Blogging Archives - I Am Dawn-Marie

10 Ways To Create Multiple Streams Of Income

Dawn-Marie — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 20:43:21 +0000

One of the wisest millionaires in the world, Mr Warren Buffet, said “never depend on a single income”.

If you told me that three years ago, I would have told you to

…shut yo mouth! Ain’t nobody got time for that.

You see, when I started ever pursuing the idea of being my own boss back in 2014, joining other network marketing companies to add another income stream was a big NO NO.

They would say that it was impossible to promote two companies at the same time.

But… you know the saying “never put all your eggs in one basket?”

Well in network marketing, they did the opposite and encouraged it.

At the time it did make sense and I told myself that

sometimes it is best to focus on one thing at a time.

But… And There Is Always A But

As I moved on to other things I realised that I was capable of creating other income streams for myself and it was not such a bad thing.

I understood that sometimes you have to prepare yourself for the unpredictable. Financial security is a concern for most of us and the average person wants that protection for their family and their future.

If you have a job, what would you do if you were suddenly fired the next day?

With no income coming in, how would you pay the mortgage and the bills?

This is why it is so important to have that back up plan. Some people’s jobs are already demanding and to think of adding extra work can be a tedious thought.

But regardless, it is so crucial to the continuation of cash flow that you have another income stream that you can rely on if one fails.

Here Are 10 Ways To Create Multiple Streams Of Income

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to create multiple streams of income.

|Blogs or Websites

If you have a blog or website, you can join affiliate networks to find products that you can review on your own website. If you do not want to do a review, then you can write blog posts where the product is the subject of the post.

For example, you may choose to join a fashion affiliate network and write a blog post about Fashionable Outfits for The Millennial Male Or Female. Within that post you can then recommend a few fashion pieces selected from the affiliate network where if the viewer clicks on the product and makes a purchase, you will receive a commission.

Some of my favourite affiliate networks are:

ShareASale
Panthera
CJ Affiliate By Conversant (Formerly Commission Junction)
Rakuten Marketing
Amazon Associates

In order to start earning from these affiliate networks, you must sign up to them. Once inside you can search for any product that you want to promote then simply write a blog post and mention the product and offer your readers to try the product. Do not forget to include your affiliate link within the post.

|YouTube

Another good place to use affiliate links is on YouTube. If you have a YouTube channel you can always speak to your viewers about the products and recommend it to them.

A great way of promoting affiliate products on YouTube is by doing product reviews. This will of course require you to purchase the product before hand so you can use it, test it and finally give an honest opinion about the product.

If you are an affiliate for a digital product, like a training course, you can do a walk through of the product, showing your viewers what’s inside the course and what they will learn.

A lot of people love testimonials so this acts as a benefit to both you and the viewer – it’s a win win.

|What You Should Know About Affiliate Networks

The great thing about affiliate networks is that they are free to join. If you do decide to join any of the networks mentioned above, be sure that you have a proper blog or website created with content on it, as the affiliate managers do check them before they approve your application.

If you do not have a blog or website and you’re ready to start one then be sure to read my article where I show you how to start your own website or blog for the low price of $3.95 a month with Bluehost.

|Affiliate Programs

If blogging or having a website is not your thing then you can consider joining an affiliate program. An affiliate program is a stand alone company that allows you to promote their products directly and gives you all the tools and training you need to get started.

What I like about affiliate programs is that you can promote your affiliate link on any social media platforms, recommend the product to friends or family or you can learn how to send a lot of people to your affiliate link so that they may purchase the product if they choose to. Blogging or having a website is not necessary.

In order to promote affiliate programs however, you must own the product. That would therefore entail purchasing the company’s product. Sometimes this can start from as low as $5 and go all the way up to $5000 or even $10,000.

The good side to this is that you get a percentage of the sale when you refer someone to purchase the product. This can be anywhere from 50% up to 100% of the purchase price.

It is a great idea to purchase the company’s product because you can use the product and give honest recommendations to other people which may influence their buying decision.

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2. Write An E-book

Writing an e-book that contains content related to your niche can be a very successful way of producing another income stream that generates income passively.

However, there is a lot of work in the beginning that goes into creating an e-book.

But, it is not as hard as you think. Anyone can create an e-book, upload it to Amazon and sell it.

Firstly you need to have some creative thought in what goes into the e-book. Your e-book can be on any topic but you want to be sure that it is a topic that people are searching for or need help with.

Once you have made up your mind as to content, you can create a PDF document from a Microsoft Word file.

You can then upload your content on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and put it for sale. If you are using Amazon be sure to look at the prices of other e-books in similar categories so that your price can remain competitive.

If you do not want to use Amazon, you can sell your e-book on your own website (if you have one) or make an arrangement for an affiliate network to host your book so that affiliates can promote it for you.

3. Sell Your Own Products On The Internet

Like the e-book idea, selling your own product is another way that you can generate an income passively.

It can be any type of product that you want, although the most successful products are those that help solve people’s problems.

Your product can be a physical product or a digital product and come in many different forms – a book, a DVD, a CD or software.

You can sell your product on your own website if you have one or arrange an affiliate agreement with an affiliate network to host your product for you.

4. Create A Blog And Monetise It

Blogging seems to be very popular and for good reason as many bloggers are making passive income from their content.

In order to make money from a blog you can monetise it with affiliate marketing as I mentioned above. A blog can be in any subject area but to ensure that it is successful you should focus on a blog niche that is highly profitable as not all blogs are created equal.

Here are six blog niches which are the most profitable and from which you can earn a full time income if it is created well:

How to make money
Personal finance
Health and fitness
Romance and dating
Beauty and Fashion
Hobbies and Activities

I went into a lot more detail with these niches in my article 6 Profitable Niche Markets For Affiliate Marketers And Bloggers. Be sure to check it out to help you decide where you should start blogging.

You can also monetise a blog with ads from Google Adsense. You must apply to Google in order for ads to appear on your blog or website.

One word of caution though, Google Adsense will only approve your application when you have a decent amount of traffic running to your blog.

If you do not want to use Google Adsense, you can also sell advertising on your blog depending on the amount of traffic it is getting. To sell advertising on your blog or website, you can use the website Buy Sell Ads which allow you to promote your own website for advertising gigs.

There are people who will pay you to place their own ads on a site that is receiving a good amount of traffic with the expectation that doing so will drive traffic to their own sites and offers.

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5. Set Up A Store

Setting up an online store is really not hard. In my article How To Start An Online Clothing Store, I walk through the set up process with you step by step.

There are companies like Shopify, Woocommerce or Ebay, that make it easier than ever to launch your own store.

By selling products that people are passionate about and looking for, can help you to generate substantial revenue.

|Dropshipping

If you are worried about having to stock inventory or post items to customers then you may want to use the dropshipping model when operating your store.

Dropshipping is an eCommerce arrangement where you agree with a supplier to provide and ship the product to your customer on your behalf. This removes the requirement to hold inventory or worry about the shipping process as it is done for you by the dropshipper.

Whilst this model makes running an online store more effortless, getting started and building a profitable eCommerce business is a lot of work. I am not saying this to discourage you, but rather to manage your expectations. At the end of the day, nothing great comes easy right?!

Hey, if you are brand new to eCommerce or are looking for some additional help in getting started with eCommerce, getting your online store set up and getting your first online store sale then I would highly recommend The Sellosity Labs ecommerce course.

They have a step by step video series to help you master eCommerce in any niche that you choose. Some of the students have been getting awesome results in one month or less and it was how I grew my very own Shopify store to $7k in sales in less than a month. You can read my own success story here.

Check out the Sellosity Labs course here and you will also receive my free clothing wholesaler’s list in your inbox as a bonus gift.

Happy selling!

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6. Create An Online Course

Do you know how to do something and can teach it to other people?

Then think about how you can generate revenue for yourself with an online course.

There are many programs like Clickfunnels, that allow you to build out a website easily with drag and drop features, upload training videos and prepare your course ready for release.

I recently found a website called Teachable that also allows you to create online courses effortlessly. Teachable provides the platform for you to upload your content and easily integrate payment processors so your students can pay for your course.

What can you put in your course?

Anything that you can teach other people basically. It can include video “How To” lessons, mini e-books, audio lessons, checklists for completing steps recommended in your videos or expert interviews.

The opportunities are endless.

Now whilst the idea of creating a course is the easiest thing that anyone can do, it is a lot of work in the beginning.

You have to prepare course materials and video content but hey, after all the hard work comes the easy part. Simply promote the course on the internet and generate an income passively.

7. Freelancing

If you can do certain tasks for other people and get paid, then why not?

Websites like Upwork, Fiverr or Elance allow you to promote yourself for jobs that other people want completed.

If you are creative or have a special skill or talent, set your own rates and get yourself hired.

Whilst this is not a passive income source, you can earn a decent income to get cash flow running by which time you will be able to fund other income opportunities to create more passive wealth.

8. Build An App

Almost everyone has a smartphone.

Why not take advantage of this and build an app that helps people solve a problem and make their lives easier.

There are billions of app downloads everyday.

If you know nothing about building an app you can hire a developer to do the job for you. The outlay might be expensive but if you have a professional-looking app that helps people, think about the profits you can make.

An app is just one of those products that you can put on the internet, like Apple Itunes or Google Play and generate massive income passively.

9. Start A YouTube Channel

300 hours of video are uploaded to You Tube every minute and there are 32.5 billion hours of video watched every month.

Many people are turning to YouTube to create an income.

How YouTube works, you upload videos that people want to see.

In fact, any type of video can generate tons of interest helping you earn an income.

You must also enable Google Adsense on your channel so that if someone clicks on an ad, you get paid.

The type of videos that are popular these days are music videos, how-to videos, comedy videos, lifestyle videos.

The key will be to create as many videos as possible to attract an audience of people who come back to your channel so that you can create a decent income.

10. Sell Your Pictures

Do you like photography? Well sites like Shutterstock or Canva allow you to use their platforms to sell your photographs to users who are looking for visual displays.

A single image can generate a passive income for you if it is being used over and over by millions of users across the web.

The good thing is, you only have to do the work once and then let the platforms do the heavy lifting for you.

Bonus: Wouldn’t you like to learn how to create multiple streams of income?

If you are looking for the ultimate guide to learn how to get multiple income streams in your business, then my free Profit With Affiliate Marketing course is the right start for you.

Learn how to create a profitable affiliate marketing campaign and generate as many streams of income as you can, from different affiliate marketing programs.

Once you know the basics of affiliate marketing and how to promote any product online, you can set up multiple businesses as you wish.

I have created this training so that it is great for beginners who are new to online marketing and need hand-holding or over-the-shoulder coaching.

If this interests you then you can check it out by clicking here.

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Cheers,

P.S Are there any particular questions that you had about this post that did not get answered? Leave them down in the comments.

P.P.S Hey have you subscribed to my YouTube channel yet?? Come on over and say hi. I give away free online marketing tips.

The post 10 Ways To Create Multiple Streams Of Income appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

Mistakes Amateur Bloggers Make – 34 Blog Experts Share Their Views

Dawn-Marie — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 13:40:32 +0000

Hey newbie blogger.

So you’re probably just starting out in the world of blogging. You consider yourself an amateur at this blogging business but what you’d really like to do is become a master at what you do.

What if you can become a master in a shorter time frame, simply by following the advice of a few expert bloggers, who started at the bottom, just where you are right now?

As you begin blogging, I want you to understand that blogging isn’t just about writing a few posts, sharing it on your social media and that’s it.

If you want to go from the category of amateur bloggers to pro, where you’re seen as an influencer in your niche, where you command the attention of brands who want to work with you, where you can create products and sell them to an engaged audience, then there’s a lot more to do than just writing content.

There’s a massive amount of work that goes into blogging like any other business, and this post is here to break down, all the mistakes you’re making as a newb and providing you with fixes.

Best of all, the advice is given by 34 expert bloggers who have been in the same position as you.

These are bloggers who have been blogging for more than a year and have been through some of the pitfalls you may be going through and have made some of the mistakes, that you probably have already made.

I asked each of these bloggers to help me with mistakes amateur bloggers make and how to fix it.

Here’s the panel of bloggers and what they said.

Mistakes Amateur Bloggers Make And How To Fix It

1. Overloading With Too Much Blogging Information

Amy Malcom from Your Stay at Home Mom is a stay at home mom for 15 years and has been blogging since 2017.

She uses her blog as a platform to write just about “a little bit of everything”. Amy says when she started blogging, her one mistake was “Overloading myself with blogging information.”

She goes on to say “My advice would be to take it slow and only a few days a week to start to avoid burning out.”

2. Investing Tons of Money In Blogging Courses Without Implementing What They’ve Learnt

Faneisha Alexander from Girl Talk With Fo is on a mission to help women get out of debt, build their bank and create the life that they want.

As a blogger, she has used her platform to reach thousands of women across the globe and shares personal finance tips.

Faneisha says that one of the mistakes amateur bloggers make when they start their blogging journey is they invest “… tons of money in blogging courses without first trying on their own or implementing what they’ve learned.

I’ve talked to several new bloggers who have invested 4-figures in education and have been disappointed by the results.

I have been blogging for over six years and can tell you that one course won’t teach you everything that you need to know. Just start, invest in areas that you need help in, implement what you learn, and let time produce the fruits of your work.”

McKayla from Motivation For Mom who shares her journey through parenting on her blog, also shares the same sentiments.

She says “I think my biggest mistake was investing into too many courses at once, and not taking time to apply all that I learned from each one. I realised later while going through old courses again, that there’s so much I didn’t remember or apply.

If you take your time through a course and implement the information as you go, you’re much more likely to REALLY learn what you’re trying to master.”

3. Not Willing to Invest in Blogging Education

June Doran is the owner of This Simple Balance, a blog about minimalism and simple living for overwhelmed moms.

The good thing that you will love to know, is that June considers herself one of those smaller bloggers.

She has a passion for helping other new bloggers find their way and that was one of the reasons why I asked for her input, because I know we’ve all been there.

We all started from the bottom and it feels so good when we can now look back and say to you, “hey, don’t make the same mistakes that I made”.

June says “New bloggers are not always willing to invest in blogging education. I feel like I went through college all over again to learn this business, and it took investing in multiple courses.

Some were not worth the money, but others are directly responsible for the part-time income I now earn from my blog. You need to be learning all the time if you want to make money blogging.”

Looking back at what June and Faneisha from Girl Talk With Fo said, one takeaway is, if you are investing in your blogging education, make sure that you are likewise implementing what you are learning – keyword, implementing.

When I invest in any type of course, I always ask myself before I purchase a course, “will this course help me reach my goals?”.

You don’t have to buy every course that is recommended to you my dear friend.

Take a look and see what the course has to offer, what it promises to teach you and only if you feel it will help you achieve what you’d like to achieve, sure, invest.

Then once you invest, make it a priority to implement what you have learnt and stick with it!

4. Having Dates As Part of Your URL Structure

Holly Connors of Simplify Create Inspire is following her childhood passion of writing and making things pretty and helping you on your journey to a simplified life.

She makes a very interesting point and something I learned myself when I started out blogging, so I am glad that she’s sharing it with you.

Holly says “One of the biggest mistakes I made as a new blogger was having dates as part of my URL structure. It meant I couldn’t change the date after a major update or I would end up with broken links.

When I finally got it fixed, my organic search traffic tripled immediately.”

This is so important you guys. It is not best practice to include dates as part of your blog URL when creating a new blog post.

For one, when you do not add a date to your blog URL, it helps to promote relevancy and demonstrate freshness for the user and search engines.

Imagine if your blog URL had a date back in 2015, but your content is evergreen and was still relevant today. Most people when using the search engines, prefer to absorb current content (at least I know I do).

So when your URL shows the date, it can affect whether your content will be preferred amongst other content that appears more current and up to date.

If you do want to include any dates in posts, make sure they are limited to the blog post date.

If you have already included dates in your blog URL, don’t freak out. The first thing you should do is not change the URL without a redirect.

Changing the URL without adding a proper redirect, can break the link, if it is posted elsewhere in your blog. Instead follow this article by Yoast SEO which explains why you should consider changing your permalink structure and how to go about doing it properly.

5. They Wait Too Long Before Starting SEO

Debbie Gartner of The Flooring Girl is a flooring expert who loves transforming her customer’s homes from drab to fab.

Debbie was perfect to seek some advice from, for amateur bloggers and I know her as the blogger who pays the most attention to SEO (search engine optimisation).

I know SEO may be the last thing on your mind as a new blogger but trust me, if you want to get as much traffic from Google and get a better search ranking, you want to listen to Debbie’s advice.

Even as a blogger for more than 16 months, I wished I started using SEO on my blog from day one.

I always told myself, “ahhhhhh my blog posts will show up on Google when they do”, but the minute I realised how much Google traffic I was getting to one of my blog posts because it showed up on the first page of Google, then I started listening.

Here’s what Debbie had to say “Most new bloggers wait too long before starting SEO and they think it’s way more complicated than it really is.

They kind of psych themselves out of it and procrastinate. The problem with this is, their articles are not targeted to solving real problems or questions their target audience has, and they majorly stunt their traffic growth.

I recommend that bloggers start to feel comfortable blogging and then start on SEO by month 3. This way, SEO becomes much more meaningful and easier to implement. And, you have less rework if you only need to go back and edit 3 month’s worth of blog posts. It’s the perfect balance.”

If you think that SEO is hard and you want somewhere to start, I strongly recommend taking The Complete SEO Training Masterclass for beginners.

You will get over six hours of on demand training, plus full lifetime access to the course so you can take your time with it.

6. They Blog about Blogging Instead Of Producing Good Content About Their Original Idea

Amy Brotherman is the owner of My Three Readers, a blog that helps parents learn phonics, strategies to increase their child’s comprehension and reading fluency.

She says, that one of the mistakes amateur bloggers make, is blogging about blogging. She continues “… It’s fun and exciting to learn new things and begin to understand all the ins and outs of this new “blogging” world that you have entered. You begin to learn the lingo and get excited when you start to hit milestones.

But, I would say that until you have had several successful months of meeting your blogging goals, you should focus instead on producing good content about your original idea – the idea you had when you first decided to start a site.”

This is very important.

For example, if you are a blogger that blogs about technology, you may want to divert and start writing content about how to blog.

Whilst blogging about blogging can be profitable, you can make your niche as profitable if you focus on growing your blog the right way. If you want to blog the right way, then my free course, How To Start A Successful Blog, is perfect for you.

Amy says “It’s easy to get sidetracked, but instead focus on good content in your chosen niche, learn SEO, and keep learning from the expert bloggers around you.”

If you want to learn SEO from a simple course for beginners, I recommend the Complete SEO Training Masterclass by Robin & Jesper. Over 53 students have already registered and it gives you a simple breakdown of how to get search rankings without all the SEO jargon.

Look, there’s nothing wrong with blogging about blogging because I believe that as a blogger you will be able to inspire your readers to do what you’re doing, but whilst you get your blog up and running, focus on your niche.

After all, there are so many other blogs about blogging. Leave it to them.

You can still monetise your own blog related to your niche, so make that your focus.

7. They Spend Too Much Time On The Design Aspects of Their Blog

Bloggers, here is a piece of advice that is super important.

This is for all of you, who want the perfect blog and delay launching it because it’s not “perfect”.

Drew DuBoff of Drew DuBoff says:

“The biggest mistake that new bloggers make is spending too much time on the design aspects. The quicker you get your blog live, the quicker Google gets to index your content and eventually rank it.

The quicker you get your blog live, the quicker you get to connect with your audience and let them guide you in your future direction.

The quicker you get your blog live, the quicker you get to make money.

I understand the desire to have your blog look pretty, but if you spend too much time designing, you’re ignoring other critical aspects that actually control more of the blogging business, like traffic. You can always pay a web designer a year down the line to code your dream site, but in the beginning, just get a theme and run with it.

I spent the first 3 months learning CSS because I chose a more advanced theme that wasn’t as customisable. I wish I had that time to write content and get traffic. So, whatever you do, stick with a design and worry about the overall aesthetic later!”

8. Many Try To Chase Money Topics That They Have No Knowledge About

One of the questions that is often asked is, should you blog about your passions or blog about a niche that is profitable.

Well David, from Dad Life Lessons answers this very question. David blogs about his life losses, victories and lessons and shares that with dads and dads-to-be.

His thoughts are: “Many try to chase money topics like finances, Seo or even blogging to make money. The problem is, if you have no knowledge and just chase the money you will lose steam to create the content to draw people in. Blog about your passions and figure out how you can make money with that and you won’t lose steam because you will be achieving something you are passionate about. ”

I agree with what he says here.

You have to be really passionate about what you’re doing so it makes sense to you, to keep going with a new blog.

When you are passionate and knowledgeable about a subject, the ability to create content comes naturally. It will not be hard for you to write content, because it’s something that you already know about.

Also for the most part, you need to have that motivation to get up each day and continue doing what you’re doing.

So if there is no passion in what you’re writing about, you can lose focus which can eventually lead to you quitting.

So as David said, “blog about your passions and figure out how you can make money with that”. You may be able to create a course, write an ebook about a challenge that people in your niche have.

Because I bet, if people are searching for it and you know the answer, they will come to you for help and there’s nothing better than being paid for your knowledge.

9. They Add An Archives By Date To Their Sidebar

Here’s an unusual piece of advice that you probably have not seen. But it will help you to understand what is required and not required in a blog.

Niki from Toots Mom Is Tired started her blog to share her experiences as a new mom. She shares parenting tips and mom hacks to other tired moms to save their sanity.

Niki points out that “One thing that I notice on almost every new blogger’s sidebar is their archives by date. That’s not necessary and no one is going to want to know what you posted in January of 2017.

They are more likely to browse by category or topic. So it’s best to remove the archive by date widget from your sidebar and free up that space for something more important.”

If you follow this advice and remove the archive by date widget, that real estate on the side bar could be filled with ads which help you make money from your blog, you can add a most recent post widget or most popular post widget that takes traffic throughout your blog, which makes navigation more streamlined.

Whenever you’re creating your blog think about the user experience. You want them to have a good one so they can keep coming back to your blog.

10. New Bloggers Learn Everything They Can At Once, Which Leaves Them Feeling Overwhelmed and Frustrated

So with the amount of information there is about blogging, what should you focus on?

I have that answer pop up in my inbox time and time again so I am glad that Nataly of Love and Paper Flowers answered this one.

Love and Paper Flowers was created to empower women to find their own voice to profitable blogging and social media strategies.

She says: “As a new blogger you set out to learn everything you can. But in turn, leaves you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.

Instead, focus on a few key areas that are the most important for blog growth and traffic, for instance Pinterest and SEO.

Once you have a good hold of these two blogging processes and you have laid out a strong foundation, continue building by spending time learning about other crucial blog growth components such as affiliate marketing and building your email list.”

So let’s make this simple for you, when blogging the most important things to learn is how to get more people to see your content and if you are blogging for profit, how to grow your blog so you can make more money.

There are many growth and monetisation strategies and Nataly has outlined four – Pinterest, SEO, affiliate marketing and email list building.

I use Pinterest and SEO to grow my blog traffic. Pinterest Traffic Avalanche, a course by Alex Nerney & Lauren McManus helped me grow my blog traffic to over 32k in 4 months.

I also recommend taking the Complete SEO Training Masterclass by Robin & Jesper which is an easy course for beginners to help you get started with SEO.

Other growth strategies that make an impact when done right, include blogger outreach.

There are tons of monetisation strategies but the best ones, other than what Nataly says is ad revenue, your own products/services or sponsorships.

11. They Do Not Have A Time Management Plan In Place

At times, things are going to get tough and this is definitely a mistake amateur bloggers make as they’re just getting started.

Don’t spread yourself too thin.

Emily Parker shares her parenting journey in Journey of Parenthood and says “Create a solid time management plan. Have a realistic work time and then ENJOY life too! It’s easy to get too caught up in blogging and forget to live!”

And she is so right.

As blog entrepreneurs, one of the biggest mistakes we make, is not taking the time to enjoy the journey that you are on. Because it is a journey.

Success takes time, so instead of trying to force it and not live the life that you want, enjoy what you’re doing and take it in stride.

12. Choosing a Domain Name That Is Too Specific

In my recent blog post, Ideas for Blog Names, I wrote about how to come up with a blog name and choose your domain name.

Bryannah Kay of Healthy Little Mama, shares motherhood tips, healthy recipes, fitness, travel, and things to do with your family in her blog.

She says that one of the mistakes amateur bloggers make is “Choosing a domain that is super specific and then later realising that you may have a passion for something else.

Looking back I wish I would have made my blog name, my name. I thought I would love food blogging but I love motherhood and lifestyle. My advice would be to take time at least 2 months to self-reflect and research other blogs to see what you truly want to do. Bonus thought: getting super specific with your domain definitely helps SEO so it could be positive.”

Now even though you may have decided on a blog name, remember that you can always change it later on, if you want to.

The process involves buying a new domain name and redirecting it to your old domain name.

So all’s not lost if you decide to change your name in the future.

13. They Delay Publishing Content

The next mistake amateur bloggers make according to Tuppenny from Tuppenny’s Fire Place, is delaying publishing content.

Tuppenny says “A mistake I made, and I see many others do too, is thinking that whatever content I wrote must be perfect and delayed publishing it until it was.

A year down the line and I know, still, that my posts aren’t perfect but they are ‘good enough’ right now. Solution – write and publish, don’t procrastinate too long. You can (and should) always edit your work at a later date.”

I used to have this same problem when I started blogging.

I always used to think that my content was rubbish. “No one would want to read this”, I said. “Is this even valuable?”, I thought.

Low and behold when I published my content, I received messages and emails from people thanking me for such detailed advice. They even wrote how they loved my blog.

We are sometimes our own worst enemies and I cannot agree with Tuppenny more.

So the next time you write content, publish the darn thing! Don’t wait another second to overthink the process. Because there is someone out there in the world wide web who would think that your content is pure gold!

So just do it.

14. They Do Not Add Google Analytics To Their Blog

Ok bloggers. Remember one thing when you finish building your blog.

Debra Diriwachter of Debra’s World says “Once you make your blog to add the Google analytics first because I did it a year later I didn’t know I’ve learn as i keep blogging. It will be helpful when you start contacting brands and or PR firms.”

As a new blogger, there may be some things you did not know to include during your blog building, and this is one of them.

If you’re not sure what Google Analytics is for, then check out my recent post 6 Google Analytics Metrics Bloggers Need To Care About.

If you want to know what other thing is important to include in your blog when building it, take my free comprehensive course that teaches you how to build a blog successfully. Click the button below.

15. Participating In Facebook Share Threads

I get so many questions about whether Facebook groups are a good traffic source for your blog.

They are, when the group you’re posting your blog to, is niched.

However, one of the things that I see a lot and very recently too, is bloggers posting on share threads.

But don’t worry if you do follow it.

In fact I used to do it too and this was a hard lesson for me to learn, but I got it.

I would say this mistake can really hurt your progress. Cindy Hemming of Living For The Sunshine says “Getting bogged down in Facebook groups/share threads. This can take up so much of your blogging time and you’re not going to get good return on investment. Set a time limit for yourself and stick to it. Do a few share threads if you like, but make sure they don’t take up the majority of your blogging time.”

Tara Findlay is a WordPress genius, who uses her blog, WP Blogger Assist to help other WordPress bloggers build their website successfully.

Tara says: “My husband and I started our main blog in January 2018. One of mistakes we made early on was wasting time on things that were not productive for our blog.

One such example would be spending time in traffic exchanges or sharing threads. This became like a second full time job. A much better option is to find a supportive blogging group that does not allow the sharing threads…”

I want to add, that unless the Facebook group is niched, share threads really do nothing for your blog and is only hurting it.

When you are growing your blog, you want people to come to it and read it with purpose.

Participating in share threads is only to do one thing, get clicks to your blog and certainly you may get more traffic, but that traffic is likely to only last a day.

Also the people who participate on share threads are unlikely to convert into genuine followers of your blog.

If you want to grow your blog business, you want to reach people who are genuinely interested in what you are writing and sadly, that unlikely happens in a share thread.

Think about it, supposing one day you decide to participate in a share thread. You love gardening but you’re invited to click on a blog about cars.

The only reason that car blog got a visit from you, was because you were part of the thread.

You’re not a fan of cars, so that visit was not meaningful at all. In fact as soon as you land on the blog, you leave.

When you spend so little time on a blog, Google tracks that visit. If they realise that this car blog is getting many people to visit it but they spend very little time, they drive up their bounce rate which only affects the health of a blog.

What is your bounce rate?

Your bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a particular website, who leave the site after viewing only one page.

So getting a large number of visits to your blog, through these share threads may be great. You may have an increase in numbers, but it is not going to be sustainable because the people who visit your blogs from these share threads are not purposeful visitors.

So I encourage you, to not take part in them because you’re not doing yourself or your blog a favour.

If you’re looking for a place to grow your traffic and get real visitors who are looking for your content, then my blog post How To Get 1000 Pageviews To A Brand New Blog will definitely help you.

16. They Write Content That Is Not Relevant To Their Audience

Are you spending time writing content that matters to your audience? You may struggle to know what to write and rather than writing content which helps your audience, you write content that’s not “relevant”.

Here’s what Christiana Acha from Christiana Acha says about this.

One mistake that amateur bloggers make is that they are “Focusing on quantity rather than quality. I have noticed that most new Bloggers are more concerned with churning our content on a regular basis, rather than providing quality, evergreen content that would keep being relevant for a long time.

People are looking for answers to questions and solutions to problems and if you can solve these problems by producing and providing relevant content, you will be far ahead of your competitors with little or no effort!”

Jeff Proctor from Dollar Sprout, which is a blog that helps readers improve their financial lives, also says “The biggest mistake I see new bloggers make is creating content without any clear strategy — they just write about whatever they want. Don’t write content just for the sake of writing content or simply “building your audience”.

Before you write a new post, ask yourself a few questions:

Who is this post meant to help?

What marketing channel am I designing this post for? (search, social, etc)

What outcome do I want from this post? Email opt ins? Affiliate sales? Make clear goals before you get started.

How are my successful competitors covering similar topics?

By being strategic about the content you are creating, you will avoid months (maybe even years) of wasted time!”

So I want you to understand, that blogging is about providing answers to people and doing so strategically.

If you’re having a hard time trying to figure out what people are asking then check out my blog post How To Come Up With Blog Post Ideas.

Want a 90 day blog strategy, then my Ultimate Blogging Strategy Guide will help you.

17. They Do Not Expand Their Niche

So another thing about content creation and the mistakes amateur bloggers make, are they do not expand their niche.

I remember when I first started blogging, I thought I had to write about one subject, network marketing and nothing else.

It took me a long time to add different topics to my blog to grow it. When I did that, I had so much more to talk about and attracted a lot more people.

Christina from Raising Biracial Babies blogs about all aspects of motherhood and even provides tips for working at home and building your own blog as a busy mom.

When it comes to expanding your niche, Christina covers this the best when she says “I think many new bloggers have tunnel vision when it comes to what they want to write about.

They think they should only write about a certain subject or couple of subjects and can’t stray from that. While that can work, it can also be the reason you stay stagnant. If you aren’t seeing the kind of growth you want, you may want to consider branching out to see if there’s another subject that resonates more with your audience.

Don’t be afraid to try new things because it could be what sparks your trajectory to success.”

On the back end of this though, I think it’s also important to mention that you should not go too broad with your blog.

Lili Ugbaja from Finding Balance says “One mistake I see new bloggers make is going too broad with their new blog.

Let’s say you want to talk about Motherhood for example, don’t start a blog that talks about all the aspects of Motherhood immediately.

Choose one aspect, say breastfeeding, or pregnancy and thoroughly cover that topic then from there begin to broaden out into other aspects of your niche.”

18. They Start Their Blogs On An Inadequate Blog Platform

This next piece of advice is so important and it’s a mistake that amateur bloggers make when they’re just getting started.

McKinzie Bean of Moms Make Cents says “One mistake that bloggers make when starting their blog is using the wrong platform.

I made the mistake of starting one of my sites on Squarespace. While it can be a good platform for a basic website or shop for bloggers that plan to scale, it can be very limiting.

After seven years of blogging, I highly recommend going with a self-hosted WordPress site. It is the most customisable and scalable.

Plus, with the advancements with page builders like Elementor, it makes running a WordPress site much more intuitive. If you’ve started on a platform other than WordPress, make the switch as soon as you can. The less content you have, the easier it is to make the transition. Speak with the host you are going to move to, to see what help they can provide to move your site. ”

Hey new blogger, if this is you and you have a blog on a platform other than WordPress, check out my free course How To Start A Successful Blog where you will learn how to start a blog the right way, the best web host to use and the tools you need to put you on the right part to becoming a successful blogger.

Also if you’re not blogging as a business yet, you may have asked yourself, whether a free or paid blog is suitable for an amateur blogger. Well there are many thoughts on this and I would say to start with a paid platform.

That way if you decide to transition to a professional blogger it will be easier for you and you do not have to start over.

Check out my blog post where I dive into The Best Free and Paid Blog Sites so you can see all the options available to you.

19. They Do Not Connect With Their Audience Through Live Video

As a new blogger don’t think that you can hide behind your computer for the rest of your blogging journey.

Amateur bloggers make this one mistake most times and it can keep back your progress.

As Kathryn Roberts at Quest for $47, a blog that teaches you how to grow your side hustle, says “The biggest mistake I see new bloggers make is to not take advantage of live video soon enough.

When you’re live with your audience, you are able to connect with them on a level that goes far beyond written content, or even perfectly polished video.

You don’t need anything fancy in order to start with video, especially when it’s live. Just click record and go. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and it also gives you the opportunity to get more comfortable in front of the camera, which will only help you grow your community even faster.”

20. They Do Not Have a Blog Business Plan

If you want your blog to become a business, one mistake you should avoid making is to go blind and without a blog plan.

Cousett Hoover of Techie Mamma says “I just jumped in and started. I think if I were to do it again it would have been nice to have a plan and an idea of what I wanted to do.

In one sense it grew organically and I like that but even though I’ve been blogging for over two years I feel like I’m just starting out because I really didn’t try to reach out or promote so my traffic is less than it should be.

Now I write about the right way to start a website and encourage others to not make the same mistake.”

So what exactly is your blog plan?

If you’re looking for a 90 day blog strategy then I urge you to take a peek at my blog post The Ultimate Blog Strategy – 90 Days To Blog Success so you can have an idea of what you need to focus on in the first 90 days of your blog.

If you want to get this strategy dripped out to you by email over 5 days, then click here to get started with my free blog course.

21. They Do Not Build An Email List From The Start

This was touched on earlier, but I think it deserves a mention by itself and that is email list building.

It is a huge mistake as an amateur blogger if you neglect to build an email list from the very start.

Dale from Blogging Her Way helps female entrepreneurs start money-making blogs and earn more through affiliate marketing and selling digital products.

Dale says “I see so many new bloggers who make the mistake of not starting an email list right away! Your email list is one of your BEST tools for making money as a blogger.

To fix this mistake, just go for it and start a list – even if you don’t feel like you’re ready. Once you have an email list, remember to nurture and engage your subscribers by sending a value-packed newsletter every week.”

If you do not know what an email list is then check out my blog post about starting an email list. This is the one that I urge you not to ignore because I bet some of you, reading this haven’t started an email list and are not bothered to.

But as you become more seasoned with blogging you’d wished you would have started it earlier.

So as Dale says, get started now.

22. They Neglect The Legal Side Of Blogging

I cannot say how important this next piece of advice is for you. As an amateur blogger your concern may only be about getting your blog started, but have you thought about the legal side of blogging.

Amira Irfan is a lawyer and decided to use her skills in the form of blogging to teach other bloggers how to protect their online business legally.

Amira is the owner of A Self Guru and says “One of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make is neglecting the legal side of blogging. They fail to make their blog legally compliant and protect themselves from lawsuits.

Treat your blog as a business from day one and make sure to comply with all the blogging laws out there. The easiest way to fix this legal mistake is by having all 3 legal pages (Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms and Conditions) on your blog BEFORE you launch.”

23. They Do Not Think Through the Tax Complications of Making Money Blogging

And talking about the legal side of blogging there is also the tax implications of blogging. These are some of the most important things that you need to think about when you start a blog.

Not just the small stuff.

Kim Cartwright of Simple Blog Taxes says “New bloggers often don’t think through the tax implications of making money blogging.

They either don’t know how to file taxes as a business, they think they don’t need to pay taxes if they aren’t an LLC, they don’t realise that you need to report the ‘free stuff’ as income, etc. This is fixed by taking the time to do some research about small businesses and talking to a tax professional. Fines can add up quick. It is worth it to get professional guidance.”

24. They Feel They Need To Have a Presence On Every Social Media Platform

If you’re trying to grow your blog, as a new blogger you may find yourself tempted to have a social media presence on every platform there is.

It is not necessary. This is one mistake amateur bloggers make, in that they feel they need to show up everywhere and that only causes overwhelm.

Money Bee from the blog The Land Of Milk and Money, helps people at all stages of the path to being financially free, save money better.

On this topic, she says, “Social media is a great place to promote your blog but one big mistake I made when starting out (that I also see others doing now) is spending way too much time on platforms that aren’t actually growing your audience.

It can be tempting to feel like you have to constantly post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest etc. but you’ll likely find in reality that people aren’t clicking through to your site as much as you hope.

And I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that when I post to one of these places, it’s far too easy to find myself wasting time afterwards by checking other people’s posts – which is time that could be spent actually growing my blog!

Instead, I’d recommend focusing on only one or two that actually pay off for you.

For me, that’s Pinterest and sometimes Twitter. You’ll save time by making sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck…and won’t be tempted to accidentally spend hours wandering around the rest of the site!

That said, as an added tip, you should definitely lock in a username on each of the major platforms, just in case you need to use it later.”

I mentioned before, that Pinterest is a great starting point for new bloggers. It is this platform, where I was able to grow my blog to over 32k visitors per month. Today I am up 40k visitors and am now focusing my efforts on Pinterest and SEO to make those number higher.

If you want to learn how to use Pinterest to grow your traffic numbers, I strongly recommend the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course that I used to help me do that.

You may also be interested in getting a better search ranking, to get traffic from Google and the one course I would recommend is the Complete SEO Training Masterclass by Robin & Jesper.

25. They Do Not Diversify Their Traffic Sources

And talking about having a social media presence, tell me, what traffic source do you rely on?

Do you do as above and post on every social media outlet or are you making this big mistake and relying on just one?

If the latter, then I want you stop that right now. I recently saw in a Facebook group where a newbie blogger who was focusing on Pinterest, lamented the fact that he was also getting traffic from Google.

Here’s what he said and my response:

This guy was not clued up on diversifying his traffic. What happens if one platform suddenly changes their algorithm and you are left with no traffic.

This is why it is important to DI-VER-SI-FY.

Sam from Long Distance Things says, a mistake amateur bloggers make is “Focusing on only one source of traffic, in my case this was Pinterest. You must diversify your traffic from other areas (SEO, e-mail marketing and other social media channels). Don’t just think about using Pinterest, start using other methods such as SEO.”

26. They Compare Themselves To Other Blogger Entrepreneurs

When you start blogging, please, I urge you to stop comparing yourself to other bloggers. It definitely is a mistake which is only detrimental to you because then you may be unmotivated instead of focusing on what you can do to move forward in your journey.

Annie Brown of Savvy Honey says “One mistake new bloggers make is getting discouraged when they compare themselves to other bloggers when it comes to income, traffic, and social media.

The thing about this is we all have different paces to which we achieve success. The best way to overcome this is to pay less attention to what everyone else is doing and put all your energy into your own blog.

Just know you may be comparing yourself to other bloggers on an uneven playing field. Have they been blogging for years? Are they a full-time blogger and you are part time?

Are they in a more profitable niche? I could go on and on, but the most important thing is you hustle hard and don’t beat yourself up as to where your blog “should be”. Because where you should be is where you are right now, just keep embracing the journey!”

27. They Mismatch Their Images With Their Content

Here’s a very unique message shared by Robyn O’Brien of Robyn O’Brien Photography when it comes to mistakes amateur bloggers make.

She says: “When you first start out there’s so many “must dos”, but new bloggers don’t take the time to address what they want there viewer to think and feel about their content, and frequently mismatch the connect with the “best image they can find” without looking into what else the image has been associated with.

I love to help them find clarity in what they want to show and double check the image is the best one for them just using Google’s reverse image search. It’s the easiest way to check an image if you’re not using your own. ”

28. They Do Not Know How To Use On-Page SEO and Header Tags

As an amateur blogger, it’s important that you understand on-page SEO and how to use header tags to get better search rankings.

Header tags are simply emphasised text on a page.

Typically they are larger than normal font and helps a post stand out.

Also be careful of the size of your images. So Ilana Schattauer of Life Well Cruised says “When I first started my blog, I made a mistake many new bloggers make. I wrote posts with little direction and didn’t know why to use the different headers (H2, H3). My photos were too large most of the time as well.

It’s not a difficult fix, but bloggers can now go back to those older posts and fix them up if the content is still overall good and relevant.

Consider purchasing an inexpensive guide to writing with on page SEO in mind to help with this. A tip I learned for photos is to use Canva to create the size you want, such as 600 x 400 for most photos.”

If you want to learn the ins and outs of SEO at a basic level, consider taking the Complete SEO Training Masterclass, that teaches you how to optimise your website so you can get traffic from Google.

29. They Do Not Use Video As Part of Their Marketing Strategy

Previously, Live videos were touched upon.

Now YouTube videos is worth a mention. Patrick Barnett of The Income Spot says “I would say one of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make is not using video as part of their marketing strategy. It’s an underutilised medium for many bloggers.

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine and often you can rank a video within YouTube while you may not have a chance for the same keyword within Google search.

Video helps you reach your audience in a different format since some people like to read while others like to watch video. Video content posted on your blog helps to better engage and build trust within your audience. It can also increase dwell time ( amount of time spent on your site) and generate backlinks both of which are Google ranking factors.

Further, there are numerous statistics that demonstrate that video content generates more social shares and contributes to higher conversion rates as compared to text.”

Wrapping Up

There’s a ton of lessons to be learnt, so if you went through this list and found a mistake you’re currently making, be sure to immediately fix it.

Guys, I really hope this content was valuable and the advice you receive from the bloggers who contributed, has given you some food for thought in relation to your blog.

We’re all in the same boat. We want to be as professional as possible and reap huge results from our efforts.

So this post is meant to guide you so you can run ahead with your blogging business, knowing that you are doing the best for you and your audience.

Tell me the in the comments what’s one thing this post taught you and how you’re gonna fix it.

The post Mistakes Amateur Bloggers Make – 34 Blog Experts Share Their Views appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

Ideas For Blog Names

Dawn-Marie — Sun, 03 Mar 2019 17:19:21 +0000

Now that you have decided to start a blog, it’s time to come up with some ideas for blog names. But whilst it sounds simple to do, most of us want the perfect, unique name and this can take time to decide, especially since you want your blog name to be special.

Most tutorials that teach you about starting a blog, usually say it is not necessary to spend a great deal of time on their blog name during the setting up process.

Whilst I understand why they say this, because when in the blog creation process, it’s not wise to stall the progress; a blog name for some, is what will stick with them for the lifetime of their blog and can become a true brand representing the owner.

So you really need to pay attention and take some time to craft the perfect blog name.

One piece of advice that I’d like to give you now, is that when you have decided on the perfect blog name, don’t wait too long to claim it as yours. Make sure to buy the domain name immediately.

It is acceptable to buy your domain name now but set up your blog later. The most important thing you can do to prevent your blog name from being taken is to secure your domain by making it yours.

With that out of the way, I am going to help you with some formulas so you can have some great ideas for blog names regardless of which niche you’re in.

Here’s what you will learn:

What to consider before creating a blog name
10 Formulas for coming up with a blog name

What To Consider Before Creating A Blog Name

So how do people actually name their blogs?

How do they come up with ideas for blog names?

Well they might use a combination of factors such as words put together, a play on words or pun, it might be a memorable event to the blog creator or they could be SEO-savvy and create a blog name based on the niche.

Whatever method you use to create a blog name, here are a few things you should think about before you come up with blog name.

What’s your purpose for creating a blog in the first place?

Do you intend to use it for personal use only?

Do you want to create a brand?

Perhaps you may want to sell the blog later on?

Do you want it to be an affiliate niche site where you review affiliate products for profit?

Depending on what you’d like to do with the blog, you may want to reflect on the name of the blog since the blog name can accelerate your success if chosen correctly.

For example, if you want to create an affiliate niche blog, you may want to optimise it for the search engines, by using a keyword in the blog name.

If you want to sell the blog later on, using a blog name instead of your personal name may be the better option.

So decide from the start what is the purpose of creating your blog.

Who will be reading your blog?

If your blog is all about a specific movie, a name that fans of that movie are familiar with, would be more appropriate since they can easily identify to the name and immediately resonate with it.

Out of the four blog names listed below (look at the blog URL), which one stands out as being a Harry Potter blog?

BeyondHogwarts.com. Not so?

Most Harry Potter fans know about Hogwarts, the wizarding school in Harry Potter; so it is easy to identify that such a blog is about Harry Potter just by its name and so can attract the right audience.

Is this juggling your mind and opening up ideas for blog names? I hope so …

What is the story behind your blog?

This is a great way to come up with ideas for blog names, since the backstory can be the biggest source of inspiration.

For example, blog owner, Amanda, of Wet Hair Don’t Care was recently interviewed by the Style Collective about the inspiration she got to naming her blog.

She said “I struggled with a name FOREVER… I had just sent her a text with a bunch names from various song lyrics I liked when she texted me back, saying, “Wet Hair, Don’t Care is still my favorite.” I responded saying I didn’t even realize that was even on the table, but I loved it. I learned how to swim before I could walk, swam competitively my whole life, and always need to be by a pool or body of water in the summer. I’ve also always had an attitude. It could not have been more perfect.”

Do you have a memory or event that you can recall that can act as inspiration?

Now that you have been able to appreciate the reason for your blog and who you want it to serve, let’s look at the many ways that you can come up with a blog name.

The goal for this post is to make the naming process easy and to inspire you to create the best blog name.

Let’s get started.

The SEO-Keyword Blog Name

One of the easiest ideas for blog names you can come up with, is one that has a keyword in it for the purposes of SEO.

This is particularly helpful if you want to focus on getting traffic from the search engines.

Maybe your blog is promoting a particular product that is frequently searched for, or you would like to attract a particular audience.

Well you can start by naming your blog after the SEO-keyword that you would like your blog to rank for.

The difficult part is however, your keyword may be competitive so it is not available.

So let’s think about this for a second.

Even if this is the case, you can still use the keyword, but add an additional word or words to the keyword to turn it into the perfect blog name.

For example, you have decided to create a blog all about Labrador Retrievers, because you would like to attract an audience that loves this breed of dog.

Well www.labradorretriever.com is already taken so what words can you add to create a blog name.

Here are some examples:

Thelabradorretriever
Labradorretrieverworld
Fortheloveoflabradorretrievers
Labradorretrieverlove
Labradorretrieverpets

As long as you have your keyword in mind, adding simple words to it, to create the blog name, is easy.

Having a difficult time coming up with keywords that people search for? Start by using a keyword research tool.

You can use a free tool like KWFinder or a paid tool like Keysearch.

Once you have come up with a keyword, see whether the domain is already taken, to decide whether it’s a name you’d like to use or whether you’d like to add on a word to make it better.

Foreign Language Blog Name

I have seen a combination of languages to create a blog name which you can add to your ideas for blog names.

For example, it may be an English and a French word, used together to come up with a creative blog name.

If you are a native of a country, that may be an inspiration you can use, to use a combination of languages to add a flair to your blog name.

Just as TravelNoire have done – the use of the English word, travel + the french word, noire which means black, they have created a blog that is all about travel amongst people of colour.

I also stumbled upon StampingBella – a blog about rubber stamping.

The owner of StampingBella could have used the English word, beautiful instead of the Etalian word bella, but by combining both an English and Italian word, makes the final blog name not only short but different.

Don’t you think?

StampingBella adds more uniqueness than StampingBeautiful even though both mean the same thing.

The use of the foreign language term just adds a touch of character.

If you have decided to use this formula as one of your ideas for blog names, consider using an English word and then describing that word with a foreign language word.

Or why not use foreign language words instead of English?

Descriptive Blog Names

Think about what you do or the essence of what your blog is about, to help your audience easily understand what type of content they can expect.

Then use a description to describe yourself or what you do and let that be your blog name.

As is the case with Oneika Raymond from the blog Oneika The Traveller, she is a Travel Chanel host who has travelled to over 100 countries on 6 continents and shares the love of travel with her audience.

She effortlessly names her blog after herself and throws in “The Traveller” for good measure.

If you do not want to include your name in your blog name, why not simply describe what you do or describe yourself.

For example, Minimalist Baker is a food blogger that shares simple recipes that require 10 ingredients or less.

From the title you can easily determine what the blog is about without any guesswork.

Other blogs that have used descriptive blog names are:

Fashion Mamas (http://www.fashionmamas.com) which is a blog for mothers who work in fashion, art, design, media and entertainment.
The Football Girl (http://thefootballgirl.com/) which is a blog that provides content about NFL experiences so you can understand everything you need to know about the game of football.
Android Authority (https://www.androidauthority.com/) which is blog that provides a valuable resource about the Android operating system.
Joy The Baker (http://joythebaker.com/) which as you guessed is a self-taught baker, turned professional baker who blogs about baking.

So as you can see, here is another strategy you can use to get great ideas for blog names, which will help you find creative blog names when you’re just starting out.

Once you’ve thought about your perfect blog name, check to see if the domain is available and go get it.

Play On Words Blog Name

A play on words, otherwise known as a pun, is a method of exploiting different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.

Some examples of puns are:

A horse is very stable. Here you’re playing on the word stable, because horses live in stables.
The elephant’s opinion, carries a lot of weight. A play on the word weight, because of how heavy an elephant is.
The life of a patient of hypertension is always at steak. A play on the word steak, which should actually be stake but one can say hypertension is due to too much steak.

I hope you get that.

So you can always play on words if you are creative enough and use that to come up with a blog name.

Here are a few examples of blogs that have done that.

Not Jess Fashion (Not Just Fashion) https://www.notjessfashion.com
Smitten Kitchen (Smitten Kitten) http://smittenkitchen.com/
Decor8 (Decorate) http://decor8blog.com/
Don’t Get Wrenched (Don’t Get Drenched) https://dontgetwrenched.wordpress.com/
Good Financial Cents (Good Financial Sense) https://www.goodfinancialcents.com/blog/
Girls Just Wanna Have Funds (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun) http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/

Your Own Name

To avoid the hurdle of coming up with a blog name, why not just use your own name?

It’s perfectly acceptable, just like mine, instead I did not use my full name but my first name and added I Am.

Now there are times when you should not use your name as a blog name and here’s when:

If you intend to sell your blog later on, using your name for your blog makes it very hard to do so. It is easier to sell a blog that is not personally branded and you may not want to sell your personally branded blog, since you are giving away a piece of you.

Some people advise against using your name as your blog name since you lose the opportunity to tell people what your blog is about. I think this point carries little weight since if you want people to know what your blog is about and you are using the search engines to get discovered, you can easily optimise your blog with keywords that makes your blog appear when a certain keyword is entered into the search engines.

If your name is hard to spell, then I would recommend you steer away from using your name as your blog name.

You want a blog name that is easy to remember and spell so it makes it easy for your audience to go back to it if they want to.

Here are some successful bloggers who have used their own names:

Melyssa Griffin (Marketing Blogger) https://www.melyssagriffin.com/
Candice Nikeia (Fashion Blogger) http://www.candicenikeia.com/
Jane Friedman (Writing Blogger) https://www.janefriedman.com/
Jessica Sepel (Health and Nutrition Blogger) https://jessicasepel.com/
James Altucher (Personal Development Blogger) https://jamesaltucher.com/
Matthew Woodward (SEO Blogger) https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/

Niche-Related Popular Phrases Blog Name

If you are deciding to blog in a particular niche, it is assumed that you already know of some popular sayings in your niche that you can use and create as a blog name, if it isn’t already taken.

For example, in the affiliate marketing niche, I know that some of the terms us affiliate marketers use, are terms like:

Crushing it
Killing it
Insane ROI (return on investment)
Super affiliate
Affiliate niche

So if I had to start over and wanted some cool ideas for blog names for my blog, I would consider these terms to create a blog name. Here’s how I would adapt some affiliate terms into blog names:

Affiliate Crushing It
Affiliate Killing It
Affiliate ROI Secrets
Girl Super Affiliate
Niches For Profits

If you are an affiliate marketer and wanting to name your blog, those are my five suggestions. Now go forth and use it! LOL

So you do see how you can apply simple phrases in your niche and adapt it for your ideas for blog names.

Here’s how other bloggers have used this concept to create their own blog name.

The Daily Downward Dog (Yoga) (http://dailydownwarddog.com/) you may know that the downward dog is a yoga pose. Maria Santoferraro, cleverly applied the name of this pose to her blog name which is a great idea, because it helps yoga fans easily identify it as being a yoga blog without the name actually having yoga in it.

How To Geek (Tech) (http://www.howtogeek.com/) I love this blog name. LOL. It has me in stitches but it’s a great idea to include the word geek in your tech blog since the word is almost always associated with technology and anything intellectual.

GeekWire (http://www.geekwire.com/) is also another tech blog that has adapted this word to its blog name.

Where Did U Get That (Fashion) (http://wheredidugetthat.com/). Love this! And it’s so appropriately fitting, since most people when they see someone wearing something that they like, they say “where did you get that?” This blog is by Karen Blanchard who documents her personal style and street style and the best places to shop.

Just A Taste (http://www.justataste.com/). I bet you can guess what type of blog this is? If you guessed a food blog, you’re right. It’s a blog that provides recipes for every type of meal and the saying “just a taste” already gives you a feel for what you’re about to see and read.

The Three-Word Rule Blog Name

Recently I have been seeing a lot of blog names like Who What Wear, Eat Sleep Wear, Each One Money.

It appears to be a thing now, where you can put a group of three words together and that’s it.

The words do not have to relate to each other but one word seems to relate particularly to the niche to help identify what the blog is about.

Here are a few of those blog names that I came across that goes after the three word rule. You can easily put together three unrelated words, one word related to the niche and come up with your own three-word rule blog name.

Here goes:

Who What Wear (Fashion)
Eat Sleep Wear (Fashion & Lifestyle)
Each One Money (Wealth Management)
Live Learn Better (Lifestyle)
Map Camera Travel (Travel)
Eat Pray Workout (Fitness)
Live Craft Love (Craft)

Two Words Joined By & Blog Name

Two words, joined by “&”, that’s it.

There goes your next blog name .

I have been noticing a lot of blogs having this formula where the blog owners take two related or unrelated words and put them together with the & sign in between.

The words do not have to be related in anyway to your niche.

You can make the combination of words chic and feminine or they can be rugged and masculine.

If you’re struggling to come up with words you can use, dictionary.com to look for synonyms of words and you can start mashing them together to see how they sound to you.

Here are some blogs that have accomplished this so you can get some inspiration:

Pumps & Iron. This is a fitness blog and takes the word pumps and the fact that most equipment is made from iron and then put them together in an effortless way.
Sift & Pick. This is a beauty, lifestyle and travel blog, so as you can see, the words sift and pick has no direct relation to what the blog is about.

Sequins & Stripes. A fashion and personal style blog used as an outlet for the creator’s background in fashion and textiles.
Lilacs & Lace. A blog about sewing and knitting. Who would have thought, but there is an apparent meaning to this name.
Green & Mustard. An interior design blog with a very odd name that from the onset does not seem to have anything to do with interior design.
Love & Road. This is a travel blog and I suppose the word “road” gives it away.

You can see from the above examples that in some cases the words used, have nothing to do with the niche of the blog, but in other cases it does.

This is a simple way to come up with a blog name so very little thought can go into it and you can come up with a unique name.

A Play On Your Name Blog Name

Sometimes if you have a name that can be played on, in a way that it is used in everyday conversations or as part of a saying, then why not use those sayings for your blog name.

For example, my name is Dawn, which is easily used in different sayings such as dusk to dawn, coffee at dawn or before the dawn and I could have used any of these sayings as my blog name.

So if your name is used in a similar manner, why not use it for your blog name, if the name is not yet taken.

This is a very playful way of making sure that your name is part of your blog name, without actually giving it your full name.

So in the event you decided to sell the blog you can still do so, without worrying about the restriction that one would have, if they were to name their blog after their own name.

Some bloggers were able to include their name in their blog name, in an amusing way as you will see below:

Skye Travels. This travel blog owned by Skye Class, cleverly plays on the creator’s name Skye which can also relate to the sky and being up in the air, which most travellers do.
A Rosie Outlook. Lifestyle blog owned by Rosie Tapping, plays on her name Rosie which can also mean “rosy” as in hopeful or promising and by adding the word outlook can mean a promising or hopeful outlook. Good use of the name.
Shugary Sweets. A food blog owned by Aimee Shugary who says “Grab a cup of coffee (or beverage of your choice) and stay with me awhile. My name is Aimee and I’m the author here behind Shugary Sweets! And yes, “SHUGARY” is spelled correctly. It’s a take on my last name.”
BrePurposed is a painting, crafting and home decor blog by Bre Bertolini, who played on her name Bre and created the blog name BrePurposed. Just like you would repurpose things for different purposes as you may do in home decor and craft. It’s a very suitable name for a DIY blog.

Is there anyway you can adapt your name to a blog name that’s funny or charming? Let me know in the comments.

(Key)Word + Tips

So this formula is probably overused and for good reason. It is one of the easiest ways to name your blog, so it gets shown up in the search engines more often than not.

When you think about it, most people are searching for tips related to something that they want to do. For example, woodworking tips, cooking tips, dressing tips, so it makes absolute sense that if you want a chance at coming up on the search engine, then name your blog with this formula.

Now the word “tips” is a very competitive keyword, but you can reduce the competition by adding a specific keyword in front of it.

Here’s how some bloggers have used the word “tips” in their blog name:

Handyman Tips (handymantips.org) a blog about house repairs, house improvements, interior design, landscaping, tool reviews, woodworking and DIY tips!
DIY Tips (https://www.diy-tips.co.uk/) a blog full of helpful DIY hints and tips
Gr8 Travel Tips (https://gr8traveltips.com/) a travel blog, which focuses on all kinds of travel tips, travel inspiration and so much more.
My Decorating Tips (https://mydecoratingtips.com/) a home decor blog focused on family-friendly decorating.

Wrapping Up Ideas For Blog Names

Hey new blogger, there are so many ways you can come up with inspiration for your new blog.

Sometimes, you just want a blog name, which you know is something that you will work with for a long time so I get it.

You want the perfect blog name.

Hopefully my unique ideas for blog names, will give you a starting point that you can use but always remember, once you’ve found the name, secure it by making the domain name yours.

Check below to see if the name is available now with Bluehost and buy it immediately, because you never know if someone else in the internet world has it on their radar as well.

Have you come up with a cool blog name using my tips? Tell me in the comments so I can shout you out.

Cheers

The post Ideas For Blog Names appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

6 Google Analytics Metrics Bloggers Need to Care About

Dawn-Marie — Sat, 09 Feb 2019 01:08:52 +0000

The following is a guest post written by Danielle Canstello, party of the content marketing team at Pyramid Analytics.

If a blog is one component of your business and your marketing strategy, you want to be sure it’s effective.

After all, it’s great to have subscribers, readers and shares, but the real point of your blog should be to support your business.

Which means the blog needs to be linked to business outcomes.

In other words, what’s the goal of your blog?

You need to define success, and it needs to be aligned with your business goals.

In this way, you’ll be able to know whether you’ve achieved your goal(s), or whether you’re en route to success.

What are the most important blog metrics and how can you measure progress towards your goal, or achievement of success?

With Google Analytics of course.

If you would like to learn more about Google Analytics you can watch Google’s video below on the topic.

If you want to skip the video, let’s get right into today’s post.

Let’s take a look at the 6 Most Important Google Analytics Metrics for Bloggers.

Get Started With Google Analytics

We’ll start by assuming you have a Google Analytics account. If you don’t, you can set one up here.

Next read this blog post to learn how to add Google Analytics to your blog.

With Google Analytics, you will be able to gather data to support your strategies and make decisions on whether what you’re doing is working or not.

It can be particularly effective as you determine and improve your content marketing strategy.

Once you’ve created your account, the first thing you need to do is take steps to ensure that you aren’t tracking your own activity on your blog.

Because Google tracks every activity on your blog, you must filter out your own activity because what will happen is that you will create and edit content on your own blog, and this will show up as visitor activity.

For that reason you want to exclude your own I.P address.

To do that, once you are in your Google Analytics dashboard, click on the “Admin” button.

Then go the View section and find the Filters menu. Click on Filters.

Then Add Filter.

Next, select Create New Filter.

Name your filter. For example “Exclude IP”.

Select Filter Type Predefined – Exclude

Click on “Select source or destination”, and in the drop down menu, choose “traffic from the IP addresses.”

Click on “Select expression” and in the drop down menu, choose “that are equal to.”

Then do a Google search for “What is my IP address,” copy and paste the result into the IP Address box and save.

This ensures that Google Analytics is only tracking external visitors to your site and not your own usage.

Click below to watch the video for more guidance.

https://iamdawn-marie.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/how-to-filter-ip-address-on-GA.webm

With your IP address excluded, your account should look like this.

Analytics That Count

Now you can start digging into your blog metrics and using that information to adjust and improve what matters to you.

For instance, if the way you monetise your blog is by making money through advertisements or affiliate links, traffic will be important, and so will click-through rates.

Whatever your goals, let’s take a look at the 6 most important Google Analytics metrics that any blogger should be tracking.

Page Views

While this website metric alone may not be the best indicator that your blog is supporting your business goals, it is important to monitor blog traffic, whatever the desired outcome for your blogging strategy.

Under “Audience – Overview,” you get a snapshot of the total page views your blog has had, over different periods of time.

So if you want to see the total page views that your blog has had in a particular month, for example, use the calendar as shown below.

This can be particularly important for some business goals, such as optimising your website for lead generation. More views on the blog, means that there are more people to show your offer to and so the ability to capture more leads.

So this is an important website metric to track.

You can also dig deeper to determine what blog content is most popular with your readers, so you can produce more of that admired content. Want more blog post ideas? Click here.

To check this blog metric go to Behaviour then Site Content then All Pages.

From here, you can look at the data provided to support your content strategy.

Be sure to extend the “time frame” to 90+ days. After all, blog posts always get a spike in traffic right after publishing, so you want to be sure that you’re analysing the best content, not the most recent.

Here are a few important Google Analytics metrics to pay attention to:

Click in the Page View column to order the page views from highest to lowest. This helps you understand what content is leading to the most views, so you can produce more of it.

Look at Average Time on Page, which you can also rank from highest to lowest. Once again, this shows what content gets the most attention.

Compare keywords by typing a certain keyword in the search box. This tells you the time spent on pages that contain your keyword. For example, if readers spend only 25 seconds on pages with “blog strategy” but 60 seconds on pages with “affiliate strategy” you can tailor your content strategy to more popular keywords.

Look at the data as a graph, so you can see the spikes and analyse what was going on when the traffic jumped.

These are some examples of metrics that will help with your content strategy moving forward.

Bounce Rate

Another extremely important Google Analytics metric to monitor is bounce rate. It can also be found under Behaviour > Site Content > All Pages.

This metric is important because you want to be sure that people spend time on your website.

This means that your visitors are engaged with your blog, and in turn can potentially provide revenue when they stay on your site longer.

If they arrive and immediately leave, or “bounce” away, it means they aren’t staying to buy (or achieve whatever goal you have for their visit to your site).

This is an important Google Analytics metric for a few reasons.

The bounce rate is a key factor used by Google’s search engine when ranking your content in search results. That’s because it’s an indicator of user experience. Therefore, bounce rate along with time on site supports goals for traffic growth and generating business leads.

It’s important, therefore, to monitor your bounce rate. Once again, you can rank them in the column by highest to lowest. A high bounce rate for certain content means you aren’t engaging your customers. It’s good to avoid that type of content.

As well, if you’re generally losing visitors that arrived at your site, there are some other strategic adjustments you can consider such as:

Improve the quality of the content, to keep readers on the site.
Improve the load time of your site pages, because long load times are a top reason for “bouncing” off site. Keep them on site and reading your content.
Ensure the links leading to the blog are aligned with the content when visitors click through; people will leave if the content is different than what they clicked on.
Consider adding variety to the site to increase interest, such as videos or infographics.

Exit Rate

This is another key statistic that looks at people who have abandoned your site. It’s found next to the bounce rate data but gives you a different insight into your website/blog than the bounce rate.

Exit rate monitors users who leave your website after visiting more than one page, whereas bounce rate tracks those who leave from the page at which they arrived.

Once again, rank them from highest to lowest so you can examine the results.

A high exit rate for a particular page, or pages, means you need to make improvements to that page or pages.

Examine the content, for instance, to see if it’s a specific topic or topics that are driving them away. This kind of data is informative as you build or modify your blog content strategy and helps you optimise your blog content so that you get visitors who stay on your blog longer.

Sources of Traffic

Our next metric can be found in Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels

When you get this metric you will see a table, that shows you exactly where people find your blog.

Here’s what that looks like.

Organic search means that people have found your blog through the search engines.
Social means that people have found your blog through social media channels like Facebook or Pinterest.
Direct means that people typed in your blog website address into their browser and came directly to your website.
Referral means that people were referred to your blog by a third party. For example, if John creates a link to my blog post, from his blog post and his audience then clicks on that link and comes to my blog, then he has referred that traffic to my blog.

You can always click through to each traffic source to get more details on it.

Studying this metric will help you to see whether your traffic generation efforts are of any significance. For example, if you are using paid advertising to drive traffic to your blog, but the number of visitors to your blog from those paid ads is ranking low on the list of traffic sources, it might be time to spend resources elsewhere.

It’s also a good indication that you need to refine your advertising strategy to entice more people to click through on your advertisements.

As a side note, if you are struggling with your advertising strategy then click here to read my Facebook ads strategy that helped me drive a number of visitors to my blog post for a very low cost and resulted in me generating over $10k from that blog post.

The information that you find in this section, helps you dig deeper than the number of page views into how the traffic arrived at your site. This information can in turn, drive strategy adjustments.

In another example, you may see that social media has dropped down the list and you need to dedicate more effort to increasing the effectiveness of your social media strategy. Click here to read my Pinterest marketing strategy that helped me increase my blog traffic to over 32k page views in under four months.

Performance on Social Media

Another helpful consideration in determining effective blog content is its performance on social media.

After all, blog posts that perform well on social media can help you determine what subsequent content you can write.

Social media is an easy and effective way to promote your blog posts. As well, you can create more than one social media post for each piece of content, or re-post those that are most popular.

To get this data, go to Acquisition > Social > Landing Pages.

In this section, you will get a report of the URL that was shared on social media and the metrics for its performance, such as page views.

You can also click on the URL to see on which social media platform it was shared.

Once again, this kind of information helps inform your content strategy. You’ll want to continue to produce that kind of content and promote it on social media if it is proving well with your audience.

Audience Demographics

Perhaps an overlooked segment of data is an analysis of your audience. Depending on where you’re at in your blogging journey, this can be valuable information.

Within the “Audience” section, there is a sub-section on demographics. This can provide you with insight into your audience, including gender and age.

This type of information can be helpful if you are building or revising a user persona or a buyer persona.

For example, if you know that your audience is predominantly female, then you can create content that has more feminine undertones or you can use that information in the design of your website.

Any kind of insight into your audience is always valuable.

Final Thoughts

Google Analytics can provide a wealth of information to support the decision-making of your blog business. At times, that wealth of information can be overwhelming.

It’s easy to get caught up in looking at the number of site visitors each day, for instance, without taking time to dig into the “hows” and “whys” behind the data. You need the right information to support a successful content strategy.

You need to know if people are reading your posts, and which are most popular.

It’s also good to learn about your audience and where they’re going on your website. With your goals in mind, and the right information to support you, you can track progress, make improvements and adjustments, and track again.

These 6 Google Analytics Metrics will help any blogger make improvements and find success with their business strategy.

Author Bio: Danielle Canstello is party of the content marketing team at Pyramid Analytics. They provide enterprise level analytics and business intelligence software. In her spare time, she writes around the web to spread her knowledge of the marketing, business intelligence and analytics industries.

The post 6 Google Analytics Metrics Bloggers Need to Care About appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

Clickfunnels vs LeadPages

Dawn-Marie — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 19:11:39 +0000

My review of Clickfunnels vs LeadPages is going to give the blogger, affiliate marketer, ecom store owner and marketer a clue about whether these marketing tools are ideal for their business.

Hands up, if you would rather know what the deal is, before spending money and time trying to learn something that does not meet your expectation?

Well as a user of both marketing tools, I hope that I will be able to give you a clear picture of the features of these products and whether they are the right fit for your business

I know there are a ton of Clickfunnels vs Leadpages reviews, but I had not seen any, that specifically answers to who the user is.

Which is why I decided to take a different route and provide a review for each specific business owner.

I will be making this review as unbiased as possible. After all I do have certain gripes about both Clickfunnels and LeadPages that I’d like you to know about.

If you’d like to skip to my review based on what kind of business owner you are, be sure to use the navigation menu below.

Without any further delay, let’s get right to it.

Here is what you will learn in this blog post:

What is Clickfunnels?
What is LeadPages?
Clickfunnels vs LeadPages features
Who is Clickfunnels vs LeadPages for?
Clickfunnels vs LeadPages for affiliate marketing? Bottom line.
ClickFunnels vs LeadPages for bloggers? Bottom line.
ClickFunnels vs LeadPages for physical or digital products? Bottom line.
ClickFunnels vs LeadPages for ecommerce? Bottom line.
ClickFunnels vs LeadPages for network marketers? Bottom line.
ClickFunnels vs LeadPages for local businesses? Bottom line.
How to build a funnel on ClickFunnels or LeadPages?

What is Clickfunnels?

I have so many people come to me and say they’d like to build a clickfunnel. Let me set the record straight by clarifying that Clickfunnels is the name of a product or more specifically an online software.

Just like Microsoft Word or Powerpoint, it is a product or online software that helps you build a sales funnel.

A sales funnel is a series of web pages dedicated to the promotion of a particular product or products that helps the business owner achieve a desired goal.

That goal may be a sale, lead generation, booking a consultation or call or whatever objective you may have.

It is different from your traditional website because it does not have features like external or internal links, navigation menus, etc.

In this regard, the funnel is the ideal marketing tool because it helps to keep the user (your target audience) focused on the main objective of the funnel.

The owner of the Clickfunnels product is Russel Bronson.

What is LeadPages?

LeadPages was designed as a lead generation software but it can also be used as a sales funnel.

That is because LeadPages also allows you to build sales pages that help you generate sales of products.

So just like Clickfunnels, you can use the LeadPages software to also generate leads, sales, consultation bookings or calls.

When you first get to the LeadPages home page, if your goal is to sell a product, you may be wondering whether LeadPages is the right product for you, since their focus is more on the lead generation aspect.

Don’t worry because you can take payments with this online platform as well which means that you can sell a product if you want to.

When compared to Clickfunnels, notice how Clickfunnels immediately addresses this, by pointing out almost everything that can be done with the Clickfunnels software.

ClickFunnels vs LeadPages Features

Rather than write a paragraph about the features in each of these online software, I decided to create a table setting out the main features so you can easily get an overview and comparison of each one.

I will then go into the specifics of each feature so you can learn a little bit more about it.

Mobile Friendly Templates

Both Clickfunnels and LeadPages have mobile friendly templates.

However, if I were to pick one for easy mobile responsiveness, my vote would go to LeadPages.

That is because, with Clickfunnels even though their pages can convert to mobile, you must manually adjust your text for mobile viewers, before publishing.

What I mean is, if on desktop you have used a font size of 32px, with Clickfunnels you want to make sure that the text is down-sized for mobile.

If you do not take this additional step the text will also appear large on mobile. Clickfunnels have catered to this by adding a mobile text button in their editor.

The difference with LeadPages however, is that the text and images are automatically down-sized for mobile.

Drag and Drop Interface

Designing a lead page or funnel is simple with their drag and drop interface.

No coding is necessary which makes Clickfunnels and LeadPages easy for amateurs who have no coding or design skill.

To build a page with Clickfunnels, you can either use one of their pre-designed templates and drag and drop any additional elements that you want to the page.

If you are starting from the beginning though you must understand how a Clickfunnel page is designed.

Each of their pages are made up of sections, rows and elements.

Each page starts with a section which is identified by the colour green, which contains a row identified by the colour blue and a row contains an element, identified by the colour orange.

https://iamdawn-marie.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/clickfunnels-sections-rows-elements.webm

The elements are your content boxes and it is from the content boxes that you can design your page.

LeadPages has a similar construction however to start designing your page, you only need to add a section then drag and drop your content.

https://iamdawn-marie.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/leadpages-sections-elements.webm

So once again in terms of ease, LeadPages wins making it easier for the user to build their pages effortlessly.

Pop-Up Lead Boxes

If you do not want to create a sales funnel but still want a place to convert your visitors into leads from your website or blog, you can create pop up lead boxes with both Clickfunnels and LeadPages.

Clickfunnels refer to these lead boxes as Clickpops.

Once created you are given code to embed the box onto a website or blog that you own.

Such pop up box can be added to your website as a link or an image which when clicked, causes the box to pop open. If you’d like the box to appear automatically such as on time or on exit then you can configure the settings to generate these actions.

LeadPages refer to these boxes as lead boxes. They essentially operate in the same way as Clickfunnels’ clickpops do.

LeadPages’ lead boxes can be embedded by a link, button or image. They can also appear on time and on exit.

Payment Integration

The two most popular payment gateways, Stripe and Paypal, can be used with both Clickfunnels and LeadPages, however PayPal does not integrate with either.

What this means is that when used, PayPal does not fully become part of Clickfunnels or LeadPages, so when payments are made, Clickfunnels or LeadPages’ automated features do not activate.

For example, when integrated with Stripe and a payment is made by a user, Clickfunnels or LeadPages would redirect to a thank you page within the funnel and if set up, will store the buyer’s details in their database.

When PayPal is used however, this does not happen. Whilst there are work-arounds, it is something you must be conscious of, if you want to use any buyer data from the platforms.

Clickfunnels goes a step further and integrates with and allows access to other payment options. Sadly LeadPages only stops at Stripe and PayPal.

Finally if you wish to use payment gateways with LeadPages, you must upgrade to a Pro or Advanced account which is $79/month when paid monthly ($48/month when paid annually) for the Pro and $321/month when paid monthly ($199/month when paid annually) for the Advanced.

Tracking Codes

One of the most important elements of your funnel, especially when you are using paid advertising, is tracking.

If you are using paid ad campaigns like Facebook ads, Google Adwords or any other platform, you are able to add your tracking codes or pixels to both Clickfunnels and LeadPages.

It is very easy to add, all you do is copy and paste the code into a section provided by the platforms.

A/B Testing

Both Clickfunnels and LeadPages allow you to perform split tests on your landing pages and funnels.

When setting up the split tests, they are both easy to implement for either of the platforms.

All you do is create your control, which is the first variation of your page. Then create a variation which is a variation of your control page.

Both Clickfunnels and LeadPages will take note of the conversions that you are testing and let you know which one is performing better.

You can then mark whichever page has the better conversions as the winner of the split test.

This is great if you want to see what type of factors affect your visitors and helps you improve the overall performance of your campaign.

Marketing Tools Integrations

Clickfunnels and LeadPages integrates with many other marketing tools to make your marketing efforts seamless.

Here is a full list of all the integrations that Clickfunnels has.

Here is a full list of all the integrations that LeadPages has.

If the marketing tool that you are looking for is not on the lists, then you can safely assume that it does not integrate but you can use the Zapier tool to help you connect one tool to the other.

Zapier is a web-based service that allows you to perform integrations with many different applications.

Campaign Analytics

One thing I like about Clickfunnels and LeadPages is that it provides reporting on the performance of your campaign.

So you can see how a funnel or landing page that you created is performing and helps you make important decisions for your campaign.

Depending on how many pages there are in your funnel, Clickfunnels provides analytics for every page of the funnel.

The difference with LeadPages however is that several pages can make up a funnel which needs to be pieced together.

In that regard you must piece together your analytics for each page – so you do not get one global oversight like Clickfunnels provides.

This makes it a little more difficult to judge the overall performance of your funnel if several pages make up your funnel with LeadPages.

Here is what that looks like.

WordPress Plugin

If you have a WordPress website or blog you can integrate both Clickfunnels and LeadPages with their respective plugins.

This will allow you to use either Clickfunnels or LeadPages funnels or pages directly on your website or blog so that it looks as though the funnel or page is part of your website or blog.

This is just another way of directing visitors from your website or blog to your funnel or landing page but instead of going to a Clickfunnel or LeadPages domain, the users remain at your website or blog’s domain but still see your funnel or landing page.

That’s a pretty cool feature.

To see what this looks like for Clickfunnels you can take a look at Barbie Figueroa’s video where she explains how to marry Clickfunnels with your WordPress website.

To see what this looks like for LeadPages you can take a look at Inside Marketing Hero’s video.

Lead Notifications

LeadPages notifies you when you have generated a lead through one of your landing pages.

This is a great feature if you have many lead pages and you want to keep track of which one is helping you acquire leads.

It is not a major feature in my opinion as I am not too concerned about lead notifications but for those who want to know, you can receive these notifications directly to your email inbox.

Clickfunnels does not have this feature.

As I mentioned it is not a significant feature to have as you will have many emails notifying you of leads when you can simply log into the platform to check how the lead page is doing.

Dedicated Support

Clickfunnels and LeadPages both have support available but one is definitely a winner out of the two.

LeadPages offers phone, live chat and email ticket support. They also have a library of support documents in case you need any help and want to do it yourself.

Phone support is however only available with LeadPages Advanced package.

Clickfunnels only offers email ticket support. So if you have an urgent matter, then you’re pretty much screwed. You will need to submit your ticket and then wait for their support team to respond.

Usually responses can take a few hours and up to a day.

Email Autoresponder Integration

One important function of the funnel and lead page is the ability to capture leads and place them directly in your chosen email autoresponder.

Don’t yet have an email autoresponder? Here’s one that I reviewed that I currently use and recommend.

Clickfunnels and LeadPages integrate with many email autoresponders and allows you to connect to them easily.

Here are all Clickfunnels’ email integrations.

Here are all LeadPages’ email integrations.

Once again, if you do not see your email service provider on the list, you can always use Zapier to integrate, provided Zapier allows the connection.

Sub Accounts

If you have a team working with you, you can assign them manager accounts where they have their own sub account and can work on projects for you.

This helps so you won’t have to give the worker, access to your username and password since doing so makes it very risky for you as the account holder since they can access your account settings and do anything with it.

LeadPages offers sub accounts only with their Advanced plan. That means you have to shell out a whopping $321/month or $199/month billed annually for this benefit. With their Advanced plan you get 5 sub accounts.

I noticed that Clickfunnels does have the feature but it appears non-functional.

Even when I searched for literature on the topic there was none.

I will assume that maybe it is a feature they intend to install in the future but not right now.

SEO Friendly Pages

Clickfunnels and LeadPages allow you to optimise your landing pages and funnels for SEO (search engine optimisation).

Although they both allow you to implement some on-page SEO I wouldn’t solely rely on this feature to help your landing pages or funnels show up in the search engines.

There are other things that you can do such as:

Having your own domain and URL and including a keyword in that domain/URL.
Use keywords in your funnel or landing page that you’d like to rank for
Build a content map to help your funnel and landing pages align to the visitors needs and desires. Don’t just create a funnel for the sake of. Keep your visitor’s desires in mind.

In this Clickfunnels blog you can learn more about how to implement SEO into your funnel and landing pages.

Web Hosting

The great thing about both Clickfunnels and LeadPages is that they provide their own web hosting.

So when you purchase a package with either platform, you do not have to look for separate hosting.

Both Clickfunnels and LeadPages host your funnels and landing pages on their servers. The only thing though is that when you host your funnels and landing pages with them, you must take on their domain.

For example, if you build a funnel with Clickfunnels, then your domain will be www.yourdomain.clickfunnels.com. If you build a landing page with LeadPages, your domain will be www.yourdomain.lpages.co.

This can look ugly if you are promoting your funnel or landing page and you may prefer to have your page align with your brand.

For that reason you can always use their domain assignment feature so you can replace their domains with your own.

Looking for cheap domains? Try Namecheap, Godaddy or Bluehost.

Domain Assignment

Clickfunnels and LeadPages both help you assign a custom domain to your funnels and landing pages making it more personal and branded to you.

I would strongly recommend that when starting on either Clickfunnels or LeadPages that you purchase a custom domain and connect it to Clickfunnels or LeadPages.

That way it is easier for your audience to find your funnels and landing pages and helps you create an identity for you, instead of one affiliated with the Clickfunnels or LeadPages domains.

Whilst you can purchase a separate domain from places like Godaddy, Namecheap or Bluehost, Clickfunnels allows you to claim a domain for free directly from their company for first time users.

If you have already claimed the domain then you can buy it at the retail price of $20 annually.

Customised HTML

What if you have an application, form, display banner or miscellaneous item that you want to install on your website using HTML?

Well both Clickfunnels and LeadPages have HTML elements that you can add to your funnel and landing pages to easily add these items to your pages.

For example, on a landing page that I designed with LeadPages to promote an affiliate product, I was easily able to add this gif banner to my page through their HTML feature.

https://iamdawn-marie.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/leadpages-html.webm

So instead of adding an image and linking the image to your affiliate product, you can select the html code for the banner that your affiliate manager will provide to you and embed it on your page.

You can find the HTML widget in your LeadPages widget area.

The same for Clickfunnels. You can add the HTML element to your pages from your Clickfunnels editor.

Digital Asset Delivery

If you do not have an email autoresponder which you can use for delivery of digital products, or you have no place to host your documents, LeadPages and Clickfunnels digital assets delivery feature, allow you to store your documents on their platform and enable delivery when a user takes a specific action.

For example if you have a lead magnet that you want delivered to a lead when they opt in to a funnel, you must first add your digital asset to Clickfunnels from the digital asset menu.

Then you must set up outgoing emails so that Clickfunnels can send the email on your behalf.

Finally you must add the digital asset to the page where the opt in is being performed. This will be your opt in page.

LeadPages makes this process a lot easier for us.

To add your digital asset to LeadPages and have it delivered to your lead you only need to add the digital asset to the opt in page settings and LeadPages takes care of the rest.

There is no need to upload the digital asset and then select it on different pages. There is also no need to setup email SMTP settings for outgoing emails.

Adding a digital asset in LeadPages is a one-step process therefore eliminating the time and confusion that you get with Clickfunnels.

One Click Upsells

If you sell your own products or have an ecommerce store, the one click upsell feature is a great tool to help you increase the average order value of each order placed in your funnel and increase conversions.

Whilst I have never used LeadPages one click upsell feature (so I cannot say how easy or difficult the process is), they do have instructions on how to integrate this feature into a funnel you are managing.

The instructions look pretty simple, but when I read through them I do not like the technicality of the instruction.

It may be simple if you follow along slowly and take your time. If you do struggle to implement an upsell into your LeadPages funnel you can always fall back on the LeadPages support team for help.

Clickfunnels is a very simple process. You only need to drag and drop an upsell page into your funnel, design your page, add your product and that’s it.

You do not need to worry about any configuration.

Clickfunnels does all the hard work for you, so everything works smoothly.

Membership Areas

One special feature that Clickfunnels has, which is not integrated with LeadPages are membership sites.

A membership site allows you to house digital products such as a video library, ebooks or courses where free or paid members can get access via a username and password.

At one point LeadPages did offer a Wishlist membership site to Annual Pro members back in 2014 but it looks like this has been discontinued.

In any event, even if you no longer have access to this product with LeadPages you can always connect a LeadPages sales page to Wishlist separately if you want to.

Wishlist is a WordPress plugin so you must have a WordPress site to use this product.

Click this link to download your Wishlist plugin here.

Clickfunnels though has membership site features integrated into it so if you think you may want to create a membership site where your paying customers can get access to your products then you may want to consider Clickfunnels over LeadPages.

Affiliate Center

Clickfunnels helps you to offer affiliate commissions to affiliates for a product that you are selling.

Their affiliate center is great if you believe you have a great product, but need to get the word out about it.

By setting up an affiliate center, you can have people sign up and so be able to control their access to your product as an affiliate to promote it on your behalf.

The affiliate center is only available with Clickfunnels Etison suite however, so be prepared to spend at least $297/month for this feature.

Who Is Clickfunnels vs LeadPages For?

So now that you know the main features of Clickfunnels and LeadPages, this all probably does not make sense to you, if you do not really know how each product can help you in your business.

That’s what the next section is for. Simply follow your business model and read my unbiased view as to whether Clickfunnels or LeadPages can help you.

Does Clickfunnels or LeadPages work for affiliate marketing?

As an affiliate myself, I know how important sales funnels are for building email lists and guiding traffic to your affiliate product.

Even if you do not want to build an email list and you want to promote your affiliate product with advertorial type blog posts then you can use either Clickfunnels or LeadPages for this.

Because the affiliate funnel would be a simple two step funnel then you do not need any complicated software.

Both Clickfunnels and LeadPages are perfect for this. It will be up to you to decide how much you want to spend on your marketing tool to achieve this.

To remind you, Clickfunnels is $97/month and LeadPages is $37/month. Clickfunnels offers a free 14-day trial for you to test it out to see if you like working with it. Click here to get your free 14-day trial.

LeadPages offers a free 30-day trial. Click here to claim your free trial.

Bottom line?

I would recommend LeadPages although both Clickfunnels or LeadPages are great.

Does Clickfunnels or LeadPages work for bloggers?

Can Clickfunnels or LeadPages replace a blogger’s website? Yes it can, but it is not feasible and I certainly do not recommend the software for traditional blogging.

If however you want to create a one off blog post, like I did in my one blog post strategy for promoting a product, then the software is a good one.

A blog comes with so many moving parts. You need navigation menus, the ability to post as many blog posts as you can, the ability to embed contact forms, etc; you really and truly need a conventional website.

This is why I would recommend that you use a content management site like WordPress.

If you are ready to build your blog then you can head on over to my step-by-step guide where I teach you how to build your blog using WordPress and Bluehost as your webhost.

If you already have a website or blog and you really want to use Clickfunnels or LeadPages then they can be used as a lead generation tool.

For example, you may wish to generate leads for the provision of content upgrades.

Clickfunnels and LeadPages allow you to embed code into your website where contact forms can be installed on your blog to generate leads.

In this regard Clickfunnels and LeadPages are beneficial to bloggers.

With both Clickfunnels and LeadPages you cannot add an inline contact form to your website but you can add a link or button which pops open to a contact form. Here is an example of what LeadPages looks like on my blog.

Bottom line?

Don’t use Clickfunnels or LeadPages for your blog but use them for your lead generation tools.

Click here to claim your free Clickfunnels 14-day trial.

Click here to claim your free LeadPages 30-day trial.

Does Clickfunnels or LeadPages work to sell physical or digital products?

I would give this question a resounding yes. Clickfunnels and LeadPages are perfect if you want to sell a physical or digital product.

Because of price point, I use LeadPages for all my digital products – it is cost effective and achieves everything that I need, to create a great sales funnel to sell my products.

It can design great opt in pages, sales pages and has easy to implement payment and email integrations.

Although I do not use upsells in my LeadPages funnels, I cannot comment on the difference between LeadPages and Clickfunnels, but if you are looking to increase the average order value of each purchase with upsells, then you may wish to consider whether Clickfunnels or LeadPages will give you better value.

I touched on this briefly here so you can go back and read my comment.

Bottom line?

Yes both Clickfunnels and LeadPages are perfect for your own products.

Click here to claim your free Clickfunnels 14-day trial.

Click here to claim your free LeadPages 30-day trial.

Does Clickfunnels or LeadPages work for ecommerce?

Typically people use ecom-dedicated platforms like Woocommerce or Shopify to sell their ecom products.

Ecom funnels are however becoming very popular especially since it can help you drive massive sales to your business by focusing on a few core products from your ecom store.

This ensures that the customer only sees the specific products that you want them to see and that they are not given an overwhelming number of options.

In my opinion, the best platform for the ecom funnel is Clickfunnels. This is because they have specific well-thought out templates designed for ecom and makes the set-up process easy.

Although LeadPages do have ecom templates they are not as sophisticated as Clickfunnels.

You can use LeadPages for a simple product sale but if you want to include multiple products and have one time offers, upsells or downsells then I would strongly recommend Clickfunnels.

Want to see what an ecom funnel looks like in Clickfunnels? Watch the video below.

Bottom line?

Clickfunnels and LeadPages work for ecommerce but I would recommend using Clickfunnels for a more streamlined and easier process.

Click here to claim your free Clickfunnels 14-day trial.

Click here to claim your free LeadPages 30-day trial.

Does Clickfunnels or LeadPages work for network marketers?

Like affiliate marketing, where you do not own the product and you are promoting it, you can use Clickfunnels or LeadPages.

A two step funnel is ideal for promoting network marketing products, although some funnels can be simple – such as a lead opt in and thank you page; to more complicated – such as a lead opt in page and onboarding page.

To help you decide which platform to use you may want to consider ease of building the type of funnel and price point.

LeadPages can work very well for network marketing funnels and so you really do not need the sophisticated elements of Clickfunnels.

Bottom line?

I would recommend a simple platform like LeadPages for this type of funnel. It is up to you to decide which platform you eventually decide to use.

Click here to claim your free Clickfunnels 14-day trial.

Click here to claim your free LeadPages 30-day trial.

Does Clickfunnels or LeadPages work for local businesses?

If you are a local business and you want to generate leads for services that you provide, Clickfunnels and LeadPages are great options.

As you only need a lead generation funnel then you can consider both platforms but I would recommend LeadPages, again because of its simplicity.

If you are conscious about money spent on your marketing tools, then LeadPages is a great alternative to an expensive product like Clickfunnels.

Bottom line?

Yes Clickfunnels and LeadPages are great for local businesses but I would recommend LeadPages.

Click here to claim your free Clickfunnels 14-day trial.

Click here to claim your free LeadPages 30-day trial.

How To Build a Funnel With Clickfunnels

How To Build a Funnel With LeadPages

Ready to create your own funnel and need some direction. Hire me to build your sales funnel.

Click here to get a free 14 day Clickfunnels trial

Click here to get a free 30 day LeadPages trial

The post Clickfunnels vs LeadPages appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

The Top 6 Best Free and Paid Blog Sites to Make Money

Dawn-Marie — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 00:32:37 +0000

There are easy ways to build a blog and make money from it. When I first decided to become a blogger, I settled for a free platform from WordPress.com but soon understood that if my goal were to one day monetise it, a blog on a paid platform would be better. Read here to understand why.

If you are money conscious however and still want to start a blog, there are platforms that allow bloggers to create blogs, some free of charge and others paid. Not all of these blogs however offer the same benefits as you will see later.

Although there are benefits associated with free blog platforms, these may not be ideal for the objective that you have in mind.

Some paid blogging sites provide benefits that make their monthly fees worthwhile. My ultimate goal was to find a platform that provided me with useful tools as it related to the design of my blog. I needed a platform that would also allow me to monetise it whichever way I wanted.

The free and paid blog sites that I discuss in this post help the brand new blogger build and design their blog hassle-free. I have also paid attention to platforms that do not need a lot of technical input from the blogger as I appreciate that not many people know code or script.

Sometimes you just want an easy set up and these blogs, I think, offer that. Whatever your goal is, I hope that this list helps you choose the best blogging platform for your blogging needs.

What is a Blogging Site or Platform?

A blogging site or platform is the foundation upon which one can create a blog.

Back in the days, to build a website you would need to know html and coding. You would have to sit countless hours writing codes and scripts, so that a website could be formed or you could take the easy way out and hire a website developer.

Today however companies have made it easier to create a website or blog by having pre-made templates and designs for the blogger. All you need is the content, which includes your text, images or video.

Some people refer to a blogging site or platform as a blog builder. In technical terms, it is referred to as a content management system.

You will see that when you start using these blogging platforms that very little technical expertise is necessary. Many websites, including this one provide you with step-by-step, straightforward instructions to build your blog.

If you want a more customised, personalised blog design then you may have to implement coding and may therefore require the services of a blog designer or developer.

How Do You Get Your Blog Online?

When you create a blog on a blogging platform, there are a few steps that you need to take before your blog becomes live and is available for the public to enjoy.

The difference between the steps is dependent on whether you have a free or paid blog.

With a paid blog, you must purchase a small space on a web server where your website will be stored. You can purchase this space from companies that provide the technology; these companies being referred to as web hosts.

One such company and my number one recommendation for web hosting is Bluehost.

Why Bluehost? Well I have been with them for over two years, their support is amazing, they are a reputable and well-known host provider and host over one million domains.

Once you have selected your host, you need to select a domain name.

The domain name is the web address. Choosing a good domain name can be very important to the success of your blog. Here are a couple of tips to help you:

Keep your domain name short and easy to type. This means do not use special characters and numbers if you can help it.
Use keywords in your industry. This is good for SEO. For example if your blog is about gardening, then keywords like “the garden lover” or “garden success” are great keywords to form a domain.
Claim your domain name as quickly as possible. Domain names are purchased every day, and if you are not careful, yours can be taken. When you buy the domain name, that is your brand. Use it and build it.
Make people remember you if you want repeat traffic. Come up with something catchy and easy.

After you have selected both the host and domain, you can start building your blog and content and publish your blog online.

Just being online doesn’t mean that you will have money coming your way, though. What do you do to make money now that you have a blog?

Simply being online is not enough to get traffic or to steer sales to make an income from your blog.

It is also necessary to produce content often, build an audience and engage with them.

How Do Blogs Make Money?

Blogs can make money in a variety of ways.

It is important to understand though, that in order to make money from a blog; you must have traffic and engagement.

You must be able to convince people to purchase or sign up for products that you promote, interact with brands that you may write sponsored content for or use your paid services.

The ultimate goal is to be strategic in finding and applying lucrative opportunities. Some bloggers decide to sell things online that they have acquired. Other solutions come in the form of affiliate programs. There are also paid advertising placements on your blog where you can earn money. These are typically free and come with ads links, support, and tutorials for earning with blogs.

Let’s briefly look at these opportunities:

Advertising placements –

Sure, ads can be distracting and most people do not like them, but it’s a great opportunity if you want to make some money. There are two main types of ads:

PPC ads – pay per click ads. When someone goes to your blog and clicks on an ad banner, you get paid!
CPM ads – cost per one thousand impressions. These ads pay you based on the amount of traffic to your site that sees an ad, as opposed to the clicks on the ad. For example, an advertiser may pay $2.00 for every 1000 impressions of its ad; meaning that the ad has been displayed 1000 times to persons who visit your website.

You can get ads placements on your site by using the most popular network, Google AdSense. Other ad networks include Media.net, Adsterra Network or Propellor Ads.

These services usually pick the ads and set it up on your blog for you. This makes the process extremely easy.

Of course, the more popular your blog gets, the more advertisers will notice. In fact, advertisers may come to you to pay you for the ability to place an ad on your site. This usually gives you more money. You can even actively search out advertisers before they come to you. Be sure to give them a good reason to advertise on your site and be willing to compromise at first.

Affiliate marketing –

This is my favourite monetisation strategy and I discuss it more in this post. This is where you promote other advertiser’s or marketer’s products for a commission when an action is taken in relation to that product.

That action could be a sale, a lead, a call, a download or a video view.

You can use affiliate links within your content that helps direct your audience to the affiliate product.

Selling your own products –

Whilst this requires time and effort, selling your own products is a great way to earn money. As you build an audience, you begin to earn the trust of that audience and with that comes a desire to learn from you. It is here where you can share your expertise in a paid product. Check this link to see my first digital product that teaches you how to make money from affiliate marketing without a website

Offering services –

The same as having your own products for sale, you may wish to offer services such as consultation, audits or coaching. This is actually one of the ways in which I monetise my blog and it is a very lucrative opportunity but equally time consuming.

The Top 6 Free and Paid Blog Sites

Blogger

Pros: Blogger is one of the most popular hosting sites for new bloggers. It was acquired by Google in 2003 and is an easy set-up site. Site owners here have access to analytics resources, such as statistics, social media connections, and comment tracking. This free blog site is easy to manage and is reliable.

Cons: Blogger offers site owners fewer templates to choose from for personalisation details. There are fewer updates available on this hosting platform, which limits feature additions. Owners also have less access to advanced blogging tools. You should note that Google has the ability to either suspend blogs or to cancel them at any time or as they see fit.

Medium

Pros: The popularity of Medium, established in 2012, has grown quite a bit making it a place for bloggers, writers, and journalists to connect. This hosting site offers an easy set-up process, which can be created without coding skills. It is possible for writers to focus on site objectives and not designing a professional blog.

Cons: There are few social networking features for blog owners to use with this platform. It is difficult to establish brands or stand out from competitors. There are few designs to choose from with Medium. Site owners are not allowed to use personal ads to make money. Audiences belong to the hosting company, so losing the blog also means the loss of followers.

WordPress.com & WordPress.org

WordPress.com is a blog hosting service, which specialises in hobby type blogs.

Pros: This is a hosting platform that uses what is referred to as open-source software. There are five plans for users to choose from, one of which is free. The free option is based on 3GB of space. This is a self-hosted resource that offers personalised features and templates. Owners do not have to worry about updates or backups because the platform handles these issues.

Cons: Advertisements are placed on all free sites without the owner’s consent. Proceeds from these ads do not go to the owner. You are not personally able to post ads onto your site or to make money from them. Only paying owners have these options available to them. Personalisation of these blog sites is limited.

WordPress.org is a free platform, which is used to create money-making blogs.

Pros: This platform provides users with complete control over websites. The website and all of its data belong to the owner. WordPress.org is more commonly associated with making money because owners have the ability to add free, paid, and custom apps to their sites. It is possible to add paid themes for blog designs. Google Analytics can be used for all tracking activities.

Cons: Access to website files requires web-hosting services, which cost owners. This means that in order to get your blog online using WordPress.org requires the user to pay for web hosting services. This typically ranges from $3–$10, per month. These costs generally increase based upon increased traffic to the site. Site owners are responsible for their own updates and backups. However, utilising site platform plugins is one way to address these automatically.

Wix

Pros: Wix is a hosting platform that allows small businesses to take advantage of online opportunities. It offers drag-and-drop tools that are easy to use for a website set-up. This free resource also lets owners add a blog to their websites with the Wix Blog app. There are dozens of diverse templates to choose from, as well as, apps from third-party companies.

Cons: Free sites built here will display the Wix branding and ads. These are not owned or financially beneficial to users. There is limited access for free websites to utilise third-party apps. The template chosen cannot later be changed, so it is important that you are sure of the choice once selected. Only paid plans are able to participate in e-commerce activities.

SquareSpace

Pros: SquareSpace is a website building service that is recognised for beautiful and professional templates offered. It is not necessary to be particularly tech-savvy to build here. The focus of this service is on users wanting to establish an online presence and capture audiences for business. It provides domain names with SSL/HTTPs and webstores.

Cons: The only available features are those already built into SquareSpace’s proprietary platform. Website owners are limited to 20 individual pages, a blog, and 2 total contributors. Few services and tools allow for integrations. The cheapest monthly plan requires owners to sign up for a year of service to lock in that price.

Weebly

Pros: This hosted platform allows users to build sites with drag-and-drop tools. It is possible to customise sites through Weebly’s web-based interface technology. There are dozens of themes available that are all ready to use. Free plans can be tried out on a trial basis before purchase is necessary.

Cons: There are limited built-in features for free sites to use and it is not possible to add any new ones. Integrating with third-party platforms is extremely limited, as well. Even the cheapest paid site plan of $8 per month, has limited access to features. Unlocking available features requires the purchase of a $49 per month site plan.

How Do You Choose A Blogging Platform?

Now, that you have decided to start a blog and have learned about the different types of blogging platforms, how exactly do you choose the right platform for you? There are a number of things to consider:

User-Friendliness

How good are you at creating websites? You need to pick a platform that suits your skill level. Otherwise, you may find that your blog doesn’t look how you want it to look. You also may not have the skill to use certain features on platforms that are more difficult. Most of the blog platforms already mentioned require an easy skill level as most of the work is already done for the blogger.

Cost

Some blogging platforms are free while others cost money. You also have to remember the cost of hosting and domain names.

Features

What features do you want on your blog? Do you want to customise your blog with widgets, comment boxes, message widgets? Make sure to do your research to ensure that you can easily include these features.

WordPress.org is a great option as they have over 50,000 plugins that you can add to customise the look of your blog.

Monetisation options

Some blogging platforms allow you to use monetisation strategies on your blog in order to make money. Other platforms will limit these options.

Goals

What are your goals with your blog? Do you want to make money or do you simply want to talk about a topic that you’re passionate about?

How to Start a Blog and Make Money

There are some important things to think about when starting a blog, especially those designed to make a profit.

It is possible to reach a variety of potential customers on any given day. The way I take advantage of this is to continually provide current content.

The content that I create on my blog serves dual purposes. It works to promote the blog itself and my expertise. My content must demonstrate that I am an authority in my niche and I know what I am speaking about.

This helps build trust with my audience and helps me to market any product that I recommend and promote.

Ready to start your own blog?

Start with my most recommended blog platform and web host, WordPress.org and Bluehost. To get step-by-step instructions then consider taking my free 5-day blogging course to help guide you.

It will give you the steps to getting set up with WordPress and Bluehost, show you the type of content you should be posting to generate sales, how and where to get traffic to your blog and most importantly the steps I took to earn over $600 in my fourth month of blogging.

If you enjoyed this article on the best blogging platforms or have any questions, I’d love to hear from you. Leave them in the comment section below!

Cheers

The post The Top 6 Best Free and Paid Blog Sites to Make Money appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

25 More Blog Tips For New Bloggers (Part 2)

Dawn-Marie — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 22:42:39 +0000

Hey everyone,

So here is the second part to my two part blog post that shares with you 50 blog tips for new bloggers that you can apply to your own blog today.

If you have not yet seen my first part then you can read it here.

I finally got around to writing the second part. I am now in my ninth month of blogging (at the time of writing) *happy dance* and I wanted to share with you, everything that I have learnt on my blogging journey.

I have posted tips based on the mistakes that I have made so you can learn from them and not do the same. It is expected that this post will help new and struggling bloggers know what they need to do to grow their blog.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my ultimate goal is to grow this blog to over five and even six figures a month.

I can only do that with hard work and certainly never giving up.

You too should have your own blog goals and just go for it.

Now on to the next 25 blog tips for blog success.

26. Make friends with other bloggers

You know what happens when you make friends with other bloggers? You get to share more and better ideas on how to grow your blog.

I recently came back from a Boss Women’s Retreat with The Traveling Island Girl and it was one of the best trips that I had ever been on since I was able mastermind with other women as to what worked and did not work for them.

We came out with so many brilliant ideas for our business and the inspiration and motivation to take action.

Now that I met these ladies they are life long friends that I hope to continue to learn and seek inspiration from them.

Pic from our St. Maarten’s retreat. With Karina, myself, Kim, Riselle The Traveling Island Girl and Melinda from Shake My Palms Palms

27. Refer to other blog posts within your blog post

When you refer to other blog posts from your own content within your blog posts, this helps with SEO. Internal linking is all about connecting your content with one another so it gives the reader a way to navigate your site.

It also helps Google to find out what content on your site is related and which posts are more valuable based on the number of links that the post carries. The more valuable a page, the more likely the content will rank on Google.

28. Link to other top quality blogs in your blog post

When you link to other top quality blogs you are not only providing your readers with more legitimate resources they can go to, you are also helping Google understand what your site is about.

Many bloggers and websites appreciate back links to their sites because it helps with their SEO. If you can provide an external link to a quality website, do not be afraid that you are driving your visitors to a competitor’s website.

Google actually encourages links to good sites and it also helps to build your trust rank on your site.

29. Add the no follow tag to your links

Following on from the previous tip, when you are linking to external websites you can pass your link value onto that site.

A good way to prevent this from happening and to tell Google that whilst you are linking to other content, you do not wish to pass link value, you should add the no follow tag to your links like this:

Your default link

How to Blog

To make it no follow do this

How to blog

To automatically add the no follow tags to links I use the Ultimate No Follow WordPress plugin.

To learn more about the no follow attribute you can read Google’s guide to no follow links.

30. Install quality plug ins for your blog

Plugs ins help to make the management of your blog easier. There are plug ins that you can use to help grow your blog traffic, make more money and sell products.

Some of the plug ins that I would recommend you install are:

Akismet Anti Spam prevents your site from publishing malicious content by keeping out spam.
Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights a complete Google Analytics plugin that is easy and powerful.
Insert Headers and Footers easily add code to your website to help its growth, like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, custom CSS and more.
Social Warfare get more social shares which can lead to more website traffic.
SumoMe makes it easy for visitors to subscribe to your email list, share your content and optimise with analytics.
W3 Total Cache improves SEO and the user experience of your site by increasing website performance and reducing download times.
Yoast SEO helps with your search engine optimisation

31. Create a blog community

When you blog you can build a community that continues to return to your blog for help. You can also build a blog community on social media or through email.

The best way to build that community is to give people a place to go to, to connect with you off of your blog, such as in a Facebook group (link to my own Facebook community) or through an email list (subscribe to I Am Dawn-Marie).

It is wise that when you build this community that you always show up consistently so people will see you as credible.

32. Share your blog posts with friends and family

When you first start your blog you may not yet have traffic to it. It’s a good idea to share it with friends and family and ask for their support.

You can share your new blog via social media if you like and ask your friends and family to share it with their friends.

33. Share your blog posts on your social media

Social media is a great traffic source for blogs. One of my best traffic sources is Pinterest. I also use Instagram and Facebook to direct people to my blog.

I would advise that you start with one traffic source to get people to visit your blog. When you do that master that traffic source, learn the ins and outs before moving on to master a second traffic source.

Do not overwhelm yourself by sharing your content on all different social media outlets as you will never truly gain traction from all of them if your focus is spread thin across many of them.

34. Not every guest post submission is made equal

When you submit guest posts for blogs make sure that you are submitting a post on a reputable, high quality blog. You want to research how much traffic the blog gets, how high their domain authority is, are the visitors to their blog engaged, is the blog a quality blog.

35. Your readers are your priority

Blogs are successful because of your readers. So make them your number one priority. To do that, make sure that you are consistently delivering quality content that will help them.

Make sure that you are providing content that they actually want to read. You can find out what content your readers want based on the posts that are visited the most often.

To view this data look at your Google Analytics insights. Go to Reports then Behaviour then Overview.

36. Forget the blog rules. There are none

There really is none. There are things you can do to improve your blog strategy, but if for example, you write less than 1000 words and another blogger writes more than 2000 words, don’t feel that they are right and you are wrong.

Different bloggers have different strategies for growing their blogs. Find a strategy that works for you and stick with it.

37. Get inspiration from other bloggers

It’s ok to model after successful bloggers. So if you see a blog that really inspires you by its design and content and you wish to apply similar elements on your blog, go for it.

I do not however condone copying another blogger. There’s a difference between copying another blogger word for word and modelling after an inspiration.

38. Spell check before you hit publish

We are all humans and from time to time you will make a few typo errors in your blog post. That’s ok. If you know you have a problem with spelling and grammar I would recommend using a spell checker to check this before publishing a blog post.

A lot of readers are turned off from grammatical errors. Some are not too concerned as long as it is understandable and delivers the value they were after.

39. Update old blog posts

If content becomes outdated because a program or product has changed its policy, revisit old blog posts and update it.

You can also refresh a new blog post by rewriting it or adding new images.

40. Make sure your site can be easily navigated

Yessssssss. Very important. You see the menu bar at the top of my blog, that helps to direct my visitors on where they should go if they are looking for a particular subject.

Make sure and use menus properly.

It also helps to include relevant internal links in your blog post to direct your visitors on posts that they may be interested in.

41. Invest in paid advertising

Whilst I use free traffic to drive this blog, I also use paid traffic to promote products on my blog. Paid traffic helps you to get instant and a lot of traffic when you need it.

As long as you know how to use paid traffic well, you can easily make a return on your investment if you are promoting an affiliate product or one of your own products.

I use Facebook ads as a paid traffic source to promote affiliate products and my own courses. Before you invest money in a paid traffic source I would strongly recommend that you learn how to use the paid traffic source so as not to lose money.

For Facebook ads I would recommend the Social Traffic Blueprint Facebook Ads course. I paid $997 for this course and was able to make a 10x return on my investment.

42. Personalise your blog

Personalising your blog helps readers know more about you. To personalise your blog I recommend including a picture of yourself and an About Me section.

You can also include photos of events you have attended or places you have been, just to add a bit of a human touch to your blog.

43. Make use of great images

No I’m not talking about Google images. You don’t want to do that if you don’t want to get on the wrong side of copyright laws.

For great free images you can use sites like Unsplash or Pexels.

If you’d like a wider variety of paid images then I’d recommend Shutterstock.

44. Know your audience

I touched on this in number 35 but to get blog visitors to keep coming back to your blog for more content, you should know who they are, what they want to read and what they like to read.

You can easily get this data from your Google Analytics. If you have not yet installed Google Analytics then visit my blog post to get step by step instructions on how to do this.

If you have already installed Google Analytics on your website then pay attention to the data in the reports section which you can find by going to Reports then Behaviour then Overview.

45. Include call to actions in your blog post

If you want people to take action on your blog such as clicking on your affiliate link or leaving a comment on your blog or opting into a landing page, you need to tell them to take action.

This is where call to actions come in.

Be sure to explicitly tell your audience, opt in or click on the link. You don’t know how many bloggers take for granted that there audience knows what to do when they land on their blog.

So do a little bit of extra work and tell them what to do.

46. Give your blog time to grow

Most important, be patient and give your blog time to grow.

When I started blogging I implemented strategies to drive traffic to my blog and immediately saw results in the first one to three months.

I am now in my ninth month of blogging and have over 10k visitors to my blog per month with an average income of $2000+ per month.

Blogging is definitely not a quick way to make money, but if you stick with it, learn the strategies to generate an income from and drive traffic to your blog, you can potentially create thousands or even millions of dollars from your blog in a few years.

47. Make your headlines catchy

To get people to actually visit a blog post make your headlines catchy. If you are promoting your blog on social media platforms split test your headlines to see which one gets you a higher click through rate.

48. Do not copy

No. No. No. This is big no. Do not copy other bloggers. As I mentioned in number 37, it’s ok to seek inspiration from other bloggers but do not copy.

Not only is this unethical, but it can infringe copyright laws.

49. Short sentences and short paragraphs

You want to make sure that your blog is easy to read.

Huge chunks of text is a major turn off for readers. You want a blog that can be easily scanned and sifted through.

When writing sentences I try to include two to three sentences in a paragraph.

Even one sentence can work.

50. Use basic SEO on your blog posts

If you want your blog to get a good chance at ranking on Google, implement basic SEO on your blog. A good plugin to help with this is the Yoast SEO plug in.

It gives you advice on ways to improve and optimise your blog post for the SERPS.

Wrapping Up

That’s really all the advice I can give to you as a new blogger. When you start your blogging journey you are bound to come across many tips and strategies to grow your blog.

Learn from everything that you read and most importantly take action on what you read.

To be successful you have to consistently apply and find ways you can improve.

Good luck on your blogging journey.

If you have any questions at all about blogging be sure to leave it in the comments so I can help you out.

Cheers

The post 25 More Blog Tips For New Bloggers (Part 2) appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Successful Blog

Dawn-Marie — Tue, 29 May 2018 19:48:50 +0000

(This post was originally published on the 06th July 2017 and updated on the 29th May 2018)

Starting a blog is going to be one of THE most important steps that you take in your business.

Everybody these days are blogging about something. The good thing is, if you have a topic that you want to share with the world, then you can make your voice be heard via a blog.

If you are in business for yourself and you provide a product or service, then starting a blog will help you to actually share your thoughts, ideas and creativity with people that matter the most, whilst in turn building an audience.

It also helps you to become an authority in your niche if you use your blog as a resource to help others solve a problem.

When I started this blog, I had no real reason but to share my daily thoughts with people who might just want to read my life experiences.

I suppose I was treating it like a journal.

But it was only until I realised that I could monetise my blog did I become serious in transforming it from a daily journal to a business.

You may be wondering whether you should start your own blog and whether there is any sense to having one.

There is absolute sense to having one and here is why:

You get treated with greater respect because you can easily build authority and credibility with a blog. People automatically think you are successful.
You can automate any business right from your blog so that you can spend more time doing what you love and less time stressing about the bad.
You have a great platform to market yourself, any product or service by giving a lot more information on your blog.
You can add value to people’s lives by sharing content that will help them.
You can build connections with more people in your field thereby expanding your knowledge and know-how and helping you grow.
You can talk about literally any topic on a blog and share your thoughts and opinions.
It helps you to stand out and get more results because most people are too lazy or impatient to create a blog. When you work hard and create something spectacular people tend to trust you more and buy from you as opposed to “some other marketer”.
On a lighter note, it helps you to be creative and just have fun.

Do you like my blog? Do you have a blog yet?

Well I am going to teach you exactly how I started this blog and how you can do the same.

When I started this blog, I had many resources to turn to. I mainly used You Tube tutorials and had to dig my way around.

For some people they may not have the patience and so I thought it would be beneficial, to have everything in one place right here on this page.

When starting a successful blog I am going to teach you the ONLY way that you should start and that is through WordPress.org. Not WordPress.com (and there is a difference).

The Difference Between WordPress.org And WordPress.com

WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform which means that you get to choose your own hosting and domain. You also own all the content on WordPress.org.

With WordPress.com however you will get a sub-domain and your content is not yours. Essentially if you are building a blog on WordPress.com, that blog does not belong to you and can be taken away from you at anytime.

Also if you intend to monetise your blog, you are taken more seriously when you have a WordPress.org self-hosted blog as opposed to a WordPress.com blog.

Reason being, when you apply to affiliate networks, you have a higher chance of being accepted with a WordPress.org blog rather than a WordPress.com blog.

With a WordPress.org blog you pay for your hosting and a WordPress.com blog is free.

If you want to start a successful blog then I urge you to invest in yourself and DO NOT get a free blog. It will harm you later on.

What Is WordPress?

You may be familiar with other blogging sites such as Tumblr, Wix, Weebly or Blogger.com.

So I would like to tell you why you should choose WordPress.

WordPress is a content management site. You can use it to build a website or blog.

It is very user friendly and you can upload any content that you want and customise the themes how you wish.

There are also many plugins available that help you to manage your website so that it looks sexy and attractive!

After all you want a site that people enjoy looking at right?!

I think that WordPress is the best tool that you can use to build your blog. I am sure that famous brands like Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, Usain Bolt, etc agree with me. They all use WordPress.

Build Your Blog

Let’s get started.

In this tutorial I am going to teach you the following. You can click on any of the links below to go straight to the topic:

Choose a domain name
Choose a domain extension
Set up web hosting
Check the availability of your domain name
Purchase your domain name
Install WordPress
Choose your theme
Build and launch your blog
What’s next?

1. Choose a domain name

What is a domain name?

Simply put, it is your website name.

So my website name is www.iamdawn-marie.com.

Truthfully your domain name does not matter but here are a few things that you should consider when choosing a name.

It should not be too long
It should be something that people can remember
It should be easy to spell and type
It should represent you and the brand you want to build
Using Namecheckr make sure that the name you choose is available on social media platforms just in case you want to create an audience using social media as well.

If you are having a hard time and you want some inspiration for a domain name then you can also try the following cool domain name generators like:

2. Choose A Domain Extension

There are now many other extensions besides the .com extension.

Some other extensions available include,

.net
.online
.xyz
.blog
.info
.tv
.co

These extensions are rising in popularity and there is no rule as to whether you should go with these alternatives or stick to the old fashioned .com extension.

I do believe that these other extensions allow you to be creative with your domain name. For example, I own the domain iamdawn-marie.online because I am an online entrepreneur.

If your niche has an appropriate extension then go for it! However .com continues to be the popular choice but truthfully I do not believe it matters, in my opinion.

Ready to check if your domain name is available? Check here now.

3. Set Up Web Hosting

If you are serious about your blog and starting a successful business from it then paying for a domain name and hosting is a must.

Hosting is just the power behind your website or blog.

Think of it like the foundation on which your home lies. Without a proper foundation you will have just a stack of bricks that can topple over at any time right?!

For your web hosting I recommend Bluehost. This is the web host that use for I Am Dawn-Marie. Their customer service is really helpful and they were very patient with me when I first got started.

I arranged a super deal for you with Bluehost where you get a FREE domain, 1-click WordPress install, site builders and 24/7 support.

NB. This deal is ONLY available through my website as the Bluehost staff were really nice in extending their awesome courtesy to me and my readers. To get this deal make sure that you use any of the links on my page to get this special pricing.

Click here to open up the Bluehost window.

Then click the green “Get Started Now” button.

You will then come to a page like this:

Select the price plan that you want but I would strongly recommend that you go with the Prime plan and here is why:

You will see that the prime plan offers domain privacy.

When I started online marketing and purchased my domain I made the HUGE mistake of not protecting my domain. What that meant was that ANYONE on the internet had access to my personal details which included my name and email address.

Essentially anyone can find out who owns your domain and you can therefore be subject to A LOT of spam. Trust me, you do not want that because you will be receiving a lot of emails from people offering you SEO services.

Learn from my mistake guys!

The prime plan also comes with a lot of unlimited features and is cheaper and more value for money over a period of time.

To get the price of $5.95, the prime plan must be purchased over a 36 month period and must be paid in full so it works out to be just about $214.20.

I strongly recommend that you start on the 36 month price plan for three good reasons:

It works out to be cheaper.
You do not have to worry about your hosting needs for three years!
It shows that you are committed to yourself and your blog. This is going to be the best investment you ever made in yourself and the rewards you get from it are going to be PHENOMENAL!

4. Check The Availability Of Your Domain Name

Whatever domain name provider you are going with, they will always tell you whether your chosen name is available or not.

Enter your domain into the new domain box and click Next. If you already have a purchased domain then enter it into the box marked I have a domain name and click next.

5. Purchase Your Domain Name

You will come to the page where you can enter your contact information and select your price plan duration.

If you decide to go with the basic plan then you should at least choose the Domain Privacy at minimum.

If you do not you will regret it!

Finally all you have to do is enter your payment details, read the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy and click Submit!

Once you have completed your purchase, watch out for an email from Bluehost with your billing and account information.

That’s it! It’s that simple right??!! You are now the very proud owner of your first ever website and hosting.

6. Install WordPress

Ok! So you have your website.

Now for the exciting part! Installing your WordPress blog.

It really is simple. Let’s go.

Once you have purchased your domain and web hosting you will be asked to choose a password for your WordPress account before you can log in.

Once the password is created Log in.

7. Choose Your Theme

When you log in you’ll be taken to a page that looks like this where you can select a theme. Don’t spend too much time thinking about this part as you can always change your theme later on once you’ve been inspired.

With your theme selected click on the box that says start building which will allow you to log into WordPress.

When you’re logged into WordPress, you will be asked whether you want your site to be personal or a business.

Well I guess you want to make money from your blog and have a blog business so yea, go on and choose business!

Because this is new to you, everything may be overwhelming but clear your mind and slowly take a look around.

Get familiar with it. Do not be afraid to click on links to see what it takes you to.

Now the fun part!

Let’s add some sassiness to your blog by installing a theme.

To start installing your themes hover over “Appearance” then select Themes.

WordPress has a few free themes so check them out and decide which one is good for you.

Once you select your theme, make sure that you are happy with it because if you decide to change it after you have done a bit of work, it can be somewhat difficult.

Whatever theme you choose there will be instructions on how to install and customise it.

You can also refer to YouTube that has tons of videos on how to install your perfect theme.

Be sure to check them out!

8. Build And Launch Your Blog

So once your blog is set up the way you want it, make sure to launch it so that people can see what you’re up to!

9. What’s Next?

Now that your blog is up and running you may be thinking what next?

This is where you build your blog with content based on topics that interest you and learn how to monetise it.

I created a super duper 5 Days To Building A Successful Blog where I teach you in a step by step format, how to grow and monetise your blog so you can create a successful blog.

Happy blogging!

P.S How did you get on with creating your blog? Let me know in the comments section below.

The post The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Successful Blog appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

How To Make Money With FlexOffers

Dawn-Marie — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 00:37:19 +0000

Whilst this blog teaches you about different digital marketing strategies for your own business, every now and again I like to do a case study, documenting my results so that the next person who is reading this can take steps to achieve the same for themselves.

In today’s blog post I am going to talk about FlexOffers and provide a detailed synopsis of how I was able to use this affiliate network to earn over $10,000 in affiliate commissions and how you can make money with FlexOffers.

There are many ways that you can promote affiliate products but I have found the best way to do that is through a valuable blog post that teaches your reader something educational.

But the difference with this case study is that I did not have one of those traditional blogs. Like this one that you’re reading.

I wanted to create something that was fast and easy to get started in very little time.

Know what it takes to create a niche blog and ready to take the leap? Start your blog by following my step-by-step guide.

When I started this campaign, all I wanted to do was test the affiliate product to see if it would generate any interest. The quickest way to do that without a traditional blog was to create a small blog post and drive traffic to it to see if it would produce any sales.

Guess what happened next? I got six affiliate sales in the first 24 hours and went on to earn over $10k in a little over two months.

Now, I want to show you what I did.

What you will learn:

What is FlexOffers and how to sign up with them
Which are the best products to promote with FlexOffers
How to promote the affiliate product through a blog post
How to get traffic to your blog post
Other features of FlexOffers
How I earned over $10k in affiliate commissions from FlexOffers in 2 months

What Is FlexOffers And How To Sign Up With Them

FlexOffers is an affiliate network that connects you to many reputable brand name companies who you can become an affiliate for.

FlexOffers has over 12000 affiliate programs and are adding new ones each day.

Some of their affiliate programs include companies like Lord & Taylor, Skin Store and the InterContinental Hotel Group.

You will notice that the brands that I just mentioned are in the fashion, beauty and hotel niche. This means that there is a wide range of programs to suit almost every niche.

To sign up with FlexOffers you do need your own website to get started. I do not know how they select their affiliates and whether they expect that websites should already have sufficient content on it to join but this is what FlexOffers said:

From the above it would appear that even if you have very limited content on your website, as long as you explain how you are going to promote their products and are very detailed as to your traffic sources, this will give you a good chance at being accepted onto their platform.

Take note of this and take your time when applying for their program.

To start the application process click here. Once you get to the website click on Publisher Sign up.

Next go through the steps to complete your application.

There is no secret to getting accepted with and making money with FlexOffers but here are a few things you should know:

Give truthful, honest information
FlexOffers want people who know how they are going to promote their products. So have a plan and be sure to be as detailed as you can when you state that plan in your application to increase your chances of being accepted.
Give accurate information. Don’t worry if you make a mistake. You can always contact them after you have submitted your application and inform them of the error.
Read their terms and conditions carefully to ensure that you can comply so as to avoid violations and termination of your account.
There is no cost to join FlexOffers

What Are The Best Products To Promote With FlexOffers

In my view, the best products to promote are the cost per lead products.

Cost per lead, means that you will earn a commission when your traffic opts into the advertiser’s product form providing their name, contact details and other information which the advertiser requires from the lead.

This means that your audience is not required to make a purchase in order for you to receive a commission.

I find that cost per lead programs are one of the easiest ways to make money from affiliate networks as all that is required is for the lead to enter their information which is a much easier, no obligation task for the lead to perform as opposed to taking out their credit card and buying a product.

To find cost per lead items, once you are in the FlexOffers Publisher area, click on Advertisers then Search Advertisers.

Scroll down to Payout Type then tick the Cost Per Lead box and click on Search.

This will bring up all the affiliate programs that are paid on a cost per lead basis.

If you want to filter the search results based on your niche, you can enter keywords or select categories to help you narrow the search results.

How To Promote The Affiliate Product Through A Blog Post

You can promote an affiliate product by linking directly to the affiliate program but I find that the best way to make money with FlexOffers and well, any affiliate product is with valuable content.

Valuable content allows you to educate and inform your visitor about why they should take a particular action. People are more likely to act when you teach them something and they understand why the action is necessary, both as a benefit to them and what could happen if they do nothing.

Valuable content can come in the form of a sales funnel where you capture the lead’s information on a lead capture page, then take them to a bridge page where you educate them on how to do something and send them off to the affiliate product.

However with cost per lead programs it can be quite tricky when you ask for the lead’s information through your own sales funnel, then ask them to provide their information again through the advertiser’s lead form.

So what I like to do, which has reaped tremendous results for me, is write an educational blog post that recommends the affiliate program (kind of like this one you’re reading).

So when your audience clicks through to your links, they are taken to the affiliate program where they are only required to enter their details once.

Whatever way you decide to promote the program, I recommend that you always use your own landing page before sending the traffic to the affiliate program. What this allows you to do is:

You can either capture your traffic’s information by using your own lead capture page. This will help you build an email list to which you can remarket and follow up with the lead.
You can add retargeting pixels to your landing page, which will allow you to retarget and remarket to your visitors.

Interested in using this method to promote your affiliate products? Check out my LeadPages Review blog post which teaches you how to use LeadPages to do affiliate marketing.

How To Get Traffic To The Affiliate Program

There are many ways that you can get people to see your promotional content. You can get traffic from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest or search engines.

When promoting my own blog posts, I use Facebook Ads as well as Bing Ads. Before you spend any money promoting the affiliate program, make sure that you know what the earnings per click is (EPC).

Earnings per click is a metric provided by affiliate programs that give you insight into the estimated earnings that you can achieve for every 100 clicks you send to the affiliate program.

This metric is determined by the average earnings earned by affiliates over a certain period.

FlexOffers measures this over a 7, 30 and 90-day period.

By knowing what your earnings per click metric is, you can ensure that you run profitable ad campaigns where your cost per click falls below the EPC.

For example, if you place an advertising campaign with Facebook and you ask Facebook to send people to your landing page, look out for the amount that you are spending per visitor.

This is measured by the cost per link click metric (or cost per landing page view) on the Facebook platform.

If you are using Bing ads, see how much each link click costs. Look for the “average CPC” metric.

As long as the advertising platform’s metric is below the EPC of the affiliate program, you can ensure that your campaigns will remain profitable if you are getting conversions.

How I Earned Over $10k In Affiliate Commissions From FlexOffers In 2 Months

When I started with FlexOffers I chose an affiliate program that was paid on a cost per lead basis. That program was the Credit Sesame offer.

Next I wrote a blog post about Credit Sesame to include the features, benefits, why I used it and why I recommended it.

I used Facebook ads to drive traffic to the blog post by targeting people who I thought would be interested in a website app that helped them improve their credit score.

My cost per click was under $0.25 and went as low as $0.17.

To get my cost per click low I paid attention to my ad’s text by making it personal and relatable. This would ensure that a lot of people who saw my ad were first attracted to it and then engaged with it to drive down my costs.

I started this campaign at $5 per ad per day to first test different interests and see what worked. I initially tested eight different interests and when I got my first conversions, I looked to see which interests were converting.

I then turned off those that were not performing.

The ad campaign ended up running for approximately three months and I achieved a final return on investment of x2.7.

The final amount earned in affiliate commissions was $10,266.

Other Features of FlexOffers

Some things that I love about FlexOffers are:

Dedicated affiliate manager. I have an affiliate manager who helps me find the most suitable affiliate offers. They are also the go-to person if I wish to negotiate an increase in my commissions.

Ease of access. FlexOffers has online chat support features and you can reach their office by email or by telephone if you have a question. I have not had a problem speaking to someone although at one point I did have to follow up with their Accounts department after not receiving a response for seven days.

During the follow up, they answered my questions satisfactorily and were helpful in addressing my concerns.

Reliable payment. Although I am not a fan of their Net30 or payment when they receive commissions from the advertiser, they are reliable. I started with FlexOffers in January and received my commissions for the month of February at the beginning of April. This is usually the case with most affiliate networks. Some pay you on Net30 terms and others pay you on Net7 terms. I must add however that FlexOffers do have Net7 payment terms but you must have sent them quality traffic for two months and earned at least $5000 in affiliate commissions during each month.

Ease of payment. You can receive your affiliate commissions via PayPal or if you live in the US you can receive payment via cheque or direct deposit.

FlexRev-$hare. FlexOffers has a referral program where if you refer publishers who are approved, you can earn a percentage of their affiliate sales.

Wrapping Up

Anyone can make money with FlexOffers if they want to. They are a trusted affiliate network that provides thousands of affiliate programs that you can promote for a commission.

It’s a great revenue stream for bloggers and marketers who are looking for high quality brands to promote on their blogs or website. Click this link to get started with FlexOffers.

I cover more about FlexOffers and affiliate marketing with small blogs in my latest eBook How To Make Money With Small Blogs.

The information inside this eBook teaches you how to make money from affiliate products using small valuable blog posts. Plus I uncover a lot more, in-depth strategies that I used to earn over $10k in affiliate commissions with FlexOffers.

Whereas you can promote affiliate products using sales funnel, you can also provide value to your audience through educational content. They refer to this as a form of article marketing.

I also share with you how to get other people to pay for your advertising and business costs, plus one free traffic source that I absolutely love.

Many would-be bloggers want to start making money from blogging but they eventually give up because they don’t have the time to manage a blog or they find it difficult to get visitors to their blog. Make Money With Small Blogs solves this problem by showing you how to create a small blog and promote it for near instant results.

This eBook is designed to help you find an affiliate product that suits you, write content around the affiliate product and make money in a short time span.

Click here to check out the eBook and let’s start building a strong affiliate marketing journey for you today.

Cheers,

P.s Have you joined FlexOffers? Leave a comment below and let other people know what you thought about them.

The post How To Make Money With FlexOffers appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

25 Blog Tips For New Bloggers (Part 1)

Dawn-Marie — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 20:05:05 +0000

I started working on my blog consistently in August 2017 and I’m on my eighth month of blogging (at the time of writing). Since then my traffic has grown from zero to over 10,000 page views a month, I now earn a passive income from blogging and have built an email list of over 700 lovely subscribers just from my blog.

Obviously to grow my blog I need to step it up a notch and already have my blog goals written down since the start of this year.

Some of my goals include growing my audience to over 100k pageviews a month, generate at least five figures a month and increase my subscribers to at least 2000.

There are other goals that matter such as increasing my domain and page authority but for now those are the ones at the top of the list.

In just eight months, I have learnt so much and every day I meet new people who are helping me to increase my knowledge and level up my skills.

I like to think of myself as a quick learner so based on those past eight months and the goals that I currently have, I am going to share with you 50 juicy tips (25 in this post) that helped me get to where I am. Maybe you can take away some golden nuggets from it and apply it to your own blog.

Ideally I would like to provide 50 tips but because this is a super duper long post I will split it over two posts. The second post will be posted shortly.

1. Know your limit

The number one reason why new bloggers quit is because they really don’t know what they signed up for.

Blogging takes time, consistency and determination to make any significant headway. You have to be prepared to work hard over a period of time before you start seeing any results from your efforts.

If you are going to start blogging as a business, decide the amount of time you are going to commit. If you cannot dedicate enough time, sometimes it can take 6-12 hours for 6 months or more, then I would not recommend you start a blog.

2. Get your own web hosting

When I started blogging, I started with WordPress.com. I paid about $80 for the premium version but after reading other bloggers’ posts about avoiding free blogs by using WordPress.org I quickly asked for a refund of my money and signed up to WordPress.org.

I am lucky to have done that because I dodged a serious bullet as I realised that had I built a blog on WordPress.com I would not have been able to monetise it the way I wanted and it would not have belonged to me.

I see so many people still using free blogs and I think how badly they are limiting their growth. If you want to start a blog as a business and earn money from it stop blogging on free blogs and get your own webhosting.

If you are ready to step up to the plate as a professional blogger then checkout my post The Ultimate Guide To Starting A Successful Blog.

There I teach you how to start a blog using Bluehost and WordPress.org in under an hour. It really does not take long at all and there is no tech business involved.

3. Use a professional, beautiful theme

The truth is, your blog is like your storefront. What appears to the reader the first time they click on your link determines whether they will bounce from your page or hang around for a while.

That is why once you have created a blog, you should take the time to select a beautiful theme that is attractive to the visitor.

If you don’t know whether it is attractive ask a friend. It is always a good idea to have a fresh pair of eyes who can give you another opinion.

Also, make sure that your blog is easy to navigate. A good blog has a menu at the top, which easily directs the visitor to categories that can help them get to the content that they want to read.

Make sure that your blog has a footer, which usually has all your legal info like terms and conditions, privacy policies and affiliate disclaimers.

4. Set up and build an email list

An email list is super important. Think of your email list as a community of people who look forward to hearing from you by email.

They want to know what’s going on in your business life and continue to look to you for advice. It is one of the first things that I would strongly recommend you do as you start your blogging journey or if you have already started.

You can start an email list using tools like Aweber or GetResponse. I have over 14 lists in my email service which is divided into different categories based on what people want to read.

Having an email list is also a source of free traffic. So if one day you find that a traffic source that you have been using such as Google or Facebook, suddenly goes away, you still have a list of people to “talk” to.

Related Posts:

5. Use content upgrades in your blogging strategy

A content upgrade is a lead magnet or opt in freebie, that is delivered to your visitor when they opt into your lead box. It is specifically designed to be congruent with the message of a blog post.

For example, if your blog post is about “An Analysis of 1000 Facebook Ads”, your content upgrade could be “Bonus Tips For Your Next Facebook Ad”.

The content upgrade should enhance or build upon the existing content that is on the blog hence the name “content upgrade”.

Content upgrade lead boxes can be embedded within content on your blog post. Here is an example of one of my content upgrades in my blog post.

I used LeadPages to create that lead box. I wrote a detailed review of LeadPages here.

Throughout my website I have provided different content upgrades and have found that by doing so I have been able to increase my subscribers. Having multiple email lists offering different content upgrades is better as you build your email list faster.

6. Have a content calendar

It is important that you blog consistently and having a content calendar will help you do just that.

It will also help you become organised so you keep on track as to what type of blog post should be written and when.

By having a content calendar and creating content consistently, your readers will always have a reason to come back to your blog.

7. Show up everyday

Blogging is a business so just like your favourite business has regular working hours, treat your blog the same way.

It’s not ok that you blog when you feel like it. That only helps delay your blog from growing faster. What is ok is that you create a blog schedule where you work on your blog let’s say from 9am to 5pm every day until you reach your goal.

8. Write great content

Great content means writing content that is going to add value to your readers. Your content should be helpful and useful.

It should help your reader solve a problem or offer comprehension about the subject.

Avoid adding a lot of fluff to the blog post that makes no sense and is not relevant to your subject.

Actionable step-by-step posts are perfect.

Diagrams and images also allow them to visualise the process.

So if you can take photographs or screenshots and include them in your blog post then count that as one of the most important things you do before you publish your post.

9. Write detailed content

When you are blogging take the time to write content that is in depth. Blog posts that are no more than 500 words are not preferred by Google from an SEO perspective.

Google rewards content that is longer which means that it keeps the reader on the page for a longer time, or they revisit the page after they have left.

This tells Google that the content is valuable and so it gives the blog the chance of improving their search rank.

10. Add share buttons to your blog posts

This is one of the ways that you can get your content shared outside of your circle. When someone visits your blog and if they like your content, make it easy for them to share it with their friends.

What I have found is that if you ask someone to do something, it’s more than likely that they will. So give them the chance to do it.

On my blog I use the Social Warfare plugin that helps you to get more social media shares and so helps to generate more traffic to your blog.

11. Create a blog budget

Not many people realise that when you are serious about blogging you have expenses. From your blog tools, to web hosting, to advertising.

This is why you should have a realistic monthly budget for how much you are going to spend to keep your blog running until you start generating an income from the blog.

If you’re a fashion, food, travel, finance, romance, health and fitness blogger or vlogger here are some typical expenses that you’re likely to incur:

A basic desktop or laptop $480 to $2000
Ongoing WiFi $25-$50
Camera and lenses $200-$500
Video recording studio software $47-$100
Webcam $100-$250
Domain $8-$15/year
Webhosting $110-$250/year
Custom email $45-$65/year
Email marketing service $10-$300/month
Stock photography $12-$97/month
Lead generation tools $15-$97/month

12. Have great blogger tools

Yes, you do need tools to run a blog. Having those tools help to automate your blog business and is instrumental in the growth of your blog.

Some of the tools I would recommend include:

Lead boxes to capture leads and grow your email list. I love the LeadPages software which allows you to create lead pages and boxes and embed them right onto your blog.

Email autoresponder to communicate with your leads. When you start a blog it is best to start an email list and then communicate with your leads on a regular basis to update them on things that are happening with your blog. I use the Aweber software because it is so easy to manage and sends my emails right to my leads’ inbox.

Pinterest auto pin scheduler. If you’re using Pinterest to grow your traffic then I would recommend using an automatic pin scheduler. Tailwind is an approved partner of Pinterest and the best one that I have found out there.

13. Listen to what your readers say and write for them

When you are starting a blog you are not writing for yourself. Let your readers tell you what type of content they want to read from you.

Generally, you will know what they want to read based on your visitor analytics.

If you have Google Analytics set up on your blog then you can find out the most read content by going to Reports > Behaviour > Overview.

Based on the analytics you can tell what type of post is being visited the most and therefore write more content like it.

Don’t yet have Google Analytics on your blog? Follow this post to set it up.

14. Create your own product

When you start blogging you are told to start with the easiest form of revenue and that is affiliate marketing. Whilst this is true, I would not recommend that you solely rely on affiliate marketing.

The reason being is, I have learnt and come to dislike the payment terms of affiliate networks and companies.

Most affiliate companies require that a grace period is passed in the event a customer requests a refund. This can be a 30-day or 45-day period.

Affiliate networks even require that you are paid only when the affiliate company pays them. So if the affiliate company pays the network within 90 days, that’s when you will get paid.

Whilst some affiliate companies have more reasonable payment terms it is in your better interest to eventually create your own product. When you create your own product, you have control over your income and you have immediate access to it.

Some people are put off by creating their own product because of the sheer amount of work but I think the gains of having your own product far outweighs the cons.

15. Monetise your blog in as many ways as you can

Following on from above, do not rely on one income source for your blog. I am in my eighth month of blogging and having gained as much exposure, I am now looking at other methods of monetising my blog.

I would advise you, when you feel you have sufficient experience and traffic to your blog, consider other ways of monetising. This can include, advertising, selling your own digital products, paid sponsorships, personalised services.

16. Your blog really does not have to be perfect

I know I am a perfectionist and sometimes I have to stop myself and remind myself that “no one is expecting perfect from you, Dawn.”

So many times I have thought of redoing my blog layout because I am of the opinion that it does not look professional, then the next day I get an email from a reader who compliments my blog as being one of the nicest blogs they’ve seen.

It’s all in your head but your blog does not have to be perfect.

17. Keep track of your blog metrics

If you want your blog to grow, know your blog numbers. This helps you improve what you are doing so you can work to grow your blog.

I like to keep track of my blog metrics in an Excel spreadsheet and update my numbers every month.

Then I take a look at my performance and see where I can make improvements.

18. Work on improving your blog metrics every month

Your ultimate goal should be to continue doing what’s working and stop doing what is not working. Here are some metrics that I consider important:

The number of blog posts you write per month. As you know Google rewards websites that are updated regularly. Also your readers are expecting to hear from you. So if your aim is to write 4 posts a month, try and outdo yourself in the next month until you reach your target blog post number.

Page views. Page views tell you whether your readership is growing. You should be working every month on having your blog show up on as many avenues as possible. For me, an increase in page views, tells me that what I am doing is working and I should either push myself harder or continue doing what I’m doing.

Bounce rate. You can tell whether there is a problem with your blog or whether people like your content based on your bounce rate. Aim to have as low a bounce rate as possible every month.

You can improve your bounce rate performance by writing longer blog posts, including video in your blog posts, writing better content.

Subscribers. Are you growing your email list? Are there sufficient lead magnets throughout your blog and are they interesting enough to encourage visitors to subscribe to your blog? If your subscribe rate is low then consider implementing some of the techniques I recommend in this Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing.

Domain Authority. This tells you how valuable your blog is and how well it is likely to rank on a search engine. The higher the metric the better your chance of your blog ranking well. Check out Moz’s Domain Authority checker. You can improve your domain authority by:

Creating lots of linkable content that people want to share
Creating strong internal linking within your blog posts. This helps readers better navigate your site
Having strong back links, linking to your site. You don’t want to have incoming links from any site. Make sure that the link is from a site that also has a high domain authority.

19. Treat your blog like a business

Super important. If you want to make money from your blog, then treat your blog like a business and not a hobby.

How can you treat your blog like a business? Well every point in this post is important to help you achieve that goal.

20. Make sure your blog is legal

What do I mean by this? Sometimes you may think that blogging is not serious business but it can hurt you legally when you don’t have your ducks in a row. So make sure and protect yourself by knowing the legalities of your blog.

A few things to consider:

Disclaimers it’s best to let your readers know that you are merely providing information and not advice especially where legal, financial or health matters are concerned. Tell them they should always refer to professional advice before they make a decision.

Disclosure if you are promoting affiliate products, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) makes it mandatory that you let your readers know whether you are earning commissions or whether a post is sponsored or paid for.

Privacy Policy if you are collecting personal information then you must have a privacy policy to let people know what you will do with their information.

Terms and conditions there is no obligation to include a T&Cs but it’s a good idea to let your visitors know the terms under which they visit and use your site.

Copyright do not use other people’s images, music, video or content without their permission.

21. Have a place where people can reach out to you to contact you

This is probably obvious but make sure that you have a contact me page so people can contact you whether by email, your social media or Skype.

I think the bare minimum that you need is your social media or email contact.

22. Turn on blog commenting

Blogging is all about connecting with your readers. It is great to build an audience of people who look forward to what you have to say, so give them somewhere to add their views and talk to you within your blog. Doing this helps to keep your blog social and attract traffic.

Most blog templates have a comment section. Look for it and turn it on.

23. Have a bit of personable-ness in your blog posts

People want to know the author behind a blog. They want to know who they are building a relationship with, so it is crucial that you make your blog personable by adding pictures of you. This goes well on an About Me page and in a side bar.

An image helps to add credibility, professionalism and allows people to see that you’re a real life human being who is penning these thoughts on a daily basis.

I think they will thank you for it.

If however you prefer to remain anonymous on your blog, you might have good reasons for doing so, then perhaps you can use an artwork image of yourself or some type of caricature that represents you.

24. Master one traffic source before you move on to another

Don’t try to spread yourself too thin. It’s just like the saying “jack of all trades, master of none”. The best thing you can do for yourself and your blog, is master one traffic source at a time.

You might be tempted to try other traffic sources because some other blog had success with it, but I am pretty sure that they only had success, because they focused on making it work.

You should do the same.

There is no one magic traffic source. Neither are they all created equal. But one traffic source can work really well for you when you stick to it and learn the ins and outs of it.

When I created this blog, I worked on Pinterest following the recommendations of other bloggers. Pinterest became my main traffic source for six months and helped my blog gain some activity with visitors.

Now that I felt I have a presence on Pinterest and consistently get traffic there I am diversifying my traffic by using Facebook Ads.

25. Include guest posting as a must-do in your blogging journey

Guest posting is creating a blog post on someone else’s blog. It’s like you’re borrowing their platform to introduce yourself to their audience.

This is another way that you can generate traffic to your own blog as well increase the authority of your website.

Wrapping Up

Alright then. This post is long enough already. I don’t want to create information overload.

In my next blog post I am going to provide some more helpful tips and advice for starting your blog journey so you can learn from my mistakes.

Tell me, what tips did I forget to mention here. I might just include it in my next post.

Speak soon

The post 25 Blog Tips For New Bloggers (Part 1) appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.