Growing and Nurturing Your Email List

Every now and then, I see an article that suggests email marketing is dead; however, this is far from the truth.  I’ve met many home business owners who say the majority of their income comes from their email subscriber list. If your list isn’t producing results, it may not be because email is dead. It’s more likely that you’re using it wrong. Here are tips to growing and nurturing your email to increase profits.

Growing Your List

Part of the success in email marketing is to have a list that is growing. Many people I’ve met who are struggling with email marketing have a stagnant or shrinking list. Here are some tips for growing your list:

1) Have opt-in forms on every page of your site. For example, if you have a WordPress blog, have an opt-in list sign-up form in your sidebar. You might consider having one at the end of your content as well.

2) Entice them to sign up. Offer a freebie such as a report or video for signing up for your list. Let visitors to your site know what the freebie will do for them. So many online businesses simply have a form that says “Sign-Up to Get Updates,” which isn’t a compelling reason to join. Some online business owners indicate what their incentive is, but not in a way that entices people to join. Instead of saying, “Get my free report on how to lose weight,” say, “Start losing weight today!

My free report will tell you how!”.

3) Promote your incentive on social media. Most social media platforms have areas you can include information about your list and offer in the profile. You can promote the list itself, but you’re more likely to get results by promoting the free offer. Which would you respond to: “Join my list to learn about saving money!” or “Get ‘52 ways to save $1,000 a Month’ free.”

4) Include information about your incentive in your bios and emails. If you guest blog or appear on someone’s podcast or website, make sure your bio includes information about your incentive. Every email you send should mention your free report in the signature line.

Nurturing Your List

Growing the list is only one aspect of email marketing. Once they subscribe you need to provide value or they’ll unsubscribe. Nurturing an email list is a delicate balance of staying connected without overwhelming subscriber’s inboxes. Even more important than keeping on the list, is having them eager to open the email to see what you have to share. Here are tips for making your list an effective marketing tool:

1) Email often enough that subscribers remember you, but not so often you annoy them. This number depends a great deal on your home business. Most successful email marketers I know email two to three times a week. Emailing even just once a week, may not be enough.

2) Be you. The most successful marketers know that their effectiveness comes from selling themselves first.

Put another way, people will connect with and want to buy from you because of who you are. Your subscribers have many options for who to do business with, but if you can make a connection, build rapport and trust, they’ll choose you. So don’t be afraid to share stories and true-life anecdotes.

3) Give value. Whatever you email to your subscribers should enhance their lives. Money always follows value.

4) Make list members feel special. People who give you their name and email should be treated with the respect they deserve. Make sure they know it by thanking them as well as giving them things that no one else gets. For example, I provide a freebie every Friday that only my subscribers receive. It’s my way of thanking them and acknowledging that having their email is a big deal. 

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6 Easy Ways to Grow Website Traffic From Instagram

WITH its stunning visuals and easy-to-use platform, it’s no wonder why Instagram is the fastest growing social media app with over 300 million users. When it comes to generating website traffic, Instagram is the perfect solution.

Want to start using Instagram for your business or blog, but aren’t really sure how to go about it? Check out these 6 easy ways to use Instagram to increase your website traffic:

1. Brand consistently across all social media accounts

Brand consistency is essential when it comes to building your business and its website. Why? Because it adds strength to your brand if people are able to recognize it right away. Use the same photo (such as your logo) as your profile picture on all of your social media accounts.

If you have a personal brand, rather than a company brand, consider using an image that is clear and consistent with the message you wish to convey. Headshots, a picture you have taken, an example of your work, or a behind-the-scenes photo – the possibilities go on and on.

2. Pick a username that matches your business name

It’s great to get creative with your branding, but it’s important to use a username similar to your business name to make it easy for people to find you in search results. You may certainly like “WemakethebestcoffeeEVER”, but that really won’t do much for your business. It would be confusing to some people, and it would not stand out in search results as being YOUR business.

Your username should match the username associated with your other social media profiles and branded website. Use the company name (or your name, if you are your own personal brand) for the name. Make sure to include the URL to your website, along with a 150-character bio. You want to get your message across, but not seem too stiff and serious. If you have branded hashtags, this is a great place to include them.

3. Get creative with captions

The captions for your uploaded content should tell a story that engages your audience, and compels them to find out more by clicking through to your website. Get creative with your captions, since they allow you to really give some insight into your image, make it relevant to your followers, and (hopefully) make your followers smile or become interested in what you have to offer. Plus, it’s the best way to tie things back to your business, since you can always include a URL at the end. Learn how to incorporate emjois for added emphasis and to give your captions a more personal touch.

4. Connect with other users

Just like blogging builds a business’ customer-brand relationships, so does engaging with followers on social media.  Since consumers are far more likely to go with a brand they know and trust, you want to engage with other users as much as possible.

There are numerous ways to interact with other Instagram users. Options include everything from tagging other accounts, to sending private messages. Interacting with others will build your brand, increase your audience reach and, boost your website traffic:

Tag others:

Instagram allows you to add tags before you share your content. You just tap the Tag People option, tap on the photo to add a tag, and then type in the user’s name. Once you have tagged other accounts in your content, other users are then able to tap on that photo or video to see who was tagged. This increases audience reach and builds brand-to-brand relationships with others in your industry and/or niche.

Mention others:

This is similar to mentioning on Twitter, and is a great way to generate website traffic and increase your brand’s reach. Type in the @ symbol, followed by the first letter of the user’s  name. This will bring up a list of people to choose from, but you can also just type in the name on your own. You can do this to give a “shoutout” to another company, customer, or brand, or to reply to someone’s comment.

Like the content of others:

Liking other users’ content is a super simple way to connect with other businesses and consumers. Just double-tap the image, or tap the heart button under the post. The user will get a notification that you have done this, and they are likely to check out your profile and return the favor. If you have listed the URL to your website on your profile, this will generate more traffic to your site.

Leave comments:

Leaving a comment is also a great way to connect with others. Just type in a comment hit Send, and you’re good to go! Leave something thoughtful, helpful, or long, and this will ensure your comment and username stands out among the rest.

Share across social media:

One of the best ways to increase your audience reach, while still connecting with others on Instagram, is to connect your profile to your other social media accounts. For example, if you share an Instagram post on Twitter, you can add tags and hashtags to increase your reach and connect with other brands. Not only does this build relationship, but it makes your brand seem more approachable and “in touch” with the popular technology being used by today’s consumers. This is especially important to do if your demographic is in the 18-year-old to 34-year-old range.

5. Develop a unique aesthetic for your brand

Your Instagram is basically a visual portfolio for your brand. How would you describe your business? Before you post a picture, think about whether or not that photo is consistent with your branding. It’s even better if you are able to upload pictures that contain your brand’s colors on a regular basis.

Take a look at the Instagram profiles for large companies, like Starbucks. The branding is consistent, their logo is prominently displayed, and they keep up with the fun-loving, carefree attitude that really sells their product. Whether you have a day full of paperwork, or one that just revolves around Netflix and relaxation, their brand gives the impression that buying one of their delicious drinks will perk up your mood.

Instagram is a visual-based platform so you will need to plan out a consistent, recognizable brand aesthetic. Choose the best filter (or several filters) to use for the majority of your photos. By going with the same look each time, you will establish a recognizable visual identity that will stand out to your followers. The more your brand stands out, the more traffic will be driven to your website.

You will also need to figure out what type of content you want your photos to focus on. A fashion retailer would obviously want to upload pictures of clothes, a café would upload pictures of their coffee or food, and a tattoo shop would upload pictures of their artists’ work. But, what happens if your content is not so obvious?

Think about what you have to offer your customers and/or clients, and find a way to incorporate that into your branding and visual aesthetic. Come up with consistent posting schedules, but stick to only posting 1 to 3 times per day. Be sure to include the name of your business or URL in all of your photos and captions!

6. Use hashtags

It may seem like hashtags are only used by beauty bloggers or twenty-something-year-olds trying to get more “likes” on their selfie. However, if you’re trying to use your Instagram for your business, then using hashtags is an absolute must.

Hashtags originated on Twitter, and have spread to every other social media channel. The hashtag density on Instagram is actually far greater than that of Twitter, because the success of marketing on Instagram depends heavily on effective use of hashtags.

These hashtags organize and catalog the content that is being shared, which furthers the process of people finding content and contributors. For example, a coffee company may post an image of a fancy latte in San Diego, and then use the hashtags “#latte” and “#SanDiego” when they upload the image to Instagram.

By doing this, that image is then cataloged to allow it to be found by users searching for images of lattes and San Diego. This is how users discover new content, new contributors, and new websites – like yours. Once they find this image, they may decide to share it on their own Instagram or other social media platform, and may add some other tags to it. This would further expand the audience reach of that post and, ultimately, increase your website traffic.

As a rule of thumb, include a caption with every bit of content you upload to Instagram, and include hashtags. While Instagram allows you to include up to 30, it’s best to stick to somewhere between five and twelve. In fact, statistics show Instagram posts with 11 or more hashtags have a higher rate of interaction than those with fewer hashtags.

Putting It All Together

Instagram is an incredibly important social network for business owners and bloggers alike. Not only is this visual app great for retailers, restaurants, and agencies, but it’s also great for individuals building a reputation and personal brand. It fits in well with every type of business, and proves to be a great way to generate more website traffic.

In fact, since Instagram is so popular these days, brands without an Instagram presence risk being ignored, thought of as irrelevant or considered outdated. This is especially true among the younger generation of consumers, a demographic that shouldn’t be ignored.

With so many people using Instagram, it’s important to go through the above list of tips for building an Instagram account that will give you the website traffic generation you’re looking for. Implement these tips, and watch your business boost!
What are YOUR favorite Instagram tips? Have you tried anything in particular that has really stood out as a great way to generate more website traffic? Let us know in the comments below!

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For Traffic Generation, Differentiate Your Brand with Awesome Copy

HAVE you ever noticed that you stay on some websites a lot longer than others?

To market your brand and business, you need to elevate your copy so readers love to interact with your website. The most loyal customers will anticipate each blog post you write, excited for new insights and entertainment.

It sounds like a lofty goal, but with the right ingredients, you can bring in new traffic with electrifying content and awesome marketing copy:

Make Your Copy Short and Sweet

Although long-form copy performs well in some industries (particularly in B2B sectors), most marketers need to trim down their work. Ideally, every word on a website shines a light on the value of your service or product. Copy that emphasizes how a company can transform customers’ lives is most likely to strike a chord.

If you’re not sure if your marketing copy is concise enough, take a highlighter to a printed version of your website page. Mark every word that helps your audience understand what you do, why you do it, and how your company stands out from the crowd. Leave out superfluous details, so your message can truly shine.

Be Authentic to Your Brand

In order to create traffic, you need to understand the unique attributes you offer customers. Instead of mimicking the voice and pitch of other brands — especially competitors — write down what appeals to you about their marketing. Maybe it’s their killer Instagram account? Or their confidence in connecting with their audience?

Awesome copy is an extension of a company’s brand, so also identify what makes you different from competitors. Perhaps, it’s your stellar customer service or your big community. These are the characteristics you want to identify in your copy. If you struggle to identify what sets you apart, record your voice in a smartphone describing your original vision for the company. Type it up. Next, go through the copy, and cherry pick the clearest, boldest copy to use on your website.

Incorporate Feedback from Your Ideal Audience

Even if you follow these two steps, you’re still not out of the woods. Amazing copy resonates with an audience — the best way to find out if it hits the mark is to ask. To ensure you’re crafting awesome copy to your website, reach out to a batch of people who represent your target audience. They could include a set of honest friends, or loyal customers who are willing to answer a short survey.

You can also offer an incentive to email subscribers, such as 15% off a future purchase for participation in the survey. For a template, consider the following survey request from the clothing and homeware shop Anthropologie — it’s a pretty stellar way to ask for help.

In your survey, share some simple questions that gauge your audience’s perspective on your current marketing campaign. A simple Google Form or a free tool such as SurveyMaker will due the trick. Creating a survey with anonymous responses increases the likelihood of participation. With accurate feedback, you can gauge the extent to which you need to adjust your marketing copy.
These three guidelines to awesome copy extend to social media, email marketing, and print materials too. By crafting language that resonates with both your brand and your audience, you pave a clear path toward increased traffic generation and higher sales.

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11 Reasons Why Every Affiliate Marketer Should Learn SEO

 As an affiliate marketer, you probably spend a LOT of time thinking of ways to drive traffic to your site.

After all, no traffic = no affiliate sales.

The two main sources of traffic for most websites are usually:

1. Organic Search

2. Paid Advertising

Social media and other sources will also bring visitors to your site, but these are usually your two best bets for consistent, ongoing traffic.

Why Should You Care About Organic Search? 

Of these two main sources of traffic, search always comes out on top. In fact, a recent study by Experian Marketing Services found that on average, 87% of a website’s traffic comes from organic sources. This percentage of course, varies by industry. However it doesn’t change the fact that the majority of traffic in almost every industry comes from people typing their queries into Google or another search engine and clicking on the links in the results. 

This means if your website is not optimized for search, you are potentially losing out on large amounts of traffic. 

But what do I mean by "optimized for search"? I mean, your website should be created and maintained according to several widely accepted best practices for search engine optimization. You should also implement your other marketing efforts (especially content marketing and social media marketing) keeping your SEO goals in mind.

Why Should You Learn SEO?

OK, so we know SEO is important. But, there are thousands of SEO experts in the world. Wouldn’t it just be easier to hire someone to do your SEO instead of trying to understand it all?

Yes, of course. I definitely think it’s a good idea to hire someone with SEO expertise to help you out. However, if you develop an understanding of how search engine optimization works, your affiliate marketing efforts will ultimately benefit from it. In fact, by understanding what your SEO provider does, you may be able to get more out of the services they provide. 

But if you're still not convinced the additional SEO knowledge will do you any good, here are 11 reasons why every affiliate marketer should learn SEO. 

(By the way, our free lesson, Introduction to Affiliate Marketing SEO, is a great place to get started with your SEO learning.)

1. Understand Search Engines

You get that search traffic is important, but do you understand what it takes for your website to do well on a search engine? How do Google, Bing and Yahoo even work?

When you learn SEO, you don't just learn a new marketing skill. You actually start to understand how search engines work. This is hugely useful when you're in the business of driving traffic to your site.

Search engines consistently crawl the web for new content (links) and index them so when a person performs an online search, Google/Bing/Yahoo can deliver the most relevant results for their search query. The results are ranked so the most popular link for a search term (or the one most likely to give an answer) appears at the top (number 1 position). 

But how does a search engine determine the most popular and relevant site for a search term? 

Well, we don't actually know. Search engines rely on secret algorithms to decide what pages to show. SEO experts make educated guesses about what goes into those algorithms based on common factors in high-ranking websites. And Google occasionally drops little hints about what's important, too. These have led to best practices and general guidelines for SEO that make it possible for website owners like yourself to build sites specifically to get found by the search engines.  

I recommend checking out Google's website on How Search Works to get a deeper understanding of what really goes on behind the scenes of the number one search engine. 

If you're interested in learning more about best-practice recommendations for ranking on the major search engines, check these out: 

• Google webmaster guidelines
• Bing webmaster guidelines
• Yahoo search ranking guidelines

By developing a more thorough understanding of search engines and terms like crawling and indexing, page rank and more, you will become more aware of what it takes to optimize your website and benefit from increased search traffic.

2. Improve Your Website's Design

Once you begin to understand how search engines work, you will see that a good website is not just about a pretty design and some clever content. While the focus of modern SEO is to make websites human-friendly, it's important to remember that how you and I see a website is different from how search engines view it. 

For your website to be truly search engine friendly, it must follow some pretty technical specifications for design and development.

Learning SEO will help you grasp the importance of aspects of website creation, such as:

• Creating quality content.
• Making your content indexable. 
• Organizing your website into a proper structure.
• The proper use of keywords in your site content.
• Having quality inbound and outbound links for your website

Here's some advice from Google on how to create a Google-friendly site.

An understanding of SEO will ensure you don't waste your time making website changes that don't deliver results. Plus, for any new websites you launch, you will also know how to structure your site and optimize it right from the start.

3. Optimize Your Content

You don't need me to tell you this, but... content is king.

On your site, on your blog, on social media... everywhere you look, the web is overflowing with millions of pieces of content.

But, how much of it is actually good quality?

In the early days of the web, it took very little to get your website to do well on a search engine. In 2015, that has completely changed. The major search engines are heavily focused on the quality of your website now, and your content has a lot to do with it. 

Quality content is not just about creating a great blog post or a fun infographic. It's about building an entire website that delivers that same quality. For search engines, good content is a sign of a site that is considerate of its visitors; one that tries to anticipate and answer questions. It's all about a good user experience.

Check out this really helpful e-book by SEO.com on 11 Types of Content You Should Be Creating For SEO Right Now.

Here are some guidelines from the major search engines on how to create quality content for your site:

1. Google guidelines on valuable content

2. Yahoo content quality guidelines

3. Bing on how to build quality content

If you're hiring people to do your content, it's important that they create something that won't get you penalized by search engines. When you learn SEO, you also learn what makes for good content so you can guide your writers, designers, bloggers and other content creators in the right direction. Or, if you're doing it all yourself, you'll know how to produce content that will impress your site visitors and search engines.

4. Figure Out What to Do with Keywords

Most people, even if they don't quite get SEO, understand that keywords play a big role in the world of search engines. This is true.

Keywords are fundamental to the search process. It's how users communicate what they're searching for. The search engines deliver results based on these keywords. 

Search engines measure how keywords are used within your website. This helps them determine how relevant your website is for particular search queries. So, it's essential that you use specific, highly relevant keywords to maximize your opportunities for appearing in search results.

But, be careful of keyword abuse. In the early days of the web, stuffing as many keywords as possible onto a page was a common practice. This no longer works and in fact, will count as keyword abuse and will probably get you penalized. Now, it's more important to use your keywords in a relevant, natural way.

Don't be this person! Write naturally so your visitors feel you're having a real conversation. 

Understanding how keywords work will be very helpful for you because:

• You can identify which keywords are relevant for you.
• When you do keyword research, you now know what to look for.
• If you hire a writer for your web content, you can guide them on proper keyword usage.
• You will understand where keywords need to be used, e.g., on page content, in title tags, in meta descriptions, etc. 

5. Understand How Link-Building Works

Links are another big part of the SEO puzzle. 

Search engines use links to analyze a website's popularity, trustworthiness, authority, and much more.  However, not all links are made equal. A trustworthy site is likely to link to another trustworthy site — not to spammy sites. This often helps a search engine determine the quality of links.

The more popular and trustworthy a site, the more significant it is to have a link from them. 

So, to make the most of your link-building efforts, you need to make sure you're acquiring links from other relevant, popular and trustworthy sites. These will be helpful for your website's SEO. Paying for 1,000 irrelevant links will do you no good.

Link-building is an important task for SEO. Whether you're doing your own link building or hiring someone else to do it, you need to understand how it works to make sure you're only building quality links. 

6. Build Your Online Reputation

When you learn SEO and do it right, your site will start to show up in more search results, thus boosting your brand's online visibility. 

How does a boost in your visibility help you? When you start to show up in the results for all the relevant search terms for your industry, your audience and customers will start to think of you as a leader in the industry.

I'm not making this up. People trust organic search engine results more than paid ads.

On average, people believe organic results are more likely to be current and relevant. They want the most authoritative sources. In short, they believe they are getting the best information via search engine results. 

So when you understand SEO, you can figure out how to optimize your site to appear in the results for more queries that are relevant for your customers. The more they see you, the more they will start to trust your site. 

7. Get More Traffic to Your Website

A website optimized for search engines is definitely going to start getting you more traffic.

An eConsultancy study found that an overwhelming 94% of clicks are for organic search results. 

Another experiment also found that 60% of "direct traffic" reported in your data may actually be attributed to organic search.

With people more likely to click on search results than paid ads, it's only natural that if your website is more visible online, you will start to see more people visiting your site. 

Search engines are the first point of contact for most people looking for information. SEO helps you understand how to make your site more visible to the right audience, which in turn results in more traffic to your site.

8. Make More Money

Say your website currently gets a 100 visitors a day. Let's also say that 2% of your visitors click through to your ads and this makes you $2 a day. 

Now, your website is getting a 1,000 visitors a day thanks to solid SEO. You have the same 2% click-through rate. This means you're now making $20 a day!

If you experience a jump in traffic thanks to your SEO efforts, this is eventually going to boil down to increased revenue from your website — especially if your website is optimized to make your traffic convert to sales. Who doesn't like more money?

But to make this extra money, you really have to develop an understanding of what SEO is, how it works and how you can make it work for you.

9. Market Yourself for Free

SEO is free marketing.

Pay-per-click advertising requires you to set daily/monthly budgets that you are willing to spend to buy advertising space on search engines. Each click on an ad will cost you money, and if you're in a particularly competitive industry, clicks can sometimes cost $40-50! 

Clicks on organic results don't cost you any money. All you have to do is maintain your position in the rankings, and the traffic you get is completely free.

Of course, you will be spending time and energy optimizing your site in the first place. It's going to cost you some hours, even if it costs you no money. You can also hire someone else to do the initial work, which will put a dent in your budget. But then you can save money by doing your ongoing SEO maintenance yourself — because you'll understand how SEO works! 

10. Protect Yourself From Sketchy SEO Practices

If you're working with an SEO expert, it's doubly important to at least have an idea of what they're going to do for your site. 

There are thousands of SEO providers out there, and while a lot of them are very good, some will engage in sketchy practices. Their aim is to show you results right away, but there's a few problems with that:

1. These results will be short term.
2. Your site could end up with a penalty. 
3. Google could de-index you for spammy SEO practices.

By learning a bit about search engine optimization, you'll learn the difference between what is good (white hat SEO) and what is bad (black hat SEO). Avoid black hat tactics, and if your SEO provider tries to suggest anything sketchy that falls into this category, you know to send them packing straightaway. SEO takes time, so don't be frustrated if you don't jump in the search rankings overnight!  

11. Become a Better Affiliate Marketer 

Your end goal is not to become better at SEO, but to become better at affiliate marketing...right?

By gaining an understanding of SEO, you will:

• Make better, more SEO-friendly websites, right from the beginning. 
• Get better at driving traffic to your website.
• Create better, more relevant content for your site.
• Build high quality links to your site. 
• Improve your website's authority in the industry. 
• Outdo the competition (especially if they're not doing SEO).
• Spot more opportunities for growing your site and business.

Nobody knows your business better than you, and SEO will only help to enhance that. 

Does this make you want to learn SEO to improve your affiliate marketing efforts? 

If you already do SEO for yourself, what do you think has been the number one benefit of learning SEO for affiliate marketing?

P.S. If you're looking for a tool that shows you whether your SEO efforts are getting you anywhere, we have something for you: AffiloTools automatically tracks your rankings in great detail and in multiple search engines so you can see real results.

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