Teknisk SEO is one of the most difficult parts of SEO. If you are a newbie and you are wondering what Teknisk SEO is, it is also known as Technical SEO. If anyone prides himself as an SEO Expert, what he is saying is that he can handle this technical part of SEO very well. In this article, I will tell you all that you need to know about what this is all about.
Apart from Teknist SEO, we have two other types of SEO which are On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. I have written extensively about these two types of SEO in my previous articles.
#1 On-Page SEO
Any SEO activities that happen within your website or you perform in order to rank higher on search engines is called On-Page SEO. A good example of this is the Optimization of your images and the internal linking of your posts. Although some bloggers think that this is not important. It is. The way and manner you manage your content will determine how Search Engine bots will be able to discover your content for indexing and ranking.
#2 Off-Page SEO
Unlike On-Page SEO, any activity that you perform outside your website in order for your content to rank higher on Search Engines is called Off-Page SEO. A good example is your social signals, sharing of your contents, guest posting and backlink building among others.
#3 Teknisk SEO or Technical SEO
These are somehow difficult for an average blogger to do because it involves some elements of coding and Programming. Let’s take, for example, your contents are not been indexed properly or the Google Bot is finding it difficult to crawl your site and you need to correct that. It is one of the elements of Teknisk SEO.
When you are trying to prepare your website for Technical SEO, there are some factors that you need to look at. You will have to look at the speed and crawlability of that website. Before a website can rank higher on search engines, such a website has to load fully within a reasonable amount of time. Some people believe that such a website or blog must load fully in five seconds. Therefore, in order to rank higher on Search Engine, you have to ensure that your site is up to date as far as Teknisk SEO practices are concerned.
When you are opening a blog and you want to begin your SEO journey, you will need to carry out a technical audit of your website. This will allow you to determine what is wrong with your theme and the entire website. At times, through this audit, you can discover some of the problems that are peculiar to your content. Some of them can also suggest actions that you need to take in order to correct those errors as well.
Here are some of the things that can go wrong when it comes to Teknisk SEO…
#1 Bad Taxonomy
I am trying to explain the website Taxonomy in a way that, it will be very easy for you to understand. A Taxonomy can be defined as the way by which your contents are organized into silos based on URL. That is why it is often referred to as URL Taxonomy.
Most times, the ways you organise your content will determine whether it will be easy for users and bots to find what they are looking for.
You need to understand that your URL taxonomy plays a great role in the way your site is structured into Pages and other subdivisions. In order not to be too technical with this, you should always find a way of organising your content into categories and groups. You should know how to organise posts based on characteristics that they have in common. You can visit SearchEngineLand Post for more.
#2 Slow Website
Another major problem when it comes to Technical SEO or Teknisk SEO is the problem of having a slow website. There are many factors that can make your website to be unnecessarily slow. When your website takes forever to load or it does not load the full website within five seconds. It may be attributed to the type of theme that you are using. As a Beginner, you can use a free theme for a start but you have to make sure that a test is carried out. This test is to determine whether the theme is fast or not. I can recommend Astra Theme if you are a new Blogger and you are using wordpress.org.
#3 Hreflang Error
According to Semrush Blog, Hreflang annotations are meant to cross-reference pages that are similar in content but target different audiences. You can target different audiences with href lang attributes according to their language and/or their country. This ensures that the correct pages will be shown to the correct users when they search on the versions of the Google search that you are targeting.
To break it down Hreflang error happens when the wrong post is opening or being displayed to the wrong type of audience. Let’s say, for example, I have created a Post for different types of languages based on the location of the audience. If the article that is meant to be displayed to a French-speaking audience is now being displayed to someone in the United States, it can be termed as a Hreflang error.
#4 404 Errors
One of the Teknisk errors that can quickly run down your blog or website is 404 errors. 404 error happens when the link that a particular visitor to your site wants to read is no longer available. This happens when you have decided to delete such posts or you have modified the URL for such posts. That is why you should have 404 redirects on your blog. If you are on WordPress.org you can use a Plugin for this purpose. If you are using Blogspot, you can find out how to do it on Youtube.
#5 Lack of Canonical Tags
When you have a single Page that can be accessed from multiple URLs, you need to make use of Canonical Tags in order to indicate the exact one that you want Google to display on the Search Engine. If this is not done, Google or other Search Engines will have to do this for you. The Search Engine will choose one URL that will be crawled more often while the non-canonical tags will be crawled less often. These are some of the issues that you also have to address as part of your Technical SEO.
Technical SEO PDF
One thing you need to understand is there is much to learn when it comes to Technical SEO. That is why I will be dropping some Technical SEO PDF links for you to go through and download. Here are some of the links.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Social media marketing can be used to achieve an amazing number of goals, including building brand awareness, improving search engine optimization and driving traffic to your website. However, not all efforts toward these ends are equally effective or appropriate.
To ensure that your social media marketing efforts get the best results possible, it’s important to understand both the do’s and don’ts of social media marketing.
How to Grow Your Audience
The key to social media marketing is to grow your audience organically. Here are some tips on how to do that: 1. Do post interesting and engaging content that will get people talking. 2. Don’t spam your followers with too many promotional posts. 3. Do mix things up by posting a variety of content, including images, videos, infographics, and blog posts. 4. Don’t forget to interact with your followers regularly.
Hashtags vs. Categories
Hashtags are a great way to get your content seen by more people, but be careful not to overdo it. Use them sparingly and make sure they’re relevant to your post.
Categories, on the other hand, are a great way to organize your content for your readers. Use them wisely to keep your blog organized and easy to navigate.
What Not To Post
– Personal information such as your address, phone number, or email should never be posted on social media.
– Photos that are derogatory, contain profanity, or show illegal activity should also be avoided.
– You should also avoid posting photos that are not yours without permission.
Finally, think twice before posting anything that you would not want your boss or future employer to see.
Firstly, make sure your copy is clear and concise. You want your audience to be able to understand your message quickly and easily.
Secondly, be sure to use strong calls to action. Tell your audience what you want them to do, and make it easy for them to do it.
Thirdly, keep your tone positive and upbeat.
How to Promote Others
When it comes to promoting others on social media, there are a few key things to keep in mind.
– Make sure you are promoting content that is relevant to your audience and that you genuinely believe in.
– Be strategic about when and how often you promote content- too much promotion can turn people off.
-And finally, be thoughtful about the language you use when promoting- avoid coming across as spammy or pushy.
How To Avoid Getting Banned
If you’re using social media for your business, it’s important to avoid getting banned. Here are some dos and don’ts to help you stay on the right side of the rules.
– Don’t use obscenities or explicit language in posts or in comments.
– Don’t bully or harass other users (even if they seem like they deserve it).
Remember that all posts are public so think before you post anything personally! And remember that while sometimes the urge to post a rant may be tempting, its best not to do it because chances are that people will be out there waiting for an opportunity like this and will jump on your comment as soon as you make one wrong move!
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Here are some of the ways that you can find Guest Post opportunities as a Blogger or content developer.
Backlinks are still one of the key factors to help you climb up Google rankings.
And when it comes to link building, you have only two options:
create great content and wait for people to link to it (insisting a little can help) create great content and take action Guest posting falls into the second category. It’s a process that’s pretty cheap, helps you build relationships and can land you great links. No wonder 2 out of 3 bloggers write guest posts.
That being said, guest posting is not easy. Especially finding new guest post opportunities.
In this article, I’ll share the best techniques to find blogs and websites to guest post on.
Let’s get started!
How to Find Guest Post Opportunities As a Blogger
Guest posts were not created equal.
Before diving into the process, let’s take a look at three important factors that influence the strength of the backlinks in general and guest posts links in particular.
1. The importance of relevance in Guest Post Opportunities search Sure, the number of backlinks you receive is an important ranking factor.
But quantity isn’t the only parameter here. To identify spammers, Google also takes into account the relevance of the link.
The relevance can be broken down into two dimensions:
Domain relevance: is the website you received a backlink from in the same niche/industry as yours? This is what Majestic’s topical trust flow may help you to evaluate.
Page relevance: does the content of the page where my link was placed has anything to do with my own website and linked page?
Finding the best website to guest post on means you should make sure it belongs to the same industry/niche as yours. It also means that your post needs to be about a topic that’s closely related to your industry.
2. The importance of domain authority
Relevance is one factor, and authority is another.
Google gives each website a specific authority score. The authority score of the referring website is taken into account to give weight to each backlink that you receive.
To put it simply, a relevant backlink from an authoritative website such as The New York Times will have a much bigger impact than a link from a small blog.
Even though its exact formula is kept secret, a few players in the industry provide estimations of this score with different SEO metrics.
Before contacting the author of the website, make sure its authority is sufficient to have a positive impact on your SEO.
3. Dofollow or nothing when searching for Guest Post Opportunities In Google’s eyes, there are two kinds of outbound links: dofollow and nofollow links.
In short, any link with the rel=”nofollow” parameter will not pass the authority to your website.
So before reaching out to a webmaster, make sure the links inside the guest posts don’t contain the nofollow parameter. In Google Chrome, for example, you can do that easily by inspecting the link.
A nofollow link example on HuffingtonPost
Let’s do a quick recap. When looking for your targets, remember to ask yourself these three questions:
Is the website in the same niche as yours? Has the domain a high authority? Are links dofollow? Now you’re ready for the next steps: finding the actual websites to contact.
They’ve already done the hard work! You just need to follow their steps to find the right websites.
Using a tool such as Linkminer, you can explore the backlinks your competitor has received. Of course, we don’t want all the backlinks, but only those that are dofollow and from high authority domains.
Linkminer offers two options that allow you to select these websites only. First, you can use the “dofollow” filter so you don’t waste your time with nofollow links. Then, you can sort the backlinks by Link Strength to show only the most authoritative websites.
Will these links be relevant as well? We can assume that they will, since your competitors received links from them. Of course, the final decision is up to your consideration.
When doing the outreach, you can mention your competitor’s article in your email:
“I saw that you mentioned this topic on your blog in this specific article. I’m an expert in this field and I’d like to share a different angle on the topic”… It shows you’ve read their blog and will increase your chances to land a guest post.
Technique #2: Contact your partners
This is one of the most overlooked techniques and also one of the most simple and efficient.
Why?
If you already have a relationship with some people or businesses, they’re more likely to accept a guest post from you as they know you and (probably) want to maintain a good relationship with you.
And as they operate in the same industry, the link will be very relevant.
There’s nothing else to add. It is definitely worth a shot.
Technique #3: Use search operators to find Guest Post opportunities
Let’s start with a quick explanation.
Search operators are search strings that you can add to your query to find specific websites.
The following list includes popular search operators used to find possible guest post opportunities. To maximize the relevance, combine them with a specific niche keyword.
For example, if I were to look for guest post opportunities for an online marketing tool, I would combine all these search operators with “online marketing” and would search for “submit post” online marketing, “bloggers wanted” online marketing, etc.
“write for us” “guest post” “submit post” “guest post by” “bloggers wanted” “writers wanted” “submit guest post” “submit a guest post” “submit blog post” “become a guest blogger” “guest post guidelines” “submit an article” “become an author” “become a contributor” “guest bloggers wanted” “contribute to our site” “become a guest writer” “submission guidelines” “the following guest post” inurl:guest-post-guidelines inurl:guest-posts inurl:write-for-us
You can do these searches manually, or you can use Scrapebox to automate the process (the website looks shady but the tool is actually safe and super useful).
Once your list is ready, extract the root domain for each link, remove duplicate domains and rank the websites by authority.
Technique #4: Check directories This one is easy.
Some people have already prepared lists of websites that accept guest posts.
To find them, simply look for “websites that accept guest posts” on Google + your industry.
It may look easy, but it may be tricky. The websites included in these lists often receive tons of guest post propositions. You’ll have to write a very convincing outreach email to stand out from the crowd.
Technique #5: Monitor your industry keywords
The 4 techniques I shared so far are good to create a static list to start from.
But what if you want to grow your guest post opportunities list over time?
Monitoring specific keywords can help a great deal. First, because it can help you spot your competitors’ new guest posts and apply technique #1 in real-time. To do so, simply monitor your competitors’ names.
It can also help you to spot the websites that talk about topics related to your service. In my experience, reaching out to these websites with a guest post proposition related to a topic they recently mentioned works pretty well. To do so, monitor 4-10 keywords related to the service you offer.
Now, what tool can you use to do it?
I personally use Mention. But there are alternatives such as Google Alert (not so great in my experience), Awario or Brand24.
Wrap-up
Once you’ve applied these 5 techniques, you should come up with a pretty long Excel sheet.
Don’t get discouraged! Prioritize by relevance and authority (the authority being the most objective factor).
Then, it’s time to contact these websites. Good luck.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
If you’re looking to increase your return on investment, the first step is figuring out how much you’re currently getting from your internet marketing efforts. Don’t worry, though; it doesn’t take a bunch of complicated calculations to figure this out.
You just need to know two things about your existing situation and determine what changes you want to make based on that information.
Here are three easy ways to do that and start increasing your ROI with internet marketing optimization today!
#1 Keyword Analysis
The first step in internet marketing optimization is understanding which keywords potential customers are using to find your product or service. To do this, you can use a keyword research tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner.
Once you know which keywords are most popular, you can incorporate them into your website and other marketing materials.
#2 Website Design
Your website is the first impression potential customers will have of your business. It needs to be well-designed and easy to navigate, with clear calls to action that make it easy for visitors to learn more about your products or services and get in touch with you.
An effective website design will help you stand out from your competitors and make a good impression on potential customers.
Here are some tips for designing a website that will help you achieve your internet marketing goals:
1. Keep it simple. 2. Don’t make users scroll endlessly to find what they’re looking for. 3. Choose content carefully and focus on quality over quantity. 4. Make sure your site loads quickly on mobile devices so people can find what they need quickly no matter where they are browsing from.
#3 Long Tail Keywords
If you want to stand out in the online world, you need to make sure you’re using long tail keywords.
These are specific phrases that potential customers are more likely to use when they’re close to making a purchase.
By optimizing your website and content for these keywords, you can increase your chances of getting found by people who are ready to buy.
#4 Digital Marketing Campaigns
You can’t just create a digital marketing campaign and forget about it. You need to constantly monitor and adjust your campaigns to ensure that you’re getting the most return on your investment (ROI).
Here are some tips on how to optimize your internet marketing campaigns for maximum ROI:
1. Define your goals and objectives: What do you want to achieve with your digital marketing campaign? If you don’t know, then you won’t be able to measure your success.
2. Determine what is working and what isn’t: Track conversions, revenue, traffic sources, etc., so that you can tell which parts of your campaign are working or not working.
3. Evaluate your competitors: Take note of their advertising techniques, websites, videos, blogs, social media sites and more. Figure out what they’re doing right and incorporate it into your own campaign if necessary.
4. Make adjustments based on feedback: Don’t get discouraged if things aren’t going as planned; make adjustments in areas where needed to see if it helps any.
#5 SEO on Youtube
You can use YouTube to not only host your videos, but also to improve your video’s SEO. Here are a few tips: 1. Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions 2. Create transcripts of your videos for better indexing 3. Optimize your thumbnails and channel art 4. Use annotations and cards to encourage viewers to take action 5. Leverage YouTube’s advertising options
#6 Guest Blogging
If you’re not already guest blogging, you should be. It’s an excellent way to get your name and your website in front of a new audience, and it can also help boost your SEO. But how do you make sure you’re getting the most out of your guest blogging efforts?
Here are a few tips:
1. Do your research: Make sure you’re guest blogging on a site that’s relevant to your niche. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time. If you don’t have any specific sites in mind, search for blogs in your industry and see who has openings for guest bloggers. Don’t forget to read the rules for posting as well so you know what is expected of you before sending anything over.
2. Think about topics beyond posts: Many people view blog posts as the only form of content they need to provide when they blog on someone else’s site – but this isn’t true!
#7 Email Marketing
Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing.
The goal of any such campaign is usually either the acquisition of new customers or the retention and growth of existing ones.
Consequently, these campaigns generally provide special offers, promotions and discounts to entice recipients to take some desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a product online.
#8 Personal Branding
Personal branding is one of the most important aspects of internet marketing. By creating a strong personal brand, you can increase your chances of success online. Here are five tips for creating a strong personal brand:
1. Keep it consistent: Your personal brand should be consistent across all platforms, from your website to your social media profiles.
2. Be unique: Stand out from the crowd by being unique and offering something different from everyone else.
3. Be authentic: Authenticity is crucial in building trust with your audience. When people know that they can relate to you on a personal level, they will be more likely to buy from you or do business with you. 4. Stay true to yourself: Don’t try to create an image that isn’t true to who you are as a person or company in order for it conform better with what others want.
5. Pay attention: You need to pay attention to every aspect of your personal brand. Every time you’re posting on social media, updating your blog, etc., ask yourself if it’s going to strengthen your reputation and stand out from the rest.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
The above question has been a common question among bloggers and this post will you improve your blog. Keep reading…
If you want to drive more traffic to your blog and increase your visibility, you’re going to need to ensure that you aren’t leaving anything on the table. You’ll want to maximize every single opportunity that you can, which means looking at different ways that you can drive traffic from multiple sources.
Here are six great methods that you can use today to help drive traffic to your blog and increase your online presence.
#1. Write Great Content
The number one thing you can do today to increase your traffic is simply published great content. If you’re interested in driving a lot of organic traffic, focus on consistently publishing great content that people want to read and share.
This will make it easier for search engines to find your site and rank it highly for relevant terms. It will also make it easier for other bloggers to share your content with their readers, which can lead to more referral traffic.
#2. Create Quality Backlinks
You’ve got a great piece of content and it’s on a topic that people want to read about, but no one knows it exists yet. The only way they’re going to find out is if you can get quality backlinks pointing at your site.
Don’t just ask anyone either, find credible sites in your industry or niche and make sure you exchange links with them. If you don’t know how to do that, use an SEO tool like Ahrefs to analyze their link profile first. It will show you what kind of anchor text they are using for their backlinks.
Then, simply replicate their process by making your relevant links with similar anchor texts so that Google sees you as someone who shares information rather than someone trying to game its system.
#3. Share on Social Media, Comment on Other Blogs
The best way to drive a ton of traffic is by commenting on other blogs, as well as sharing on social media. Since you’re adding value and giving away information for free, people will start following you and driving even more traffic back to your site. The key here is linking back to original content with contextual links.
If someone asks a question in their post, answer it directly in your comment. If they link to an outside resource, use that link when referencing it in your comment. This helps create a natural flow of traffic from one post to another that drives targeted visitors back to your website.
#4. Ask For Feedback
If you know someone who reads or writes for a living, ask them for feedback on your writing. Specifically, ask if there’s anything that sounds awkward or is difficult to read.
Sometimes it can be hard to see our own mistakes and find flaws in our writing without another person’s perspective. If you feel comfortable doing so, ask them if they have any suggestions on how you could make it better.
You may even consider sending them an entire draft of something you’re working on rather than just asking for feedback from one specific piece. The more eyes you get looking at your work, the more likely it will be improved before publishing.
#5. Participate in a Community or Network of Bloggers
One of the best ways to increase your exposure on Google is by participating in a community or network of bloggers. There are tons of these out there; blogging has become an integral part of internet culture over recent years, so finding one that fits you is pretty simple.
Once you’ve got that down, it’s just a matter of sharing links and commenting frequently on others’ blogs (Just make sure you read their posts before leaving comments!)
By being active within these communities, you can build relationships with other bloggers who will share your content, and maybe even link back to it, helping you get more exposure from search engines.
#6. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Although Google is less dependent on keywords in rankings than it used to be, having a site filled with words and phrases that people are likely to search for will still give you an edge over those who lack a keyword strategy.
SEO isn’t just about stuffing as many keywords into your pages as possible, though, it’s also about choosing carefully what words and phrases you target, and how those words and phrases appear on your page.
For example, How to make money blogging may have more traffic potential than Blogging for profit tips. Your goal should be to make sure that every page of your website has at least one or two keywords or keyphrases in it somewhere; otherwise, you might find yourself getting lost in the shuffle when it comes time for search engines to do their thing.
You can use tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner to research which keywords and keyphrases are most popular among searchers.
These are obviously the free ways to drive traffic to your blog. Slow and steady wins the raise.
Why My Blog is Not Getting Traffic?
To understand why Google might not be sending you as much traffic as you’d like, let’s first talk about why Google likes a site.
For example, if a lot of other sites link to yours (the linking concept is called link popularity), or if a lot of people read and share content on yours regularly (called engagement), then that tells Google that yours is a popular and engaging site, so it will send more visitors to you.
If none of these things are happening for you, then there are a few reasons why. You could have chosen an unpopular topic for your website—if no one cares about what you’re writing about, they won’t go to your site and tell their friends either.
Or maybe you don’t have any quality content—if readers can’t find anything useful when they get to your site, they won’t come back again.
What is Good Traffic For a Blog?
Various metrics can be used to determine whether or not a website is popular, and how much traffic it has. One of these metrics is Google PageRank, which uses a scale of 1–10 to measure how important a site is.
The higher a site’s PageRank score, the more likely it will appear in search results. However, there are many factors involved in determining how high a site appears on search engine result pages (SERPs).
This is why choosing a niche for your website can help increase its popularity; if you choose a highly-popular niche, chances are that more people will be searching for information related to your site than if you chose a less-popular niche.
Finally, how frequently new content is added to your site can influence how well it ranks on SERPs; Google likes sites with fresh content because they tend to have higher visitor engagement rates than those without new content.
Blog Traffic Checker
There are a lot of different tools that will allow you to check statistics on your website, but one of my favourites is Google Analytics.
You can use it to see where people are coming from when they click on your links, what they’re searching for in search engines, how much time they spend on each page, and which pages convert most effectively (i.e., what action do they take after reading that particular page).
These are important factors to consider when trying to increase your visitors. The more you know about how people interact with your site, the better equipped you’ll be to make changes that improve performance.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In my previous articles, I have talked about some of the factors that you need to consider when you have to host your website. I have also talked about some of the elements of a good web design. In this article, I would like to talk about fifteen guidelines for creating effective web content. Follow me as we are going to look at that in this article.
Here are the guidelines…
#1 Clear and simple language
When you are writing your content for publishing, you have to make sure that you are writing in a simple and clear language. You should avoid the use of ambiguous words that will make it difficult for your user to understand the message that you are trying to pass across. You need to ensure that you also make use of short sentences when you need to write your article.
#2 One paragraph. One idea
Also, when you are writing your content, please you need to ensure that your ideas are not jammed together. You need to make sure that it is only one idea that is been discussed in one paragraph. This will ensure that the whole concept sank into the mind of your audience. Doing this will prove to your reader that you know what you are talking about. It will allow them to stay longer on your website.
#3 Descriptive subheadings
Also, if you want to write great online content, you need to adopt the use of descriptive subheadings that tells your users what a particular paragraph is talking about. This will enable the spiders to know what a particular paragraph is talking about. But you have to really indicate it that it is a subheading by using H2 or H3 headers.
#4 Highlight important words
In addition, if you are creating great web content for your website, you need to ensure that important words are highlighted and bolded so that users can reckon with those words. This will allow your users to know the key takeaway from a particular article. It will also allow the major points of a particular article to sink in the mind of your audience.
#5 Use Descriptive link text
Also, when you are trying to create online web content, you need to include links that relate to your previous articles. It is also ideal for you to link to articles that are outside your blog or website. Those links should be descriptive enough and they should be linked to articles that are similar to what is highlighted. This will help Spiders to understand your blog better. It will also reduce bounce on your website.
#6 Left Align Text
By and large, when you are writing your content, you need to ensure that your articles are aligned from the left to the right side. That seems to be the normal way for most languages. This also goes with the natural eye movement when people are reading content on websites. This will definitely assist spiders in understanding your content better.
#7 Visual alignment
Also, when you are creating your web content, you need to ensure that graphics are added in order to drive home your points. Adding graphics will also assist in conveying the messages that you are trying to pass across to your target audience but you need to ensure that the texts and the graphics work together. The two must be conveying the same message.
#8 Proper structure element
Also, when you are presenting your online content, you need to make sure that you are using a document structure that will make your article easier to understand. You need to make sure that the paragraphs are well arranged so that it will be easy for your users to follow your article.
#9 Use natural-sounding language
Also, when you are creating your online content, you need to make use of a natural-sounding language. You must write the content as if you are explaining to someone that already knows nothing about the topic being discussed. You must be persuasive enough when you are trying to present the idea to your target audience.
#10 Be direct with the audience
Also, when it comes to creating great content, you need to be direct with your audience. There is no need for you to cajole your audience. You need to try as much as possible to let them know that you understand their problem and you have what it takes to solve their problem. You must be able to convince your audience that you are an authority when it comes to resolving issues that have to do with your customers.
#11 Creating Tables
Also, as far as your customers and readers are concerned, you need to create tables that transform with different browsers. I have said it one of my articles that you should be mindful of using tables. You need to make sure that your tables are browser responsive. It should remain intact when that table is opened from different browsers.
#12 User interface
Also, you have to ensure that the user interfaces are accessible. When you are creating content, you need to make sure that your tabs and other elements that you need to access when you are on that particular page. If it is a website that people have to make payments to, you need to ensure that the payment buttons are available even on mobile phones.
#13 Page activation
Also, you need to make sure that you design device-independent page elements that can be activated through a variety of input devices. You can design your website to open different pages or contents based on the type of device that the user is using to access the content.
#14 Temporary accessibility solutions
Also, when it comes to accessibility and the design of your content, you need to make sure that you create temporary accessibility solutions for your content. That means, if it happens that the main content that the user is trying to access is not available, there should be a particular content that will be made available to users while they are waiting for the actual content to open.
#15 Contextual information
Also, you need to include contextual information that will allow your users to understand your content better. You should not present your content as if you are writing in parables. You need to ensure that you include examples and illustrations that will allow your readers to understand your content better.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
The performance of affiliate link promotion depends on the type of interaction you have with your audience, as well as on the influence you have in the online community. Also, it might be a matter of preference choosing one strategy and not the other.
It is crucial to monitor affiliate marketing efforts and to evaluate the performance of this type of online marketing. The most relevant statistics you need to keep an eye on are the following:
The products that get most clicks/conversions
Monitor the data above for each type of promotion to conclude if one (or several) of these show outstanding performance and are able to generate the highest number of conversions.
This evaluation can show if certain products perform better than the rest, and it can also show the type of promotion that gets most conversions. It can also be used to find out more about your audience and how each of these approaches is effective among those users.
For example, some products might be particularly popular among users from a specific location. Or a product mention strategy might be converting better than a banner. All of this can greatly influence your planning and the road you will take with developing your affiliate marketing strategy even further.
• The number of clicks • The number of conversions • The data about those who click (age group, gender, location, etc.)
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
The online world has tremendously affected our everyday lives that sometimes it might even seem impossible to imagine our lives without technology and online communication. This trend naturally transferred to the business world, where the new technologies opened up so many exciting opportunities.
The businesses out there were no longer confined by location or restricted by infrastructure. Once everyone hurled to the big cities because these have been places enabling your business to grow. Businesses needed more qualified employees, they wanted exposure to more customers and opportunities to network and create partnerships.
All of these required your business having headquarters in a big city, but this is no longer needed. All you need is a computer and the internet connection, and you are ready to take your business anywhere you want. In this article, I want to talk about some Fundamental Facts about Affiliate Marketing.
Speaking of the business world, this term has so long been used in relation to big corporations and management teams, but nowadays, we see more and more one-man businesses that grow and expand their reach globally.
There is a significant number of businesses completely set up and run by a single person. Or they start as such, only to expand as their influence online begins to increase. Entrepreneurship has become a popular business model which helped so many wonderful business ideas come to life.
The possibilities on the market are numerous, especially if we have in mind the online market. There are so many different ways and strategies to set up and grow a business, depending on the niche, resources, knowledge, etc. What is safe to say is that these opportunities are a part of the online world, and new opportunities keep popping up. One of those is affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing
While every business starting out nowadays will first create a website, optimize it and then head to social media to establish a presence there, not everyone will consider affiliate marketing as an opportunity at first. The goal of this ebook will be to show you the real potential of affiliate marketing and how developing a strategy of your own can help your profits soar and your business grow.
For starters, you will need to understand the difference between being a merchant and an affiliate because these require two completely different strategies.
In fact, these can develop your business in different ways, so you can either focus on one or choose to be both, a merchant and an affiliate, which, although less frequent, is still doable. You will also learn about business models that are available in affiliate marketing.
Affiliate programs and tools will be essential parts of your strategy, which is why you need to learn about those as well.
Your goal will be to learn as much as possible about affiliate marketing opportunities and about different affiliate programs and tools that enable you to form your own custom strategy, an approach and a plan which will be oriented towards one idea – improve your business through affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is a part of online marketing, which means it is connected and related to all of the segments of online marketing. This is why there will be a chapter about this connection, and how using affiliate marketing requires at least basic knowledge of online marketing in general.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Are you one of those Bloggers that are getting frustrated with Google Adsense Approval? Maybe you have tried some of the other platforms that are referred to as Adsense Alternatives but you seem not to be making much from those platforms as well. Today, I want to introduce to you an Affiliate Marketing Program that will change your online revenue forever. I will be telling you all that you need to know about Tiger Direct Affiliate Marketing Program. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.
Unlike other platforms that are dealing with Digital Products. the Tiger Direct website has physical products that you can sell and get a commission on every sale. Some of these products include PCs, Network Cables, CPUs and Processors, Computer cases, Laptops and Monitors, Motherboards, Office Equipment and other Appliances. If you join this Affiliate network, it is just like you are dealing with Amazon, Jumia and other e-commerce platforms.
#1 Free To Join
You need to also understand that you do not need to pay a dime to join the Affiliate network and the approval process is very easy. You just have to click on the link and you will be approved as an Affiliate almost instantly.
#2 Easy To Make Money
Another major thing to note about Tiger Direct Affiliate Marketing is that you only need to place the link on your site. You are not concerned about shipment and other processes. The company will handle the billing, shipment and other processes that are familiar with e-commerce websites. The organisation also provide the tools that you need in order to be successful as their Affiliate.
#3 Trust
When you want to join any Affiliate Program, you need to look at the organisation and what they have to offer. Tiger Direct as a company has over ten years of experience in dealing with Computer parts and accessories. It is an organisation you can trust when it comes to the sales of reliable computer accessories. Your customers will not have any cause to complain about any product being sold to them. You can be sure of the rest of your mind when you are dealing with them as an Affiliate.
#4 Tracking Tools
Another feature that distinguishes Tiger Direct Affiliate Program from others is the ability to track your program. Their Affiliate Program has all the comprehensive Report Tool that you can use to track how you are performing as an Affiliate. This will allow you to monitor your conversion rate and other metrics that are necessary for your success as an Affiliate Marketer.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Having an effective content marketing strategy can help you spread your brand far and wide, helping to generate more leads, drive more sales, and increase your overall business visibility.
However, creating an effective content marketing strategy can be challenging without any prior experience.
Content marketing is no longer an option. In 2017, 64% of marketers are creating content for their businesses.
It’s crucial to stay ahead of your competition by creating and sharing high-quality, unique content with your target audience on social media, in blogs, and in email newsletters.
A solid content marketing strategy helps you reach your business goals while boosting engagement with customers and prospects through sharing valuable information they want.
Types of Content Marketing
The type of content marketing you’ll choose will depend on your end goals and on who your target audience is.
If you’re looking for brand awareness, social media or blogging would work well;
if you want to build interest in a product, try email;
if you are trying to generate sales leads, search engine optimization (SEO) would be ideal.
Knowing your objective before starting will help ensure that your content campaign is successful.
How Will You Find The Time?
When you’re just starting, it can be difficult to justify spending much time or money on content marketing. Even if you do have additional resources, developing and executing a coherent content marketing strategy will require some attention from you to get it off the ground.
To make things easier, consider outsourcing some of your content creation efforts or hiring an agency or freelancer for specific projects—or look into various tools and resources that can help with certain aspects of your strategy.
Who Is Your Audience?
The key to good content marketing is knowing who you’re talking to. It sounds obvious, but many people forget that you can’t speak in generalities and expect anyone and everyone to get it.
Figure out your main audience, and use that group as a starting point for understanding their needs, values, pain points, and preferred media channels.
Choose Your Target Audience First
You’ll want to consider your target audience and make sure that your content meets their needs. Once you know who they are, start figuring out what they want.
This might mean spending some time researching blogs in your niche or even taking surveys of current customers.
Try creating an ideal buyer persona based on market research so you can tailor your content specifically for that audience.
Build Relationships with Influencers and Communities
A content marketing strategy for small businesses starts with building relationships with communities and influencers.
The first step is identifying which online communities you’d like to join. Look at hashtags, LinkedIn groups, blogs, Facebook groups, and Twitter chats to find where your customers hang out online. When joining these groups, be sure to post valuable information.
Once you’ve identified the online communities that align most closely with your business goals, begin participating in conversations by posting relevant content or sharing articles from reputable sources.
Where will you create your content?
It’s important to pick a channel that best fits your target audience. For example, it may be better for you to create videos instead of writing blogs if you know most of your potential customers are visual learners and come from social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Similarly, if you think your target customer is more likely to visit LinkedIn than YouTube, choose blogging over video as your main content creation method.
Other factors to consider when deciding where to create your content include the amount of time and resources you have available, the type of message you want to send out (if it’s an advertisement), or what types of questions people ask about your product.
Get Familiar with Keyword Research Tools
Google’s Keyword Planner is excellent for determining which keywords people are using in search of products or services like yours.
Use these terms in your content, on your site, and in social media posts. Make sure to include them in the body copy as well as the title tags and meta descriptions.
In this way, you can attract new visitors who are already interested in what you have to offer! For example, if your company offers custom gifts such as promotional pens, that may be a keyword such as promotional pens.
If someone searched for promotional pens, they would find one of your pages that had an appealing headline about custom-made pens and would likely click through to read more about it.
You want to include those keywords throughout your blog post so it shows up when someone searches for them on Google Search.
Learn from Others’ Successes, Mistakes, and Strategies
One way is to learn from others’ successes, mistakes, and strategies. The best resource for learning what others have done right or wrong is by reading blogs. Find out what works for others and make it work for you.
The best time management tip I can give is to read more blogs! Most successful bloggers share their own experiences in detail about their journey, especially if it has some pain points or bumps in it. Look at what they did wrong, and what they could have done better, and adjust your approach accordingly.
When writing a blog post you may want to ask yourself the following questions: What am I trying to say? How do I want readers to feel after reading my post? Which type of language should I use?
What words should I avoid using? Which keywords should I include? Where do these keywords go on the page? When should I post my new content? Which social media platforms should I be active on? Who is my target audience, and where are they online most often? Is this content relevant to them? Does it solve a problem for them? How can I get traffic to this site through other sites (aka backlinks)? And finally, when will I start seeing results from this content marketing strategy?
In general, it takes 3-6 months before any major changes happen when doing content marketing. However, once you are active in publishing monthly, you would start getting visitors to your site and engagement with your brand in short order.
Just remember that patience is key because no tactic works overnight.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Best WordPress Tools For Affiliate Marketers (+Examples)
Over 25% websites out of the top 10 million sites which were analyzed use WordPress platform. As an affiliate, it is very likely that you will use this platform for your website and blog, so here are a couple of tools and add-ons that can be useful:
#1 Thirsty Affiliates
It includes several affiliate marketing tools to help you manage your WordPress website, including statistics, redirects, Autolinker feature, the option to import affiliate links form Amazon and other programs, etc. The tool is free on WordPress.
#2 Amazon Product in a Post Plugin
This free WordPress plugin enables you to add Amazon products to your blog post without using banner and widgets.
#4 Easy Affiliate Links
Manage the affiliate links using this plugin with features such as short links, categories, visual and HMTL editor, import, export, etc. Auto Affiliate Links – This plugin can save a lot of time because it automatically adds affiliate links to your content.
Once you start with affiliate marketing, you will soon realize which tools can really help you increase performance and be more productive, and which ones are those you could manage without. The list here features suggestions on tools that could be helpful, but you could always look for alternatives that provide similar or the same features.
It is also important to note that some of these tools are paid, while some are free. The decision as to whether to go for a premium plan is based on how much of use you will get from a certain tool. Think about how the tool will help you improve your strategy and then make a decision based on that. The good thing is that most of these tools offer a free trial or at least a free plan, which is usually quite limited. This way you can see firsthand how you can benefit from the features offered by a particular tool.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Turning Your Blog Into A Business: Ways Of making Millions From Your Blog
All of the previous monetization tactics rely on the promotion of other businesses. While this type of income collection offers a lot of benefits as you do not need to have any investment or be involved in the production process, it comes with some drawbacks as well. Firstly, you depend on other businesses. Once they stop selling, you stop earning. The income you can make is also pretty limited. You will need thousands and thousands of visitors to see any income from AdSense for example. This can become a real obstacle for blogs that are starting out.
An alternative is to try to turn your blog into a business. This can be implemented from the first day your blog is live, but it can also be something that you will eventually introduce, once you gain reputation and determine that blogging is a career that you want to focus on.
#1 Creating a product/software
The first idea is to create a product (or software) on your own. Even though it is not a strategy doable for every blog, it is something that can offer a potential to earn a decent income through blogging. The product you decide to create should be relevant to your target group. The main obstacle could be an investment needed for creating the product. The possibility to fully control the production process and sales strategy, without profit sharing is a motivation for many blog owners to consider this strategy.
#2 Offering a service
If you cannot create a product and you are in a niche where that would not be profitable, you can think about a type of service you can provide. It is usually something related to consulting, offering professional assistance, such as legal or medical advice, etc.
Again, having complete control over the service is something that ensures that the blogger maintains independence while having an opportunity to earn from his or her online influence. Unlike creating a product, offering a paid service on your blog does not require a monetary investment. What it does require is detailed planning about the service you will offer, the terms for the users, and the schedule of your availability (or an employee who would do the tasks for you).
#3 Produce merchandise
The third alternative would be creating merchandise. This is a strategy commonly used by influencers who have a significant following. It is also rather popular among young online users. A good thing about this strategy is that you offer creative input on the merchandise design, but you do not have to be responsible for the actual production. Instead, you hire a company that will manufacture the actual products for you with your logo or brand name displayed. Of course, in this case, it would be necessary to share the profit with the manufacturer.
#4 Write an ebook
Having in mind that you are a blogger, it is safe to say that you are a writer as well. You write on your blog which means writing an ebook (or an actual book) can be an option you can pursue to earn money from your blog. Publishing an ebook is much easier because you do not need to seek official publishers. Also, an ebook is offered as a digital download, which means that the location is not a barrier. Publishing a book involves a more complicated process, starting with having a publisher. Still, both options are great ways for bloggers to turn their skill and love for writing into a product that they can sell through the blog.
#5 Open a store
Your blog can gradually evolve into an online store. Here you can sell your own products, merchandise, or even products from other manufacturers. It is a strategy that offers a lot of options for many different types of bloggers to earn by selling products. However, running and managing an online store involves a lot of work, requires extensive knowledge about e-commerce, and requires constant online promotion, which are all the tasks that can distract you from your primary focus, i.e., blogging.
#6 Create an online course
If you are a blogger, or expert in a certain field, creating an online course is another strategy to monetize your expertise and online influence. The topic of the course needs to be something that your audience will find relevant and can benefit from.
It is a form of passive income because you will invest time into creating a course and then you can profit from it in the years to come. However, some topics might require the course to be updated from time to time. You will also need to work on promoting the course, most commonly using other online marketing strategies, such as search engine marketing or social media promotion.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Blogging For Individuals And Businesses: How To Get Started
People often wonder if blogging is a necessary part of online business. Does it really make such a difference for a business to have or not to have a blog?
The main reason why blogging is highly recommended is the fact that it brings so many benefits for both individuals and companies. Also, numerous statistics and industry reports keep confirming the fact that companies that blog see a lot of benefits from this activity, regardless if they generate leads, increase traffic, or boost sales.
Why is blogging so popular?
With 91.8 million new posts published each month on WordPress alone, there is no doubt that blogging has become mainstream. It is an ideal outlet for everyone to have their voice heard. Apart from many benefits blogging can bring, there are three principal reasons why blogging has been growing in popularity over the past years.
#1 Reach
Blogging gives you an opportunity to reach online users. It is an amazing asset for search engine optimization. With blogging you create content, and search engines love new content. This directly increases the reach of your blog and expands the influence of your brand on the internet.
#2 Possibilities
With so many possibilities blogging provides, it is no wonder so many people blog. Starting from growing your traffic and reach, to building an entire career and becoming an influencer, blogging offers so many exciting possibilities. Exploring these possibilities is based on your goals and the vision of how you want to grow your blog and which directions are perfect for your development as a blogger (or blog owner).
#3 Ease of use
Apart from an idea and an internet connection, you do not need anything else to start blogging today. The online blogging platforms and tools are incredibly user-friendly, enabling everyone to take up blogging as a hobby or start their new career. Additionally, you will find lots of online tutorials, guides, and courses to explore the possibilities of blogging further.
Benefits of blogging
When talking about the benefits of blogging, it is essential to differentiate between individuals who blog and companies. A lot of these benefits do overlap for both cases, but due to the particular characteristics of blogging in both of these situations, some distinctions exist.
Benefits of blogging for individuals
#1 Share your experience
Development of blogging has brought a unique opportunity for individuals to share their experience. Individuals can share insights on the topic or circumstances they have personally experienced. Not only does this become a great outlet for them to share knowledge, about both good and bad, but this kind of blogging is a way to truly make a difference. You get to affect people and help them with what they are going through, by sharing your own thoughts about the topic.
#2 Share your knowledge
Besides experience, knowledge can be shared through blogging as well. If you are educated on a particular topic, and you believe some people are interested in learning, you can take up blogging and create your personal brand. You can become an expert on the topic. Apart from growing your influence as a blogger, this can open many additional opportunities for you, such as being invited to workshops, speaking at conferences, etc.
#3 Become a better (published) author
The best way to improve as a writer is to write every day and to work on developing this skill consistently. Blogging can help you with growing as an author and improve your skills with every new post.
Additionally, you get to publish your works, without much effort. You do not need an editor or a publishing house. Your writing can instantly be available to all online users when you start blogging. Of course, writers have an opportunity of growing their careers through blogging and eventually being offered book deals, or other interesting collaborations with people from their industry.
#4 Start a business
A large percentage of well-known bloggers and influencers nowadays started their blog as a hobby. Blogging is a hobby that offers so many ways to grow and turn your hobby into a business. You can become a speaker, you can advertise your services through a blog, or you can even open up your online shop. There are plenty of opportunities to monetize your blog (as you will see in one of the following chapters).
#5 Gain influence
As a blogger, you get a massive online audience you can reach through your content. Blogging enables you to gain the trust and respect of blog visitors. This influence opens up so many doors for you. Collaborations with brands, interviews with celebrities, or even books deals are only some of the opportunities that you can have as an established blogger.
#6 Create an online community
A blog has that social aspect, allowing you to establish yourself as an author, but giving you an opportunity to chat with the readers at the same time. Encourage visitors to participate with engaging questions, ask them for their feedback, or to leave a comment. As your blog reach grows, so will the online community. Many readers will be eager to join the discussion and start
interacting with you, as well as with the other readers. Earning respect from this community is possible through quality content. Over time, this free community can grow into a premium club, which is another way you can start earning from your blog. Benefits of blogging for businesses.
#6 Increase traffic
A blog provides content for your website. Ideally, this content is optimized to use keywords related to your business. The more content you have, the more indexed pages you will get. This results in improved organic search visibility because search engines will have more of your links stored in their database, which are then shown as a response to a particular search query.
If you manage to get your website to come up as a result of many queries, you will increase website traffic. However, it is essential that those search queries are related to your content and your business.
#7 Improve SEO
Blogging is beneficial for website optimization in multiple ways:
• Keywords – Having a blog gives you more content that you can optimize for the keywords that are relevant to your business. • Relevancy – The more relevant visits you have, the more likely the search engines are to see your website as relevant for the specific topic. This will give your website a high-rank status and help with gaining a reputation. • Off-site SEO – Content of exceptional quality generate links, which is one of the most relevant metrics used to assess website’s reputation through off-site SEO elements. • Freshness : This is another factor that will help you with search engines because they love seeing new content added and the old being updated. The improved SEO rank also includes long-tail search queries. There are fewer long-tail searches than single-keyword searches. Still, long-tail keywords are considered to be higher-converting, which is why they are better for your overall website performance.
#1 Build influence in the industry
Blogging helps you increase your influence by establishing yourself as an expert in the industry. A blog is a platform where you can share industry-related information, study reports, insights,
and guides your audience will find helpful. Building influence helps you increase trust. Online users start to identify your brand with a particular industry, they associate the brand with high quality. This way you already have an established connection with potential consumers, which can have a significant impact on their buying decision.
#2 Create a personalized approach
Even amazingly presented website content (on the homepage or about us page) cannot give your business that personal touch that a blog can. Companies use blogs to add a personal side to their business, by sharing stories about the production process, about employees, events, etc. This approach is guaranteed to increase trust in your brand and enable visitors to relate to your brand.
#3 Generate inbound links
Without a blog, you will have a hard time generating inbound links. Other blogs and influencers are less likely to link to a homepage of a business. On the other hand, if you have a useful guide for the industry you are in (for example a guide for starting a blog), you can expect many relevant web pages to link to this content. Many blogs that focus on the related topic will include such a link as a recommendation for their readers if they find it helpful and valuable. Not only are these links an important source of traffic, but they are also good for your website optimization.
#4 Collect emails
More content increases the opportunity to collect emails. Increasing your audience is going to encourage more interest in your brand, allowing you an opportunity to collect emails and further develop this business-to-customer relationship through email marketing. You should make sure you use engaging CTAs and high-converting landing pages to collect more email addresses.
#5 Increase sales
Finally, all of these benefits companies see through blogging accumulate to an increase in sales. More collected emails, better search engine visibility, increasing traffic, and gaining more influence are all factors that directly increase sales. This is how blogging becomes an asset in sales strategy of your company, helping you generate sales through blog content.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
To understand how we have gotten to this point, where blogging is an inseparable part of our lives, you need to learn about the content and Google’s Panda update. These two have influenced blogging to become what we know today. In this article, I want to talk about some facts about Content and Panda Update.
Content has been around from the beginning of the internet. It has been used to position a website for keywords that are relevant to that site. Numerous techniques have been used for this purpose. One of which included the notorious, obsolete practice of keyword stuffing. The gap between a website and a blog was much broader. Brands and companies had their websites, while bloggers managed their blogs.
The number of internet users has been rapidly increasing, and they were all looking for something on the internet. They were looking for information. To do this, people have been using search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, where they would type a search query. These search queries would represent something, which these users have been interested in. Then, the relevant results would come out in the search engine result pages. These caused two things:
Firstly, companies have started to realize that they are unable to compete with blogging content, as they had too little content, making them less likely to appear in the search engine 12 result pages. This is how blogging has become a part of the business world. Once reserved for journalists, writers, and critics, blogging has moved into the business world at full speed. The result of this is still visible to this day. Almost any business wishing to succeed and build a respectable name will try to do so through blogging.
The second thing that resulted from the rapid expansion of the internet is the fact that content has been starting to pile up. Search engines have been struggling to filter the results, as webmasters were using devious techniques and practices to boost their websites to the top of the search results. In many cases, search results have become very saturated with keyword-stuffed content. The bad thing was that most of that content was actually junk. It was content written with the intention to trick search engines to believe that there is something relevant on that web page when in reality there was not. It was only a scheme used to reach online users.
It was at this point (back in 2011) that Google rolled out its Panda Update. This was a search engine update that was designed to detect low-quality content pages and banish them from the search engine results pages (SERP).
The goal was also to identify high-quality pages and award them with a good ranking. Being able to recognize the quality of the content allows Google to provide a better user experience because this way search engines can show really relevant results that can, in fact, provide a meaningful response to a user query. This update has been evolving through the years, but what ultimately changed is how we perceive website content and blogging in general.
While blogging has become an effective tool for reaching online users, with this update in mind, bloggers are now aware that only quality content can achieve this goal. Tactics such as “keyword stuffing” no longer work. In today’s world, the emphasis is on quality content.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
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CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent, and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Blogging has completely stirred up the situation on the internet. It has been something that people were getting used to during the 1990s, but as of 2000s, the online world completely changed due to the influence of blogging.
What once began as a platform for sharing personal thoughts in online form has now grown into one of the essential and most effective tools marketers use for online promotion. The way blogging has evolved over the past decade has blown everyone’s mind. During the last couple of years, we have been witnessing thousands of blogs around the globe, both business and personal, turning into very profitable activities. It’s safe to say, that blogging has become “big business”.
History of blogging
Today’s blogging started with something called weblog. The term was created by Jorn Barger in 1997, and it was used to describe a personal weblog, an online journal or a diary. It was primarily used by journalists and writers as a way to express themselves. To understand this need to share one’s thoughts this way, you have to realize that this was the time without forums and social networks, the time before Twitter and Facebook.
The term was shortened to blog by Peter Merholz in 1999, and this term is now used both as a noun (to describe an online platform that is used for blogging) and as a verb (to write or to have a blog).
Having a blog in that period meant that you had the technical know-how to create and set up that blog. Optimization of that blog was not something people gave much thought, because search engine algorithms were just getting started to index the web, and had yet to learn how to interpret online content.
The late 1990s were also the period when blogging started to take off. By 2004 blogging had become completely mainstream. This was largely fueled by the introduction of the well-known content management system called WordPress in 2003. WordPress is a free platform that makes blogging available to everyone. Even to people, who don’t have many technical skills. More and more people were starting a blog, and increasingly more were reading those blogs. This trend grew so rapidly over the next few years that we now have a new blog coming up each second.
What has affected this rapid expansion is the following: • Creating a blog is now much simpler and cheaper than it used to be • The number of people using the internet is continuously rising, so the online audience is increasing
Blogging has been recognized as a desirable profession in the 21st century • Plenty of opportunities for monetization of blogging • A possibility to expand networking opportunities • Blogging has become a supporting activity for both online and offline businesses
As more and more blogs started to emerge, so did the number of blogging tools. The approaches also began to evolve. We can trace the origin of blogging back to the online diaries published on the internet during the 1990s via dial-up internet. Over time, the topics of blogs started to expand. Personal blogs as a form of online diaries still exist, but many different types of blogs are now part of the blogosphere.
The number of blogs on the internet has been growing rapidly, as increasingly more people were gaining access to the internet and being able to create and manage their own blogs. Once creating a blog was an endeavor for which you would need to hire a professional, and you would also need training on how to manage and upload content. Nowadays, you can seamlessly create a blog within a few minutes without any technical skill whatsoever.
From the introduction of the internet and the appearance of blogging to this day, a lot has changed.
Nowadays, blogging has become commonplace. It has become mainstream since the 2000s. Now people read blog posts every day. In fact, a large percentage of people own a blog (even if they do not have a habit of blogging regularly).
On the one side, we have the online community which has been relying so much on blogging as a source of information, entertainment, ideas, etc. People start following blogs they love and use them to keep up with the topic of their interest. They also interact with blog owners through comments.
Then, on the other side, we have companies. Most companies have one goal in common – to reach online users. Due to the massive popularity of blogging and due to one particular search engine update by Google, called Panda (you can read more information on “Panda” later in this book), they have started to realize that blogging has to be taken to an entirely new level. The benefits of blogging are evident, but the craft (or better yet, art) of blogging is what evolved so much over the past years, that companies are focusing a lot of their efforts on creating and managing content marketing strategies through blogging.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
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As a sector of online marketing, search engine marketing focuses on the promotion of links through search engine ads. These are ads placed in the search engines before, next to, or after the organic search results.
Affiliates are allowed to advertise their affiliate links through most channels available in online marketing, including search engine ads. In this case, an affiliate could create a search engine ad as a part of affiliate promotion. For example, Google Ads can be used to create search engine ads for Google or YouTube. The affiliate would be in charge of campaign settings, as well as campaign goals, keywords, targeting, scheduling, etc. Through the affiliate link in the ad, it is possible to track the conversions back to the affiliate who promoted the link using search engine ads.
Despite the fact that it is a paid campaign, affiliates might still find it profitable, which is the reason for them to choose this kind of promotion.
Merchants are not directly involved in this promotion, even though it is a paid campaign. However, most merchants are conducting SEM campaigns themselves. This is why merchants usually prohibit the use of specific keywords for affiliates in paid campaigns.
These keywords usually include company name, website URL, etc. as well as commonly misspelled variations of those keywords. If the affiliates were to use them, they would create direct competition for the merchant, thus increasing the price of the paid ads which work in a form of an auction. The prohibited keywords should be a part of the terms of service provided by the merchants and accepted by the affiliates who join the affiliate program.
Affiliate marketing and social media marketing (SMM)
Social networks have a great potential for online promotion, which is why affiliates have been using them to promote the links from which they earn the commission. Apart from sharing links on websites and blogs, affiliates who have a significant influence on social media can bring a lot of traffic through the affiliate links if they share them with social network users. There are two options when it comes to sharing links by the affiliates. Firstly, they can share the link to the post containing the affiliate links. Using this practice, they direct social media followers to their own website or blog, from which the visitors can choose to click on the affiliate links.
The second option is sharing affiliate links directly to the social media account in a post. This post is usually accompanied by relevant text and image(s). The affiliate can disclose the fact that the link is an affiliate. When sharing the links directly through social media, the publishers usually use shortening services to create shorter links.
When promoting affiliate links on social media, the affiliates can benefit a lot from knowing a thing or two about social media marketing. Here are the most important things to have in mind: • Posts can be scheduled to appear at different times during the day • Posts can be promoted to increase their reach • It is advisable to make these posts personalized and adapted to your target group • Images improve the post engagement and visibility • Analytics enables you to see the performance of each post.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Search engines rely on algorithms to find web pages and decide which ones to rank for any given keyword.
There are 3 steps to how search engines work:
#1 Crawling
Discovery stage
Automated crawlers are sent to find new and previously known pages by following links from one page to another
Search engines send out web crawlers to find new pages and record information about them. They discover new pages by following the links on pages they already know about. For the pages they have previously visited, crawlers are periodically sent back to check whether the content has changed. Sometimes websites instruct search engines not to crawl certain web pages and these are left out of the index.
2. Indexing
Filing stage
Some results are filtered
Most web pages that offer unique and valuable content are placed into the index. Common reasons for pages not placed in the index are that the content was considered:
Duplicate
Low value/spammy
Couldn’t be crawled
The page or domain lacked inbound links
3. Rankings
Retrieval stage
Search engines scan their indexes
They select web pages that provide the best answers
There are over 200 rankings factors
In 2013, Google upgraded its main algorithm and named it Hummingbird. This upgrade included Google being more intelligent in understanding the meaning of keywords and being better able to return more relevant results. In 2015, Google announced RankBrain which is a sub-algorithm of Hummingbird and an artificial intelligence system. This further illustrates the importance of understanding the true meaning of keywords, rather than just matching up keywords to pages that mention them.
In English, a keyword normally implies just one word but for SEO it can mean one or more. When thinking of keywords, try and understand what the users actually want and what task they are trying to complete – and then try to offer the best possible content to satisfy the intent behind the keyword.
Broadly speaking there are three types of keywords:
Navigational
Informational
Transactional
Depending on the topic or page you are researching, the types of keywords you will wish to target are likely to require different types of content and a slightly different approach for SEO. We’ll now review each one.
Navigational keywords
We can think of these types of keywords as signposts that direct searchers to a place they already have in mind. If you search Google for a brand name, a person’s name or a URL, you are using navigational queries. Queries and keywords are used interchangeably in SEO.
Informational keywords
Collectively, informational queries make up the largest proportion of keywords and because they happen at the earlier awareness stage of the buying cycle, so are harder to convert into customers. Blog posts are examples of content where informational keywords are often targeted. That’s because a blog post is more about informing, rather than selling. For this reason, informational content tends to be more successful in social media.
Transactional keywords
Transactional queries happen at the last decision stage of the buying cycle, so are easier to convert into customers, but tend to be more competitive to rank for. As the name suggests, transactional keywords are targeted on sales pages, so they are often the first types of keywords we research and optimize for. They are also the most likely to improve the bottom line of your business and help meet business goals.
As you might expect, transactional keywords are the most likely to help with sales and help a business grow. But they are also the most competitive type of keywords, so the hardest to rank for. Some businesses that are new to SEO, ONLY target transactional keywords which means they struggle to rank for any keywords. By targeting informational keywords, often means progress can be made quicker, particularly at the start for SEO.
In 2013, Google upgraded its main algorithm and named it Hummingbird. This upgrade included Google being more intelligent in understanding the meaning of keywords and being better able to return more relevant results.
In 2015, Google announced RankBrain which is a sub-algorithm of Hummingbird and an artificial intelligence system. This further illustrates the importance of understanding the true meaning of keywords, rather than just matching up keywords to pages which mention them.
In English, a keyword normally implies just one word but for SEO it can mean one or more. When thinking of keywords, try and understand what the users actually want and what task they are trying to complete – and then try to offer the best possible content to satisfy the intent behind the keyword.
Broadly speaking there are three types of keywords:
Navigational
Informational
Transactional
Depending on the topic or page you are researching, the types of keywords you will wish to target are likely to require different types of content and a slightly different approach for SEO. We’ll now review each one.
Navigational keywords
We can think of these types of keywords as signposts that direct searchers to a place they already have in mind. If you search Google for a brand name, a person’s name or a URL, you are using navigational queries. Queries and keywords are used interchangeably in SEO.
Informational keywords
Collectively, informational queries make up the largest proportion of keywords and because they happen at the earlier awareness stage of the buying cycle, so are harder to convert into customers. Blog posts are examples of content where informational keywords are often targeted. That’s because a blog post is more about informing, rather than selling. For this reason, informational content tends to be more successful in social media.
Transactional keywords
Transactional queries happen at the last decision stage of the buying cycle, so are easier to convert into customers, but tend to be more competitive to rank for. As the name suggests, transactional keywords are targeted on sales pages, so they are often the first types of keywords we research and optimize for. They are also the most likely to improve the bottom line of your business and help meet business goals.
As you might expect, transactional keywords are the most likely to help with sales and help a business grow. But they are also the most competitive type of keywords, so the hardest to rank for. Some businesses that are new to SEO, ONLY target transactional keywords which means they struggle to rank for any keywords. By targeting informational keywords, often means progress can be made quicker, particularly at the start for SEO.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
With best practices in place and organized strategies being implemented, affiliate marketing can be quite a lucrative endeavor for both merchants and affiliates. Merchants particularly see this business model as a win-win for them. They only pay for the actual conversions, i.e. for their goals being achieved. They do not risk losing any investment because they only pay based on performance.
However, the situation is not that plain and simple.
There are a number of issues you have to be aware of when running an affiliate program. Not only could these cause harm to your website but they can lead to having to pay for fake performance, thus completely wasting your budget without seeing any benefits from affiliate links. To make sure you avoid this and to see real results from affiliate marketing, pay attention to these issues and how to prevent them.
#1 Fraudulent affiliates
A fraudulent affiliate is an affiliate who uses a type of fraud to earn commissions in an affiliate program. These frauds can include spamming, squatting, faking the number of clicks, using stolen credit cards for purchases, etc. Actions such as these will not lead to a successful performance or even worse, they might show fake conversions where the merchants would have to pay commissions for no real performance.
Here are a couple of ways to avoid this issue:
• Use the terms of service to define what a valid affiliate action is – Affiliates who sign up for the program will have to accept these terms to join. This way, you protect yourself from any detected frauds because you will not have to pay for them. • Check affiliates sites – Even though it might be time-consuming to do this if you have lots of affiliates, this could help a lot with discovering fraudulent affiliates. • Communicate with the affiliates regularly – This is a good way to establish a relationship with the affiliates, but you could also gain insights into their tactics, feedback about the program, etc.
• Have a blacklist – Besides your own data, fraudulent affiliates are often blacklisted on forums or blogs, so this could be used as a reference. 120 • Check your own data – If you notice a sudden increase in traffic or an affiliate who out of the blue gets lots of transactions credited, make sure you look into this. It could be a sign of fraudulent activity.
#2 Automatic approval of affiliates
As the term suggests, the automatic approval of affiliates includes the automatic acceptance of a potential affiliate to the program. One of the main reasons for doing so is to motivate the affiliates. Merchants are interested in new affiliates joining the program because this will help them boost their profits. In order to encourage the affiliate to start the program promotion immediately, some merchants use this option.
They believe that while waiting for the application to be approved, some affiliates might lose interest and go on to another strategy, or join another program. Also, automatic approval makes things more comfortable for the merchants because they do not have to do the approval manually.
Although this thinking does have valid reasoning, it is a very dangerous move, one that could turn out to be a big issue. With this kind of automatic approval, anyone can gain access to the affiliate program and potentially apply suspicious and illegal practices to earn commissions.
On the other hand, some merchants decide to use automation features to decline affiliates. In this case, you will automatically decline affiliates if they do not fulfill the specified criteria. Since it is an automatic decline, it does not involve a review of the affiliate manager, which means that reviewing a website is usually not the reason for the declined application. The reason could be affiliate location, ranking (some affiliate networks offer rankings for affiliates, so once you join you start with no ranking at all), etc.
Since these criteria are set automatically, legitimate affiliates might be turned down. Just because someone is a beginner affiliate on a network, it does not mean that the strategy is spammy or that merchants should not give a chance to such affiliates.
How to approve affiliates?
Despite the fact that both options reduce the time you will need to invest in affiliate marketing because they automate a part of the tasks, neither of the two approaches is perfect, which is why you should compromise:
• Automatic approval
If you decide to choose this option, the solution is to monitor the applications regularly. Even a brief oversight could allow an affiliate to damage your brand through illegitimate techniques. That is why you will have to be on the lookout all the time.
• Automatic decline If you use this option, you will have to make sure that the criteria used for declining an application are really relevant to you. In case you get a lot of applications for your program, this option can help you filter some of them out. However, the actual review is always recommended to fully access a website’s eligibility to join your program. When using this option, leave a contact email so that the users who get an automatic decline message can contact you and request a manual review. By doing this, you ensure that you do not turn down potential affiliates.
• Swift approval Alternatively, you could avoid using automated options. Instead, use the strategy of a swift approval. What this means is that you manually approve each affiliate, but you do it very fast. As soon as you receive an application for an affiliate to join, you should start researching the affiliate and looking into the application. Even though this approach is time-consuming, it helps you with solving two major flaws of the automation process. You actually review the affiliate and if it is a perfect fit for your program. You also do it fast, so that they are motivated to start Cookie stuffing
Cookie stuffing is a black hat marketing technique. It relies on taking advantage of the system in order to create misleading performance and get a commission based on it. It can disrupt the metrics of a marketing campaign, and it can also have a negative effect on other affiliates.
To understand how this happens, you will need to understand what cookies do.
Cookies are used for tracking affiliate link performance. Once the user clicks on the affiliate link, cookies are stored in the browser and they stay there during their cookie life, which can vary from a couple of hours to a couple of months. Even if the user decides to complete the purchase later on, as long as the cookie is active, the affiliate gets credited for that conversion.
There is also a rule that states that the last cookie gets the credit. This means that one user can click on one affiliate link, but decides not to buy at that moment, so the cookies are stored on his computer. However, as the same user is browsing the internet, he might come across on another affiliate link for the same product and clicks on it. In this case, the cookies from the first affiliate are deleted, and the commission (if it happens) will be credited to the second affiliate.
Cookie stuffing is a practice that violates both of these rules. Firstly, when using cookie stuffing methods, affiliates are placing cookies into the user’s browser even if they have never clicked on the affiliate link. This means that the commission would be credited to the affiliate if the user buys the product during the cookie life specified by the merchant’s program. However, this is an illegitimate practice because this affiliate was not able to convert the visitor as the actual click never happened. This practice enables those with low content quality and conversion rates to earn commissions in a manner that is not legitimate.
As for the last cookie rule, this black hat affiliate marketing technique can overwrite cookies and attribute them to the affiliate who is using it, even though the user has not clicked on such link. The user might get other cookies active, but when cookie stuffing is in place, the commission is hijacked and credited to the affiliate who is using this technique.
The solution for this issue is to monitor your affiliate program and the traffic you receive closely. Cookie stuffing is a practice that can be detected when aggressively used, so always keep an eye on abnormalities in your affiliate program and check why those might have occurred.
#3 Trademark violations
Trademark represents a company and it helps with identification on the market. When online users look up a specific trademark, they are directed to the company’s website. The methods used for reaching the users can involve non-paid methods (organic search results) and paid methods (search engine ads).
The issue that might occur in affiliate marketing includes so-called trademark poachers. What they do is they violate your trademark to gain profit through their own links. Here is how they do it.
Affiliates use paid search results to promote merchants’ products in search engines. However, they might use the merchant’s trademark and URL in their list of keywords to bid for their campaign. They also use trademark and URL variations or misspelled forms. When they do so, they attract traffic to their own pages even though those searches are directly targeted at the merchant’s website. Once the user clicks on the affiliate link which is promoted in the search engines, the cookies are immediately activated, and the affiliate will be credited for that conversion.
In this situation, the affiliate’s action is considered unfair because the affiliate really had nothing to do with this conversion. An online user looking up a specific brand name is already interested in the brand and perhaps has even made a decision about buying. Since the paid search results rank first in the search engine result pages, above the organic results, the user might end up clicking the affiliate link without any intention to do so. Additionally, the merchant will be paying the undeserved commission.
The best way to fight this issue is to define this aspect of online promotion in the affiliate program’s terms of service. In fact, most affiliate programs have this section in their terms where the affiliates are forbidden to bid on trademark and URL (or name variations) as keywords in search engine paid campaigns. Any affiliate who is detected to go against these terms should immediately be removed from the affiliate program.
#4 Motivating affiliates
Motivating affiliates might become an issue for merchants due to the nature of affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing, which means that there is no fixed commission or specific goals affiliates have to achieve. On the contrary, affiliate marketing gives them a lot of flexibility when working because they can do it at their own pace. They also have a variety of merchants to choose from, some of which are competitors.
One of the tasks of affiliate managers is to learn how to motivate affiliates to keep promoting their programs and to enhance their strategies to increase performance. Tactics to help you motivate affiliates
Here are a couple of approaches merchants can use to motivate their affiliates:
• Offer special deals – From time to time, it is good to create special deals and offers for affiliates, where they can earn extra commission or a bonus for particular actions. Some of these actions could be increasing the number of referrals, promoting a specific product, etc. • Award outstanding performance – This is a great approach when you want to keep your most loyal and best-performing affiliates. Again, any offer such as a commission increase, bonus, extended cookie life, will serve as motivation.
• Build trust – Affiliates love to work with merchants who are easy to work with, professional and pay regularly. Therefore, maintaining a good reputation and building trust is a great way to motivate affiliates to be a part of your affiliate program. • High-quality and efficient communication – Make sure you pay attention to the way you communicate with the affiliates. Consider them your partners who work hard to promote your affiliate program. Treat them with kindness and respect. Always try to reply promptly when you receive a question or feedback from one of the affiliates.
Affiliate marketing scams Affiliate marketing has earned a somewhat negative reputation mainly because of the affiliate scams people were pulling off. This is why some affiliates are reluctant to expand their work and join new programs.
If you are an affiliate, here are the things you should pay attention to, as these will help you avoid potential affiliate scams.
• Paying a fee to join the program Most legitimate affiliate programs are free. There is no sense in requiring an affiliate to pay the fee because the goal is for affiliates to earn money through an affiliate program. If you notice such a deal, it is very likely a scam, so make sure you explore a little bit more before joining.
• A middleman When an affiliate wants to join the program, he or she can do so by contacting a brand or applying to the program directly. There is no reason to involve a middleman in the process. However, some people decide to “assist” you with the process for specific compensation. If you are not able to apply for the program yourself (due to a language barrier, lack of skills, or knowledge), then affiliate marketing might not be for you at all.
• No product or service Some of the most notorious affiliate scams were discovered as those promoting no product or service. The money was simply transferred from one recruiter to the other, without anything being sold in the end. Make sure you investigate what kind of product or service you will be promoting in the affiliate program you want to join.
Affiliate marketing is a strategy with great potential and opportunities, but one has to be aware of the issues that might come along. A general guideline for avoiding issues is the following:
For merchants: Create the terms of service that help you protect your affiliate program and safeguard it from affiliates who are using illegitimate techniques. This can help you regulate the program and the relationship with the affiliates. It is also necessary to monitor the program and to immediately notice unusual actions that could be a signal that there is fraudulent activity.
For affiliates: Before you join any program, make sure you find out more about the company that is providing the program. This will help you figure out if the program is legitimate or not. The document that deserves your absolute attention is the terms of service because any affiliate marketing strategy you consider implementing needs to be in accordance with this document.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
While the positive influence of blogging cannot be denied, there can be some obstacles to this strategy as well. Take a look at the three most common obstacles you will encounter and how you can overcome them.
Time-consuming
One of the biggest obstacles companies face is the lack of time to devote to blogging. A blog post takes a lot of time to write, edit, proofread, optimize, and publish. Blog management also requires time.
To prevent the lack of time from becoming an issue that prevents you from blogging and exploring its potential, you could use several strategies to save/optimize your time:
• Hire freelance writers – Someone from outside the company can help you create content for your blog. It is essential that the person is knowledgeable about the industry, and that you still check content submitted by the writers.
• Guest blogging – Guest blogging is another way to obtain new content for your blog and keep up with the pace of regular publishing. You will have to make sure that you accept only relevant topics and content that will be beneficial for your audience.
Guest blogging can help you diversify the topics and writing style on your blog while bringing fresh content on a regular basis.
• Create a plan and to-do list – Try to organize your writing more effectively. Plan your topics well and make sure you create a publishing calendar that you can regularly update. If you are unable to produce a new blog post each day, that is ok, just make sure you have some schedule for publishing.
• Learning with time – Writing will become easier and faster in time. As you get more experienced with the topic and the particular blog format, you will be able to produce more content in less time.
Challenging
Blogging can become a true challenge for companies that want to use this strategy. Besides the lack of time, companies might also lack the expertise to create high-quality content. They might face difficulties when optimizing content, or they might simply fail at understanding what the customers need.
To help fight these challenges, it is important to recognize them on time and explore ways to solve them efficiently. Try to detect the obstacles that might be holding you back and preventing you from publishing content on your blog. You do not want to give up blogging at the sign of an obstacle. Instead, make sure you think about ways your company can overcome these obstacles.
Budget
This is a difficulty mostly associated with smaller companies that are unable to allocate a significant budget to blogging. Beside blog hosting, the budget can also include writers’ fees, editors’ fees, content creators’ fees for visual content, paid content promotion and distribution, paid blogging tools and applications, etc. All of this can be a big burden for companies starting out and being unable to invest into blogging, before seeing any financial gain from blogging.
You can overcome this challenge by optimizing your blogging activity so that you can provide at least some content for your visitors. Even one blog post per week, or a guide once a month is better than no content at all. Also, try to accept guest bloggers who might want to create content for free (with a link back to their blog).
Although challenges do exist with blogging, one thing is for sure – the benefits of blogging are numerous. As with every beginning, starting out blogging can be quite difficult, and stressful and there will be plenty of those moments when you are full of self-doubt. However, it is helpful to have a plan, and a blogging strategy in place. With this strategy showing you the goals you want to work for and the benefits you could eventually earn, you will feel more motivated to pursue your vision and shape this vision into a successful blog.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
A blog is a website or a web page that is regularly updated with new content. Content is displayed as blog articles or posts, which are usually shown in reverse chronological order, so the newest are visible first When blogging was still new in the online community, blogs were usually run by individuals or a small group. Apart from blogs run by individuals, today we also have joint blogging projects which gather multiple authors.
Companies have recognized the importance of blogging as well, so many of them have been implementing blogging as a part of their website. Often companies either have employed a full-time blogger or a team of bloggers that are in charge of content creation and blog promotion.
Most blogs allow visitors to leave their comments and to share blog posts on social media. This is what mainly differentiates blog posts from static website pages. It is also one of the reasons why blogging is considered a type of social networking platform. It enables connection with the author and his or her audience. Blog posts provide that social aspect, which is also why they are such an important asset in engaging online visitors.
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is the term coined to include all blogs and the way these blogs are interconnected. As blogging started to be adopted by the masses and the number of bloggers has gradually been increasing, bloggers began to see themselves as a part of a large community, which is how the term blogosphere was introduced in 2002. It is used to imply that all blogs are connected and comprise a community.
This understanding of blogging being part of the blogosphere is another reason why blogging is considered a type of social network. Unlike website owners, which are usually focused on the interaction between owner and visitors, and only during the last couple of year have been thinking in terms of social media, blogging has had a social aspect from the beginning. Bloggers interact with each other, they share each other’s content, they comment, they even have blogrolls (the list of blogs they read and recommend). In general, blogging is more focused on the individual level and on these individuals becoming members of the blogosphere.
Blog vs. website
It is essential to differentiate between a blog and a website as this is something most people find difficult to do. Perhaps the most confusing part is the fact, that both are used for publishing content. However, how this content is presented and the purpose it serves is what makes a distinction between the two.
#1 Frequency of updates
The first significant distinction between a blog and a website is the frequency of updates. Blog content is regularly updated, which means that the pages (also called “blog posts”) are more dynamic than website pages. Blog updates can be published at shorter or longer intervals. For example, new blog posts can be published once or twice a week, or even a couple of times during the day. This depends on the type of blog and the author(s).
On the other hand, a website features static pages with content that can occasionally be altered, but it usually stays the same over an extended period.
#2 Engagement level
When it comes to engagement level, website pages hardly generate any engagement. Their main purpose is to provide information, to present a particular concept, etc. This communication is considered a one-to-many type of communication, which means that a page is designed to show the same content to all of the visitors.
Blogs enable better connection between an author and the visitors. It does not matter if the interaction is done through subscribing to RSS, commenting on a blog post, or participating in a poll, the important thing is that blogs encourage this interaction and thus increase the engagement level. The benefits of engagement are numerous, starting from generating interest in your brand, to improving the credibility and online influence.
#3 Search engine friendliness
Blogs are considered to be more search engine friendly due to several reasons. • Updates
Search engines love new content, and they keep returning new pages to index when they notice that there is a pattern of frequent updates. Google confirms that 15% of searches have never been searched before, which means that new content updates are always welcome. Updated content enable search engines to extend their database and find genuinely relevant content to show in the search engine result pages. New content is most often provided to the search engines through the use of blogging.
• Traffic Blog topics are much more diverse and provide a range of topics that can be presented as organic traffic results. For example, when there is a search query “how to optimize a blog post,” it is more likely that there will be a blog post relevant to this query than a website.
The concept of blogging also provides an opportunity to publish content which includes related phrases, synonyms, or to coin different phrases related to that topic. In all, this offers a tremendous potential to grow the amount of organic traffic your blog receives on topics that leverage the use of keywords and relevant phrases, that would attract the audience interested in your brand.
• Links
Another reason for blogs being considered search engine friendly is the link building potential of their blog’s content. Content of high quality in a blog post is more likely to generate interest and links from other websites or blogs (also called “backlinks”) than static web pages. Additionally, blog content usually contains a significant number of links, both internal and external, which makes discovering and indexing new content by search engines through this page much easier.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
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