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E77: From 0 To Over 1.4 Million Podcast Episode Downloads With Dave Jackson

January 22, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

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Dave Jackson is the founder of the School of Podcasting. His podcast about podcasting has over 1.4 million downloads, and that stat is back from 2014. He has helped hundreds of people launch their own podcasts. Dave was as the Director of Podcasting for the New Media Expo, one of the top events in the industry.

Quotes To Remember:

“Figure out who your audience is. Figure out what they want. Figure out why you are getting into podcasting.”

“You can’t improve what you don’t launch.”

“Just by having a podcast, you are already seen as an expert.”

“There is no competition in podcasting.”

“Keep your face in front of them so that eventually they’re gonna look up and see you there.”

“You can start a podcast for about a price of an Xbox.”

“It’s not the gear that people tune in to. It’s the content.”

“You have to learn how to say no.”

“You think you can multitask but in reality, you can’t.”

“40% of Americans have at least listened to a podcast.”

“Sometimes, better means, ‘How can I slow down?’”

What You’ll Learn:

Things you need to do/have when launching a podcast
How to achieve high podcast episode downloads
How to make sure you are attracting the right listeners to your podcast
How to get continuous downloads for past episodes
Promoting podcast episodes efficiently
Learn to balance great content and great marketing
What to do to consistently improve

Key Links From The Show:

Dave’s Site

School of Podcasting

Podcasters’ Roundtable

The Podcasters’ Studio

The Audacity to Podcast

The Bitter Pill Podcast

Evernote

Recommended Books:

Platform by Michael S. Hyatt

Secrets of Dynamic Communications: Prepare with Focus, Deliver with Clarity, Speak with Power by Ken Davis

Podcasting Good to Great: How to Grow Your Audience Through Collaboration by Jared Easley

E77: From 0 To Over 1.4 Million Podcast Episode Downloads With Dave Jackson

January 22, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Quotes To Remember:

“Figure out who your audience is. Figure out what they want. Figure out why you are getting into podcasting.”

“You can’t improve what you don’t launch.”

“Just by having a podcast, you are already seen as an expert.”

“There is no competition in podcasting.”

“Keep your face in front of them so that eventually they’re gonna look up and see you there.”

“You can start a podcast for about a price of an Xbox.”

“It’s not the gear that people tune in to. It’s the content.”

“You have to learn how to say no.”

“You think you can multitask but in reality, you can’t.”

“40% of Americans have at least listened to a podcast.”

“Sometimes, better means, ‘How can I slow down?'”

What You’ll Learn:

Things you need to do/have when launching a podcast
How to achieve high podcast episode downloads
How to make sure you are attracting the right listeners to your podcast
How to get continuous downloads for past episodes
Promoting podcast episodes efficiently
Learn to balance great content and great marketing
What to do to consistently improve

Key Links From The Show:

Dave’s Site

School of Podcasting

Podcasters’ Roundtable

The Podcasters’ Studio

The Audacity to Podcast

The Bitter Pill Podcast

Evernote

Recommended Books:

Platform by Michael S. Hyatt

Secrets of Dynamic Communications: Prepare with Focus, Deliver with Clarity, Speak with Power by Ken Davis

Podcasting Good to Great: How to Grow Your Audience Through Collaboration by Jared Easley

How To Hit Your Blog Traffic Goals

January 22, 2018 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

It’s very common for bloggers, video creators, and podcasters alike to set site traffic goals. Some people aim for 100,000 monthly blog visitors while others aim for 1 million podcast downloads.

But most of these site traffic goals involve a significant long-term time investment. Some people get frustrated with slow progress and give up on these goals all together.

And yet it’s possible to achieve our site traffic goals faster than we realize. It’s possible to surpass 100,000 monthly blog visitors in under a year. But if it’s possible for some people, why aren’t we all doing it?

There are only two reasons for this phenomena:

It’s a lot of work, and only a few are willing to put in that much effort.

We don’t know how.

You’ll learn the how part soon enough. At that point, it’s up to you to put in the work. Let’s go deeper so you discover how to hit your site traffic goals.

#1: Optimize Your Content For Social Shares

From here on, I’ll refer to the people with hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors, millions of downloads, and millions of views as colossal content influencers. That will make it easier for me to write this blog post.

Colossal content influencers tend to share a few things in common. A glaring commonality is that they all get hundreds or even thousands of shares for all of their new content. These individuals have large email lists of devoted fans, but that’s not the entire story.

These same people optimize their blog posts for social shares. It’s common practice to include social sharing buttons at the top or bottom of every blog post. This is a default option you can get from WordPress and similar options.

But this is a limitation.

You need to give your visitors as many opportunities as possible to share your content. You can include blocks of text throughout your content that invites people to share your content. You can even have the social media buttons on the side as someone consumes your content.

For YouTube videos, you can include a Click To Tweet link in the description.

#2: The Ultimate Hack For Getting People To Share Your Content

For every blog post I write, I set a goal to include at least five outbound links. Outbound links lead to other people’s content. For videos and podcast episodes, you can mention at least five articles and people in each new release.

A few days before the blog post goes live, I’ll then contact everyone I mentioned. In this email, I do three things:

Let them know I mentioned them in the upcoming blog post
Tell them when the blog post goes live
Ask them if they can share it

If people say yes, I’ll follow-up with the link on the day the blog post gets published. I’ll also provide a prewritten tweet to make it easier for these people to share my content.

Since I publish a new blog post every day, that means I have to mention people a grand total of 1825 people every year asking them to share my content. Since these people are in the blog post, many of them will share it. Some of these people will even consume your content and become devoted fans.

They’ll point back to your content frequently and show people where you mentioned them. They’ll spread the word on social media and to their audiences.

Some of these people can drive 10 visitors to your content. Others can drive 100, especially if some of these people decide to share your content more than once.

If you mention 10 people per blog post, you’ll then contact 3650 people every year asking them to share your content. The more people you mention in your content, the better these numbers serve you.

I reach my goal of mentioning at least five people in each of my blog posts by writing the blog post first and mentioning others later. Once I have a view of the entire blog post, I can then determine what kinds of content and people I can include within my content.

For videos and podcasts, I plan out who I will mention before I start recording. For interviews, it’s more off the cuff, but I have a general idea of who to mention if a specific topic comes up (i.e. I know who to mention when the conversation turns towards webinars).

#3: Add More Depth To Your Content

depth

My blog posts are rarely under 1,000 words. Most of my podcast episodes are 30 minutes or longer. Why so much?

The answer is depth. I’m providing my audience with more value for each piece of content I publish. People don’t want to filter through a bunch of blog posts, episodes, and videos when all of the information is in a single piece of content.

We want lengthy guides instead of fragmented advice. This is why long form content outperforms short form content.

When I started writing 2018’s blog posts in late November, I set my benchmark at 1,000 words. Now I am gradually increasing that benchmark. Every week, I’ll add an extra 100-200 words to the benchmark until I can consistently write 2,000+ word blog posts in an hour or less.

Long form content also requires a different content consumption mindset. Your visitors need to stick with you for the long haul to finish reading the 2,000+ word blog post or listening to the 30 minute podcast episode. If you get people to invest that kind of time into your brand, you can expect them to enthusiastically come back as long as the value is good.

#4: Grow Your Email List

Your email list is where the magic happens. This is where you turn visitors into subscribers, and eventually, into devoted fans. Everything you do for your content brand should always be done with the intention of growing your email list. If you decide to send tweets promoting your content, ask yourself, “How is this action helping me grow my email list?”

As you grow your email list and inform them of your new publications, you’ll attract more returning visitors who will share your content with their friends.

#5: Stay Optimistic

i'm possible

It’s easy to get discouraged when we fall below our expectations. As you continue to create and promote content, remember that you have a long journey ahead of you. Growing a content brand takes time.

The people who seem to hit massive site traffic goals in under a year had to squeeze at least three years of work into that one year.

So I encourage you to stay optimistic. If you believe in yourself, learn each day, and have a bias towards action, you’ll achieve your site traffic goals.

In Conclusion

Most of these tactics focused on social shares. Adding more depth to your content creates a more valuable experience and helps your search engine ranking, but social shares generate the buzz and help you move much closer to your site traffic goals.

To maintain long-term traffic regardless of how much the rules change, get as many of your visitors as possible to subscribe to your blog.

The journey is a long one, but well worth it for those who put in the effort. It’s not about if you’re willing to put in the effort. It’s about actually putting in the effort.

What are your thoughts on these tactics for achieving your site traffic goals? Do you have any tactics for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

11 Ways To Write Absolutely Irresistible Drip Campaign Emails

January 21, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

email marketing stats

This is a guest contribution from Lori Wade

Did you know that companies that excel at drips generate 80% more sales at 33% lower costs? That’s the power of irresistible drip campaign emails. These statistics were published in 2016 by MarTech website – and now the numbers are probably even more impressive. As you see, drip email matter a lot – and affect marketing campaigns greatly. But, of course, you need to know how to write them properly in order to achieve such result.

So if you want to make your drip campaign emails more effective and impressive, here’s are 11 tips that will help you do so.

#1: Find Out What Your Goal Is

Sure, you probably know what you plan on accomplishing with the help of a drip campaign – but is your goal as detailed and specific as it could be? If not, take some time to make it into one, adding more details, numbers, and deadlines. Your goal needs to be measurable if you want to achieve it.

#2: Keep The Fundamentals In Mind

The subject line is extremely important for all kinds of emails – and drip ones are no exception. Here are some questions you need to ask yourself before writing the subject line for your new campaign:

Does the message hold value to the readers?
Do the readers understand clearly what it promised to them?
Does the message look impressive and trustworthy?
Does the message inspire the readers to open and read an email right now?

Answering these questions will help you craft a truly compelling subject line.

#3: The Timing & Frequency Matter

checking notifications on smartphone

Any drip campaign can be customized – and you can make the most out of it. The timing and the frequency are able to play a huge part in your campaign’s success. And while they can differ, depending on the niche and the type of campaign, there still are some general rules that can apply to your campaign.

According to them, Tuesday is the best day for starting an email campaign, while 10 and 11 AM are the best time for that. But, of course, you can still experiment to find out the best day and time for your company specifically.

The frequency is another tricky part here. If you email your clients too often, this could annoy them. However, if you don’t email often enough, they might lose interest in your company’s goods or services.

Probably, the safest approach to emails is to mail them once a week – or to stick to minimum six days between them (which often turns out to be pretty much the same in practice).

#4: Make The Message Compelling

Once you figured out the basics, it’s time to move to the main part – writing the email itself. In order to do this in the best way possible, ask yourself the following questions:

– What differs your content from the others’ one?

– Why should the recipients read your message?

– How is this message going to make their lives better?

Answering them will help you set a tone for the message before you move on to the writing process.

#5: Identify Yourself

1st impression

If you want your email to look trustworthy and personal, you’ll need to identify yourself properly. Either do that in the «From» field, stating the name of your company (or your own one) or start the message with introducing yourself.

#6: Place The Most Important Information First

Even if the readers open your email, this still doesn’t mean they’ll continue reading it. People are mindful of their time and picky about the content these days – and that’s the reason why you should move right to the point after introduction.

Not only make your email informative – make sure that you place the most useful information first. This way the readers will see the point right away and will be able to decide whether they want to continue reading this letter or not basing on the information they see.

#7: Don’t Make Every Email Urgent

Sure, urgency can play a role in email marketing: people will most likely open an email when they see its urgent. However, the more often you use that trick, the fewer times it will work. Instead of catching the readers’ attention with such tricks, try to make every email interesting and valuable for them. And emphasize the urgency only when it’s really necessary.

#8: Keep The Spam Checking Software In Mind.

spam mail

While we know that using some words in emails can trigger spam filters, not all of us actually understand which words could be used and which couldn’t. Email services can help you with this: if you’re using one of the reputable ones, you are always able to use their spam checking software or to install the appropriate add-on.

#9: Keep It Short

Even if you do feel like you need to provide some additional data besides the main one (for example, add the details of an upcoming sale, explain the terms and conditions of the lottery, offer some argumentative topics for essays, etc.), you should be careful and mindful about that. Sometimes it’s better to include a link to additional information than put it in your email, making it look even bigger and therefore more time-consuming to read.

#10 Consider Adding A P.S.

Adding a P.S. to your email might not seem like a good idea these days – after all, they’ve been used in written emails and might look too old-fashioned. But it’s actually a good thing to include in your writing.

Why so? Besides it makes your email look more personal (and sometimes a bit nostalgic), it also ensures that your readers will remember a certain information. You see, our mind tends to remember the first and the last lines of writing, be it an email or a book. Adding a «P. S.» to the last line could drive the attention towards it, even more, ensuring your readers won’t forget something you want to remind them.

#11: Measure The Results

measuring results

Sure, this might seem like a pretty obvious tip, but it’s not the most obvious measuring I’m talking about. It matters a lot as well, but what I’m saying is that you also should consider measuring the total traffic the drip campaign drives to a certain page – and look at the conversions as well.

Of course, achieving the desired result with the help of drip campaigns isn’t easy. Years ago people found every email interesting – but these days are long gone. Now, when people are overwhelmed with content, you have to work insanely hard to make each of your emails count.

The good news is that once you build that reputation and earn the initial trust of your clients, it will become much easier. If you prove to them that your emails are useful and interesting, they’ll start reading it – even not the best of them. So good luck with making your emails the ones people would want to read!

Lori Wade is a content writer who is interested in a wide range of spheres from education and online marketing to entrepreneurship. She is also an aspiring tutor striving to bring education to another level like we all do. If you are interested in writing, you can find her on Twitter or Google+ or find her on other social media. Read and take over Lori’s useful insights!

Your Content Needs Your Personality More Than Ever

January 20, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

content creation with personality

So much content gets created every year, and we will never have enough time to read the content that gets published. This content shock phenomena establishes a stronger significance as the days continue.

Even if you start creating content now, you can still earn attention and visibility. The rules of the game constantly change, but one rule will continue to hold out through the tests of time.

The content creators who show their personalities win.

You can read a blog post like this one on other blogs. You can watch a YouTube video or listen to a podcast episode in which someone else covers the same points. You can even look for images that capture this concept.

People don’t come back to blogs, podcasts, and channels primarily because of the content. They come back because of the brand and the person behind the content.

Some people admire what I have accomplished at my age. This story attracts more people to my content, and the value of my content determines how long these visitors stick around.

When visitors do read your content, chances are they won’t remember it in a few days unless they are taking action based on your insights. However, they will remember you.

People don’t remember content. They remember people.

You get people to remember who you are by inserting your personality into your content.

Tell More Stories

The more stories I tell, the more I get to insert my personality. Most of my stories center around business struggles and successes. I relive these moments so people know how I respond to these types of situations.

We’ve communicated through stories for many millennia, and we won’t stop communicating in stories anytime soon.

Don’t elaborate too much when telling the story, but telling stories that are related to your content will provide a better experience for your visitors.

Treat The People In Your Audience Like Friends

friendship

Treating the people in your audience like friends seems like a basic principle. It seems like you only need that one sentence to get the gist of what you need to do. It’s a bit more detailed than that.

We often use vague terms like audience, subscribers, and followers to describe our communities. I don’t refer to my friends as followers and subscribers, and neither do you.

In many blog posts on this exact blog, you’ll see me make reference to words like audience, subscribers, and followers.

I use those words for general purposes since we all know what to expect from an article called “3 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers.”

When talking about my audience, I no longer use those words.

I used to see my email list as 10,000+ subscribers. Now I see it as 10,000+ content creators with big ambitions. This is a very different narrative that makes the people in your audience more relatable.

10,000+ subscribers represents a numbers game. If I get X number of subscribers every day, I can reach my goal of Y total subscribers within my deadline.

10,000+ content creators with big ambitions is more personal. Getting more personal with who your audience is allows you to show more of your personality when crafting your content. You’re no longer writing to a conglomerate of subscribers and followers. I create content for content creators with big ambitions. Who do you create content for?

Write Down What Makes Your Personality

For many people, living and acting like themselves feels 2nd nature. Some people can quickly integrate their personalities into their content. If you have a more difficult time doing this, write down some of the traits of your personality.

Better yet, write traits that you want to develop.

By writing down characteristics of your personality, you can then craft your content with the same gusto. I have a very energetic personality which is why I don’t bore people with fluff and excessive storytelling (I know storytelling is important, but I don’t go over the top).

I prefer to go right into the nitty gritty.

Other people prefer to elaborate on stories and do things differently. That’s not a problem at all. The only problem is to not show your personality in your content, or worse, fake who you are.

Writing down what makes your personality will allow you to keep those traits at the forefront of your mind as you create new content.

In Conclusion

Yes, this blog post is shorter than most of the other blog posts I’ve written. That’s part of my personality. If I can’t see a way to continue writing without providing excessive fluff, I stop writing. I’d rather get people off my site in less than a minute than keep them on my site for 5 minutes as they read a fluff-filled blog post that I am not proud of.

Be more open and honest about your personality and certain parts of your journey. People want someone who they can more easily relate to. Make yourself relatable to your customer avatar. I talk about my content brand struggles often because I know the content creators I attract to my content can relate to those struggles.

What are your thoughts on incorporating your personality into your content? Do you have any tips for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

E76: How The NQL Lifestyle Will Ignite Your Goal Achievement With Christopher Wirth

January 19, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Christopher Wirth is the founder and president of No Quit Living. NQL is a speaking, coaching, and training company that focuses on topics such as accountability, goals, time maximization, networking, leadership, sales, personal development, and mentoring. The sought after KeyNote speaker is also the host of the No Quit Living Podcast which has been rated as a top 50 Business Podcast on iTunes.

Quotes To Remember:

“The reason people quit is they don’t achieve the success they are looking for when they want to.”

“Take your large goals and take them down into smaller bite size goals.”

“Take out and piece of paper and pen and write your goals.”

“If you put something down on pen and paper, that is the first step of actually putting it into action.”

“It is perfectly okay to stop and re-assess where you are.”

“Don’t just thrown in the towel and completely give up.”

“Surround yourselves with the right like-minded individuals.”

“It’s not about quantity. It’s more about quality.”

“I can’t give you more than 60 minutes per hour.”

“Find out what your timeframe is.”

“Check your email less frequently.”