Article Marketing

Can Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans Strategy Really Build Me a Six-Figure Business?

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Can Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans Strategy-blog

Recently, a colleague cited the research of Kevin Kelly and an article titled 1,000 True Fans. The premise of his research is very simple: If you develop a business based on 1,000 people who buy only $100 / year from you, you will earn $100,000 / year from these fans.

Could this marketing strategy work? What if I multiplied it by, say, 5,000 people?

A true fan was described as someone who gave their full support; they purchased everything that you created. There would also be a second tier of supporters that purchased some of your products.

And while this strategy could never work for large enterprises, like Nike, it’s certainly a viable option for the coaching industry, with proven case studies for musicians like Jill Sobule (he mentions her results in the article) also making a case for creative professionals.

How would I successfully execute the 1,000 True Fans Strategy?

“The Riches Are In the Niches” & Your Ideal Audience Will Sense Your Focus

A recent Blogging Tips article discussed the top 10 new blogging topics entering the market. In 2013 alone, 328,763 photography blogs popped up on the internet.

To be candid, niches are absolutely necessary to differentiate you from the competition. It’s not enough to simply have a photography blog these days. It’s imperative to have an “Animals Photography Blog,” etc.

When you consider your 1,000 true fans:

  • What is the glue that will draw your community together?
  • Where do they hang out? How can I reach this community?
  • What’s missing for them that you can solve with your product / service?
  • How do you speak specifically to them & what language do you use?
  • Who do they know that could be a second-tier connection for you?

Your Outreach Strategy Is Everything: Be Aware of the Best Ways to Implement Your Marketing Initiatives.

Kevin Kelly went on in his research to express the real differentiator of having true fans; you are required to reach out personally and touch them.

In a fast-paced digital world, we’re all being bombarded by marketing messages. What will make your messages special?

  • Speak directly to your audience Let fans into your world with insider stories and pictures. While it seems shallow, people enjoy knowing about your life; it makes you relatable. Advice in Action: Oprah’s Favorite Things list is a coveted prize for many retailers. Google a few of the successes she’s created over the years.
  • Get vulnerable (while staying authentic to who you are) Opening up about painful, frustrating, or highly emotional journeys let your fans rally together to support you. Advice in Action: Gerald Rogers Facebook post about his divorce quickly went viral – earning him a spot on the Today show and a coveted pedestal as a relationship expert.
  • Give away special offers, like a signed copy of your book or tuition discounts The better the offer the more likely fans are to tell others that they won. Don’t forget to highlight the winner.  Advice in Action: Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love recently raised thousands of dollars for a charity by having lunch with one lucky silent auction winner.
  • Make your marketing something people have to open You’ll want to make these offers valuable and time-sensitive. Don’t do them too often, or the buzz will wear off. Advice in Action: “The first five people to email me get an exclusive VIP virtual lunch meeting with me.”

You Can Go Deeper or Wider with Your Niche When Building a Community of Fans.

First, let’s discuss going deeper. The best way to picture this concept is as a funnel. At the top, you have the most superficial topic, narrowing down into specific niches:

  • What is Facebook & Why You Need It
  • Facebook Business Pages: Design & Strategy
  • How to Increase Your List by 1,000 Using Facebook
  • 25 Facebook Experts Give You Their Best Advice on Facebook
  • 38 Buttons on Facebook You Didn’t Even Know Existed
  • Exactly How to Create a Targeted Custom Audience Step by Step

At the top of our funnel, we’re giving basic information within a niche. We will build a highly targeted audience of fans who want to become experts in Facebook. This is the only targeted group we will attract since we have dug into advanced concepts very deeply.

Now, how can we go wider? Instead of being Facebook experts, we could be social media experts and choose to have a varied offering of multiple social media teachings.

In this instance, we’d teach Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ (while it’s still around), YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter, for example The net goes to a larger audience of social media folks.

How Does This Research Resonate With YOU?

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to read this blog. As you know, our business mindset is one of the most difficult pieces of success for us to conquer.

What do you think about Kevin Kelly’s idea? Do you think this concept would, or would not, work for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

15 Podcasting Tips followed by the Experts

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podcasting tips

Adding a podcast to your marketing mix and to your website is a valuable and economical marketing tool that can bring you fantastic results.  You’ll grow your target audience, build a community around your brand, product, or service, and – best of all – you’ll help people learn more.  Podcasts are a win-win for both you and your customer. There are a few tips that will help you improve your podcasting show. Follow these tips and be sure that you will be called a professional podcaster in no time.

Tip #1  Make sure you speak in a strong voice and add inflection.  If you sound like you’re uncertain about what you’re saying, your listeners will think so too.

Tip #2  Make sure that your broadcasting frequency is consistent.  You want people to make listening to your podcast a habit.

Tip#3  Offer variety.  Include different guests and formats if possible.  This will keep listeners intrigued and engaged.

Tip #4  Make sure that your podcast content is different from your blog content, articles and e-zine content.  Chances are that listeners will explore all of your content, and if it is redundant they will lose interest.

content

Tip #5  Focus on content, not sales pitches.  Your listeners will readily listen if you’re providing content that offers them a benefit.  However, if it’s merely a sales pitch you’ll lose them immediately.

Tip #6  Plan on Podcasting for the long haul.  Podcasters who “test” the medium with one or two podcasts lose out on the opportunity of building an audience.  Podcasting is a medium that builds an audience over time and a “test run” won’t give you the results you’re looking for.

Tip #7  Don’t read directly from your script.  Practice it a few times so that you know what you’re going to say and then let the podcast recording flow naturally.

Tip #8  Invite others to contribute to your podcast by calling in, speaking, or contributing topic ideas.

Tip #9  Include music at the beginning and end, and use the same music each time so that your audience begins to identify the music with your podcast.

headlines

Tip #10  Give each podcast a headline or title.  Make sure that it offers your audience a benefit such as “10 Tips to Lifelong Happiness.”

Tip #11  Podcasting is a very personal medium.  Talk to your audience like you’re talking to a friend, as if you’re having a one-on-one conversation.

Tip #12  Podcasting, like any marketing tool, needs to be tested and evaluated from time to time to make sure that you’re getting optimal exposure.  Track downloads and test headlines for open rates.  Track click through rates by sending audiences to specific web pages.  Many audio/podcasting services give you important statistics on downloads, play time and listens to completion.  This makes it easy to know if people are listening and enables you to make quick changes to meet what your audience demands.

Tip #13  If you’re uneasy writing a podcast or audio script, you can outsource the project by hiring a freelance writer to create your script.  Remember to personalize the script when you make your recording.

competitors analysis

Tip #14  Before you begin Podcasting, research your competition’s podcasts or audio files.  Find out what they do that you can do better and differently.

Tip #15  Before you begin Podcasting, visit and listen to numerous successful podcasts inside and outside of your industry.  What makes the good ones good?  What can you take away from the successful podcasts and make your own?

Don’t worry if the number of listeners you have is small in the beginning.  Podcasts are a medium and, like e-zines and blogs, tend to grow as word gets out.  The key is to get listeners “hooked” on your podcast so that they’re listening to every podcast regularly and talking to their friends and associates about it.  The best way to get them hooked is to provide great content.

What’s The Deal with RSS?

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rss feed

Another very important benefit to publishing a blog, is something called “Real Simple Syndication” or RSS for short.  RSS is a content delivery channel, distributing your content to your audience wherever they may be.  Blogs use RSS to automatically deliver your content to your readers without them having to visit your site everyday to check whether your blog had been updated recently.

To accomplish this, your audience needs to subscribe to your blog’s feed.  Using an RSS Feed Reader, they can now read your latest posts from the reader itself.  It works like a simple subscription form.  You place your feed icons in a prominent place on your blog where your readers simply click on it and get subscribed.

RSS Feed Readers are available as desktop downloads or as Web-based applications.  Many are free like Feedly.com and Newsblur.com.

Using RSS is a much better way of syndicating your content than e-mail because RSS goes beyond just e-zines.  And if you were wondering how managing your blog’s subscribers could be possible, there’s Feedburner.com to answer your question. Probably the best in the business, Feedburner.com provides the most detailed stats about your blog subscribers, giving you the edge to improve your blog’s performance as you see fit.

5 Blog Optimization Tips You’d Be Sorry For Not Taking Advantage of Them Earlier

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sorryOne of the most popular and successful offsite SEO tactics is getting quality inbound links. So how do you get others to link to you?  Here are some ways to get you started:

1.Write Quality Content

Nothing gets you links faster than writing content that engages with your readers.  If a little bit of controversy helps, throw that in.  As word gets around about your posts, bloggers will inevitably link to you.

2.Post Comments on Blogs You Read

Don’t hesitate to post worthwhile comments on other blogs, be it your competitors or not, but realize blog comments themselves don’t have impact on your SEO results. You may get a follow-up with a link pointing to your blog.  And if that happens to be from a competitor with a huge audience, you’ll be looking at some major traffic influx to your blog.

3.Submit Your Articles to Social Buzz Club, Triberr

You can submit your blog to content discovery platforms like Social Buzz Club or Triberr to attract more traffic and like-minded readers. On-topic comments will help position the blog as an authority in your field.

Onsite SEO requires customization within your blog itself.  Here’s how to get started:

4.Optimize Your Content with Targeted Keywords

keywordsThis topic really requires intense study, as it is one of the more important subjects when discussing SEO.  But in a nutshell, your blog posts should contain the keywords or keyword phrases that your potential customers or readers would most likely type into the search engines to find what they are looking for.

This requires advanced research of keywords on your part so that you can place these targeted keywords within your blog content.  The result would be a highly optimized blog for the very information your potential customers are looking for.

Have each of your posts focused on one specific topic so that you can moderate the keywords going into your content.  Over-stuffing keywords can make for terrible reading which defeats the purpose of finding and keeping your customers.  Make your posts as original as possible and update your blog frequently, at least three times a week.

Within the URL of the page, page and post titles, heading tags such as H1, image alt tags and meta tags.  Bold your keywords where you can too.

5.Create a Good Linking Structure within Your Blog

linkbuildingCreate links that link from a certain post in your blog to another relevant post which you had written previously.  This interlinking makes it very easy for search engines to re-index your blog, allowing for more of your pages to be indexed.  Categorize your information and place them on your blog’s sidebar.  Create a sitemap once your blog starts growing larger in size.

But one thing to remember is not to over-optimize your blog. Write naturally and don’t overdo it with keywords. Use descriptive wording and use synonyms rather than repeating the same keyword phrases over and over.

Popular articles in October

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How to Maximize Your Business Brand on Google+ Checklist

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10 Common Google+ Branding Mistakes

One of the most surprising facts about Google+ branding mistakes is the number of people who still make them! Here are ten of the most common mistakes beginners do.

50 Tips for Marketing Your Website

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How to Be Active on LinkedIn

Once you have set up your LinkedIn Profile and completed it to “Advanced” strength or better, and you have made a healthy batch of initial connections, it’s time to become a visible part of the LinkedIn community.

How to Use Facebook as a Business Research Tool

Nowadays, you can – and should – be using Facebook for business-related research.  Not only can you research your audience and your competitors, but you can also monitor your own business interaction, perception and feedback by using Facebook activity.

Top 10 Email Subject Line Tips

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line

The subject line is one of the most important components of any email. It helps the reader decide whether or not a message is worth reading. As an internet marketer, it’s important to make sure that your subject lines always make the reader want to open your email. Here are some tips that will help.

#1: Keep it Short

When it comes to an email subject line, less is more. The goal is to get the reader to open the email and read it, not give everything away from the start. A Mailchimp study found that subject lines with a length of 28 to 39 characters had the highest click rate. It’s also important to keep the subject line short for practical reasons. Most email programs cut it off at 50 to 55 characters, so if you go beyond that the reader will not see the whole thing.

1-keep-short

#2: Avoid Spam Triggers

No matter how spectacular your email may be, if it ends up in the user’s spam folder, the chances of him reading it are slim to none. It’s a good idea to encourage your subscriber’s to add your email address to their whitelist so that they won’t miss any of your emails, but since not everyone will do so it’s important to avoid using words and symbols in your subject line that could trigger spam filters as much as possible.

These include:

  • Free
  • Earn
  • Income
  • Cash
  • Buy
  • Clearance
  • Million
  • Credit
  • Stock
  • Sale
  • Online pharmacy
  • Weight loss
  • Urgent
  • Winner
  • Casino
  • Dollar signs
  • Excessive exclamation points
  • All caps

You can also use your autoresponder’s spam check. Here’s an example from an Aweber spam check.

2-spam-filter

#3: Use Numbers

Numbers have a way of making headlines more appealing, and the same holds true for email subject lines. Using a number promises quantifiable information and people like this. And in the case of lists such as “5 ways to boost conversion rates” or “Top 7 Facebook marketing tools,” it promises an easily digestible list of useful information.

3-numbers

#4: Create a Sense of Urgency

If the reader doesn’t read your email as soon as it is received, chances are he won’t read it at all. That’s why it’s good to create a sense of urgency with the subject line. Go ahead and let them know that spots for your latest course are limited, that your big sale ends tomorrow, or that they must take action right away. They will feel compelled to open your email and learn more.

 4-urgency

#5: Be Clear About What’s Inside

Sometimes an air of mystery can work to your advantage, but in most cases readers want to know what an email is about up front. Their time is valuable, and if they are unsure whether it will be wasted by reading your email, they may send it straight to the trash.

Never mislead your readers…it will reduce your credibility and is also likely illegal.5-be-clear

#6: Make it Timely

Current events that are relevant to your audience make for great email subject lines. You don’t necessarily have to make the entire email about the event. Simply finding a way to tie it in with your message is a good way to generate interest and make recipients want to read more.

6-timely

#7: Focus on Benefits
7-focus

One of the most important rules of copywriting is to focus on the benefits that your product offers the customer. This can also be

applied to email subject lines. Let the reader know what’s in it for him right off the bat, and he will be eager to read the rest of your message.

 

#8: Be Controversial

Don’t be afraid of stirring up a little controversy. It’s a great way to pique the reader’s interest, even if he doesn’t agree with your stance. Just make sure that you back up any claims made in the subject line within the email; otherwise, you may lose the reader’s trust.

8-controversy

#9: Avoid Cheap Tricks

9-no-tricksSome marketers resort to trickery as a means of getting readers to open their emails. For example, they might add Re: or Fwd: to the beginning to make it look like the email is coming from someone the recipient knows.

Most users are savvy enough to ignore such tactics, and those who do open the email will be turned off by the dishonesty and delete the email.

Just give it to them straight and treat them like you would a friend that you’re emailing.

#10: Test Your Subject Lines Untitled

There is no foolproof formula for creating the perfect subject line. Tactics that work for one marketer may be all wrong for another, so it’s important to test your subject lines to determine what works best for your specific audience. You can do this by sending identical emails with different subject lines to two groups of subscribers. Look at the open and response rates for each, and apply the techniques that work best to future emails.

No matter how good your email is, it’s worthless if it goes unopened. By taking the time to craft an informative and attention-getting subject line, you can make sure that most of your recipients will keep reading.

 

 

Tips for Writing Effective and Useful Product Reviews

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TIPS

More and more people are reading reviews before they buy online and offline. As an affiliate marketer, you have a unique position when it comes to providing people with the information that they seek. Here are some tips for writing effective and useful product reviews.

What are Product Reviews? 1-product-review

Product reviews are blurbs written about an item, right? Wrong. Those looking to read about the newest coffeemaker or the latest high
definition television are not asking for two paragraphs and a handful of stars. They want to know details.

A winning product review contains many elements:

  • Knowledge of the product being reviewed
  • Pros and cons of the product
  • Perspective (speak as a new user and also as someone who has used that type of product before)
  • Images that show the product
  • Accurate research on the product
  • Examples of product features

From a consumer’s perspective, anything less than that is simply fluff. If you aren’t giving detailed information about the product in question, then the content you provide is not useful. Visitors will begin to bypass your site in favor of one can offer an in-depth review.

What’s the Purpose of your Review? 2-purpose

The answer to this question will help when crafting the review. Sure, as an affiliate, you want to make money with your content.
Hopefully the reader will click on your affiliate link. Actually, this motivation will be secondary if you hope to gain a following from your reviews.

Some reviews are so full of affiliate links that people think they are sales messages. They learn more about how much they need to purchase the item instead of any real information about the product itself. Readers become suspicious of your motives and can learn not to trust your reviews as unbiased portrayals of a product.

Add your affiliate link to the review but do so at the end. Allow the person to read all the information about the product, forming their own opinion as they do so, and then wrap it all up by clicking your link.

Remember, the elements of a winning review are also some of the most common reasons people read reviews in the first place.

Become Acquainted with the Product 3-buy-it

Buy the product before you review it. As an affiliate, you might be eligible for a discount on the product, so ask if that’s possible. Either way, become familiar with items you are writing about.

Be honest. Readers can see through a smokescreen. Think of it this way: If you are the only person not writing something negative
about the product, consumers will think you have something to hide especially if you are also an affiliate of the company.

Leave the decision whether to buy up to the reader. Yes, you can make a few sales with biased reviews but where will that put your reputation? Create quality review content and people will continue to read what you have to say and click on your links. Try to deceive them and go for the quick sale and risk losing your audience.

Craft your Content 4-craft-it

How you deliver your review is just as important as what you actually say. Introduce the product through its features. List them in bullet form for easier reading. Make your content as visually appealing as it is informative.

Who will buy the product? Let your audience know who can benefit most from purchasing the item or others like it. Speaking of benefits, list the biggest value that customers can receive from owning the item. Don’t forget to list other advantages as well.

Answer the silent questions that everyone wants to ask: How much does it cost? Is there a warranty? Where can the product be purchased?

List the pros and cons of the product. Everyone knows that there is a downside to any product. Display both sides honestly. For some, what is listed as a con is negligible in light of the other benefits of the product.

Add your experiences. This isn’t a separate section. Sprinkle them throughout. For instance, as you describe the main benefit of the
5-list product, remark about how that benefit has enhanced your life. Readers will realize that you also use the product, or have used it, so they can trust your opinion of it. It also shows that you have the necessary expertise to write the review in the first place.

Keep the language simple. Say what you have to say in plain terms so that everyone can understand it. The same goes for your affiliate link. Instead of a big button, link the affiliate URL to the product name with a strong call to action.

What do you look for in a product review? Those are the same things that your readers are searching for. Providing that information in an effective way produces a useful product review that will breed trust and bring clicks.

Adding Effective Product Recommendations to Your Content

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Part of an affiliate marketer’s job is to make product recommendations. You are recommending the products that you are promoting for your programs. So, how can you do so without sounding biased or like all you are interested in is selling a product?
writing-recommendations

Affiliate Marketing Today

Affiliate marketing has evolved. The FTC guides say that any endorsement needs to be truthful. In order to be truthful, the reviewer
has to have personal experience with the product. Otherwise, you are simply regurgitating what the sponsoring affiliate program has already said on their site. This isn’t good enough for customers or the government.

Why? There have been too many affiliates wearing “black hats” that have used not so honest methods for gaining clicks and making the sale. Loopholes in search engine algorithms were exploited so that recycled content or poor quality content made the front page of the results. Biased reviews were written in order to get people to buy the product.

The new regulations are designed to stop fraud and promote fair competition in the marketplace. Everyone deserves a quality product that is trustworthy.

Creating Quality Content that Promotes a Product

One concern is how to incorporate product recommendations without sounding like you are strictly selling the product. Here are some ideas for you.

  1. Provide the research – What percentages of people are using this product? What were the criteria they considered for
    2-researchpurchase? This is useful information. Let your readers know what others think about this particular product and the class of product it represents. Present it in simplest terms so that readers can decide for themselves. If you poll the visitors to your site, include the results in your content so readers can see what real customers have to say.
  2. Add personal experience – Do you use the product or have you used several generations of the product? What were your thoughts and experiences? If you had a mishap, work it into the content as a humorous anecdote. This lets your readers know
    that you are human and deal with the same issues that they do.
  3. Show your expertise in the field – Craft content that shows you understand the product inside and out. Offer tips and tricks for managing issues with the product. For instance, if you have a blender that seems to burn up the motor when you make smoothies, ask readers to cut up their ingredients or used crushed ice to put less stress on the motor and preserve the product.
  4. Add images – Who says that content has to be only words? Include photos of you using the product with keyword-targeted captions. Search engines like that. Readers can see that you actually have used the product and know what you are talking
    3-imagesabout.
  5. Provide questions – Give your readers a place to begin when evaluating their need for your product. If you are selling jeans, offer guidelines for choosing which to buy like:
  • Do you like baggy or fitting jeans?
  • What color works best for you?
  • Where will you wear your jeans?
  • How tall are you?

Besides asking the questions, offer helpful hints for how to answer them. For instance, if you are below 5 feet, baggy jeans make you look shorter. This might not be true but it is just for the purposes of an example. You get the idea.

  1. Embed an interactive tool – This can work with just about any product you are selling. The tool’s job is to offer recommendations for the user from the product line you are promoting. It not only offers useful information for the reader but also helps to point them towards the type of product they want to buy.
  2. Become transparent with your audience – Emotionally connecting with your audience is imperative. When a person can identify with a product on a different level besides simply a want for it, they are more likely to buy. Create content that explores why you have bought the product. Why do you believe in it? What emotional need does it fill for you? If we use the jean example
    4-thumbs-upfrom #5, perhaps you haven’t been able to find a pair of jeans that make you feel good about yourself until you found this company. You have now linked the product with the desire to elevate your self-esteem.
  3. Link to testimonials and feedback – Let them read the words for themselves. If you have a page for testimonials or for
    feedback from previous customers, send your readers there with one click. Because you are sending them away from your content, be sure to include your affiliate link on that page too along with a call to action so they don’t miss out on purchasing when they make the decision.

Readers can see through blatant advertising. They want to be talked to not talked at. Use these methods for providing effective product recommendations within your website content.