Marc's Blog

Content Writing and Marketing Services

The Map To Success

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Map Of The World

There is no map. You won’t know where you are going until you get there. Everyone likes to think they know exactly what is going to happen and how they are going to be successful. That’s not the case.

All you have is tools and knowledge, and most of what you will gain on your journey will be more tools and knowledge.

You only get the map to success after you become successful. That’s why experts are still able to talk about how they know about becoming successful.

Does that mean the entire situation is hopeless? Not at all. We all have unique maps, and it’s the desire to see what these maps look like that makes us want to become successful. Maybe you thought that consultation sessions would make you successful, and you end up becoming successful because you are able to write 1 book every month. Maybe you end up becoming successful because you land a high paying job and use some of your earnings to invest into something that turns into a multimillion dollar business.

We can go by what we think is our map. As we go by the steps that we believe will make us successful, there will be speed bumps and road blocks. However, too many people think that there will only be speed bumps and road blocks.

Although they do exist, there are also short cuts. Going from gaining 10 followers every day to gaining 50 followers every day is a short cut. You get to gain 5,000 followers in the same amount of time you gained 1,000 followers. Offering a free prize is also a short cut to getting more sales and subscribers. Being lucky enough to read certain blog post revolving around your niche on this blog and others as well with very valuable information also serves as a short cut. Speed bumps and road blocks slow down success, but short cuts allow you to skip past some of your speed bumps and road blocks. Is time your speed block. There are several ways to manage your time more effectively. In fact, waking up an hour earlier may be all you need to do to solve the problem.

The only part of the map that you get to see from the start is your level of happiness. Your happiness ultimately decides whether or not you are going to get your copy of the map. If you are happy with what you do, then you will have more motivation to do extraordinary work even when the situation looks bleak.

Your unique map to success in unattainable because it contains your future–something that you do not know anything about until it becomes your reality. You never know how close you are to accomplishing your dreams, but if you continue doing what you do, you will definitely get there. You don’t get given a map to success. You create your own map to success and learn along the way.

What are your thoughts about the map to success? Do you have any additional advice for having a good attitude as you discover your map to success? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

 

10 Ways To Improve Your Facebook Page

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Facebook Logo

The two components that decide how many likes and engagement your Facebook Page gets is the way it looks and the content you post on that Facebook Page. However, many people are not optimizing these two components well enough in order to see better results. The better you implement these two components, the more likely you are to be successful on Facebook. In order to make your Facebook Page better, follow these 10 tips.

  1. Facebook prefers that you use 180×180 pictures but then converts your picture to 160×160. That means the avatar picture you choose for Facebook needs to look good even if it is 160×160. Make sure your entire company’s logo or the picture of you shows up on the entire avatar. If part of your company’s logo or your headshot gets cut out of the picture, then you need to fix that. There’s nothing worse than having a sloppy appearance prevent you from getting more engagement on Facebook.
  2. Make sure your background picture further emphasizes what your Facebook Page is about. A picture of your company’s logo or a headshot does not necessarily tell people what your Facebook Page is about. If you put a headshot of yourself on your Facebook Page, then your background picture needs to show people what your posts are all about. If you only write Facebook posts about Facebook marketing, you can have a picture on the background related to Facebook marketing. If you write Facebook posts about motivational quotes, you can have a background picture of the sun rising with your favorite quote in the same picture. No matter what you post about on Facebook, your background picture needs to give everyone a good idea about what you post. As a side note, the ideal dimensions of your Facebook Page’s background image are 851 pixel width by 315 pixel height.
  3. Make sure your Facebook posts are only 80 characters. The longer your Facebook post is, the less likely someone is to read the entire post. If you want to get more likes and engagement on Facebook, you need to create short and sweet posts that are easy to read and have a clear message.
  4. Include pictures in your Facebook posts. Facebook posts with pictures get more engagement than the Facebook posts without pictures. Although pictures are optional for Facebook posts, you should make it a point to have at least one picture in a Facebook post.
  5. Experiment with your posts. When you first start to see more engagement and likes coming in every day, it is important to identify what kind of content your fans like the most. There are a variety of factors that decide how much engagement your Facebook posts get such as the character count, topic of choice, way you worded what you said, the color of the picture, and other factors as well. You will be able to identify which factors work for you by posting a lot of content and seeing which Facebook posts get the most attention.
  6. Have an effective short bio. People get to see your short bio directly under your picture. They don’t have to click an About Me Page on the menu like you have to do with a blog. Instead, it’s right there. Your short bio can give people an idea of who you are and what you do. Since a short bio does not take a lot of time to read, most people will read your short bio before reading any of your posts.
  7. Post videos on Facebook. Videos grab our attention differently from the way a typical post grabs our attention. Posting videos will keep someone on your Facebook Page for a longer period of time. That’s long enough for someone to like that Facebook post, leave a comment, possibly share it with their friends, and repeat the process for some of your other Facebook posts as well.
  8. Get more likes for your Facebook Page. These are a bunch of ways that you can get more likes on your Facebook Page. Getting these likes makes your Facebook Page look more popular. Whether it is actually very popular or not, potential fans will see your Facebook Page and believe that it is very popular. These people will then engage with your posts and like your page because they see that so many other people have done the same.
  9. Post every day. New visitors are more likely to like your Facebook Page if you post every day. Posting every day shows that your Facebook Page is active, and if visitors like what you have posted in the past, then they know they need to like your Page in order to get your future posts in their news feed. The average dormant Facebook Page does not get as many likes as the average active Facebook Page. Facebook also does a really good job at telling people when they have not posted on their Facebook Pages in a while. If you ever get that kind of email, you need to stop what you are doing and immediately post something on Facebook and then schedule posts for the days to come.
  10. Time your posts based on what your audience is on Facebook. In order to get the best engagement from your Facebook posts, you need to send these posts out when most of your audience is on Facebook. Facebook provides analytics that contain the number of people who visit your Facebook Page for every hour of every day of every week. That is a powerful statistic that Facebook gives you for free. If it’s free, it doesn’t hurt, and in this case, the statistics can be the difference between your Facebook post getting 25 likes or 50 likes.

By constantly improving your Facebook Page, you will continue to see better results over time. Your engagement will go up, more people will hear about you, and by implementing circular viralocity, your blog and all of your social networks will be able to go viral. Having an effective Facebook Page is just one piece of the puzzle.

What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips? Please share your thoughts and advice about improving your Facebook Page below.

 

10 Things Every Blog Post Needs To Have Other Than Quality Content

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Do you know the criteria for writing a good blog post? If you are like most people, you probably think that all you need in a blog post is quality content. It seems as if the phrase “quality content” is on too many blogs to count. However, there are certain parts of a blog that most people forget about. While creating quality content is important, it is also important to create an optimized blog post that gets more attention and keeps people on your site longer. These are the 10 things that every blog post needs to have:

  1. A clear purpose. You can write about social media tips, how cavemen used fire 10,000 years ago, or the daffodils on your lawn. No matter what you write about, you need to have a clear purpose right from the start. Have a headline that tells your readers exactly what your blog post will be about and have content that supports the headline. If you find yourself going astray from the headline, then you either need to change the headline or break the content into two separate blog posts.
  2. Something to lower your blog’s bounce rate. Bounce rate represents how likely someone is to leave your blog without clicking on any of your blog’s internal links (ex: links to articles, a link to a page on the blog, etc). If you can keep someone on your blog for a longer period of time, that person will be more likely to subscribe to your blog. Having a lower bounce rate increases the chances of having someone subscribe to your blog.
  3. A final paragraph that encourages interaction. The best way to get more people to comment on your blog is by encouraging those people to comment on your blog. I include a final paragraph on all of my blog posts that asks for the reader’s thoughts and/or tips. Adding this final paragraph allows me to interact with more of my readers.
  4. An easy way for people to share that blog post on social networks. Placing social sharing buttons on your blog takes no more than 5 minutes. However, those 5 minutes can make a big difference between how many shares your blog posts get. In addition, if your blog posts get shared often, your blog will be (but more importantly, look) more popular. A blog that looks more popular becomes even more popular. Your readers will enjoy reading your blog post that got shared 1,000 times more than your blog post that only got shared 10 times. Even if the two blog posts were identical, the reader would enjoy reading the one that got shared 1,000 times more than the one that got shared 10 times. Popularity makes the entire experience more enjoyable for the reader.
  5. Bold sentences. Using bold sentences allows you to highlight the important information. Some of your readers will not have enough time to read your entire blog post. If you use bold sentences, these types of readers can learn the important stuff even when they skim your blog posts. Since they got some value from one of your blog posts, these readers will come back for more information when they have more time on their hands.
  6. A stunning picture. Pictures grab our attention, and it is a proven fact that social media posts with pictures get more engagement than social media posts without pictures. All of your blog posts need to have pictures. Pictures give your readers a better idea of what your blog post is about. Pictures act as an emphasis of the headline. A big advantage of having a picture is that you allow people to share your blog posts with Pinterest. If enough people pin your blog post, it could go viral and be seen by thousands of people on Pinterest.
  7. A call to action. You can include a call to action in almost any blog post. If your blog post contains tips, then your call to action is to have your readers implement the tips that you shared. A call to action makes the reader do something after they read your blog post, and by making that happen, the reader will come back for more things to do. If your calls to action work, then your readers will subscribe to your blog and eventually buy your products.
  8. Include keywords in your blog posts. Including keywords in your blog posts helps your SEO and ultimately allows you to get more blog traffic. While it is important to use keywords, it is also important to avoid stuffing keywords into your content. If you see yourself using a particular keyword in every sentence of your blog post, then you have used that keyword too often.
  9. Your personality. You need to display your personality in your blog posts. Writing blog posts and uploading videos gives you a unique voice on the web. However, every voice on the web is unique. You need your voice on the web to allow people to get an idea for who you are. Andy Nathan wrote a guest post on Jeff Bullas’ blog where he explained how he learned everything he needed to know about social media because of Star Trek. He could have called the blog post “7 Social Media Tips,” but by directly referencing Star Trek, Andy shares an aspect of his personal life with us.
  10. The right structure. One of the simplest ways to get people to stay on your blog is to write blog posts that are easy to read. You cannot have one giant wall of content. Instead, your content needs to be broken down into several paragraphs. Even if one of your paragraphs is only one sentence, it is better to break down the giant wall of content into bite-size pieces that are easier for people to read.

Those are the 10 things that all of your blog posts need to contain. Adding these 10 things to your blog does not take a lot of time, and as you become a better blogger, some of these methods will become automatic.

What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips on what needs to be in a blog post? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

 

The Power Of Setting A Date For Your Goals

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Deadline Approaching

The biggest lies are soon and later. I’ll start this soon. I’ll work on that later. Those are stallers that make an attempt to hide the fact that you don’t want to do anything that you say you will do soon or later.

Setting a date eliminates the problem of soon and later. Soon and later do not define a date. As far as we know, soon and later can range from a few days to a few years. Setting a date will be the only way you will get your goals accomplished.

Setting a date forces you to give yourself a deadline. When I decided to self-publish 1 book every month, I was able to do just that. Then, I started writing a book that I gave myself no due date for. That’s when my self-publishing career hit a bad note, but ever since I reapplied the 1 month rule, I have been able to write, and self-publish 1 book every month. Instead of saying soon or later, I made sure that soon and later meant by the end of the month.

If you continue to say soon and later, then don’t bother. Setting a date is the only way to tell yourself that you are serious about a particular goal and want to accomplish it.

 

How To Be Able To Write 1 Blog Post Every Day Of The Week

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Consistently Writing Blog Posts

In order to be a successful blogger, you either need to write 1 blog post every day or write 1 blog post every week that contains seven day’s worth of blog post content. There are numerous bloggers who are able to successfully write one blog post every day, but the large majority of bloggers think they are incapable of writing 1 blog post every day let alone a very insightful blog post every week in order to make up for it. The reason why some bloggers are able to write 1 blog post every day is not because they have more time than the people who do not write 1 blog post every day. The reason is that these bloggers use their time differently so they are able to write 1 blog post every day. In fact, some of these bloggers are able to write multiple blog posts in a given day just by making slight changes to their schedules.

One of the main reasons why some bloggers are able to write 1 blog post every day is because of good time management. These bloggers wake up early and give themselves multiple hours every day to write content. Some of that content turns into blog posts while other parts of the content turn into books. If you are getting 9 hours of sleep every day, see how you can trim it down to 7.5 hours of sleep. Scientific studies have shown that the people who get 6.5 to 7.5 hours of sleep live the longest, and if you are getting too much sleep, then that’s not good. Waking up earlier will make you healthier and allow you to be more productive.

Time management is definitely important, but it is not the only reason why some bloggers are able to write 1 blog post every day. Another reason why some people are able to write 1 blog post every day is because they write about the things that they enjoy. There are too many bloggers who write about certain topics just because they are popular. Just because a blog is all about a popular topic does not mean the blog becomes popular. In order for the blog to become popular, you need to be able to add new content to that blog for a long time before being able to get 100 daily visitors. Writing about something that you enjoy will make it easier for you to write in the beginning even when you are only getting one visitor on some days and no visitors on other days.

Another way to write 1 blog post every day is to have more ideas to choose from. Every day, before I stop working for the day, I surf on the web for content related to my niche. This content gives me the inspiration I need to think of good ideas for future blog posts. Having all of these ideas laid out before the morning will give you more time to do what is important at that moment–write new content.

By writing 1 blog post every day, you will be able to see a gradual increase in traffic over time. You may only see a 2% increase every week, but those 2% increases add up. As you continue to write content, implement tactics to boost your SEO, and effectively use your social networks, you will eventually see 10%, 20%, and higher increases in traffic within the week.

What are your thoughts on writing 1 blog post every day? Do you have any additional tips to write 1 blog post every day? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

 

How To Make One Sale Every Day

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One Sale Every Day

One of the most discouraging moments for any author, entrepreneur, or business is when your products stay on a sales drought. Some of these sales droughts last for a few weeks while others last for a few months. It is during these sales droughts when people learn the hard way that they “don’t just come.” It takes a lot of work to get the customers to come, and it takes even more work to make six figures from your products. When I was in my sales droughts at the beginning of my career, I would feel very accomplished if I could get closer to making 1 sale every day. This thinking got me from making 1 sale every two weeks to making 1 sale every week. Thinking the same way allowed me to pass a major milestone: getting one sale every day. While some people are getting hundreds of sales every day, and companies like Apple get millions of sales every day, it feels incredible when you get daily sales for the first time in your career.

Although having the right mindset is very important, you also need to know the how-to aspect of getting more sales. Having a good attitude is not enough, but it is going to be the main motivation you have when you do the work that will allow you to get daily sales. If you don’t have the right mindset, I highly recommend reading this blog post to acquire the right mindset and then go back to this one.

There are four big things that you need to know about the typical customer in order to get more sales:

  1. Customers hunt for bargains. My training course used to be worth $47, and I offered a coupon for my blog subscribers that reduced the training course’s price to $20 (and I still do this). That was a $27 difference which accounted for a discount slightly over 50%. Then, I boosted the price of my training course to $100. I offered the same coupon on my blog that made the entire training course worth $20. However, this coupon had a stronger effect. Instead of making the training course a little over 50% off, the same coupon now made the same training course with the same videos 80% off. 80% looks a lot better than something that is “a little more than 50%.” When you give people a discount, make sure the discount either ends in a 5 or a 0 so it is easier for the average person to calculate the savings.
  2. Customers love leaders. The most successful people just so happen to be the leaders. It’s not a coincidence. Leaders also happen to be the ones with a lot of credibility. That’s not a coincidence either. In order to become a leader, you need to boost your credibility and do things differently from your competition. By standing out, you will become more popular, and customers love buying from leaders who also happen to be very popular.
  3. A higher priced product is associated with better quality. These products are associated with so much quality that they are worth multiple looks. As a member of HootSuite Pro, I decided to take a look at SocialOomph. It seemed interesting and cost more than four times as much as HootSuite Pro for the one year option. I went on SocialOomph five times before realizing that HootSuite Pro is the better of the two. In addition, the most expensive training courses happen to be the ones we hear the most about. More people talk about the training course worth $2,000 than they talk about the training course worth $500. It’s very easy to put both of these together. You can see a $2,000 training course and tell people that they can get a 75% discount by liking your Facebook Page. Customers would be very quick to click the like button and see the price get cut down to $500. Even if you planned on pricing your training course at $500 right from the start, originally pricing it at $2,000 suddenly makes the $500 look like a steal. In addition, $500 is still a high enough price to associate as a quality product created by a leader.
  4. Customers get influenced by testimonials. Some people call them testimonials and other people call them reviews. Testimonials have a big influence on customers. In order to get good testimonials for your product, your product needs to be valuable. Displaying some of the top testimonials on your blog may be the difference between getting multiple sales and not making a single sale. It is important to realize that customers have become smarter over the years. Creating fake testimonials became a popular way to get more sales for a new training course. In order to prove that your testimonials are real, you need to link to the person’s social network or blog if you want to include that person’s testimonial.

Those are the four things you need to know in order to get more sales, but you need to know what to do with this knowledge in order to get more sales. The first thing you need to do is distribute your product for free so more people can get access to it. Implementing this part of the strategy will make your product more popular and get some testimonials along the way. You need to be simultaneously growing your presence on the web and social networks so you have more credibility. The person with 10,000 followers has more credibility than the person with 1,000 followers…unless the person with more followers gets caught for buying fake ones. After you offer some of your free products, you need to make it look as if your customer is getting a steal. If you intended on pricing a 40 video training course for $500, bump it up to $1,500 or $2,000. Then, offer a discount that lowers the price down to $500 if someone likes your Facebook Page. Not only is it a steal for the customer, but you get to make the same amount of money you would have made anyway. As you get more customers, you will have more testimonials to include on your sales page, and the more testimonials people read about your product, the more likely that person is to buy it.

Whether you are selling a book, a training course, or another product, implementing this strategy will allow you to get more sales. Implementing this strategy over time will allow you to get one sale every day. What are your thoughts on this strategy? Do you have any additional tips? Please share your thoughts and advice below.