Category: Marketing

8 Ways To Grow Your Blog & Gain A Massive Following

If you’re trying to take your blog to the next level, there are a number of strategies you can experiment with. In this post, I shared with you 8 ways to grow your blog & gain a massive following.

For a blog to grow, you must gain a following of people who are interested in your content. Followers are important for a blog and a blogger and the loyal ones are who can increase traffic for a blog. No matter how much traffic your blog may already have, you can always use a little more!

Over the last few years, I’ve been able to accumulate quite a bit of traffic to my blog and grow the number of loyal followers I have. I have gone through the ropes and tested quite a few different strategies. Some of those strategies have worked effectively while others have failed miserably. I’m here to help shorten the education process for you by sharing some of my most helpful tips when it comes to growing a blog!

Here are 8 ways to grow your blog & gain a massive following:

1. Engage With Other Bloggers In Your Niche

Believe it or not, one of the most effective strategies for growing my blog has been networking with other bloggers in the entrepreneurship sphere. By doing so, not only did I get to build meaningful relationships, but I got to learn a lot about the community. At the end of the day, every niche has its own community.

When you start networking with other bloggers, you’ll notice that you’ll get more traffic, shares and engagement on your blog. Don’t think of other bloggers in your niche as competitors, but rather see how you guys can partner up in a beneficial manner. Develop a strong relationship with other bloggers and figure out ways to help each other while creating a mutual benefit.

2. Contribute To Top Publications In Your Niche

Whether it’s other blogs or major publications in your niche, you can contribute to other blogs as a ‘guest author’. This is a mutually beneficial partnership for both sides. You benefit because you get to push your content out to a new audience while the publication has the benefit of getting fresh content for their website.

Once you have established a strong relationship with other bloggers, you can easily reach out to them and see if you guys can trade content. This is one way to grow your audience and followers. Contributing guest posts to top blogs in your niche is a highly efficient to grow your own blog.

3. Consistent Posting

Bloggers who gain more followers are those who consistently post on their blog. Let me give you an example. One year ago, I was extremely busy with speaking engagements and my businesses that I wasn’t able to pay as much attention to my blog. I was creating about 1-2 posts per week. Fast-forward to 2017, I’ve been able to post around 3-4 times a week and my traffic has increased by 50% since last year.

The math is really simple. The more content you post, the more exposure your blog will get enabling you to get more traffic and followers. The only thing to keep in mind when posting more frequently is to maintain the same level of quality. Don’t focus on quantity unless the quality is also consistent.

4. Publish Content Your Audience Wants to Read

A big mistake many new bloggers make is too often focusing only on the content they are interested in sharing. However, if you want to generate a following and grow your blog, you have to focus on your audience. What kind of content do they want? What kind of things do they want to learn from you?

Survey your audience and communicate with them to figure out what they want to read. Some of my best performing blog topics came from creating polls on my Facebook or Twitter pages. Not only that, but I’ll frequently ask my audience what they want me to discuss in future blog posts and I’ll create content around that. When you take time to understand your audience, the results will be much better!

5. Encourage Social Sharing

The fastest and most affordable way to grow your blog is to create content that is shareable through social media. One of the fastest ways my blog grew early on was because my followers were sharing my content with their audience. There are a few different ways that you can encourage social sharing.

First and foremost, you always want to make it easy for your audience to share your posts. Utilize a social sharing bar and include all of the social networks. On my blog, people can easily share my posts on any major social network with the bar that follows them on the left side. In addition to that, share each of your new posts on social networks so that people can easily re-share your content or engage with your posts.

6. Respond To Comments & Questions

Engaging with your audience is one of the most crucial things for bloggers to do. Recognizing and acknowledging your readers is something that will help you build meaningful relationships that will eventually grow your following. Engage with your readers and be thoughtful.

Whether the comment deserves a response of not, always find a way to reply. If someone says something like “Great post”, don’t just ignore it. Acknolwedge them through the comments and thank them for the kind words. One of my most successful strategies has to been always reply back to everyone who reaches out to me.

7. Build An Email List

Many bloggers say that their email list is the most valuable part of their blog. If someone is willing to subscribe to their email list, they feel that it is a user that is extremely valuable. There are a few ways to build an email list really easily for a blog.

The strategy that worked best for me was to give something away for FREE in exchange for their email addresses. On my blog, I share a FREE ebook with my audience that can be downloaded in exchange for an email address. By building an email list, you can bring in recurring traffic and utilize it to generate more income.

8. Have An Excellent Blog Design

The design of your blog is extremely important if you want to grow your audience. While most blogs are focused around content, the visual display you place your content in is also just as important. I’ve been to some blogs that have been so bland that I feel like I’m reading an essay off of a Text Edit document.

It becomes very hard to focus and I simply can’t focus on the content. Do you think I’m going to come back to read their next blog post? You guessed it right, I’m definitely not coming back. Create a simple design and survey your audience to see what they like and don’t like about your design. Implement those changes and create a visual experience that is comforting for your audience.

Conclusion

If you’re trying to take your blog to the next level, there are a number of strategies you can experiment with. In this post, I shared with you 8 ways to grow your blog & gain a massive following.

10 Practices To Follow To Launch A Successful Business

Every startup is tough, but having good practices from the beginning is helpful to reach the success you want. In this post, I shared with you 10 practices to follow to launch a successful business.

Starting a business is perceived as one of the toughest things to accomplish. Not only that, but people are often terrified of starting a business because they see statistics that say more businesses fail than succeed. Every startup is a gamble, but the early days are the most important.

If you have a really good launch strategy, you’ll face less failures early on and burn less cash. Most businesses struggle to survive because they end up going for a tail spin early on and never get a chance to fully recover. However, I have found that launching your business the right way is vital for long-term success.

Here are 10 practices to follow to launch a successful business:

1. Be Prepared For Anything

When starting a business, you have to be prepared to deal with anything. As a business owner, you never know what can come your way. One day, you might be hit with a law suit and the other, you might have the press knocking at your door to cover your company. Successful entrepreneurs can’t be weak, they’ve got to be ready for any challenge that comes their way.

It’s not so much about being prepared or even over-preparing, but it’s about developing the right mentality to handle situations. You have to not only be able to make logical decisions, but you have to keep emotions out of business maters. How you carry yourself is extremely important to launching a successful business that will sustain itself for a long time.

2. Hire Beta Testers

Any time you’re launching a new business, get actual CUSTOMERS to test your products or services out. Many people fail at their business because they take a concept they believe to be great and just run with it. However, what you think is great isn’t necessarily how the market or your customers may think.

When launching a new business, product or service, you really have one opportunity to capture your audience. If you fail the first time around, people will have that memory engraved within their minds. Thus, you should always prepare a soft launch with a beta group to get their thoughts, feedback and concerns about your business. From there, continue to improvise until your beta testers are complaint-free.

3. Embrace Competition

Whether you just started or have been in the marketplace for decades, competition is always going to exist. Regardless of where you launch your business, you’re going to have competition in the present or in the future. Learn to embrace your competition because they provide a lot more benefits than negatives for you.

Competitors not only validate the opportunity for your business, but they can provide you with a ton of education. By looking at your competitors, you can use their history to see what mistakes they made so you can avoid the same ones. Don’t be turned off by your competitors, be willing to accept them and see how you can use them to your advantage.

4. Create A Support System

The journey of an entrepreneur often times seems to be a very solitary quest. However, you can rid yourself of the loneliness if you create a support system early on. Make sure your friends, family and business partners have your back. This will dramatically increase your odds of success because your emotional health and mental health will be significantly stronger if you have people you can look to for support.

You don’t need someone who’s going to give you solutions for each problem you face. That’s going to be up to you to overcome those challenges. However, when times are tough….it never hurts to have a cheerleader who supports you and pushes you to never give up!

5. Know Your Goals

The reason why you launched your business is because you have a goal. Whether your goal is to build the biggest brand in the marketplace, make a billion dollars or change the world, you have some sort of goal. It is crucial to keep your goal close so you always know why you’re doing what you’re doing.

As you develop your business over time, your goals will be a constant reminder as to why you make certain decisions. Not only that, but you need to channel your goals/vision to future employees, customers and partners that you may bring on to your business. Never lose sight of your goals when launching a business!

6. Really Know Your Market

Before you start a business, you should always know your market. You need to conduct research or gain experience in your market so that you know it inside and out. Crazily enough, at my last startup, we knew so much about our market and customers that we could tell you exactly what most of our users would do on a Friday night. It’s not just about knowing who your customer is, but it’s also a lot about knowing their habits, mindsets and beliefs.

Once you understand your market, you can then hone in on your customers. Before you can create a product, you need to know your market. Before you can sell your products in that market, you need to know your customers. Self education is VITAL to succeeding with the launch of any business.

7. Utilize The Digital World

As you know, technology has ran rampant in the last few years and taken over the world. If you’re launching a new business, you must have a strategy to go digital. Whether you’re a restaurant or a brick and mortar retail store, you still have to leverage the power of the internet to succeed.

Stay up to date with digital trends or hire someone who will. No matter what type of business you are launching, do not ignore the massive benefits you can unlock from the digital world. As an entrepreneur, it is your job to find the most cost-effective marketing methods and the online space can definitely provide one for you.

8. Establish A Cash Resource

At the end of the day, you probably need to have some kind of financial resource to succeed. Whether you have investors or you self-fund your business, some cash is required to successfully start. It’s very hard to really launch a business with $0. If you are able to accomplish that feat, hats off to you but most people aren’t so lucky.

You must have some amount of capital to launch your business. Identify how much cash you will need through the various stages of your business and how you plan to fund your company. One of the biggest reasons why companies fail is because they run out of money.

9. Build The Right Team

In business, having the right team to help you is necessary and crucial. Assembling a team that will work together and delivers your products harmoniously is mandatory. The team should be able to share your vision for success.

Before launching a business, you need to build a team that shares the same mindset as you. As a new entrepreneur, don’t try to do it all yourself. Identify your weaknesses and hire smart people that are damn good at what you aren’t. Surround yourself with really smart people to achieve massive success. Remember that entrepreneurship is a team sport!

10. Choose The Right Business Structure

Whether you form your business entity before or after the launch, it is something that you will have to do eventually. However, choosing the wrong business structure can hamper the success of your business long-term. You don’t want to choose the wrong entity, have issues with partners and end up paying more on taxes than you should be.

Unless you have knowledge on this topic, identify a plan for your business and consult a CPA or a business attorney to help you. By getting the assistance of a professional to select the right business structure, you may end up saving yourself years of headaches. The structure you choose will ensure the success of future decisions such as raising capital or exiting the business.

Conclusion

Every startup is tough, but having good practices from the beginning is helpful to reach the success you want. In this post, I shared with you 10 practices to follow to launch a successful business.

10 Tips For Building Email Marketing Lists That Actually Work

It’s easy to market to those who already know about your brand, which is why email marketing is such a powerful tool. Building your list will give you the opportunity to increase subscribers and engage with customers regularly. In this post, I shared with you 10 tips for building email marketing lists that actually work.

If you’ve given your email address in exchange for something in return, you’ve probably received an email newsletter at some point. Well, email marketing is more popular than ever before because of the outstanding results it provides businesses. Email marketing is one of the most powerful channels for nurturing leads through a sales funnel to convert them into customers eventually.

According to a survey done a few years ago, out of the 1,000 web—based businesses, that were involved, these companies reported email marketing to have the highest marketing ROI for them in comparison to other mediums. Based on the surveyed companies, 23% of the total sales were attributed from this single channel. Email marketing has been one of the most profitable channels for businesses in all types of industries.

However, it’s really hard to do email marketing unless you have an email list. The days of buying email addresses of random people for pennies on the dollar are over because they don’t convert. Consumers don’t purchase things from a random email because there is no relationship or trust. Building an email list is extremely important if you want to be successful with your email marketing efforts.

When it comes to building an email marketing list, there is no super quick trick to collect a bunch. There are however a number of strategies, tactics and tips you can utilize to convert at a higher rate and build your email rate faster.

In this post, I share 10 tips for building email marketing lists that actually work:

1. Make It Easy For People To Sign Up

There are companies that miss out on email sign ups by not making it easy for people to register. In order to collect more email addresses, it is best to make it easy for your website traffic to locate and sign up for your email list. Don’t place it on just the home page or one part of your website, make it easily available on all areas of your website pages.

One of the more popular and successful methods that have worked for my businesses has been creating a pop-up. Having a pop-up box is something that the user cannot avoid and it makes it really seamless and easy for them to receive their ‘free gift’ in exchange for their email address.

2. Constantly Update Your Content

When you update the content on your website, there is more opportunity for you to collect emails. The more times a user comes back to your website, the more opportunities you have to increase the number of subscribers you have.

Here’s how you update your content:

– Write blog posts.
– Unveil new products/services on an ongoing basis.
– Release new episodes of a vlog, podcast or interview series that is shared frequently.

This strategy is simple, but can work brilliantly well. This approach was used by Bryan Harris of Video Fruit and it increased his subscription rate to 30% per upgrade offer. One of his best offers generated him an insane 62% increase in subscription rate.

You want to collect email addresses of your most loyal users. These are the people who come back and check out the latest content on your website as it comes out. This strategy gets solid results that can rapidly grow your list of subscribers over a long period of time.

3. Create A Powerful Call To Action 

Any time you want to collect emails, you have to CAPTURE the users attention. Especially on a website that has a ton of things going on, your email capture form can easily get lost amongst the crowd. You have to find a powerful call to action that is placed in an area within your website that will be easily visible.

You know your audience best so figure out what means the most to them. Capture their attention by addressing a problem that you know they may have and show them how you solve that problem.

For example, if you know your audience is having trouble parenting their toddlers. You’re going to want to create a call to action such as “Don’t Let Your Toddlers Run You!”

That’s a problem that parents are having when they come to your website. You know this so you’re looking to provide them a free pamphlet or ebook to show them how to solve this problem. For example, your next statement underneath that may say “Sign up to get 20 tips for controlling your toddlers and disciplining them!”

4. Give Incentives or Giveaways

At the end of the day, nothing is free. Why would someone give you their private contact information? You have to think about ways to incentivize your audience. People will always want something in exchange and the best way to capture someone’s attention is by giving them something “FREE”. This strategy can be very beneficial for email marketers.

The marketing team at WWRD ran a sweepstakes and increased their emails subscribers by 11%. Another example is Josh Earl who managed to acquire over 60,000 emails with a giveaway in just 10 days.

Running a giveaway is fairly easy as long as you structure it in a way that is interesting to users. Here’s how you can do it:

– Prepare a prize that your audience would want.
– Give bonus entries for every referral that they can have.
– Give something to the people who don’t win, a participation gift.
– See if you can partner up with a brand that wants exposure who’s willing to provide gifts to your audience.

Byran Harris offered a prize of a 10-year subscription to Leadpages, an industry-leading landing page service. This gave him additional 2,239 emails in 10 days. He decided to pick a gift that would attract the right type of audience (marketers) and he’s offering something that has a value of around $3,000 which makes it extremely worthwhile.

Research has shown that freebies such as ebooks skyrocket email sign-ups by more than 200%. Giveaways are a lightning fast, guaranteed way to boost your email list. In addition to the direct benefit of increasing your list of subscribers, it also increases goodwill with existing subscribers as they are more likely to pay attention to your emails in the future.

5. Convert Non-Confirmers Into Subscribers

How many people do you think to fill out your email forms each day? Whatever the number is, 20%+ of those people are not making it onto your email list.

Often times, entrepreneurs want to validate their email list by making sure every user confirms their email address before they are added to their list. However, whether you realize it or not, there are tons of emails that don’t get sent to the inbox. As a result, the user never receives the confirmation email and you end up losing a ton of potential subscribers.

Utilize a tool that shows you the non-confirmed subscribers as well so that you can re-send them an email and reach out to them later on down the line if they don’t confirm immediately. There are apps and software that you can use to search all the contacts that have signed up, and you can filter who are the non-confirmers to the subscribers. This is a great way to continue increasing your list of subscribers.

6. Leverage Social Proof

Social proof is very powerful as 63% of the consumers say that they are more likely to purchase from a site that has product ratings or reviews. A series of peer-reviewed studies were conducted in 2008 and the researchers found that social proof is consistently more influential for people when they are making important choices.

One of the keys to leveraging social proof is volume. The bigger the number, the better. If you quantify your subscriber by social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn) the numbers won’t be impressive. But quantifying them all as one will give you a volume, and people will be impressed, and your subscribers will believe in this proof. It doesn’t hurt to show a statistic that says, “250,000+ people have subscribed already!”

An example of this is Michael Hyatt’s numbers, which you can see below.

When you see his total number of subscribers showing 512,944. Now that is impressive and anyone who sees this feels a lot more comfortable to also give their email address to Michael.

But does that mean that they are all subscribed to his email list? No, it could be a combination of all the followers he has from social media all the way across to his email list. The point here is that when visitors see this massive number, they’d are impressed and they feel far more relaxed in sharing their private information with you.

7. Test And Optimize
When you venture into email marketing, testing is very important. It is the only possible way to know what works and what doesn’t. Every audience and industry is different so you really have to see what methods work best for your operation. You can test various distribution channels, the placement of different signup links, widgets on your website and the types of giveaways and gated content you offer.

It is always a good idea to ask users or readers for feedback. If you want ways to improve your website and how you convert users, the opinion of your existing users will matter. See how people react with your website and make changes to your design and layout accordingly.

Most email services offer analytics that makes it easier to find out how readers respond to your A/B tests. Then, you can refine and optimize your strategy based on your learnings. Don’t ever be satisfied with your numbers, always be looking to optimize and increase your conversions.

8. Provide True Value With Opt-in Incentives

Today, it is rare to find a website that doesn’t have some sort of featured opt-in incentive. Almost everyone is using this method for acquiring subscribers. However, users are also turned off by these free incentives because some people offer some real CRAP in exchange for their information.

Make sure you provide some real value and you actually give the users what you promise them. People will be disappointed and have trust issues with your website if you make false promises. The more you give, the more opportunities to monetize your audience you will have later on down the line.

9. Set Expectations And Be Transparent

As we mentioned and discussed in the last section, don’t try to deceive people. Instead, be transparent and honest with what users can expect by signing up for your email list. One of the biggest reasons why people don’t convert their leads is because people create distrust with them long before they ever get the chance to sell them. Tricking people into handing over their email address may be effective for growing the list, but they will provide you no value later on down the line.

Your subscribers must know what they’re in for, whether it’s great deals and promotions or information and education. Not only that, but tell them how often you plan to email them and communicate with them. I’ve signed up for some email lists that email me 3x a day. I’m unsubscribing from those email lists within 24 hours because they’re just spamming my email box and wasting my time.

10. Convert With Landing Pages

If you create a marketing campaign outside of your website, you can build a landing or squeeze page and convert with that. Offer a free giveaway, incentive or piece of content in exchange for your email list on a squeeze page. Make it clean and simple so that users can get what they came for immediately.

In order to generate traffic to your website, you can create a Facebook ads campaign and focus on a targeted niche to lower your cost per click. From there, try to figure out how much each email subscriber is worth to you. That’s the easiest way to set up a profitable marketing campaign.

Conclusion

It’s easy to market to those who already know about your brand, which is why email marketing is such a powerful tool. Building your list will give you the opportunity to increase subscribers and engage with customers regularly. In this post, I shared with you 10 tips for building email marketing lists that actually work.

How To Use Twitter To Build Relationships & Find Customers

In this post, I discuss how to use Twitter to build relationships & find customers. Find out how powerful Twitter is and how you can utilize it to your advantage.

A question I often get asked is, “What is your favorite social network for business?” People are often surprised at my answer. I think Twitter is the most powerful social network for me because of how quickly I can build relationships, find customers and get information about a specific topic or niche.

Twitter is so helpful for me because I think it’s the only social network catered towards busy individuals. It’s such a minimalist platform that doesn’t require a lot of work. You click one button to connect with someone and you’re forced to be short & sweet when introducing yourself to someone with their character limits.

In this post, I’ll share how to use Twitter to build relationships & find customers:

Engage With Everyone 

I’m verified on Twitter and I have over 250,000 followers, but that doesn’t mean that I’m too busy to engage with people. If you want to find customers or build relationships with people on Twitter, you have to be willing to engage with your followers and others that reach out to you.

You don’t have to necessarily spend a lot of time engaging with these individuals because you cannot forget that Twitter is about being short & sweet, but it’s a great way to get acquainted with new followers. Not only that, but you should reach out and follow people that are interesting to you without directly selling your services or asking for something in return.

Utilize Hashtags 

By using hashtags, you’ll be able to find people engaging in conversations that pertain to whatever your industry, niche or field is. If you simply type in a hashtag such as #entrepreneur in the search bar, you can see a list of all the people posting tweets relevant to that topic.

Once you find these hashtags, you can then decide which individuals engaging in those conversations might be someone you’d be interested in reaching out. From there, you should follow them and maybe send them a short tweet introducing yourself while seeing where it goes from there.

Post Relevant Content 

The secret to Twitter is to post really good content. The great thing about Twitter is that you don’t necessarily have to provide original or unique content. You just need to post content that is REALLY good and RELEVANT to the people who are following you.

If you post articles from other resources that are informative, your followers will not care. If you share Tweets or thoughts that are thought-provoking or interesting, your followers will not care. The best way to build relationships and to even possibly get customers is to post a ton of great content through your Twitter feed.

Take It Outside of Twitter

As I mentioned, Twitter isn’t probably the best place to find your next best friend or business partner. Why? Because there simply isn’t enough resources or tools that will allow you to build an in-depth relationship. If you want to be successful with your usage of Twitter, pursue the proper relationships outside of Twitter.

Meet up in person for coffee or set up a phone call or Skype call to meet other people. Especially if it’s someone that you think can become a customer for a service, product or idea that you offer. For friendships and business relationships, you should absolutely find a more open forum where you can connect and network with someone that you meet through Twitter.

Conclusion 

In this post, I shared how to use Twitter to build relationships & find customers. What are some things that have worked well for you when it came to Twitter?

How To Launch A Tech Startup For The Non-Techie

Got a tech idea, but you aren’t technical? No worries. In this blog post, I’ll share with you my strategies on how to launch a tech startup for the non-techie.

 

Do you have a great tech idea, but you lack the skills and knowledge necessary to build it? Don’t worry. I was exactly where you are at when I first launched my tech company, StatFuse.

 

Coding? Programming? UI Design? These words were all foreign to me for the most part and I absolutely didn’t have the skills necessary to successfully build out my tech startup. However, I had a great idea for a company that I thought would be successful on the internet.

 

Instead of giving up or trying to learn how to program (which could have taken months if not years), I decided to get creative and find a way around it. In this blog post, I’ll share with you my strategies on how to launch a tech startup for the non-techie:

 

Have A Concrete Plan

 

If you have a great idea, you need to put together a solid plan of how you imagine your idea to work and what your expectations are. This isn’t necessarily a business plan, but rather a plan of action. How do you plan to turn this concept into a money-making machine? That’s the first thing everyone is going to ask you.

 

Assemble A Team 

 

Be honest with yourself and analyze your strengths and weaknesses. If you are non-technical, one of your biggest weaknesses clearly revolves around not being able to program, design or code. As a result of that, you need to build a team around the things you aren’t so good at. In this situation, you might make it a necessity to find a technical person to partner up with. You can also see what other things you need help with and try putting together a winning team.

 

Think MVP

 

If you’re planning to pay for development or even recruiting a technical person to work with you, you need to get as basic as you can. Many people fall into the trap of building out a beautiful platform from day one, but that’s unrealistic. Your ideas and concepts are unproven and you need to get validation to build a full platform out. Ask yourself what the core concept of your idea is and focus on developing that.

 

Be Open To Changes

 

When you aren’t technical, you sometimes have to rely on the expertise of your technical lead when it comes to building your idea out. No matter how great a concept seems in your mind, it might just be physically impossible to push out in the form of code. When this is the case, be open to change and hearing what other ideas your partners and colleagues may have in regards to the feasibility of a concept.

 

Conclusion 

 

If you aren’t a technical person, but have a tech idea….don’t be discouraged. There’s always a way around it and some of the most successful online startups and businesses in the world were founded by non-technical people. It’s all about using your pool of resources and giving your best.

 

 

 

5 Choices You Must Make Now If You Want To Retire A Millionaire

With more and more people working past their retirement age, it’s time some changes are made. In this post, I share 5 choices you must make now if you want to retire a millionaire.

 

A million dollar once upon a time seemed like so much money. If you look at it today, some people argue that a million dollars isn’t even enough to retire with and that you need more. Regardless of what your perspective on it is, a million is a million.

 

 

Too many people don’t understand what it takes to save enough for retirement and end up working well past the ages of 60-65. If you’re young right now and thinking you have a long time until that age, do NOT ignore this post.

 

 

If anything, you are in the drivers seat to have the retirement of your life if you make the right decisions. In this post, I share 5 choices you must make now if you want to retire a millionaire.

 

 

1. Set The Goal

 

Studies have shown that people who write down their goals actually achieve it compare to others who just think or talk about it. Get a piece of paper out or post it up on your bulletin board so that you have a constant reminder of what you plan on doing.

 

 

Planning is the only way you can execute on a goal so immense as this. Set some goals on how much income you want to be earning a year, how much you want to save towards your retirement and how much money you want to have for your retirement every 5-10 years.

 

 

2. Live Frugally 

 

Athletes are a prime example of individuals that don’t live frugally. When they make $5 million a year, they tend to spend 95% of that every year. When they get an extension and make $10 million a year, they’re still spending 95% of that every year. How is that possible you ask?

 

 

Well, it’s simple. The more money you make, the more material items you become infatuated with. While I’m not going to stop you from treating yourself to nice rewards, it doesn’t mean you need to spend like a maniac. Live frugally so that you’re enjoying, saving & investing.

 

 

3. Invest Frequently

 

The best decision I made ever since the age of 18 was investing my money at chance I got. I made some really foolish investments that lost me a lot of money, but I’ve also made some great ones. The beauty of investing is that you can make returns passively.

 

 

There are safe investments and risky ones, but it’s just a matter of how you want to play with your money. I recommend doing a mix of both. If you’re investing more money, go safe. If you’re investing less money, take a risk. If you invest your money for the next 40-50 years, you bet you’re going to get some nice returns every now and then.

 

 

4. Don’t Buy Into Credit

 

The reason why so many people are working late past their retirement age is all because they made horrible financial decisions when they were younger. People accrue debt by using credit instead of debit. Until this day, I’ve never had a credit card of my own.

 

 

My thought process is really simple. If I can’t afford it, I don’t need it. Be very careful before you buy into credit and be even more careful about how high of a limit you use. If you give into temptation easily, don’t get a credit card. It’s as simple as that.

 

 

5. Work Your Ass Off 

 

The only real recipe for success is working hard. If you work your ass off, you’re going to eventually get the results you want. If you want to retire a millionaire, it’s not going to happen overnight. It requires a lot of persistence and patience.

 

 

The harder you work, the quicker you will get the amount of money you want for retirement. So pull up your sleeves and get to work!

 

 

Conclusion 

 

In this post, I shared 5 choices you must make now if you want to retire a millionaire. What are some things that have worked for you?

 

 

photo credit: Tax Credits via photopin cc

 

 

How To Tell If Your Business Venture Is Wrong For You

In this post, I discuss how to tell if your business venture is wrong for you. Check it out and see if you are dealing with any of these things with your project.

 

A big misconception is that as long as you become an entrepreneur, you will be happy. However, I found out from firsthand experience that it isn’t always the case. When you become an entrepreneur, there are millions of different ways you can channel your passion.

 

 

Do it the wrong way and you’ll probably have some of the same feelings you had when you worked a job or did something else you didn’t truly enjoy. Instead of pursuing a business you aren’t in love with, it’s always a great idea to find something you do truly enjoy.

 

 

In this post, I share how to tell if your business venture is wrong for you:

 

 

It’s All About The Money

 

My first company at 17 was a multimedia agency that created websites, mobile applications and videos for other businesses. It took me just about a year and a half to figure out that this business was all wrong for me. Why?

 

 

I liked what I did, but I mainly cared about the money. It was a cash-driven business. I did anything and everything possible to make the most money possible. Other then that, it wasn’t something I was really passionate about. I just enjoyed it because I was in charge and I was making money on my own.

 

You Aren’t Focused On Growing

 

When you’re in the right business, you are constantly focused on growing and getting to the next level. However, if you get to a certain point and become satisfied with what you have, you might be in the wrong business.

 

 

Growth is crucial for anyone who wants to be massively successful with their entrepreneurial venture. If you lose focus of that and stop growing, you’ll be in a lot of trouble.

 

 

You Still Have A Lack Of Motivation And Enthusiasm 

 

Not having motivation or enthusiasm when working a job you dread is completely understandable. However, when that lack of motivation carries over to your business, it’s not a positive sign at all.

 

 

The whole point of starting a business that is your own is that you are completely focused on being successful with it. If you lose motivation after some time or even enthusiasm, you need to reorganize your priorities and ask yourself if you’re in the right industry.

 

 

You Have Doubts

 

When you know you’re following your passion, you have no doubts. You are laser-focused on your goals and you don’t stop until you get there. If you’re having doubts, then this business might not be right for you.

 

 

Those people who have had uncanny faith in their businesses are the ones that have been successful. Self-confidence is everything when you’re an entrepreneur. If you don’t believe in your own vision, it’s going to be really hard convincing others to believe in it.

 

 

Conclusion

 

In this post, I shared my tips on how to tell if your business venture is wrong for you. If that is the case, you need to reflect and see how you can change it for the better.

 

 

photo credit: plewicki via photopin cc

 

6 Things That Make Entrepreneurs Work Harder Than Ever

Starting your own business involves very little luck. It’s all about working your ass off to achieve the results you desire. In this article, I share 6 things that make entrepreneurs work harder than ever.

 

Every entrepreneur has to work hard if they want to be successful. If you’re looking for luck, you need to play the lottery. Entrepreneurship is a brutal lifestyle that only a few people in the world can really handle.

 

 

If you’re having trouble find the motivation or inspiration you need to work hard, then this post might be able to help. I’ll share 6 things that make entrepreneurs work harder than ever:

 

 

1. Tough Times

 

Mark Cuban has often said that entrepreneurs who have had a tougher time end up being more successful. Why? Well, the answer is rather simple. When you are going through times, you have extra motivation to change your situation. Someone who has a good life has to seek outside motivation to really succeed at something specific.

 

 

2. Partners Holding You Accountable

 

The great thing about starting a company is that you have a team of individuals who are just as passionate about an idea or business as you are. With that in mind, everyone on the team should have one common goal. When someone sees one of their team members losing sight of that goal, it’s their job to put them back on the right path.

 

 

3. Investors, Mentors or Advisers

 

If you are lucky enough to get an investor in your business, you’ll have all the pressure you need to make sure you’re getting your shit done. For those businesses that are still in an earlier stage, bring on a mentor or adviser that will help you become successful. They can offer insight to your business while also keeping you on track as an entrepreneur making sure that you’re always working hard.

 

 

4. Chasing Passion Instead Of Money

 

If you love doing something, you don’t have to worry about working hard. There’s a reason why entrepreneurs can work 80 hours happily without getting paid while people can barely get out of bed when having to work 40 hour weeks. It’s all about loving what you do and allowing your passion to push you to the top.

 

 

5. First Signs Of Success

 

When I first started out as an entrepreneur, I was working hard but it wasn’t to my full potential. It only took me a couple months to get my first pay day and to see some signs of success for me to take it to a whole another level. Everyone sometimes needs to see that what they are doing is actually going to work before they make their work an obsession.

 

 

6. Positive Feedback

 

If you’ve ever launched a mobile application, the most exciting thing in the world is seeing a positive review. The same goes for a service business or product-driven business. Getting positive testimonials or feedback from others is a great motivator. Seeing that your work is creating value and making a difference is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

 

 

Conclusion

 

In this article, I shared 6 things that make entrepreneurs work harder than ever. What are some things that have pushed you to work extremely hard?

 

 

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My Guide For Building Your Own Brand

In this article, I share my guide for building your own brand. Check out my top tips for successfully building a personal brand that can make an impact.

 

Personal brands are extremely important, but many people tend to overlook them. They tend to forget all about themselves and focus on branding their business only. Don’t worry, I was the same way until I learned a valuable lesson.

 

 

After founding my first company, which was a multimedia agency, I focused solely on the marketing efforts of my business. After just over 2 years of running the company, I had to sell that business. After doing so, I was unknown in the world.

 

 

It was like I had just lost all my credit cards and ID cards before I got dropped off into a whole new world. It was at this time I realized that I had to build a personal brand. No matter what I did in my career, my personal brand would come with me.

 
In this article, I share my guide for building your own brand:

 

 

Find Your Unique Angle

 

To really have a personal brand that stands out and is as effective as it can be, you need to find what makes you unique. For me, I decided to go along with the angle of how I was a young entrepreneur trying to set the bar high.

 

 

That perspective really worked for me. Everything from my social media profiles to my presentations included my age and the fact that I was a ‘young entrepreneur’. It allowed me to quickly separate myself from the tons of other entrepreneurs.

 

 

Create A Personal Website

 

You are currently on my personal website. It simply has my first and last name while it features a variety of different pages. I chose to include a blog to share my thoughts, some pages that show the various services I offer and a couple of other pages that help you get to know me better.

 

 

Depending on what you aim to do with your personal brand, you can do any of those things or even do something completely different. However, if you have a website with your name locked in…..it establishes you as a presence on the web.

 

 

 

Find Ways To Create Value

 

Whether you’re branding a human being or a company, you always need to be giving some kind of intrinsic value to your audience. My personal brand’s value proposition is really the fact that I’ll share my experiences and lessons with you while trying to motivate you to do big things.

 

 

Everybody is really good at creating value in one way or another. You need to find a way to tie your strength to your personal brand. The more value you create, the better chance you have of converting individuals to loyal followers.

 

 

Be Socially Active

 

Social media is extremely important for any brand nowadays. Not only that, but it’s highly important that you connect with your audience through social media.

 

 

Social media is great because it’s an easy way to connect with a wide variety of audiences. You can share your thoughts, comments and opinions easily with a group of loyal followers. Create profiles on major social media profiles and convey your brand through these networks.

 

 

Network, Network, Network

 

Networking is extremely important. Many people go out and simply want to hand out a business card about their company while sharing all of the ways their business can help. However, I highly recommend against that.

 

 

When I went networking, I had a business card of just myself. It was a business card for my personal brand. Instead of trying to sell them on my businesses, I sold them on myself. I talked about who I was, what I did and they would pick and choose the things they wanted to know more about.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Building a personal brand can never be done overnight. It takes a lot of patience and persistence to build a solid personal brand that can make an impact.

 

 

photo credit: Philipp Lücke via photopin cc

 

How To Get More Traffic To Your Blog

Getting traffic to your blog is a long and challenging process. In this article, I share my tips on how to get more traffic to your blog.

 

With the resources available nowadays, anyone can essentially start a blog rather quickly. However, starting your own blog is just the first step. The second and much harder step is driving a steady stream of traffic to your blog without spending a lot of money.

 

 

Without spending a single dollar on marketing my blog, I’ve been able to get hundreds of thousands of unique visitors to my articles.

 

 

In this article, I’ll share my tips on how to get more traffic to your blog:

 

 

Target Your Content

 

There are two types of readers that you will come across on your website. There are those that are constantly sharing your content and then another group of individuals who are just reading, but not sharing.

 

 

You need to narrow down the audience that is sharing your posts actively so that you can craft your content to cater towards them. I quickly found out that the younger audience on my site was more likely to share articles. Thus, I began crafting more content that would target them specifically.

 

 

Get Involved In The Community

 

Given the number of blogs that are out there in the blogosphere, you don’t have to worry too much about ‘competitors’. The reason is that the same person is very likely to read multiple blogs.

 

 

You can reach out to other bloggers in your sphere and ask if you can guest post on their site. It helps them because they are getting more content while you’re writing is being presented in front of a new audience. Find ways to work with other blogs to create mutually beneficial relationships.

 

 

Make Your Blog SEO Friendly

 

Most blogs are built on WordPress. There are numerous SEO tools available that help you get your content visible on the search engines. I personally love using Yoast SEO, which is a free plugin available for WordPress.

 

 

By installing these plugins, you are easily able to customize URL’s, meta titles, meta descriptions and keywords for your article. These are all of the vital elements that help you rank on the search engines.

 

 

Actively Share Your Posts On Social Media

 

Social media is a great way to promote your content through the web. It is vital that you have profiles created on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google + so that you can share your newest blog posts with your audience.

 

 

It’s not always about getting unique visitors to your blog, but rather getting a large base of loyal readers. Social media sites such as Twitter can help you keep your audience close to you so that they know whenever you post a new blog article.

 

 

Pay Attention To Your Analytics

 

I personally recommend using Google Analytics if you’re looking for a free solution that gets the job done. I use that on my blog and it tells me exactly how much traffic I’m getting, where the traffic is coming from and how long they are spending on my site.

 

 

These are three key metrics that everyone should focus on when trying to increase traffic to their blog. When you see a specific marketing strategy working better than the others, you focus more of your efforts on that specific factor.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Getting traffic to your blog is a long and challenging process. In this article, I shared some of my tips on how to get more traffic to your blog. What are some things that have worked specifically well for you?

 

 

photo credit: lastquest via photopin cc