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Wouldn’t you love to have millions of pageviews? In this week’s episode, I’m on the line with Jillian Tohber Leslie. Jillian founded Catch My Party with her husband in 2009, and it’s now the largest party ideas site on the web. This site gets over four million pageviews every month. Yes, I said MILLION! Listen to This EpisodeIn 2015, Jillian and David built a custom popup app for themselves to grow their Catch My Party social media followers. It worked so well, they launched it as their second company 2016 called MiloTree. When I heard all of this, I knew I had to get Jillian on the podcast to talk about how she was able to build her massive audience. Her secrets? Using smart SEO, embracing the long tail, and being early adopters of social media (especially Pinterest). Jillian’s StoryBack before she was a blogging sensation, Jillian was writing teen movies for Hollywood, and her husband was Head of Product at Myspace (remember Myspace?). They knew that they wanted to find a project to work on together, so they started their website as a side hustle. The idea was to create a social photo sharing site for teen girls to post about their sweet sixteens, quinceañeras, bar/bat mitzvahs, and other parties. So they hired a team of developers in Indonesia and started designing the site. It was hot pink and purple, designed to be appealing to teenage girls. But there was a problem: how do you get teen girls to add their photos? The site doesn’t work if no one wants to put their pictures there. They tried a bunch of tactics, but they didn’t get a lot of traction. Then, all of a sudden, they noticed that moms with Etsy shop had started putting party photos on the “teen” site. This is not the plan. After talking things over, they decided to pivot, and they learned an important lesson: “you co-create with your audience.” There was no point trying to make a teen site happen if the interest was coming from moms. But how did the Etsy moms find the site in the first place? Jillian and her husband thought about SEO from the very beginning. This was before Facebook took over social networking, so there were some burgeoning, tiny social networks that were interest-based. These were places where people interested in certain topics got together, so Jillian put her site out there on those networks, too. Today, the people who add content to Catch My Party are all moms. “Moms are unsung heroes,” Jillian says. If a mom throws a beautiful party and posts it to the site, Jillian will try to find a way to feature it so that the mom feels appreciated and celebrated. She shows off the best ones on homepage slider and on her social media feed. It’s all about celebrating people. Blogging for Catch My PartyJillian is not a party planner, even though her site is all about parties. Instead, she thinks of herself as an influencer and curator, “flying above” and looking at what’s trending. She started blogging for the site right away and always recommends blogging as a way to put your point of view out there. But she wasn’t convinced at first: her husband said, “you need a blog.” She said, “Why? And what do I write about?” He replied, “You’ll write about what we’re doing.” She is currently posting on the blog three times per week. She loves to do roundups, to show people a selection of what’s trending. The blog is also helpful for SEO. Amazing GrowthWhen Jillian and her husband started out, they thought about SEO first. Jillian wants to emphasize that they get traffic via “the long tail.” What does that mean? They’re not trying to rank for things like “party ideas” or even things like “princess parties” or “pirate parties.” They can’t directly compete with Party City and big retailers like that. But if you type in “rainbow unicorn sparkly party,” that’s a lot more specific and niche. And it will lead you straight to Catch My Party. So their traffic really comes from what Jillian calls “tiny little search results.” That is the long tail. Jillian manages SEO by manually adding tags whenever someone adds a party. She has to be very intentional about keywords because Google doesn’t understand photos. You have to tell Google what’s in the photos or else they won’t come up in the search results. Using Social MediaJillian and her husband got in on social media relatively early. Back in the day, Facebook was awesome. People would respond to everything! And then, as we all know, the algorithm changed. Facebook “tightened the spigot,” in Jillian’s words. When that happened, Jillian and her husband looked at the analytics and saw that a lot of their traffic was coming from Pinterest. Jillian says you’ve got to look out for the “serendipities that happen in your business,” and this was one of them. She had had the idea for a picture-saving app years before, but her husband never got around to making one. When Pinterest came around, Jillian started pinning just for herself. Her personal board was what initially drove traffic to Catch My Party from Pinterest. So she started to create content specifically for Pinterest. She currently has 750,000 followers there. Pinterest is great for visual content, but Jillian recommends playing by their rules. It’s best to be making content that is just for Pinterest. Also, pay attention to what’s trending on Pinterest to get inspiration for your next post. Jillian creates collages based on what’s trending and then thinks about how she can do her own version of that popular content. MiloTreeAround this time, Jillian and her husband started focusing on growing followers. They built a popup tool to promote Pinterest for Catch My Party in 2014-15. This popup helped them to grow their following organically. Why not just use the widget? Jillian says the widget wasn’t converting, and they needed to be actively growing. They had so much success with their first popup that they decided to build a similar one for Instagram. They currently have about 130,000 Instagram followers, largely from the popup. Then they thought that if their popup tool had been so successful for them, it might benefit other bloggers, too. So they started building that out as part of the business, and MiloTree was born. Their initial popup just asked people to follow them on Pinterest. They would populate the popup with recent posts in order to show social proof. They had the same strategy with Instagram. This means that when somebody clicks, they already have a sense of what your account looks like. MiloTree has been so successful because it is so simple. Bloggers have to wear so many hats and make so many decisions, so Jillian wanted to create a very simple product. She wanted to make lots of decisions on their end so that customers don’t have to. For example, Google announced that it would penalize sites that used a big popup on mobile. So Jillian and her husband adjusted the MiloTree to be Google-compliant for mobile. The plugin can detect on its own whether your visitors are using mobile or desktop. Getting TrafficJillian says one of the most important things you can do is “ride the waves.” Keep an eye on what’s trending and think about how you can make more of that content. For example, Catch My Party rode the Frozen and Minecraft phases. Jillian noticed that that content was “going gangbusters” and made more of it. Once you see a trend, start doubling down on that content. How do you tell what’s working? Jillian has a few suggestions:
5. Learn over time who your audience is. Jillian knows hers very well: they live in the sweet spot of moms with little kids. Jillian totally gets the struggle of wanting to throw a great party for your kids, so she is able to relate to her audience. The best part is that all of these tools are free! You can do this on any budget. Jillian says you’ve got to go toward what’s working. If something isn’t working now, it probably won’t ever work. You can tweak it and see, and you might get a tiny bit of lift. But the ones that hit are the ones that hit. If you are just starting out and you don’t have much of an audience yet, it can be hard to get that instant feedback. Jillian wants you to think about your WHY. Why are you a blogger? If you don’t have a WHY, don’t be a blogger. It’s too hard. It’s a long slog. You’d better be in there, and you’d better have something to say that’s meaningful to you. Once you have your WHY, the next step is to look around at people who are doing what you want to be doing. Think about why you like certain content, and then think about how you can put your own spin on that. Ask, “What about it is resonating with me?” Start from yourself and what you need to say to the world. Also, remember that blogs evolve over time. Don’t think your blog is going to stay the same forever. Allow that evolution and be open to change. Most importantly, think about co-creating with your audience. Even if one person reaches out to you through Instagram and loves what you’re doing, pay attention. This is something you can do at any level. If I have ten people following me, there’s a difference between eight responses and just one response. Don’t be so caught up in the millions (even though that’s the title of the episode!). Be caught up in listening to your audience and co-creating with them. You also have to be double-checking stuff. There can be a fallacy of small numbers. If you don’t have a lot of followers, take interaction as a direction for the next post, but see how it goes. Don’t bet your whole business on 10 likes. What does that look like in practice? For Jillian, if people email her, she’ll ask to get on a phone call with them. She tries to be available to her audiences. She is always wanting to learn from them. When the numbers are smaller it’s easier to connect. When you’re starting off, you will do a lot of things that won’t “scale.” You can’t talk individually to a million people. But that’s a good problem to have! Social Followers vs. Email ListCatch My Party is monetized primarily through ads and sponsored content, not through an email list. But for MiloTree, the email list is more important because they’re selling a product. Think about why you’re growing your email list. If you monetize via traffic or by working with brands, your email list won’t be as important to you; a list is more helpful if you are selling a product. If you are growing your list, you have to be very intentional about it. Lists get stale really quickly, so if you’re not selling short term, your list may not be very valuable by the time you actually have a product. Jillian makes sure to remind me that “These are best practices for US.” You have to “think about your business, your special sauce, and how you monetize.” If you monetize via ads, you need the most amount of eyeballs on your site in the most cost effective way possible. If you do anything visual, right now that’s Pinterest. Jillian says it is better at driving traffic than Instagram. But Instagram is important if you’re working with brands, because they care about how many followers you have. It’s all about being intentional based on YOUR business. Do what’s best for you, not just what everyone else is doing. Final Tips:Remember that there is no magic bullet. “If there were a magic bullet, I would be using it,” Jillian says. It’s a long slog, but Jillian has two tips to get you through:
If you want to get in on MiloTree, Jillian wants you to know that you can try it for free, risk-free for 30 days by visiting www.milotree.com. MiloTree works by converting visitors into followers and subscribers. It’s best for people who have some traffic already. It’s like lighter fluid on top of your existing traffic. If you have traffic on your blog, it will work. Success in blogging is about taking advantage of what you have. You’ve got to constantly let people know what you’re offering. MiloTree is one ask for your visitors. It’s quick and easy and doesn’t paralyze them with choices, which is why it’s so effective. 80% of your traffic will leave and never come back to your site. MiloTree is about bringing those people into your ecosystem. Tell your audience what you want them to do. Be very clear. Don’t be subtle. If you want them to click on something, say “click here.” People want to live their lives on auto-pilot. The easier you can make those steps the better. Jillian also says that you can email her any time. She actually answers every single email she gets, and she’s always happy to answer your questions! Resources Mentioned
InfographicThe post How to Grow a Blog to Millions of Pageviews – Jillian Tohber Leslie appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel. from https://www.becomeablogger.com/25539/grow-blog-millions-of-pageviews/ So you wanna create videos on YouTube, but which camera is right for you? In this video, I’m gonna answer that question, and the answer might not be what you expect. I also break down 4 different camera types and share which is best for you. BackgroundI love technology. And when it comes to video, some might say I have a problem I have a bunch of cameras. And that’s the problem for many people. There are so many options that it’s often difficult to know which one is right for you. Here’s the truth – the best camera to use is the one you have right now. You see – Content is king! While quality does influence our perception to a certain extent, I’ve seen MANY examples of people creating awesome content using just a simple smartphone. There are many viral videos that were shot on a poor-quality smartphone with terrible audio. So – the key is to create videos, over and over. Learn to tell a story using this visual medium. If you take care of that first, the rest will come. That answer may not be enough for you, so I want to give you some specifics so that if you have some money to spend, you know where to look. Here are four great options: Option 1: Your SmartphoneThis is the best option for most people. Here’s why. Smartphones are convenient, always with you, and shoot great quality videos. In addition to that, there are a few accessories you can add to take your smartphone video quality to the next level. Things like lighting, tripods or other devices to keep it stable and an external mic to increase your audio quality. Option 2: Point and ShootThese smaller cameras very convenient for vloggers who are on the go because they are relatively compact and light. You can even add an external shotgun mic. Many of the newer versions even have a flip out LCD screen. This allows you to see yourself while filming. The one I have (and love) is the Sony RX100. Option 3: A DSLRThis is the camera of choice of many professional video creators. They offer high-quality videos with a choice of many lenses. Depending on the camera you have, the autofocus is awesome. Also, the color profile you get with certain DSLR is so rich and vibrant. The best thing is that you see when you look into the viewfinder is what you get as the picture. There is one major downside – they are big and bulky. If you plan on shooting in a studio/office with a tripod, this can be a great option. A popular example of a DSLR for video is the Canon 80D. Option 4: Mirrorless CamerasThese are relatively new on the scene. They can give you a very professional look and have many lens choices. With a quality Mirrorless camera, you can get video quality that’s similar to DSLR, BUT they are much smaller in size. One great feature is that many of them offer 4k video, giving you a much crisper image. If you compare an inexpensive DSLR to an inexpensive Mirrorless, the DSLR will almost always win in terms of quality. But as you go to the higher price ranges, especially when you’re talking about cameras over $1K, you will find that the differences become less and less. At that point, it’s more a question of convenience. If you don’t mind the size of a DSLR, go with it, but if you want something smaller, then Mirrorless will be the way to go. I use the Panasonic Lumix GH5 as my main camera for all my videos now. Let’s wrap this upThose are my general four recommendations for cameras to use for YouTube. However, make sure to watch the video above. In it, I also share some tips that anyone can use to help them record better video. Resources Mentioned
The post What Camera Do You Use for YouTube Videos appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel. from http://www.becomeablogger.com/25521/camera-use-youtube-videos/ Are you satisfied with what you’ve accomplished so far in 2017? Did you create goals for this year only to fall short? In this episode, we talk about how to salvage 2017 and plan for 2018. IntroListen to EpisodeThe post How to Salvage 2017 and Plan for 2018 appeared first on Become A Blogger by Noemi M. from http://www.becomeablogger.com/25510/salvage-2017-plan-2018/ What’s the best structure for your YouTube videos? How do you get people to watch till the end? In this video, I talk all about structuring your YouTube videos to be more effective. Your YouTube Video GoalIn the last video, we spoke about the importance of watch time. If you can get people to watch your videos until the end, YouTube will start ranking you higher. So, as you create your videos, the goal is to get the viewer to watch it till the very end. To do that, you want to make sure to structure your video to hold the viewer’s attention. Here are some tips to help you do that: Tip 1: Start Strong!Here are some interesting numbers. There are 300 hours of video upload to YouTube every minute. People watch almost 5 billion videos very day on the platform. They are consuming a lot of content and as a result, are easily distracted. Let the viewer know what you are covering in the first few seconds. Focus on what’s in it for them – What value will they get? At the beginning of this video, I asked 2 questions. These questions let you know right up front what value you’re gonna get from the video. Tip 2: Have an Intro Video Clip/AnimationAfter your strong start, include a short introductory video clip/animation. This does a few things:
Tip 3: Introduce YourselfOnce your animation is over, it's time to let them know who you are and why they should listen to you. This helps to provide validity to your videos. You may also choose to invite them to subscribe to your channel here. Tip 4: Jump into Your ContentNow that you've done all the groundwork, let's get right into the content. Don't go on and on. Provide them with the value they are looking for in a concise way. Oh, and don't forget to be engaging. Tip 5: Give a Brief Recap (Optional)Now that you've covered the good stuff, it's a good idea to do a brief recap. This will help to solidify key concepts in the viewer's mind. It also shows them that you delivered on the promises you made on the beginning. Tip 6: Include a Call-to-actionYou've delivered the value, and now they are ready to move on. This is where you want to nudge them to the next logical step by giving a call-to-action. What do you want them to DO next? Tell them. It can be as simple as asking them to like your video and subscribe to your channel. Even better, create a free resource and provide it to them in exchange for them joining your email list. This is a key step in helping you grow your business. If you want to be a bit ambitious, feel free to let them know about a product or service you offer. The conversions won't be as great for that, but you'll be bringing exposure to a key part of your business. The YouTube Growth-Tracking SpreadsheetIf you're trying to grow your YouTube channel, I have a gift for you. I created a YouTube Growth-Tracking Spreadsheet to help you plan your channel growth. Click here to get the spreadsheet Join the Coaching ClubIf you're trying to build a blogging business, let me hold your hand. Join the Become a Blogger coaching club. Resources Mentioned
InfographicThe post YouTube Video Structure – What works! appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel. from http://www.becomeablogger.com/25498/youtube-video-structure/ 10x Your Business With Google Traffic. Click Here to get Started!Key Pieces of Vancouver Seo ExpertOur experts will do the crucial framework to make sure your site meets the greatest professional standards to attain your intended audience. Your chosen SEO expert needs to be able to assist you determine which social media platforms will serve your organization best, along with design your social networking campaigns in support of your content advertising strategy. It is critical to align yourself be a search engine marketing expert that you are able to trust and has an established history of succeeding. If you’re looking for an Atlanta SEO expert to aid in improving your business’s visibility on the net, our results speak for themselves. 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Even though it may appear tempting for many company and business owners, using black hat SEO can have many undesired outcomes that could negatively alter the visibility of your site, which is far better to focus just on white hat SEO strategies. from Kanwar Manoria http://kanwarmanoria.digital/vancouver-seo-expert/ from https://kanwarmanoria.tumblr.com/post/166377293167 { "@context": "http://schema.org/", "@type": "Product", "name": "SEO", "aggregateRating": { "@type": "AggregateRating", "ratingValue" : "5", "ratingCount": "30", "reviewCount": "30" } } 10x Your Business With Google Traffic. Click Here to get Started!These days, it’s hard to chance upon a marketer who’d deny that search has changed dramatically in the previous few decades. The best method to gain from search is to stick to the fundamentals of superior SEO that are publicly available and promoted by Google. 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So it is critical that you simply employ white hat SEO when it regards your search engine optimization efforts. from Kanwar Manoria http://kanwarmanoria.digital/toronto-seo-expert/ from https://kanwarmanoria.tumblr.com/post/166374113067 I get it. You don’t want to be one of the millions of bloggers stuck in the land of sameness — indistinguishable as you parrot the same old advice everybody else does. You want your voice to be heard, and you want it to feel vibrant, fresh and new. But your blog topic feels threadbare, and you’ve got no bloody idea how to make it exciting again. Every angle has been rewritten, rehashed and reused. It bores you so much you’d rather poke your eye out with a stick of spaghetti than write another post. So you search for answers on how to stand out. But all you find is airy-fairy platitudes. Provide unique insights! Be interesting! Write in your own voice! It’s all surface-level hoopla that lacks the substance and specifics you really need. So I scoured the Internet in search of posts that felt new and exciting despite having well-trodden topics. And I unearthed a handful of practical tactics you could add to your repertoire. Enough small talk. Let’s get into it … Tactic #1: Turn Fluffy Concepts into Living, Breathing CharactersProcrastination. It’s a well-worn topic. It’s also a bit of an ethereal concept — untouchable, yet it touches us all. But in this insanely viral post, Tim Urban skillfully brings procrastination to life by casting interesting characters to play the roles of emotions that live inside a procrastinator’s brain. See what I mean … Mel Wicks also did it when she created the Imp to play the role of Imposter Syndrome — another fluffy concept.
I have a nagging voice inside my head that constantly reminds me of my unworthiness. It tells me to give up before I’m laughed off the Internet. That I’ll never compare to other writers — the real ones.
[…] I call this voice the “Imp.” Her full name is Imposter Syndrome, and chances are you’ve already met. If you’ve ever had that dread of being outed as a fraud because you don’t stack up to other writers, you’ve experienced Imposter Syndrome, and you have an Imp of your own. Doing this makes reading about fluffy concepts much more fun and interesting for the reader. You bring the topic to life, as readers can visualize these characters better than ideas that only exist inside our minds. So if you write about a topic that only exists in the abstract plane, consider breathing some life into it. Think of crazy names for concepts or aspects of problems that your readers may face, and cast human or animal characters in their roles. Your readers will love it. Tactic #2: Make Your Readers Choose a SideTrump or Clinton? Yankees or Red Sox? Ebooks or paperbacks? You can’t help but choose a side. It’s a natural reaction, and it’s one that you as the writer can play to your advantage. It’ll create standout content for even the most dreary topics. Devise contrasting sides or categories and compare them to spark your reader’s attention. Like this:
There are two types of bloggers in this world — let’s call them Sameness and Fearless. Sameness writes posts that are as functional and beige as an L.L. Bean parka. Fearless reveals his deepest thoughts and dares to try new things — even though he may fail.
Take, for example, Elle Luna’s post, The Crossroads of Should and Must, in which she rockets interest levels to amazing heights by contrasting two paths we can choose to take. It’s a home run of a post that takes the well-trodden topic of “living life to the fullest” to an entirely new level. And then we have the $2 Billion Wall Street Journal Sales Letter, which is one of the most successful sales letters ever written: It begins by introducing two young men, painting a picture of their near-identical happy lives, then throws in a surprising contrast to generate curiosity and emotion that makes it impossible to stop reading. Contrasting two sides like this can be both engaging and persuasive. Readers will be swept up by the comparisons, and they’ll find themselves agreeing with the side you want them to pick. So next time you write about a dreary topic, consider presenting two opposite sides, and force the reader to choose one. Tactic #3: Make Them Laugh So Loud They Wake Up People in ChinaHumor is the perfect way to flip the script on a humdrum blog topic. Oli Gardner proved this point beautifully in his highly entertaining post on landing page optimization. His setup was gold and left no doubt in the reader’s mind that the post was going to be an interesting ride.
Landing pages rule. Blah.
Homepages suck. Blah. Do some A/B testing. Blah. Base your optimization strategy on customer feedback. Blah. All of those statements are true. But they sound boring and being boring is lame. It’s twenty fourteen and I refuse to be lame. If you want to be a non-lame marketer, it’s really easy. Read this post, have a laugh, and treat everything I say as gospel. And he certainly continued to deliver throughout the entire post.
The experienced adult readers amongst you might remember that “Shit. The condom broke!” moment. Yeah you do. You might also remember that it felt like a good time to run a test. #STDsArentFunny. Perhaps. But, as we go through this epic journey together today, I’ll show you exactly when and how you should really be testing.
But what if you’re not funny? Humor can’t be taught, right? Not true.
Humor writing is a creative art, and, just like all creative arts, it has structure and formula. And all artistic endeavours are built on teachable skills and techniques. — Mark Shatz, Comedy Writing Secrets
Sure, some people seem to be born oozing raw comedic talent, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us are doomed. You’ll have to do the legwork, but it’ll be worth it. Many of the most successful and memorable blog posts ever written contain humor or quirkiness. Here are two of the simpler humor writing tricks to get you started. Humor Technique #1: The Rule of ThreesSimply put, you write three statements. The first two are the setup, and they establish a thought pattern. Then you add a third, incongruent idea, which is your main point or punchline. Like this:
Let me predict a few things that will happen in the next year. Jon Snow will unite the Seven Kingdoms and save the world. The day you wash and wax your new Honda will be the day it rains. And your inbox will clog up with so many deathly uninteresting posts that you’d rather stab your hand with a freshly sharpened pencil than read another one.
The rule of three is a classic joke structure that you’ll see used by many comedy writers. Here are a couple of examples by the pros so you can see it in action.
Men are simple things. They can survive a whole weekend with only three things: beer, boxer shorts, and batteries for the remote control. — Diana Jordan
I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land. — Jon Stewart
When you die there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. When my father dies, he’ll see the light, make his way toward it, and then flip it off to save electricity. — Harland Williams
See how that works? Humor Technique #2: Ridiculous ExaggerationExaggeration is an age-old trick used to emphasize importance and evoke strong emotions. It’s also a powerful way to inject humor into a post. You can embellish or stretch everyday truths, over- or understate distance or size, and express extreme or ridiculous emotions. Geraldine DeRuiter’s side-splitting post I Went Paleo and Now I Hate Everything is a good example, as it’s riddled with exaggeration. Just check out these entertaining quotes:
Like most things in my life, I’ve jumped in headfirst without putting any thought or research into it (this is also how I ended up taking a workout class called “Insanity.” Afterwards, I was drooling and delirious. So I guess it delivered).
Parenthetically, I really should stop listening to people just because they’re attractive. If Jeff Goldblum told me to get a bowl haircut and rob a bank, I totally would.
The cookies look exactly the same before they are digested as after. They are eternal and unchanging. As time passes, they don’t decline in quality or taste because they can’t. They’ve already started out at theoretical zero on that scale.
Hilarious, right? To do this yourself, begin with a common situation, such as having dismal site traffic. Then play with how it makes you feel, what it makes you want to do, etc. Here are a few I came up with:
You get the idea. So dust off that funny bone and give it a go. It’s a hoot. Tactic #4: Give Data-Driven Answers to Compelling QuestionsIn his book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Jonah Berger reveals the results of a study of New York Times articles. He discovered that science articles that discuss research results are more likely to go viral because “they frequently chronicle innovations and discoveries” that evoke a feeling of awe in readers. In other words, readers love data-driven content. So instead of approaching your topic the same way as everyone else, perform an experiment or run a survey and share the results with your readers in a post. That’s what Mark Manson did when he crowdsourced his article, The Ultimate Relationship Guide to End All Relationship Guides™. Rather than share his own opinion, he ran a survey by the people in his audience who were happily married for 10+ years that asked for their best relationship advice. He then turned the most common answers into an article. BuzzSumo took another approach. They analyzed 100 million headlines to find the commonalities that popular headlines share and the ones unpopular ones share. Lots of content has been written about writing headlines, but data-backed insights like these are hard to come by. Of course, you may not have access to thousands of subscribers like Mark does, or to millions of headlines and their share counts, like BuzzSumo does, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create data-driven content. You could run a survey through Facebook Groups or forums. There are plenty of communities online that you could tap into. And hey, you might just go out into the real world and survey people on the street. That works too! Or you could run a small-scale experiment of your own. For example, if you write about social skills, you could try different conversation openers with strangers and track their responses, seeing which ones work best. Or, you know, you could grab data and research results from studies that have already been conducted. Creating data-driven content takes work, but the end result will be a fascinating post that will stand head and shoulders above the rest.
Note: If you want to make your data look pretty, check out online chart creation programs such as chartgo, onlinecharttool, plot.ly and rawgraph.io.
Tactic #5: Inject Your Post with a Healthy Dose of AttitudeThere’s a powerful theme that appears in many wildly interesting posts — they all ooze head-flicking, hip-swaggering attitude. They’re unmistakable because the writer totally embraces their irreverence. They’re written with wit and quirk. They’re unconventional, confrontational and bold. And they border on unreasonable as the writer dances on the edge of insult. An undeniable strength and passion is woven through every word. There’s total conviction and unwavering commitment to the main idea. David Wong nails it in his post, 5 Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Own Life (Without Knowing It):
What I hate about articles like this is that they’re always trying to guilt you into bettering yourself. “What are you doing sitting on your sofa eating ice cream, you lazy bag of Dorito farts! Get off your ass and go become the high-achieving superman you know you can be!” That pisses me off because I know exactly why I’m on the sofa eating ice cream. It’s because I’ve had a hard day and this makes me feel better, so fuck you. Even if what I’m doing is a frivolous waste of time, I’m doing it for a reason.
Johnny B. Truant also does it well in his post, The Universe Doesn’t Give a Flying F**k About You (I mean, that title alone …) His irreverent message of “You don’t matter” hits hard, yet he turns it into something inspirational.
That means that although what you do doesn’t matter to the universe, it should matter one hell of a lot to YOU.
In fact, it should matter to you more than it currently does. If you knew how small you are and how short a time you have to do what you can, you wouldn’t waste time watching five fucking hours of TV a day. You wouldn’t waste time doing a job you hate. You wouldn’t waste the little time you have dealing with assholes, feeling sorry for yourself, or being timid about the things you’d really like to do. And let’s not forget Jon Morrow’s How to Be Smart in a World of Dumb Bloggers. He just flat-out calls his readers dumb and gets away with it.
Well, it’s not because you haven’t found the right traffic strategy. It’s not because you need to change your domain name. It’s not because the Google gods have turned against you and cursed you to wallow in anonymity forever.
It’s because you’re dumb. And if you ever want a chance in hell of anyone listening to you, you’d better smarten up. Any post you write with irreverence will stand head and shoulders above the masses. Nobody remembers a fence-sitting, white-bread boring post. They remember the hilarious rant in which the writer unleashes daggers of unspoken truth upon a popular idea or common situation. They remember the posts in which the writer says the things that everybody wishes they had the balls to say — but don’t. Be willing to put your neck on the line. And be ready to piss a few people off along the way. You’re not a blogger to lull people to sleep. You’re a blogger because you’ve got amazing ideas that need to be heard. Do this by kicking your emotions into a higher gear. Give yourself permission to write freely — not as you should, but as you want. Don’t be angry, be furious. Don’t be happy, be delirious. Don’t be annoyed, be completely pissed off. Tactic #6: Snare Your Readers’ Attention with a Surprisingly Mismatched ToneLet’s start by imagining that all your readers are Walking Dead zombies. They’re stumbling through their days on autopilot, scrolling through their newsfeeds in a stupor. Your only hope is to shove something unexpected into their eyeballs and shock them back to the here and now. Contrasting your tone with the topic is a fantastic way to inject interest into your post. You can:
For example, like this …
Ahhhh, tax time. I’m truly astonished by the painful and grim stories of hate and loathing I hear in the weeks leading up to the financial year’s end. Why would any sane person hate a justified reason to never answer their cell phone and leave emails unopened, unanswered and unactioned for weeks on end? And then there’s the crazy-sweet pleasure of spending hours searching for that needle in the haystack of receipts — and then finding it. It sends me into excited fits of high-fiving anybody within a ten-foot radius.
And check out this hilarious post about the worry of thinking you have cancer. A topic that summons expectations of gravity and worry.
So This One Time I Thought I Had Breast Cancer—And the Doctor Was a Huge D*ck
So today I placed my boobs into a giant, hospital-grade George Foreman grill and held my breath as the nurse took the X-ray. The headline piques interest, and the wry and unexpected tone of the opening sentence snares your attention and commits you to an irreversible free-fall until the end of the post. Tactic #7: Predict the FutureThe future is the devil we don’t know. And it’s cloaked in uncertainty. Your readers desire for certainty about tomorrow is as guaranteed as day turns into night — and it can be used to your advantage. Build your reader a safe haven of certainty by predicting the future as Jon did here by sharing his view on how to write great content in 2014. There’s evidence everywhere to illustrate how not-so-interesting, written-to-death topics, such as content marketing, can continue to pull huge share counts every year by exposing trends for the immediate future. Mike Blankenship also worked this tactic nicely in How to Write a Paragraph in 2017. But what if you don’t know the future? Remember that none of us do. Chances are, however, that you know the history of your niche (if you don’t, get researching), you’ve checked out your competition, and you have an opinion about how things are evolving. So be bold. Write a future prediction that becomes a magnet for attention as it creates hope, generates discussion and encourages new ways of thinking for your reader. If you get it wrong, no one’s going to call you on it — it’ll just vanish into the fog of forgotten posts. (You can always delete it too.) Tactic #8: Pepper Your Post with Quirky VisualsYou’ve probably heard that you should add visual content to your blog posts. And yes, adding infographics, screenshots or photographs can do a lot to liven up your posts… But you can also use visual content to add some whimsy and fun to your posts. Several of the posts I’ve already featured as examples do this. Take the aforementioned Medium post from Elle Luna, the Crossroads of Should and Must. She doesn’t just have her readers pick a side, her post is also full of line drawings like this: The casual nature of these line drawings lifts the feeling from humdrum to fun and injects the post with an entertaining dose of personality and character. As soon as the reader scans the page, they instantly feel like they’re in for a treat. Tim Urban also uses drawings in his post about procrastination (and every other post he writes). Line drawings are a great way to move away from the dry formality of graphs and screenshots, but they’re not your only option. If you don’t feel that artistic — though you don’t have to be that artistic to draw a stick figure — you can also use other quirky imagery, like memes, cartoons and funny pictures. These can be found on the web or easily created with tools like Canva and other meme generators. If you look back on Geraldine de Ruiter’s I Went Paleo and Now I Hate Everything, she interchanges the expected photos of food with images and GIFs like these: Dull topics are more likely to send your reader’s brain for a coffee break instead of paying full attention. Keep them riveted to their seats by entertaining them with unusual, surprising and vibrant visuals. Time to Breathe New Life into Those Old and Boring TopicsNo blog topic is too boring, too dull or too worn-out to ever be interesting again. It’s you, the writer, who has everything within you to make it interesting. Because when you do, your voice will be heard and you’ll know you’re helping others as you share new ways of doing things, thinking, and approaching tasks, work or life. Your posts will stand out from the masses of regurgitated ideas and cookie-cutter advice. Your posts will open the doors of possibility for your readers, and let you shine brightly. So which tactic are you going to try first? Pick one and start today. Light up your blog topic with an explosion of freshness like only you can.
About the Author: Miranda Hill is a writer and coach who helps life-hungry souls get unstuck from the chaos of life. If you want to stop spinning your wheels, hopping from one thing to the next in search of answers, discover the 10 Mindset Secrets That Set Truly Successful Writers Apart and realise your full writing potential today.
from https://smartblogger.com/old-and-boring-topics/ Are you blogging as a business? Are you making sure that you are creating processes that actually build your business over time? In this episode, I share a step by step process for creating your blog sales funnel. IntroListen to EpisodeBuilding a sales funnel is a crucial part of building an online business. A sales funnel is the visual representation of the customer journey, depicting the sales process from awareness to action. Those are two essential elements of a sales funnel:
But here’s the problem… When it comes to blogging, most content creators don’t create their content with the end in mind. What ends up happening is we create content as it pops into our minds. By doing so, sales funnels never make it to the forefront of our minds. Today, we will fix that. Here are six steps you can take to create your blog sales funnel. Step 1: Start with the actionAnswer the following question – What do you want your audience to buy? This can be a product/service that you offer or one that you promote as an affiliate. By understanding where you want people to end up, you’re going to be better able to get them there. In understanding what you want them to buy, here are some questions you should answer: Who is it for? What is his/her goals? What struggles will he or she encounter? What problem does it solve? Getting clear on these questions will help you in step 2. Step 2: Create the right kind of content (awareness)Now that you know who you’re trying to attract, it’s time to create the kind of content that will attract him/her. Ask yourself what kind of content he/she is looking for. Keep the goals and struggles in mind as you answer this question. Then, go out and create that kind of content. You can create articles, videos or podcast episodes. EVERY piece of content is an opportunity to expose your audience to what you have to offer. Here’s the key: EACH piece of content should offer significant value independent of that product/service. Do the best you can to optimize each piece of content for the platform you’re posting it on and you will increase your chances of getting your content to more people. Step 3: Create a free resourceWhat can you create that can help him/her accomplish his/her goals or overcome a specific struggle. Create that as a free resource so that you can entice your audience to get on your email list. Some examples of what I’ve created are my Content Calendar and YouTube Growth Tracking spreadsheets. Step 4: Include a call-to-action in all of your contentThis is where the rubber meets the road. Yes, you are creating the right kind of content to attract your audience. However, there needs to be a next logical step from that content to getting to a deeper part of your funnel. That next logical step is opting in to get your free resource. Your job is to make it very clear that you have a free resource available. In other words, include a call-to-action. In order to get access to that free resource, they need to get on your email list. Give them the opportunity to do just that. Step 5: Create a goal-directed autoresponder sequenceThe goal of this sequence is to get some of the people who subscribe to purchase your product/service. So the content of the autoresponder sequence will be very important. It’s important for you to provide value and share resources that will be helpful to your subscribers. But it’s also important for you to make the pitch. Let them know about the product/service you are promoting and how it can help them on the journey. One tool I’m going to be experimenting with is called Thrive Ultimatum from Thrive Themes. It gives you the ability to run time-sensitive offers depending on when someone opts into your email list. Step 6: Wash, Rinse and RepeatNow that you’ve built out one funnel, it’s time to do the same thing again. This can be for another product that’s at a similar price point, or (ideally) it would be something more expensive. The principles are exactly the same. Let’s bring this homeIf you’re building a business, you have to build a system for generating sales. A sales funnel is a great way to do this. Now that you’re equipped to build a funnel, get to work. Resources Mentioned:
InfographicThe post How to Create a Blog Sales Funnel appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel. from http://www.becomeablogger.com/25481/create-blog-sales-funnel/ Traffic Authority StackingI will show you how to funnel Youtube Traffic to your website. from Kanwar Manoria http://kanwarmanoria.digital/traffic-authority-stacking/ from https://kanwarmanoria.tumblr.com/post/166308037157 |
ABOUT MEHello I am Claude 32 years old. I have been doing internet marketing for 7 years and successfully running 3 e-commerce stores. I like to share tips with people aobut online business. Archives
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