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2013

How to Improve Your Site Conversion: 10 Data Proven Tips

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“Conversion” – it sounds like such a mysterious thing to newer website owners. You want more of your site visitors to buy your product. Those who are already buying, you want them to come back, buy again, and spend more while they are at your site.

However, the sheer number of elements that go into creating good conversion rates can seem overwhelming at first. Should you look at your call-to-action buttons? Do you need a better product description? Fortunately, there are companies that have big marketing budgets, or sometimes small ones but a lot of time to experiment, who have studied what works best to improve site conversion. By studying the techniques these companies have used successfully, you can gain some insider tips that will help improve conversion on your site.

NMX testimonials 1. Include Customer Testimonials

Adding customer testimonials tells your site visitors that you can be trusted because others have been happy with your product. WikiJob, a graduate jobs website in the UK and one of the largest, was able to increase sales by 34% simply by adding an optimized customer testimonial. You will want to take three steps to not only add testimonials, but ones that will increase your conversion rates.

  1. Collect customer testimonials. The easiest way to do this is to provide a link the customer can click on, e-mail current customers, and simply ask for testimonials.
  2. Use the testimonials on your site. Have a separate page, sprinkle them throughout your text, put them in an image box and include on your landing page, etc.
  3. A/B test the statements by optimizing them for SEO, increasing the size of the text, trying different placements, etc. and see which combination works best to increase your income.

The  co-founder of WikiJob, Chris Muktar, shared with Visual Website Optimizer how they tested their theory. They had two main goals. First, they wanted to get people to click through to PayPal, but their final goal was to convert that click into the customer purchasing the product. They tried their theory on a single landing page at first. They even experimented with placement, but the only thing that made a difference was upfront, sincere testimonials on the landing page.

2. Offer Trust Signals

Imagine for a moment that you are a visitor to a website for the first time. The product looks interesting, but you don’t know the person running it or anything about the company. Can you even trust them to deliver what you pay for? How do you know they will offer good customer service if you’re not happy with your purchase?

You can allay a lot of fears your customers have by offering trust signals. Offer a 30-day full refund, returns without questions, double money back guarantee (careful with this one), or even free shipping to help entice those new customers to trust you. Even the USPS offers a money-back guarantee on their Express Mail services.

3. Create Closed Checkouts

When you study your website statistics, do you notice that a lot of your customers go to the ordering page but don’t follow through with the order? Perhaps the customer is getting distracted. People are crazy busy these days. There are dozens of distractions for the average person. From children needing help with homework, to television, to a text message coming through to other websites and even, at times, your own website’s sidebars.

Closed checkouts remove all distractions in the checkout process. Amazon is a perfect example of a closed checkout that has translated into a massive sales machine. Once you arrive at your shopping cart, it is not easy to suddenly browse elsewhere. Instead, Amazon funnels the customer through the system, gathering payment information, shipping and suggesting additional products others have purchased. To model Amazon’s method:

  • Remove links that will take the customer away from the checkout process
  • Try to stick with simple pages without a lot of clutter, such as multimedia or even a lot of images
  • Create a clear process where the customer confirms the order, adds payment info, adds shipping and sees one clear button to click to complete the sale.

4. Add Special Effects

Let’s go back to your landing page for a minute. Special effects can drive the traffic that hits your site to the page you want it on, such as the ordering page, or a special offer. The goal is to make it easy for the site visitor to navigate to the page you want him on.

  • Hello Bar is a neat little tool which allows you to place a bar on your page that has text and is clickable. You can make it a bright red, for example, so it stands out and the customer will see the bar and may click on it. Be clear in the text as far as where the customer will go. For example, put the words “more information on plans and pricing” in your bar.
  • nRelate Flyout is a plugin that works with WordPress to insert a flyout box on your page similar to what is used at New York Times or Huffington Post. This catches the reader’s eye. Offer a tidbit, such as “save 34% on heating costs this winter with our energy efficiency plan” and your visitors may just go to your product page to learn more.

5. Watch Industry Trends

Check trends in your industry, watch what is trending on Google and Twitter, keep an eye on your friend’s Facebook pages and even tune in to the national news. A perfect example of how a company went with trending news and revamped their site to increase conversion happened when Michael Jackson passed away. According to Andrew Girdwood, it was within two hours if the King of Pop’s death that Amazon edited their MP3 homepage to feature Michael Jackson songs.

Editor’s note: of course, always be sensitive to current events, especially tragedies. There’s nothing worse than a company trying to profit off of sad news, like a shooting.

6. Check Site Usability

All the site traffic on the Internet won’t do you a bit of good if your site is hard to use. Bad navigation, home page clutter, lengthy pages, or poor layout will all hurt you with site visitors. If your site is slow to load, visitors will leave and move on to the next site that loads more quickly. Here are some things you can do today to ensure your home page and landing pages are easier to read in digital format:

  • audible Create a page layout that is balanced. If you’re not sure, ask a graphic designer or web designer friend to help. Artists usually have a natural eye for balance as well.
  • Use headers, subheaders and bullet points to break up the text and make it easy to skim.
  • Make sure there is white space between paragraphs and make your paragraphs shorter.
  • Make sure important navigation links are easy to find.

Audible.com is a good example of a usable site. The layout is easy to read and the text stands out against the white background. The top of the home landing page states two options very clearly: “How It Works” and “About Membership”. This is the information a visitor needs to decide whether or not Audible is right for him. Audible very effectively funnels the first-time visitor to one of these two pages and then offers a free book so you can try it out.

7. Have Separate Landing Pages

Nearly every business out there has more than one type of customer. If you sell pet rocks, for example, you might have a very young audience made up of children ordering pet rocks with their birthday money and an older audience ordering pet rocks as gifts. You may also sell different types of pet rocks, such as mini pet rocks and boulders. It is important to have different landing pages for different targeted audiences. You can more easily track how successful a particular site conversion tactic is with that product or audience.

Voices.com was able to improve their conversion rate by more than 200%. Through customer surveys and analytics, they determined that they had two main types of customers. Their customers were either voice over artists or companies seeking such artists. They created two separate funnels, one for each customer type.

8. Improve Headlines

The headline is the first impression the reader has of your website. Perhaps it is while she is browsing on a search engine, or maybe it is when a friend shares an article on a social media site. Whatever the case, you have a chance to make her want to read more or to yawn and walk away.

You can easily keep her on your site and through your content convert her into a customer by:

  • Improving your hook
  • Creating a set of templates that are proven effective formulas for headlines

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Read the Headlines Writing Guides at Web Hosting Secrets Revealed for 35 sample headlines and how to create your own.

# 9: Add Videos

Would your product be presented better with a video? In one case study, jewelry sales rose by an impressive 247% when videos of the product were added. A few things to keep in mind based on this case study:

  • Feature one product at a time so you can easily enable A/B testing for how successful that video is for that product.
  • Keep in mind that some visitors will have slower load times and cover the information in text in case they have multimedia disabled.

10. Keep It Short

The average Internet browser spends around 4 seconds looking over a page before deciding to move on. This could be due to the increased use of smart phones and tablets to access the Internet, but whatever the cause, you have a very short amount of time to hook that reader and get her interested in your product.

Remember that less is more. Let’s look at AssessmentDay’s success with cutting some of the elements on a landing page. The company had a landing page with a call-to-action button, a FAQs section about what type of assessment tests they offer, screenshots of their software in action and some headlines to tie it all together. They simply removed the screenshots, a very easy change, and their A/B test results showed a 62% change. Shorter landing pages are better for conversion rates.

Convert Visitors into Customers

If anything, these case studies prove that small changes can make a big difference. Removing a few graphics, adding a guarantee, showing customers that others love your product call all work to increase conversion. Smart conversion tactics equals success.

The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide to Selling Digital Products on Your Blog (Step Three)

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Step Three Create Your Product

So far in this guide, we’ve talked about building relationships to help you sell your product and about choosing the right product format and topic. Today, it’s time to get down to the meat of selling a digital product: we’re talking about how to go about creating the product itself.

It can seem like a daunting task. This is where a lot of bloggers get hung up and their digital product never happens. How many of us have half-finished products just sitting on our computers? Yes, I’m in this boat as well! But I’ve also finished products that have gone on to be very successful. So, today, I’m going to share with you the difference between creating a great product and losing steam half way through the product creation step.

Step Three: Get Organized for Perfect Product Creation

Creating a digital product falls into five main parts:

  1. Planning
  2. First Draft
  3. Polishing
  4. Editing
  5. Packaging

Some people only do step two and maybe three. This is a recipe for disaster! Let’s walk through each step from start to finish.

Planning for Product Creation

You might think that determining the type of product you’re going to create is all the planning you need, but if you don’t spend some time outlining and collecting your thoughts, your end product will suffer. Here are the steps I suggest you take before you start writing or recording:

  1. Brainstorm or mindmap your topic: Allow yourself to freely think about all of the ideas you have related to your topic that you could potentially cover.
  2. Edit your ideas: Not everything about the topic needs to make it into your product. You want to cover the topic adequately, but keep in mind that your product needs to be focused. If you have to many ides, your topic might be too broad. Focus for a single product or make plans to create several products.
  3. Organize the ideas: Once you’ve crossed off sub-topics that aren’t going to make the cut, organize the remaining ideas into an outline that makes sense for your type of product. For example, if you’re writing an ebook, organize by chapter. Or if you’re creating a video series, organize ideas by which video you’ll use to cover them.

Then, start to flesh out your outline. The more details you can add, the better.

Let’s say, for example, that I’m writing an ebook about Twitter, and one of my chapters is going to be on creating Twitter lists. I wouldn’t just leave it at that and start writing, though. I would break down the outline farther:

  • What is a Twitter list?
  • What kinds of Twitter lists should you create?
  • How to find people to add to your Twitter lists
  • Promoting your Twitter lists

But I wouldn’t stop there. I would break down this topic even further:

  • What is a Twitter list?
    • Definition
    • Explain how to create them
    • Why you should create them
  • What kinds of Twitter lists should you create?
    • Private versus public
    • Naming your lists
  • How to find people to add to your Twitter lists
    • Manually adding people to your lists
    • Tools to help you automate the process
    • Who NOT to include
  • Promoting your Twitter lists
    • Should you promote your lists
    • Methods for promotion

Now, if i were really going to write an ebook on this topic, I might break down these topics even farther. That way, when I start writing, I just go down the list and make sure that every topic makes it into the book in the write order.

First Draft and Polishing

Once you’ve planned, it’s time to start creating your product. I’m going this the “first draft,” which typically refers to written content, but your videos, membership site, course material, etc. can all be “first drafts” of sorts. Basically, we’ll talking about the first attempt at creating the content.

This step is where a lot of projects go to die! 🙂

Here are my best tips for getting it done, even if you don’t have tons of free time (who does?):

  • Have content creation goals. For example, when I’m writing an ebook, I set a goal to write a certain number of words every night before I go to bed. Or I might have a deadline to finish each chapter Stick to these small milestones. The first time you give yourself permission not to complete your daily tasks is the beginning of the end.
  • Use content you already own. Blog posts, older video scripts, etc. can be reformatted and used to create new content. This takes a lot less time.
  • Give yourself a work time and space. Every night from 10 PM to 11 PM you sit in your home office and write. Or every Monday during your noontime lunch break you record one video in your dining room area. Having a set schedule and location for doing your work can help you meet your goals.
  • Set a firm deadline. These are a little different from goals. A deadline is a time for the entire first draft to be done. The best way to make your deadline real is to tell someone (like an editor) when the draft will be available. That way, you’ll hold yourself more accountable. If you work with a mastermind group, you can also work with others to hold one another accountable for meeting goals and hitting deadlines.

Part-way through the product creation process, a weird things sometimes happens: you figure out that you’re doing things in the wrong format. That’s okay! Now is the time to change your idea a bit to better play to your skill set and make sure that you’re giving your future customers the best possible product.

Once you have a complete first draft, it’s time to polish it. This is the self-editing process can be difficult, but try to be liberal with your red pen. Cut unnecessary words and even unnecessary sentences or full sections if you’re producing written content. For other content, be just as liberal with cutting sections. You want to present your customers with the best, most focused product possible.

Editing

So if you’ve already self-edited to polish your work, why am I calling this section “editing”? Because self-editing and proofreading isn’t the same as having someone else look at your work to give you feedback. I know a lot of people cut costs in this area, but if you work with an editor, your final product will be much stronger.

And if you don’t have a great final product, customers will disappointed and less likely to recommend it to their friends.

If you don’t have a big budget, here’s how you can still get a great editor for your product:

  • Trade services with a friend: You edit their new ebook, they edit yours. It’s easier to see mistakes in others’ work. This is a great way to get free feedback and even proofreading services.
  • Offer a free “sneak peak” to your top community members: Give them free access in exchange for providing feedback on your product. This isn’t good for proofreading, but it is good to get general comments on how to make your product better.
  • Work with a VA: Virtual assistants (VAs) are often available at a very low cost, and they do great work. Find someone who specializes in editing and proofreading, preferably in your niche/industry.

Don’t skip this step. Trust me, you’ll thank me later!

Packaging

Lastly, once the content of your product is created, you have to package it. You need to design the ebook and create the pdf. Or you need to upload your videos and create a page to host them. Or you need to design your membership site. Or…well, you get the picture.

In the food blogging world, the saying is that people “eat with their eyes first.” In other words, you have to make it pretty if you want to sell it. So don’t skimp on this part either. Hire a designer if you can’t do the work yourself.

Along with packaging, you need a distribution method. Here are a few options:

  • Put the content behind a pay wall on your site. People will need to log in to view and/or download this content. The easiest option for this is a service like Wishlist Member.
  • Use a service like E-Junkie for easy distribution when someone purchases the product. You can also do this through PayPal, though other services allow you to have an affiliate program as well.
  • Manually distribute the product whenever someone buys it. This requires virtual no set-up, but can be too hard to manage depending on your sales. If you go this route, you may need to hire a VA to help with this process.
  • Set up an email sequence to distribute the product. For this option, you’ll need an advanced email management program, like Infusionsoft, where payment processing is also an option.

I can’t give you advice on which mention you should use. That depends on your specific product, the skill level of your customers, your budget, and your projected sales. Look into all of the options and try to stick to just one for all of your products if possible (this is the easiest option!).

Now…go out and create your digital product! Next up, we’ll talk about preparing for launch day. If you missed any of the posts in this series, you can view them below!

See Other Posts in This Series:

  1. Step One: Building Relationships
  2. Step Two: Choosing the Perfect Product
  3. Step Three: Creating Your Product (this post)
  4. Step Four: Planning Your Launch
  5. Step Five: Customers Service

Image credit (altered): Bigstock

How to Edit Your Podcast Like a Pro

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Podcasters, you’re in for a treat! Today, we have several top podcasters weighing in about a task that can be both time-consuming and frustrating: editing! The below advice comes from some of our NMX 2014 speakers who will be sharing their knowledge in the Podcasting Track and other NMX tracks.

Here are their best tips for editing your podcast:

jeremy frandsen “Hire a editor!  I used to waste 4 or more hours editing my show each week, because I was such a perfectionist.  Now, I send it to an editor.  It’s very inexpensive and you are much better off using that time to promote your podcast, schedule influential interviews, or plan future podcasts that will draw massive traffic.  There are many places you can hire an editor, but you can start by checking out elance.com” – Jeremy Frandsen, Internet Business Mastery
gary bembridge “Cut all the rambling and set up at the start of the podcast that you say when the microphone goes live. Start then from where you get into the meat of your topic. Think about radio shows and TV shows. They get into the plot or story from the start. We tend to share too much about ourselves, notices and off topic content before we start. Move that to the end. Even better, write a tight introduction or record it after you done the show.” – Gary Bembridge, Tips for Travellers and Marketing Mix Man
Chris Ducker “I record the podcast episode or video clip, dump it into Dropbox in all it’s raw, un-cut glory, and my VA’s handle the rest for me. They even upload the podcasts to my server, and the video clips to my YouTube channel, including a description, keywords, etc.” – Chris Ducker, ChrisDucker.com
john dumas “Adobe Audition is my best friend on editing days. You can assign hot keys, and my favorite hot key to assign is the marker. It allows me to press ‘m’ during the interview when I say something stupid, and go back and edit it out. I don’t have to listen to the WHOLE interview to find that one spot..I just go to the marker, edit, and move to the next one.” – John Lee Dumas, Entrepreneur on Fire
mike russell “When editing audio for your podcast, such as an interview, if the speaker repeats a word or stumbles over a phrase it’s often better to make edits in the middle of a word than it is to edit from the start or end of a sentence. Here’s a video showing exactly what I mean and how to put my tip into practice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNPclgelLB4” – Mike Russell, Music Radio Creative
kenn blanchard “My best editing tip for a podcaster or blogger is to cultivate and listen to an inner circle of “super fans” that consume all of your content as soon as you put it out and will “quickly” tell you if there is a type-o, glitch or shortcoming in your content so you can fix it.  Unlike those that just like to find fault, these fans are easy on your ego, and seek to make you better.  It is like having your mother review your blog or podcast.  That is the kind of “love” you get when you identify your niche.  One of the benefits of identifying your niche is that you can grow this garden of super fans that help you succeed.” – Rev. Kenn Blanchard, Blanchard Media Group and Black Man with a Gun
Erik Fisher “As far as editing goes, if you can help it, don’t. If you must, don’t spend too much time on it and definitely don’t break up the rhythm of the conversation or your natural speaking voice.” – Erik Fisher, Beyond the To-Do List
david jackson “Best audio editing tip is if you make a mistake, pause 10 seconds and then continue. This makes it super easy to spot in the recording and will decrease your editing time.

Also some software titles (I use Sony Sound forge) let you play the file at a faster speed. I have found I can listen at 1.78 (almost double speed) and still catch the subtle things that may need edited.” – Dave Jackson, School of Podcasting
CC Chapman “I’d say not to edit at all. Hearing your authentic voice even with the background noise and interruptions makes it more authentic. People will come to appreciate it.” – C.C. Chapman, CC-Chapman.com

What is your best podcast editing tip? Leave a comment below!

How a Blog Can Turn You into an Industry Authority

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blog When done well, a long-term blogging strategy can build your authority on a given topic. But when done really well, blogging can make you THE authority on your industry.

No matter how much content you publish, you’ll never be viewed as an authority if you keep your industry knowledge to yourself and only use your blog to promote your brand. Authority bloggers know that blogging is about so much more than trying to sell. Here are 4 ways you can use your blog to establish yourself as an industry authority.

1. Prove Your Knowledge

Without evidence of your expertise, your blog will automatically feel less authoritative. Just about every blog niche on the Internet is full of “gurus” and “ninjas” who claim to be experts in a given topic but don’t have the real world experience to justify their claims. Don’t let this turn you off from calling yourself an expert — by being the real deal, you’re already heads and shoulders above many other blogs.

But don’t shove your credentials down people’s throats. Do make sure to detail your experience and accolades in your About page. You’ll also want to weave your experiences and success stories throughout your blog content. Share case studies, anecdotes and testimonials whenever they’re relevant to the content you’re writing.

Being an expert also means knowing when you don’t have all of the answers. Be sure to back up your content with sources other than yourself. Strengthen your content’s credibility by linking to articles, quoting experts and referencing studies.

2. Become a Curation Machine

This may seem counter-intuitive, but the thought leadership on your blog doesn’t always need to come from you. In addition to creating original content, curating content relevant to your business can help you become a one-stop destination for industry news and insights. Curating content will force you to read more about your industry, which will in turn help build up your knowledge base.

Here are a few ways to get other people’s content working for you:

  • Feature a weekly link round up of the best articles you’ve read about the industry. For example, online marketing blogger Kristi Hines does a post every Friday with links to the best marketing content she has found that week.
  • Create “best of” resource lists that are collections of other people’s content.
  • Piggy back off of opinion pieces. Write blog posts in response to what other industry influencers are saying.

Just be sure to always give credit where credit is due — never rip off someone’s idea or content without properly linking back to them.

3. Build Relationships with Influential Blogs

In the offline world, who you know is often more important than what you know. This is also somewhat true online.

Forming relationships with other bloggers is key for getting your blog in front of the right audiences and establishing yourself as part of your industry’s “in crowd.” As such, investing the time into giving back to other bloggers should be a prominent part of your blog strategy.

Here are just a couple of ways to connect with other bloggers in your niche:

  • Comment on other industry blogs. Leave valuable comments that add more to the discussion (not just another “great post!” comment). This is often how blogger relationships begin. You can also expect to see some traffic come from the sites you leave comments on.
  • Invite influencers in your niche to write for your blog. Not only does this let you take a break from posting, but they’ll most likely urge their readers to read their post on your blog.
  • Start writing for other blogs. Pick a handful of blogs that have your target audience, and reach out about guest posting (just make sure to do this and not this when you’re reaching out to other blogs!).
  • Link to other blogs in your posts. When you mention another blog or industry personality in your content, reach out to them via social media or email with a link to the published content. They’ll appreciate the mention/link and most likely share the post.

Many of these tactics are mutually beneficial, too. Once a blog’s audience sees they have a relationship with you, they’ll be likely to check out your blog and potentially become new readers.

4. Get Noticed by the Press

Whether you are looking to get in front of a national or local audience, blogging can position you as a reliable go-to source on all things related to your niche. Press mentions can not only bring in a huge number of leads, but also quickly position you as a leading authority on a topic.

Many times, press mentions have a snowball effect. You will find the same reporters coming back to you again and you’ll also have other reporters approach you once they see your name in a newspaper, magazine or on the news.

When a current event happens related to your field, reporters scout out sources within the industry. Not only does an industry blog help reporters find you through search, but it also builds your credibility in their eyes. It’s possible journalists will find you just through search, but you’ll also want to make it easy for reporters to find you:

  • Join Help A Reporter Out (HARO), where you can connect with reporters looking for sources in your industry.
  • Make your LinkedIn profile visible to the public and keep your credentials updated.
  • Use Twitter to track journalists looking for sources using the #urgharo hashtag.

Keep in mind blog content can also act as resource material, since reporters can easily reference or link back to relevant posts you have published. You’ll want to be sure to regularly update your content so it can remain an evergreen resource.

Of course, the last way to build authority is to always keep your audience at the front of your mind. Being extremely generous with your knowledge is the #1 way to establish trust with your audience, so never worry about “giving away too much” for free.

What are some ways you’ve built your blog’s authority? Let us know in the comments below.

025 The Podcast Report – Tips On Getting The Most Out of Your NMX Experience

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

PodcastReport-150 Erik Fisher and I are back with another episode of The Podcast Report, the podcast devoted to the Podcasting Track of New Media Expo.

In this episode, Erik and I are joined by Mike & Izabela Russell from Music Radio Creative as we discuss the various tips that will help you get the most out of your NMX experience.

 
 
New Media Expo Promo
If you have an interest in promoting NMX to your audience, we have created a professionally produced promo that you can play on your podcast. This is a great way to encourage your community to come meet you, face to face, at this event.

Click Here To Download The Promo

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Highway Blogging: How to Keep Your Readers Happy No Matter What Their Experience Level

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highway Recently, I went on a pretty epic road trip to visit family members living in various east coast states. Driving thousands of miles gives a person a lot of time to think (especially when your boyfriend/driving buddy falls asleep like a baby whenever he’s sitting in the passenger seat of a car for more than five minutes). Y’all know me: when I have a few minutes to my mind turns to my favorite subject: blogging.

Somewhere in Tennessee, I started to think about how to better please my blog readers.

One of my challenges has always been figuring out how to keep readers happy even though they are worlds apart in terms of experience and skill level.

Here on the NMX blog, we have people who are just starting out, but we also want to keep our long-term, more experienced readers interested. It’s a tall order to provide educational content for someone who has been blogging for a decade AND someone who only recently started blogging.

I call this highway blogging, because you need lanes for everyone, from slow, inexperienced drivers to drivers who are testing the limits of their cars speedometers. Without enough lanes, the highway is congested and drivers get frustrated.

So how can you make sure that your blog’s highway is wide enough to accommodate all readers without being too unfocused? Here are some tips I use:

  • Schedule your content: When you look at a calendar of your content, you can easily see if you’re posting too much beginner content or too much expert-level content.
  • Err on the side of “advanced”: You’re more likely to lose experts who are bored than beginners who are in over their heads. Beginners are hungry for knowledge, so even if they aren’t quite ready for your advanced content yet, they’ll bookmark it to read later.
  • Focus on being unique: Even advanced users will read your beginner content if your approach to the topic is unique. Remember, people come to your blog to read posts from you, with your style and voice. Teach from a different perspective and an expert in your niche will still share your content, even if it’s teaching a skill they already know.
  • Combine content: There’s no reason you can’t cover a topic from both educational levels. Start with a few paragraphs about the basics, then go over some advanced content as well.
  • Poll your readers: You might be wrong about the skill level of your primary audience. You might think that most of your readers are more advanced (or more beginner) than they actually are.

To be honest, this is still something I struggle with: finding that balance to keep all of my readers happy. Leave a comment with your tips. How do you  cater to all experience levels on your blog?

5 Tips to Make the Most Out of Conferences (Sponsored Post)

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NMX blog post_Sept_Kelly and Milutin You’ve booked the tickets. You’ve found a place to sleep. You’ve broken every single piggy bank you’ve ever owned and paid the registration fee (or registered early and got a really good deal, because why waste perfectly good piggy banks?).  And now the day has finally come – The Much Anticipated Conference is finally here, and you’re off, with your phone, laptop, tablet, chargers and friendship bracelets tucked away in your backpack.

But let’s face it: conferences can be a rather chaotic affair. As frequent and avid conference goers, we’ve put together a list of tips that may help you get the very best out of the event:

1. Plan ahead

One does not simply walk into Mordor. Similarly, one does not simply walk into a conference without a solid game plan – including, but not limited to, all the places that sell food that can pass for lunch. With all the great keynote speeches to hear, sessions to attend, people to meet and booths to visit, there will hardly be room for a three-course meal. So pull out that conference agenda, and mark away! Pick some favorites and a few backups – it’ll be as easy as choosing which college to attend (by which we mean, there may be tears).

2. Be flexible

You’ve picked out the three sessions you’d physically fight people to attend – but you lost, or the speakers cancelled last minute. Now what? This is when your backups come in handy: some of the best sessions we’ve attended were completely spontaneous calls that featured an awesome audience and a speaker who is a part time blogging messiah, and part-time stand-up comedian. We’ve loved him so much that we invited him to speak at our own conference. See how that works?

3. Check out those booths

Things that can happen if you ignore those conference booths: a cute baby animal dies. Or, somewhat more likely, the people who are ridiculously passionate about their work (and may have flown over 4,000 miles to be there) don’t get to pass on that enthusiasm to you, which is totally your loss, dude. Not only can you score awesome freebies, you can also find unexpected business opportunities: we’ve been known to interview bloggers that use .me, feature them on our blog and social media channels, and give them the extra exposure they deserve! So check out those booths.

4. Bring business cards. Bring more.

If done right, conferences are usually 70% learning, 30% networking and 100% fun. I just made those numbers up, but jokes aside – while you’ll no doubt be inspired by the speeches you hear and the stuff you learn, don’t hesitate to share it with all the awesome people around you! And in these Days of Digital, don’t forget that business cards (especially neat ones with your headshot on the back) can go a long way in nurturing the new relationships you’ve created.

5. Follow up!

You’ve met ALL THE PEOPLE. Now what? Easy: as soon as you sleep of the post-conference excitement, go through those business cards and shoot everyone an email. This step is especially important for potential business partners – remind them where you’ve met, perhaps what you’ve discussed and where you’d like to go from there. Including a personal comment will always get you brownie points – we get tons of these emails after sponsoring conferences, and the ones that stand out are from people that paid attention to my (slight) obsession with chocolate, or the fact that our company is based in Montenegro, population: 620,000.

With this cheat-sheet in hand, you’re guaranteed to have a fun, memorable and productive event.  We’re also looking forward to hearing your voice: what tips, if any, would you add? What are some of your favorite ways of approaching people or businesses? Lastly, what’s the best memory from a conference that you’d like to share with the Internet?

Six Ways to Make Your Brand Shine in a Small Business Blog

Author:

Ask a dozen marketers what “branding” means and you’ll get a dozen answers. Why? Because it’s a word with many meanings, depending on who’s doing the defining. This blog alone shows 30 unique definitions, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

What we do know is that branding is that it is the yin-yang of your business: You tell the world how you want to define your services or products, what differentiates you, and why people should trust and buy from you. Ultimately though, your brand ends up in the hands (and minds) of customers and prospects—they will be the ones collecting experiences and driving business to or away from you. Some even argue that companies have lost control of their brands altogether, unintentionally passing the baton to consumers, thanks to the power of social media. That’s why it’s even more important to exploit the brand equity you do have with the vast web connections, from your web site to social media presence to search, and anywhere else your business lives.

In the end, your blog can be one of your biggest brand assets, or do nothing to add value and attract business. Here are some top tactics to work it to your advantage:

#1 Mirror, Mirror On The Web

Starting from the outside in, your blog should walk the walk as a natural extension of  your company name, logo, color scheme, and all other tangible elements that make up your brand identity. The best way to stop that natural flow in its tracks is to publish a blog that lacks brand identity. A company blog should be a seamless transition from anywhere you’ve marked your (brand) territory: a real-world meeting where your business card was passed, a visit to your store, an eBook you wrote, or a transaction on your site. Make sure to give your blog a name—not just a “blog” section on your web site—one that reinforces who you are and what you do (My business name is LiveWire Communications and my blog name is Marketing Sparks. Get it?). And don’t forget about a tagline so readers know what your blog is about (Mine is “Insight about Advertising, Marketing, and Branding.”).

#2 No Blog-ots 

Of course your blog should not only walk like your business, it needs to talk the talk too. Speak in your brand voice at all times: Is it funny? Conversational? Whimsical? Even if you’re a number-crunching accountant, you can still let your personality come through (unless you’re crabby). The tone, style, and words that you use act as a conductor for your brand. Be true and authentic, whether you’re a storefront or a one-person shop. No one would question speaker and self-proclaimed “Unstuck-er” Erika Napoletano about this: Whether or not you like her cussin’, in-your-face style, her brand is illuminated in every word of her blog, even the four-letter ones. That also goes for your “About” page too. This is a great opportunity to showcase and reinforce your brand story.

#3 Stand Out From the Competition

It’s pretty easy to be a “Me Too” when it comes to blog topics for various industries. You can go outside the lines, but only so far. Your blog is a prime opportunity to bring out the uniqueness of your brand, no matter what the post is about. Marc Sheridan turned River Pools blog into what it calls itself  “…the most educational swimming pool blog in the country” through his efforts to educate and inform readers on the pool industry (which he turned into a successful content marketing/speaking career as The Sales Lion). Conversely, another tactic is to deliver contrasting point of views from industry bloggers. For instance, if all graphic designers are writing about the hottest trends in typography, write about the suckiest fonts instead—you’ll stand out for your knowledge in a different way.

#4 Dole Out Your Branding in Quick Hits

Another way to continue brand extension in your blog (and amp up your content promotion while you’re at it) is to leverage a thought-provoking quote, stat, or visual from a post and blast out to your social networks at various intervals. It will make a brand statement and also serves as a call- back to the blog while you’re at it. And don’t forget to make thoughtful, impactful comments on related blogs, this can be another great opportunity to put your branding stake in the ground.

#5 Hitch Your Wagon to a Like-Minded Star

Reinforcing your brand in your blog can be also be achieved by bringing someone else into the writing mix. Think interviews, quotes, or a guest posters. And I’m not talking about using a generic quote from Abraham Lincoln here; more like showing your affinity with a thought leader, industry luminary, or cheeky scofflaw who will draw attention. This will speak volumes about who you are (not to mention getting your blog some back links).

#6 Look Inside Yourself

Still stumped on how to bring out the essence of your brand? Conduct a brand audit to get more clarity. That may seem fancy pants if you’re a consultant or small business, but it can also lead to valuable insights. Do a free quickie one with a consultation, download a tool, or ask yourself a few pointed questions. Doing these exercises can help reveal the true essence of your brand and point to any disconnects communicating to your audiences. If you’re strapped for time, try Wordle to visually capture brand descriptors and get a snapshot of who you are. After all this soul-searching, you may find that your brand is not reflecting what your small business is about, and it might be time to rebrand—but we’ll save that subject for a future post.

What tactics do you use in your blog to bring out your brand?

How to Edit Your Blog Posts Like a Pro: 8 Top Bloggers Share Their Tips

Author:

edit your blog posts Want to increase the quality of your blog posts significantly? Hire an editor. I don’t mean a proofreader who’s going to pick out your typos. I mean a real editor who will use their pen like a razor blade to cut your rough posts until what is left is a shining gem.

If you don’t have the means for that, though, all is not lost. Yes, you can self-edit. It isn’t easy, but it is possible.

I spoke to several NMX speakers who shared some favorite tips for editing blog posts:

Improving Your Flow

In our own minds, the purpose of a post usually seems extremely clear. But if your post’s content isn’t organized well, it can be easy to lose sight of your ultimate goal with the piece. By improving your flow, you can carry your readers through the post so they better understand what you’re trying to say.

Here’s a great technique for improving your flow from Ric Dragon of DragonSearch:

If you feel your ideas are lacking a cohesive narrative, here’s a trick that can help you create a better flow of ideas: take a few paragraphs, their sentences, even phrases, and convert them into a bulleted lists. This is only for your own review – the idea here isn’t to actually publish your paragraph as a bulleted list!

Start by making the first sentence the main bulleted point. Then with each main idea, create a sub-bullet. In this following example, I’ve taken a paragraph from Malcolm Gladwell:

“In 1969, Ted Turner wanted to buy a television station. He was thirty years old. He had inherited a billboard business from his father, which was doing well. But he was bored, and television seemed exciting. “He knew absolutely nothing about it,” one of Turner’s many biographers, Christian Williams, writes in “Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way”. “It would be fun to risk everything he had built, scare the hell out of everybody, and get back in the front seat of the roller coaster.”

Now, let’s break down the flow of thoughts:

  • In 1969, Ted Turner wanted to buy a television station.
    • He was thirty years old.
    • He had inherited a billboard business from his father,
      • which was doing well.
    • But he was bored, and television seemed exciting.
      • “He knew absolutely nothing about it,” one of Turner’s many biographers, Christian Williams, writes
        • in “Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way” (1981).
      • “It would be fun to risk everything he had built,
        • scare the hell out of everybody, and
        • get back in the front seat of the roller coaster.”

You can see how each of Gladwell’s paragraphs extends the story, and carries the reader from one thought to another. In contrast to that, a paragraph that lacks narrative flow may have disjointed sentences that don’t follow one another. By bulleting your own work for a bit, you can see where you might be adding thoughts that are out of the flow, and improve your own writing quickly.

To Write Well, You Have to Cut

One of my personal best editing tips is to always try to cut your post down. What can you cut out and still get your point across? All writers are guilty of using too many words.

You can’t be afraid to cut your posts. Writes Chris Ducker (who will be presenting a super session at NMX), “My blog post editing ‘system’ is a simple one. I write and write and write until I feel as if I’ve covered everything I need to, to be able to get my point across and provide as much value as possible. Then I’ll go back and remove any unnecessary words, examples, etc. Finishing off with a spell check and some initial layout (usually just subtitles). This equates to around 20-30% of the original article being cut, and the final product being as polished as possible.”

A Final Critical Look

Before publishing, it helps to give your post one final look the next day. I like to let posts marinate a bit (at least 24 hours, but more if possible), and then do a final review. One of the best ways to do this is to read your post out loud.

This was actually one of the most common tips given to me when I polled NMX speakers, such as Gary Bembridge, who writes, “Sleep on the post and then the next day read it aloud to yourself. You will be surprised at the issues you pick up and how easy it is to improve the flow and messaging as your brain has been quietly editing and improving your post overnight.”

Dino Dogan agrees, writing, “My best editing tip is to wait, don’t hit the publish button. Come back in few hours and re-read what you wrote. As you’re re-reading your content, ask yourself these questions. Can it be said more clearly? Can it be shorter? Can I be more specific? Does it tell a story? And if you’re proofreading, try reading your content backwards word by word. It’s an old trick journalists use to check for typos. It works.”

Writes Rich Brooks, “I read my blog post–especially the beginning and the wrap up–out loud. I strive to have my blog posts sound like the way I speak in real life, so if it doesn’t sound like me, I know I need a rewrite. The beginning and end are most important to me because they help pull in a reader, and get them to take action, respectively.”

Aaron Hockley, who will presenting a workshop at NMX agrees, writing, “My biggest editing tip is to read the article out loud.  You’ll often pick up on misspellings, odd sentence flow, and other issues by articulating verbally that which you’ve previously written.  Our eyes and brains can skip past a written problem several times but when we engage a different part of the brain, the issue might become more visible.”

And I think Kristin Hines, creator of the course Blog Post Promotion, sums it up well, writing, “As a freelance writer and blogger, I have found that it’s easy to miss those things that spell check doesn’t catch after you’ve stared at a blog post for hours on end. Therefore, I have two options for editing – taking a few days away from the post and revisiting it with fresh eyes, or having someone else edit it. It’s the only want to make sure those “oopses” are taken care of come publishing time.”

Do You Need to Edit at All?

Finally, I think it’s important to note that some people over-edit. Sometimes, too much editing can cause you to strip you out of the post. So, I’ll leave you with a final thought, from C.C. Chapman:

“I’d say not to edit at all. Hearing your authentic voice even with the background noise and interruptions makes it more authentic. People will come to appreciate it.”

What is your best tip for blog post editing?

5 Foolproof Ways for Advanced Bloggers to Get Noticed by New Readers

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Print You’ve been blogging a while. You have a decent following. And you’re already doing all the obvious things to build traffic, from promoting on social media to utilizing a plugin for SEO. So are there more things you can still learn about building traffic? What additional steps can you take to draw in new readers? Is your best tactic at this point to just keeping chugging away, or could there be more that you should do?

The good news is it’s never too late to build your blog audience, particularly if you think strategically. And with that in mind, here are five foolproof ideas to try.

1. Raise the Bar on Your Content

Plain and simple, the best way to draw new readers is to create better content—and, while it may seem obvious, this is a strategy you never outgrow. Even when you think you’re doing the best you can, there’s always a way to push higher. Take better photographs. Write more meaningful posts. Look around at the competition and see what they’re doing better than you. Then, work to make your blog the best in the industry. Don’t settle for being one of the many; shoot to be the one at the top. Keep improving and improving. The better your content is, the more shareable it becomes, bringing new readers to your site.

2. Spend Time Making Friends

According to Derek Halpern at Social Triggers, there’s no better way to draw new readers than by convincing other bloggers to send readers your way—Bloggers offer a great deal of influence, and tapping into that influence is one of the best ways to make your blog grow. So give yourself time to build relationships with other bloggers, and go about it the same way you go about building relationships anywhere else. Be friendly, responsive, generous, and kind. Pay attention to what other bloggers are writing about, and be the kind of person who remembers what they say. When you show other writers you care about them, you make meaningful connections that create valuable relationships over time.

3. Invite Prominent Bloggers to Guest Post

A surefire way to get bloggers to send you new readers is by asking them to guest post for your site. When people write posts for your blog, they will be quick to promote them on their social networks and to their audiences. As they do, they bring floods of new readers to your site. So reach out to bloggers you have relationships with, whose work you already like, and ask if they’d be willing to contribute a post.

4. Team Up for a Big, Cross-Promotional Giveaway

Two are better than one—and that’s as true for blog promotion as for anything else. When you pool your promotion efforts with other bloggers, you set your site up for greater success. Look at the example of what 15 lifestyle bloggers did, teaming up for a $200 Anthropologie giveaway. By working together, they divided the financial investment each blogger had to put in. What’s more, each person promoted the other 14 people in her post about the giveaway, exposing new readers to new sites.

5.  Begin Writing Somewhere Else, Too

Play off another site’s traffic by contributing to its content, along with a clear link and mention of your own blog. Whether you write a monthly column for your local newspaper or a one-time guest post for a huge blog in your industry, doing so exposes you to an entirely new audience of readers. Many of those readers will like what you say and go to your blog to learn more, expanding your read.

After you’ve been blogging a while, it’s easy to fall into a rut. It’s easy to coast along on your average amount of traffic, wishing for a fluke promotion to come and boost your readership someday. But you don’t have to wait. If you’re serious about growing your blog, implement some of the above strategies now—New readers are out there; you just have to find new ways for them to find you.

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