes. Before getting to this stage, many bloggers initially take it as a hobby. I considered blogging as a hobby for a very long time. Just to be exact, it took me about a year to go from hobby to business, and I wasn’t making much money when I started (that’s true about any blogger).

You may be on the fence right now still taking blogging as a hobby. It is great to start off treating it as a hobby because you need to enjoy blogging in order to be successful. There are tips to get more traffic and make money online, but if you don’t enjoy writing content, it is not going to work out. After you can consider blogging as a hobby, and you are eager to make the transition from hobby to business (that you still enjoy), here are the five steps you need to take.

 

Step #1: Write a bunch of blogs until you find your niche

When you first start out as a blogger, it is important to avoid settling with one blog right away. Although there are some people who know what they want to write blog posts about since day one, there are other people who make big changes. I wrote blogs and blog posts about the Red Sox, Yugioh Cards, and Legos before I started this one.

If I settled with the Red Sox blog, you would not be reading this blog post right now. I refused to settle with one idea until I created this blog. It is okay to have dozens of blogs before finding the best niche for you. When you identify your main blog, you have the option of using your other blogs to test out particular plugins, themes, or code before applying them to your main blog.

 

Step #2: Focus on the main blog

Once you identify your main blog, you need to solely focus your time on that individual blog. When I first started this blog, I was still updating my Yugioh Philosophy Blog because I had no idea how far this one would go. As a result, I was writing one blog post every day for the Yugioh Philosophy Blog and one blog post every day for this one. It was only when this blog started to get more traffic than the Yugioh Philosophy Blog that I paid my undivided attention to it. As a result, I did not write another blog post on the Yugioh Philosophy Blog, and I was able to write two blog posts every day for this one (I have stopped since then because when I say two blog posts per day, I am referring to 250-500 word blog posts).

The strategies I use to promote this blog change, but the blog I promote is always the same. Don’t try to juggle responsibilities for multiple blogs because you put all of that time into one blog, and provide more value to your readers. If you insist on having multiple blogs, my recommendation is to still focus on one of them until it brings a full-time revenue. Then, create another blog and have contributors for it. Neil Patel does this very well with his Quick Sprout, KISSMetrics, and Crazy Egg blogs.

 

Step #3: Look at the leaders of your niche

The reference to Neil Patel earlier is the proper segway for looking at the leaders of your niche. I examined the leaders of my niche so I could learn new information, what works, and what does not work. Neil Patel has multiple blogs that get over 100,000 visitors every month, and I read through many of the Quick Sprout blog posts.

In addition to Neil Patel, I also read what Jeff Bullas, Kim Garst, and others put on their blogs. Seeing how the leaders of your niche are writing blog posts will give you ideas for your own content. The best way we learn is by example, and by looking at enough successful bloggers in your niche, you will be able to learn from the best examples available.

 

Step #4: Write high value content often

One of the main reasons why most people get stuck at the hobby stage is because they are not writing valuable content often. Some bloggers write inconsistently. On one month, these bloggers are able to write 10 blog posts, but the next month, these bloggers only write two blog posts. This inconsistency indicates that blogging is still a hobby.

In addition, the content you post needs to be valuable. I could have ended this blog post a long time ago if I chose, but then it wouldn’t be as valuable. I could have simply mentioned the first three steps and then scheduled the blog post. However, extending the blog post to include other steps and examples increases its value.

Instead of writing a blog post just to say that you wrote one, write a blog post that you know your targeted readers will enjoy.

 

Step #5: Create products that match your niche

Most of the blogs that are bringing in the six figure incomes are doing so with products. There is the rare exception in which ads are bringing in a bulk of the revenue, but ads are the exception, not the rule. Most people cannot make a full-time income with advertisements just because a blog would need to be getting over 100,000 visitors every month to have a good shot at it.

Instead of relying on advertisements, you need to create your own products. The web has made it incredibly easy for us to write books, launch training courses, and create membership sites. All three of these products have the power to bring in six-figure incomes. Some of the people have used these products to make millions of dollars, and that is not an exaggeration.

Creating your own blog is a great way to get more traffic and spread awareness for the products that will bring in the revenue.

 

In Conclusion

Blogging is a fun experience that can also turn in big profits. Some people make six figure incomes just from their blogs, and in order for you to start making revenue with your blog, you need to go from hobby to business. You can still enjoy writing blog posts when you make this transition, and this love for blogging is critical towards your success in the area.

Blogging success is never an overnight success. For most bloggers, it takes several years before they get the type of traffic associated with a full-time income. However, blogging success is possible, and it has transformed some people’s lives.

12 WordPress Plugins That You Need To Have

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12 WordPress Plugins That You Need To Have

One of the biggest advantages WordPress.org has on the free version is that you gain access to various plugins that can be used to enhance your blog. These plugins perform a variety of functions such as get more subscribers, boost SEO traffic, and improve the way your blog looks.

Not every WordPress plugin is created equally, and after using hundreds of plugins for this blog, I have been able to identify the most effective WordPress plugins that your blog should be utilizing. Here’s the list.

 

#1: Optin Forms

Compared to other free plugins that perform similar functions, the Optin Forms plugins does a great job at getting more subscribers. This plugin connects with a variety of emailing options such as iContact and Aweber, and it allows you to include an optin box at the end of every blog post. After you read this blog post, you will be able to see the Optin Form plugin in action asking for your email address (you get free goodies).

The optin box that you see at the end of my blog post was also very easy to create. The Optin Forms plugin gives you five pre-made themes to choose from, and you can change any of the colors and text in your optin box. You can even change the button’s color to match your blog’s color. If you want to grow your email list, the Optin Form is the next WordPress plugin that you need to install.

 

#2: Quick Page/Post Redirect

The Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin allows you effectively redirect people to different pages on your blog or any webpage on the web. You can set up a Page in your menu that, when clicked on, can redirect your visitors to a product page, even if that product page is not a part of your blog.

When you go to this blog’s menu and click, “My Books,” you are immediately brought to my Amazon Author Page which consists of all of my books. This is a more direct approach than you clicking that page, staying on my blog, and having to click a link that leads to my Amazon Author Page first.

In addition, the URLs for your blog posts have an impact on SEO. For a blog post like “5 Blogging Tips For Success,” the usual URL would be www.yoursite.com/5-blogging-tips-for-success. However, a good SEO practice is to use fewer words in the title, and only focus on the keywords. The ideal URL would be www.yoursite.com/blogging-tips-success.

Many people realize this difference late in the process and are left with blog post URLs that are not SEO optimized. Changing the link to www.yoursite.com/blogging-tips-success would result in all of the people who go to www.yoursite.com/5-blogging-tips-for-success being led to a 404 error page. You can use the Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin to fix this issue by having www.yoursite.com/5-blogging-tips-for-success redirect to www.yoursite.com/blogging-tips-success.

 

#3: Comment Redirect

As long as your blog posts are valuable and do not have grammatical errors, most of the people who muster up the courage to leave a comment on someone else’s blog enjoy the value that your blog provides. As a result, these people will be more likely to subscribe to your blog, but some people may not subscribe to your blog just because they do not know where the optin box is.

Even when people see my optin box made by Codeleon at the end of my blog posts, not all of them will subscribe at that moment. That’s even true for the people who comment on my blog. Some of the people who comment on my blog are not on my email list, but the Comment Redirect plugin allows me to change that.

All this plugin does is redirects someone to a different page on your blog immediately after that person submits a comment. The Comment Redirect plugin only gets applied when a visitor leaves his first comment on your blog. On this Comment Redirect Plugin, you can lead people over to a landing page, promote your most popular blog posts, or if you choose to do so, promote your products. Personally, I recommend promoting a landing page, and the last thing you want to do with the Comment Redirect is promote one of your products.

 

#4: Optimize Press

Speaking of landing pages, Optimize Press is a great plugin for creating great landing pages. I used Optimize Press to create my landing pages for my free eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter. I was able to create the page in just 10 minutes, and it works. If you enter your email address on that page, you will properly get added to my list. You can create multiple landing pages for specific giveaways or reasons such as a good URL for the Comment Redirect plugin.

In addition to creating great landing pages, Optimize Press also allows you to create training courses and membership sites. Although Optimize Press is not a free plugin, it is worth every penny, and if you are confused with anything about the plugin, Optimize Press comes with great videos and support so you can get your questions answered.

 

#5: Hello Bar

Hello Bar allows me to display the message that appears on the top of my blog. The actual message up there has varied over time, but you can always promote a link (preferably a landing page or product), or you can use it as an optin form that collects email addresses.

Hello Bar has a variety of functions to choose from, and creating the actual bar is extremely easy. Hello Bar has a simple approach that allows you to easily add text, identify where you want to direct visitors who click on the link, and change any of the colors that you see. Hello Bar also has email integration for numerous mailing services such as iContact and Aweber.

One of the advantages of the Hello Bar plugin is that the message on the top can scroll down. Each time you scroll down while reading this blog post, the Hello Bar follows you. In addition, it is tempting to click on because it offers something valuable and the color combination was chosen to match the color psychology of consumers.

 

#6: Add Meta Tags

#6 is an SEO tip and a plugin’s name at the same time. Adding meta tags makes it easier for Google to understand what your blog post is about because you get to provide keywords, a short description for your content, and the title.

Keywords allows Google to identify what search terms should be used to lead people to your blog. With this knowledge, many people assume a great strategy would be to stuff their meta tags with keywords, but this is a mistake. My recommendation is to only have 5-7 keywords per blog post because if you add too many, they will lose their effectiveness on Google.

When you choose the keywords, be sure to use long-tail keywords (the ones that consist of multiple keywords). I could have chosen the keyword “WordPress plugins” for this blog post, but instead, I chose, “WordPress plugins that all blogs need to have.” Which one paints the better picture for what your blog post is about?

 

#7: Google XML Sitemaps

Not having a sitemap is a big mistake for your SEO. Google uses your blog’s sitemap to index your blog posts and make sure they get seen on their search engine. That means if you want more SEO traffic as well as a reliable way to track results, then you need a sitemap.

Normally, a sitemap is very difficult to properly create, but this is when the Google XML Sitemaps plugin steps in. This plugin makes it super easy to create your own sitemap. Then, you can submit that sitemap to Google with the webmaster tools. What may take just 15 minutes of your time may result in hundreds of extra visitors later.

 

#8: Limit Login Attempts

We must embrace the fact that the internet is not secure, and hackers are everywhere. The Twitter accounts of Burger King, Donald Trump, and Uber Facts are three of the many accounts to have been hacked. There are also hackers who are hacking into blogs and putting up bad content.

Regardless of how popular you are on the web, chances are there is a hacker who is trying to obtain your password. Some of these hackers use a computer system that logs in and enters as many password combinations as it possibly can (which means thousands per day). This is one of the reasons why many websites including WordPress encourage you use to long passwords. However, that is not enough protection.

If you gave them the opportunity, some hackers would spend days trying to log into your account until they identified your password. The Limit Login Attempts plugin is the fix to that problem. This plugin limits the number of times that you (or any hacker) can log into your blog. If any IP Address exceeds the limit, that IP Address gets locked out for the time you specify. I choose to lock people out of my blog for 12 hours just in case I am the one who enters the wrong password (or someone tries to guess my password just for fun).

I get an email each time this plugin catches someone, and I have been amazed with the results. Initially, I thought this plugin was a joke because no one would ever hack my blog. Since installing this plugin, I have learned about thousands of attempts for logging into my blog.

Another great perk of this plugin is that it gives you the IP Address that was used for the login attempts. If you Google search an IP Address, you can find the location of the computer, and better yet, you have the option to prevent that IP Address from visiting your blog. I only recommend to use this as a last resort (if the same IP Address is a repeated violator), but with limits in place, your blog is very unlikely to get hacked. In a four number password, there are 10,000 possible combinations. That means someone would have to enter 10,000 passwords before they identified whether your password has four numbers or not. This does not even include letters, special characters, or if you wisely decide to use a longer password. My password exceeds 10 characters and is filled with special symbols, numbers, and letters. With the Limit Login Attempts plugin in place, I don’t have to worry about a robot guessing until it identifies the right password.

 

#9: Pinterest Pin It Button For Images

Pinterest is a social network that does not get as much credit as it deserves. While some people are thriving on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, there are not nearly as many people making it big on Pinterest. If you are not on Pinterest, then you are missing out.

Regardless of whether you use Pinterest or not, plenty of your visitors will have Pinterest accounts. Over 70 million people use Pinterest, and many of these people love to share pictures. If you make it easy for people to pin your blog posts, you will be able to get more traffic from Pinterest. Even if you do not have a large presence on Pinterest, some of the people who visit your blog may have large audiences on Pinterest.

The Pinterest Pin It Button For Images plugin is a plugin that adds a “Pin It” button to all of your pictures. This button only shows up when you drag your mouse on the image, but by clicking on the image, a new window that allows you to send the pin opens up to the side.

The more people share your content, the better, and Pinterest is a great source for more blog traffic.

 

#10: WWSGD

The abbreviation for this plugin stands for “What Would Seth Godin Do.” Although I wish this plugin allowed us to get business advice from the famous marketer himself, WWSGD allows you to put a message on your blog welcoming new and returning visitors alike.

You may have seen a message on the top of this blog post welcoming you back or welcoming you for the first time. These types of messages build a strong connection between you and the reader. You can customize what the messages say, and with some basic knowledge in HTML combined with Google searches, you can also modify how the box surrounding the text looks. This plugin is critical towards making your visitors feel like they belong on your blog. Making them feel like they belong will encounter those people to visit your blog numerous times. The more someone visits your blog, the more likely that person will be to buy your products and subscribe.

 

#11: WordPress Editorial Calendar

As you schedule more blog posts, it will be more confusing to remember when you scheduled blog posts. When I was writing two blog posts every day, I would accidentally send out three blog posts on some days because I scheduled two blog posts to get published at the same time. That did not help out towards keeping people on my email list.

That problem happens less often because now I only write one blog post every other day. In addition, I use the WordPress Editorial Calendar plugin. This plugin allows you to  stay organized by displaying all of your sent and scheduled blog posts on a calendar. If you do not know whether you properly scheduled a blog post three weeks in advance, you no longer have to scroll through your blog posts and look at the dates to see if that blog post was scheduled at the right time. The WordPress Editorial Calendar allows you to see the exact date and time you are scheduling certain blog posts.

 

#12: Widget Context

Isn’t it annoying when you put widgets on your blog only to realize that they should not appear on certain pages of your blog. You may not want a certain widget to be on your homepage, and you may want another widget to only show up on your homepage.

The Widget Context allows you to choose where widgets appear on your blog. If you want a widget to be displayed everywhere on your blog, then you don’t have to do anything else. The Widget Context is set to that default. However, if you only want to show your widget on certain blog posts and pages, the Widget Context plugin can be used to specify where you want the widget to show up.

The Widget Context is especially great for testing a widget. Some widgets that get put up for the first time do not work as intended just because we are not used to them. You can use the Widget Context to test out the widget on one of your blog’s pages that does not get a lot of attention. You can keep testing the widget until it works, and then you can display the widget everywhere on your blog knowing that it works.

 

In Conclusion

There are numerous WordPress plugins to choose from. However, not all of them are created equal. These 12 WordPress plugins have been the most beneficial for my blogger journey, and they have enhanced my blog in one way or the other. Plugins are essential to a blog’s success because they provide a blog with enhancements that a blog cannot provide for itself.

What are your thoughts on the 12 plugins? Do you have a favorite plugin? Please share your thoughts and plugins below.

5 Reasons Why Every Teenager Needs To Have A Blog

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5 Reasons Why Every Teenager Needs To Have A Blog

With the dawn of social media and blogging, it has now become more possible than ever for a teen to become successful at a young age. The requirements of looking for a job or owning your own brick and mortar stores are over. There are millionaires who have no headquarters building other than the home they sleep in. Some of these people are under 30, but teenagers can find themselves in that category as well.

The two main reasons why there are not more teenager entrepreneurs is because teens do not know how to be successful on the web, and they think it is an impossible feat that is exclusively for people out of college. On WordPress.com, creating a blog is free, and it only takes a few seconds to create one.

However, the rewards of starting a blog at a young age are incredible. As a teenager myself, I am amazed with the abilities that blogging has given me. I am also amazed that not every teen has his or her own blog. If you are the parent of a teen, be sure to share this article with them, and if you are a teen, here are five great reasons to start blogging at a young age.

 

#1: Blogging gives teens something good to do

To many people, the phrase “teen years” typically brings a bad thought. Some parents may see the “teen years” as separation from the child who wants to break free and live without limits. Some teens see the “teen years” as a bundle of joy.

One of the problems with “teen years” is that teens start to go into unchartered waters. There are stories of teens getting drunk or shooting people or doing another morally wrong act. On a less intense level, some teens procrastinate to the point where it is obvious to the people around them. Some teens procrastinate by surfing the web too often while others procrastinate by playing too many video games.

Blogging is an experiment, just like any good or bad thing that teens do. However, blogging is a positive experience that gives teens something good to do. Instead of procrastinating out of pure boredom, teens can now write blog posts about what they are passionate about and share it with the entire world. Putting your content out there for the world to see puts you on a whole new level.

 

#2: Blogging makes teens feel more significant

Significance is one of the basic human desires. We want other people to see us as significant because it boosts confidence self-esteem. It feels better to be given a compliment than an insult. Would you rather have people say you are good at something or that you are bad at something?

Blogging makes a teen feel more significant because there content is reaching out to people, and if the content is good, some people will leave nice comments. I have had the ability to interact with people within all parts of the world (I’m not so sure about Antarctica and the Arctic region all the way up north, but people from all other parts of the world have interacted with me at some point). Interacting with that many people, and seeing them write good things about your content makes you feel significant.

The problem with feeling insignificant is that some individuals who feel significant perform morally wrong actions just to be what they believe would make them “significant.” Some people go around and shoot people because they become a main news story. Then they become “significant,” but for the wrong reason.

 

#3: Blogging allows teens to get into the real world sooner

One of the biggest lies of the “real world” is that you get there when you graduate college. This idea of the real world is what allows the status quo to thrive. Although blogging is a great way to bring in a full-time income, it takes a lot of time to bring in that income and build your presence on the web.

Many college graduates become impatient and want to make money immediately (they want to support a family, buy a house, buy a car, and buy other things with their own money). This is when students start to realize from first-hand experience that life is more than taking notes in class and talking with friends. Working at the local store will result in quick money, but it won’t necessarily result in the type of money that the most successful bloggers make (millions of dollars).

 

#4: You have more flexibility over your schedule

The deeper you go into the school process, the less control you have over your schedule. College is where your schedule starts to become more flexible, but before that, you gradually lose control over your schedule (especially junior year in high school. That one is the worst). The great thing about blogging is that you can do it all year round  anywhere you go. On the other hand, you can only do a summer job for three months, and that’s assuming you take no vacations in between.

At this stage of the game, I know there are teens on the fence wondering where they should go. Some teens think they will start in the summer and turn blogging into a type of summer job while other teens may want to start now (even if now means during the school year), but are not fully convinced. My answer is that you should start immediately after reading this blog post.

If you become a successful blogger at a young age, you will practically have full control over your schedule. How many people do you know who go to work from 9 am to 5 pm. Chances are you know a lot of people. All of your teachers, whether they want to or not, have to show up early and leave in the afternoon. Any employee you have seen in a brick-and-mortar store (Target, Mrs. Greens, CVS, WalMart, and all of the other ones as well) has to wake up at a certain time and work for a certain amount of time before going back home.

Starting now and becoming successful before you “have to” get a job and work for someone else (please don’t do that if you don’t want to) will allow you to make money and work on your own schedule. The best part is that when you get really good, you will literally be making money in your sleep!

 

#5: Blogging is a wonderful, unique experience

I have referenced this throughout my article, but it is worth mentioning again that blogging is what I believe is a life changing experience. If it weren’t for blogging, I would still be playing video games for three hours a day and watching TV when I didn’t feel like playing video games. I still play video games for about three hours every week, but I now spend hours of day enhancing my blog and getting my message out to the world.

Blogging has dramatically improved my time management skills, and it allows me to feel significant. The best part about blogging is that it is fun if you write about anything you want. It is important for teens to avoid viewing blogging as school essays because school essays give you limitations while you can write about anything you want on a blog. I have already written over 1,000 words for this particular blog post, and I have written over 400,000 words for this blog. It does not feel like work. Instead, it is a fun activity because I am able to write about what I am passionate about on a daily basis.

 

In Conclusion

Although a majority of the established bloggers are adults, more teens are creating their own blogs and writing their own content. Blogging provides teens with a great way to make money from the comfort of their home by doing what they love to do. Many of the top entrepreneurs got to where they are after working for someone else. If you create your blog now and make a full-time income, you won’t have to work for someone else for your entire life.

My only request for the parents reading this blog post is to show it to as many teens about it as possible. My only two requests for the teens reading this blog post are to create their own blogs and let other teens know about this article as well. I want to have a big impact on as many young entrepreneurs as possible.

6 Reasons Why Your Success Is In Your Email List

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I am sure you have heard of phrases like, “The money is in the email list” and “Your blog must have a way to collect email addresses.” When I was a new blogger, I did not fully understand the power of an email list. I initially thought it was just a strategy surrounded by too much hype. I did read the types of phrases I mentioned before, but few articles with those phrases would go deep into why growing an email list is important.

It was just “understood” that a blog must have a way to collect email addresses. Few articles went deeper than that when discusses how important it is to grow an email list, and that resulted in me not taking my email list seriously for a long time (big mistake).

Other than me saying that not growing my email list was a mistake and that the money is in the list, here are six reasons why it is important to grow your email list.

 

#1: Higher click through rate.

If you craft your emails effectively, you will get a much higher click through with an email list than with a social media audience. Based on the number of tweets I send out, the number of followers I have, and the number of visitors I get from Twitter, my tweets as a lump sum get a click through rate lower than 1%.

Although my Twitter presence does equate to hundreds of daily visitors, my email list is proving to bring forth a greater click through rate. For the typical email, at least 10% of the people on my list end up clicking the link in the email. The higher your click through rate is, the more traffic your blog will get, and emailing your list is a great way to produce a high click through rate.

 

#2: Scalar traffic

Touching upon higher click through rates, scalar traffic is another great reason to grow your email list. If you get 10% of the people on your list to click on the emails you send, then you would get more clicks as your email list grows.

If you have 100 people on your email list, that mathematically means you are getting 10 clicks. If you have 1,000 subscribers on your email list, that mathematically means you are getting 100 clicks. Just keep on adding the zeroes, and you will quickly realize how powerful an email list is.

One of the most successful marketers in the world is Brendon Burchard, and he achieved a big portion of his internet fame through a big email list. Burchard boasts an email list of over 1 million people, and if 10% of those people are clicking on the links he sends out, he is getting 100,000 visitors each time he sends out another link.

 

#3: More sales

In order to effectively utilize your email list, you need to interact with the people on that list. One of the ways you can do this is by promoting one of your products. My recommendation is to only have one promotional email every month and make sure the rest are informative, but sending out that one promotional email every month has the power to bring in more sales.

Since your subscribers are seeing you often and reading through your content, it is quite possible to promote one of your products and expect to bring in more sales. All you have to do is send them emails before that point.

Another great way to get more product sales is by creating an autoresponder that sends out a series of emails that are several days apart from each other. Your autoresponder sequence has the power to entice people to buy your products and let them know about your story. Here is the order that you should create your autoresponder to bring in more sales:

  1. An email about an aspect of your story that relates to something your readers may be facing.
  2. An email that provides value such as a lengthy report or blog post for free.
  3. An email about the product itself and what it is all about.
  4. An email that pushes for the sale.

In the first three emails, you should reference the product but not push for the sale. Just include a P.S. here and there about your product and what it has done for others.

The reason the autoresponder sequence takes four emails to pull off is because you want potential customers to be in the right mindset when buying your product. Imagine how likely you would be to buy a product if the salesman rushed over and said, “Buy my product.” Then imagine what would happen if another salesman told you to buy his product who you felt related to and recognized as an expert. You would be more likely to buy from the second salesman than the first one.

 

#4: Powerful product launches

The product launch is one of the most important phases, and some would argue that it decides whether a product becomes successful or not. Your email list is a great way to get more sales which also means it is a great way to have powerful product launches.

For training courses that you create, this can mean a massive amount of customers quickly buy it, and that means you will quickly get new testimonials. For Kindle authors, a powerful product launch means Amazon will start to promote your book more throughout their site. Having lower sales ranks for their books allow Kindle authors to get more sales.

 

#5: Word of mouth

In a world filled with the internet, social media, and mobile phones, word of mouth marketing still emerges as a great way to get noticed. High school gossips still go around, and as a student myself, I know that most of those gossips still take place through word of mouth.

In addition to still existing and reaching out to a variety of people, word of mouth marketing is an extremely valuable form of marketing. When someone tells their friend about you, it’s not in Facebook post that can easily get overlooked. Instead, these people are talking to friends, and when these types of conversations take place, each friend is paying more attention than they would be to a social media post.

Sending emails to an email list will allow you to develop the type of bond with your subscribers that results in word of mouth marketing. Think of word of mouth marketing as something similar to click through rate. Although you cannot track word of mouth marketing statistics, it is possible to create an estimate.

Let’s say that 10% of the people on your email list will tell their friends about you. Then, you can play around with the numbers I mentioned when referring to scalar traffic to determine how many people would tell their friends about you. If you have 1,000 people on your email list, 100 people are going to tell their friends about you. That is 100 extra people who know about you and may end up on your email list. Then, some of these 100 people will tell their friends and some of those friends will tell their friends. It is an infinite loop of people telling their friends about you, your email list growing larger, and you getting more traffic and sales.

Growing an email list helps word of mouth marketing and word of mouth marketing helps your email list.

 

#6: People will remember you

Just because someone reads your blog and enjoys your blog posts does not mean that person is going to be a returning visitor. Some people may forget about your blog while others may get preoccupied by other things. The reason is that there are few visitors who have an extraordinary desire to visit your blog every day, let alone once every 30 minutes.

Since most people do not have this strong desire to visit your blog that frequently, it is possible to see a blog visitor one time and never again. However, if you get a visitor to subscribe to your email list, that person will be able to remember you.

The people will not automatically remember you by subscribing to your blog. Instead, you will remind people of who you are by sending emails to them. If you are someone who cannot remember to all of the blogs you have subscribed to over the years, then you are not alone. I do not remember all of the blogs I have subscribed to since the beginning of my journey, but each time I get an email from that blogger, I am reminded of the following:

  1. Who that person is
  2. Why I subscribed to this person’s blog
  3. The desire to revisit this person’s blog so I can read what I missed

Being remembered is an important way to build an authority on the web, and an email list allows more people to remember you. We are obsessed with our emails. Most of us check our inboxes multiple times every day while some of us are even checking our inboxes once every 15-30 minutes. Insane? Yes, but having your message in other people’s inboxes will almost ensure that numerous people read that message and go to your blog.

 

In Conclusion

Your email list is where the money is, and it is essential for any blogger who wants to make it big on the web. You may have known that already, but now you also know why growing your email list is important.

Just to know that something is important is not convincing enough to take action. I learned that the hard way by not taking my email list seriously for a long period of time. I only took my traffic numbers seriously, but that also meant some people were visiting my blog and not coming back. Some people didn’t come back simply because in their busy worlds, they couldn’t remember me. Being able to send an email to these people’s inboxes would have resulted in them remember who I am and visiting my blog more often.

There are free emailing options available such as WordPress’ Jetpack option, but growing a big email list requires an investment. That is why I invested in iContact which I use to grow my email list.

Are you taking your email list seriously?