The Best Boss

Thursday, July 5, 2018

[DOWNLOAD] Score Your Paid Traffic With The 5-Point Paid Ad Audit

If you gave your paid traffic ads a grade…

Would they pass or fail?

No matter the traffic platform or the type of ad you are running, you must have the right elements in place for your traffic campaign to be successful!

That’s why I’ve created the Paid Traffic Audit to help you see how your paid traffic measures up (or to score your employees, competitors, or total strangers just for fun)!

(NOTE: You’ll get a downloadable version of the Paid Ad Audit at the end of this article.)

paid-ad-audit-img1

The Paid Ad Audit has 5 components (labeled above):

Grading Elements: Evaluate elements like copy, creative, scent, offer, and targeting of the ad
Grading Criteria: Grade these elements based on specific criteria
Element Scores: Score each element separately on a scale from Exceptional to Unsatisfactory
Final Score: Receive an overall score out of 20
Action Items: Take action to improve elements that don’t receive a perfect score

The Components of the Paid Ad Audit

This article contains a process for conducting a Paid Traffic Audit. You’ll learn the 5 elements to score on every paid traffic ad and get access to our Paid Ad Audit tool.

There are 5 elements to a paid ad audit:

Offer
Copy
Creative
Scent
Targeting

Who Should Use the Paid Ad Audit?

In this post you’ll learn to evaluate and improve each of these elements. Then, you’ll get access to our Paid Ad Audit spreadsheet.

Here’s how to put this audit to work:

Paid Traffic Specialists: Audit and improve your own ads
Business Owners and Managers: Audit the ads of your employees to improve their performance
Agencies: Audit ads of potential clients as a way to show them how much you could help if they were to hire you

Let’s dive into the 5 elements of the audit.

Paid Ad Audit Element 1: Offer

Ah, the offer. This is where we see the majority of mistakes when it comes to traffic campaigns… or marketing in general.

You build a great marketing campaign, execute on it, and… nothing. No one buys.

When you examine the campaign, you realize it has nothing to do with the marketing.
You were promoting something that no one wanted (or at least that market didn’t want).

Are you sending traffic to something that people actually want?

Plain and simple.

That’s the theme of this first element.

Whether you’re sending traffic to a blog post, Lead Magnet, webinar, physical product, online product, local discount… ANY offer under the sun, you must make sure that it’s something that people actually desire.

The best way to determine whether your offer is the problem is to analyze your data. Use this troubleshooting guide to figure out what exactly is ailing your campaign.

Paid Ad Audit Element 2: Copy

There’s one thing that successful ad copy CANNOT be…

…and that is BORING.

If your copy sounds robotic or overly salesy, then it’s simply going to miss the mark.

You are, after all, marketing to human beings, so ad copy with voice and personality are going to perform much better than pitchy pleas to separate a customer from their money.

When it comes down to it, the role of a marketer is to explain the value that a product or service will bring to a potential customer in a way that will make that customer take action.

To do so, it’s vital that your ad copy speaks to a pain point or a desired end benefit that strongly resonates with your target audience without overselling or over-promising.

That includes the call to action (CTA).

CTA’s don’t have to be “Click Here!” or “Buy Now!”. They simply tell the reader what to do next—it doesn’t have to be aggressive.

Exceptional ad copy will…

Speak to the a specific pain point or desired end result of the target audience
Make a clear call to action without being misleading or “hypey”
Be overall compelling without being misleading or “hypey”

Learn how to write great ad copy using these Facebook Ad Templates.

Paid Ad Audit Element 3: Creative

Your ad creative includes..

videos
pictures
graphics
any other visual elements of your ad

The creative you use will depend on the traffic platform your ad will run on: video for Youtube, images for Pinterest, etc.

What’s important is that your ad creative depicts your MARKETING MESSAGE.

If your reader can get the gist of your message without having to read the copy, you’re going to have a very successful ad.

It’s important to note that ad creative shouldn’t draw attention away from your marketing message by being flashy or off-brand.

This is doubly important if you’re running a series of ads and the prospect is familiar with your brand—the creative on those retargeting ads should remain consistent and maintain brand recognition.

Elements of exceptional ad creative:

It catches attention of the reader without being flashy or off-brand
It portrays the marketing messages
It reflects the brand and customer journey

(NOTE: Want The Ultimate Facebook Ad Template Library? Copy & paste these 7 proven Facebook ad campaigns to create low-cost, high-converting ads on demand. Get them here.)

Paid Ad Audit Element 4: Scent

As I discussed before, “ad scent” can be described as the user experience from the moment they click on an ad to the moment they land on the landing page. If the landing page looks, feels, and says different things, your ad just won’t perform.

This means everything from the ad creative to the copy to the offer should remain uniform.

For a strong ad scent, keep 3 major elements consistent:

Design (think color scheme, layout, imagery, and font selection/size/color)
Benefits (the headline, sub headline, and image should highlight the same benefits as the ad)
Offer (use the same language from ad to landing page headline)

If the scent from what was promised is incongruent with what is delivered , virtually every visitor will bounce immediately.

Elements of exceptional ad scent:

Design elements are consistent between the ad and landing page
Copy and voice in the ad are reflected on the landing page

Paid Ad Audit Element 5: Targeting

You can build the best advertising campaign in the world, but if you put that campaign in front of the wrong audience—it will fail.

At DigitalMarketer, we teach that the key to successful targeting is SPECIFICITY.

You must ensure that your target audience isn’t too BROAD—instead, make sure that you’ve really narrowed in on the avid part of your market… the people that actually want to BUY.

When an audience is too large, platforms have a hard time optimizing your ads because there are just too many people it’s trying to reach.

On the other side of the coin, be mindful that your target audience isn’t too SMALL—or your ad will end up getting no impressions.

While you’re narrowing down your audience, be sure sure you’re targeting the market living in the specific areas your product or service is available.

If you’re a local business, you don’t want to market across the country. If you’re a global business, you’ll want to make sure you’re only selecting countries with the same language that your service supports.

Elements of exceptional ad targeting:

It’s specific to the part of your market who is willing to buy
The targeting is not too broad or too small
Ads are only targeted to geographic locations where you can sell your product

Now let’s take a look at the Paid Ad Audit in action.

5-Point Paid Ad Audit Scoring Scale

I recently evaluated some Facebook ads and gave them a grade based on the five paid ad elements and this scoring scale:

Offer

Exceptional: 4
Competent: 3
Needs Improvement: 2
Unsatisfactory: 1

Copy

Exceptional: 4
Competent: 3
Needs Improvement: 2
Unsatisfactory: 1

Creative

Exceptional: 4
Competent: 3
Needs Improvement: 2
Unsatisfactory: 1

Scent

Exceptional: 4
Competent: 3
Needs Improvement: 2
Unsatisfactory: 1

Targeting

Exceptional: 4
Competent: 3
Needs Improvement: 2
Unsatisfactory: 1

Let’s take a look and see how these ads measure up.

Hired.com

paid-ad-audit-img2

Offer: 4

Hired.com is a service that helps people find jobs.

It definitely fills a need that people have and is an amazing product.

Copy: 4

The copy hits a pain point in the first sentence and provides a solution in the second. Most people that are dissatisfied with their job can relate to counting down the hours until they leave the office.

This copy sounds personalized, like you’re talking to a friend.

Hired then transitions by saying “it might be time for a change,” and uses social proof (3,500 companies) to entice someone to click to find a job that they are passionate about.

I love how they call out “Sales Pros” in Austin with the ad’s headline. It definitely catches your attention.

Creative: 4

This creative is AWESOME. It really portrays the marketing message “Get more out of your work/life balance”. I love how literal they are with the image. They use a gauge that is leaning towards “life.”

The image is eye catching without being too salesy or flashy.

Scent: 3

paid-ad-audit-img3

Hired maintains their messaging as you click over the landing page. The landing page speaks specifically to sales professionals, as the ad did.

I wish they would have maintained messaging around work/life balance or the pain point of watching the clock. The image design and colors also could have been more congruent from the ad to the landing page.

Targeting: 4

I live in Austin and I am a Marketing/Sales professional so they really hit the nail on the head with this one. Running geographically specific campaigns is very smart.

FINAL SCORE: 19/20 = Exceptional

Talk Space

paid-ad-audit-img4

Offer: 3

Talk Space provides counseling to individuals through a phone app. This makes counseling much more accessible to people who are on the go. This is a great product.

Copy: 3

I love the hook “don’t bottle up your emotions”. It’s very creative.

I wish they would have gone with a different headline than “start e-counseling today”.

Although it’s a great call-to-action, people are not ready to hear the call-to-action yet, they need to know the WHY first. They could have been much more specific in calling out specific pain points in their copy.

For example, “Tired of struggling with anxiety, stress, and depression, but don’t want to go through the struggle of visiting a therapist? Use our app today.”

Creative: 4

This is one of my favorite creative of all time.

They did a wonderful job portraying the marketing message with this image. Like the Hired image above, they did a great job of making the image visually appealing without it looking spammy or off-brand.

Scent: 3

paid-ad-audit-img5

Talk Space maintains the offer of being matched with a counselor and signing up for e-counseling. I wish they would have maintained the “hook” from the ad of not bottling up your emotions.

The color pallet is consistent from the ad to the landing page, so great job there.

Targeting: 4

I wasn’t able to decipher how I was targeted with this ad. But, because it’s a broad offer and the accessibility of having a counselor at your fingertips is appealing to millenials, I’m giving them a 4.

FINAL SCORE: 17/20 = Exceptional

Graphly

paid-ad-audit-img6

Offer: 4

Graphly is a reporting platform that integrates with Infusionsoft and helps you measure and track campaigns.

Copy: 3

Graphly leads by calling out Infusionsoft users—this is very smart.

Anyone who’s currently using Infusionsoft would respond to that call out. The use of “voted #1” is also smart to build credibility. They then lead into “track where your leads come from, measure campaigns and grow your sales,” which is great to give the user a specific end benefit.

I wish they would have had a stronger call-to-action at the end of the newsfeed copy. You don’t see anything about the $1 trial offer until the very end of the ad.

Creative: 1

The creative pretty much kills this ad. Using stock photos makes your brand look like an advertiser, not a company with a fun personality on a social platform.

Using the coins stacked up also can be mistaken for a scammy offer. I understand that they were trying to portray the idea of growing your sales, but this image is very repelling.

They should create images in-house that look more on brand.

Scent: 3

paid-ad-audit-img7

There is design scent between Graphly’s profile picture and the landing page, but the scent is not congruent in design between the ad and the landing page. Swapping out the ad image would solve this problem.

There is congruence between the ad copy as you can find “the reporting platform voted #1 by Infisionsoft’s founders” in the ad and on the landing page.

Targeting: 4

We use Infusionsoft and I like Infusionsoft’s page on Facebook, so this was a good use of targeting.

FINAL SCORE: 15/20 = Competent

It’s so much easier to figure out what you need to improve when you can evaluate specific areas of your ads and see how they measure up!

This audit will give you a great starting point for improving your campaigns.

Download your 5-Point Paid Traffic Audit here.

(NOTE: Want The Ultimate Facebook Ad Template Library? Copy & paste these 7 proven Facebook ad campaigns to create low-cost, high-converting ads on demand. Get them here.)

The post [DOWNLOAD] Score Your Paid Traffic With The 5-Point Paid Ad Audit appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

from [DOWNLOAD] Score Your Paid Traffic With The 5-Point Paid Ad Audit

Writer’s Block: 27 Techniques to Overcome It Forever

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

SPI 325: How to Be an Amazing Coach with Michael Bungay Stanier

Today’s guest is Michael Bungay Stanier, author of the Wall Street Journal Bestseller: The Coaching Habit—my choice for top business book of 2017. Why, you ask?

Because everyone is a coach. Seriously. Think about it. If you tell anyone how to do anything, you are a coach. If you are helping anyone else in any sort of way, you are a coach. But here’s the trick: You aren’t supposed to just tell someone what to do, if you want to be a great coach. You have to listen and ask the right questions. I’ve directly applied lessons like these—not just in AskPat and this podcast—but in every aspect of my life, personal and business-wise.

I’m just going to say it: This is the most useful book I’ve ever read. In today’s episode, we’re going to dive into the principles of the book and I’m going to ask some followup questions. This is probably one of the most important episodes of the podcast. The Coaching Habit has been a huge game-changer for me in terms of how I help others, and I’m directly applying these lessons to my business (on AskPat, for example). My goal is to help as many people as possible, and this book has been huge in helping me progress toward that goal.

As Michael puts it, “If you interact with other human beings, this could be useful for you.” Let’s get rolling!

You can find Michael’s organizational, corporate-based training at BoxofCrayons.com, and his personal site is MichaelBungayStanier.com. In this episode, Michael also mentions his new app—Ask More, which uses a Tinder-like interface to help you track your behavioral changes when coaching.

If you want to potentially win a signed copy of Michael’s book, leave a comment below answering the last question in the seven questions of The Coaching Habit: What was most helpful for you in this episode? I’ll select ten winners at random to receive 1 copy of the book each in the mail.

Make sure you subscribe, because we’ve got more content and fun giveaways coming your way and we’re trying to do more as a community. And speaking of community, if you haven’t yet joined the SPI Community yet, you can check that out on Facebook.

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.
Ask a question over on AskPat.com.
Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest.

To help out the show:

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes or download our mobile app.

Special thanks to Michael Bungay Stanier for joining me this week. Until next time!

You'll Learn

How Michael persevered and self-published The Coaching Habit.
Why most of us are so advice-happy, and how to break the habit.
Why everyone should strive to be more coach-like in their life.
The best question to ask when coaching anyone, and why it's so effective.
What steps Michael follows during a coaching session.
How Michael's coaching strategy applies to being a better podcasting host.
Why it's important to slow down the coaching process in order for it to work.
The three principles of being more coach-like: Be lazy, be curious, be often.
Why the rescuer-mindset often does more harm than good and makes negotiation difficult.
What to do if you get stuck when you're coaching, and more!

Resources

from SPI 325: How to Be an Amazing Coach with Michael Bungay Stanier

How Often Should You Email Your Newsletter List?

The post How Often Should You Email Your Newsletter List? appeared first on ProBlogger.

What's the best newsletter frequency for you and your readers?

In the past we’ve taken a look at why your blog needs an email newsletter and what you should include in your email newsletter.

But people have been asking for more detail on how often you should send emails to your newsletter subscribers. So we’re adding this post to round out our series on Newsletters.

Almost anything is possible here – from emailing once a year to emailing multiple times a day. For most bloggers, though, there’s a happy medium somewhere in between.

How Often Should YOU Email Your Audience?

Before we dig into the details, let’s look at some rough guidelines that will apply to most bloggers.

Chances are, your readers will want to hear from you somewhere between once a month and once a week. Less than once a month, and they may forget who you are or miss out on good offers. More than once a week, and they may see your emails as just more “noise” in their inbox.

A couple of years ago, Marketing Sherpa found that most customers (close to 90%) want to receive emails “at least monthly”, and just over 60% of those want emails “at least weekly”.

So if you decide to email twice a month, you probably won’t go far wrong.

However, you may need to adjust this frequency depending on the type of email newsletter list you have.

Scenario #1: An ‘Updates’ Email List

Let’s say readers have signed up to hear about your new book when it’s released. They might be interested in a monthly or quarterly newsletter about your progress, with links to interesting blog posts you’ve written, or other resources. But they’re unlikely to want emails every week or two.

In some situations (e.g. you’re a fiction author who brings out a book every year or two), an ‘update’ email just once a year might be appropriate. Readers may not be interested in hearing regular details about your life and how the book’s coming along, but they might be very excited to get an email when it’s finished.

Scenario #2: An “Ecourse” Email List

If readers have joined your email list to take a short ecourse by email, it might make sense to email them as often as daily (if each email is short) .Anything less than weekly won’t be enough for them to make steady progress. Even if you’re only sending out the ecourse material in weekly doses, you might want to send a second reminder email.

Readers are unlikely to want emails multiple times per day. But if you’re running an intense ecourse (e.g. a week-long one that requires multiple hours of work per day) then it might make sense to email both morning and evening. This is definitely a case, though, where you’ll want to …

Survey Your Audience to Find Out What They Want

If you’re not too sure what will suit your audience, ask them.

The easiest way to do this (and get a reasonable range of responses) is to run a survey. You’ll probably want to ask questions that go beyond just the frequency of your emails. For example, you may want to ask them what types of content they’d like to receive, or how long they want your emails to be.

You could ask something like this:

How often would you like to receive emails from me?

Daily
Twice a week
Once a week
Twice a month
Monthly
Quarterly (every three months)
Other

Some Common Problems Related to Emailing Frequency

Sometimes, you might be having difficulties with your email newsletter without realising those difficulties could be solved by changing the frequency.

On the other hand, you might also be worried about your email frequency because you think something is a problem when it really isn’t.

Here are some common worries and difficulties bloggers have, and my suggestions for solving them.

#1: “I Struggle to Come Up With Enough Content for My Newsletters”

If you find it tough to come up with ideas for your newsletters, you could:

Send out blog posts rather than separate newsletters. Some bloggers send their entire blog post by email. Others craft a short summary or ‘teaser’ and then link to the post. You can send out your post using RSS to email.
Write shorter newsletters. If you’re including two unique articles and a Q&A in every newsletter, you’re probably overwhelming your readers as well as yourself.
Email less frequently. Obviously, if you go from emailing once a week to once a month, you’ll only need to come up with a quarter of the original amount of content.
Re-run old newsletters. If you’ve been emailing for more than a year, you’ll have lots of people on your newsletter list who never saw your earliest newsletters. And even those who’ve stuck around from the beginning will probably have forgotten them. Pick a few good ones from your archives, edit them, and send them out again.

#2: “People Unsubscribe Whenever I Send an Email”

This causes a lot of bloggers to worry unnecessarily. You’ve probably noticed that when you send an email your unsubscribe rate goes up. This might put you off emailing at all, but it shouldn’t.

If you think about it, there’s a good reason why this happens. And it’s (normally) nothing to do with you emailing too often or emailing the wrong content. It’s because some people are trying to reduce their incoming emails, and when an email comes in from you it acts as a signal to them to unsubscribe.

However, if you get comments or feedback saying “Too many emails” or similar, you might want to think about reducing the frequency.

And don’t worry if you get a lot of unsubscribes whenever you send a promotional email, either. If someone had no intention of ever buying anything from you, let them go.

#3: “I Get a Lot of Spam Complaints”

This is a situation where you’ll want to take action, as a high volume of spam complaints can affect the deliverability of your emails.

If you’re emailing more than a couple of times a week, it’s possible that the spam complaints are related to the frequency of your emails. According to Campaign Monitor, one of the most popular reasons for marking emails as spam is because “they emailed too often”.

Another possibility here is you’re emailing at the right frequency, but not sending people what they asked for. If your newsletter sign-up form promises “exclusive weekly tips” and you’re sending out two promotional emails every week and a few tips once a month, you need to change things so you’re delivering what people expect and, more importantly, what they consented to.

Changing the Frequency of Your Emails

Normally, it’s best to change your emailing frequency fairly gradually.

Don’t suddenly go from emailing once a quarter to once a week. It’s going to confuse and put off your subscribers. Instead, gradually change the frequency. You might go to monthly emails, then twice monthly, and then weekly.

Similarly, if you normally email twice a week, your readers may start to worry if they don’t hear from you for a whole month – especially if you haven’t mentioned you’re going monthly.

The exception here is if you’re having problems because your emailing frequency is too high. If you’re getting lots of spam complaints because emailing daily is too much for your audience, you can switch to weekly straight away.

Let Your Readers Choose How Often They Want to Hear From You

If you want, you can also let your readers decide how often they want to hear from you.

It can be a little fiddly, but most email providers let you add an option on your sign-up form (and/or where subscribers can update their details) that lets your subscribers choose how often they want to receive emails from you. Here are instructions on how to do it in MailChimp.

Some readers might be delighted to receive every blog post the day you write it. Others may only want a weekly summary. By giving them the choice, you can keep everyone happy.

The appropriate frequency for your list depends very much on what you write about and who you’re writing for. If you’re not sure what to go for, try emailing twice per month and ask readers to let you know if that’s about right for them. You can easily adjust the frequency up to weekly or down to monthly, depending on the feedback. But be careful not to vary too wildly from what they consented to receiving (i.e. going daily after telling them they were subscribing to a monthly newsletter).

I’d love to hear about your experiences with email frequency – whether with your own newsletter list or someone else’s. Have you emailed too often (or not enough) in the past? Or have you ever unsubscribed from someone else’s list because the emails were too frequent, or too far apart? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The post How Often Should You Email Your Newsletter List? appeared first on ProBlogger.

from How Often Should You Email Your Newsletter List?

#1619 How Open Listings is becoming the Instagram for real estate

Today’s guest was looking to buy a house. And when he did, he looked at his broker and thought, “What the hell do I need him for?” That realization gave him an idea for a new business. He built it and it’s now changing the way people buy homes. Within three years, he’s done over $10M in sales. Judd Schoenholtz is the founder of Open Listings, an online real estate brokerage, focused exclusively on representing buyers.

Judd Schoenholtz is the founder of Open Listings, an online real estate brokerage, focused exclusively on representing buyers.

Sponsored by

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More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

from #1619 How Open Listings is becoming the Instagram for real estate

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Episode 156: How DigitalMarketer has Launched a New Podcast, and How You Could Too

The podcast world is constantly changing. If you are wondering how to get your foot in the door with your own podcast, there are some things you need to know.

In this episode, the experts interview the hosts of the new DigitalMarketer Podcast on what their strategy is for launching their podcast in 2018. They cover everything from how many episodes they’re launching with to what kinds of ads they’re running.

And for those podcasters who might be launching without an established audience, they cover strategies you can use to build your listenership and how to stand out in the changing landscape.

If you are thinking of starting a podcast, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

How to build traffic and grow your audience, even if you are starting out small
4 Strategies you can use to buy traffic without breaking the bank
Why getting into New and Noteworthy is more difficult now (but you shouldn’t be worried)
The strategies used by Perpetual Traffic and the DigitalMarketer Podcast to launch successfully

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

DigitalMarketer Podcast
Episode 38: The 4-Step Podcast Launch Strategy
Episode 154: Customer Journey: How Long Does It Take to Turn Someone into a Customer?

Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to Perpetual Traffic? Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on iTunes and leave us a review!

iTunes not your thing? Find us on Stitcher.

The post Episode 156: How DigitalMarketer has Launched a New Podcast, and How You Could Too appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

from Episode 156: How DigitalMarketer has Launched a New Podcast, and How You Could Too

What You Need to Know About IGTV That No One Else is Talking About

How do successful entrepreneurs make the right decision? How should business owners approach the latest technological innovation or social media platform? How can we ensure the maximum value from the time and money we invest in new directions?

With IGTV just launching recently, it is easy to feel excited or daunted by another avenue that you and your business could be utilizing. But that does not mean that you should necessarily be pouring yourself into yet another platform and marketing strategy without question.

In this episode, we tackle the idea of making clever decisions that suit you and your business, through the lens of the latest trends and social media options. We are not sure if you should dive into IGTV, but we can help you answer that and other questions for yourself!

We also talk about finding ways to make decisions from a place of security and inspiration rather than fear and anxiety, the three dangers of moving into a new area in your business and how to go about improving your decision-making process.

So for all your entrepreneurial needs, questions and aspirations, be sure to tune in as we help you level up!

Key Points From This Episode:

Common baseline states of stress and anxiety. [0:06:45.1]
The relationship between the world you inhabit and anxiety levels. [0:10:26.6]
The launch of IGTV and what this new format offers. [0:12:12.3]
The cycle of new platforms and what it means to be an early adopter. [0:14:56.7]
How to live in the now in your business. [0:17:19.3]
The three dangers that arise with new platforms [0:20:40.1]
Deflating feelings related to the arrival of a new avenue of social media. [0:23:31.4]
Wasting time staying the course to no result. [0:25:29.3]
Missing out on good ideas through fear and doubt. [0:28:01.5]
Distinguishing signals and the outcomes of our decisions. [0:32:03.7]
Maintaining your self-esteem and belief through failure. [0:36:52.4]
Creating a framework to make decisions for your business. [0:40:03.3]
The downside of being too focussed and missing opportunities through this. [0:41:07.4]
The dynamic of going all in on a new strategy or platform. [0:47:03.2]
Analysis paralysis and learning to make decisions! [0:55:20.7]
The easiest way to make a decision using a pros and cons list. [0:58:09.7]
Allowing yourself to make a decision despite the dangers. [1:03:13.7]
And much more!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Gusto — https://ift.tt/2KGmUIJ
HoneyBook — https://ift.tt/2tOWcra
Sezzle — https://ift.tt/2INxJar
Fizzle — https://fizzle.co/
Fizzle Toolkit — https://ift.tt/2xt3WCn
Fizzle Goals Course — https://ift.tt/2INCTD2
Fizzle 80/20 Copywriting Guide — https://ift.tt/2bBWDcI
Fizzle Journaling Course — https://ift.tt/2ilaNrw
Fizzle Roadmap — https://ift.tt/2tOrrCE
Fizzle Craft + Commerce — https://ift.tt/2ruYyIY
ConvertKit — https://ift.tt/2qVwOjO
Courage and Clarity Podcast — https://ift.tt/2mIbo6f
Chase Reeves Youtube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmadtJlpo-e2wnBOEgLvj1A
Goat Yoga — https://ift.tt/2vIumQF
Amy Porterfield — https://ift.tt/vKkQxU
Pat Flynn — https://ift.tt/2hgQAjO
Social Media Examiner — https://ift.tt/1LtH18p
Chris Ducker — https://ift.tt/2tOr62Q
Gary Vaynerchuk — https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/
Anchor — https://anchor.fm/
Soundcloud — https://soundcloud.com/
Periscope — https://www.pscp.tv/
MeerKAT — https://ift.tt/2zDYTfs
Vine — https://vine.co/
Peter Gabriel — https://ift.tt/AyJCnb
Sliding Doors — https://ift.tt/2IP4FPM
Bitcoin — https://ift.tt/2Nix18q
Logan Paul — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG8rbF3g2AMX70yOd8vqIZg
David Allen — https://ift.tt/2ltGuwN

from What You Need to Know About IGTV That No One Else is Talking About

Monday, July 2, 2018

BONUS: A Huge Announcement (& Lessons on Evolving Your Business)

Today we have a very special and important announcement from ConvertKit’s founder Nathan Barry, who’s here to talk about how to evolve your business by making critical decisions and getting uncomfortable . . . which ties in perfectly with the big news that Nathan’s about to drop. Stay tuned! [Full Disclosure: I’m a compensated advisor and an affiliate for ConvertKit.]

Last time I had Nathan on the show (Session 244) we talked about how he bootstrapped ConvertKit from nothing into one of the best email service providers out there (the best email service provider out there, in my opinion). And actually, Nathan was on the show all the way back in Session 75 (!) talking about how he was making six figures by self-publishing books.

ConvertKit reached an incredible goal recently, hitting $1 million a month in monthly recurring revenue. If you want to read more about how Nathan got his company to that level, read The Million Dollar Tweet: 8 Lessons to Grow a Successful Business on my blog. But Nathan is determined to take ConvertKit to the next level–even further than the success he’s already achieved—and that’s part of what his big announcement is all about.

If you want to see Nathan’s video announcement for this big change, you can watch it right here.

Even if you don’t use ConvertKit, you can still take away a lot from today’s episode because the truth is this: What got you here won’t get you there. If you have bigger goals and aspirations for your business, you’re probably going to have to change something to get to that next level.

By nature, change is never easy. It’s hard, even scary, and there’s always that voice in the back of our heads saying “what if.” What if the change makes things worse, or what if our audience or customers don’t like it? All of these what-ifs can really hold us back if we let them get under our skin. We can’t predict the future. The only thing to do is to move forward and make the changes that we think will make things even better. If it doesn’t go so well, hey, we learn. If the changes are successful, we start thinking about what we have to do next to grow even more.

Nathan has a lot to teach us about navigating change so that we can grow even more. Stick around! [Full Disclosure: I’m a compensated advisor and an affiliate for ConvertKit.]

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.
Ask a question over on AskPat.com.
Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest.

To help out the show:

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes or download our mobile app.

Special thanks to Nathan Barry for joining me this week. Until next time!

You'll Learn

How Nathan grew ConvertKit to epic proportions.
Why you shouldn't be afraid to reinvent your business and start from scratch.
What hardships and stresses Nathan has experienced and how he's overcome them.
Where ConvertKit's mission—"We exist to help creators earn a living online"—comes from.
How ConvertKit identified the core of its mission and built successful projects out of it.
Why ConvertKit is rebranding and how they landed on their new name.
What new features ConvertKit is introducing under its new branding.
The nitty gritty of rebranding including legalities, design, planning, and marketing.
How ConvertKit is shepherding its affiliates through the rebrand, and more!

Resources

from BONUS: A Huge Announcement (& Lessons on Evolving Your Business)

The 2 Quickest Ways to Generate an Income Online — UPDATED!

Today, I’m sharing the two quickest ways to generate an income online. In this post, you will learn:

Gary Vaynerchuk’s timeless lesson on patience and hard work.
How your skills are foundational to your online business success.
The many benefits of starting with freelancing.
How to adopt affiliate marketing into your business.
Why quick has value, but how being too quick can also set you up for failure.

On my podcast, AskPat, I’ve collected over 3,000 voicemail questions related to starting an online business. The most common question of those I get is this:

“What’s the quickest way to generate an income online?”

Before I get into my answer, let me tell you exactly why this question is tricky and a little problematic. There are two specific reasons for this:

First, the emphasis on being quick. I’ve witnessed several new business owners who’ve put speed over quality and value, only to end up further behind than where they were when they started. Quick can be good, but if that’s your focus, you may be setting yourself up for a stumble down the road.
Second, it implies trying to avoid the work it really takes to make money online. Building a successful business takes a lot of effort and strategy. From research to execution and everything in between—it takes blood, sweat, and tears. The question is in search of a magic button, but there is no magic button.

Gary Vaynerchuk puts it best. In order to succeed, you need “micro hustle, and macro patience.”

Micro hustle is focusing all of your work and effort on the next task at hand (not the task ten tasks from now), while macro patience is about allowing time to give you the results, because they will not often happen right away.

The question “What’s the quickest way to generate an income online?” is the opposite of Gary’s advice.

I’ve thought for years about how to best answer this question. I’ve been asked this question in person before, and even during a live Q&A on stage in front of hundreds of people, and my answer usually reflects the two points I’ve made above.

After I share my thoughts with those who’ve asked this question, their body language usually very clearly reflects disappointment. They were expecting an all-in-one solution, after all, and it’s not that simple.

As I’ve thought more deeply about how to answer this question over the years, I’ve come to a realization that the problem is not the answer, but the question itself. For those who’ve asked it, I don’t think it’s always coming from a place of “quick money.” If we reframe the question, I think there’s room to empower and actually help those who’ve asked it—to give them a foundational understanding of what it really means to generate an income online.

Here’s how I would reframe the question:

“With the resources I have available to me now, what can I possibly offer to others in exchange for money?”

Now this is a question we can begin to answer. And, as you can likely tell, the answers will come to each person on an individual basis based on the resources they have available, and to whom they may be able to share and offer those resources.

The answer doesn’t come from me, it comes from the individual.

If you’re ten years old, you might not have much, but perhaps you may have access to a lawnmower in your garage, so you (after asking your parents) offer to cut the lawn for your neighbors, in exchange for money.

If you’re a writer who’s been trying to build your own brand and sell your own books, offering your talent to others who need it would be the best way to go. It’s a resource you have available to you now, and it’s something others (i.e. non writers) may be willing to pay for if they need writing for their website or blog.

By the way, today’s post is on “quick,” but if you have more time and want a more in-depth look at how to make money online, check out my recent video on how to create multiple streams of income online:

Okay, back to our topic today: If you’re struggling to figure out how to make money online FAST—in a way that focuses on your strengths—that’s how you do it. Think about the resources you have available to you, the skills and talents you have, the superpowers that you’ve so severely underrated these past years, and journey out there to find those people who are looking for the resources and skills you offer. They are out there.

Remember, the skills you have are an asset, they are your “unfair advantage.” They are essential to your unique personal brand, and you can start making money online using those skills if you have the right strategy, tactics, and mindset in place. Another way to describe this is your “unfair advantage,” a term I was first introduced to by Lain Ehmann in SPI Podcast Session #37.

Lain described an unfair advantage as a skill or asset that you have that no one else has, or very few others might have in your specific niche. There are a few different types of unfair advantages, including:

1. Your Rolodex: The People You Know

You know and have access to the right people in your industry, people who others do not have access to. You’re a connector, and you can provide value to a specific audience by using the connections you’ve made over time.

Who do you know that others in your industry may not know?

2. Your Experience: What You’ve Been Through

I watched an episode of Shark Tank once where I was introduced to Major Robert Dyer. Major Dyer was pitching a new energy drink called The Ruck Pack Energy Drink. It’s not like the world needs another energy drink, but he was able to convince both Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjevic, two of the investors on the show, to give him $150k in exchange for 20 percent of the company.

Major Dyer used his experience in the Army to create an energy drink that was perfect for a combating soldier. He was actually in Afghanistan when he came up with the concoction.

His experience became his advantage because he was in extreme conditions that allowed him to create and test a drink of this kind of caliber, one that provided this kind of energy and focus that a combating soldier needed. I doubt the guys at Red Bull or Monster put themselves in the line of fire when testing the capability of their drinks.

When I started SmartPassiveIncome.com, I already had experience with a successful, automated online business at Green Exam Academy. A lot of people were providing online business advice at the time, but most were using other people’s businesses as examples, or just spoke theory with no real case studies to back it up. Here, I was able to use my own experience as evidence, and it helped me become more credible right from the start.

What experiences in your life have given you the ability to prove yourself or your business more than others?

3. Your Story: And How To Tell It

Stories are incredible marketing tools. They stick. People who listen to or read stories transport themselves into the situations that are described and the storyteller is better able to make a deeper connection with their audience.

We all have a story to tell. If you have a good one, tell it and use it to your advantage.

I know I have a great story. I’ve shared it here on the blog and I even went deeper into the story for my first book, Let Go.

It’s funny because when I’m interviewed for podcasts and radio shows, many times the interviewer will apologize and say, “I’m sorry . . . I know you’ve probably told your story hundreds of times before, but I’d like you to tell it again if you don’t mind.”

I always respond with “Of course!”

I love telling my story, not just because it reminds me of where I came from which always gives me a motivational boost, but because I know it’s a great way to connect with an audience. To have the opportunity to share it right from the start is awesome.

Of course, your stories should always be true, but if you have a good one make sure there’s a way for people to hear it.

What’s your story and how can it help your business?

4. Your Hustle: How Much You Put In and Where

Gary Vaynerchuk would probably agree with me when I say that sometimes all you need to do is hustle. I mean like, truly hustle. The all-out just insane amounts of work kind of hustle.

Not everyone has the time or ability to hustle, and of course the work that’s done has to be the right kind of work – the right kind of hustle.

John Lee Dumas, host of Entrepreneur On Fire, is a perfect example of someone who is using his ability to hustle to his advantage.

John has a daily (yes, daily) podcast where he features an interview with a successful entrepreneur. Now, John enjoys many hundreds of thousands of downloads per month, he’s written a book, has products and has opened up a ton of opportunities for sponsorships and partnerships that wouldn’t have come otherwise. He’s not the first person to have a show dedicated to interviewing rock star entrepreneurs—not even close—but he’s definitely the fastest to see these kinds of results.

He’s not just working hard either, he’s working smart. Hustle doesn’t mean just pure physical and mental work, it can mean spending the time to put the right systems into place to generate more output.

What’s something successful that other businesses are doing that could use your hustle to stand out?

5. Your Personality and Your Ability to Connect With Others

Out of the 7 billion people in this world, you are uniquely you. Within specific markets and niches, you are definitely uniquely you. If you have a personality that people can easily connect with you shouldn’t be afraid to share it.

In 2009 when struggling to get traffic to this blog, I had a chat with Jeremy Frandsen from Internet Business Mastery.

He told me I had a magnetic personality and I should find other ways to share it. That’s when I started my YouTube Channel, and then later, my podcast, which just passed 33,000,000 downloads.

How will you connect with others and grow your business by being you?

6. Your Ability To Listen, Build, Measure, and Learn

All companies build something, but not all of them measure, learn, and then adapt or shift.

In Eric Reis’s The Lean Startup, a fantastic book about how today’s entrepreneurs and startup companies are approaching the way they create and innovate, Eric talks about how vital it is to use validated learning and scientific experimentation to be able to steer a company in the right direction. In other words, to use customer feedback and quantified data analysis (of real, non-vanity metrics) from a minimal viable product to make decisions and pivot a business one way or another.

If you have the ability to see what holes lie in existing markets before you enter it, the ability to listen to a target market (or become a customer yourself who is extremely conscious of the overall customer experience), and learn from the wins and failures of the companies that already exist, you will have an edge over your competition.

Like I mentioned earlier, coming in late in the game can be an advantage if you listen, learn and provide solutions for what seems to be missing. Even coming into a market with a minimal viable product, you’ll have the advantage of being able to get deep into the customer experience to shape your product or service to what it should be, again, all based on what you’re able to measure and learn.

There is a lot more to be said about lean startup methods and the build-measure-learn feedback loop.

7. Your Specialization: Who You Serve and Your Ability To Do So

It’s not just the skills and experiences that you have to offer that can give you a competitive edge, it can also be that fact that you want to serve a more specialized segment of a market.

Generally, the more specialized you get, the less competition you have to deal with. In addition to that, the more specialized you get, the better you can hone in your skills for a particular group of people. Your advantage is your knowledge of and ability to serve that particular segment of the larger market.

Take for example, shoes.

Everyone (well, almost everyone) buys shoes. If you wanted to enter the shoe market, you might think your competitors are retailers like Zappos, EastBay, Sketchers and other large online retailers. Then there’s Nike, Reebok too. It’s virtually impossible to compete with them, especially when you’re bootstrapped. So what can we do?

Specialize.

Instead of getting into the market to sell all types of shoes, how about serving a part of the market that’s looking for a specific type of shoe: running shoes, walking shoes, children’s shoes, etc.

Even at this level of specialization, however, it’s not quite an advantage yet because companies already specialize in these types of shoes: Foot Locker, The Walking Company, and Stride Rite, respectively. Now what?

Specialize again.

Within running shoes, how about soccer cleats? Within soccer cleats, how about women’s soccer cleats?

When your target market is women who are looking for soccer cleats, it’s much easier to do market research and enter the build-measure-learn feedback loop. You have an advantage over others who are targeting a larger segment of the market.

Trunk Club, is a great example of this kind of specialization at work.

Like lots of other businesses, they sell clothes. That in itself is not very special.

But, their target market and who they serve is special, and it’s not everyone. Their target market is specifically men who want to dress well who either don’t like to go shopping, or don’t have the time to do so.

It works like this:

You speak to a personal stylist over the phone, they ask you a number of questions to get to know you a little better and figure out your style, and then they send you a Trunk with a number of pieces of clothing in it based on your conversation.

You try stuff on, keep what you like, and ship back what you don’t like in the same trunk. Shipping is already paid for.

Boom. New clothes and I didn’t even have to leave my house. No membership fees, you just get a trunk whenever you want, and they charge you for pieces that don’t return.

I’ve received two trunks so far and another is on the way. I’ve kept roughly 35-40% of what was shipped to me.

I heard about this service from a friend, and I’ve definitely passed this service onto others. Not everyone, but other men around the same age who are in situations where they might need to dress up and they might be too busy to go shopping on their own.

You see, when you specialize and can provide value to a specific segment of a market, those people within that market tend to talk to each other about you.

How can you specialize and become the topic of conversation when those people get together?

All of this brings me to the first way to generate an income online, and that is:

Freelance.

When you think of all of your skills, and what you have to offer the world, your “unfair advantages,” chances are there’s someone out there who will pay you for it. No, it’s not at all passive, but it’s the quickest and easiest way to get paid for something that can actually help people and solve one of their problems.

There are two more major benefits of going down the freelancing route:

It’s a fantastic way to immerse yourself in an industry and get to know the lay of the land—the marketplace—so you can carve out your own niche in the future in some way, shape, or form. You’ll also be able to connect with the people you need to connect with, and build on those relationships to create more opportunities.
A freelancing service is something that can, with the right strategy and action, turn into something more productized and passive. Brian Casel, featured guest on SPI Podcast Session #158, talks about how he was able to turn his stress-inducing one-on-one design service business into something that was actually more productized, passive, and profitable. I highly recommend you listen to that episode if you have a service-based business and you feel stuck.

You can also check out my post, How to Start Freelancing (and Get Your First Client), which walks you through the steps you’ll need to kick off your freelance gig, including:

Why there’s huge opportunity in freelancing.
The many freelance skill sets you can build into a freelancing career.
The secrets to landing your first freelance client.
Five ways to make more money as a freelancer.
Career and business options for freelancers.

And once you get started, here’s a great video on FIVE WAYS to make even more money as a freelancer:

Okay, so beyond freelancing, what else can you do to make money online? Well, you could literally just start contacting everyone you know and offer a service today, right now, right at this moment.

I’ll just wait a moment while you do that 😀

There is one more method of generating an income I’d like to share with you. This method is:

Even easier and faster than freelancing.
Something that has helped me earn more than $3 million since I started my online business.
Something you’re likely, in a way, already doing.

What is this sorcery I’m speaking of?

It’s not magic. It’s simply recommending products you already use to those who trust you. In online business terms, we call this:

Affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is the process of generating an income through a partnership you have with a company by recommending their product(s) to others.

To learn about the basics of affiliate marketing, watch my Affiliate Marketing 101 video series:

Just think of how often you’ve shared with a friend or online network an amazing tool, service, or product that you love. What if you could potentially earn a percentage of the sale of any products you helped sell through your recommendation? Well, that’s possible, and it’s been around for a while.

The term affiliate marketing has taken a bad rap over the years, primarily because people are abusing just how easy this is to do. Internet marketers are finding products they don’t even use because they come with a sweet commission, and are spamming everyone until they either buy, or unsubscribe. This is also known as the dark side of affiliate marketing.

That’s why I sometimes hesitate to even say I participate in affiliate marketing. But that’s not how I, or you, should approach it. I’m here to lead the change and show people there is so much opportunity out there in affiliate marketing the right way (and the smart way). It’s insane to me that more people aren’t really realizing their full potential with this.

There are products that already exist in this world that provide solutions for your audience (and future audience), and when you align your attention to really help them, with the products out there that already exist, it’s a recipe for success and a win for everyone.

How do you make affiliate marketing work for you? There are a few affiliate marketing principles I stand by:

1. Affiliate Marketing Starts with the First Impression

First impressions are huge because they set the tone for a visitor’s entire experience through your website, including any possible transactions that may take place now, or in the future.

What is the first impression that you get when you go to a site and it’s splattered with advertisements, for example? What does a site like that say to a first time visitor?

“Hi, nice to meet you – click here so I can earn a buck?”

It’s like if you met someone for the first time and the first thing they ask you is if you’re interested in buying something from them. I’d much rather get to know somebody first, trust them, and then have them tell me what they might have to offer. Or better yet, be genuinely interested in what they’re doing, and ask them about it myself. This is the kind of philosophy that I use when promoting other people’s products.

2. Only Promote Products That You Have Used

As I mentioned in a previous post on the 3 Types of Affiliate Marketing Explained, the way I earn money with affiliate links in ALL of my online businesses is by promoting only products that I have used, and only what I would recommend to my friends who want to achieve similar results. I feel that anyone with an audience has a responsibility to do the same thing.

There’s something fishy about someone promoting Apple Computers who only uses a PC.

3. Always Describe the Product You’re Promoting

If you have an affiliate link that’s just a banner ad, or a link at the bottom of a post with no real description – it’s a waste. If you’re actively promoting a product (that you’ve used), you obviously know something about it. Share your knowledge with your audience, and they’ll be intrigued and more likely to click through to learn more.

4. Content First, Affiliate Link Second

Although I just said you should always describe the products you promote, the content that you write should drive the affiliate links that you offer, not the other way around. Don’t write posts just for the sake of placing an affiliate link within.

5. Share Your Experience with The Product

When describing whatever it is your promoting, share your experience! If you can throw in some data or graphs to go along with it, even better. Back when I was more actively writing about eHow, I promoted an ebook that I read which helped quadruple my earnings per article. I created a graph that showed how much I earned before I read the book versus how much I earned after. To this date, that ebook has been one of the most successful affiliate promotions I’ve done on this blog.

6. Only Promote One or Two of the Same Type of Products

There are a number of reasons why you should never promote more than two of the same type of products:

The more products you promote, the less believable each of them becomes. If today I recommended Company X, and tomorrow I recommended Company Y and Company Z, each of their “stock” immediately goes down.
The more products you promote, the more difficult the decision to choose between them becomes. I’ve been to a number of personal finance websites that offer sign-up bonuses for 4 to 5 different banks (sometimes within the same post!). It hurts my brain.
If you keep promoting the same products time and time again, your audience will begin to realize that there must be something special about the specific ones you keep bringing up.

7. Starve the Horses and Feed the Stallions

This is a fancy (and thankfully not literal) way of saying that you should only promote the products that you know make you the most money, and forget about the ones that don’t. You will only know this after trial and error, so see what works, and get rid of the rest.

For a while, I had a number of banner ads on this blog that were not generating any type of income for me. There’s no point in wasting valuable ad space with banners that don’t pay out.

Test, test, test.

8. Utilize a Resources Page

A resources page is a page that consists of helpful links to websites, products and services related to your niche. This is a perfect spot for affiliate links, so take advantage of this if you haven’t already.

It takes the “books I’m reading” area you often see in blogs (within Amazon affiliate links) to a whole new level. not only is this great for you, but it’s extremely helpful for your readers who may be looking for additional resources related to your niche. Plus, they may come across products or services they weren’t originally looking for while on your resources page.

Everybody wins.

To start your affiliate marketing journey, make sure you sign up for my Affiliate Marketing Masterclass, which will walk you through five steps to finally begin generating an additional passive income stream using authentic affiliate marketing strategies I’ve used myself. Click the link below to sign up for the next Affiliate Marketing Masterclass:

Sign Up for My Affiliate Marketing Masterclass!

So there you go! There are two QUICK ways you can generate an income online. So go get started today!

from The 2 Quickest Ways to Generate an Income Online — UPDATED!

#1618 The story of how Typeform was built

I noticed something happening online a few years ago. Instead of people using the old forms that were out there, instead of embedding a form on their sites, people just went to Typeform. I started noticing it more and more and I thought it was interesting. The forms were one line, one question at a time, very conversational and very simple. It didn’t even feel like a form. I thought it was a really interesting company. David Okuniev is the founder of Typeform, a tool to build conversational forms, surveys, quizzes, landing pages, and more. I’m going to ask him how he did it.

David Okuniev is the founder of Typeform, a tool to build conversational forms, surveys, quizzes, landing pages, and more.

Sponsored by

If you need anything designed–a new web page, a new landing page, a new logo, DesignCrowd will do it for you. They ask you what you’re looking for, who you are, what your company is like. They will give you lots of options, you pick the one you like, pay for it, and they guarantee results. It’s that simple. Find out how DesignCrowd is different than the other companies and go to designcrowd.com/mixergy.

More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

from #1618 The story of how Typeform was built