Writing a guest post for another website is a wonderful way to tap into an existing stream of visitors.  Since you can include a link to your own site, it’s also a great way to build up backlinks which improve your ranking in search engines.

Finding blogs to post on

 If you’re interested in guest blogging, then you need to find blogs to post on.  The ideal blog is one which is relevant to your own site (but much bigger).

Many guest bloggers prefer to stay within their chosen niche.  If they run a blog about internet marketing, for example, they will want to post on other internet marketing blogs. Just make sure you’re not a direct competitor of theirs, but are offering a complementary topic or offer.

The best way to find these blogs is to simply use Google, type in your niche, and add the word “blog” to it.  This should bring up a list of relevant blogs.

The next step is to look through these and pick out the blogs that are high quality, active, and that update regularly.  You want to post on an active and popular blog so your post gets the most attention possible.

See if they allow guest posts

 Now that you have a list of relevant and popular blogs, you’ll need to determine if they allow guest posting.

You can do this by reading through some of the articles posted on the site.  At the end of the article, you might find a short bio about the person who wrote it.

You should also find a link to their own website, if they’re not a regular writer for that blog and were posting as a guest. If you see this, you’ll know that blog allows guest posting and is more worthwhile to contact.

Reach out to see if they do

 People are protective of their blogs.  Some blog owners will be very selective about the guest bloggers they accept.  They want to make sure the writers are reputable, knowledgeable, and safe for their own readers.

It’s always a good idea to contact the owner of the blog and let them know you’re interested.  Tell them a bit about yourself, your website, and what you would be writing about.  A good personal connection can go a long way.

Write an article, include a link

 If you get accepted as a guest blogger, it’s time to write the article.  You can either write it yourself or hire a writer.  Most blog articles are about 500 words in length, so keep this in mind as you write.  It can also be a good idea to include subheadings to help separate information, and an image.

Just make sure it’s relevant to the topic and try to make it match the other articles on the blog.  Also, don’t forget to include a link back to your site, along with a short bio and call to action telling them to go to your website (if allowed).  That’s the whole point of this so never forget the link.

If contacting bloggers or writing regular posts sounds just a bit too complicated or time-consuming, here’s something else you may want to try. My “21 simple steps to making your first $1,200 online,“ even if you have no computer skills whatsoever may be perfect for you.

The post Tap Into Popular Blogs’ Traffic Flow appeared first on Mac Nwosu.

They want articles that inform, educate, and entertain.  Since so many people receive these benefits from blogs, they’re also a great way to drive traffic to your site regularly.  Creating a blog can take some work, but here’s a method I’ve used plenty of times that’s really simple.

Setting up WordPress

 Before you can begin creating your blog, you’ll need a blogging platform.  WordPress is easily the most popular option and with good reason.  It’s powerful enough to run a big website, versatile enough to handle anything, and popular enough that there are countless themes and plugins for it.

Setting up WordPress is as simple as can be.  Most hosting plans will have an option to automatically install it onto your server with just the click of a button (look for SimpleScripts).

If you need to install it yourself, simply download it for free.  You then upload it to your server, create a new database for it, and follow the instructions.  It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Or, check out Fiverr.com for freelancers who can do it for $5.

If you plan on making money online, look at your blog as an additional way to attract new visitors and prospects to offer products and services to…NOT as a business model where you’re paid totally off ad revenue.

Placing ads in the sidebar

 The look and layout of a blog is determined by the theme you use.  Most themes will allow you to place image ads in the sidebar column.  These ads will appear on nearly every page of your blog and can be a great way to promote your offers and get people clicking through to your squeeze and sales pages.

Since you’re creating this blog to either make money or generate leads, utilizing this ability to advertise on your blog is crucial.  Some bloggers prefer to create their own ads that link to an offer.  Others, however, will simply use Google Ads or a similar service and let them decide what ads to put up.

Placing ads in the article

 The articles posted to your blog can also be a great place to advertise.  It’s easy to add text links to the content of an article.

And, this is a very unobtrusive way to advertise.  Since these are text-based links, they fit perfectly into the body of an article.  Not everyone can read code, so you can add a link to your WordPress blog post simply by pressing the hyperlink button right above where you enter the article text.

Placing ads after the article

 Blog articles are a perfect way to presell someone on an offer.  Let’s say you run a blog about dating and you’re offering a product that helps someone plan the perfect date.  Writing a blog post about how important it is to plan out a date will put your readers into a receptive state.

Placing an ad at the end of this article is the best way to capitalize on that.

Most ads like this will be horizontal banners and are often visually eye-catching, or use animation. Popup footers, on the other hand, are a new technology which I and many others have found to be very effective.

These are the three main ways to use a blog to attract visitors and then transport them to the page where you call them to action of some kind. Getting people to these “money pages” is absolutely key for success online.

If creating a website or writing regular posts sounds just a bit too complicated or time-consuming, here’s something else you may want to try. My “21 simple steps to making your first $1,200 online,“ even if you have no computer skills whatsoever may be perfect for you.

The post 3 Ways to Grow Your Email List By Blogging appeared first on Mac Nwosu.

You may have heard article marketing is dead. Well, it isn’t…the process is just different now than it was in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

What Has Changed

It used to be that people could scratch out a lame article and submit it in as many article directories as humanly possible and get lots of backlinks to help your website get ranked and discovered through Google Searches.

Nowadays, article marketing ALONE has lost a little steam because Google does not give the same weight to content found in article directories like EzineArticles.com.

But, people are still reading articles there every single day. Some of them will find and read yours, see your link at the end, click it, and go to your website directly as a result.

Your Article Marketing Cheat Sheet

Submitting your articles involves the following steps:

Step 1: Decide what to write. Find out what your prospects are interested in from keyword research and from your own interactions with subscribers and customers on the phone and via social media. Make a list of topics and pick one to cover.

Step 2: Write the article. I’ll show you how to produce quality articles further down.

Step 3: Add your resource/bio box and insert a link. There’s a space at the end of each article where you can tell people who you are and what you do, as well as give them a link to click on if they want to find out more.

Here are two crucial tips for writing the bio box. The first is to tell people exactly what they will get by clicking on the link you provide (such as the free report or video they will get if they opt into your squeeze page).

The second tip is to take the last paragraph of the article and put it in the bio box instead, so people will not stop reading. Make the resource box look like part of the article, and people will at least be sure to read what’s in it. Both of these tips will lead more readers to click your link and visit your website (which is a requirement if they’re going to subscribe to your list).

Step 4: Create an account with EzineArticles.com. They will ask for your name, email, password, a photograph, and a short bio/description of who you are and what you’re an expert in.

Step 5: Post the article. Once you’re set up with an account, it’s time to post articles one at a time.

How to Mass-Produce Quality Articles

If you have 2 hours dedicated to writing articles, how many would you rather have when you’re finished—one, two, four, or even more?

The more you have, the better, as long as you don’t compromise on quality. This is because each article acts as a hands-free salesperson, out there on the internet prospecting in your behalf.

So the more articles you can produce, the better! The secret to doing this is to use some productivity hacks that help you produce more content quickly.

One strategy is having a template for your articles. For example, if you want a 500-600 word article, all it usually takes is:

• An introduction paragraph telling the reader what they will learn,
• Three to five main points to make (one point per paragraph), and
• A conclusion paragraph reminding them of what they learned and what it will do for them.

By working quickly and following this formula, you can knock out an informative and interesting article in 30 minutes—even 20 minutes with practice!

Another strategy is to record yourself talking on a subject and quickly transcribe it into articles. This works especially well if you are better at speaking than you are at writing. You can even do it in your car on the way to work!

Or, if you record videos, you can post them on Youtube with a link to your website for even more traffic;)

This is cutting-edge article marketing in a nutshell. You can ignore most of the things you read about it, because times have changed and most of what’s been written is obsolete.

Apply this and begin submitting articles regularly, and you will see an increase in traffic and subscribers if you stick with it over time.

Also, if you don’t feel like taking the time to write and submit articles, I have a unique program where my traffic-generation team that will get qualified leads for you. To learn the 21 simple steps to making your first $1,000 online, even if you have no computer skills whatsoever, click here for details.

The post Making it Rain (New Leads) With Article Marketing appeared first on Mac Nwosu.

www.pexels.com

If you’re getting tired of spending hours trying to build back-links without positive results, then use the following 6 solutions for quality link building.

#1 – Link to Quality Sources

When creating content for your website, such as blog posts, link to quality sources whenever possible. You should try to include at least 2 quality outbound links in each blog post. This offers several benefits.

First, it is a good SEO practice to include outbound links, as it makes your content more helpful to visitors, which improves your on-site SEO. Second, the sites that you are linking to may reciprocate and include a link back to your website.

#2 – Focus on Social Link Building

Along with including outbound links on your website, you should also focus on social link building. This refers to sharing content from other sources on social media. As part of a social media marketing campaign, you should be sharing content regularly.

www.pexels.com

Depending on the amount of content that you create, you may have difficulty finding topics to discuss on social media. By sharing content from reputable sources, you always have something to post about on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.

When you curate content from other sources, they may, in turn, share your content. As with outbound links on your web pages, you can build back-links through reciprocal sharing of links on social media.

#3 – Become Active on Forums

Another solution for building quality back-links is to become more active on forums. When possible, link to content on your website. Though, you should always read the forum rules before including links and only add your link if it is relevant to the discussion.

#4 – Start Guest Blogging

Guest blogging remains a popular option for building quality back-links. If you can write a guest blog post on a website that generates a lot of traffic, you’ll gain at least one quality back-link. You should make it your goal to find one opportunity for guest blogging each month.

#5 – Create Press Releases

Press releases offer the same benefit as guest blogging. You can generate a press release that discusses the upcoming release of a new product or service.

These press releases link back to your website or a specific landing page on your website. Just make sure you submit your press release to a respected press release organisation.

#6 – Create an Informative Info-graphic

Search your blog posts and find the most popular post. Convert the information provided in the post into a detailed info-graphic. People love sharing info-graphics and using them in their own blog posts to offer readers additional content. This is one of the easiest, low-cost solutions for building quality links.

www.pexels.com

These 6 solutions for building quality back-links are all easy to implement. First, remember to include outbound links in your blog posts and to curate content on social media. Take advantage of forums and communities to build back-links and become an authority in your industry.

Guest blogging and press releases are also effective ways to generate a few quality back-links. Though, one of the greatest solutions is to create info-graphics. Whichever solutions you choose the sooner you get started the sooner you can expect positive results.

Along with these tips, you can find additional methods of improving sales and lead generation by clicking on the following link to learn more about my done-for-you system.

The post 6 Effective Solutions for Quality Link Building appeared first on Mac Nwosu.

Tweetbot

Sometimes a never-ending list of tweets is hard to sift through for relevant content topics or sort out what you care about most. Tweetbot organizes your feed however it’s most productive for you. Whether it’s a list or a channel, Tweetbot can separate your stream so you can tweet or reply directly in the app in a more digestible way.

Flow for Instagram

If you’re a heavy iPad user, you’ve noticed that your Instagram feed doesn’t look quite right. The official Instagram app doesn’t render well across devices, but Flow provides a solution. With a display made for iPads, you can browse, follow, comment, or like from the app without dealing with stretched images.

Dropbox

File management is a huge part of an organizational workflow. Instead of making a note for yourself to follow up when you get back to the computer, download the mobile Dropbox app to preview files like images, or share them for an upcoming campaign.

Nimble

Keeping in contact with influencers is critical for marketing managers. The Nimble app integrates with the social profiles for each of your contacts so you can stay connected to your network no matter where you are. Sync your phone’s contacts with Nimble so it will search for new social media profiles to follow.

Mention

Mention listens, so you don’t have to engage as often. You can focus on other things while Mention finds brand mentions all over the web from blog posts, social media updates, or anywhere someone mentions your keywords. Use these mentions to follow up and stay in contact without the effort.

IFTTT

IFTTT stands for If This, Then That. There are hundreds of recipes to choose from and implement, or you can create your own. Relevant social media sharing gets an upgrade by setting up your profiles to share only when they meet specific criteria.

Aviary

Supercharge your editing power by using Aviary’s suite of editing tools. You can edit existing images or create new ones. With more filters and advanced options that your phone’s default tool, you can share moving images and stand out from the competition.

Flipboard

Link your social media accounts, set up content preferences, and organize categories in this RSS feed in a flippable format. Discover new content, stay relevant on any topic, and quickly swipe through for the latest updates.

Prismatic

Prismatic delivers content catered to your interests, so you don’t have to go looking for it. The more you use it, the more it learns about your tastes, so each individual gets a fully customized stream. It gets smarter, so you get smarter.

Dashboard for Google Analytics

Get the best Google Analytics right on your phone. You can check traffic stats and campaign results on the move, and it shows a visually stimulating display of all the same analytics you find on your desktop. It’s great for managing your social media campaigns.

MailChimp

Forgot to send out that marketing email before you left the office? No problem. The MailChimp app is a helpful way to manage your campaigns from anywhere. You can control lists, send campaigns, and view stats all from your mobile device. If you use an iPad, you can download the companion app to edit on the go.

Quora

Marketing specialists always strive for relevance to their audience. It’s the best way to reach people, promote your brand, and influence the online community. But it’s not always easy to know what people think of you, the latest trends, or what’s happening in their neighborhood.

Quora crowdsources answers, so it’s an excellent source for information and content ideas. You can post questions and answers, or search trending topics to gain valuable insight into products or services.

In our increasingly mobile society, it’s hard to move and work at the same time. These apps make it easier to stay connected to your network of leads, influencers, competitors, and campaigns so you can increase productivity and remain relevant every day. Check out my done-for-you system for more ideas.

The post Best Mobile Apps for Marketing appeared first on Mac Nwosu.

If you already have a list of subscribers who are passionate about your niche, it’s time to set up a series of emails that you program your autoresponder to send out according to a pre-set schedule. This is known as an “email swipe”.

There’s no limit to the number of emails you can send out. Your subscribers keep getting them until they unsubscribe from your list. As long as your emails provide something your customers want, they will continue to keep opening them.

And, as long as they are opening your emails, rather than deleting theme without reading them, you have the opportunity to sell the products you are promoting to the people on your email list.

What Emails Should Do

The emails you send out should serve one of two purposes:

• Reinforce your subscriber’s loyalty by giving them something of high value for free
• Promote a particular product or service

Effective email swipes contain both types of emails. If you send out emails that just promote products and services, your subscribers aren’t going to get a lot of value from your emails and they will be more likely to unsubscribe.

Instead, alternate these promotional emails with ones that provide free high-value content that they can actually use in their everyday lives. Your subscribers then will be more likely to open your emails and to purchasing the products or services you promote when you send promotional emails.

Toggling between these two types of emails successfully requires a lot of skill, much of which comes with experience.

Keep in mind that once the person on your email list makes the choice to delete your email without reading it the first time, it’s going to be harder and harder for you to get them to open any subsequent emails that you send.

That’s why it is critically important that you keep your emails interesting enough and provide enough value so that the people on your list will have no choice but to open your emails every time you send them.

What Kind of Content to Include

Free high-value emails should contain either original content that you have created yourself or content you have purchased or commissioned from freelancers, PLR or some other source. Your emails can even simply contain links to informative content your subscribers will find useful.

By the way, this strategy works the same when marketing in other platforms as well, not just email. You can provide high value content and keep people looking forward to your next submission on places such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and many other formats. The principle is the same.

Consider your emails swipes as a newsletter that you send your subscribers. A newsletter contains interesting and helpful articles about topics that interesting. If your content is high quality and your subscribers enjoy it, they are going to be more open to buying the products and services you promote in your newsletter.

How Often Should You Send Emails?

While there is no agreed-upon schedule for free content and promotional emails, use a 3:1 proportion. For every promotional email you send out, send out three that provide free high value content designed to build loyalty with your subscribers.

Promotional emails should have a structure similar to a sales letter. Have a clear Call to Action (CTA) that says exactly you want your reader to do: Buy a product, subscribe to a newsletter, invest in your company, etc.

Promotional emails need to have a link where your subscribers can click on to buy the products or services you are promoting.

Content of Promotional Emails

The content you promote in your promotional emails can be either original or something you commissioned another person to create for you. You also can promote affiliate products, which are products sold by somebody else but promoted by you. When a subscriber clicks through and buys one of these affiliate products, you get paid a commission.

Affiliate products are popular among email marketers because they don’t require you to purchase anything up front or worry about delivering the product to the buyer. All you do is promote the product and when a sale is made, you get paid.

For more information about increasing your sales per email opt-in, check out our lead generation system by clicking on this link now.

The post Email Marketing: Knowing What to Send and When appeared first on Mac Nwosu.

Fortunately, the age of the Internet has made it easier to run a full-scale marketing campaign with very little cost up front.  Here we’ve put together a list of ways you can utilize online marketing resources, often for free.  Yep, FREE!

Online Review Sites

Making sure your business is listed on online review sites is important. Not just for traffic and product sales, but for ensuring your online reputation stays positive.  The following sites are some of the most influential review sites out there.

Google My Business Page: Setting up a page here will get your business on Google Search, Maps and Google+, as well as allow customers to review your business. Local business reviews usually receive high rankings in the search results, giving you some great, and free results real estate.

Yelp:  Since it’s the biggest online review site, creating a Yelp listing is definitely worth it. It gets you in front of the site’s more than 140 million monthly users and, it’s free.

Yahoo: Yahoo offers local businesses the option to get a basic business listing in its directory.  Listings are incorporated with other of their products like reviews, maps, and events.  And yes, it’s free.

Social Media Marketing

Industry Groups:  Choose two or three groups in your business’ industry on Facebook and LinkedIn.  By offering advice and support, you help establish yourself as an expert in your field.  You can even take it a step further and create your own groups.  Eventually, these outlets will build your reputation and drive sales.

Facebook:  If you haven’t already signed up with social media platform, Facebook is probably one of the best places to start.  Since its inception, Facebook has been in the fore front of social media advancements and has developed and perfected a number of tools for small businesses.

Twitter:  This platform has proven to be a powerful, platform for immediate information.  By studying and following people in your industry or expertise, you will quickly learn, some dos and don’ts figure out the best way to use it, then set up your own feed and start to Tweet.

LinkedIn:  The fastest growing and most influential professional platform online, LinkedIn has done for Professional Media what Facebook did for Social Media.  Set up an account to meet, engage and, connect with other professionals about jobs, careers, and branding

YouTube:  Visual marketing, especially in the form of video,  is still at the top when it comes marketing. With You Tube, this form is now more accessible.  Use it to tell a story, showcase your personality, or demonstrate a product without having to pay for ad time on TV.  You can be as casual or formal as you want, as long as you are ready to be on camera.

Monitor Brand Mentions:  It’s now easier to keep up with what’s happening.  Using a social listening tool like Social Mention to monitor and contribute to conversations happening in your industry will help you stay current on trends without having to spend every hour surfing postings.

Blogging:  In addition to your own blog, find other blogs and websites within your industry and create Guest posts.  Comment thoughtfully on blogs and then leave your website URL in the appropriate field, just be sure to use your real name or business name, not keyword-rich anchor text. Noticing others will get you noticed as well.

Installing a free social sharing plugin on your blog, like Share Buttons, makes it easy for your readers to share your posts and increase your audience.

Other Ways to Get Yourself Noticed

Hold free webinars on your site:  If you’ve researched this prospect before but decided it would be too expensive, consider some of these alternatives.  WordPress has a webinar plugin called WebinarIgnition, with a one-time cost of $97 for unlimited webinars with unlimited attendees.  Or, you can utilize your Facebook account and do a Facebook Live event.

Join Forums and Answer Questions:  These days there are multiple forums out there for just about anything.  Take the time to make meaningful contributions to conversions by providing real assistance to those posting the questions.  This will get the attention of other readers and make them more inclined find out more about you.  You can get started on sites like Quora, where real people are looking for answers to questions. Search the site for relevant questions you can answer intelligently.

HARO (Help A Reporter Out):  Sign up and get free PR by responding to relevant media queries.  This will turn into free mentions and links in publications like Huffington Post, Forbes more.

eBooks: Anyone can be an author and publish now.  Whether it’s about business or, choosing the best wine, you can create an eBook simply and for free. Just input your content into chapters using MS Word.  Add some images and links, edit, review and spell check.  Then save it as a PDF and you have an eBook. Post it on your website, blog or offer it in exchange for a person’s email address, aiding you in growing your email database.

By now you may be experiencing the feeling that the room is spinning out of control, knowing that there are so many options out there that you can implement.

Not to worry.  Look at the list and narrow it down to 2-3 options you are really excited about.  Once you have them under your belt, move on to a few more.

As a special treat for you, here is a link to a Forbes article outlining 33 great marketing tools for professionals.

Ready…Set…Go!!!

The post Online Marketing on a Budget appeared first on Mac Nwosu.

When you’re first starting out, it can be hard to generate any buzz. Your internet marketing efforts may have little impact. One method of generating sales is to become a leader in your field.

So, if you want to maximize your sales potential, you should establish yourself as an authority in your field. But, this will require work. Here are 5 ways to get started.

Create High-Quality Informative Content

The best way to become considered an authority in your field is to actually be an authority in your field. You’re going need to release high-quality content on a regular basis. This means you need to know what you’re talking about.

You should know as much as possible about your industry and the products or services that you’re trying to market. If you should constantly be learning and researching the latest news and breakthroughs in your field.

Take your knowledge and start creating informative content. You can adopt a simple system for generating high-quality content and making the best use of the content that you create.

First, you should write detailed blog posts. You can use excerpts of these posts for your social media posts. Once you have enough articles on a similar topic, you can compile them into an eBook for promotional material. You can also film video versions of your blog posts to release on YouTube.

This allows you to stretch the use of your content. Instead of simply writing a blog post, you’re using the same research for multiple forms of content.

Use Your Own Name as Your Brand

In order to be thought of as a trusted authority in your industry, people need to know who you are. This means using your own name as your brand. You can have a name for your internet marketing business, but you should focus your marketing on your individual brand.

When you write blog posts, guest posts, release videos, write eBooks, and distribute other content, you should use your own name, instead of your business name.

Start Writing Guest Blog Posts

Once you get good at writing blog posts for your own site, you should start writing guest posts. When people start recognizing your name across multiple websites, they’ll start seeing you as someone that knows their field.

When you visit popular news sites and blogs related to your industry, you should find out if they accept guest posts. This information will typically be found near the footer, the end of blog posts, or in the about or contact section.

Take Part in Interviews or Podcasts

Any time that you have the opportunity to share your opinion on a topic, you should volunteer. This includes interviews and podcasts. Both are great opportunities for getting your name out there and reaching a larger audience.

These two options may take a while to achieve. Before you can establish a name for yourself, you may not get very many invitations to be interviewed.

Become Active in Online Communities and Forums

A final method for becoming a trusted authority in your field is to become active in online communities and forums. In these forums, people regularly post questions and need help. If you monitor these forums and are quick to respond, you’ll become known for providing solid advice.

Combining these steps will help you become an authority in your industry. It will take hard work and commitment. But, the reward is great. You’ll be able to reach greater success if people turn to you for answers.

Use these suggestions to become a leader in your field. Once you implement these steps, check out a complete system for generating conversion-ready internet marketing leads. Click here to learn more about my done-for-you system.

The post 5 Ways to Establish Yourself as an Authority in Your Field appeared first on Mac Nwosu.

Where Can I Find Photos?

There are a number of places on the web you can find royalty free images that are free to download.  Even more where you can pay to download. The easiest way to find the latest resources is to do a search for “Royalty Free Images.”

Photo credit: www.pexels.com

No matter where you go for images, it’s vitally important to give proper attribution when required. A good rule of thumb for attribution is to credit the contributor of the image and include the website where you found it, ie: “Photo Courtesy of ABCD from FreePics.com.”

The same goes for a registered trademark or trademarked product. For example, if Nike Swoosh or an actual Nike product is seen in the photo, include a statement like, “Nike, the Nike logo, and Nike Products are trademarks of Nike Inc., registered in the U.S. and internationally.”

Image SEO

According to most experts in the SEO field, Keywords appear to be the end all be all of SEO.  Primary Keywords, secondary Keywords, Google “Keyword” and the list of sources of info will probably go on forever.  With Image SEO the first location to use your primary keyword will be the image filename.

The right filename will let a search engine know what the image is about.  This means if your image is a women’s top in a specific abstract design, the file name shouldn’t be DSC12345.jpg.  Instead, you want to rename it “ann-monique-womens-top-abstract-v.”  This gives the search engine spiders something to grab onto and take back to their part of the web.

Start a file name with a lowercase letter or a number and remove all spaces.  For multiple words, join them with a dash.

Loading times can be crucial for websites to maintain traffic. The faster the site, the easier to visit it. Images can have a huge impact on this.   Standard resolution for a screen image is 72ppi and most web pages won’t need an image to be more than 1000-1200 pixels wide.  To put that into perspective, a typical smart phone camera today will give you an image at 72 ppi but the file will often be over 3000 pixels wide (or more).

Photo credit: www.pexels.com

There are a few online image editors that work quite well and often don’t cost a thing or have a minimal membership fee with added benefits.  Two are PicMonkey and Pixl.

When uploading your image, you will often be given an option to add “alt text” or “alt tags.” This is also another good place to use your keyword placement.

In most e-commerce catalog pages, the product is shown in a specific place on the page that doesn’t overlap any other image or text.  JPEG images are most commonly used for this.  I’m adding this quick highlight in case a need arises for you to remove the background of a photo.

JPEG images include a visible background showing behind any curves or irregular lines. If you’ve taken the trouble to remove the background of the photo of a product but save it as a JPEG (JPG), you will still be stuck with a background color when you re-open it.

PNGs allow you to make the background transparent so it can be used over any color, texture or other text.  This can be helpful if you decide to show multiple products in one virtual shot but don’t have the means to retake the photo.

GIF images are a much lower quality than JPEGs or PNGs. Best for small decorative images and icons it is doubtful you will have a reason to use them on a product page.   Most often they are used to float basic logos over pages or header graphics since they can be saved with transparent backgrounds, like PNGs.

Even if it takes extra time to find just the right image for a post, the increase in SEO and lead generation make it worth your time.

Monitoring the social media marketing landscape is vital to your success. If you’d like to have access

to even more powerful marketing tips, as well as a way to generate conversion-ready Internet marketing prospects each month, click here to learn about my done-for-you system.

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Both video production and the release of eBooks can help you reach a larger portion of the public. They also provide an opportunity for providing potential customers with beneficial information. If you want to learn more about the use of eBooks for marketing, then use the following tips and suggestions.

Choose a Relevant Topic for Your eBook

The first step is choosing the right topic for your eBook. You’ll want to write about something that you understand and that’s relevant to the products or services that you sell. You can get some ideas by searching for eBooks related to your industry.

Try to find topics that haven’t been widely covered. If you can’t find a topic that hasn’t been thoroughly discussed, then come up with a way to cover the topic from a new perspective. You can search Google or eBook websites to get some examples.

Create an eBook from Your Existing Content

Another solution for finding a topic is to create an eBook from your existing content. Use analytics software to determine which of your blog posts received the most attention. This includes the blog posts that received the most comments and most shares.

Choose several blog posts related to a similar topic. Organize the posts in an order that makes sense to a reader and then provide additional information. You can use your existing blog posts as the basis for the layout and structure of your eBook and then expand upon the ideas presented in the posts.

Decide How You Want to Distribute Your eBook

Along with creating an eBook, you’ll need to decide how you want to distribute the eBook. You can distribute your eBook through Amazon, Apple iBook store, or other popular sites. Another option is to distribute the eBook yourself.

You can create a PDF and use the eBook as an incentive to join your subscriber list or complete another desired action. You can find free tools for converting your text document into a PDF for release as an eBook.

The distribution method that you choose will depend on your goals. If you want to build brand awareness, then online distribution through an eBook store will be beneficial. If you want to increase your subscriber list or include a promotion to increase sales, then you should consider self-distribution.

Make Sure You Format Your eBook Properly

Once you’ve written your eBook, or paid a ghost writer to write the eBook, make sure that it’s formatted properly. If you’re going to publish your eBook through Amazon or other popular eBook sites, you can download their provided templates.

If you’re self-distributing your eBook, then make sure that the final copy is readable through a standard PDF reader on desktops and tablets.

Send Out Free Copies of Your eBook

As a final step for using your eBook to improve conversion rates and boost sales, you could send out free copies of your eBook. You could give your eBook away from a download link included in emails or through the website that will be distributing your eBook – if you chose to use Amazon or Apple.

Sending your eBook to influential people in your industry could give you positive taglines or reviews to include in your marketing material and possibly help generate some quality backlinks.

The use of eBook as a marketing tool shouldn’t be overlooked. It is a great way to build brand awareness and establish yourself as an industry leader. It is also a cost-effective marketing approach. If you need help, there are many reputable firms that will handle the creation of an eBook on any topic.

Start thinking about the topic for your first eBook. Choose a topic that you’re knowledgeable about. The topic you choose should be relevant to your industry. For additional tips and suggestions for improving your marketing efforts, click on the following link to learn more about lead generation and my done-for-you system.

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