Make Money with Wordpress Blog

1. Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you recommend a product or service to your audience using special tracking links, and then get a referral commission for every time someone buys after clicking your link.

A real life example of affiliate marketing would be when you help your friend open a bank account at your bank branch. Usually they give you a gift card or bonus of some sort.

Similar to that many products and services online have affiliate programs that you can join. There are affiliate programs available for every industry (niche).

If you’re interested in getting started with affiliate marketing, you can start by thinking about the products you already use that your readers may be interested in as well. Then you can see if they have an affiliate program that you can sign up for.

You can find a huge list of products to promote from:

§  Amazon

§  Commission Junction

§  ShareASale

Once you have selected the products to promote, then you can use a WordPress plugin like ThirstyAffiliates to manage your affiliate links.

It allows you to quickly insert links into posts, create branded links, auto-replace keywords into links, and even see how each link is performing on your site. You can see our guide on how to add affiliate links in WordPress with ThirstyAffiliates for more info.

Affiliate marketing is the easiest way to make money because you can promote a wide-variety of products. Just about every popular store like Walmart, BestBuy, Amazon, and others have an affiliate program.

To make more money from your affiliate marketing, check out our top 10 recommended affiliate marketing tools and plugins for WordPress.

2. Display Google AdSense on WordPress

Google Adsense is an easy way to make money from your blog. All you need to do is add a script from Google to your website and start displaying ads.

You will get paid for every time a user clicks on the ad. These are called CPC ads.

What is CPC? CPC stands for “cost per click.” By displaying CPC ads with Google Adsense, you receive a set fee every time an ad on your website is clicked by a visitor. The cost per click is set by the advertiser. (This is in contrast to CPM ads, where you’re paid for ad views instead of clicks. CPM means “cost per thousand impressions,” where M is the roman numeral for 1,000.)

Google Adsense is a good way to start earning money online when you are first starting out.

You can see our guide on how to monetize a WordPress blog with Google AdSense to get started, and this tutorial on how to optimize your AdSense revenue for more tips.

3. Use a WordPress Advertising Plugin to Sell Ads Directly

Google AdSense is easy to set up, but the amount of money you can earn is limited. Each ad click earning will vary.

Directly selling banner ad space on your website can be more lucrative. Instead of having to rely on an intermediary who takes a cut of the money, you negotiate the price and terms on your own.

Above we mentioned the difference between CPC and CPM ads, where you are paid per click or per thousand views. While you could use one of those models for selling banner ads, most bloggers charge a flat rate instead. Charging a flat rate is easier than keeping track of views or clicks.

Still, directly selling ads takes more work to manage than using Google AdSense. Instead of just adding a bit of code to your website, you’ll have to negotiate pricing, come up with an agreement and terms, and take care of administrative work like invoicing.

However, using a WordPress ad management plugin can make the process easier. We recommend BuySellAds, a marketplace that matches up website owners and advertisers. There’s also a free BuySellAds WordPress plugin that gives you a simple way to insert the ads on your site with widgets and shortcodes.

Interested in selling ads directly? See our guide on how to sell ads on WordPress with an ad management plugin to get started.

4. Sell Sponsored Blog Posts

Some bloggers aren’t interested in displaying ads to their audience, and wonder how to monetize a blog without ads.

With ad networks, you lose some control over the content displayed on your site. Some readers will get annoyed or offended by ads, and more and more people are using ad blockers.

An alternative way to monetize a blog is through sponsorships.

A sponsorship works just like it does in sports, TV shows, or other industries. Basically, a company pays you to represent their product, talk about it, and promote it to your readers.

To get started, it’s a good idea to put together a one-page media kit that details your traffic stats, social media following, audience demographics, and any other data that will make your site more appealing to advertisers. Then, you can approach companies to negotiate a sponsorship deal.

When publishing sponsored posts, it’s crucial to know about the laws in your area about disclosure.

For example, in the United States, a blogger who publishes a sponsored post must comply with the FTC’s Endorsement Guides. This includes disclosing whenever a post is sponsored. You can do that by adding a sponsored post prefix to your post title in WordPress.

5. Get Paid to Write Reviews

Similar to sponsored posts, you can also make money by writing paid reviews on your site.

This is a slightly different monetization method than a review site with affiliate links, as mentioned above.

Instead, you get to try out products related to your niche for free, and even get paid for writing a review.

The process for doing this can be similar to getting sponsored posts. You’ll want to review products that are relevant to your niche, that your audience would be interested in.

You can approach companies on your own to ask about doing paid reviews. There are also websites like PayPerPost and SponsoredReviews that can help to connect you with businesses who may be interested.

6. Earn Money Online by Flipping Websites

If you know how to build a WordPress website, then you’re way ahead of most people. Sometimes entrepreneurs like to buy already established websites that they can use for their own businesses.

If you can build a WordPress blog and start getting traffic to it, then you can sell it and make money for your efforts.

This requires knowing the type of websites in demand, and how to price and sell them. There are websites like Flippa that serve as auction sites and brokers for selling websites.

Create a Paid Membership Website

If you’re not interested in selling ads or sponsored posts, there are plenty of other ways you can earn money online from your blog. A popular method is by having your audience pay to access certain content or areas of your site. Here are a couple of ways to do that.

7. Create Restricted Members Only Content

Your most loyal readers are huge fans, and may be willing to pay to read more of your work. You can create a members-only area for them to share more in-depth blog posts, downloads, videos, audio content, and more.

Membership sites can be a big time investment since you must continually create premium content for your paying members. But they can be very lucrative because they are recurring revenue (subscriptions).

You can easily create a membership site with a variety of available WordPress plugins. Check out our list of the 5 best WordPress membership plugins to get started.

Another excellent tool for creating a membership site is Rainmaker. See our tutorial on how to build a membership site with the Rainmaker platform for more details.

8. Create a Private Forum

Another option for creating a paid membership site is to create private forums that users must pay to get access to. Forums are a great way for your audience to get one-on-one advice from you. Other members of the community can also interact and help each other out.

While moderating a forum can be a lot of work, a paid forum is a great way to earn recurring revenue from your WordPress site.

To get started, you’ll need to set up a forum on your site. Here are our recommended top 5 best forum plugins for WordPress.

Create a Directory Website With WordPress

Another option for making money online with WordPress is to create a directory or listing website. You can then charge visitors to advertise their listings on your site.

Here are a few different directory ideas to get you started.

9. Create a Paid Business Directory

Web directories may make you think of the early days of the web before bots started indexing everything automatically, but they’re not completely obsolete.

Generic web directories are no longer necessary, but local or niche directories can be extremely useful.

Directories might gather reviews of local businesses, share the best podcasts on a given topic, or list the best products in a certain niche.

You can easily create a web directory in WordPress following our tutorial. There are also plenty of directory plugins for WordPress you can choose from, many of which allow you to accept payments with submissions.

10. Create a WordPress Job Board With Paid Submissions

Another option is to create a paid job board. Companies who want to advertise an open position to your audience can pay you to submit a listing.

It’s easier to create a successful job board if you narrow down to a specific niche. That way you can become the go-to site for anyone looking for a job in that industry, with minimal competition.

This works great for established blogs in a narrow niche. For example, ProBlogger is now famous for their job board for professional bloggers.

With WordPress, creating a paid job board is easy. See our tutorial on how to create a job board in WordPress with WP Job Manager for a step-by-step walkthrough. You can use the WooCommerce Paid Listings addon to charge for job post submissions.

11. Create a WordPress Event Calendar With Paid Submissions

Instead of a job board, you could create an event calendar where you charge people to advertise their events. This also works well if you already have an established audience, because businesses will be willing to pay to reach your audience.

A paid event calendar is a good monetization method for local or industry-specific websites. You might choose to advertise events in your local city, conferences in a certain industry, or even webinars or live streaming events.

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Sell Digital Products With WordPress

If you’re looking for a more low-maintenance way to make money online blogging with WordPress, then selling your own digital products may be a good choice. While you do have to invest the time to create the product up front, after it’s created your work is very minimal.

Here are a few digital products you can create and sell on your website.

12. Sell Ebooks on WordPress

Ebooks are an obvious choice for creating digital products. They are relatively simple to write and produce. If you’ve been blogging for a while, then you can collect some of your old blog posts and turn them into chapters of a book.

Once your book is written, you can design a cover using a tool like Canva and create a PDF of your ebook.

Selling digital products on WordPress is easy with a plugin. To get started, you can see our guide on the best WordPress eCommerce plugins compared.

For digital downloads, we recommend Easy Digital Downloads. It’s relatively easy to use and includes all the features you need to create your online store.

13. Sell Online Courses

Selling an online course is another great way to make money online.

Courses usually sell for a much higher price point than ebooks. You can charge a premium for your expertise.

You’ll need to create the lessons for your course, plus any supporting materials that you want to include such as downloads, slides, checklists, templates, etc.

You will also need to decide whether you want to offer personalized support for your course. Some sites offer two tiers of each course: a basic version without support, and a premium version with email support.

Once your course is ready, you can use a learning management system (LMS) plugin to deliver the course to your audience.

We recommend using LearnDash or MemberPress.

14. Host a Paid Webinar

Webinars are a great way to build your audience, share your experience, and grow your business. But did you know they’re also a smart way to make money online?

Webinars are similar to online courses, but a webinar is live and often includes a question and answer section.

WordPress makes it easy to host a paid webinar. Whether you’re using your site to actually host the webinar, or just to advertise your webinar and register participants, it’s crucial for your webinar success.

For more details on how you can host a paid webinar.

Sell Services Online Using WordPress

If you’re looking for easy ways to make money online, selling services is the fastest way to get started. There’s no up front investment of creating a product or investing in inventory.

Instead, you can just create a “hire me” page on your website and start looking for your first client.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

15. Offer Freelance Services

As a blogger, you’re already an expert on your niche. You can start earning an income by offering your skills and expertise as a freelancer.

Freelancing is a popular way to make money online because it doesn’t necessarily require any upfront investment of time or money. You can just start offering your services to your current audience.

Once you start freelancing, you’ll need a way to invoice and collect payments from your clients. We recommend using FreshBooks, but there are also other invoicing plugins for WordPress.

If you’re interested in freelancing to make some serious money online, then see our list of the top tools for WordPress freelancers, designers, and developers for help getting started.

16. Start Your Own Consulting Business

Consulting is another way to make money online from your blog and share your expertise.

Instead of offering your services, a consultant offers advice and strategy so that their clients can become more effective.

As with freelancing, there is no startup investment. You can start offering consulting services on your existing blog. All you need is to create a page with a form so users can request more information.

To easily create a professional, mobile-friendly form, we recommend WPForms. You can see this tutorial on how to create a request a quote form in WordPress to get started.

17. Become a Coach

If “consultant” doesn’t feel like the right title for you, you can consider becoming a coach instead.

A life coach offers advice, guidance, and accountability for setting goals and improving one’s life. There are also other kinds of coaches, such as blog coaches, writing coaches, and more.

Whatever your area of expertise is, you can provide one-on-one help to your audience with coaching sessions.

To save time and make things convenient for your clients, you can set up a booking form so readers can schedule coaching sessions right from your WordPress blog.

See our list of the 5 best WordPress appointment and booking plugins to get started.

Sell Physical Products Online Using WordPress

While selling digital products or services can be an easy way to start making money online, there’s nothing quite like selling real, physical products. Here are a few ways you can get started selling products with WordPress.

18. Start an ECommerce Business With WooCommerce

Have an idea for your own product? Why not start your own online store?

WordPress makes it easy to create a shop or even add a shop to your existing blog using the free WooCommerce plugin.

Starting an online store can be a lot of work, since you need to create or buy the products and then ship them out yourself.

But selling physical products can be a rewarding experience, and sometimes a physical product is exactly what your audience wants.

To get started, see our tutorial on how to start an online store with WooCommerce.

19. Create an Online T-shirt Store With WordPress

Creating your own t-shirt shop is easy with WordPress. Almost everyone wears t-shirts, so opening up a t-shirt shop is a great way to monetize any kind of blog. Designing t-shirts allows you to be creative and offer something unique to your audience.

It’s easy because there are services out there that allow you to upload your own designs, and they print / ship it for you. You get a profit share.

You can easily create your own t-shirt shop on your WordPress site using WP-Spreadplugin by Spreadshirt.

If you want a faster solution, then you can use a Shopify store which connects with dozens of t-shirt printing companies.

20. Create a WooCommerce Dropshipping Store

Dropshipping is another way you can create an ecommerce store on your WordPress website without having to handle inventory or ship items yourself.

With dropshipping, you create the store, manage the website, and customer service. But a dropshipping service will take your orders and ship them out to your customers. They’re an invisible third party that your customers don’t even know about.

You can use the WooCommerce plugin to create a dropshipping store. There’s also a WooCommerce Dropshipping addon plugin that allows you to automate the process.

21. Create an Amazon Affiliate WordPress Shop

One downside of dropshipping is that you have to find a good supplier, which can be a challenge, and sometimes you have to place a large order up front. This can make it difficult to get started without investing a lot of money.

If you want an easier way to set up an ecommerce site without having to ship inventory yourself, you may want to try an Amazon Affiliate shop.

As with many of the items on this list, this works best if you specialize in a niche. If you offer everything, it’s impossible to compete with a big shop like Amazon. But in a small niche, you can differentiate yourself and really stand out.

We recommend using the free Amazon Product in a Post Plugin to easily add Amazon products to your blog posts or pages. Or, you could use the premium WooCommerce Amazon Affiliates plugin to create an Amazon Affiliate store using WooCommerce.

Become a WordPress Designer or Developer

If you’re more technically inclined, then you can become a WordPress developer or designer in order to make money online. This will take more technical skills, but it’s not too hard to get started.

22. Develop WordPress Plugins

Plugins are what make WordPress so flexible and powerful. Plugins work like apps, allowing you to extend and modify any feature of your WordPress website.

Plugins come in all varieties, from very simple code modifications to complex software applications. If you have a basic grasp of how WordPress works and some simple PHP knowledge, you can create your own WordPress plugin.

As a plugin developer, there are many ways you can distribute your plugins. Anyone can submit a free plugin to the WordPress.org plugin directory, as long as they follow the WordPress plugin guidelines. This is a great way to gain experience and build a reputation for yourself as a WordPress plugin developer.

Once you’re ready to start selling premium plugins, you could choose to sell them on a site like MOJO Marketplace, or on your own WordPress site.

If you’re using your existing WordPress blog to sell plugins, you’ll want to make sure that the plugin you create directly fulfills a need of your audience. You can survey them to see what problems they need to solve on their WordPress site, and then create a plugin that solves that problem.

You can then sell the plugin on your site using Easy Digital Downloads.

23. Sell WordPress Themes

If you enjoy web design and development, you could start creating your own WordPress themes to sell.

This requires both design and technical skills. You have to know how to create a good-looking design, and also how to code it for WordPress.

Using a WordPress theme framework such as Genesis can give you a head start. Then you’ll need to design and code a beautiful child theme.

24. Sell Graphics on Your WordPress Site

If you like design more than coding, another option is to design and sell graphics on your WordPress site.

You can create graphics such as stock images or logos and sell them on your site using an ecommerce plugin. You can also join online marketplaces to sell your graphics as well.

25. Accept Donations

Last but not least, one way you can make money from your WordPress blog is simply to ask for it.

You can begin accepting donations in a few different ways. You could add a Paypal donate button or a Stripe donate button to your website. Or for a more professional look and advanced features like email marketing integration, you could use WPForms to create a donation form on your WordPress site.

Donations are last on the list because of their limited effectiveness, since you have to rely on the generosity of your readers. It’s usually more lucrative to offer them something in return.

We hope this article helped to give you plenty of ideas on how to make money online using WordPress! With hard work and perseverance, anyone can earn money from their WordPress site.

By: OM MAURYA SIR On August 21, 2017

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10 tips to help you get your first 1,000 subscribers

Getting more subscribers can seem like a difficult task, but I’ll share 10 tips to help you get your first 1,000 subscribers.

1. Post Useful Content Consistently

This is one of the most difficult things to do as a content creator.  If you take a look around YouTube you might think that every video under the sun has been created and that is most likely true, but you can put your own spin on a popular topic.  For example, there are many “unboxing” tech videos…what if you created a “reboxing” and talk about the various components of tech while you put it back in the box?  The key here is creativity and that will certainly boost subscriptions.

2. Name Your Videos Strategically

One of the most difficult things is to name your video. You have the name in your head, but it may be something complex or too long.  My rule is to keep it basic and use the YouTube autocomplete to name the video.  There is nothing wrong with your video having the same name or something close to a popular video, as long as it’s relevant.

3. Spruce Up Your Channel Design

Most visitors first impression of you is from your channel and your design. This is where visitors interact and get to know what you are about.  Create a engaging header and show off your brand.  On my channel, we were intentional about our design making it fit into our overall branding strategy. The key takeaway is to design with purpose.

4. Show Your Lighter Side

Lighten up and laugh at yourself.  Bloopers make you more human and show something different than an ordinary talking head video. Also, switch up the video and catch your viewers off guard so they don’t know what to expect.

5. Shoot In Various Locations

I believe that shooting in various locations can lead to more interest. I understand that may not be possible or you may have a set, but try to change a background or even use a green screen. Like the cliché says, “variety is the spice of life” so mix it up with your backgrounds and locations.

6. Create A Custom Thumbnail

I have seen my subscriptions and views increase by adding this step.  I use impact font that is seen on many internet photos to grab attention and I format the photo using Adobe Photoshop.

I usually title the photo thumbnail differently than the video because when people are scrolling through other videos to view, they can easily tell what my video is about.

7. Use Annotations

Annotations are those annoying things that pop up during videos, but they can be a content creator’s dream.  I add annotations to every video and make it easy by creating a link for them to subscribe.  This is extra work, but once you see your subscription rate increase you will continue to add them to every video.

8. Ask For Subscribers

This is very basic. At the end of every video ask viewers to “like” and subscribe to your channel.  You should also tell them why they should subscribe, for example if you are a  ABC  channel I would say, “subscribe for my ABC projects, tricks and insider tips delivered to you weekly.” Remember, be careful what you ask for, because you might get it.

9. Be Yourself 

You are the best you—you can be. Being on camera was difficult for me at first because I compared myself to others who are natural on camera talent then I realized, “I just have to be me.”   Let your personality shine in your videos and I guarantee someone will connect with you.

10. Create An Engaging Channel Trailer 

With the new channel design, YouTube gives content creators a great opportunity to create a trailer to share what your content is about. Have you ever attended a movie without viewing a trailer? Not me, because you want to see what it is about.  Keep your trailer under 90 seconds and show scenes from your other videos and provide a strong call to action of why a viewer should become a subscriber.

Keep people coming back by putting some effort into your videos. Did you notice I didn’t mention any technical details about lighting, audio and composition?  This is because I assume you should know that already.  The more comfortable you are on camera the more subscribers you can get. It may take a while, but you can do it.

What other methods do you use to get subscribers on YouTube? Leave in the comments below.

By: OM MAURYA SIR On August 05, 2017

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Marekting Funnel

What is the marketing funnel?

The marketing funnel is a visualization for understanding the process of turning leads into customers, as understood from a marketing (and sales) perspective. The idea is that, like a funnel, marketers cast a broad net to capture as many leads as possible, and then slowly nurture prospective customers through the purchasing decision, narrowing down these candidates in each stage of the funnel.

Ideally, this marketing funnel would actually be a marketing cylinder, and all of your leads would turn into customers. Though this is not a reality for businesses, it is part of a marketer’s job to turn as many leads into customers as possible, thus making the funnel more cylindrical.

It’s important to note that there is not a single agreed upon version of the funnel; some have many “stages” while others have few, with different names and actions taken by the business and consumer for each. In the diagram below, we’ve done our best to pull out the most common and relevant funnel stages, terms, and actions so this information is useful to as many marketers as possible.

Marketing funnel stages and conversions

I’ll take you through the funnel stage by stage so you have a full understanding of how it works.

Awareness: Awareness is the uppermost stage of the marketing funnel. Potential customers are drawn into this stage through marketing campaigns and consumer research and discovery. Trust and thought leadership is established with events, advertising, trade shows, content (blog posts, infographics, etc.), webinars, direct mail, viral campaigns, social media, search, media mentions, and more. Here, lead generation takes place, as information is collected and leads are pulled into a lead management system for nurturing further down the funnel.

Interest: Once leads are generated, they move on to the interest stage, where they learn more about the company, its products, and any helpful information and research it provides. Here is an opportunity for brands to develop a relationship with the people in its lead database and introduce its positioning. Marketers can nurture leads through emails, content that is more targeted around industries and brands, classes, newsletters, and more.

Consideration: In the consideration stage, leads have been changed into marketing qualified leads and are seen as prospective customers. Marketers can send prospects more information about products and offers through automated email campaigns, while continuing to nurture them with targeted content, case studies, free trials, and more.

Intent: To get to the intent stage, prospects must demonstrate that they are interested in buying a brand’s product. This can happen in a survey, after a product demo, or when a product is placed in the shopping cart on an ecommerce website. This is an opportunity for marketers to make a strong case for why their product is the best choice for a buyer.

Evaluation: In the evaluation stage, buyers are making a final decision about whether or not to buy a brand’s product or services. Typically, marketing and sales work together closely to nurture the decision-making process and convince the buyer that their brand’s product is the best choice.

Purchase: You’re here! This is the last stage in the marketing funnel, where a prospect has made the decision to buy and turns into a customer. This is where sales takes care of the purchase transaction. A positive experience on the part of the buyer can lead to referrals that fuel the top of the marketing funnel, and the process begins again.

How does the marketing funnel differ for B2C and B2B brands?

To help you better understand how the marketing funnel differs for B2C and B2B brands, take a look at the modified diagram below, which outlines B2C and B2B consumer actions and conversions in each stage of the funnel.

Key differences between B2C and B2B marketing funnels:

• Most B2C consumers navigate the funnel alone or with a small group of trusted advisors (usually friends and family), while B2B consumers typically have a larger, cross-departmental buying group. The average B2B buying group is 5.4 people.
• B2C consumers may never directly interact with a company representative, especially on ecommerce websites, while B2B consumers typically interact with a sales representative in the lower end of the funnel.

By: OM MAURYA SIR On August 05, 2017

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how to write Articles ?

Write a How-to Article in 6 Easy Steps

STEP 1: SELECT YOUR TOPIC.

Choose a topic that interests you enough to focus on it for at least a week or two. If your topic is broad, narrow it. Instead of writing about how to decorate your home, try covering how to decorate your home in country style on a shoestring budget. That’s more specific and, as such, easier to tackle.

Then write a rough, rough draft, including everything you can think of. Stay loose, avoid getting analytical, and enjoy the process of sharing what you know. When you’re done, you’ll have the bare bones of an article that only you could write. Then put it aside for a while.

STEP 2: ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE’S NEEDS.

Now, come back to your piece. Switch gears and imagine you’re the reader of this article. Pick three words to describe the audience you want to address (e.g., professionals, single men). As this reader, what questions would you like answered? You might not know the answers yet, but list the questions anyway; you’ll find answers in the next step.

STEP 3: RESEARCH.

Research will ground your article in fact. Good details to include with your how-to are:

• Statistics
• Quotes by well-known people
• Definitions
• Anecdotes (short, illustrative stories about yourself or someone else)
• Quotes and examples from people like the reader or from popular books on the subject
• References to other media (film, television, radio)
• Helpful tools, resources or products (if many, consider creating a sidebar)
• References to local venues or events (if for a regional/local publication).

Collect everything you have gathered and put it in a folder, an electronic document, a notebook or whatever you like. Don’t forget to keep track of sources in case you are later asked by an editor to verify them. You may want to sift through your research at a separate sitting from gathering it. Or just go ahead and sprinkle your research in right when you find it. It’s a lot like cooking—play around until you feel you have it “just right.”

STEP 4: TIGHTEN YOUR DRAFT.

Keeping your audience in mind, write a tighter draft incorporating the new supporting information you’ve collected. Sometimes what you’ve learned in Steps 2 and 3 may compel you to start over with a completely fresh draft. Or you may just want to revise what you have as you proceed, retaining a nice conversational tone by directly addressing your audience.

This time when you read your draft, ask yourself: Is it working? Is it too general, too lightweight, uninteresting, unclear or choppy? If so, comb some of your favorite publications for how-to articles. What techniques are those writers using that you might employ?

STEP 5: MAKE IT SPECIFIC.

Double-check to see that you’ve included every pertinent step in the process. How-to articles have to be thorough. You want your reader to walk away knowing exactly how to make that Thanksgiving dinner on a shoestring budget, execute that rugby tackle or locate great accommodations.

If your narrative goes on and on, or off in too many directions, break it down into key points indicated with subheads (as in this article). Synthesizing complicated information and breaking it down into steps is especially crucial for online writing, and is also a trend in print.

STEP 6: READ, REVISE, REPEAT.

Read the draft of your how-to article out loud to a supportive friend. Then, ask her a series of questions: Does she now understand the process? Are there any steps missing? Is there anything else she would like to know about the subject? Could she do the task herself? With your friend’s suggestions in mind, use your best judgment in deciding what changes, if any, need to be made.

Here’s a quick list to help you catch errors or omissions:

• Did you adequately describe the ingredients/supplies needed in order for the reader to complete the task?
• Did you include all the important steps?
• Is the order logical?
• Did you use words that indicate sequence: first, next, then?
• Did you warn readers of possible pitfalls?

Rewrite, read aloud, rewrite, read aloud, rewrite, find a proofreader and, only when you’re satisfied you’ve written an effective how-to article, submit your piece to an appropriate publication with a short cover letter.

By: OM MAURYA SIR On August 05, 2017

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What is a marketing funnel?

What is a marketing funnel?

A marketing funnel is a way of breaking down the customer journey all the way from the “awareness” stage (when they first learn about your business) to the “purchase” stage (when they’re ready to buy your product or service).

First, you want to attract awareness to your business by ranking high in search, publishing white papers, etc. As leads progress through your funnel, your outreach methods will get more and more personalized (sometimes involving a product demo or a phone call) until the sale takes place.

·        Awareness – the customer is aware of the existence of a product or service

·        Interest – actively expressing an interest in a product group

·        Desire – aspiring to a particular brand or product

·        Action – taking the next step towards purchasing the chosen product

Example 1:

Norman Newbie owns a software company with ten salespeople and one product. He’s not a very savvy marketer, so his sales process currently involves handing his salespeople lists of leads that he purchased online and having them “dial for dollars.” His salespeople frequently get frustrated since his leads aren’t always good quality. Because they’re usually calling on people who A) aren’t interested in his services and B) are not a good fit for them, the salespeople close less than 1% of the prospects they initially reach out to.

Example 2:

Molly Marketer has a similarly-sized company, but instead of taking Norman’s traditional outbound marketing approach, she’s created a marketing funnel that helps her three salespeople close more sales with less effort.

Molly started by building a series of attention-grabbing content marketing pieces that are tied to landing pages on her website. Potential customers can engage with her content (blog posts, infographics, videos) and learn about her company and its services without a cold call from a salesperson.

When these would-be buyers become interested enough in her products, they request an online demonstration by filling out the form on her landing pages. These requests are routed directly to her salespeople, who, because they’re dealing with warm leads, close roughly 50% of the customers to whom they demo. Molly’s company closes more sales than Norman’s, with fewer salespeople and no time spent on cold calling.

Obviously, these are simplified examples, and most businesses will fall somewhere in the middle of this “0 to 60” spectrum. Even if you’ve never heard the phrase “marketing funnel” before, make no mistake about it: you have one.

Whether you’re an old hand looking for fresh ideas on optimizing your current funnel or a newbie wanting to learn how to make an effective marketing funnel, you’ve come to the right place!

Creating Content for Your Marketing Funnel:

Now that you know how people make decisions, you can use this knowledge of the buying process to make a marketing funnel by creating content that will appeal to people at every stage. Take a look at the following sales funnel temp  to see how this translates:

As you can see, each color-coded piece of the funnel pictured above roughly corresponds to stages 2-4 in the buying process. The widest tier at the top of the funnel represents “awareness,” the point at which potential customers are beginning their information search. The second tier is “consideration,” roughly corresponding to the evaluation of alternatives described in the purchase process above. And finally, the third tier, “decision,” is self-explanatory.

As a note, stages one and five have been left out of this model. Though all companies should have a plan for addressing post-purchase follow-up, it’s up to you to determine whether or not it’s worth your company’s time to try to reach buyers in the first stage of the process. It can be difficult to convince people that they have a problem if they haven’t already felt it themselves, but if you’re selling a new type of product that meets a previously unrealized need, you might want to focus your energy on this area.

For each stage of the funnel, you’ll need to answer the following questions:

• How will customers at this stage find me?
• What kind of information do I need to provide to help them move from one stage to the next?
• How will I know if they have moved from one stage to another?

The image above gives some hints as to how you might answer some of these questions, and you’ll find that some are easier to answer than others. To continue with our earlier example, let’s explore how Norman could answer each of these questions in order to create the foundation of his marketing funnel:

Stage 1 – Problem/Need Recognition

Because Norman sells a high-dollar software product that meets a need that most businesses are familiar with, he decides that it’s easier to focus on attracting and converting customers who already know that they need his product, rather than trying to create the need in the first place. If he was a startup or a company with a new idea, he might choose to invest more of his time and energy here.

Stage 2 – Information Search

How will customers at this stage find me?

Given the broad appeal of his product and its high-dollar nature, Norman decides that the following strategies will be most appropriate:

• Paid advertising on Google AdWords that lead visitors to a landing page with an opt-in form requesting a free online demonstration
• Guest blog posts on industry websites that provide viewers with unbiased information on what to look for when buying his type of software
• Optimizing his website for keywords that indicate an information search in  progress in order to capture organic search traffic
• Social media posts that educate viewers on a wide variety of industry issues

What kind of information do customers at this stage need?

• Content that confirms that the need they’ve perceived is valid and should be remedied (for example, blog posts that appeal to the visitor’s frustrations with emotional descriptions of the problem and how the product solves it—“Why X is a Problem and What You Should Do About It”)
• Content that describes the attributes of the product to encourage viewers to include in their future evaluation of alternatives (for example, blog posts with titles like “Getting to Know Product X”)
• Content that introduces the company and intrigues the potential customer enough to move to the next stage of the buying process (for example, Facebook posts on “Behind the Scenes at Norman’s Company”)

How will I know if customers have moved on to the next stage?

Norman will know when customers have moved on to the “Evaluation of Alternatives” stage when they request a free online demonstration, indicating that they are interested enough in the product to compare it against others.

Stage 3 – Evaluation of Alternatives

How will customers at this stage find me?

Most prospects will enter this stage after identifying Norman’s company as a possible alternative and completing the information search process described in Stage 2. However, some customers might be introduced to his brand after completing Stage 2 with his competitors, as in the case of an industry blog running a comparison chart of the different competitors in his space.

As a result, Norman decides that it’s prudent to set up Google Alerts for his competitors’ names. Whenever they appear online, he makes it a point to try to get his company mentioned as well by reaching out to publishers, leaving comments, and responding to questions he sees about his competitors.

What kind of information do customers need at this stage?

• What differentiates Norman’s product from his competitors’ products? Instead of relying on external sites, Norman could create his own product comparison chart showing how his product is different from others.
• Have other buyers been successful with Norman’s product? Case studies of past customer successes can be extremely helpful in terms of moving customers from the evaluation stage to the purchase decision.
• Why should they purchase from Norman? To meet this need, Norman might publish a white paper based on primary research he’s conducted that establishes himself as an industry authority (or, better yet, he might place this behind an opt-in form that causes visitors to take the psychologically-compelling step of engaging further with his brand).

How will I know if customers have moved on to the next stage?

Visitors who move on to the next stage are those that make a purchase, so any indication that the buying process has begun means success — from verbal confirmation of a deal’s acceptance to the receipt of a formal contract. However, if Norman uses an online shopping cart system, he might also find it useful to track abandonment rates, as reaching out to these customers could help reveal reasons visitors aren’t progressing to the next stage or provide salespeople with leads that can be easily closed with a single outreach phone call.

Stage 4 – Purchase Decision

How will customers at this stage find me?

Customers at this stage will have already found Norman’s company by progressing through stages 1-3.  There is no extra outreach Norman needs to do at this point, as it is exceedingly rare for customers to purchase without conducting any type of information search or comparison of alternatives.

What kind of information do customers at this stage need?

Since Norman is selling a high-dollar product, he needs to do two things: help prospects be comfortable with the purchasing process and make the purchase process as easy as possible.

• To help make customers comfortable, he decides to create a few blog posts on what happens after the purchase is completed to ease potential worries about investing with his company (for example, “10 Ways Norman’s Company Simplifies Software Onboarding”).
• To minimize confusion, he adds information to his checkout pages in order to make it as obvious as possible what prospects should do next in order to purchase his solution.

How will I know if customers have moved on to the next stage?

Customers will move on to Stage 5 when the sale is complete. Although we won’t detail it here, Norman should brainstorm the kinds of information these customers will need, as well as how he’ll provide it as part of a cohesive onboarding process. Though he doesn’t need to worry about customers finding him at this stage or moving on to the next one, it’s still important to meet their needs so that they walk away feeling good about their purchase decisions!

After completing this brainstorming process, Norman creates an overall list of all the different content pieces he’ll need to create and deploy, including:

• Google AdWords ad copy
• Landing pages with lead generation forms for customers requesting online demonstrations
• Guest blog posts
• On-site page and blog content written for SEO keywords
• Blog post: Why X Is a Problem and What You Should Do About It
• Blog post: Getting to Know Product X
• Blog post: 10 Ways Norman’s Company Simplifies Software Onboarding
• Social media posts: Behind the Scenes at Norman’s Company
• Product comparison chart
• Case studies from successful customers
• White paper
• New checkout page content

Since this is a significant amount of content, Norman can choose to roll it out over time, enlist other employees in the creation process or outsource some of it to freelance workers.

Another Way to Remember Content Creation Stages:

There’s another way to remember stages of the sales funnel and match it to content creation — with the acronym AIDA:

• Attention: This is similar to the problem/need recognition stage. Customers experience a problem, but must recognize the problem. You create content to draw attention to the need.
• Interest: Interest and information both start with the letter “I.” This is the stage at which customers are actively seeking, or interested in, information to help them solve their problem. As they move through the sales funnel from recognizing or drawing attention to the problem, their interest is sparked in a solution. They need information to move into the next phase.
• Desire: Customers have moved from attention or recognition of the problem through information-gathering and interest. Now they have a desire for a solution. Customers evaluate alternatives and your job, through content creation, is to spark a desire for your solution. You must convince customers, as they examine various solutions to their problem, that your solution is the right one for them.
• Action: Now it is time for customers to make the purchase decision, or to take action. Make it easy for them to say “yes” to taking action. Have a strong call to action in your copy, and a simple path to follow to complete the sale. The easier you make it for people to take action, the more sales you’ll generate through your sales funnel

By: OM MAURYA SIR On August 04, 2017

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