Marc's Blog

Content Writing and Marketing Services

“It Takes So Much Time”

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It takes so much time

To get thousands of blog visitors every day.

To make a full-time income from YouTube.

To become a bestselling author.

To get 100,000 Twitter followers.

To make it on the web.

To make a six figure income on the web.

To make millions of dollars on the web.

To work for someone else.

To make a full-time income when working for someone else.

To find a job.

To wait for someone to choose you.

To go from job to job until you find the one that brings in a good income.

To go from job to job until you find the job you love that brings in a good income.

To drive in the middle of 9 to 5 traffic every day.

No matter which option you choose, it is going to take a lot of time. Which one have you chosen? Which one is worth it?

The 5 Elements Of An Irresistible Blog

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One of the hardest things to do with a blog is make it an irresistible blog. Irresistible blogs are the types of blogs that people can browse through for a long period of time. We all have our favorite blogs that we browse through for many minutes at a time. You want people to be browsing through your blog for many minutes as well.

Including links to your older blog posts is a great strategy to lower your blog’s bounce rate. Including these links does help out, but your blog needs to be the type of blog that your targeted readers would want to visit countless times.

You want people to be visiting your blog for many months, and eventually many years to come. You want your blog to be so memorable that people come back for more. Here are the five elements that go into making your blog irresistible.

 

#1: Have eye-popping pictures.

Pictures have the ability to attract people to a blog post and identify what the blog post is about. Some people will unintentionally skip the headline and go straight into reading the blog post content. That is why I include pictures in my blog posts. If I write a blog post about Twitter, I make sure I include the Twitter logo. That way, if someone reads past the headline but sees the picture, the reader knows the article is about Twitter.

One of the big concerns with using pictures in your blog posts is that many people use images that they do not have permission to use. That is why it is important to create your own pictures that you do have permission to use.

Creating a picture is not as hard as many people think. You do not have to learn graphic design to create your own pictures. Instead, you can use an online tool such as Canva to create your own pictures. Canva has a variety of functions such as creating a picture for your blog posts, Twitter header, Facebook background, and other functions as well. The best part is that the pictures Canva allows you to generate can be eye-popping.

 

#2: Have good headlines. 

Although some readers skip the headline, the people who are staying on your blog for a long time are reading through those headlines. Headlines allow your visitors to know what exactly your blog post will be about.

However, you do not want a simple headline that tells people what they are going to read. I could have called this blog post “5 Blogging Tips,” but “The 5 Elements Of An Irresistible Blog” is a more specific title with the pull-word “irrestible.”

There are many pull-words in a headline that fill people with a strong desire to read your content. Depending on the niche you are in, those pull-words will vary. In order for you to identify the pull-words of your niche, look at other blog post headlines in your niche. Then, ask yourself if the headline is attracting your attention and which words are pulling you in. Afterwards, experiment with your blog and see which pull-words, when used, grab the most attention.

The better your headlines are, the more clicks those headlines are going to get. One of the best strategies to making sure everyone reads your headline is by editing the picture and including the blog post’s headline in the picture. Canva allows you to do this.

 

#3: Make it easy for people to navigate through your blog.

It is mandatory as a blogger to make your blog easy to navigate. There are many blogs on the web related to yours, and if your visitor feels confused with your blog’s navigation, that visitor will not stick around for a while. When someone visits your blog, that person is choosing you over the countless other blogs out there. Make each visitor feel welcome.

Having good navigation means making it easy for people to access the pages on your blog and blog posts based on certain categories. If you write long blog posts, only include short summaries of those blog posts that require a click to see the whole blog post. Regardless of how well you write, there are going to be some topics that particular readers won’t care about.

Some of this blog’s readers are only concerned with the content about blogging. That means, scrolling through a bunch of 1,000 word blog posts about social media won’t be their cup of tea. Shortening these blog posts will only result in these people scrolling through 50-100 words of other content until they find the content they are actually looking for.

Making it easy for people to find what they are looking for and then delivering on the value will ensure that these people stick around for a long period of time.

 

#4: Have the right colors.

The colors you use for your blog have a big impact on how well it does. Color psychology is one of the most underrated areas of marketing, but it is a great way to make a blog look more attractive.

Women do not like gray, orange, and brown. They like blue, purple, and green. Men don’t like purple, orange, and brown. Men like blue, green, and black. From this data, you should make sure your blog post includes blue and green colors so both gender groups like the colors on your blog. Here is a detailed blog post on KISSmetrics that goes into color psychology.

 

#5: Include good social proof.

We have a natural tendency to come back to something that is popular. That means if you have good social proof and can show yourself as a popular expert in your niche, people will come back more often. All of the social media experts are quick to show their credentials and social proof.

The social media experts with hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers make sure people can easily see the Twitter follow button with the exact number of followers. I display it on my blog’s sidebar, and the Twitter button happens to be larger than the rest of them.

 

In Conclusion

By combining these elements together, you will have an irresistible blog that grabs attention and makes visitors stick around for a long time. Getting people to stick around for a longer period of time boosts your chances of getting subscribers and sales.

In addition, Google loves it when people stay on your blog for a long period of time. That means your blogs will gradually get more search engine traffic. Not only does making your blog irresistible result in people staying on it longer, but it also results in more traffic in the long-term.

What were your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips for creating an irresistible blog? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

4 Simple Methods To Track Social Media ROI

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4 Simple Methods To Track Social Media ROI

Social media has the potential to bring forth a big return on investment. Some people have made a strong income from social media. While some accounts such as the Uber Facts account has found a way to tweet the right ads, most of the highly profitable Twitter users bring in money by leading their followers to blogs and landing pages optimized to get more subscribers and sales. For the average account, the second option is the better of the two to choose from.

In order to know which social networks you need to be utilizing, you also need to identify the ROI for each of your social networks. Before you start tracking social media ROI, you must know what you are looking for in the first place. Are you looking for more subscribers, visitors, sales, or something else? Identifying what you are looking for will ultimately allow you to know whether you efforts are paying off or not.

After you identify what you want from social media, here are four simple methods to track social media ROI so you know what you are getting for all of that hard work.

 

#1: Use Bitly to track clicks.

Bitly allows you to see how many clicks any one of your links gets. This is important because you get to see which of your articles is receiving the most clicks and who the referrers are.

Knowing who your referrers are will allow you to identify where you need to focus the majority of your efforts. Out of all of the places where I put my Bitly links, Twitter brings in the most traffic. That is why I spend more time on Twitter than on any other social network. I recognize that the time I invest in Twitter is going to pay off.

 

#2: See what kind of interaction you get.

Interaction is huge on social media. The people who you interact with may end up subscribing to your blog and buying your products. In fact, some of the people I have interacted with ended up buying my books and leaving reviews for them as well. The better the interaction is, and the more times followers start the conversation with you, the more likely your efforts are going to pay off.

The larger your audience is, the longer it will take for you to interact with the people who mentioned you and shared your content. On some days, it takes me 30 minutes to go through my feed and have conversations with my followers. All of this interaction is worth it because my audience controls my success on social media.

I couldn’t be successful on Twitter unless everyone who is following me decided to click the follow button. My content would not spread as far if it weren’t for all of the people sharing my content and telling their friends about it. Having conversations with the individuals allows me to know them better. Instead of treating your followers like a number, treat them like people. Be social. That’s what social media is all about.

 

#3: Share coupons exclusively on social media.

Sharing a coupon exclusively on social media has its benefits. The main benefit is that people will follow you on your social networks just to stay updated about the coupons. There may be some people who are reluctant towards getting followers with this method because the theory is that the followers care about the coupons, not the content.

In reality, if someone is following you on your social networks for the coupons, that person enjoys the products you create. If people are following you for this reason, you already have a strong influence over them. This strong influence is important because it will boost the amount of conversations you have with your followers.

Be sure to let your blog visitors know that your coupons are available on social media. That way, if a visitor enjoyed your blog post, that visitor may decide to follow you on your social networks to get notified about any coupons.

Another benefit to sharing coupons exclusively on social media is that the results are easier to track. If you use a custom coupon for your social networks, and you can track how many sales a coupon gets, you will be able to identify whether you are getting a good return on investment or not. The more you experiment, the more likely you are to getting a good ROI from this method.

 

#4: Give yourself the stepping stones.

Your desire to improve your social media ROI is a goal. The main problem with most goals is that they often look impossible to reach. It’s like crossing one side of a large body of water to the other without a bridge of any kind.

Giving yourself the stepping stones will allow you to create that bridge for yourself. One of the most important tips for goal creation is to have a sense of direction. Your social media ROI strategy is not going to work unless you have that sense of direction and a general idea of where you are heading.

This sense of direction allows you to truly identify whether you are doing a good job or not. The key to the stepping stones strategy’s success is you being honest to yourself when you ask if you did anything to move forward on social media.

 

In Conclusion

We spend a lot of time on social media. In fact, the average user spends over three hours on social media every day. Unfortunately, a majority of that time is not bringing in a good return on investment. Your time is valuable, and you need to get the best out of your social networks.

Interacting with your followers and giving them a good experience when they see your social media presence will help out towards getting a better ROI. Most of the ROI generated from social media comes from long-term connections and conversations.

The time you put into growing your social media audience now will be very rewarding as your journey continues. Did one of these tips resonate with you the most? Do you have another tip for boosting social media ROI?

How To Create A Click-Worthy Tweet

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How To Create A Click-Worthy Tweet

There are over 500 million tweets being sent out every day, but not all of them are click-worthy. We have all seen our fair share of sensational tweets and big duds. There are some click-worthy tweets that result in a blog getting hundreds of extra visitors while others go unnoticed.

The difference is that some tweets are designed to make people want to click them. There are some tweets that prove to be irresistible, and as a result, people click on the links and view the articles.

There is some preparation that goes into creating the click-worthy tweet. Before writing the tweet, you need to find an article on the web that…

1. Your targeted audience would like

2. Is worth reading

The article has to be both of those things. The last thing you want is for someone to click on the tweet just to be disappointed by the article. That’s like seeing a really good movie trailer, watching the movie, and realizing that the movie was actually horrible.

After you get the article worth reading (preferably from your own blog), the next step is to shorten the link with Bitly. You do not want to have a giant link in your tweet that takes up a lot of space. The ideal amount of characters a tweet should have is anywhere from 70-100, and long URLs make maintaining that character length while coming up with a catchy headline difficult.

What you need to do is come up with a powerful headline. Powerful headlines are headlines that are tempting to click on. These are the types of headlines that get clicked and get more blog traffic. I mentioned a wide variety of ways to create powerful headlines in an earlier article, and there is also a tool that allows you to figure out how valuable a specific headline is.

This tool is called the Advanced Marketing Institute Headline Analyzer. It shows how powerful your headline is as well as the emotional appeal it will have to your readers.

Now that you have this information, you need to structure your tweet with the headline first followed by the link. After the link, say, “Please Retweet.” Not only does this work in getting more retweets, but if you are asking for a retweet, that implies that the tweet is retweet worthy.

A retweet worthy tweet with a link must lead to a good article. Since they have further assured confidence that the article is good, this will encourage readers to click the link in the tweet.

This is the strategy that you can use to create tweets with links that people want to click on. Getting clicks is important because if you have an optimized blog, some of the blog traffic you get will translate into subscribers and sales.

What is your advice on creating click-worthy tweets?

4 Twitter Marketing Tips

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4 Twitter Marketing Tips

When it comes to Twitter marketing, many people think they need to have a big audience in order to get good results. Having a big audience does help, but there is more to marketing than the number of followers you have. Some people who have 500 targeted followers are more successful than people with 1,000 targeted followers.

The difference between people who are getting good results from Twitter marketing and people who are not getting as good results from Twitter marketing may not necessarily be the size of the audience. The difference is how you interact with that audience and build relationships in the process.

The way you interact with your audience is determined by how many conversations you have with the people in your audience and what you tweet. You want to tweet content that benefits you and your followers. What are the benefits of your content spreading (other than you gaining followers)? What are your followers looking for in your content? These are two critical questions that form the core of Twitter marketing. Now, I will share with you the four Twitter marketing tips you can use to get the most out of the audience you have built.

 

#1: Identify what you are marketing.

You would be amazed with how many Twitter marketers there are but how few know what they are actually marketing. Some people “market” by tweeting other people’s articles and anything on the web that they believe is interesting. That’s not marketing at all.

Sure, it’s great to share someone else’s article once in a while, but most of your tweets need to benefit you. This is the win side for you. What webpages can you take people to that would benefit you? Some of the webpages you can market are your blog posts, your products, or one of your social networks.

Although it always feels great when we win, it is also important for your audience to win as well. The only way you are going to get anywhere with your Twitter marketing strategy is if your followers enjoy what you post. Therefore, out of the multiple options available, the ideal marketing option would be your blog. Here are the advantages of marketing your blog on Twitter.

  1. Your blog provides free, valuable content. The more valuable your content is, the more people will perform actions such subscribing to your blog and buying your product.

  2. Your blog is an easy place to promote all of your social networks and products. Blogs have sidebars which can be used to showcase what you have made, and where people can find you on the web.

Before you start promoting your blog, it is essential to have a blog that your target audience would enjoy. If your target audience is sports fans, a fashion blog won’t work well.

I am against relentlessly promoting products on Twitter because promoting a product right away does not allow the relationship to build. You need a relationship to build between you and the follower before that follower decides to buy one of your products. Since you are bringing people to your blog, you should optimize that blog so it is easy for people to subscribe, follow you on other social networks, and buy your products.

 

#2: Market it a lot.

One of the biggest mistakes a marketer can make is only marketing in real-time. I mentioned in an earlier post why tweeting at the moment is important, but in order to get the best out of your marketing efforts, you need to automate your posts.

Out of all of the options, HootSuite is ideal social media automation tool. It is free to use, and for $9.99 per month, you get access to HootSuite Pro which makes it easier for you to repost the same blog posts.

One of the misconceptions of Twitter is that people do not like it when someone sends out so many tweets in a given day. I initially decided to send out one tweet every hour. Eventually, I went from tweeting once an hour to once every 30 minutes, and now I send out one tweet every 20 minutes.

Each time I increased my tweeting frequency, my blog traffic went up. There was not a single follower who complained about my tweeting too much. In fact, many of my followers love the fact that I send out dozens of tweets every day.

 

#3: Track your marketing.

Some articles, videos, and products are more popular than others. That is the case now, and it will be the case forever. The reason why tracking your marketing is important is because you will be able to identify which of your articles, videos, and products are the ones getting the most clicks. Knowing this information will allow you to identify what content your followers like and which content they ignore.

My most popular articles amongst my Twitter followers are the ones about Twitter. I know that my Twitter articles are getting the most clicks because I use Bitly to shorten the links and track how many clicks they get. That is why I make it a point to tweet as many Twitter related articles as possible.

When you are implementing a Twitter strategy over a long period of time to see how many followers you gain, TwitterCounter is a great tool for you to see how that strategy is doing. TwitterCounter allows you to see up to six months of your statistics for free, and these statistics allow you to identify how many people you followed, how many people followed you, and how many tweets you sent out day by day.

Tweriod is another useful tool. This Twitter tool allows you to identify when your followers are on Twitter. That means if you want a particular tweet to get more attention, or you know which tweet normally gets the most clicks, you can send it out at the optimal times that Tweriod provides.

Tracking results has become more important than ever because these results allow you to know if you are going in the right direction. Your marketing strategy must have a sense of direction for it to do well.

 

#4: Learn from the pros.

In 99% of all niches, there is an established expert who is very successful on Twitter. There are numerous people in the digital marketing niche who have over 100,000 followers and get countless retweets on a daily basis.

One of the pros I continue to learn from is Seth Godin. I have mentioned him in numerous blog posts, and I have mentioned him in some of my books as well. Seth offers tons of free content. He writes one thought-provoking blog post every day and has seven lengthy, free, and valuable PDFs. Despite offering all of this valuable information for free, his books are still very successful.

Kim Garst also offers a lot of free information. She writes guidebooks about Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks which she only gives to her subscribers. Offering a free incentive is definitely a great way to build an email list, and she is also very successful. She has multiple training courses and books about different social networks.

There are other pros that I learned from, but it would take me too long to mention them all by name. I looked at their different marketing techniques, mixed some of their techniques with my knowledge, and came up with my own Twitter marketing strategy. The pros know what works. Analyzing what they do is better than trying to reinvent the wheel.

 

In Conclusion

Tweeting is not enough to make it big. Creating a Twitter marketing strategy has the power to dramatically improve the results you get from Twitter. It may take some time to identify your strategy, but it is well worth the time.

The benefit of having your own Twitter marketing strategy is that it gives you a sense of direction. Not having a Twitter strategy is the equivalent of trying to go from New York to California without a GPS. The Twitter marketing strategy you create will act as the GPS that has the potential to lead you to a large, engaged audience. Just know that it takes time to grow a large, engaged audience, but anyone can do it. If a 16 year old can do it, then so can you.

Which Twitter marketing tips was your favorite? Do you have a 5th Twitter marketing tip?

Three Components That You Need To Include In Your Free Report

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3 components that you need to include in your free report

Free reports entice people to subscribe to your blog. They are informative, lengthy articles that provide the kind of value that your targeted audience is looking for. The more similar your free report’s topic is to your blog content, the more subscribers you are going to get.

However, many people forget to include certain components in their free reports. Although adding these components to your free report may only take a few minutes at most, they can bring forth powerful results These components have the power to increase blog traffic, boost social proof, and get more sales.

 

#1: Links To Individual Blog Post.

When you see the opportunity in your free report, include a link to a related blog post. Including links to related blog posts allows you to boost your blog traffic and bring more attention to certain blog posts that either need the attention or need to get ranked higher on Google.

If your free report is about productivity, you can include a link to a blog post about time management. If the person enjoys your free report and gets to the link, that person will be more likely to click on the links to read your various blog posts. Then, if you have an irresistible blog, that person will stick around for a while. The more this person sticks around, the happier that person will feel about subscribing to your blog.

Better yet, the more someone sticks around, the most that person will trust in your ability to produce valuable content. This trust is important because it means returning visitors and sales for your future products.

 

#2: Social media icons.

At the end of your free report, show people where they can find you on social media. You want people to connect with you on social media because that’s where conversations take place. You can interact with these people on your social networks and with enough interaction, some of these people may decide to share your blog posts.

Getting people to share your blog posts may lead to more subscribers, and then the process will simply continue as long as you continue to grow your email list.

Including clickable pictures of the icons that lead to your social media profiles is the ideal way to promote your social media accounts. If you have a big following on your social networks, be sure to utilize social proof so more people are enticed to follow you and buy your products.

 

#3: One product.

At the very end of your free report on a separate page from the social media icons, mention a product you made that is similar to your free report. If you have a book about Facebook, create a free report about Facebook so you are able to promote your book at the end. People who enjoyed your free report will be more likely to buy one of your products.

If you only distribute your free report to someone who subscribes to your blog, that person was already willing to enter their email address and get notifications from you straight to their inbox. After getting the free report, reading through it, and enjoying it, some of your readers may buy the product similar to the report. However, you are only going to get the sales for your product if you include a link to the product in your report.

It is important to remember that many of the people who are reading your free report for the first time may not be ready to buy from you right away. That means if you give your readers dozens of options to choose from, they will feel overwhelmed. Only giving your readers one product will boost the likelihood of that product making more sales compared to promoting dozens of different products to start the relationship.

 

In Conclusion

A free report is a great way to gain subscribers, but a free report can be more than that. Free reports have the ability to drive traffic to your blog, boost your sales, and optimize on your social proof. By taking a few minutes to go through your report, you can get better results from that report.

Do you have any additional tips for enhancing a free report?