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Driving traffic to your Shopify Store

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by Laura McLoughlin

It is easy to feel daunted by the competition. You are one among hundreds, maybe thousands, of
Shopify and other eCommerce stores. Although you are pleased with your site and your products
convince you, you must find some way of standing out in the crowd.

Encouraging a regular footfall is at the heart of selling. It will help if you were visible if you want to
be successful. Here we guide you through some of the essentials of driving traffic to your Shopify
store. At the heart of these ideas is that the more people who visit, the higher the number of
customers that click “complete purchase”.

 

Search Engine Optimisation

SEO is mainstream now across the internet. Most successful sites understand that Google has a set
of criteria that you must employ to be visible on search engines and so on the internet. These
criteria aim to provide the user of Google with the best experience as possible, as only the most
relevant sites with the most significant authority are listed on that first page.

While this can feel threatening and exclusive, it is also an opportunity. If you research your keywords
and phrases, those that your customers would type into a search engine, and litter these through
your site, then you have a chance to be seen. Your SEO keywords should be in your product
descriptions, in your headings and the backend of your website – so don’t forget the alt text for your
images and the meta descriptions.

You might also want to include a well-written paragraph at the bottom of each of your product
pages. While your customer is unlikely to read this paragraph, you will have an opportunity to
include the key phrases some more. Be aware; keyword stuffing draws penalties that drops you
down the list. Make sure everything on your site is high-quality and of apparent worth to your
reader. Just think: would the customer want to read this?

 

Improve your ranking some more

There are other ways to improve your ranking on search engines. Imagine your realistic target is to
get on the first page of a list of results, as you realise nobody clicks on that “see more” at the bottom of the
page. Your ambition is to be in the top three, as these are the sites that get a significant proportion
of the clicks.

However, you are up against a lot of competition for this prime internet real estate.

Option 1: you can pay for your place. If you know your target market and can clearly define the
demographics, you can opt to pay for Google AdWords. This service places you at the top of the
page for the people you define and for the search terms you identify.

Option 2: you can improve your domain authority even more by posting to other sites. Writing guest
posts and including an internal link acts as a testimonial for the reliability and quality of your
website. The most links to your site from other quality content providers, the better your ranking. If
you are someone who sells garden benches and you are guested on Home and Country Garden
website, then that link is going to be unbelievably valuable.

 

Gain traction on social media

Social media is a great way to build a following. Regularly posting the blogs that you write and the
products you sell, as well as other updates, will help gather some traffic. However, getting noticed
on social media is as challenging as drawing traffic to your Shopify store. Therefore, you are going to
have to do more than setting up a page on Facebook and Instagram. And, you certainly can’t follow
your way to a broad audience.

One way to gain some traction on social media and boost your profile is through an influencer. A
social media influencer has worked to achieve a following from the thousands through to the
millions. While you might not be able to afford someone with tens of millions of followers, you could
get someone specialising in your niche with a few thousand friends to start to spread the word.
Studies suggest that these followers will not only encourage visits to your store but also prompt a
more significant proportion of conversions. It could offer genuine value for money.

Once you start to get noticed on social media, you need to be a consistent presence. You need to
stay relevant by posting regularly and at the same time. Again, think about your audience. When will
they be browsing through social media? Is it when they are lining up for coffee in the morning? Is it
in the hour just after the kids have gone to bed? Whatever the perfect time, always post at this time
of day. Social media is a powerful marketing tool, but it doesn’t work by magic. Be sure to maintain
your profiles and be a regular contributor.

 

What does all this mean?

To encourage footfall to your eCommerce store you have to work hard to make it visible on the
internet. Using search engines and social media you can direct customers to the start of sales funnel
and from there your talent for selling will drive purchases.

 

Your Organization Needs A Website, And It’s Easier Than You Think

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by Michael Magnus

When our daughter was 4 years old, her response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey was “I want to give away my drawings to help the little babies whose houses got hurt.” We shared her story online, posted some pictures, and in two days she raised over $600 with her art to send diapers down to Houston. This sweet sentiment continued after her first fundraiser, and because of the foundation of her philanthropy, Pictures Helping People.

Now, three years in, we realize a fundamental mistake that we made in supporting her big heart; we only used social media to share the story. It took us three years to get around to putting together a website for her. And, why is that a problem? Lost potential.

  

Link Building 101

There is a marketing discipline called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which consists of strategies and tactics to rank higher for certain phrases on Google. There are a lot of moving pieces to SEO, but one of the more simple things you can do to help potential donors or clients discover your services is to get more links back to your website.

Links from Facebook and other user content sites aren’t taken into account in Google’s algorithm; however, a link from a news story or another page can go a long way in helping rank higher for key search terms relevant to your organization.

In the case of Pictures Helping People, a cute kid with an uplifting story to share garnered more media attention than we were really prepared for. Our daughter was featured multiple times on local news stations, radio stations, newspapers, and also appeared on NBCLearn in partnership with Red Nose Day in 2018. These stories evolved into articles on Parent Toolkit and more. We were, and continue to be, extremely proud of our daughter and her servant heart.

Unfortunately, since we hadn’t created a website for her (after all, why would a kid need a website?), we missed the opportunity to have those links direct back to a source that would have gone on to help her support even more people as she continued to fundraise for those in need with her drawings, paintings, and crafts. Fortunately, by the time we did finally get around to it, she was old enough to be able to help design her own website.

 

 

But Aren’t Websites Expensive and Time-Consuming?

In theory, they can be. Hiring a designer to build a site, deciphering hosting options, creating content, and so on can be a costly and time-consuming endeavor. If you are managing an established organization, it may be worth that effort.

However, if you’re getting started and want something simple, inexpensive, and DIY, know that there are website builders out there that substantially lower the barrier for entry. For a fairly nominal investment of time and money, you can use some of these “drag and drop” designer templates to quickly pull together a starter site that you can be proud of. This also gives a place to link all of your mentions as people begin talking more about your organization and services so that you can start building “search equity” in Google and other search engines.

Think of your website as your online catalog that doesn’t require printing or storage, people can find it on their own, and you don’t need to have any fancy design programs to create something that looks good. The technology has been simplified to the point that we no longer have an excuse not to do a better job telling our story online.

 

 

Michael Magnus is a digital marketing lecturer and principal consultant at Magnus Opus, focused on championing measurable storytelling in both aspects of his professional life.

 

 

 

 

 

How to Digital Market your Start-up to Success by @the_mom_store

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by Surbhi Bhatia | Featured Contributor

Planning to start-up a new business but not sure how to market it and acquire your first customers? While the initial few months can be challenging to build customer trust, brand value and go operational, social media can be a great tool to help you jumpstart your initial customer acquisition journey.

 

Go Live on Social Media Even Before the Launch

I love to call this ‘Product-less Marketing’ because you start subtle marketing even before the launch and this can be a real game changer. Set up your Instagram handle and start doing ‘Teaser’ posts. Give hints on what your product/service is about and introduce a few guessing games to increase interaction and build suspense. Have a countdown to the launch to get people excited. Also, start following influencers from your TG (target group). Understand their behavior, interaction and engagement tools they use as well as start following their followers. By the time you reach your launch date, you would have a solid set of followers who would be following and eager for your launch

 

Be Close to your First Customers and Get Them to Share their Stories on Social Media

After your launch, personally interact with your first customers, and incentivise them with gift cards and freebies to share their social media stories through their personal handles. This will have a double impact- they would come back to buy from your store again with the gift card or share it with a friend or relative which would lead to a subsequent purchase. In addition, the stories shared by them will attract their followers, and can easily be reposted by you to share positive testimonials. You could also post these testimonials on your website and request customers to write a blog to review the product too!

 

Try Out Network Marketing

Many great companies have used this tried and tested technique to gain more customers. Simply reach out to your existing customers and ask them to refer 10 (or any number appropriate) more customers using a customized discount link or coupon code that would get them store credits for every conversion. Many businesses like Uber, Yelp, Avon etc. have acquired customers through such referrals. This will also let you know who your biggest cheerleaders are!

 

Get Some Influencers on Board

Start with Influencers in the range of 10k-30k followers on Facebook, Instagram and similar portals who are willing to do a post for you in return for a ‘barter collaboration’. This basically means that they will promote for your product for free on their feeds, do a story and a post listing out its features. This is a very popular method to gain eyeballs today and ‘Influencing’ is a full time job for many social media enthusiasts who have garnered thousands of followers through continuous engagement and activity.

 

Be Present Everywhere on Social Media Channels

Create your profile on every leading social media channel- Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and Youtube. However, ensure that the users on each of these platforms differ distinctly and even consume the information differently. Hence, make sure that you are adding unique, differentiated and relevant content on each of these channels.

 

Do SEO right from Day 1

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is critical to start ranking on search engines and increase the organic traffic to your website. While this will take painstaking efforts and time to develop, make sure you make your website SEO friendly from day 1. Use Alt-texts for all images, create good and useful content, market your website through blogs etc. Usually companies start focusing on it after a few months when they exhaust the initial marketing capital, but getting it right from day 1 can be a real game changer and show results when you need them!

 

Social Media Ads and Promotions

The best way to build brand awareness digitally is running sponsored ads on social media portals like Facebook. Since Facebook now owns Instagram, just one sponsored ad on Facebook can have your product placement across channels- Facebook Story, Facebook Feed, Facebook Messenger, Instagram posts and Instagram Stories. This can be a very useful brand building exercise introducing customers to your brand and getting them familiar as well as draw traffic to your website which could result in potential sale. One thing to be very careful while running these ads is to choose your audience carefully. Facebook allows you to not just choose the demographics, but also interests, and thus you should be aware of what interests your TG are likely to have to run a successful ads campaign.

 

When I started out my entrepreneurial journey at The Mom Store, we were able to acquire customers quickly through an aggressive presence on social media (both paid and organic) and our continuous efforts to provide a great experience to our customers. Even today, one year on, 50% of our website traffic comes through social media of which 70% is organic traffic leading from our posts about our products or our customer stories!

Why blogging is your business’ secret weapon by @CasiYost

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by Casi Yost | Featured Contributor

Blogging seems to have become a dirty word with business owners. That and SEO are scary things to most people. I firmly believe they are critical to growing your business and give you an edge considering your competitors don’t want to do them either.

I have a few reasons why you need to be blogging yesterday and what it actually does for your business:

  • Grows your Know / Like / Trust value with customers and peers
  • SEO: Casts a larger net to capture more keywords
  • Become an authority to help others
  • Repurpose content to use on other social media platforms
  • Helps you answer customers frequently asked questions

 

Know/Like/Trust:

 

Your customers want to know who the person is behind the website and brand. They can’t unless you’re constantly engaging them, showing them your expertise and providing new content. The way that I like to do this is create blog posts for other photographers on the gear I use, how I manage my workflow and other tips I can give to help them with their business. For couples, I have discussed how to elope in Oregon, the details of planning the timeline for your wedding, etc. These blog posts allow them to see that I care and that I know what I’m doing.

 

SEO:

 

When your customers type something into a search bar, you want to be able to rank for all of those keywords, right? Well blog post titles are exactly what should pop up on those searches. So when you make your blog posts, they should be targeted to answer questions that they might pose. All the questions. Take time to research what they are searching for, and answer those questions in posts. It will cast a huge keyword net and capture more people that way.

 

Become an Authority:

 

When you blog, you allow people to see you are an expert in your field. Your peers as well as customers will come to you for answers and as a result, you increase your brand loyalty. We all want that right? Well you have to give your customers, peers and everyone else reasons why they should trust you. Being consistent and giving good content is the way to do that.

 

Repurpose Content:

 

Ever feel like you are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to creating good content for all the platforms? Well when you create a blog post, you can use that in your emails, direct people to your website by linking it on facebook, etc. Pinterest is huge and having your blog posts constantly looping in Pinterest is a great way to repurpose content, especially what I call “evergreen” content. Evergreen content is content that can be useful no matter how old it is. Things like “what photography gear I use for weddings” is an example because this probably won’t change from year to year, and it’s helpful for new photographers. Repurposing content and recycling won’t make your viewers and clients get annoyed, because most likely they may not see the post, they might have forgotten, or you have a large number of new customers that haven’t seen it.

 

Helps to FAQ’s from customers and peers:

 

I get about six or seven DM’s a day from other photographers asking about my gear, or what I have done to grow my business, and this is great! However, my answers never change. If they do, I update my blog post. I want to give the same consistent, and well thought answer to everyone. So what I can do is direct them to that blog post and they can re-read it as much as they want. Plus it has pretty pictures and links to other resources, but that’s beside the point. Why is this critical? It saves you time and allows you to maintain a great relationship by giving them a good answer.

How to get people to read your post?  Use social media! As soon as I make a new blog post, I:

 

  • Put a link to my post on my personal and business Facebook page
  • Put a link on LinkedIn. It’s algorithm is super user friendly and similar to what Facebook and Instagram were like five years ago
  • Talk about it in your Instagram stories while you’re at it
  • Put the link in your bio on your Instagram page
  • Send the new blog post out to your email list
  • Share the post with people you think would be interested

 

So save yourself time, invest in blogging because it will do more for your business than you realize. If you don’t feel like you’re a great writer, have someone proofread. As long as what you are delivering is good content and not fluff, you will see how it helps you and your customers.

 

Let me know what you think! Share this and message me with questions on all my social media accounts!

 

XO,

Casi

Why investing in SEO is worth it by @CasiYost

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by Casi Yost | Featured Contributor

Let me start by saying SEO is not as scary as you think. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is only ambiguous because there isn’t an exact formula or clear cut answer as to how to do it. Why? Because SEO is essentially about making your website easier to find on google searches, but doing it with the client or customer in mind. 

Why is it worth it? Well, when you want to find a new Thai restaurant, or reviews for a product, or even how to make something, where do you typically go? To the internet. So do your customers and clients! More and more people are searching for local vendors and local businesses. You want your business to pop up in a search, right? I started this summer knowing zero about how to make SEO work for me, and now (six months later) I am ranking on page one for “McMinnville Wedding Photographer.”

So what are the main reasons you would want to take the plunge? What makes it worth it for you?

 

1) Competitive Edge: Many of your competitors aren’t investing time into it because they don’t think they need to, and they don’t want to learn. This is pretty true for my niche, wedding photography. There aren’t many solo photographers spending the time on this, so it makes it super easy for me to get to the top.

 

2) Visibility for your brand: Organic search is probably the number one way that drives traffic websites. This is higher than referral traffic (where social media or other sites refer people to your website). So wouldn’t you want to pop up in a search to make it easier on your customers to find what they’re looking for?

 

3) Customers are looking locally: You know how you type in, “coffee shops near me?” well your customers are doing that too. If you can get your name on google and have your local customers see you in a search, you have a higher chance of converting them to paying customers. The best tip I have for this is to set up your “Google My Business” account. Then ask customers to give you reviews to help build credibility!

 

4) SEO is pretty cheap: Monetarily its cheap, but it takes time to get the hang of it. One of the best ways to get your website to work for you and get noticed in the black hole of the internet is to use SEO as a beacon of light to attract your customers. It costs nearly nothing but your time and I consider it probably the only way to get your website to rank when customers search for your kind of products or services.

 

5) Your business needs to adapt or be left behind: It isn’t a matter of if your business will fall behind without SEO, but when. Customers rely heavily on search engines to find solutions and products. This will only increase, so you should do yourself a solid and get on the train. It isn’t as scary as you think.

 

I personally had the best mentor with this. Catalina Jean over at SEO is Fun walked me through how to apply SEO specifically to my website. There isn’t a one size fits all because everyone has different search terms and issues with optimizing their sites, but she spends time and will analyze your business and what you need to do. Head over to SEOisFun.co to see what she does!

 

You can also go to MOZ.com and they give amazing free education on the topic. They also have the capacity to work with you and your company on SEO. I reference them when I want to learn something new on my own.

 

What are some next steps for you?

  • Make sure you have your website built. If you don’t, you might want to talk with an SEO expert first. It is best to build your website with SEO in mind.
  • Start to invest time into learning about SEO and how to optimize your website so it will show up for your ideal customer.

 

Keep going friends! I know you can do this!

Best,

Casi

3 Easy Ways to Improve Your SEO by @danafiddler

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As an online business owner or blogger, SEO is likely something you’ve heard about. Maybe you’ve tried to implement some simple strategies on your own but maybe, like many others, you’ve just felt confused and out of your element.

SEO, when done properly, is a fairly straightforward process! Today we are going to talk about 3 easy areas you can improve your SEO.

1. Use Longtail Keywords

Keywords are the basis to search engine optimization. A keyword is essentially a word or topic that defines what your content is about. If you are writing about food, your keyword might be “bagels” or “vanilla cake”.

Keywords that are less than two words are classified as short tail keywords. These types of keywords are incredibly hard to rank for because:

  1. Short tail keywords often yield a high volume of searches each months
  2. The websites ranking in the number one place are often big websites (like Wikipedia).

In other words, competition is fierce for the majority of short tail high-volume keywords.

If you want to rank on the first page, you’re going to need to use long tail keywords.

A longtail keyword is more or less a string of short tail keywords that forms a phrase. If we revisit our example on food, we can create a long tail keyword from the word “bagel” by turning it into something like “easy rainbow bagel recipe” or “homemade vanilla cake without eggs”.

The more specific you make your keywords, the easier they will be to rank for on the first page!

When creating your content, try to think of ways you can incorporate long tail keywords in.

2. Create Evergreen Content

Evergreen content is content that will always be relevant and doesn’t have an “expiration” date. If you want your SEO efforts to go further, creating evergreen content is key.

By creating content that is always relevant you are ensuring your website will stay up longer in the search results.

For example, you could write a blog post titled “Best Restaurants in Austin, Texas in 2018” but by the time 2019 rolls around, your content will be outdated!

Evergreen content will not only rank longer in the search results, but benefits of evergreen content include (https://www.internetmarketinginc.com/blog/6-benefits-evergreen-content/):

  • New leads
  • Brings in new clients
  • Creates less work
  • Generates backlinks

3. Keep Your Site Running Fast

Google and other search engines don’t like including slow websites in the search results. A slow website leads to poor user experience, so make sure your website is running quickly! Not to mention, most visitors will leave a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

First, test your website’s current speed with a tool like GTMetrix by adding your site URL and clicking “Analyze”.

You can keep your site running fast by:

  • Using a caching plugin
  • Ensuring your photos are compressed
  • Having your web developer get rid of any excess code that your website doesn’t need

In Conclusion

The first step to understanding SEO is to take time to get familiar with key areas and build up your knowledge.

Focusing on long tail keywords, creating evergreen content and keeping a fast website will help your SEO and help you rank higher within the search results!

80/20: Why Your Content Strategy Shouldn’t Just Target Customers by @DrRKayGreen

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by Dr. R. Kay Green | Featured Contributor

The Pareto Principle states that roughly 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. It can be applied to many scenarios, but in business, it is often taken to mean that 80 percent of your sales comes from 20 percent of your customers.

However, this concept could easily be applied to a content marketing strategy, as well. Following this principle, it stands to reason that 80 percent of your business will come from just 20 percent of your readers. This means that many of your readers — a majority of them, even — are not there looking to make a purchase from you, and indeed, many may not affect your bottom line at all.

In general, readers do not seek out blogs to make purchasing decisions. They seek them out when they are looking for an answer to a specific question, or some general insight into an industry. While this information may help them to make a purchasing decision, especially when given by a company that sells a product or service, they often do not seek out the blog with this in mind.

So when a blog or social post reads like a straight sales pitch, it comes across as mildly annoying at best, or alienating at worst. For best results, online content such as blogs should be aimed at the general public, rather than specifically at potential customers.

Some may wonder why they should bother tailoring their content to people who are not planning to buy their product. However, just because a reader is not contributing to sales figures does not mean that they are not important to a business, or that they should not be taken into account when crafting content.

For one thing, readers of your content are aware of your business. This means, when they meet someone who is in the market for your product or service, they can help to spread the word. And the more relevant and memorable your content is to this hypothetical reader, the more likely it is that they will remember you in order to recommend you. If your first piece of content alienates them by focusing more on making a sale than meeting their needs, they probably will not pass the word along.

Furthermore, today’s readers can easily become tomorrow’s customers. Even if they are not in the market for your product right now, they may need it years down the line. And if you keep posting content consistently, you stay fresh in their mind.

Finally, if someone is alienated by your content because it is too sales-oriented, they will likely click away from your site quickly. This will affect your overall dwell time and bounce rates, which will affect your SEO rankings. By making content that appeals to everyone, you keep people on your page longer, which will improve your search engine ranking.

It may be slightly discouraging to think that only 20 percent of your readers will be customers, at least at first. It may even make you wonder what the point of a blog is at all, if the number is so low. But remember, blogs are accessible by anyone in the world — a far larger number than you could ever hope to sell to. And the larger your readership is, the larger that 20 percent will be.

If you focus on making your content accessible and enjoyable to everyone, that 20 percent will be even larger than 100 percent of the people who would find your original, more sales-oriented content.

———————————————————————-

Dr. R. Kay Green – Marketing Expert from RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. from Atlanta, GA.

Dr. KayDr. R. Kay Green is the CEO/President of RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. With over 190,000+ Twitter followers, 35,000+ Facebook Likes, and the Top 1% LinkedIn profile designation, Dr. Kay, a self-motivated trailblazer, is the Quintessential “New-Age” Professional Woman, and PhD Marketing Pro. She earned a Doctorate of Business Administration in Marketing, and has completed PhD coursework in Leadership and Organization Change. She also holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Management, a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, and an Associate of Arts in Marketing Management.

She is affiliated with several prestigious universities and has instructed over 350 courses online. A popular speaker on Marketing and Business topics, Dr. Green is currently featured on Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, Black News, The Network Journal, Business Review USA, Digital Journal, College View, Business New Hampshire Magazine, Bay State Banner, Reader’s Circle, North Dallas Gazette, Harlem News, Top News Today, One News Page, NE Informer, Women in Business PR News, Consumer News Today, Women PR News, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Daily Herald, The Miami Herald, and Book News Articles.

Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn

How To Design Your Own Happy by Renee Pedro of @crashpaddesigns

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by Renee Pedro | Featured Contributor

Are you happy? That shouldn’t be hard to answer, but for some of us of it is. Many of us measure our happiness based on outside factors. where we are getting it wrong. Our distorted views of happiness are influenced by what society says happiness is.

This isn’t new. It’s the story of” Keeping up with the Joneses.” A comic strip created by Arthur R. Momand in 1916. It was about the McGinis family and their struggle to keep up with their neighbors the Joneses. Today the Joneses are not only the people across the street. They are your friends and the friends of your friends in your social media news feed. Why are we wasting our lives comparing ourselves to other people? I know women are especially guilty of this. We compare ourselves to other women all the time. How are you ever going to keep up with those countless images of “Perfection” in your Instagram feed? Why do you want to?

When you scroll by a picture of a friend in her perfect living room, with her perfectly coifed toddlers, do you think, darn why can’t we take a family photo like that? What you don’t know is, on her dining room table are stacks of clean laundry, that she hasn’t put away yet. Or that two minutes before the photo the toddlers were covered in chocolate. She’s not Mrs. Jones, either. Like you, she’s trying to keep up. I’m not saying I want to see everyone’s dirty laundry in my social media feed. I just want more people to be real. I “ll go first. There’s an overflowing laundry basket in my bedroom, there are dishes in the sink, dust bunnies in the dining room, and my desk is a mess. There that feels better. I’ll let you in on a secret, perfection doesn’t exist, despite what Instagram tells you.

A long time ago, I made a decision not to be Mrs. McGinis anymore. I don’t want to keep up with Joneses. When I was comparing myself to other people, I wasn’t appreciating who I am and what I have. This is a self-defeating habit. Once we stop striving for an Instagram worthy life we can have a really happy life. On your own terms. Teddy Roosevelt, said “Comparison is the thief of joy”

Once you realize you don’t have to be better than she is. Nor do you have to be thinner, taller, smarter or richer. You can start being happy. If you are being who you want to be, how can anyone tell you, you’re doing it wrong. The only thing you have to be is your best you. To be comfortable in your own skin means being happy to let people know who you really are. I spent my twenties believing that life was a competition, it’s not. There’s no finish line and there is no finite amount of success, money or happiness. There is enough to go around. When it comes to happiness, one size doesn’t fit all. Your happy isn’t the same as my happy. Happiness is personal, and you have to design YOUR happy.

Have you ever heard anyone say, “She marches to the beat of her own drum”? It’s not usually meant as a compliment. When someone says that, people hear, she’s quirky, she doesn’t quite fit in, she likes to do things her own way. It should be a compliment, because being you, and living life on your own terms is tremendous. If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re building your brand you need to march to the beat of your own drum. You’ll never have great happiness living by someone else’s standards. You didn’t start your business to do the same things the same way they have always been done. Why bother?

The first step should be to figure out what your happiness looks like. With all the challenges of running your own business, you should at least be doing it in a way that makes you happy? Everything about your business should reflect who you are and your personality. A few months ago I reconnected with a friend I hadn’t talk to in over fifteen years. We were very close in our twenties, then she moved back to the west coast and after a few years, we lost contact. She searched for me online and found my business Crash Pad Designs. She emailed me and said, “Pedro,(she’s always called me by my last name) as soon as I saw your website I knew it was you.” I was very happy to hear from my old friend. I was also happy and proud, to hear that my business was a reflection of my personality. What a compliment, I was marching to the beat of my own drum.

Here’s a question. What comes first success or happiness?

Every business owner wants to be successful, but if you’re not happy are you really successful? If you’ve already made the decision to be your own boss, don’t hold back now. Whatever your business, you can, of course, find inspiration from other people. Inspiration is awesome but, imitating someone else is stressful and unfulfilling. Running your own business is hard enough, no need to make it harder. So take that inspiration and do it your way. Then one day someone will find inspiration in you.

The moral of the comic strip was, the McGinnis family could never keep up with the Jones. Even back in 1916, the goal post was always moving. Trying to live a life based on other people’s standards of success and happiness, means you will always be chasing a moving goal post.

I am still active on social media and I still count how many people like my post. But I am not chasing that moving goal post. I have dirty clothes on the floor, dust bunnies, and my favorite jeans are getting tight, but I’m really happy.

So what does your happy look like?

The Blog Features You Need to Have To Increase Traffic by @dailydream360

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by Sharon Mendelaoui | Featured Contributor 

I am amazed at how many bloggers and website owners have not set up simple things on their website which help with increasing site traffic and exposure. I’m not talking about doing an SEO overhaul here, but straightforward stuff like adding sharing buttons to your posts. If you have added a sharing button, have you ever clicked on it to see if it is working correctly? In this post, I take a look at some essential elements every website or blog should have to increase traffic.

Necessary Information and Ease of Navigation

The ease of getting around your website is the number one thing you should be analyzing. Remember people don’t always come to your site from your homepage. In fact, more often than not, people are searching for something particular and entering your site from a post they found in Google, a pin they saw on Pinterest or a social media post they read.

Look at your site homepage and one inside post and see if it has:

  • Links to your social media channels
  • Easy to find contact link to the contact page
  • Clear about you information or a link to your about page
  • Easy categories and menu navigation to get around your site

Putting these items in your main menus or in widgets on your sidebar are the best way to ensure that no matter which post or page people come to they can get around your site easily.

Social Media Sharing Buttons

Why You Need Them?

The number one reason is you want to encourage people to share your post on their social media channels. The more people that see the link to your post the more opportunities you have that they will click on that link and visit you.

Make Sure They Are Set Up Properly

It amazes me that when I go to share someone’s post on social media using one of their blog sharing buttons that they don’t have them set up properly. It is one thing to allow people to share your posts but if they don’t tag or mention you in that share well you lose the ability to show your reach on that social media channel.

The most common error I see is when I go to tweet something I read. It shares the tweet but it does not include a “via @yoursocialhandle” mention in the tweet. How will you know that someone tweeted your post? How will you engage that person on Twitter if you don’t get a notification they shared your post. This is a missed opportunity.

The second error is that the link does not shorten. Make sure that your social sharing buttons allow for using Bitly or another way to shorten your link. Otherwise, just your tweet e a long ugly URL to the post. Not something people will want to share.

If your social sharing plug-in or theme’s feature doesn’t allow you to add these two elements – find one that does so that you can ensure to act on a tweet or share if it happens.

Pin Images in Your Post

I have already talked about why you need to be using Pinterest for your blog or business in this post. Having a pinnable image in each post on your blog is paramount to using Pinterest to increase traffic. For one it will make you pin that image to your own boards and increase the chance that your Pin will be pinned by other people. The result is another opportunity to bring people back to your own website.

Adding a pin button to your horizontal images or a pin share button at the top and bottom of your post is not enough. You actually have to create a long vertical image with a 2:3 ratio or approximately 600 x 900 pixels. Don’t try to make them extra long as Pinterest is now cropping long images that go beyond the 2:3 ratio.

Ask Someone to Review Your Site

Sometimes we are blind to the most common things on our own websites. Ask a friend to take a look at your site, to share your posts and really dig deep into your site’s features. You can also hire people to do a detailed site review where they can help you see how a stranger interacts on your site. Site reviews don’t have to be expensive and can really help give your site a leg up on the competition. Contact me here if you are interested in a site review or audit for some graphic tips, feature suggestions or general feedback on your site.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Guest Posting for SEO by @_lauramclo

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by Laura McLoughlin | Featured Contributor 

Guest posting is a common strategy for businesses hoping to boost their website’s authority. The backlinks you gain from other websites lend authority to your own, and help it to rise to the top of Google’s search results page, which, of course, leads to more traffic and more leads.

Seems like a pretty simple process, right? Get a few links, and you’ll get to the top of Google.

Unfortunately, SEO is a fickle discipline and one which is constantly evolving. Worse still is that lots of businesses try to beat the system with sneaky shortcuts and low quality or duplicated content, leaving themselves open for a hit from digital karma: a Google penalty.

If you want to do your guest posting right, it can take time and effort, but is ultimately worthwhile. Check out the top do’s and don’ts to consider when putting together your strategy:

DO provide quality content

Web editors are looking for interesting stories to tell and new information to share. Offer them that and you’ll find your strategy is much more successful than if you try to spin them the same top 10 tips articles.

You can typically judge how good your content is by how unique it is. For example, new research or survey results can be very attractive to both web editors and their readers. If you don’t have the resources to pull together however, don’t worry. Unique perspectives of contemporary or evergreen topics can be desirable, too.

Google will reward your quality content, too.

DO NOT send duplicates

Duplicating is likely to pass little value when it comes to your SEO, so if you’re planning on sending identical guest posts to ten different publishers, think again. Not only that, but if your business is caught flooding the web with identical articles, you’re unlikely to land future placements with the same ticked off editors.

Make your content as unique as possible, which should come naturally if you are considering the individual audiences and tones of different websites. Even similarly themed websites can have completely different vibes once you read them. Just have a look at this music website compared to this one.

Another thing you should approach with as much authenticity as possible is your anchor text. There are plenty of articles around the web which will inform you of the best ways to manipulate this for your SEO gain, but more recently, Google has been trying to clamp down on this kind of activity. If you really want to get this right, just be natural.

DO make sure the website is relevant to your business

Macaroni and cheese, tea and biscuits, pancakes and syrup: some things just go together.

Your pet collar business and a recycling treatment plant’s blog? Not so much.

You might be under the impression that a link is a link and that’s enough to boost your authority, but the truth is that if you are gaining links from websites that have nothing to do with your business, you risk appearing spammy to Google. And if you look spammy to Google, don’t count on your authority improving any time soon.

Don’t force your content into places it simply does not fit, and instead seek out quality, relevant blogs which will benefit from it. These relationships are a much more natural fit, and as Google continues to crack down on its user experience and weeding out the irrelevant, your hard work will have paid off.

DO NOT keyword dump

If you are going to put keywords in your article, do not put so many keywords in it that people start to notice the keywords, because if you have too many keywords, it can be distracting. Keywords.

This kind of writing is entirely off-putting for an actual human reader, so when it comes to guest posting, the most important thing is to be natural. After all, if you’re trying to rank for a keyword like breakfast recipes or car insurance, you’re likely to use those words or some variation of them in the body of your blog anyway. You don’t have to stuff them in.


Ultimately, guest posting shouldn’t be about attempting to trick Google. It should be about good content and natural relationships, which better connects your business to potential customers, already searching for your products and services.

Google itself states in its quality guidelines “Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines”. If you align your strategy with that instruction, you should start to see steady lift in your page rankings without damaging your reputation or risking penalties – and people might actually like your content, too.