Don't Do The Tasks You Hate #life

One way to get stop putting off the tasks you know have to be done in your online business, but can't face doing them, is to simply outsource them. It will also make your business more productive.

Most digital marketing and online business tasks can be outsourced today. So, the first clue you have that you should outsource something is when you hate doing it yourself.

But there is more to outsourcing than that.

Does It Make Sense On A Financial Basis?

Often the tasks you dislike doing are regarded (at least by you) to be basic tasks. This may include publishing blog posts, data entry, publishing to social media, and so on. These are tasks that are perfect for outsourcing because they're uninteresting to you and most probably you can earn more revenue by outsourcing it and concentrating on your main money maker.

Are You Qualified To Do It?

Some of the tasks you hate doing are probably because you're not very good at doing them. And, as a business owner you don't have to be good at doing everything. This doesn't mean you're lacking in business skills. It just means that you can't do a very good job doing something you weren't properly trained to do.

A good example is creating graphics or website building. If this isn't the primary purpose of your business, then it probably takes you ten times as long to do it and the final result will not be as good if it is completed by someone skilled in that area.

You Would Rather Be Playing Golf (or Fishing, etc... )

Sometimes you hate doing a task because it's taking away from the things you really want to do. When your business gets to a particular level, it is practical to start outsourcing various jobs so that you can do other things you consider fun to do.

Is Outsourcing Right For Your Business?

The general guideline is that if a piece of work is not your main line of work, then outsourcing it is completely fine. The other thing is, if you can outsource it for less than you can earn from the task then you're ahead of the game too. Of course, you want the person you use outsourcing for to do as well, so pick your outsourcers carefully and pay them a fair wage.

In fact, if you're not outsourcing some tasks, you're doing yourself and your business a disservice.

Outsourcing is one of the most cost-efficient ways to grow your business. It's how the biggest and most profitable businesses in the world generate the wealth and freedom their owners enjoy.







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How To Get Customers To Buy From Your Website #success

Irrespective of your target market, every customer goes through a process when making a decision to buy from your website. Understanding your customer's buying process will help you know what information to give them and when.

You need to guide your audience with the acknowledgment of a problem that they need to solve and how you are the one that can help them solve it.

Basically, there are 3 stages a customer goes through before they buy from your website.

Stage 1: Awareness

This is when a potential customer has identified that they have a need. To find answers, they go online and use a search engine like Google to find what they're looking for.

This is why it's important to focus your website content that provides your target audience with information about the problems that they have. The type of content that is most successful at this stage is educational pieces directly about the problem. This gives you the opportunity to offer more value (like a report, eBook, checklist), free of charge, in return for their email address. Once you have their email address, you can stay in contact with them rather than just hoping that they will return to your website at a later date.

Stage 2: Consideration

At this stage, the customer wants to consider the different options available to them to solve their problem. The content you provide now can consist of comparison charts, webinars, eBooks, podcasts, demo videos, freebies, and even trial options if doable to help reduce risks.

This stage can take some time. A lot of people research their options for several weeks or even months before deciding.

Stage 3: Decision

At this stage, your customer just needs to decide. More often than not your customer will be on your email list at this point, although there are cases where they simply discovered your website and all the information there.

The type of content that you'll want to deliver to them, and where, plays an important part in leading them to choose your solution.

The trick is to ensure that you focus on results and your product at this stage. Give them a reason to choose you. Take away their risk and make them want more by going over the pros and cons. For example,

What makes your option unique?
What other products or alternatives are similar?
What's your return policy and is better than your competitors?
How much does it cost?
How do they deal with issues and problems with your product?
Understanding the 3 stages a customer goes through before they buy from your website helps significantly because it keeps you focused on providing just what they need when they need it.
Internet marketing is a step-by-step process to put the right elements in place so that you get the desired result. An effective sales funnel puts your business on autopilot and consistently converts leads into customers if you structure it the right way.






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How Do You Monetize Your Blog? #blogging

When you have a good amount of blog posts and readers it's time to monetize your blog. Do keep in mind that, first and foremost, your blog should be about sharing your ideas and providing value to your audience, not just about making you some extra money.

Here are 5 ways to start monetizing your blog.

1. Sell Your Own Products or Services

One of the quickest ways to monetize your blog is to sell your own products or services. If your readers know that you deliver useful advice in your blog, they'll be ready to buy more information from you because you're offering a solution to their problem or desires.

You can produce information products like eBooks, reports, tutorial videos, etc. Your readers can download these instantly after purchase. The great thing about information products is that you produce them once, and they can be sold again and again.

2. Sell Affiliate Products

As an affiliate, you sell products or services that have been created by other people. These can be digital information products or physical products that are delivered to the customer's door.

An affiliate earns a percentage of sales off each product that someone buys through their special affiliate link. It's one of the easiest ways to monetize your blog because you don't have to worry about payment systems, product delivery or customer queries as the product owner takes care of all of that.

3. Google AdSense

There are a variety of advertising networks that you can become a member of to monetizing your blog. Google AdSense is one of the most popular networks. By placing the ads on your blog, you can tempt visitors to click on them. Then each click earns you a share of the profits Google makes. Although a couple of clicks won't earn you much, a high flow of traffic and clicks can really add up to a substantial amount.

4. Sell Advertising Space

Some popular blogs sell advertisement space on their blogs. Advertisers want to place one of their banners on popular blogs that reach their target audience. You get paid based on the traffic numbers you bring in to your blog and the prime space available on your blog.

5. Product Reviews

You can do both paid product reviews as well as unpaid reviews of affiliate products. It's important to be very honest in all reviews, paid or not. Ask your readers for testimonials and aim to get positive reviews on sites like FourSquare and Yelp. This will help to develop your reputation as an expert in your niche and will encourage more people to ask you for reviews.






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What Type Of Content Ranks Best In Today's Search Engines? #business

Every website owner wants their website to rank well on the likes Google, Yahoo and Bing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is basically the things you can do to your website to push it up the search engine rankings.

If you want your website to appear at the top or near the top of the search results, you need to do certain things that keep the search engines happy. When you tell the internet what your business is about, the search engines will then point visitors to your website that they think will benefit from what you offer.

What Type Of Content Ranks Best?

Ask any SEO expert what type of content ranks best in today's search engines and the answer is always the same. Google wants one thing, and that is quality content.

Google wants to deliver its users with the best possible results.There are two main things that it looks at to identify if the content is good quality.

1. Engagement

How interesting is your content? Are people really reading the whole article or are they pushing the back button the moment they see it? This is the way that Google measures engagement. They want to know how long people are staying around to read your content. If they stay around for several minutes, they know you are providing value.

This is what's called your Bounce Rate. A lower bounce rate can help rankings. If users generally click back, and your website has persistently high bounce rates, this can affect your website rankings in Google.

2. Backlinks

The second thing that Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc, look at is linking behaviour. The search engines know that people link to content material they consider valuable. Content that is regarded useful or interesting more often than not is shared by users. Content that is considered worthless doesn't get shared.

Write Content For Users Not Search Engines

If you produce your website content just so that it can get high rankings, you can get caught up stuffing your content with too many keywords. This then becomes unreadable to the human eye. These type of underhand SEO tactics rarely work and even if they do, the result is only short-term. The search engines will spot this an ignore your website.

Useful content leads to happy users and a low bounce rate, happy users link back and share the content, which leads to more traffic, which leads to better rankings in Google.

Without SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you're just hoping that Google, Yahoo, Bing etc, will somehow stumble across your website, figure out what topics you're writing about, and then hopefully send you lots of traffic that is relevant and targeted.







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How Can I Start A Blog Of My Own? #blog

It's no surprise that you want to start a blog. Blogging remains a marketing method that costs very little to set up and people from all walks of life have created making money blogs.

The issue about writing blog posts is that it's actually not that difficult to do. If you can talk about something with knowledge, you can write a blog post.

Let looks at how you can start a blog of your own.

Pick A Blogging Platform

There are free blogging platforms like Blogger, which is a publishing application from Google. Having said that, this choice doesn't give your own blog domain name and hosting, which is important if you want to be seen as genuine and professional online blogger.

The choice of platform for professional bloggers is WordPress. Although you have to buy your own domain name and hosting, the WordPress blogging software is free and there are plenty of designs and features that you can use to fit your style and niche.

Pick A Niche

You want to choose a well-defined niche. If your niche is very concentrated on a target audience you'll be more focused on the type of content you create as well as being able to monetize it easier.

Know Your Audience

You need to be clear on precisely who your audience are. Who are they, what type of job do they have, how much money do they earn, what do they like to do in their free time? You should be able to really understand what gets their interest.

Persistence Wins

You need to update your blog regularly with fresh content to get the most traffic. Writing is a talent that gets a lot easier and much better the more you do it. If you do it every day, you'll develop a process that automatically gets your creative juices flowing and signals to the brain that it's time to write.

Generate Income From Your Blog

Once you get a reasonable amount of quality content on your blog it's time to think about how do you can generate an income. Start to introduce a few products to sell and don't engulf your readers with too many adverts. A good blend of affiliate products and your own products generally works well.

Don't Give Up

Generating an income by way of a blog is a long-term strategy. You need to be willing to be in it for the long-term. You won't start a blog and make money right away. But you can earn money blogging, or earn more money at your business through blogging. Keep in mind that when to comes to writing blog posts, where there's a will, there's a way. Just don't give up.







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5 Ways To Kick-Start Some Life Into Your Online Business #success

Is your online business sagging a little? If you haven't updated your website or offered your audience anything new for a while, they may have become uninterested in your business, products or services.

But don't worry! Here are 5 internet business tools that are easy to set up, cost little or no money and will add life to your online marketing if your business needs a kick-start.

1. Videos

A video is one of the best online tools that you can use. It's estimated that by 2020, over 80% of all internet traffic will be video-related. By developing a video channel on YouTube or Vimeo you can reach a new audience and put some life to your business. You don't even need to appear on camera if you don't want to as you can upload presentations.

2. Facebook Groups

Merely by creating a Facebook group, you will be seen as a specialist in your industry. Setting up a group on Facebook is free of charge and can be done in a few minutes. Facebook groups allow you full control of the flow of information and free access to your members which will help you to build relationships with them and understand exactly what it is they want from you.

3. Podcasts

Podcasts provide a fantastic opportunity to add new life to your business and drive it forward. A podcast is like having your own radio show that your audience can download and listen to whenever they want. It's free for your audience and allows you to connect with them much better than text-based media. At a basic level, you can record and upload a podcast just by using a smartphone.

4. Memberships

Adding a membership area to your website can help you build a community. Membership can be free and provide a number of different features and benefits. You can also use it as a means to offer more value to those who take the time and energy to join your email list. There are a number of plug-ins that you can use to quickly add a membership area to your website.

5. Webinars

A webinar is a live web-based video conference that connects you to your audience. A webinar presents you as a real person, not just a website or a text-based marketing message.With this connection, you can create loyal, lifetime customers. Webinars cost little to no money to produce and host, and can turn into active sales funnels that make you money with little input from you.

It might sound an obvious statement but sometimes businesses forget the fact that the only way to make money is to get customers to buy. You need a proven sales funnel system that guides your audience into becoming leads and then into becoming customers.







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How To Manage Website Content When You're Always Busy #entrepeneur

Content is essential for online marketing success. Your website content drives traffic and provides your audience with the value and information they're looking for. It also helps you market your business, products or services.

But do you often feel that you have virtually no time to generate new content? Here are a number of ways you can save time on your content creation to give you more time to concentrate on other business tasks.

Plan In Advance

Content planning is simply the practice of taking a look at your work schedule and figuring out what to write and where to publish it.Planning your content for the whole year may take a day or two to achieve. But it'll save you loads of time later on. Rather than asking yourself what you're going to write this week, you'll have the answers all worked out.

Hire Somebody To Write It For You

Lots of entrepreneurs forget the advantages of outsourcing. Outsourcing enables you to free yourself up to do the jobs that matter most and bring in the most profit for your business. If you can't write very quickly, it can be more cost-effective to hire somebody else to write for you. There are lots of online freelancers who are willing to write at a price which is good for both of you.

If your personal writing style is critical to your website content, then you can still seek the services of someone to help with other tasks. You could hire someone to edit your content before you publish it. Or a virtual assistant who uploads your content to your website or blog, formats it correctly and creates visuals to go with it.

Develop Content Away From Your Website

There are going to be times when you're not sitting in front of your computer but it doesn't mean that you can't create content for your website. For instance, when traveling on public transport, if you have an idea, write it down on a notepad or on your phone. You can then type it up later. Many smartphones have personal voice recorders which you can use to record your ideas. The greatest ideas often come out of the blue.

Support Your Content With Visuals

Content is not all about text. The truth is, people, find it much easier to read content that has illustrations or photos included. Instead of spending a half-hour writing a few hundred extra words, put a photograph or two amongst your paragraphs. This will make your website content more interesting to visitors and you'll save hours and hours over the months.

No matter how much you enjoy being an online entrepreneur, some days you stare at a blank screen and struggle for content creation ideas. To discover the best practices used by the most successful bloggers and online entrepreneurs,






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