Category: Grow a Home Business

    Facebook Ads Best Practices

    Facebook ads are a great way to get the word out about your products and/or services. Facebook offers PPC and CPM ads. A PPC campaign is a pay-per-click campaign that you only pay when people click, while a CPM ad means that you pay a set amount for views. Both are good ways to run ads, but you’ll see that using CPM is a little better and easier.

    Set Your Goals

    Knowing why you’re running a Facebook advertisement is important. You need to know what you hope the results are. Do you want to build your email list, sell an actual product or service, or something else?

    Learn Facebook’s Power Editor

    Facebook has a wonderful editor so you don’t need to use any outside sources to create your ads. Use Power Editor. It allows you to manage many different variations of the same advertisement and is very useful. You do need to use Chrome to use the Power Editor, but it’s simple to use.

    Link to Power Editor – https://www.facebook.com/help/194355723944655/

    Target Your Audience Carefully

    When running any type of advertisement, it’s important to understand who your audience is and what they want. On Facebook ads you can target your audience down to the exact person you want to see the advertisement; this is a huge leap forward in marketing for any business. Even though you’re a home business, you can compete with bigger businesses due to these features.

    Segment Your Audience for Different Ads

    The power editor allows you to duplicate ads, and then edit them to change the demographics. Doing this serves a couple of purposes. It allows you to conduct an A/B test to see who responds better to your ad, but you can also change the images, headlines, etc. to fit each segment of your audience better.

    Use Custom Audiences

    A custom audience allows you to reach people who have already been to your website but are now surfing on Facebook. This is called remarketing or retargeting, and it is a very powerful way to market to targeted people and get a high rate of return.

    Use Facebook’s Optimized CPM

    This is an amazing thing because it makes it easy for you to get views for your advertisement. CPM stands for cost per thousand impressions. Facebook’s algorithm knows what’s best in terms of this set-up, so let Facebook choose for you. It will really work better and save you money too.

    Build a Responsive Website

    As of April 21, 2015 Google is ranking responsive websites higher than those that are not responsive. A responsive website is one that works on all mobile devices as well as PCs. It’s best that your websites are responsive. You don’t need one for mobile and one for PCs – you need one site that works regardless of the platform your audience uses.

    Get Professionally Made Graphics

    Don’t skimp on graphics, but you don’t have to spend that much. You can do it yourself too and have them look professional if you use Canva. Try using Fiverr to save a little money on finding someone to help make your ads. You can get stock photography that is good to use on Stockfresh or iStockphoto.

    Links:

    Canva – https://www.canva.com/
    Fiverr – https://www.fiverr.com/
    Stockfresh – http://stockfresh.com/
    iStockphoto – http://www.istockphoto.com/

    Hire a Copywriter

    Writing content is different from writing copy. Copywriting is a specialized skill. Let a copywriter take what you’ve done and improve it. If they start with something you’ve written and then fix it to work better, you’ll save a little money on the copywriter. And overall you’ll save a lot of money on running the advertisement because you’ll get better results from professional copy.

    Using Facebook to run ads is a great way to get involved in online advertising. Pay-per-click and CPM campaigns can be overwhelming, but Facebook has it set up so that you can do it without even being a professional. It’s a great way to put your toe into online advertising for your business.

    Categories: social media Tags: Tags:

    Ten Reasons to Add Teleseminars to Your Schedule

    Teleseminars are conducted over the telephone and are a way to perform a group call to talk about something important in your business. You can do teleseminars inexpensively and easily, using technology you already have. They are a great way to build relationships with customers you have and to attract more customers, too.

    1. Make More Money – Anything you can do to add another income stream is a great idea. You can charge for teleseminars or you can promote a product or find sponsorships to help you bring in another stream of income.

    2. Improve Your Image – If you want to build authority, teleseminars are a fabulous way to do it. You can show what you know by talking to movers and shakers in interviews, or just talking about a certain topic, or by conducting a Q & A session.

    3. Build Your Email List – Conducting teleseminars is a great way to build an email list fast, especially if you conduct them for free or very low cost. Building an email list is an essential part of doing business online, too.

    4. Slash Customer Support Costs – A great thing to do with teleseminars is to offer them to existing consumers who have purchased your product. This is a good opportunity for anyone who purchased to ask you questions live and learn how to use your products to their fullest potential.

    5. Generate Another Income Stream – As mentioned, charging for teleseminars is a great way to start another income stream. Having one teleseminar per week with 20 to 40 people in attendance for a cover charge of just 5 dollars can increase your income by $100 to $200 a week for just one hour of work. What’s more, you can use a service like Instantteleseminar.com to replay as live any event.

    6. Teleseminars are Inexpensive – The technology involved with teleseminars is inexpensive compared to other types of event software. Plus, it’s much less expensive that other types of live events due to no need to rent space.

    7. Perfect for People Who Hate Selling – If you’re nervous about a live event because you don’t like selling, there are no worries. You should not sell at a live event at all. You should seek only to provide information and education to your audience.

    8. Create Information Products – You can use a teleseminar to create an information product. Transcribe the event, add to it, or bundle a recording of a teleseminar that has a lot of information into another product.

    9. Create a Joint Venture – Teleseminars are a good way to attract other people who are movers and shakers in your niche to form a joint venture partnership for more teleseminars, or for projects that include teleseminars. The more people you have to help, the less work and the more guests you’ll get.

    10. Promote Your Products – While you don’t want your teleseminar to be overselling, you do want to use the seminar as a way to promote your other products, including yourself. For example, if you would like to speak at live events, a great way to start is with teleseminars, then webinars or Google Hangouts, and finally in-person events.

    Adding teleseminars to your schedule can improve your business exponentially. You’ll make your audience feel more connected to you, and build stronger relationships that help you get real results in your business over time.

    Categories: teleseminars Tags: Tags:

    Awesome Software for Memberships

    One of the things you’ll need to figure out when you decide to start a membership site is how you’ll run the technology. Thankfully, today there are many options available at your fingertips for running your membership website.

    Before you even look at membership software, though, write down the features you want it to have and the budget you’ve set for the software. In addition, consider your technological background and how much it will cost you to get professional assistance if you need it for any of the software mentioned.

    * JigsawBox.com – This software is mostly directed towards coaches, offering a lot of features that will benefit coaches like drip content, eCourses, integration with autoresponders and so forth. This is a cloud-based service so you don’t have to worry about the technology; you just have to set it up and start collecting revenue.

    * aMember.com – This is a plugin for WordPress that works very well and is very popular with online marketing experts who have membership websites. The software turns your WordPress site into a membership site and an affiliate program. You would need to purchase separate forum software if you wanted a forum.

    * Wishlist Member Plugins (http://wishlistmemberplugins.net) – Another plugin for WordPress, this turns your site into a membership website and it integrates with PayPal, JVZoo, ClickBank and other payment processors. It also integrates with ONTRAPORT and Maropost and other autoresponders. With this membership software you can do everything that you need to run a great membership site.

    * iGrOOps.com – Another cloud-based solution that has an enormous amount of features, from message boards, to drip content, to meetings and more. It’s exhaustive but can also be confusing and look oddly old-fashioned compared to a WordPress-driven membership site.

    * Rainmaker Platform (http://rainmakerplatform.com/) – Built by the people at Copyblogger, this is an expensive option. However, it does a lot and comes with Copyblogger Authority membership. Run from a WordPress platform, they handle hosting, all the technology and more for you.

    * SocialGO.com – A cloud-based solution that seeks to help you build a social based website, this can work as a membership site if you pick the classic version. However, it might not be responsive and has some limitations over some of the others. It also has some pluses which is that it’s simple to use and implement and get started.

    * EasyMemberPro.com – Affiliate program, forums and more are all yours with this software. It really is as easy as they say to set it up. Plus you can integrate it with WordPress and more. If you’re more advanced technologically, you can get a lot out of using this software.

    * MemberPress.com – Integrates with WordPress as a plugin to build WordPress-based membership websites. You’ll gain control over who sees your content. It enables sales of digital products securely and accepts payments right on your website.

    * MemberGate.com – This full-featured software is amazing and has so many features – from an affiliate program, to a shopping cart, to podcasting, to forums and more. There really isn’t anything this software cannot do and the support is incredible. Once again the website templates look a little outdated, but they all work well.

    Memberships are lucrative, but you need to choose the right software for your needs. Consider your budget, how many members you want to attract, how much you plan to charge members, what you want to include in the membership website and more, as you pick and choose which software is right for your membership.

    Categories: Membership Tags: Tags:

    Get Others to Promote Your Membership Program

    When you start a membership program you want to have a steady flow of new members entering the program at any given time. The average time someone stays in a membership program is usually 12 weeks or 3 months. Therefore, you need a constant stream of people coming into the membership to keep it full and active.

    Members Only Referrals

    One of the easiest ways to not only encourage people to stick around longer than 12 weeks but also to get new members, is to allow members to refer your group. Require people to stay a member to be able to refer the group and receive commissions. Offer a nice 50 to 60 percent recurring referral percentage to the members who refer others. This will keep them around longer, as well as get more members.

    Affiliate Marketers

    If you don’t want to allow only members to promote your group, you can let affiliate marketers promote it. But, you do want to choose the marketers carefully to ensure that they will use honest methods to promote your group. Provide graphics, blog posts, and other information to help them market your membership.

    Make YouTube Videos

    A good YouTube video can go viral. If you create a regular channel on YouTube that people like to watch, it is another means of promotion for your membership program. You don’t even have to mention the membership program other than at the end of the videos, and in the description bar. Ask people to share – this is a great way to get other people to promote your membership program.

    Create Infographics

    People love sharing infographics that give data that the audience needs to know. They also are more likely to share visual material than the same data in print or a blog post. The best way to start is to put the graphic on your social media networks. Ask your family and friends to share, and you’ll create momentum.

    Provide Excellent Graphics

    Other people are more likely to want to promote your membership group if you offer good material and graphics to help them promote it well. Memes, infographics, videos and more all offer everyone a good way to promote your membership program.

    Personalized Webinars

    A really good way to promote your membership group is to ask movers and shakers within the industry to host a webinar where you’ll be the guest. You will answer questions and then promote your membership at the end of the webinar.

    Ask for Testimonials

    The testimonials of others will help you promote your membership program, but it will also help other people promote your group. The more good things you can show people about your membership program, the better. The more good people see, the more they’ll want to help promote your membership.

    Memberships are a lucrative way to create a new stream of income based on the niche you’re already involved in. You can provide your products and/or services in an entirely new way that guarantees regular and timely income.

    Categories: Grow a Home Business, membership Tags: Tags:

    Nine Ways to Participate in an Online Community

    One of the ways to make an online community work is to practice a high level of participation. When you get involved in your online community, it will really pay off in a big way by making you closer to the other members. You and the members can become awesome resources to each other throughout your business’s growth.

    1. Introduce Yourself – When you become part of an online community, start out on the right foot by introducing yourself according to the rules of the group. Most online communities have rules that prohibit sharing of URLs or advertising, but most allow you to introduce yourself to get started in the group.

    2. Ask Questions – Once you’ve been properly introduced, start asking questions to get the discussions going in the group. This is a good way to get to know each other as well as to get to know your audience. When people answer your question, be sure to comment back and thank them and add to the discussion.

    3. Answer Questions – When other people ask questions that you have an answer to, be sure that you answer the questions honestly and openly, without any intent to sell them anything. Give of yourself freely and you will end up with a large return on investment.

    4. Comment on Stories – When other people introduce themselves or tell a story, be sure to comment on them. If the community often posts informative articles, be sure to comment on those too and to point them out to others in the group for reading.

    5. Create a Good Signature Line – Most groups allow you to have some type of signature line that has a link back to your website. Be sure to provide a specialized link just for that group that offers specials for group members.

    6. Fill Out Your Profile Completely – Additionally, most online communities have a profile area. Be sure to upload a nice headshot, and to fill out the entire profile. That way when someone wants to learn more about you they can easily do so.

    7. Invite New People – When you know that the group would be a good fit for someone you meet elsewhere, share the group with them. Bringing in new people to the community keeps the community alive and fresh.

    8. Be a Resource to Others – Never be afraid to be an open book resource within your area of expertise. If you want to be known as an expert, show that expertise within your answers to others.

    9. Start a Subgroup – Once you’ve become well known and people start coming to you more, see if you can start a subgroup inside the group. Ask for permission before doing that, but it might be of help to the group owner if you don’t own the group.

    If you make it your goal to do everything on this list over a period of time, you’ll notice something amazing happening. You’ll notice that you’ve built real relationships with the people in the group, and that they are referring you to potential clients and you are potentially referring some of them to clients too. It’s a two-way street when you are part of a community. The fact that it is online doesn’t mean it’s not real.

    Categories: Grow a Home Business, Networking Tags: Tags:

    Market Your Website Offline

    When a business owner builds a website, they often forget the one way to market a website that has nothing to do with technology. Marketing the website offline is a great way to get the word out about your website and what you offer. Using business cards, brochures, t-shirts and other premiums, plus being active in your local community, you can get the word out about your business.

    * Business Cards – Don’t forget to put the URL to your website on your business card. You can even put a QR code on the back of the card to encourage them to use their smartphone to visit the website.

    * Flyers and Brochures – Don’t discount flyers, brochures and other printed materials that you can create and give out when anyone asks questions about your business. Keep some in the car, and ask people to allow you to post your flyers in their business.

    * T-Shirts and Premiums – People love wearing t-shirts with different business names on them. Why not put your business on the t-shirts you wear instead of someone else’s? This is a great way; if you can create something a little different you’ll get more questions.

    * Window Decals – That real estate on your car can be put to great use when promoting your website offline. Be sure to make the information big enough so that people can really see it. Choose a catchy URL too so that people can remember it while driving.

    * Sponsor Events – Whether local or not, you can pay to sponsor events. This means you’ll appear in the brochure, perhaps on signs at the event, and maybe be mentioned by the hosts of the event by voice during speaking parts of the program.

    * Host an Event – When you host an event, you’re a very noticeable presence. Your business name will be everywhere, you will be everywhere and people will get to know you and come to visit your website.

    * Attend Events – When you attend live events, you can draw a lot of attention to your business by handing out cards, wearing t-shirts when appropriate, even giving out premium products like pens, cups, and so forth so people remember you when the event is over.

    * Teach Locally – You don’t have to be a certified teacher to teach classes. Some areas have lifelong learning centers that enable anyone who is an expert to teach something to people who want to learn something.

    When it comes to marketing, don’t leave any stone unturned. That includes marketing your website online and offline. Don’t forget that not everyone, even today, uses search engines or means online to find information. Some people still use old-fashioned information and paper to find the information they need.

    Categories: website Tags: Tags:

    Top Secrets for Creating a Mobile-Friendly Website that Passes Google Muster

    “Mobilegeddon” the masses cried when Google announced the mobile-friendly changes it would be making. Sites that passed the mobile-friendly test would be given a higher ranking than sites that were merely responsive or were not optimized in any way for mobile use.

    Google did make mention of the fact that the changes were specifically designed for mobile results, but the masses had already cried and few heard the calming words offered up by Google.

    Mobile-friendly is a GOOD THING. If your website is not currently mobile-friendly, then you are making it less likely that the largest percentage of users will ever visit your site. More people surf the internet through mobile devices than with any other method.

    Mobile-friendly can also be an easy thing. Google has set up an explanation of what makes a website mobile-friendly. Google also offers a test to insure that your website meets the Google requirements.

    Top Things to Include in Your Mobile-Friendly Website

    1. Create a strong call to action what is displayed front and center of mobile devices. Know what you want visitors to do and ask them to do it when they land on your website.

    2. Keep it simple. Clean and precise content that displays on the mobile device will make it more likely that mobile visitors will utilize your site.

    3. Keep it short. Remember that answering questions or filling out forms on mobile devices can be more challenging than for laptops and desktops. Minimize the number of fields or offer autofill when possible.

    4. Make “home” easy to find and use. Easy navigation is essential for mobile-friendly.

    5. Keep it about that initial call to action. Your company may run specials or feature events, but ultimately your website needs to be about that call to action.

    6. Make search easy. Keep the search button in an easy to find location.

    7. Create a user friendly site. Although it is all about your call to action, it is also all about the visitor. Allow the visitor to use your site before she is forced to commit to the call to action.

    8. Offer conversion buttons. Allow information to be easily accessed across platforms or sent to a second platform for use at another time.

    9. One or the other. If you are not ready to commit to the mobile-friendly way of life, stick to the traditional website. Avoid mixing in elements of mobile-friendly until you are ready to optimize for mobile users.

    10. Avoid making more work for the user. Create a site that will adjust the size of the screen appropriately so that users do not constantly have to adjust the size to get the information needed.

    There are a number of things that you can add to your website that will continue to enhance the mobile experience without detracting from the desktop experience. Work with a website designer to discover which elements work best for your company. Embrace the Google mobile-friendly changes and elevate your website for the largest percentage of users today.

    Categories: Mobile Tags: Tags:

    Great Ways to Use Facebook for Marketing

    Facebook is truly a boon to savvy online marketers. Using Facebook for marketing your business is honestly a no-brainer. You can do so much on Facebook, mostly free, that you just cannot pass it up as a great marketing opportunity for your business.

    Set Up a Business Page

    In order to set up a business page on Facebook, you first need a personal page. But once you do have that, you can set up your business page. The business page enables you to promote your business actively while a personal page is not supposed to be used for that. It’s free to set up.

    Set Up a Community

    A Facebook community is very useful in terms of being able to discuss things with your customers, or potential future customers. You can easily set up a community in the same way you set up the business page – just choose “community.” A community has more communication ability between your likes and followers than a business page.

    Set Up a Private Group

    A private group is a great way to run a small mastermind group without having to invest in the technology to have one of your own hosted on your website. You can make them private and even secret. If you have a secret group, you’ll have to actively recruit people to join; you can even charge people money to join.

    Promote a Post

    On your business pages you’ll have the capability to post things and you’ll get a button that offers you to “promote” the post. You can bid a certain amount and choose your audience too. The capability to narrow down who you want to see your promoted post is genius and will enable you to truly target your audience with posts you want them to see.

    Run a PPC Advertisement

    Even without a business page you can create advertisements via your personal page on Facebook. It’s wonderful because you can narrow down your target audience in ways that you may not have realized that you could. You can target with age, sex, location, groups and affiliations. It doesn’t get much more niched down than that.

    Join Groups and Communities

    A great way to market your business on Facebook is to join other groups that consist of your target audience. Then, simply help others without an agenda. Do not market yourself or break any rules of the page owners. Instead, just be helpful, and share when requested to do so. Let your reputation speak for you.

    Comment on Pages, Groups and Communities

    When it comes to marketing on Facebook, a good use of your time is to make smart, intelligent and useful comments on posts that the owner of the page or group post, as well as being helpful to others who post.

    Share and Like

    If you want people to share what you are doing, be sure to share and like what they are doing. When it comes to online marketing, people like helping others when they are helped too. It’s a very generous community when it comes down to it. You’ll find competitors sharing each other’s work most of the time, instead of bashing each other. Although that does happen, it’s not likely.

    Using Facebook to market your business is an excellent way to market online. You can do so many things including contests, share images, videos, blog posts, memes and more. Don’t be shy; get started using Facebook to market your business today. But, be warned, you need to follow Facebook’s terms of service in order to continue.

    Categories: Facebook, social media Tags: Tags:

    Software for Teleseminars

    If you want to conduct teleseminars, you’ll need the right software. Which software you choose will depend on what features you want it to have, plus how much your budget is and whether or not you plan to charge for attendance. Write down a list of features you want, and then match each of these choices to your list.

    * Instant Teleseminar – You can connect by web, phone call or Skype to use this teleseminar software. You can run and record a live event, then load in the recording for later and run as a live event again. Great CTA features are included too.

    Link – http://instantteleseminar.com/

    * Auto Teleseminar – This teleseminar service offers a lot of features that others don’t, such as the ability to upload an MP3 to run as a live event so you don’t even have to be there while your event runs and you earn money.

    Link – http://www.autoteleseminar.com/new/

    * FreeConferencing.com – Your customers can use their iPhone or regular phone and even a VOIP service to attend the events. Everything is always completely free other than long distance for the callers.

    Link – http://www.freeconferencing.com/

    * FreeConferenceCall.com – A completely free on-demand service that also allows recording of events and more. In exchange for the service being free, advertisements are run during your event.

    Link – https://www.freeconferencecall.com/

    * Maestro Conference – This teleseminar software allows for breakout groups and desktop sharing if you want it to go behind the telephone, and social conferencing, which motivates people to share and take action during a call.

    Link – http://maestroconference.com/

    * ReadyTalk – They offer on-demand conferencing, as well as operator-assisted services. Plus, with broadcast audio services you can allow your attendees to listen from their computer instead of a telephone. This works domestically and internationally.

    Link – https://www.readytalk.com/products-services/audio-conferencing

    * Toll Free Conference – With this service you can give conference calls inexpensively. Instead of paying monthly, you only pay per minute while you are conducting the call. You can even get an experienced operator to help you with the technology.

    Link – http://www.tollfreeconference.com/

    * GoToMeeting – This is also webinar software that enables you to share your screen to show a PowerPoint slide and other features. But it also allows people to dial in to listen to the event on the phone. This makes it a super full-featured teleseminar software product that you’ll love.

    Link – http://www.gotomeeting.com/online/

    Trying any of this software out before you implement it is a good idea. Use the free or low-priced trial offers, try it out, and then see which one you like best. You may like a free service with commercials, or you might like a more full-featured service that has no ads. It’s up to you which one you use, but first you have to test them out.

    Categories: teleseminars, webinars Tags: Tags:

    Why More Isn’t Always Better

    When you embark on using blogging to increase traffic, newsletter sign-ups and to get more customers, it often seems as if the more you blog the better. But, there are many reasons why more isn’t always better when it comes to blogging.

    * Your Blog Has No Focus – Writing a bunch of 500 word blog posts that have no purpose other than SEO isn’t going to help if they’re not focused and purposeful. You need to find a voice for your business and stick to it with a strict focus.

    * You Don’t Understand Your Niche – Understanding the minutia of your niche is important and if you don’t, it will be hard for you to write useful blog posts that speak to your audience.

    * Your Post Has No Reason for Being – If you are writing things without any purpose, it’s going to be difficult to get a permanent readership going. You might attract one-time viewers, but if they click around and find no cohesiveness and no call to action, they’ll just read and leave.

    * You Don’t Understand Your Audience – It is difficult to write blog posts that speak to your audience if you don’t know why they are. It’s imperative that you spend time studying your audience so that you know the right words to use to express what you need to say.

    * Your Writing Is Boring – Putting it all together, if you are mostly concerned with churning out more content rather than quality content, your content might just be super-boring to the point that it puts your readers to sleep. Working on quality content that speaks about your niche in an intelligent way to your audience is more important than having more content.

    * You’re Not Including Other Types of Content – Blogging is more than written text today. You need to include a variety of formats of content such as podcasts, videos, text content and more.

    * You’re Not Curating Other People’s Content – Other people have important things to add to the discussion of your niche with your audience. If you can find blog posts that say what you want to say that other people wrote better than you can, share it with your own thoughts added to it to round it out.

    * You Aren’t Promoting Blog Posts That You Have – Writing or creating a blog post is just the first step. After you publish it, you need to promote it. If you’re not spending time promoting your blog posts, maybe they’re not good enough to bother even publishing.

    When starting a blog, it’s far more important to craft a simple plan of action than to just write. Understand your readers, take the time to optimize each blog post, and never skimp on promoting every blog post that you create. Spending all your time writing and not focusing on these other issues won’t give you the business you want, but doing all these things will.

    Categories: blogging Tags: Tags: