Evan Hoeflich, Author at

Constant Contact Review – The Email Autoresponder I Personally Use For My Blog

March 31, 2019 Evan Hoeflich Leave a comment

IMPORTANT: I have since made the switch over to ConvertKit since Constant Contact just wasn’t providing the service I needed for my website. Read why I prefer ConverKit over any other email autoresponder here.

Disclosure: I get affiliate commissions for purchases made through links on this page.

With so many options of email autoresponders available today it can be hard to decide which particular service to use.

I know I definitely had this problem when first starting out.

However, since being involved with Internet Marketing since 2007, this has allowed me to extensively test many different email marketing platforms.

I’ve truly seen the good, bad and ugly when it comes to autoresponders and really only recommend a handful to my readers as of today (Constant Contact and Aweber).

Today we are going to be reviewing Constant Contact, which is the email marketing software that I currently use on this very blog you’re reading.

I’m very happy with Constant Contact’s email marketing services and highly recommend this to other bloggers, business owners and professionals…No matter what their experience level is.

With that being said, let’s go over a few of my favorite features/aspects of Constant Contact.

And as always, if you have any questions on this Constant Contact review, please feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

Constant Contact Review & Why It’s My Go-To-Choice For My Blog

1.) User-Friendly

Constant Contact is the ideal option for many people because it’s incredibly simple to use and operate. Many bloggers and business owners want to get up and running as quick as possible when it comes to email and really don’t want to be bogged down trying to learn a complicated software. One of the biggest benefits to Constant Contact is that you can have an email campaign created and ready to send out in a matter of minutes. I know with other email software I’ve tested in the past, it can be confusing and even discouraging to create a follow-up series or even send out a simple email broadcast blast. With Constant Contact, you might be surprised just how simple their entire process is!

2.) Free Trial Period

Constant Contact offers one of the longest trial periods out of any of the email autoresponders on the market today at 60 days (sign up for your free 60 day trial here). This lets someone who might be on the fence to really dive in and test out the software before making a commitment. Most people when they see and experience all that Constant Contact has to offer will upgrade to a paid membership. Regardless, 60 days gives you some breathing room and ample time to make a decision.

3.) Customization & Segmentation

Although I personally try to keep my email design pretty simple, Constant Contact offers many customization options when crafting your email templates. This can be beneficial for businesses who really want to customize their messaging by adding a logo, certain colors, graphics, spacing, styling etc. It allows us to create a unique and personalized email experience for our subscribers, keeping them engaged, intrigued and interested in more.

Segmentation is also a helpful feature that Constant Contact offers. I know with my own personal email list through Constant Contact, I have 3 different segments that I set up to market to. For many businesses, they may want to separate certain lists (for example, buyers vs. non-buyers). Furthermore, you are able to trigger this within your follow-up series through a “click segmentation” feature. This can help you add people to different lists just from them clicking on a particular link within your email.

4.) Integration with WordPress

As a blogger, I need something that easily and seamlessly integrates with WordPress. Luckily, there are many plugins that help you connect the Constant Contact platform to your website. I like to use MailMunch to get high-quality opt-in forms set up on my websites (such as sidebar forms, exit pop-ups etc.). This allows me to easily build my email list on my WordPress site and then manage it within Constant Contact. Because Constant Contact is such a reputable email marketing software, there are many plugin/marketing tool options that work with integrating it on your website.

5.) Deliverability

Let’s face it, deliverability is one of the single most important aspects when choosing an email marketing software. Fortunately, in my experience and years of testing many different email autoresponders, Constant Contact has one of the highest delivery rates out there. You must be able to fully rely on your email marketing provider to deliver the majority of your messages to people’s inbox. This is critical to your bottom line. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by my overall open rates and clicks throughout my emails lists with Constant Contact. You can tell they put in a lot of work to ensure that their deliverability remains as high as possible (and better than most of the competition).

6.) Customer Support

For me personally and with any marketing tool I purchase, customer support is one of the first things I look into. If you run into a snag or need additional assistance to solve an issue, you really don’t want to feel like you’re alone…and with Constant Contact, you definitely don’t. You can give them a call at their customer service number or start a live chat (which is my favorite). They are generally able to help resolve your problem/question within the first go around. At least that’s been my experience so far and with various requests!

7.) Affiliate Opportunity

Last but certainly not least is the affiliate opportunity that Constant Contact offers. If you are accepted into the Constant Contact affiliate program you also get assigned a dedicated account manager to help you get the most out of the partnership. This to me was a really nice touch and I’ve been in contact with my account manager each week brainstorming different ideas on how to best promote the Constant Contact service. The payouts are also much more impressive than many of the competing email affiliate programs with $5 per free trail sign up and $105 per paid member sign up. Really it’s a no-brainer to promote this if you qualify and adhere to their guidelines!

Conclusion

I hope this Constant Contact review was helpful and provided more clarity and direction if you’ve been struggling to make a decision on an email marketing software.

My rating for Constant Contact is a 5/5

I have absolutely no reason to rate it any lower and have not run into any issues with the platform to date.

Again, this is the email marketing service that I personally use on my blog and I’ve really enjoyed my partnership with Constant Contact.

The quality features, tools, and overall support really makes this a stand out in my opinion.

Check out my Constant Contact Review on YouTube:

Best Autoresponder

Keep Putting Out High-Quality Content – Be A Content Producing Machine!

March 23, 2019 Evan Hoeflich Leave a comment

In order to start establishing a following for yourself, it’s essential that you produce quality content on a consistent basis.

This is how you build a loyal readership/viewership and eventually a customer base.

However, I’d like to emphasize the word quality here, as there’s no point in publishing loads of mediocre or sub par content.

Do NOT sacrifice quality for quantity.

For example, you are much better off publishing 4 highly valuable blog posts per month compared to 30 below average posts.

Although you want to be consistent in your content generation strategy, you need to combine this with quality work.

With that being said, here are a few strategies that I’ve been successfully using to push out lots of quality content.

Blog Posts

My blog is really my main hub and where I eventually try to direct all of my traffic to. I generally publish 1 high-quality article to my website per week (4 per month). These articles are normally about Internet Marketing tactics, blogging, SEO, traffic generation, my overall journey and a lot more. I try to make these as informational as I can for both new and returning visitors of my website (how to guides, tutorials, personal failures/successes etc.). Many times these will be long-form style blog posts of 1,000 words or longer to really try to help people as much as I possibly can. For one these types of articles tend to rank well in Google and two they allow you to really go in deep on the topic you’re writing about. A blog is a great platform to produce quality content on a constant basis.

YouTube Videos

I try to use the same schedule as my blog posts above for my YouTube channel as well, 1 high-quality video per week uploaded to YouTube (4 per month). Since there is so much traffic “hanging out” on YouTube nowadays, this is a platform that I believe every marketer should be utilizing. I like to publish videos based on the blog posts I am writing for that given week. Again these are designed to be both in-depth and helpful to my viewers. For example, if I write a blog post on “4 Tips to Generate More Organic Traffic For Your Blog”, I will generally publish a video to YouTube on the same topic. I will also embed my video in the blog post itself and add the blog post link to my YouTube video description. This gets people navigating both to my blog and YouTube channel for maximum exposure. I will also do one off videos on separate topics from my blog posts as not all of my articles require a supplemental video. The key takeaway here is 4 high-quality videos published to my channel per month.

Forum Posting

I am a member of a handful of authoritative and popular forums in my niche and try to post on them a couple of times a week. But for this example, let’s just say I publish 2 times per week to my favorite Internet Marketing forum WarriorForum.com. That comes out to around 8 forum posts per month. And these aren’t low-quality comments. Just like my blog posts and YouTube videos, I try to make my forum posts as informative as possible. When you provide value like this, people are intrigued to learn more from you. Forums are an excellent way to answer people’s questions and position yourself as an expert in your niche. You are generally allowed a link in your forum signature which can generate additional traffic to your website…see screenshot below:

Conclusion

If we total all this content up (blog posts + YouTube videos + forum posts) it comes out to 16 high-quality pieces of content each and every month. That’s a lot of valuable content and a great way to build a loyal and engaged following. Of course there’s dozens of other ways to generate content that I did not mention in this particular post, but these are just some of the strategies I’ve seen success with lately. Test them out for yourself and for a prolonged period of time to collect some data. Remember, it’s a combination of consistency and quality!

What content generation tactics are working for you?

Blogging Report (February 2019) – Noticeable Increases compared To Last Year

March 10, 2019 Evan Hoeflich Leave a comment

When you start seeing noticeable year-over-year organic traffic increases on a consistent basis, it’s a sign that the SEO work you’re implementing is paying off.

I have more blog articles ranking in Google now then I did compared to this time last year, which in return is generating additional organic traffic for my website.

Again, as I always state, it takes time to see growth with your blog and you need to be patient when building your business.

Part of the reason I do these blogging reports is to be as transparent as possible to demonstrate that this has not been an overnight process for me (and will continue to take a lot of work).

It’s my own personal case study.

You’ll see months where my blog traffic spikes, plateaus/stagnates and even dips here and there.

That’s all part of the process…

Now of course everyone’s results will be different depending on the niche they operate in, posting frequency, SEO knowledge etc…Some will grow much quicker than me and others much slower.

But the important part is that you stick to a plan and continue on with your efforts over the long-term.

With that being said, let’s jump into this month’s blogging report.

Organic Traffic (February 2019)- 217 Visits

Organic traffic in February 2019 came in at 217 visits.

Not as high as last month (January 2019- 259 visits), but up noticeably when comparing year-over-year, which is a much better way to gauge how your website is performing overtime.

Year-Over-Year Organic Traffic Increases (February 2019 vs. February 2018)

Organic traffic for my blog is up 72.22% when comparing year-over-year (217 visits vs. 126 visits).

Overall I’m happy to see my organic traffic trending in the right direction and with the work I have planned moving forward, this should continue to tick upwards.

Let’s take a look at a couple of charts below from my Google Analytics account to show these organic traffic increases.

This first chart below shows my organic traffic over the long-term and I plotted Feb. 2019 and Feb. 2018 to clearly highlight the increases.

This next chart shows the full month of February 2019 compared to the full month of February 2018. The blue line represents the data in February 2019 and the orange line in February 2018.

It’s always helpful to look at various angles of your traffic within Google Analytics.

I especially like looking at the long-term view as you see in the first traffic chart above in order to analyze the organic growth of my website as a whole.

An increase of 72.22% year-over-year is definitely a number I’m happy with and below I’ve laid out a few next steps I will be implementing in order to build upon this trend.

Next Steps to Increase my Blog Traffic

Below are two specific areas that I will be focusing on in the coming months.

Of course this will go alongside my normal routine of producing high-quality, long-form style content and proper optimization of SEO tags and copy.

1.) New Link Building Techniques:

I will be incorporating two additional link building strategies into my routine.

HARO – HARO (helpareporterout.com) connects journalists to sources for upcoming stories, articles and news. This is a great opportunity for the source (us) to gain some media coverage and potentially a link back to our website. Generally HARO will send out daily emails of journalists looking for additional information on a particular piece they are working on. If you see something in your area of expertise, you can simply pitch these journalists with the information they’re seeking. If they like your write-up, they will include it in their story and most likely reward you with a backlink.
Roundups – Many times other bloggers will do an “expert roundup” type of post which highlights webmasters who specialize in a certain niche. This is a great way to gain additional exposure for your website as well as a quality backlink. There are different ways to find these opportunities and sometimes just a simple google search can do the trick. Roundups are not something I look into often, but I do want to weave this into my overall link building strategy every once in a while.

2.) Create a Strategic Content Calendar

I tend to create the content for my blog based on what’s currently going on with my business, what I’m experiencing and what’s working for me. While I’ll still continue to generate this type of content, I do think it would be beneficial if I created more of a concrete content calendar so I have my blog posts planned out weeks in advance. I will most likely utilize a Google Sheet or Excel file for this and break my ideas into sections such as:

Topic Idea
Keywords and monthly search volume (will be doing keyword research prior)
Date of publication
YouTube video in correlation to the post (yes or no)
Additional notes/thoughts

Sometimes getting your ideas out of your head and onto “paper” (in this case virtual paper), is incredibly beneficial. Having my posts scheduled will help keep me more organized and consistent in my content generation.

How was your February 2019?

That about wraps up this monthly report.

The continued growth I see is encouraging and motivates me to continue pushing forward and share what strategies I’ve had success with.

If you want to follow my monthly blogging reports, you can do so by visiting this page here.

How was your February 2019?

Blogging Reports

Celebrate Small Wins When It Comes To Blogging

March 3, 2019 Evan Hoeflich 4 comments

For many of us bloggers, sometimes it can feel like we aren’t making any noticeable progress.

I recently wrote a post on how blogging is not an overnight process and that it can take a long time before any measurable results are seen.

This can make it difficult to stay motivated and stick with it.

However, when I adopted a slight shift in my mindset, it really helped spark new inspiration and kept me moving in the right direction.

I started celebrating small wins in all areas of my blog and this gave me a new appreciation and enthusiasm in the work I was doing.

When I say celebrate small wins, I truly mean small.

This is especially helpful for bloggers who are brand new to the game and feel like they’re not making any headway.

In this post, we will go over a few areas that should not be overlooked and instead celebrated as you grow your blog and your business.

Celebrate Small Wins – Keep Track of Simple Victories

Comments on Your Blog

Having people engaged and commenting on your blog is definitely something worth celebrating about. If you’re just getting started with your website, even receiving that first comment is a huge accomplishment. Since I’m still in the growth stage of my blog, not all of my posts receive comments and that’s okay. I’ve learned to celebrate the new comments that do come in, which frees me from a “scarcity” type mindset. The most successful bloggers we see today started with no following and very little reader engagement. Did that stop them from pushing forward? Of course not. We need to celebrate the positive comments/interaction that we do currently receive which will help spur future growth.

Increases In Traffic

I keep track of my organic traffic stats (and publicly here) on a monthly basis. Not every month do I see my traffic explode through the roof but I do notice the growth when looking at trends over the long-term. To me, this is something to celebrate, no matter how big or small my traffic increases are. The fact that my website is growing in both new and returning visitors deserves to be acknowledged. Traffic metrics for new bloggers can be incredibly minimal when first starting out so it’s important that any increases they see, they give themselves some credit. This positive reinforcement can mean all the difference for someone who is on the fence of continuing or quitting.

New Email Subscribers

Every blogger should be building their email list to stay connected with their readers, promote additional products and point people back to their website. Any new subscriber you add to your email list is a big reason to celebrate as these people are giving you permission to send them updates, tips, tricks etc. This means that they want to hear from you and are interested in the content you are providing. So often, people get caught up in the overall size of their email list instead of celebrating the small incremental growth they see on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Each and every new subscriber you generate is something to be proud of.

Note: If you’re looking for an email autoresponder, I highly recommend ConvertKit for bloggers and webmasters.

Any Income Generated

Of course, any income made from your blog is worth the celebration. But if you don’t take victory in some of the other areas we discussed above, you likely won’t get to this stage. Producing money from your blog can be an exhilarating feeling and means that people trust you and your website (whether they are customers or advertisers). I think for first time bloggers, the biggest celebration obviously is making that first dollar from their website. Maybe for more advanced bloggers, it’s making their first $1,000, $5,000 or even $10,000 per month. Whatever level you are at currently, celebrate any revenue that your blog generates.

Now it’s important to note that my message with this post is NOT about accepting where you are as a blogger and becoming stagnant.

I’m constantly implementing various strategies to grow my readership, traffic and overall income.

But I DO want you to acknowledge the progress you are making, no matter how small it may seem.

This will indeed keep you moving forward and on a path to even bigger results.

Give yourself a pat on the back every once and while…

This is the perfect time to take a step back and reflect on how far you’ve come.

Celebrate the small wins and enjoy the journey!

Below is the video version of this post:

Blogging

Two Powerful Tips on How To Improve Your Search Engine Rankings In Google

February 24, 2019 Evan Hoeflich 2 comments

Over the years I’ve been increasingly intrigued by which SEO strategies really help the most with improving search engine rankings in Google.

Besides the essential first steps like identifying relevant keyword phrases and optimizing your meta tags, I wanted to provide two specific tips that I’ve seen a lot of success with lately.

The two tactics that we’ll talk about below, combined together, can be incredibly powerful in terms of gaining more traction and improving your search engine rankings in Google.

Again, as stated in many of my previous blog posts, seeing movement in Google and the other major search engines is not an overnight process.

It will indeed take time and consistent effort on your end, but the hard work is worth it.

Ranking your blog articles or webpages highly in Google has the potential to bring in floods of traffic to your website (and quite passively).

For many webmasters, this could mean more exposure, leads, sales and returning customers.

This is why it’s such a competition to get ranked at the top of Google and why studying the process is so fascinating to me…I enjoy the challenge and know the rewards of obtaining high search engine rankings.

With that being said, in this post I’m going to provide you with two powerful methods I’ve been using to rank certain articles at the top of the search results.

How To Improve Search Engine Rankings in Google

Please note that these tips below are just a small part of an overall SEO strategy. They should be used in supplement with additional SEO tactics for the best results.

1.) Create Long-Form Style Content

Creating quality content is more important than ever now and especially because there is so much competition in any given niche. Generally the highest ranked articles in Google are ones that are written with the reader in mind, that help identify and solve problems, answer questions and provide immense value.

Along with quality, what really increases your chances of securing a top position in Google is by producing long-form style content.

When I say long-form, I’m referring to crafting content that is over 1,500 words long for your readers. The reason why Google will rank this type of article higher than an article that is 300 words for example is because there’s a lot more effort involved to create the longer piece. A longer article oftentimes covers a lot more ground as well and allows the writer to really go in depth.

Another benefit about writing longer content is that you have more room for optimizations within your actual copy. There’s additional opportunity to target your main keyword phrases/variations of keywords and also more opportunity to really utilize header tags to your advantage (H1, H2, H3, H4 etc.).

Long-form style content gives Google a lot to “grab a hold of” rather than a page that is super “thin”. Many SEO tools will even “flag” pages on your website that have a low word count and encourage you to add more copy. You need to show Google that you are producing valuable content that indeed took some time to put together.

Now of course not every blog post you write has to be this type of long-form style content. I’m totally guilty of still writing a 500-600 word blog post from time to time. But I would definitely recommend getting into the habit of weaving in these types of articles to your content strategy.

Do this over the long-term and track your progress using a ranking tools such as MOZ or Serpfox. This is just one step that can really improve your search engine rankings overtime.

Now for tip #2!

2.) Build Backlinks to Specific Pages/Posts

Most of us know that building quality links on other authoritative websites is absolutely critical to a successful SEO campaign. But one problem I see often is that too many people build links that point to just their homepage. Now I do recommend acquiring links for your homepage on occasion, but I also would encourage you to build links to individual posts/pages that you want to rank for. This really diversifies your link building strategy and helps pass link equity/juice to a specific page.

Another area I will use this strategy on is for keywords where I’m ranking on page #2 of Google. This tells me that I’m within striking distance and can most likely push to the first page of Google with more quality links built (and to that specific ranking page/post). This is an excellent way to build up page authority and encourage ranking movement in the search results.

Probably the simplest way to master this technique is through guest posting.

For example, I once had a blog post that was hovering between position #11-14 for a couple of months (top of page #2 in Google) and for a really strong keyword. This particular keyword had approximately 1,000 searches per month. I knew if I could get to the first page of Google, even within the first #1-6 positions, I could capture a portion of the organic traffic for that given keyword.

I used the same exact strategy we’re discussing here and over the next few months, I started targeting that page in my guest posting efforts. I would reach out to other relevant websites in my niche and offer to write a guest post for them. Within my article, I placed a link to that specific blog post that had been hovering on page #2 for a while.

Slowly but surely, I built a bunch of quality links to this particular blog post.

Lo and behold, after approximately 6-8 months I started noticing significant improvements in my ranking position for that term and page. I had jumped up to the #5 position on page #1 of Google. Now as of writing this today, I hover anywhere from position #3-6, but this is a noticeable improvement thanks to building links to that specific page.

How do I plan on securing the top spot for this term in Google?

Same exact method laid out above…I’ll continue to build quality links to this page.

One important thing to note about search engine rankings is that you’re not always going to secure the top spot and in some cases you won’t even make it to the first page of Google. That’s just the way it is with SEO.

However, you give yourself a heck of a chance by producing long-form/quality content and also building links to these pages. If you practice this process for long enough, you really should be able to improve your Google rankings quite substantially.

Conclusion:

To close, use the two steps laid out above together for the best results and overall search engine ranking improvements. Produce long-form style content based around certain keyword phrases and then build quality backlinks to those pages. This will show Google that your articles are highly valuable through in-depth writing and also important since other websites are linking back to them. This is a recipe for success if you’re looking to improve your search engine rankings and drive more targeted traffic to your website!

What strategies do you currently use to improve your Google rankings?

Have you had success with any of the tips above?

Interested in private one-on-one SEO coaching sessions? Check this out!

Below is the video version of this post:

5 Ecommerce Lead Generation Strategies to Skyrocket Your ROI

February 19, 2019 Evan Hoeflich Leave a comment

Effective lead generation is a crucial element of success in any industry, but when it comes to ecommerce, it can mean the difference between a sold-out store and a backlog of inventory you simply can’t get rid of. Yes, lead generation matters for your long-term growth and success in the millennial-driven ecommerce world, however, the process itself can oftentimes seem overly cumbersome and resource-demanding.

While it is true that generating quality leads does require hard work, time, and some financial investment, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t several cost-effective strategies that will give you the best bang for your buck.

Here are the five lead generation strategies you can use to maximize your online influence and skyrocket your ROI.

First up, invest in marketing automation

Acquiring quality leads is not just about finding, nurturing, and converting prospects – it’s also about doing it in a financially-sensible way. In other worlds, your strategy needs to be cost-effective. With that in mind, your first order of business is to utilize the power of software automation in order to minimize resource expenditure while increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of your lead generation strategy.

Automation is excellent for expediting menial tasks and effectuating template marketing content such as bulk emails or forms, and even replicating high-performing landing pages in a short time-frame. What’s more, keep in mind that marketing automation software can provide you with unique consumer insights you can later use to personalize every marketing campaign, from your emails to your social media strategy.

Use social media to your advantage

We live in the age of social media, and given the fact that everyone and their dogs have social media accounts nowadays, it would be a terrible waste if you didn’t use your SM presence to generate quality leads and inspire people to fall in love with your brand. Not only does smart social media management allow you to improve your company’s image in the competitive online world, but if you engage with your audience just right, you can even inspire them to follow the link to your website and make a purchase.

The best part of it is that there are numerous ways you can achieve this goal. From sharing quality content on a daily basis, to offering deals and discounts, referral bonuses, and even giveaways, you can incentivize your existing and potential followers to visit your website and take advantage of the limited-time offer. And remember, the more quality content you publish, the higher the chances of disseminating your brand across the online world through shares, likes, and mentions.

Strengthen your sales chat strategy

If you had to choose to focus on a single lead generation strategy, especially if you’re operating in the B2B realm, it would have to be your sales team. Without a doubt, sales chat and communication in general is one of the most powerful tools for any modern business to reach out to their prospects and convert them into paying customers and recurring clients.

Most importantly, comprehensive sales communication allows you to generate leads without spending resources on content creation, so if you were wondering how to generate b2b leads efficiently as a growth-oriented ecommerce brand, sales chat is the way to do it. While this doesn’t mean that you should forgo content creation completely, it does mean that you can reallocate resources towards other more lucrative opportunities all the while maintaining a high-performing sales cycle.

Build an email marketing strategy

Email marketing is not only alive and kicking, but it has become another crucial element of a winning lead generation strategy, especially in the overly-saturated ecommerce industry. Simply put, your business is one of thousands of similar companies that are trying to attract potential customers and convert them into paying ones. Email marketing might just be the thing that sets your brand apart from the rest.

From sending out automated welcome emails when people sing up on your website, to sending newsletters and promotional emails to your potential and existing customers, there are a myriad of ways your business can benefit. Much like chat, email allows you to communicate with your prospects in a more personal way, and thus establish a brand-consumer relationship that will drive loyalty and engagement through the roof.

Combine quality SEO optimized content with PPC

Earlier we touched on the subject of content creation. It’s important to remember that content will remain king in the online world for quite some time, and that you can use it to attract consumers to your website and build your site’s authority in the eyes of the search engines to boot.

Combining SEO-driven content with quality PPC ads on Google and social media platforms will further expand the visibility of your brand, and incentivize people to visit your online store. You can also give a specific purpose to each tactic, and use PPC to obtain leads quickly while nurturing them to fruition via compelling storytelling, imagery, and video content.

In closing

Lead generation should be a vital part of your long-term growth strategy. After you have discovered new leads, you can effectuate your retention strategy and convert them into paying customers, but more importantly for your brand’s future, into loyal brand followers and recurring clients.

Author Bio:

Lauren Wiseman is an entrepreneur, currently based in Melbourne and a regular contributor to bizzmarkblog.com. She assists clients in growing their personal and professional brands in a fast-changing and demanding market environment. Covering finance and investment topics, Lauren strongly believes in holistic approach to business.

What types of ecommerce lead generation strategies do you use?

e-commerce

Building Up Your Blog Is Not An Overnight Process – It Takes a Long Time!

February 17, 2019 Evan Hoeflich Leave a comment

I recently came across an excellent article (The Insanely Slow Road to Building a Blog) which correlates directly to my own experience and thoughts about blogging in general.

Some of the most successful blogs took years and years of consistent effort before any momentum was built.

I didn’t write this post to scare anyone away, but more to be completely transparent that 1.) blogging is a lot of work and 2.) blogging takes a long time to start gaining traction, traffic and a loyal following.

The unfortunate part about this is not the length of time it takes to build a successful blog, but the number of people that give up too early and quit.

My main goal with this post here is to encourage as many people as I can to continue blogging for the long-term, no matter where they are currently at.

To help drive this point home, let’s take a closer look at my long-term blogging metrics.

Long-Term Organic Traffic Chart

We will be looking at three different plot points in the chart below.

) 16 Months of Very Little Traffic
) Breakthrough/Spike #1
) Breakthrough/Spike #2

Blogging Takes Time - Organic Traffic Chart

It’s important to note that this chart is analyzing organic traffic coming in from the search engines (and not total traffic).

1.) 16 Months of Very Little Traffic

My first blog post ever published for this website was in May of 2016.

You can see for around 16 months to follow, I received very little to no traffic on my blog…Yes that’s 16 months of very minimal results!

Luckily I have experience with building up websites organically over time, and know that this is definitely not an overnight process.

However, taking a step back and looking at my own long-term traffic trend, made me completely understand why so many aspiring bloggers quit in the first place.

It can be quite discouraging to continue blogging after 16 months of slow results and most people will quit far before then (sometimes even within 1-2 months).

I wasn’t focused nor worried about the lack of traffic coming into my website during that time period.

Instead I was producing/publishing as much high-quality content as I possibly could to build my foundation.

I would publish anywhere from 4-8 blog posts per month, optimize them properly and share them on social media.

In combination to generating quality content, I also started guest posting on other relevant websites to increase my overall reach and build quality backlinks.

This helped me to finally start getting noticed in Google and led to my first big organic traffic spike.

2.) Breakthrough/Spike #1

After 16 months of generating quality content and building backlinks to my website, I started to get certain blog articles ranked in Google for specific keyword phrases.

This is where you see the first real spike in organic traffic in the chart above (labeled “Breakthrough #1”).

Again, most people would have quit months and months ago without giving their website a fair chance.

You have to realize that I was building my blog completely from scratch and with a domain authority of 0.

It’s not surprising that no one was visiting my website in the beginning, since it was brand new.

I had to let Google know that I actually existed.

I also switched my website to https before the first spike, which added to the traffic increases you see.

What’s powerful about this first breakthrough/spike is that my traffic never again dropped to as low as it was in the 16 months prior.

I was now getting a steady flow of targeted organic traffic to my website on a monthly basis.

3 .) Breakthrough/Spike #2

Fast forward to January 2019 and I hit a new all-time high in organic traffic by a long-shot (see screenshot above).

Now this was another 14 months or so until I saw a noticeable spike in traffic again.

Hence why patience and consistency is everything with blogging.

To see this second spike, my strategy was pretty much the same as before…I kept creating quality content, optimizing my blog posts and building quality backlinks.

There were a few additional tactics that aided in increased traffic like improving my website speed, but the fundamentals did not change.

At this point (almost 3 years in) 99% of people would have already quit.

This is to be expected as it takes time and effort to build a blog that produces a consistent stream of traffic.

But it’s also hard to think that so many people, if they stuck with it and implemented the right techniques could have a successful blog on their hands today.

And potentially a blog that generates a predictable extra income.

Key Takeaways For The Aspiring Blogger

To summarize, almost 3 years in at the time of writing this post and my blog just getting started. Results will vary from person to person and blog to blog of course, but the message here is the same.

I’d like to leave you with a few key takeaways when it comes to blogging:

Adopt a Long-Term Mindset/Vision
Expect Stagnant Results At Times
Keep Work Consistent Even in Times of Discouragement
Blog About a Passion of Yours
Celebrate Small Wins
Stay Patient & See It Through

I hope this post gives you some perspective on what it takes to start a blog and more importantly stick with it.

The stories you see of successful bloggers are generally the result of years and years of hard work.

The rewards of blogging can be priceless, but it does take time to build your brand and following.

Buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Blogging

15 Concrete Reasons Why Local SEO is More Important Than Ever

February 10, 2019 Evan Hoeflich Leave a comment

How many times do you search for a service or a business in your neighborhood?

If you’re like the 88% of people who conduct a search for a local business, you’re going to end up calling or visiting that business within a day.

And guess what…for you business owners out there, this is a REALLY good thing!

When your business is showing up at the top of those search results, the more likely your website traffic, foot traffic, and sales will increase.

This is where local SEO comes into play

According to BrightLocal “Local SEO is an effective way to market your business online. It helps businesses promote their products and services to local customers at the exact time they’re looking for them.” And since we know that customers have increased searching for “open”, “now”, and “near me” 200% in the last year alone, local SEO is clearly a solid strategy to increase quality, relevant leads.

Put yourself in your customers shoes who are searching for “restaurants near me”. Google will first show you the “snack pack” as well as the proceeding top organic search results. These are excellent positions to be in as a local business owner. And when you’re in that “snack pack” or at the top of the organic search results, you’re meeting those customers searching for you, head on

So how does it work? Here are 3 ways to improve your local SEO strategy

Google My Business optimization – Google My Business is a tool to keep your NAP (name, address, phone number) and other business information up to date. Your business profile appears in Google Search and Maps.
Local on-page optimization – Your website content and meta tags are optimized for local SEO
Localized content – Is your content relevant to your location? Does it connect with other local businesses and your community?

If you’re interested in learning more about local SEO, BCC Interactive, a premier SEO agency in Philadelphia, PA, has put together an engaging and helpful infographic below, demonstrating 15 reasons why local search engine optimization (SEO) is more important than ever.

Author bio:

Cory Young is a creative and innovative internet marketer with 10 + years’ experience in digital marketing, with a specialization in Search Engine Optimization and data analytics. Cory is the founder of BCC Interactive, an SEO agency based in Philadelphia, PA. He and his team are experts at developing holistic digital marketing strategies that help businesses achieve their growth targets.

Blogging Report (January 2019) – All-Time High In Organic Traffic By A Long Shot!

February 9, 2019 Evan Hoeflich Leave a comment

What better way to start off the new year than with a new all-time high in organic traffic for my website (and by a long-shot).

January 2019 came in at 259 organic search visits and if you’ve been following my other blogging reports, you’ll see that this is quite a big increase.

I’m starting to really “cement” myself on page #1 in Google for a few really solid long-tail keyword phrases, which in return is bringing in a steady stream of targeted traffic.

A couple of these ranking blog posts were written months ago and some even over a year ago.

Again, a reminder that you must be patient when it comes to blogging and SEO.

However, this is also very encouraging because as I’m generating new content, some of my older articles are getting recognized and ranked in Google.

These blog posts that are now ranked highly are acting as virtual assets for me, bringing in targeted traffic and leads passively.

As long as I maintain these search engine rankings, these blog articles will work for me 24/7!

Another reason why blogging in combination with SEO is an excellent side hustle.

Organic Traffic (January 2019)- 259 Visits

Organic traffic in January 2019 came in at 259 visits.

This is a new all-time high for my website and motivates me to keep plugging along!

I did have to go through some plateaus before I saw this big spike in organic traffic (as you will see in the screenshot below), but I knew my persistence would eventually pay off.

Let’s take a closer look at my Google Analytics data.

Year-Over-Year Organic Traffic Increases (January 2019 vs. January 2018)

When comparing year-over-year organic traffic is up 78.62% (259 vs. 145).

Here’s the long-term organic traffic chart from my Google Analytics account to show the history of organic search visits coming into my blog.

Notice the recent spike!

And in the chart below you can see specifically the difference when comparing organic traffic year-over-year.

The blue line represents January 2019 and the orange line represents January 2018.

Organic Sessions Year over Year Increase

I am definitely happy with the growth my blog is seeing as of recently.

There are months where sometimes you feel like you’re getting nowhere and that all of your hard work simply isn’t worth the effort.

But remember that it takes time for Google to notice changes on your website…As in the example above, a big part of this spike in traffic is due to older blog posts now being ranked on the first page of Google.

If you start to adopt the mindset that each blog you write has the potential to pay off big down the road, you may spark some new inspiration.

Next Steps for the New Year

The start to 2019 has been very encouraging and I really look forward to seeing more growth in the new year.

With that being said, here are some next steps that I plan on focusing on in the coming months.

Continue Taking a More Aggressive Approach to Link Building:

The past couple of months I have really ramped up my link building efforts and believe this is a big reason for the recent search engine ranking increases I’m seeing. Not only am I increasing the total number of backlinks built to my website on a monthly basis, but also the quality of them as well. The last 4-5 backlinks I’ve built to my blog have all been from websites with a domain authority of over 50. This in combination with crafting high-quality content is a recipe for blogging success.

Target Keywords That Are Obtainable:

I’ve really been a bit more strategic lately about the keywords I am targeting and will continue to be moving forward. I think many of us bloggers and webmasters from time to time tend to target keywords that are far too broad and competitive, just because the monthly search volume is high. Well, some of my best performing blog posts are targeting longer-tail and more specific keyword phrases. If you rank for many of these types of blog articles overtime, the traffic really starts to stack up.

Upload YouTube Videos More Frequently:

For a while, my average uploading process was about 2 videos per month on my YouTube channel. Since there is so much traffic floating around on YouTube, I really want to utilize the platform to drive more of it to my website. Just like blogging, it’s important that I publish content consistently on my YouTube channel in order to grow my subscriber base and drive more targeted traffic to my blog. Within my YouTube video descriptions, I generally always leave a link for people to navigate to a specific blog post of mine (many videos of mine have a correlating blog post). In fact, over the recent months, traffic to my blog from YouTube has increased noticeably as I start to rank more videos. This motivates me to publish videos more frequently and although my channel is still small, it’s been steadily increasing.

That about wraps up this blogging report!

A really strong month for my website and actually the best organically to date.

How were your results in January 2019?

Interested in working with me one-on-one? Make sure you check out my coaching services here.

Blogging Reports

Why A Blog Is The Perfect Side Hustle From Home

February 3, 2019 Evan Hoeflich Leave a comment

I believe everyone should start a side hustle from home and strive to create an additional stream of income for themselves.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the mindset of most people and the vast majority will never really attempt to make things happen outside of their normal jobs/careers.

That’s totally fine, but if you’re reading this post then you are most likely different.

You’re probably craving more and are interested in starting a side hustle from home that provides you with more freedom, flexibility and overall options in your life.

Today I am going to explain why a blog is the perfect side hustle to start from home (and in general).

And also why this is one of the best types of side hustles to start while working full time at another job.

Now if you haven’t yet started a blog, you may want to give this a read here.

If you have any questions after reading this article, please don’t hesitate to reach out and leave a comment.

I hoping this will spark some inspiration for those who really want to move forward with blogging as their side hustle!

Blogging and Why It’s The Perfect Side Hustle From Home

A quick note before we get into the points below is that any side hustle you start will require commitment and hard work. I’m not saying this is going to be easy and want to be as realistic as possible. You need to adopt a long-term and no-fail type of mindset if you are going to make this work and especially when it comes to blogging. Running a blog will require your full effort and dedication, but the sacrifice is worth it!

Let’s dive right in..

Flexibility To Work From Anywhere

Bloggers can work from anywhere where there is a stable internet connection – at home, a local coffee shop, a public library etc. Not many side businesses are you able to have the flexibility to work wherever you want to. For example, if you own a physical brick and mortar store (like a jewelry shop), much of your time would have to be spent at that location running your business. With blogging, you have complete control, flexibility and freedom of where to work from. Talk about options!

Very Inexpensive To Start

Starting a blog is incredibly inexpensive and especially when compared to opening up a brick and mortar store. You can literally get started for $3 per month and have your website up and running in the same day. Of course there will be some tools you may want to purchase down the road like an email autoresponder and certain plugins to monetize your website and make it run smoother….But the monthly and even yearly expenses are pretty minimal. This allows almost anyone to start a side hustle from home and in a matter of minutes.

Works For You 24/7, 365 Days a Year

Your blog is a living and breathing asset that works for you 24/7, 365 days a year. Really try to let that sink in. This is one of the most powerful concepts to understand when it comes to blogging. When you publish a blog post, it is up there forever for people to discover and read. You can be sleeping, eating, vacationing, whatever and your blog will still be “open for business”. Now obviously you will have to put in the work to write high-quality blog posts and implement proper SEO work to get traffic rolling into your website, but a blog can really provide immense time-freedom. Think of every blog post you publish as a little piece of virtual real estate that never stops working. Thanks to the internet, this type of powerful business model is now possible.

Unlimited Income Potential

The earning potential with a blog is pretty much limitless. There’s no “ceiling” really to how much you can earn since you are the boss. There’s tons of different ways to monetize your website to make money from it and there’s also tons of strategies for driving more traffic to it. This means that there is some serious earning potential once you get the ball rolling and your blog gets a bit more established. This is also why you occasionally see stories of certain bloggers who make ridiculous amounts and from working less hours than a typical day job. It’s not bogus, but actually very real and possible depending on the individual.

Easy To Work Into A Busy Schedule

Let’s face it, we’re all busy. Many people work over 50 hours per week at their day jobs and have minimal time to dedicate to themselves. With blogging, it’s really easy to work your side huslte into your schedule because it doesn’t generally require 8 hours per day. Even doing 1-2 hours per night is enough to start gaining some traction. Obviously, the more work you put into your blog, the better but it’s not required when you’re just starting out. In my opinion, it’s one of the best side hustles you can start while working full time.

Conclusion

Those were just a handful of reasons why I firmly believe blogging is one of the best side hustles you can start from home.

Now will every blogger be successful?

Of course not.

But the ones who stick with it and continue to refine their craft overtime give themselves a heck of a shot.

Hopefully the points laid out above will inspire you to dive deeper into blogging for yourself…

Or maybe for some of you reading this, this will motivate you to keep plugging along.

Either way, this is one of the best business models and side hustles anyone can get involved in.

I know I love it!

Interested in additional blog training and private one-on-one coaching sessions? Read this here!

Watch the video version of this post here: Why Is A Blog The Perfect Side Hustle?

Blogging

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