In short, anchor text is the clickable part of the text that links to another URL. This is for links on your website to your website or for any external links from your website or pointing to your website.
The anchor link is the navigation point between pages. Other than telling the reader what the link is about, it also represents a signal to Googles learning that websites trust each other based on the types of anchor texts used.
You get backlinks from other websites pointing to your site. They use anchor text to describe to their readers what the link on the next page is about kinda like a preview before the click.
You get internal links from your own websites pages when you want the reader to see something relevant about the topic or your brand.
But there’s more to backlinks than just the sheer number of them.
Authorityof the referring URL matters a lot.
Relevancymatters too.
And finally, there’s theanchor textto every backlink that Google considers important as well.
This passage is direct from the Google Search Operators manual regarding anchor text.
“This text tells users and Google something about the page you’re linking to. With appropriate anchor text, users and search engines can easily understand what the linked pages contain.”
Here are the different types of Anchor Text
1. Branded Anchor Text Include your brand name. Public figures associated with your brand may be identified as branded.
9. Image Anchor Links ALT text for images is what Google reads as the image’s anchor.
10. Random Anchor Text Include phrases that aren’t quite as generic as “click here”, but they aren’t really related to the target keyword either.
Example: Check this out or read an in-depth article
How do you use Anchor Texts in SEO?
You need anchor text variety to build relevance around the topic, your brand, your information and generally to help users navigate the World Wide Web.
This means you will need some branded anchor texts, you will need keyword anchor texts and you will need a mixture of the other types to help relate you to the topics that you want to rank for.
Some hardcore SEO nerds actually measure and monitor the anchor text percentages between them and their competitors and while it sounds like overkill, logically this makes hella sense to us emaths to outmaneuvere your competitors in the SERP.
You have to have a carefully measured approach because if you go hard on the keyword-targeted anchor texts then you may appear to have influence over where you get the backlinks from, Google gets grumpy when people do this.
You need to have some brand so people know you are real as a business a blogger or a subject matter expert. The brand matters but not nearly as much as the keyword targeting.
Below is from the maths nerds
For some advanced sneaky tactics, there’s some stuff you can do with image overlays of different transparency that work as well, remember that Google is a machine and will process the information as it parses it.
The Takeaway
Keep natural where you can, but sprinkle in the odd targeted keyword anchor text. Be sensible and be considerate of the way you use them where you can control them.
You can influence what your website’s internal links will do and what the anchor text will say. This is your testing ground for finding a strategy that works.
As for people linking to your website you don’t always have control and therefore have to work with what you get unless you are paying them or bartering with them for the backlink or mention and may have some control over the anchor text.
Be smart, use maths and look at what your competitors are doing. The key to winning with this strategy is on the first page of Google for your keyword search terms. You just need to look around.
Creating content ideas on thought-provoking content is difficult in today’s market. You need to always be upping the ante, always shocking people and constantly levelling up against other content creators. This is hard work.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be hard work if you apply this tactic for repurposing existing viral content.
I’ve written hundreds of thousands of blogs, guides and reviews and none will be as viral as what comes out of this tactic. So organise yourself before you start this process,
-know your niche,
-know your competitors and
-know your target audiences.
Let’s dive into the YouTube Video Into Interesting Content Method
Step 1 Select Your Video from YouTube
Go to YouTube
Type in your niche-related search terms or keywords
Filter the videos by view count
Things to look for? Look for videos with high watch time, reactions, engagement metrics and relevance to your niche.
Check engagement metrics, you can get tools like VidIQ that give you enhanced metrics over the YouTube website. As you can see below these videos racked up the views in a short number of days.
Step 2 Go To YouTube Transcript
Visit https://youtubetranscript.com and add your video link from step 1
This will extract the text from that video with a simple URL link
This should be quite straightforward.
Step 3 Open a New Google Document
Copy and paste the output from the YouTube transcript into the new Google Doc
We want to make readable sections of the text output to feed Chat GPT with
The output all in one will likely be too big for ChatGPT to process
This allows us to make really dialled-in segments of content
Step 4 Feed Content Sections from Google Docs into ChatGPT
Next, we will want to take parts of the Google Document content and paste them into ChatGPT.
We feed the parts that make sense to break down into ChatGPT with some context-setting prompts.
*You may need to really break down the content into more digestible chunks for ChatGPT.
Try This Prompt:
I will share with you a video transcript on [your niche topic] with you. I want you to read it, and memorize everything so that i can ask you questions later on. Only answer “yes” once you have accomplished each task. This is the first part of the whole transcript:
[enter the transcript parts that you need to paste in]
Go through your Google Document entering each part until ChatGPT has confirmed it has memorised all of the transcript.
Step 5 Ask for a List of Content Opportunities
Now that ChatGPT has memorized the full transcript we can ask it for some content opportunities.
This helps to get ChatGPT brainstorming ideas for you, while you can pick the best content angle for your niche.
Try this prompt: Act like a social media content creator. List of the learnings that could be shared on a social media post from those transcripts that are part of the whole transcript. I want a list of content opportunities.
Step 6 Creating Twitter Thread Content
Ask ChatGPT for a Twitter (X) thread for easy-to-digest content.
This is optional but well worth the eyeballs that you will generate for your content
Try this prompt: Act like a social media content creator. Share a long Twitter thread on all of the learnings you just shared, using the transcript to be as precise, scientific and detailed as possible. The thread should be compelling to read, easy to digest and easy to understand. Exclude hashtags.
Step 7 Experiment with more Prompts
You can run wild with this next part for any platform you have in mind.
Layer your prompts on top of each other until you start to get some really good outputs that grab your attention. You want something that you can post about and make a bit of noise to get people reading and engaging with it.
Try this prompt:
Try again by adding more of how people can use these learnings for their own good. You are prohibited from sharing any questions in your answer. The hook must stay roughly the same.
Try this prompt:
Try again making this thread longer. Add examples to explain even better what you are sharing on your Twitter thread. As a tone of voice, be bold, scientific, direct, and compelling. Add emotions to make it feel human and vivid. Exclude hashtags.
Try this prompt:
Try again by acting like a copywriting expert. Rewrite this Twitter thread by using principles of storytelling and the best practices of copywriting. You are someone who discovered the YouTube video from [enter author] and you share the world of wonderful learnings you have gathered. Use simple direct English. Confront people with their presumed ideas. Be emotional and dramatic. Your goal is to go viral on social media. Shocking people works to achieve this. Make it a Twitter thread. at the end of each tweet, make people want to read the next tweet.
Try this prompt:
Try again by acting as a copywriting expert. Rewrite this Twitter thread by using the principles of storytelling and the best practices of copywriting. You are someone who discovered the YouTube video from [your niche author], and you share to the world the wonderful learnings that you gathered. Use simple English. Small sentences. Confront people with their presumed ideas. Be emotional and dramatic. Make it a longer & more extensive list of tweets (a Twitter thread). Add 2 powerful quotes from the video & how I feel about them or what learning are we getting from them. At the end of each tweet, make people want to read the next tweet. Your goal is not to make people watch the YouTube video but to get the learnings directly from this Twitter thread. You still have to refer to the video in your second tweet. The first tweet must be captivating, shocking, and hooking people’s attention using the best principles of copywriting and human psychology – without asking any questions.
The Results:
You should now have some highly engaging post ideas, concepts, quotes and thought-provoking headlines to use in your content be it social media posts or blog content. It’s quite easy to take the end result and repurpose it in 100 different ways feeding your content machine. Take what you have learned here and apply it to the different keyword targets across your niche. I hope this makes you some waves and more commissions.
Choosing Between the Same or Different Domains for Your Blog
Deciding on the domain for your corporate blog is crucial for brand consistency. I recommend hosting the blog on the same domain as your main corporate site. This approach typically fosters greater trust among clients, as it aligns with common web practices. Straying from this norm can often lead to scepticism.
For small businesses, however, having the blog on a separate domain is more feasible than it is for larger corporations. The expectations in the market are not as stringent for them, partly due to their more personalized customer interactions. Large corporations, which often lack this level of personal engagement, need to rely more on established norms to build trust.
If you do opt for separate domains for your blog and main website, consider using similar domain names to maintain a connection, like “ClickBucks.xyz” and “Click-Bucks.xyz”. Alternatively, you could use a keyword-focused domain for your blog while keeping your business name for your main website domain.
2. Implementing a Silo Structure Through Categories
Blogs are generally used in two ways:
a) As a primary website.
b) To supplement an existing website.
Each approach requires a different silo structure. Since this guide focuses on using blogs to support websites, I’ll outline the best silo structure for this purpose.
Start by setting up your blog in the usual manner, with the homepage displaying a dynamic list of your latest posts.
Adjust your permalink settings to include the category in the URL path. The format should be: /%category%/%postname%/. (Refer to the image on the right for guidance).
Organize your blog content into silos that mirror the main themes of your website’s silo pages.
Assign each blog article to a relevant silo category.
Install a ‘related posts’ plugin, and if possible, configure it to link posts by both category and tag. This will strengthen the thematic consistency within each category.
Avoid using widgets for ‘categories’, ‘recent articles’, or ‘tags’, as they can weaken the focus of your thematic silos.
3. Effective Management of Tags
In the realm of SEO, tags can often be problematic if not managed correctly. To ensure that tags don’t negatively impact your site’s SEO, it’s essential to use a reliable plugin. Options like SEO Framework or RankMath are highly recommended. These tools enable you to effectively control the indexing of both tags and category pages, mitigating potential SEO issues that can arise from improper tag management.
4. Creating and Managing Sitemaps
For an effective blog sitemap, I recommend using the “Google XML Sitemaps” plugin available on WordPress. You can easily find and install this plugin through the WordPress dashboard (Plugins → Add New → Search for “Google XML Sitemaps”). It usually appears at the top of the search results. Once installed and activated, its default settings are generally adequate.
As a side note, the SEO Framework is my preferred choice for a comprehensive WordPress SEO plugin.
After installing the Google XML Sitemaps plugin, you can access it via the “Settings” menu. Look for the ‘XML-Sitemap’ option. Initially, you might see a message indicating that the sitemap has not been generated. Simply click the provided link to initiate its creation.
By default, the plugin creates the sitemap at www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. This location is optimal as search engine bots typically search for sitemaps at this address.
5. Maximizing Blog Impact with Theme Mirroring and Strategic Keyword Use
A common question is how to optimize the effectiveness of a blog. The key is to mirror the thematic structure of your main website, using well-aligned categories that correspond with your products or services. This synchrony enhances the coherence of your content across platforms.
Additionally, be strategic with your keyword placement within your articles, ensuring these critical points are met:
Variety in Title Keywords: Regularly alternate the keywords in your blog post titles. Use synonyms, supporting keywords, and occasionally other “LSI” (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords to avoid repetitive use of the same keyword.
Keyword Modification in Anchor Texts: Adjust the keywords used in your blog post’s anchor text links.
Consistent Links to Targeted Website Pages: Your blog posts should link to corresponding pages on your main website that target the same keywords.
The goal is to reflect your website’s theme on your blog. If your website page targets multiple keywords – including the main theme, synonyms, and supporting keywords – your blog post should focus on one or a combination of these, ideally within the same thematic silo. While it’s not always feasible to stick to one silo, especially in cases like breaking news or sales promotions, it should be more of an exception than a norm.
Ensure that the primary keyword of your blog post is included in the title and modified in the anchor text. Place it in the correct silo and then link it to the corresponding page on your website. If your blog post encompasses terms from several pages on your site, identify one primary keyword for the post and link it to the relevant page on your site.
When multiple keywords are involved within the same silo and you wish to link to all related pages, that’s acceptable. However, it’s crucial to have a clear call to action for your readers to guide them effectively.
6. Leveraging Video for Enhanced Conversion
Videos are not just engaging content additions; they’re powerful tools for converting sales. It’s highly beneficial to include a video in as many blog posts as possible. Depending on your resources and creativity, try to maximize the frequency of video content.
Here are some best practices for using videos on your blog:
YouTube Publishing: Host your videos on YouTube. Make sure to include a full link to the corresponding blog post in the video description. Placing the link at the beginning ensures better visibility, as YouTube tends to truncate longer descriptions.
Linking to Your Main Site: Along with the blog post link, add a link to the relevant page on your main website in the YouTube video description. This not only drives traffic but also supports the SEO ranking of that page.
Optimized Video Titles and Descriptions: Incorporate the primary keyword of your article in the video’s title and description. A detailed description is beneficial – consider using a transcript or key parts of the video content for this.
Tag Usage: Utilize relevant keywords in the video’s tag field. These can mirror the tags used in the blog post, although they don’t have to be identical.
Local Business Focus: If your site represents a local business, set the video location as your business address.
Managing Comments: For most business-related videos, it might be prudent to disable comments.
Embedding in Blog Posts: Instead of just linking to the video, embed it directly in your blog post. This not only aids in faster indexing of your post but also enhances the page authority (PA) of the post.
By following these steps, you can effectively use videos to augment your blog’s impact and drive conversions.
7. Enhancing Blog Post Engagement with Images
The inclusion of images in blog posts is not just about aesthetics; it significantly impacts the time readers spend on a page. My experience has consistently shown that posts with images retain visitors’ attention far better than those without. The images don’t always need to be perfectly aligned with the content; even abstract visuals can add the necessary splash of colour to make the post more engaging.
To maximize the SEO benefits of images, follow these tips:
Descriptive Naming: Name your images using variations of the primary keyword of the post. This helps in aligning the image more closely with the content from an SEO perspective.
Alt Text Optimization: Use a different, yet relevant, target keyword for your image’s alt text. This not only improves accessibility but also contributes to the SEO value of the page.
Remember, the right image can transform the visual appeal of your post and enhance reader engagement, while also serving as an additional SEO tool.
8. The Importance of Including a Call to Action
A call to action (CTA) is an essential element of every blog post. It guides readers on what to do next, aligning with the overall objective of your site and the specific goals of each post. Whether you want readers to subscribe to a newsletter, contact your business, download a resource, or simply follow your RSS feed, a clear and compelling CTA is crucial. Even if the action you seek is as simple as encouraging subscriptions to your RSS feed, make sure it’s explicitly stated. A well-placed CTA can significantly boost reader engagement and conversion rates, making it a vital component of effective blog content.
And once you have got through these points you should begin to add the fuel to the fire by building out your content footprint throughout your categories. Next start building links to your content and powering up your pages.
If you can do this your momentum will start snowballing and you will see growth on your blog. This is an overlooked tactic that still works, Content and links = Rankings it’s that simple. I hope you found this useful.
How to grow an agency/services to 20K recurrent per month.
Let’s look at this as a startup digital agency looking to secure their first paying clients. But the good news is that it works for existing digital agencies as well, the pricing and deliverables just need to be reviewed to fit your specific business existing COGS.
This is a simple business model, it works, it can be frustrating but it’s highly lucrative. WARNING It is NOT SEXY, this is a dirty business model called cold email outreach. Ive seen this work time and time again where businesses double down on this and go from nothing to something, it works.
Fun Fact: I worked at an agency where we had a team of 4 cold callers and3 cold emailers who would gather, assess and then reach out to a database of potential customers. This team had to contact 1000 businesses per week as a KPI. They needed to sign 6/1000 as a KPI. They would average between 14-16 from 1000 successful conversions from cold calls and cold emails. I used to help them automate database scraping having a pool of over 6 million businesses for them to work through.
Here is the process of cold email outreach
You will be sending two types of emails
Email 1 is a value offer for your services that gets sent to a large number of businesses.
Email 2 is clever well researched and well crafted email dialled in for specific businesses that could be big clients.
We will look at email 1 where you send 300 individual emails per day. Period. (nothing else, nothing more)
Put the effort, put the hard work, 300 per day.
Warning: Boring, it sucks, not romantic, anti-sexy, literally a horrible experience for the sender and receiver.
Learn how to create email setups that can work and keep you safe when cold email blasting. Just firing emails all day can get domains blacklisted and you in some hot water with local spam laws. This method of using different domains keeps you safe.
Your goal is to get at least 6 answers that are saying “Maybe” per day so its 96% failure rate.
Your goal is to book 5 calls from those 30 weekly maybes per week.
From this pool of 30 potentials, you just need to close 2 clients to be a success per week.
That’s all.
The money: If you charge $2k per month minimum, in 1 month you have 8K recurrent revenue
This is where it gets interesting, In month 2 you should know what emails perform better, you can tweak the email copy, make the subject lines better and really start getting test data on open rates, feedback and have a good idea if your product sucks or just needs a small adjustment in the positioning of it to a cold contact.
This should help increase your conversion rate by 1% if you do better keep testing and tweaking it.
Also, you may land one of those Email 2 prospects as well to come in at whatever your rate is for bigger service packages let’s say $5-8k monthly retainers for the bigger clients. You now have some serious revenue coming in.
Rinse and repeat this.
Now to further improve this and what to do when not cold emailing. I believe in becoming the master of your craft in whatever you do even unsexy email outreach.
Start by studying the best salespeople in the business, and study the pricing models and hooks others use. Heck, my guys used to even study the mail-out catalogues from established brands looking for the language used, positioning of products and feature value.
I am not the sales master by any longshot, but there are some absolute masters of craft on YouTube:
– The Futur (Chris Do) YouTube Channel
– Jeremy Miner (this guy is a machine) – Instagram account
– Kévin Moënne-Loccoz content on Linkedin
That’s the crux of it. Stop posting on social media, stop replying in Facebook groups and stop overthinking, Nike said just do it. Do it so much that you wear the letters on your keyboard out. Thats how you grow. This is a grind.
Recipe for Success by Hustling
One of my buddies has a secret recipe just like the KFC Herbs and Spices. It goes like this
He often helps new startup service providers learn how to go from zero to 10k revenue per month fast.
Here is a breakdown of his teachings:
Decide on what service you can offer that both 8 years olds and 70-year-olds can understand its value
This product / service can be yours or something a competitor does that you can replicate
Productise it so it’s repeatable and scalable
Know your COGS inside and out
Price this service so its affordable but still profitable
Buy a domain name
Setup a landing page
Option A go to Y Combinator – find startup founders and contact details
Option B Scour Yellow Pages or business directories – find contacts and emails
Prepare your value offer email template that you will be sending to these contact database
Know that you will have 98% failure rate from email, sending 50-60 emails per day
Your goal is to make contact with 300 people per week and to automate the funnel as much as possible
You will get 298 declined offers this is a standard in cold email outreach
You just need to close the 2 potential contacts, if you do 10-12 of these a month its momentum
Do this for 6 months and start presenting upsells to the clients that you have signed up
Thats your playbook from zero to $10k that anyone can do from right now. Cold email outreach is NOT SEXY at all its gross, its rude and you will be insulted more than once if you do it right. But it works and businesses book millions of dollars from cold outreach.
Its not that difficult but it requires persistence. Just do the maths saying that your service is cheap at $1000 per month, you get 10 clients a month that’s $120,000 per year business for a 1 person business with no complex skills required to get started.
NOW the real interesting part is what if you take your digital agency skills, your team, your resources and back the method with account managers, call center, trained to upsell sales people and a full delivery of the service. This becomes a powerful product.
*Your COGS will change having a larger workforce but like I said know your COGS. You just built a business that can scale.
Types of Digital Agency Leaders
In business, it doesn’t take long to build a successful business. But it does take a long time to be the person that decides to do it.
There is so much I would, I should do in the online business space, hustle separates the men from boys (figure of speech).
The ones in business crushing it are those who are obsessed with the game that they play in. The ones who are not crushing it is the ones making videos on TikTok, and YouTube, the ones posting all the time on social platforms. The hustle goes in and the deals get done quietly away from the spotlight of social media.
I see 3 types of Online Digital Agency Owners
The: I do this because I hate working for someone else and need freedom
The: I do this because I want to build special work with my partners and build a real team of talented people
The: I do this because they are trying to prove their abilities and eventually status to friends, family and circle of peers
The first is the hustler, always prowling for deals and opportunities
The second is usually the conference whore at every event, trying their hardest to get speaking gigs, trying to get their way into any deal to build their portfolio of associated businesses.
The third is so determined to succeed that they wouldn’t be reading this, messing about on social media and likely to be securing a deal right now and is booked into another deal-closing meeting in 40 minutes from now.
You get the picture. It takes all types to run the business and each type creates their own opportunities and dealflow by the natural personality.
Every agency leader is good raw talent, even if polished through courses, seminars, training and hours and hours of knowledge upskill they still need a second in charge behind them helping to push the team, helping to clean up the contracts in detail, and to help organise the rest of the team and work that needs to be done.
It isn’t hard to get deals that boost your agency book, not in today’s market. You just need to know how to find deals, put in the work and follow up and close those deals.
Unless you’re Scrooge McDuck swimming through your gold vault, there are few good reasons to ever stop trying to boost the number of unique visitors your website attracts. The logic is just too obvious to ignore—the more eyeballs on your site, the more business you generate.
But running a company is hard work, and it’s easy to get distracted by other, equally important, tasks and strategies.
This article is for those business owners who want to get back to the basics—business owners who are ready to throw some money and effort at the top end of their marketing funnels.
Illustrate topical authority
Google loves serving pages that are likely to satisfy its users’ needs. The search engine is on a neverending mission to find ways to separate good content from bad.
Over the years, Google has used many techniques to do this. Keyword density and quality backlinks have traditionally been two of the biggest drivers here. But now, a new metric is starting to become increasingly influential in SEO: topical authority.
Topical authority is the ability to show expertise on a specific subject. Google is increasingly favoring sites that cover a specific topic in great depth over a series of posts rather than a single article.
More and more SEO experts are encouraging site owners to show Google that their site is an authority on a specific topic by publishing several posts on it.
In practice, Google likes seeing “depth” of coverage. For example, a single post on “The Benefits of the Keto Diet” may use keywords brilliantly and also have tons of backlinks. But if this topic isn’t covered elsewhere on the domain, Google is likely to penalize it in the rankings.
To prevent this and also see your articles get a ranking boost, write as many other meaningful articles on this topic as possible. Think about what other information readers may want about the keto diet and publish as many posts on it as you can.
The key here is not to replicate content or to create “fluff.” Use Google to see what questions people are asking about the keto diet, and answer the top five in a highly detailed article.
When displaying search results for the term “keto diet,” Google also shows some very handy content under the heading “People also ask.” For instance, “What can I eat on the keto diet?” and “Is the keto diet bad for me?”
Don’t answer this question inside your main article. This is an amazing opportunity to show topical authority by publishing a dedicated article for every single one of these questions.
Build backlinks through outreach
Backlinks are still important.
Sure, SEO tactics like “topical authority” (we’ll get to this later) may have started to hog the spotlight over the past 18 months. But, that doesn’t mean Google has completely forgotten how big a signal of quality it is when external sites link to one of your blog posts.
But how can you increase the chances of your content being referenced by a reputable third party? I’ll share two crucial tips.
It’s worth noting, though, that all of these tactics will have benefits outside of increasing the chances of landing a backlink. So try not to think about them purely from this perspective.
Create new knowledge
Websites aren’t going to link to your content if you don’t give them a reason to do so. And the best reason of all is if you’re the only site that offers information they can’t find anywhere else.
If you’re sitting on an email subscriber list or social media following that’s big enough to mine for new knowledge, consider conducting surveys and building data from responses.
Reach out and ask your followers questions about your industry. Convert their feedback into blog posts or infographics that shine a new light on an existing topic. This information could be extremely valuable for one of your peers looking to make a specific point in one of their own blog posts or marketing material.
Data is immensely referenceable – a fact evidenced by the WyzOwl domain having close to 20,000 backlinks, according to Uber Suggest.
Another way to create “new” knowledge is to interview reputable industry experts and thought leaders. Get them to weigh in on an issue closely related to your industry.
These articles, often called “expert roundups,” take a lot of time to complete and require a ton of legwork, but the payoff can be immense. A well-populated roundup post is packed with highly referenceable quotes that support claims made by your peers.
In most cases, you’ll also score backlinks for roundup posts because the person being quoted wants to show their contribution.
Make the right people aware of your amazing new knowledge
If you’ve spent weeks creating a 4,000-word blog post packed full of awesome referenceable material, you’d be crazy to just sit and wait for people to find it organically.
This is where “outreach” comes into play—the assertive, diplomatic act of suggesting to someone that a link to your data would benefit them.
A word of warning: this is not a simple undertaking. It’s not rocket science, but it’s also not something you’re going to implement over a long weekend.
There’s a ton of great content online about the finer points of outreach, but a quick summary of the process won’t go amiss:
Use Google to find blog posts that cover the same keywords as your blog post. These are your competitors’ posts.
Using a tool like Ahrefs Link Explorer, find the sites that have backlinks to your competitors’ posts. These are your prospects.
Prepare and make email contact with your prospect. Your job here is to make a solid case for them to link to your content. This is a delicate process that needs a lot of preparation and communication. Do your homework before taking this step.
Forget, just for a minute, the marketing industry’s understandable preoccupation with creating content that ranks on Google.
Sure, it’s madness to completely overlook this aspect of SEO-focused content marketing. Your blog post means very little if it’s never going to be found using a search engine. Having said that, Google rankings shouldn’t be your only concern. When you publish a post that offers exceptional, evergreen value, you’re creating a marketing asset that will attract visitors for as long as it’s on your blog.
SEO concepts like keyword density and search volume should heavily influence your marketing strategy. However, it’s fine to occasionally put these aside in favour of creating content that delivers extremely helpful, evergreen information.
Certain subjects are just always popular amongst the citizens of the web. People always want to get healthier. They always want to find interesting things to entertain themselves with. Business people always want to find strategies to become more successful.
Everyone wants a better night’s rest. It’s a matter of mental and physical health that affects literally everyone on the planet. Sleep isn’t a “seasonal” activity either. It’s an unavoidable part of the human experience. Until people evolve out of their need to sleep, this is as evergreen as content gets.
Focused Niche Down Approach
The internet is a big place. It’s everything—all the information.
When fishing for traffic with content, casting your net wide means you’re trying to attract hundreds of millions of people. If you succeed… fantastic. You’re going to see an overwhelming influx of traffic.
But success here means you need to beat some pretty stiff competition for Google’s ranking. And the average small business website has virtually no hope of doing something like that.
A feasible alternative is to throw several smaller nets into very specific areas of the digital ocean. In practice, this means aiming for smaller niche audiences with your content’s topics and keywords.
Rather than aiming for the biggest possible audience pool with a topic like “How to Grow Your Small Business” or even something slightly less ambitious like “The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your E-Commerce Business,” the blog post aims for a very specific audience.
By creating information in this specific niche, Finli is making two outcomes very likely.
Firstly, their chances of ranking on Google are much better than if they’d aimed for a more saturated topic.
Secondly, the chances of their content being shared on social media are higher. That’s because online communities typically form around very specific topics, like the business of martial arts.
Worth noting is that you won’t achieve these two goals simply because you choose a niche topic. Even a very specific subject is still going to have a ton of competition. You’ll still have to apply the fundamentals of SEO to ensure your content ranks. And to increase the chances of your content going viral, focus on delivering genuinely exceptional information.
Use Social Media to Promote Your Website
Some brands have done an excellent job at building an audience on social media. This isn’t an easy thing to do. Like generating traffic for your website, you face tons of challenges when growing a following on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
But persistence and following proven strategies will pay off in the long run. People are hungry for excellent content on social media, and if you deliver, they will come.
But that’s not what this section of our piece is about. We’re here to talk about how your social media presence can be used to channel traffic to your website.
Skillcrush usesits Instagram account brilliantly to direct traffic to its website. The brand uses a super simple, highly effective tactic. Directly above the website link on their Instagram bio, the folks from Skillcrush were smart to tell users about the benefit of visiting their home page: “Take our free 3-minute quiz to find out if tech is right for you!”
They’ve attached a compelling hook to their website link.
Sure, some Instagram users may click on your website link purely out of curiosity or because they want to find out more about your company. But if you give them a solid reason to go down the rabbit hole, you’re getting the most out of this element.
On Facebook and Twitter, Skillcrush chooses to adopt a slightly different approach. Instead of using a functional CTA (the quiz), the brand opts to appeal to users’ emotions.
“Digital skills are job skills. Learn the web development & design skills you need to get the money and freedom you deserve.”
“Skillcrush is an online platform and community for learning coding and design skills to change your career.”
Both of these passages aim for the visitor’s heart by using emotive language. More than half of workers in the United States are unsatisfied with their jobs. Skillcrush leverages this fact to channel traffic to their product—a product capable of changing lives.
When creating your company’s social media profiles, make sure to give compelling reasons why followers should click through to your site.
How to Dropship on Facebook Marketplace (Free & Paid)
Picking a suitable blogging platform is not as easy as it looks. If you asked them to choose the best blogging platform, each website owner you ask will probably have a different response.
Many factors come into play when choosing a platform for your blog—your skills, your needs, and how you use it, to name a few.
By the end of this guide, you’ll know which is the best blogging platform for your business and start reaching millions of readers.
The best blogging platforms
What makes a great blogging platform?
I reached out to marketers, freelancers, and small business owners on their non-negotiables for a blogging platform.
It needs to be flexible
As marketers and business owners, we have a million things on our plate. We’d rather not dig into tasks that fall outside the scope of what we do best.
In my experience it can be a real turn off productivity wise and commitment wise if a blogging platform is a nightmare to navigate and presents technical challenges.
I want flexibility on my list. “If I want something simplistic, I can use a pared-back setup. If I want to get more advanced with the digital infrastructure, I can also do that.”
Likewise, I look for flexibility and a bonus if it offers high-level customisation. The content marketing and communications specialist at DashThis says, “We needed a platform that our developers and designers can work on and really make it ours.”
It’s plugin-friendly
As you scale, you’ll need advanced features for your blogging platform.
For example, if you’re starting an affiliate blog on a budget, you can get by with the essentials (e.g., editor, basic analytics, basic design options).
But as your blog grows, you might find yourself needing additional features to keep the momentum going (e.g., if you’re outsourcing your blog posts to freelancers, you’ll need a content calendar to keep everything organised).
It must match your skillset
Rather than following the crowd and picking the most popular blogging tool, ask yourself this: “Do I know how to use it, and can it help me reach my goals?”
The best blogging platform is one that matches your web creation skills.
For the absolute complete beginner, Wix is a no-brainer. The drag-and-drop website builder makes designing an intuitive experience. But, for the developer looking for advanced customisation options, WordPress is the best choice. I personally would only use Wix sites for generating my own backlinks and content feeds.
WordPress powers41% of the web and counts many big companies as its customers (think TechCrunch and BBC America).
It’s not hard to see why many users pick WordPress in a heartbeat over its competitors. Gutenberg, the block-based layout editor, gives you a media-rich blogging experience.
Its theme library ranges from abstract and artistic to personal and professional. So, whether you’re an agency owner or beauty blogger, you’ll find what you’re looking for.
Bear in mind that WordPress.com is different from WordPress.org. The biggest difference between these two popular blogging platforms is limitations. You can upload SEO tools on WordPress.org. For WordPress.com, you need to pay a premium, though it does offer a built-in SEO tool.
To get your blog up and running without fussing over the nitty-gritty—like buying a custom domain or building a custom theme—opt for WordPress.com.
However, if you want full control (e.g., advanced SEO options), look no further than WordPress.org. Here’s a detailed comparison if you’re curious to learn more about their differences.
WordPress.org can host your blog on any web hosting provider since it uses PHP and MySQL. Many users often end up selecting Bluehost, DreamHost, or SiteGound.
WordPress.org is also a top choice among startups. (You’ll see why below!)
Unique features:
(i) World-class plugins
With over 50,000 (!) plugins, the options are endless. Anyone can customise a blog or website unique to their brand and needs—often, without any coding involved.
Side note: No blogging platform on this list has an offering of plugins anywhere near WordPress’s figure (e.g., Wix currently offers 250+).
Want to boost your SEO? There are SEO plugins like SEO Framework and Xaigo.
Worried about your blog crashing? Activate UpdraftPlus to back it up every week.
I run most of my content with some help from my junior assists. I was using Divi by Elegant themes but made the switch to Bricks Builder in May 2021 and it was a slight learning curve but Im super happy with the builder.
(ii) Excellent content management system (CMS)
WordPress is the best CMS for SEO, with 45% of its websites dominating Google rankings. Its competitors (Squarespace, Wix, and Medium) make up less than 1% on Google.
WordPress makes blogging easy you can be up and running in 45 minutes. There is a small learning curve and really if it’s just for blogging the learning curve is not that big.
With WordPress, developers are easy to find. You don’t need to train your team on an unknown CMS. Plus, content writers know WordPress. This makes it easier for your editorial team to collaborate.
Pricing: Starts free with paid plans starting at $4/month.
Out of all the blogging platforms in this list, Medium is the only one where you can blog, publish it to a built-in audience, and monetise your writing (based on readers engagement, not ads)—in one place.
Check out its “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) editor below. It’s ideal for users who want to blog without getting bogged down by custom plugins, domain registration, and whatnots.
Unique features:
(i) Share draft link
If you work with an editor, you know how the process goes:
Write a draft on Google Docs
Submit to editor for review
Edit according to editor’s feedback
Submit for final review
Publish on blog
That’s. A. Lot. Of. Steps.
With Medium, you can easily skip most of them. Just write the draft on Medium and share it with the editor, who can then leave private notes within the microblogging platform.
Neat, huh?
(ii) Medium’s partner program
Medium offers built-in monetization options. You can earn money for the content you publish based on reading time from Medium’s members.
Your earnings on the publishing platform can be anywhere from a quick buck to $49,000+ per month.
Ultimately, your success on Medium will depend on myriad factors: The number of your followers, your publishing frequency, and the relevance of your articles.
Pricing: Free (only for publishing). If you want to read all articles on Medium, membership costs $4/month annually.
Using the WYSIWYG article editor is straightforward. It’s nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. A click on the “+” icon shows the option to add an image, video, links, snippets, or slides.
LinkedIn’s unique features have little to do with the article editor—it’s the distribution.
With four out of five members driving business decisionsat their companies, LinkedIn is the social platform to be at if you want to connect with your target audience. Here’s an example to show you what I mean.
Back in early 2020, I cross-posted my case study on LinkedIn. Some of my first connections saw it and reached out about my blogging services.
Unique features
(i) Tag in comments
Did you know that you can tag any LinkedIn user in the comments section?
Side note: Medium offers a similar feature (called Medium Mentions), but there’s a limitation. Unlike Medium, LinkedIn doesn’t put content behind a paywall.
Plus, there’s also the cool option to comment with your LinkedIn profile on WordPress.
Activate WP LinkPress on your self-hosted WordPress site. Edit your job title, leave a comment, and enable Share on activity feed.
Once you hit Post with LinkedIn, two things will happen: Your comment shows up on LinkedIn’s newsfeed, and your LinkedIn profile appears on your website.
Pricing: Free. LinkedIn’s premium plans start at $29.99/month, with a 30-day free trial.
Squarespace is a beautiful blogging platform. It’s perfect for creatives who want a clean and user-friendly interface. The templates are gorgeous, and the front-end editor is incredibly sleek and intuitive to use (case in point: it took me only seconds to grasp Squarespace).
Hands down, it’s an ideal choice for casual and professional bloggers who want to get their websites up and running within minutes. However, you should avoid Squarespace if you’re looking for complete control.
These two comments on Reddit sum up when it’s best to use the premium blogging platform.
Unique features
(i) 100+ world-class website templates
Squarespace’s templates may not be in the thousands range like WordPress, but you can’t deny that it has by far the most gorgeous layouts. According to its site, the templates were designed by award-winning designers, and it shows.
Wix is a fuss-free blogging platform for beginners. This drag-and-drop blogging platform offers various beginner-friendly tools to make web creation as easy as possible.
Check out this user review below. It talks about how you don’t need to get in the weeds of pixel counts and coding when you blog on Wix.
Overwhelmed by the hundreds of templates on Wix? Let the blog platform build it for you then.
Wix ADI creates a website based on your answers to its questions (e.g., what kind of website are you creating, have you created a website before).
After getting the basics down, Wix ADI then prompts you to create a blog name, select a theme and homepage design, and import images and text from your existing online presence (e.g., website, Google Places).
It takes a few seconds to a minute to create a new blog on this simple platform. Its blog editor is clean and straightforward. Like Squarespace, you know what each element does right away.
Pricing: Starts free, with paid plans scaling from $4.50/month.
There’s more. You can also view email analytics and segment your email subscribers. There’s even a native sign-up form—embed it on your professional blog and grow your audience!
(ii) Native memberships and subscriptions
Ghost’s membership-focused features allow you to turn members into paying subscribers. It integrates with Stripe, storing all sensitive information securely.
You can even choose your pricing model. The best part? The revenue you make is entirely yours. Ghost doesn’t take a cut of your sales.
(iii) Member management features
You can also track and support members easily with Ghost. Add a note, create a complimentary plan, or segment your VIP members, Ghost is the new BFF of every membership coach.
Just when you thought Ghost couldn’t get any cooler.
Pricing: 14-day free trial, with plans going up from $9/month when billed annually.
Blogging Platforms Offer Different Levels of Customisation
It’d be unfair of me to pick a winner from this list.
All blogging platforms have their strengths and weaknesses. Where they lack in one area, they make up for another. So, what makes a great blogging platform? It meets your needs and helps you reach your blogging goals as quickly as possible.
Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve covered:
WordPress is ideal for SEO and advanced customisation. It’s the only blogging platform in this list with a wide range of plugins (over 50,000!). Whether you want to back up your blog or integrate a client portal, WordPress has got you covered. Just watch out for the steep learning curve.
Medium is best for freelance writers who don’t want to get bogged down by HTML, custom CSS, and third-party themes. Its partner program allows you to earn money based on reader’s engagement.
LinkedIn is for B2B professionals looking to amp up their prospecting game. Its tagging feature helps with content distribution.
Squarespace is best for users who want to get their website off the ground within minutes. The gorgeous, flawless templates make it a perfect fit for creatives like artists, designers, and hobby bloggers.
Wix is a no-brainer for beginner bloggers. Wix ADI, an artificial intelligence tool, helps you whip up a website without using any coding skills.
Ghost is perfect for membership coaches. If you want to set up an online community with zero hassle, this is it. Ghost also offers numerous features (e.g., email newsletters, subscriptions) in one place. Best of all, it takes 0% of your sales.
Phew, that’s a lot of information to process. I hope this guide’s helped you determine which is the best blogging platform for your needs.
Every online business needs targeted traffic ñ whether it is selling a product, service, affiliate marketing site or Google Adsense site. An affiliate marketer may have all the things needed for him to be able to succeed in a business such as affiliate marketing.
He/ she may have the necessary drive, diligence, passion and perseverance to be able to understand how the system works. He/ she may have all the tools necessary in maintaining the business, including a really unique and interesting website which could earn him/her a fortune if only the whole world could see it.
However, all these would prove useless if he/she does not know how to drive traffic to his website.
Getting people who matter to see oneís website is a difficult undertaking if he tries to consider the fact that there are rivals everywhere waiting to pin him down.
The immensity of the internet as well as the internet business world has given birth to the fierce competition between online businesses, each of whom has his own great product to offer. With all the websites piling on top of each other, how would one be able to stand out?
Here are 9 ways to drive targeted traffic
1 Newsletter Signups & List Building
Newsletter subscription: Creating a list of subscribers that one can refer to every so often, because they are those which would prove to be valuable assets for the marketer concerned. The use of autoresponders and personalized newsletters is one way of keeping track of them all, and holding on to them by letting them know about new products and services is an essential task that should be done by the affiliate marketer concerned.
Discussion forums: Participate in discussion forums of your area of expertise and respond to someoneís question. A discussion forum may user of all levels ñ beginners to advanced users. There are many questions that newbies ask. Make sure you respond to it. After this invite them to visit your website. Make sure your signature file has your links with a very good caption.
Find things you know you can answer inside these Q&A forums. I would go in to these forums and answer questions on ecommerce, dropshipping and AliExpress and answer these questions.
3 Backlinks Exchange & Guest Posting
Link Exchange: Contact other webmasters for a possible link exchange partnership. Locating websites that are related to oneís own website is the primary task. Once there, he should be able to establish communication by personalizing everything as much as possible. It is then possible to make reciprocal link exchanges between webmasters whichever way the affiliate marketer prefers.
Join link exchange programs: This is the new way of linking. This can drive targeted traffic. There are many free link exchanges services. Paying for a link exchange program is also worth your money.
4 Search Engine Optimisation SEO
Search engines: What they can do for the affiliate marketer concerned. Because they are popular for driving free targeted traffic, they should not be ignored by all means. Having top search engine rankings is vital in building popularity links, and the use of the right keywords is important in attaining this goal. Once a website is on top of the list, it is easily accessible to anyone who wants to see it for himself.
5 Content Marketing
Write your own articles: This is an effective way in promoting a website, because good content that are appreciated by readers will lead them to visit the writerís very own website out of sheer interest.
You can expand this further by guest posting or publishing content on other websites like Medium, like LinkedIn and like sites like Buzzfeed yes you can start your own accounts on all of these sites. This is a great way to grow an audience through content marketing.
6 Joint Ventures
Joint venture marketing: This is one of the most effective ways of promoting a product or a service. Having a partner through ad swap or link exchange is beneficial to both parties as it allows them to reach a wide customer base in a short amount of time.
You will find if you have done any of teh above points that this will become easier and easier for you and you may get people reaching out to you to JV together. This is a great way to grow your exposure and build a partnership.
7 Create PLR Lead Magnets
Give unrestricted rights to Ebooks and reports: Create Short ebooks and reports branded with your website link on the footer of every page. Give them away on their website or to your mailing list also give them rights to sell it on their websites and auction sites.
You can make a lot of money from PLR content but you will also get a lot of traffic especially if the people who buy your PLR content do not change the links and references in the content meaning you can create links inside that content that oints to your preferred web pages.
What can be better than this for driving traffic to your website? If you give resale rights, come of them will sell it to others and in turn you get more visitors!
8 Market Intelligence Reports
Knowing your market through and through. It is important for traffic to be targeted to those who might have a special interest in the theme or topic of oneís website. This way, a solid customer base is going to be created. Once a potential customer shows an interest in a particular website by paying it a visit, one must not waste time in trying to show him that his effort is worth it.
Keep contact info (atleast name and email address) of your customers is critical. Once someone is interested in your product, it is easier to promote other products including affiliate products.
If you create market intelligence reports this will explode your website traffic and backlinks 100% you will notice a change.
9 Do Affiliate Style Reviews
The power of reviews for your website is huge. You can really rack up those Google rankings with targeted content focusing on reviews.
You find products, softwares, Tools or services and create reviews around that thing helping people who may want to use this thing and give them more info on what they may be looking for. Great way to get traffic and rankings to your website.
BONUS Press Releases
Receiving backlinks from trusted news sources can greatly increase your TF.
Some things to consider when using PR: a.) Not only link to your money site, also consider linking to other proerpties such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. b.) Linking to your GMB or Google My Maps is greatly encouraged as well. c.) Be sure to list your NAP from Phase I above in the PR as this can be looked at as a citation many times.
Don’t go directly to places like PR Web to get your PRs done because the price is too high in my opinion. The free PR services suck as well in my testing.
Traffic generating strategies are important in trying to make oneís affiliate marketing career inch forward. It is always advantageous to plan oneís moves in any business that he might undertake. This is particularly so in affiliate marketing. If one knows how to get people to see what he has to offer, then he is on the right track.
Last but not the least, have some scripts/ tools to perform these actions and bookmark this page. Thanks for reading if you liked it share it. Peace.
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I have built so many websites that now I can look at a website and in three clicks work out if this website is doomed or in a good position for success. Theres 2 reasons that we pay attention and put so much focus into how we build websites and those two reasons are:
Building for humans to navigate the website
Building for Google to crawl and index our web pages
The structure I want you to build should be one that allows both Humans and Google crawlers to clearly understand and navigate your website. This is a critical part of building websites especially if you plan on using that website to make money once you build it.
Lets go over the basics.
CMS solutions help businesses of all sizes maintain an online presence through blogs and websites, internally organize and optimize content, and process orders and payments online. A well-deployed content management system can extend the reach of a business online, increase search rankings, unify communications to customers in one place and manage employee contributions to content (through administrative and security settings, as well as accountability within the CMS).
Responsive templates, like those found in many of the CMS platforms we reviewed here, make it easy for SMBs to maintain professional-looking websites without employing a large team of web and graphic designers. It’s no wonder, then, that so many businesses use CMS services. WordPress alone is used by over 2.8 million websites to date, and as CMS programs become easier to implement and less expensive to use, it’s likely more SMBs will adopt them.
What Is a CMS Used For?
At the most basic level, a CMS lets you upload and manage the content for your website. No matter the size or type of your business, a CMS has become almost indispensable. It operates on the backend of your website, allowing you to manage the content and other facets of your website, including the visual layout.
Another benefit of a CMS is that it makes it easy for users with varying levels of tech savviness. If your tech literacy is low, CMS systems have a variety of premade themes and plug-ins that have already been developed (think phone apps but for your website) and allow you to add tools, like search or appointment calendars, to your website.
If you know how to code, or employ software developers, most CMS software is open source and can be customized to your liking.
Businesses of all types can benefit from using a CMS for their website. Here are some examples of how a CMS can enhance the websites for a variety of different business types:
Restaurants: CMS software makes it easy for restaurants to add and update their menus, create coupons and offers, and allow customers to make reservations online. There are many premade plug-ins that specifically target restaurant websites.
eCommerce: A CMS can benefit your online store by allowing you to quickly add and remove products, track sales, and manage other aspects of your business. Plug-ins are available to add a shopping cart to your site. A brick-and-mortar store can easily add a shopping cart using a CMS.
Small Businesses: No matter what type of business you operate, a website is a necessity in today’s business world. A CMS allows you to manage the content yourself and update information quickly. Most CMS applications include SEO plug-ins to help you optimize your website’s content. You can also find templates and themes to quickly create an attractive website without having to hire a designer.
Nonprofits: A CMS allows nonprofits to easily manage their websites for not a lot of money, plus you can accept donations online by adding plug-ins. Many open-source CMS applications have robust communities of developers that can help nonprofits create the best websites. Add-ons and plug-ins are also available to help nonprofits manage their social media and marketing presence.
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CMS vs Blogging Platforms
A CMS platform is different from a blogging platform in terms of scale. Some of the services profiled in our buying guide began as blogging platforms and offer that service, but a CMS is much more robust, offering greater control over the look and feel of your site as well as allowing for different administrative levels of control. A CMS also allows you to add plug-ins that expand the look and functionality of your site. You can brand your website, send emails, manage user access and even add a shopping cart.
Another main difference between a blog platform and a CMS is that the blog will be hosted by the platform itself. This means that your website will have the domain name of the blog host, such as Blogger.
If you use a CMS to manage and develop your website, you’ll need to pay for the domain and the web hosting. Many CMS platforms include web hosting services, though you’ll have to pay for the hosting. You can read our articles about web hosting to learn more.
Open Source vs. Closed Source
Content management systems fall into two major categories: open source and closed source. An open source CMS has lower costs and is created and maintained by a community of developers A closed source CMS is proprietary and is more expensive to use. Here are some other benefits and drawbacks with each type of CMS.
The biggest difference is in the price. Open source CMS software doesn’t require you to purchase a license in order to access and change its source code. All code is free to the public and often supported by a large community of users. This gives you solid support since so many others are using the program as well. It’s easy to find ideas for incorporating various functions and features on your website. You can also find the required code from these community support groups, so even if you aren’t as program savvy as others, you can find enough information to make it work.
However, because the source code is free with so many users, most CRM companies continually update the software. This means you can count on new versions, patches and updates on a fairly regular basis, which could require you to change your website and code in order to keep up.
Because the code of open source programs is license-free, there is a greater risk of a security breach. Everyone using the open source code understands how to get around various protections. However, you can invest in add-ons and other security programs that work hand-in-hand with content management systems to give you an extra layer of security. Closed source CMS software has heavily guarded source code that requires a license in order to access it, or several if you have a team of developers. Because the source is so protected, it costs a lot to get started. Several closed source content management systems require a monthly access fee, so it isn’t unheard of to have to pay between $200 and $1,000 to get started.
Since you put so much effort into creating a CMS program, these systems are built to last for a while between version releases. While the occasional update or patch may occur, for the most part, once you purchase a closed source CMS, you can find solace in knowing you won’t have to update the program and risk reworking your website code. This also helps keep the program more secure since there is a limited number of people who hold a license to the code.
If you discover you need help with your closed source CMS, you don’t have the large community support found with open source software. Instead, these systems tend to come with high-end, personal support including telephone support, which is rare among open source content management systems.
Benefits of Open Source CMS
Cost: An open source CMS doesn’t involve any fees to use the platform. All of the open source CMS applications in our lineup include a free option. You may have to pay for hosting or advanced features, but there are several themes that are free to start with.
Customization: Open source CMS applications are flexible and can fit the needs of many businesses. Because a broad community of developers works on these systems, there are a wide variety of options, so you can find certain tools or plug-ins to suit your business. For example, if you want to add a feature so your customers can schedule an appointment or make a reservation online, there are several plug-ins available that are easy to integrate with your CMS.
Drawbacks of Open Source CMS
Vulnerability: Open source CMS software can be vulnerable to security issues, especially if plug-ins and modules are not updated.
Support: Don’t count on personalized support for problems you run into with your particular website.
Benefits of a Closed Source CMS
Security: Because this type of CMS software is proprietary, these applications undergo a more rigorous testing process, which leaves them less vulnerable to Trojans and other security flaws.
Customized Support: You can receive ongoing, personalized support to help you troubleshoot any problems with your site. Often this support costs extra.
Disadvantages of Closed Source CMS
Cost: Costs range from a few thousand dollars to upwards of a hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the scope and scale of the CMS.
Lack of Flexibility: A closed source solution isn’t always one size fits all, but there are fewer options for customization, and if you need something specific for your business, you may have to pay extra for it.
A content management system allows you to quickly and easily add and edit content on your website. You can control who has access to the various functions of the software and can schedule when content goes live on your website. We’ve assembled a lineup of the 10 best CMS applications in the industry so you can explore your options and find the one best suited for your business.
FAQ – Terminology
Throughout our reviews, we use a lot of internet and programming terms that might sound familiar but you don t quite know the meaning. Below are samples of some of the most commonly asked questions when it comes to terminology.
What is access control?
This refers to a hierarchical system of privileges and permissions that secures content and identifies who can read, create, modify, and delete content on a web site.
What are web analytics?
This is the study of the impact of a website on its visitors. E-commerce companies often use web analytics software to measure statistics such as how many visitors, how many unique visitors, how they arrived at the site (i.e., if they followed a link to get to the site or came there directly), what keywords they searched using the site s search engine, how long they stayed on a given page or on the entire site, what links they clicked on and when they left the site. Web analytic software can also be used to monitor whether or not a site s pages are working properly. With this information, site administrators can determine which areas of the site are popular and which areas of the site do not get traffic and can then use this data to create a better/more profitable user experience.
What is asset management?
Asset management is the organization and publication of digital assets such as content and media and including but not limited to images, sounds, animations, movies, music and text.
What is the back end?
A database or program that is accessed by users indirectly through an external application. In a CMS, the admin panel is the back end.
What is CSS?
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet this is the preferred way to add styles (which include fonts, sizes, colors and spacing) to web documents and designs. It s preferred because of the capability to simply tweak a class or identification attribute on the style sheet that will automatically apply to the entire page. Compared with the manual way of editing thousands of individual font tags, CSS is an elegant and efficient design tool.
What is a database server?
In either a client-server model or a master-slave configuration, this is a computer program that stores and performs the database services to other programs or computers.
What is deployment?
In systems this term describes the transforming of a computer system from a packaged form to an operation state. In software, deployment is used to describe all activities that make a software system available for use.
What is document management?
Document management systems (DMS) are similar to content management systems and serve different though complementary roles within an organization. DMS focus is primarily on the storage and retrieval of self-contained electronic resources in their original (native) format.
What is the front end?
As opposed to the back end, the front end is an interface that collects input from a user in various forms and processes it to conform to a specification useable by the back end.
What is load balancing?
This is the practice of dispersing work between two or more computers, network links, CPUs, hard drives, or other resources.
What is a log?
In a database or CMS this is a record of sequential data. In content management system software this could be user logs, content logs, etc.
What does OS stand for?
OS stands for Operating System this is the interface between the hardware and its user. For example, if your computer is a PC your OS is likely Windows-based. If your computer is a Mac, it s OSX, etc.
What is Page Rank?
Page rank is the Google system of ranking web pages determines the value of any individual web page.
What is RSS?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication it is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works such as news headlines, blogs, etc. These feeds benefit content publishers by enabling them to syndicate their content automatically.
What is a sandbox?
In content management system software, this is a secure area where developers can test a software tool or other code modification with full administration privileges, but safely walled off from affecting the stability of the site or CMS.
What is a static page (as opposed to dynamic)?
Static means that the web page always contains the same information in response to all download requests from all users. A dynamic page is regularly updated.
What is validation?
In content management system software, validation refers to security measures that ensure data inserted into an application meets pre-determined formats, complies with length requirements and any other defined input criteria you assign to it.
What is meant by workflow in a CMS?
Workflow is the system for routing documents or pages between users responsible for working on them the management of who is making changes to or creating a content element or template.
Best CMS Overall: WordPress: WordPress
WordPress is one of the most ubiquitous CMS platforms on the internet, and it is open source, so you don’t have to buy a license to use it. Since the open-source community is continually growing, developing new plugins and creating new themes, the functionality of WordPress is always evolving. According to WordPress, nearly 24 percent of websites use its CMS to publish and/or manage content.
Even the free version of the CMS offers users the ability to produce blogs and websites with ease, tag content by category and keyword, manage content and change visual themes, embed media on different pages, and more. WordPress makes SEO hands-off by sending the titles of your posts and the content of your website to Google for ranking. In addition, WordPress offers feature-rich website management by giving users the ability to moderate discussions (something many free blog and website platforms don’t offer), ban commenters by their IP addresses, and even block specific terms or phrases.
Users who upgrade to premium business versions of WordPress gain access to CMS tools like advanced analytics, additional templates, more flexibility in menu configuration and access to back-end code for further customization. Companies like The New York Times, Forbes, eBay, Best Buy and IBM use WordPress, but small businesses and individual bloggers also take advantage of its accessible interface and wide variety of features.
The only real downside to WordPress is that the interface takes some time to get used to. Doing things like rearranging menu items and moving a page from one category to another is a bit unwieldly at first. Also, many of the best features are only available at premium subscription levels.
Best Blog Hosting Service: A2 Hosting: A2 Hosting
Previously known as Iniquinet, A2 Hosting is our top choice for blog hosting services. It offers managed WordPress hosting and will transfer any existing WordPress site to its servers for free. This company is also a good fit for WordPress users, because it offers a proprietary plugin called A2 Optimized to not only boost the speed of the hosted site but also prevent hacks through a unique WordPress login URL. Plus, A2 Hosting’s security works with WordPress, through a unique admin login, to easily manage and load WordPress security updates and create an additional barrier against hacking.
All clients of A2 Hosting enjoy automatic data backup courtesy of the company’s Server Rewind Backups, which make it possible to restore a single file or an entire website in just a few clicks. A2 Hosting offers unlimited SSD storage, so you never need worry about running out of space. A2 Hosting has a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee, and businesses that use A2 Hosting for their web hosting needs receive reimbursements for downtime.
A2 Hosting ranked highest on our list of reviewed hosting services partially because of its compatibility with WordPress and overall blog speed, but also thanks to its excellent customer service. Clients of A2 Hosting enjoy around-the-clock customer service every day of the year, which is ideal for teams with people in different time zones and for businesses that need to keep things running regardless of holidays or weekends.
Additionally, the hosting platform offers users some choices in terms of server location, which not all hosting companies provide. A2 Hosting has three servers to choose from, one in Michigan, one in Amsterdam and one in Singapore. The ability to select a server closer to company headquarters (or large customer populations) makes faster response times possible.
Best for Easy Blog Creation: Weebly : Weebly – Content Management Systems & Blogging Platforms
If learning new technology doesn’t come easily to you but you want to create a blog or website for your business, Weebly is our recommended choice. Weebly was built with regular users in mind; there is no coding required, and you don’t have to understand the ins and outs of advanced security settings or SEO to use it.
Users who opt for Weebly are guided through the blog design and creation process with helpful text bubbles that offer suggestions and point out basic dashboard navigation, but the interface is so user-friendly you might not even need the guidance. Weebly takes a drag-and-drop approach to website design; you can drag and drop content anywhere on a given page, and that content may include text, photos, videos, forms or audio files. Once assembled, each asset can be rearranged and resized with a few clicks, making it easy to get the look and feel you want.
The web CMS aspect of Weebly is excellent for basic website organization. Pages and subpages can easily be moved and updated, and passwords may be set to protect certain pages from being viewed by unauthorized users. There is a section for SEO analysis in the admin dashboard, but it’s not very robust. Weebly is best for companies that require a basic website with up-to-date information or blogs that play a supplementary role to a primary business.
That said, users who opt for the Starter ($8 a month), Pro ($12 a month) or Business ($25 a month) packages, rather than the free service, get a $100 credit toward Google Ads. So, it’s not that it’s impossible to have good SEO or promote a site built with Weebly; it’s just targeted to users who favor a clean, easy-to-use interface over a robust arsenal of features and options. The only downsides to Weebly are the inexplicable lack of a spell-check function and the lack of backup history.
Best CMS for ecommerce: Magento: Magento
While many of the CMS platforms we reviewed have plugins available for ecommerce websites, Magento was built top to bottom specifically for ecommerce users. In addition to all the features an ecommerce business owner might want, Magento has an extensive blog with relevant posts about online trends and SEO practices, as well as evergreen information on best ecommerce practices and general user guides. If this is your first foray into ecommerce and you want guidance alongside easy website creation, Magento may serve you well.
One major benefit to using Magento for your ecommerce site is the easy product catalog setup process. Magento makes it simple to showcase configurable products for sale (so your customers can select colors, sizes and styles with ease while you keep track of SKUs), made-to-order products with lots of customization options (like engraving or monogramming), product sets and multi-piece products. Magento also allows users to disable items, so seasonal items don’t have to be re-created every year – they can simply be disabled when they’re not relevant and then added back to the online store.
Another key ecommerce feature of Magento is the ability to set up multiple stores through one dashboard. This is key for stores that need to operate in different languages as well as ecommerce sites that tailor their offerings based on customer location. Invoicing, billing and shipping are also easy to set up, and Magento’s security system is built to meet current laws and payment card industry requirements. Plus, this open-source CMS has dozens of paid and free add-ons available, offers users the ability to program custom widgets, and provides lots of customizable reports on sales, customers, products and performance.
Like other CMS products, Magento offers well-designed templates for simple web design, as well as the ability to custom create a website from the bottom up, but it’s the ecommerce-specific features that earned it a spot on our best picks list.
Key Takeaway
Ive built A LOT of websites and Ive wasted A LOT of time with dud platforms. I really love WordPress, Shopify & Magento for building long term assets. But for quick easy you cant go past a Wix Weebly type throw up and see what happens type web lead gen site.
When I build sites I need functionality, customisation and support because hey even I break stuff sometimes. The best platform isnt even my choice it should be your choice for what best suits your business.
I hope this helped and you get something from it. Enjoy and share it if you liked it. Peace!
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Types of Blogs You Can Use and Best Use Case Examples
As affiliate marketers we make a lot of our money from review type content, but what else can you use to to make money on your blog. Let’s go through a few examples and how you can best use them.
Types of Blog Posts That You Can Use 1 The Review 2 The Controversial Post 3 The Behind the Scenes 4 The How-To Guide 5 The Personal Experience 6 The Seasonal Time Based Post 7 The Practical Motivation Post
8 The Listicle Roundup
My Types of Blog Post That Can Make You Money
Lets expand on each point listed here so you get a clear understanding of how important each one is and the best use case for them on your money webpages.
1 The Classic Review & Recommendation Article
The goal of these blog types is to build confidence in the product or service by reviewing what it has on offer, the features benefits and drawbacks. You can review or recommend ANYTHING there is no limit to how much to review or what you can review.
Works really well when you know people may be on the fence about shelling out if the sales page is a bit vague of detail. The opportunity is then showing the readers what it looks like when you get it when its a physical product. If it is software or digital based readers love to see what it looks like after you log in. You can then show them any really cool features or really crap features like freezes often or does not do what it said it would.
Best Use Case: ANYTHING 2 The Controversial Article As people we love a little bit of drama to distract us. We enjoy it even more if it’s someone else’s drama and when theres a controversial headline, claim or statement we seem to pay close attention to it. The goal of these types of articles is to generate discussions and debates from people either for something or against this is no place for fence sitters.
How does this work? It works by taking something or someone that has an audience or a following and writing about something that will get the followers attention or get the haters attention. Once you have the attention of either side the article will be shared and engaged with by members of one side of the statement, this will then get the attention of the people from the other side of the statement and a debate between the various standpoints or features takes place.
Example: Why I Think Google Sheets Is Superior to Microsoft Excel
In the above example Im calling out all the Microsoft excel fans and waving my opinion of how much better Google Sheets is as a tool. This will make excel fans want to state how bad my choice was and how inferior Google sheets is in comparison. But the Google sheets lovers will add their feelings about how amazing Google sheets is and why its better because of XYZ features.
Best Use Case: Promote only the strongest offers in these articles. You need to be careful that this does not backfire in your face because of the opposing statements and left wing comments from the against camp.
My Secret Sauce Tip: Don’t promote any offer and use this article type to build your list and link in to your other pages that have offers for both of the products or services you wrote about in the controversial article.
Other examples might include > Challenging popular opinions > Sharing unpopular statements > Highlighting shady or outdated industry practices > Write about things that were hyped up but didnt actually work > Write about changes you want made > Write like your writing a letter to the person who peeved you off
3 The Behind The Scenes Post I really enjoy these types of posts and think they really do grab your attention. When someone you follow online reveals more about their home life or gives you a tour of their office as an example you get drawn in because you want to know what is that persons life really like. We live in an age where AI, VR and a lot of special effects can be anywhere at any given moment so seeing some REAL behind the scenes stuff is highly entertaining.
Ive posted before about showing the storage containers for my ecommerce businesses and the packaging order process. I also showed what my studio looks like with all the mess of thousands of packets of product everywhere. The readers really enjoyed that article and the short video. This showed that I am an actual ecommerce store owner, I do order product and inventory and do have a storage facility. This works towards building more trust that I do what I say and am on the journey with the reader.
Best Use Case: Promoting training courses, masterminds and templates, how to guides.
Other Examples: > Whats in your backpack > Whats your phone look like > Whats on your computer desktop/laptop screen > What video/podcast recording gear do you use > What does your garage look like > What does your house look like > Morning routines and rituals
4 The How-To Educational Guide Article Another of my fav types of blog posts because they can really help people overcome obstacles. These are great for beginner audiences and medium level followings to get the roadmap to success or the final pat of the puzzle. This can also help you to generate really good case studies when the readers follow your steps and take action. You can promote more here because your audience is invested in learning and are hungry for information.
Best Use Case: Training, Masterminds, Guides, Templates, Scripts, Roadmaps and over the shoulder style offers.
5 The Personal Experience Article You can really use this type of blog post to your advantage because its coming from YOU and YOU are putting your face behind something. There is no higher trust signal than YOU holding the new backpack you are promoting saying how amazing it was on your recent trip to the Gold Coast. People see YOU and they see the product in your hands meaning YOU actually used it and YOU give it a 5 star rating.
Best Use Case: Anything will work with this type of post because you used it, and you can show how it helped you.
6 The Seasonal Time Based Post You need to be quite active online and have a good reading on your niche for this one to work well. Having your finger on the pulse of your niche can help you get a headstart on others. You want to be using time based or season based activities and events to base topics around them, Black Friday is the most obvious choice for online marketers as its a HUGE money grab.
I do like the year ahead predictions or looking back at the year reviews of what worked what didnt. These are really good for people following your journey and walking in your footsteps so you can make recommendations and lead into your review posts that then promote specific deals and offers.
If I was to use online marketing as an example the easiest wins for me would be keeping tabs on Google Updates and promoting software and tools to help manage this problem better or Facebooks ever changing algorithm would be an easy recommendation to join a specific training course or mastermind that deals primarily with Facebook Ads.
Best Use Case: Building a calendar of events, holiday and seasons that you can promote offers using one of them as the reason or feature topic of why you are promoting the offer.
Other Examples: > Deals per season > Viral trends and why these worked articles > Holiday & Event based posts > Year month week predictions > Be the first to release industry news
7 The Practical Motivation Post
Good marketing is really just clever storytelling if we were to break it down to the nuts and bolts of it. These do work very well especially if you have got results doing it or using the system and what not. You can use long form when its a more personal recommendation, allowing you to build a story into the content to help get your reasons across.
If you have had anything inspire you, motivate you and just make your life easier then you can 100% promote it because it has helped you do something better. Mentally, physically and emotionally. These offers can get a lot of engagement especially from likeminded people in your audience.
Best Use Case: Promoting training courses and mastermind type offers.
8 The Listicle Roundup Article This is a really good way to cover off multiple affiliate offers in one post but not come across to aggressive in your pitch. If every recommendation and listed item has an affiliate link listed it may be overbearing for readers.
You would gather up roughly 7-10 of the best things, things being products, services, tools basically anything and create a list. You then review your list to what makes the best sense to be 1, 2 and 3 and why you are promoting them first these are your main money makers. The listicle works really well and you can use a similar principle with roundups and summaries to make some offer promotions. The really nice thing about listicles is you can break them up very easily so readers can digest the parts that they want.
Best Use Case: Top 10 VPNs, These 7 Email tools or We selected these 5 finance coaching programs can work wonders. Use good content and high quality images. Identify the ones that have the most brand name traffic or search volume and highest payout and you can use them as the ones that you use your affiliate link on.
My Secret Sauce Tip: Don’t link every listed item, only list the top 2 per category and only mention the brand name of the others with no link. Some companies have an SEO outreach team who monitors brand name mentions and may reach out to you to get a backlink listed. You can use this as an intro to people in that company or to get listed on the company website however you negotiate the deal.
Conclusion Just having these different types of blogs wont be enough to make you money each blog still needs some basic SEO love. You will need to add some focus keywords and search intent analysis to get them ranking high enough for people to find and click on them.
I also suggest typing in similar topics, keywords and seeing what actually shows up first so you know the type of content to make and if you need more video content or meme based images. This really helps you know what is working and what people want to see. The best thing you can do is to get that posts live on your blog and come back and optimise them later. I do this on this blog and publish often with no images and then come back once Ive picked the images and decided where I want to internal link to so that the page makes sense and the layout is easy to read.
Pick some types of blogs write them out and make some money. Get those Click Bucks.
THE SEVEN RULES THAT HELP SUCCESSFULLY SELL PREMIUM SEO PACKAGES
When I started freelancing and fending for myself in this new industry of online marketing I was primarily selling pay per click, web design and SEO services as my core offerings. My goal was to always sell the prospect exactly what they needed and not what made me the most money and that they may not of needed but was nice to have.
I am by no means a salesman, I hate selling and Im not a big fan of meeting new people and pitching them something they don’t really understand. That just seems awkward to me, and me selling face to face is awkward enough I do NOT look like the typical digital sales person being a large tattooed, bearded man I get a few strange looks when I meet people the first time in office settings haha. Fun Fact you will never see me in a business suit ever! I made a pact with myself that if I ever had to wear a corporate suit again I was doing the thing for work.
My goal was to sell $100k of marketing services for the year . I created myself a large database of businesses in my area that needed help with marketing thanks to help of a lead scraping tool called SCOPELEADS. This tool would let me put in locations, service types and some keywords and would go and bring back hundreds of results that matched my exact request. I spent a couple days building this so it got to a nice fat figure of businesses. When I had 200,000 businesses in that database I now had a playground I work in.
My Main Methods of Contacting these Businesses: 1 Email prospecting with website audits, SEO audits and more 2 Cold calling getting the manager or owner and highlighting the areas of improvement 3 Walking in cold to the physical business and trying to get the owner and manager
This was some time ago and I was starting out, when you start out the hustle is different you try to attack everything. These methods don’t scale well when you get bigger and bigger but for a one man show these were all I had to get the conversation started with these businesses.
What I learned is all of these methods really really SUCK! no one wants to talk to you or hear how their pride and joy website is missing all of these things they don’t understand. I had a of doors slammed in my face and was a hung up on a lot. But I did learn so much about what these business owners do want to hear and what hooks actually got them to take interest in what I was saying. I believe in failing forward, so I may have lost 2,000 of those leads from my database but after 2,000 interactions I started picking up on what was working or at least intriguing the interest to take the conversation down other paths.
My confidence grew after figuring out these little 1% signals that I would use to compound and get the business owner invested in the conversation. I hate selling I really do but when it was becoming easier and easier I did kind a start to enjoy turning a no into a yes. A very weird turn of events but this sick little addiction to winning the conversation turned into sales and a steady stream of them closing me a nice little portfolio of new clients. I signed on 45 NEW clients over the span of 3 months. This got the attention of a bigger marketing agency who at the time was losing a lot of client (thanks to yours truly) so they made me an offer to sell my business to them for a nice little payday. I didn’t intend to be el solo while running a 47 client agency so this timed perfect with me scaling and then onboarding my new portfolio into their system and account manager team.
My sale of business was agreed on with one clause. That clause was that I work with the purchasing businesses sales and prospecting team to help them turn around their slump of no sales. I agreed of course I love training and developing talent. That was a no brainer.
I don’t tell you this to impress, big note or get attention, but hopefully, motivate some people who may be starting out to take real action.Now Ive got the 7 tips below to help you level up with selling more SEO. Also because I know what it’s like selling SEO, it’s not an easy task the competition is fierce and the cowboys have made it damn hard to sell.
Seven Tips To Selling Premium SEO Packages 1. Only Target Businesses That Are Already Established And Have An Existing Investing Mindset.
2. Your Success Of Setting Clients Expectations, Will Be A Direct Reflection Of Your Retention & Revenue Success.
3. Frame SEO As A Long Term Growth Plan & You As The Vehicle That Can Only Take Them There.
4. What You Charge For Your Fees Should Be Directly Related To The Potential Value You Bring & The Size Of The Problem You Solve.
5. The Deeper & More Involved In The Client’s Business You Are, The Harder It Is For Them To Operate Without You.
6. Always Give & Deliver Value First. Give Your Best Stuff That Will Help Them Now Before You Ever Ask For The Sale.
7. You Are The Prize, Back Yourselves, Back Your Prices & Be Willing To Walk & Want Nothing!
This forms some of what Ive taught the sales and prospecting team at the agency I consult with thats helped them net $3.4 million in new business.
If you have an existing sales team ask yourself about how they sell and how good are their sales. You should be always reviewing your sales process and communications from sales person to business owner. Do you use the right language, do you highlight their pain points and then your solution all of these really simple conversation points play a pat in getting the conversation turned towards signing on for your services.
What ‘simple things’ can you do to improve sales? Regardless of what is going on in the economy there are always simple things many businesses can use to improve their sales and profits. Sometimes making more sales is as simple as talking to more potential customers about what you sell. And there are a huge number of simple things you can do to attract more customers.
Here’s an interesting way to attract new customers that was both fun and extremely effective: A hardware shop increased the number of people coming into their store with a fun competition. They put up a big sign in their window that said: “We guarantee that if you come into our store one of our people will professionally greet and welcome you within 15 seconds. If they don’t we will give you $50.00 worth of hardware of your choice free” People would walk down the street and read this sign. They would stop for a few seconds and then mentally say to themselves “That sounds interesting; I think I will check it out.” So they would walk inside the hardware store to see more about what was going on.
The store had a bell and buzzer on their door that sounded as soon as you went in. One of their salespeople would excuse themselves if they were dealing with a customer by saying something like “Can you just excuse me for 10 seconds” and then walk over to the person and welcome them to the store. “Thank you for coming in today, I’m just with someone else so please free to look around. I’ll be with you in a moment”.
This way the customer was always greeted professionally within 15 seconds of walking in to the shop.Now once the people were in the shop guess what many did?They said to themselves, “Well now that I’m here what can I buy that I might need?” Sales increased dramatically.What ‘simple things’ can you try this week to increase your own sales?The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is ‘look under foot.’ The great opportunity is where you are. John Burroughs
If you want to sell more of something I highly recommend taking stock of the following: > your unique selling position > your customers pain points > your sales messaging and language > your sales teams method for getting the actual signing of a sales contract/agreement
The sale is an important part of the process and your USP, your sales people and language even down to how they go for the handshake to confirm the deal are all compounding signals that can be improved by just paying attention to them.
I really hope this was helpful and you are able to implement some changes in your processes and business that result in you getting more sales and higher retainers for your services. If you liked this post please share it. Thanks.
