3 Keys to Social Media Effectiveness

Guest post by Linda M. Lopeke of smartstartcoach.com

Social media can be one of the most productive tools in your marketing arsenal or one of the more frustrating experiences you'll have online.

The good news? As a new business owner or online entrepreneur, you get to make the planning decisions that influence the effectiveness of your social media marketing.

Here are 3 keys to ensuring your social media investment is working for you and your business...

1. Know your why

Like all marketing activities, your participation in social media should have a specific purpose that supports your overall business goals. There are over 50 ways to use social media to market a business but not all will be suitable for your needs.

The first key to your social media effectiveness is using the available methods and options appropriately to achieve a specific primary objective.

For example, if we asked you why you want to market your business in social media, which one of these reasons would be first to come to mind?

1. Listening -- I want to understand my market better and gain more insight into what's really important to my customers.
2. Talking -- I want to stimulate two-way discussions and conversations to help me get my message out to my target market, build relationships with others that are mutually beneficial, and gain credibility.
3. Energizing -- I want to create opportunities for my customers to tell others about our business, products and great results to generate word-of-mouth referrals, and share viral communications.
4. Supporting -- I want to make it possible for my customers to support each other and feel a sense of belonging to our community.
5. Embracing -- I want to develop better products and services by collaborating with my target market and past customers.

2. Plan your social media activities

In an earlier post, Lynn shared excellent advice on how to use social media when you're just getting started. To take that further, we recommend mapping the decisions you've made about which social media accounts to use and how frequently to post to them onto a social media planning calendar.

This “must have” planning tool helps you organize all of your social media activities so you can better communicate your marketing message. When completed, you’ll know exactly what topics and themes you’ll cover, which social media channels you’ll post content to and when, and how your social media efforts fit in with and support all the other marketing and promotional activities you’ll undertake.

It’s also a great tool for ensuring all of the content you published in social media can be efficiently created, shared, tracked and managed.

You can download a free calendar here for planning your social media marketing.

(Use the coupon code provided to automatically set the price to $0.00 for you. Instructions for customizing the calendar are included in the Excel workbook. Yes, we are well into the year already, but all subscribers are offered new editions of the calendar each year at no charge when they become available. )

3. Monitor your results

Finally, you'll want to be able to review and analyse the results you're getting from social media marketing so you can make adjustments to your plans if needed.

The calendar provides a detailed worksheet for tracking key marketing metrics throughout the year. These statistics show you what's working and what's not so you can optimize your campaigns while working to achieve your social media marketing goals.

About the Author: Linda M. Lopeke is an internationally recognized authority on business management and creator of the award-winning SMARTSTART programs. She helps entrepreneurs create media-worthy success stories from their business ideas. Click the link for more useful products from smartstartcoach.com

* This post was sponsored by Smart Start Coach

The All In One Website Analytic Tool

Web Analytics is a tricky business. If you’re an entrepreneur or company with a website in a competitive field, you need to be able to measure how your site performs against its competitors, and you need to be able to track how users interact with your site.

If you gather your data from one source, you save time, but don’t get the full picture. If you need a full picture, gathering your data from multiple sources, you end up having to do 5 to 10 times the work.

To see HeatSync in action, click here.

HeatSync lets you have your cake and eat it too! It’s a cloud-based tool that’s poised to be the hottest thing on the market for folks interested in getting a fuller insight into factors that make or break the success of a website.

Getting started with HeatSync couldn’t be easier.

You simply input a list of sites you’d like to track the performance of, and let it do all the work. Data is gathered from a variety of sources, all of which are considered industry-standard leaders in metrics tracking. From social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter, to more dedicated sources such as Compete, Alexa, and Klout, HeatSync collects valuable data about your site and your competitors’, and gives the user a variety of options for how to use it.

Are you interested in seeing what country most of your visitors come from? Or how much money they make? Maybe you’re interested in your site’s history, and want to see traffic plotted over the course of a few months.

Perhaps you want to compare how many unique visits vs. return visits you get from customers, against the same criteria, but of a competitor’s site. HeatSync doesn’t make you decide how to view the data. You get it all.

Let’s take a little tour of the interface.

The Dashboard will be your home base. In most cases, the metrics most important to you are displayed all in this one place when you log in.

For a more in-depth look at specific sites, click the Website Profile of one of the sites you track. It’s an in-depth look at performance of individual sites, showing you everything from traffic reports to overall ranking.

If there are metrics you commonly look at for all of your individual sites, you can look at them all in the same place, with the Compare Engine, which can overlay graphs and charts from any of your tracked websites to give you a visual comparison.

With such customization, and the ability to do what normally takes a team of experts, or multiple different automated services, you’d think a tool like this would cost a pretty penny. For now, though, HeatSync is in beta, which you can join for free at http://www.heatsync.com.

* This post was sponsored by CoolHandle

Write For Profit – Online Writing Skills Can Make You Money

Whether you decide to build a career around freelance writing or you simply want to build a business blog, enhancing your online writing skills is important.

No matter which niche or industry you're in, every online marketer needs to have quality content at their website and blog. If you learn some of the basics about how to craft quality online content you will do a better job at keeping your readers engaged.

The saying that 'content is king' really is true. You should have quality content at your sites that is unique and insightful. Writing effectively can increase your conversion rates and of course, your overall profits...

Great content makes you more credible as a marketer. It can give you status as an authority in your niche.

About Online Writing Skills

Online writing can be tricky. In order to build a rapport with our audience it is important to write 'as if we are talking to a friend'. However, it's not quite that simple - there are certain strategies that should be followed.

Through trial and error, learning these strategies on your own can take years of hard work and/or long hours of study and research. A better way is to streamline that process. That's what Write For Profit is all about.

This is a membership site with a one-time fee of $37. It provides a comprehensive library of information that will help content writers and online marketers fine-tune their writing skills.

The program covers everything from the very basics of article writing to things like how to choose keywords and install a WordPress blog, to SEO tips, creating business plans, time management, and even how to publish books to Amazon. The membership is broken down into learning modules, which means the members can access specific information needed.

Tools and resources are also provided. In addition, the site includes a blog that is open to everyone. Write For Profit really is a complete program for writers and others interested in learning about online writing strategies.

Let Write For Profit Help Your Business

As a freelance writer or online marketer you have to be conscious of the fact that every piece of content you write is a reflection on your business. Therefore, it is important to keep a certain level of professionalism in all written work.

This includes emails and other documents. Paying someone else for every piece of work you use at your site and other places can be very expensive and time-consuming. Not surprisingly, most people find it more convenient and cost-effective to create at least some of their own content.

The only problem is, many marketers do not have quality writing skills. This means some of the work they add to their sites and blogs is at best, mediocre. Not only does this make them look bad to their customers, it also gives their competitors an edge.

Invest In Your Writing Skills

Making a small investment in your writing skills can make a huge difference in how you are perceived as a marketer. In fact, as you learn more about how to use keywords and how to format articles you are likely to find that your posts move up in SERPs. This can help improve brand recognition and it also helps with reputation management.

The truth is, quality writing skills can be at the heart of a positive cycle for any online marketer or writer. With these skills you can create great content. This can be used to craft articles, eBooks, PLR packages, or other products.

Write For Profit is the ideal resource for learning online writing skills. You'll have all the information you need at your fingertips. You can choose to enhance a particular area of writing or review each learning module to enhance all your writing skills and more. Take advantage of this opportunity to increase your profits and build a better business!

 
 

* This post was written by Debbie Allen and sponsored by Write For Profit.

A New Way to Monetize Your Blog: PostJoint

Right now the world of online marketing is going through a major transition. More and more companies are focusing their efforts on content marketing to get exposure on blogs while also building incoming links to their site in the process.

As businesses realise the convergence between SEO, social media and content marketing - bloggers are waiting to monetize their web sites, increase the value of their content and provide a fresh voice on their site.

PostJoint is a new service for bloggers to get original and quality content for their sites, while also making money in the process. Bloggers can get paid to publish posts from our advertising partners at a rate of $25 to $500 per post.

Right now the system is in Beta and is free for everyone to use. We recently announced that our bloggers have already earned over $100,000 in just a short amount of time!

Now let’s give you some visuals to better understand how the site works.

Blogger Dashboard

The first thing we are going to look at is the blogger dashboard when you first login. You will also see the “Offers You’ve Made” and “Opportunities” section. These are the two important areas. Now let’s click over to see what opportunities might be available.

Post Opportunities

When you create your blogger account you will need to list your site and choose some categories. The more you pick the better, as this will determine what offers you see. Once you find an offer you like, you can click on it and place your offer. Each offer already has a maximum price next it, which will be “free”, “paid” ($25-$500) and “all considered” which means you can make any offer.

Get your FREE blogger account now

Make an Offer

Below you will see the screenshot of the area where you can fill out your offer information. You also have the option to include a tweet, which is a big benefit for the advertiser. You can also state your requested fee and add a note to the advertiser. Each opportunity will get 5 offers before the advertiser makes their decision on who to award to post to.

The Offers Area

Lastly, after your content has been awarded to you and posted to your site you can see a recap of everything in your offers area. This is where you can grab the full article to post on your site, check payment stats and provide feedback to the advertiser.

What About Advertisers

If you are interested in seeing how the advertiser side works, you can also sign up for that using a separate email address.

Our advertisers use PostJoint to drive more web traffic by publishing valuable content on targeted, relevant blogs. They can efficiently build their online profile and inform customers, opening the door to future purchases across our range of thousands of quality screened blogs. Guest posting has always been a time consuming, difficult to sclae and labarious process - but not anymore. PostJoint takes the hard work out of the process and delivers rapid results for all parties.

Get your FREE advertiser account now

* This post was written & sponsored by PostJoint

Make Money On The Internet From Home. The Passive, Newbie-Friendly Way

Chances are you’re at this site right now to learn how to build your own passive income from home.  I commend you because I was in your shoes about 5 years ago!

Below I am going to break down what you need to do and how you can start working, beside my partner on this (Justin Lewis) and I, from home starting today (Left:Michael, Right: Justin).

Before I start, who am I?  My name is Michael Brown and I started making money online in 2007 and within 12 months, I quit my job.  I did this while working a full time job and raising my son...

In fact, I owe many thanks to Lynn Terry here at ClickNewz for kicking me in the butt early on and getting me motivated. 

I’m also a father and a husband and consider myself a strong family man first and Internet marketer second.

I now train other people to make money online as I do with my friend; Justin Lewis.  Justin started off as a student of mine and really came into his own.

Here is what I know to be undeniably true in the making money online world.

1. There are a lot of scams
2. Big gurus try to persuade you by telling you they have millions of dollars and fancy cars, homes, etc.
3. Many claim it takes absolutely no-work
4. Many claim there are simply push-button systems and you don’t have to do anything else
5. It can be frustrating!

I’ll tell you first hand that to make money online it takes…

1. Work
2. Motivation
3. Proper training / mentor(s)
4. A support group that you can trust
5. Determination

Anyone that guarantees you will make $xxxxx amount of dollars; steer clear.  Anyone promising push-button riches; steer clear.  Anyone continuously flaunting their income or success; steer clear.  Never bank your potential income on the results of someone else.

Yes, it’s easy to do once you know how but getting there takes times, practice, hands on help and good friends you can ultimately get help from and trust.

Below is what I found to work well and how I train raw beginners and people who have yet to have success making money online.

Note: some of this you may already know, but reinforce your knowledge as repetition will help breed success.

Step 1: Find A Niche

First, you’ll find a niche that you like.  I know many people say “go for the money only.” However, I think you need to find a niche you really like, rather than just a cash cow.  As you gain experience go for the larger cash cows but, in the beginning going for things you love that have less competition is probably a smart idea.

Step 2: Research Your Niche & Audience

Knowing what is going on in your industry can help lead to a great passive online income. It simply involves looking at how competitive other sites are in your industry and what keywords and phrases are relevant to your market.

Many people skip this step simply because they don’t understand it (don’t worry in a moment I’ll show you how you can do this absolutely free with complete video and text training).

Step 3:  Create A Website Using WordPress

Next, you create a website using WordPress.  Why WordPress?  It’s free, stable, looks great and is easy enough for anybody to use.

You’ll simply build your site based around your topic.

Step 4: Add Content To Your Website

Content can be text, images, video, audio, info charts, graphs and even PDFs.  Create compelling content that your visitors will be interested in. 

Creating good content can be based on:

• Demos or Demonstrations
• Product Reviews
• Hot Industry Topics
• Questions In Your Niche
• Problems In Your Niche
• Shortcuts In Your Niche
• Thing That Are Entertaining In Your Niche

Step 5: Start Driving Traffic

This can be done through the search engines, forums, video and social media sites.  But, traffic is critical.  If you’re creating good content and sharing it often, the traffic will come!

Step 6:  Monetize For Income (Add Money)

Often times we are eager to make money so much we focus too much on how to monetize our niche than the previous steps  However, what we do is teach you to do the other steps first and worry about money last.

Here’s why….

You’ll be more inclined to help your audience which will help you dramatically increase your sales and income.  Most people miss this because they simply only worry about their own pockets.  Help those in your market and it will help you succeed in making more money online.

Think of companies like Facebook, they didn’t monetize until late in the game and are now the top social network, period.

These are the things you need to do to make money on the Internet. 

But, it’s not the end!

Over the last few years I’ve been teaching people how to make money using these tactics. However, about 8 months ago I decided I wanted to make something truly amazing to help people interested in building their very own business that they can make money online with.

Justin Lewis shared this vision with me and has a knack for modernizing the training and keeping it relevant. Plus, he is a pure master at social media and that is something we wanted to make sure we taught in great detail inside the course. So Justin Lewis and I got together and started laying out the ground work for what we call Niche Optimizer.

Inside of Niche Optimizer we remove the frustration that usually comes with making money on the Internet.  Not only do we provide hands-on help every step of the way, we make it step-by-step newbie friendly….

Here is exactly what we created & teach on the inside:

• Lesson 0:  Understanding The Basics
• Lesson 1:  Finding Your Niche
• Lesson 2:  Finding Your Audience
• Lesson 3:  Creating Your Domain & World
• Lesson 4:  Building Your Niche Website (with 20 easy WordPress tutorials)
• Lesson 5:  Creating Awesome Content
• Lesson 6:  Building & Growing Your Traffic (tons of sub-lessons here)
• Lesson 7:  Making Money
• Lesson 8:  Advancing

Each lesson has several sub–lessons that are organized in a step-by-step manner complete with easy to follow videos and text with image walk-throughs as well.

So if you love video and hate text, no problem!  Hate video and love text and screen shots?  We have that too.  Easy.

But, here is where the course gets really good.

After you understand the first segment of the course you can go on to our in-depth Facebook Fanpage course.

Inside this part of the course you’ll find 7 additional lessons:

• Lesson 1: Facebook Basics
• Lesson 2: Naming Your Fanpage
• Lesson 3: Creating Your Page
• Lesson 4: Facebook Sharing
• Lesson 5: Growing Your Fanbase
• Lesson 6: Using Paid Ads Effectively
• Lesson 7: Automating

Using our easy-to-follow lessons on making money on the Internet with Facebook, you’ll be master social media in no time.

After you finish this segment up you can continue onto creating an email list.  An email list not only provides traffic on a regular basis to your site, but also sales.

Email List Profits

Lesson 1:  Setting Up Your First Email List/Form

Lesson 2:  Automating Your Emails

More lessons added soon to this area.

As we continue to grow the course we’ll be adding new lessons and new training to every segment. Which you’ll get immediate access to when available.

This course also includes what I believe sets us apart from anything else on the Internet:

Weekly live events.  These are sometimes Q and A and other times just straight training.  These events are great to meet us and get hands on feedback from real industry experts.

Weekly Podcasts:  Justin and I shoot these live and then share them with you.  These are typically created based on things our members ask us or are looking for.

You can see an example here:

http://www.nicheoptimizer.com/you-are-an-expert/

These events are a great way to increase your knowledge will help you make more money online.

24/7 Support:  One of the things that online training tends to suffer from is lack of support.  Our community is extremely active.  Our members are on day and night and Justin and I are on several hours each day.

We will answer every single question that is submitted and our premium students and support team will as well.

We give you a NO-STUCK guarantee as our member.

A community is important while you’re learning to build your own online business.

We have several hundred more videos and training segments that will be coming over the next few years.  The training we provide will never become stale or out-of-date.

So rest easy, that everything we teach is always up-to-date and very useful to decreasing your learning time, increasing your success and keeping this course constantly relevant when other courses seem to fall out of date.

We also created an area where you can take the first 4 modules free and even ask us questions!  Get started by going to Niche Optimizer and click on the green button at the top labeled "Create Your Account".

We keep the atmosphere light and fun.  We want you to build a serious business online, but we also want you to enjoy yourself!

I want to thank Lynn Terry for the opportunity to share this with you today and if you have questions, please ask below.

By the way, since this is free to join, we ask that you just give us a chance to help you.  We know that even if you have prior training you’ll be pleasantly surprised by our premium training, attention to detail and understanding of exactly what you need to succeed.

Justin and I can’t wait to see you on the inside with us, but no matter what you choose to do; please keep working on your online business!  The Internet is an awesome place and we share your passion.

To your success,

Michael Brown

* This post was written by Michael Brown and sponsored by NicheOptimizer.

Stand Out In Your Niche With A Digital Magazine

Guest Post by Mike Norris

I think you will agree something all us us need is more customers. Digital Magazine Publishing sounds like it is something for the big boys, like Vogue and ESPN Magazine.

That would not be true. Tiny magazines in all types niches are moving from print to digital magazines. The costs are cheaper and customer acquisition is much cheaper. And customer growth can be rapid.

Tablet and smart phone users crave content. We all know that. Why not give your customers what they want on multiple platforms...

Digital magazine publishing is perfect for speakers, authors, consultants who want to dominate their niche. Imagine being the first in your niche to offer a digital magazine.

Truth be told people are getting tired of all the webinars. I know I get emails everyday from marketers trying to get me to watch their webinar.

Now you can offer a digital magazine with beautiful pictures, audio, video and links to your landing pages, salespages or wherever you want to send your readers.

It can be a great alternative to webinars.

You Can Stand Out From The Crowd With A Digital Magazine

This is one of the hottest opportunities for marketers online in quite awhile.

Don't take my word for it...

According to Garner Research Technology there are currently over 200 million devices available for use (iPads,Mobile phones,etc). And the number is growing.

By 2016 there are expected to be 665 million devices available for use.

Those users will spend an average of $600 per year on apps for their devices. That's $339 BILLION. You might as well get a little cut of that.

Hopefully that got the wheels turning a little bit.

Digital Magazine Publishing Is Surprisingly Easy!

Through some joint venture partnerships we have made this very easy for you. You can be hands on or mostly hands off. The option is up to you.

Most of you have tons of existing content hidden on your computer or on your website. Why not use it as content for you magazine? Most of us have enough to fill a year's worth of magazines easily. You may need to spruce some of it up bit.

No programming skills are needed. So if you are non-technical like me you will be fine. Your magazine distribution can be free or paid. It's up to you. You may monetize your mag through ads, links,etc.

Email me at mike@mikenorris.jvfaststart.net for more information.

Choose The Solution That Best Fits Your Needs

We have currently have five packages available.

The first 3 are packages are how to publish your digital magazine.

1. Silver Package- Step by step training done at your pace.

2. Gold Package- Hands-on one on one training to help you do it yourself.

3. Platinum Package- You get all the benefits, but do none of the work.

The 4th and 5th package are where it gets exciting.

. VIP Traffic Package- We set up traffic campaigns for you and you manage it yourself. We create Mobile Image Ads and Text Ads for you that you use on the devices you choose.

. Ultimate Traffic Package- We create traffic campaigns and manage them for you. We create Mobile Image Ads and Text Ads for you to use. We will manage, optimize, refine and scale your advertising to generate the most subscribers for you magazine.

We recently had Animal Sanctuary Magazine get 10,000 new subscribers in their first 2 weeks. This is the ultimate niche magazine with pictures and stories about lions, tigers and other wild animals.

You can get more information on the digital publishing options available to you by emailing me directly at mike@mikenorris.jvfaststart.net

About the author: Mike Norris is an internet entrepreneur and JV Broker that brings online business owners together for mutual benefit. For more information on how to grow your business through Joint Ventures visit Mike's JV Website.

* This post was written & sponsored by Mike Norris

Time Sensitive Courtesy Notice (6 Days Left)

It is SO great to be back to work after my extended post-surgery recovery time!

I've really enjoyed reconnecting with everyone online, and hosting the free Internet Marketing Q&A webinars. If you missed those, you can find both replays at these links:

Internet Marketing Q&A - 1

Internet Marketing Q&A - 2

I'll be hosting another one next week, so make sure you're subscribed by email (to the right) so you'll receive the date/time and log-in link as soon as I have it scheduled.

As a courtesy notice, there are only SIX days left (including today) to take advantage of my April Special Offers. There are 3 cool options, and they all end on May 1st. I'll give you a brief description so you don't miss out if you want to jump on these...

1. Fast Fixes To Your Online Business Frustrations

I poured my heart into this detailed report, and it has received extremely positive feedback from "newbies" and seasoned online business owners alike:

http://www.clicknewz.com/5428/solutions/

The report originally sold for $14.95 before being taken off the market, and I am currently throwing in my Domain Name guide which sells for $10. You can get BOTH for only $7.47 if you grab them before the end of April.

2. Cheap, Effective (Creative!) Advertising

While you're working to build your own following and readership, and sources of direct traffic, you can easily tap into those who've already done the work

It's a super-smart step many people miss!

See: http://www.clicknewz.com/6606/get-featured-on-clicknewz/

I also have a follow-up post with FAQ and creative ideas at:

http://www.clicknewz.com/6753/featured-editorials/

This is an insanely good opportunity, but I am limited on the number of people I can work with. The rate will *double* on May 1st, so email me today if you're interested in leveraging MY success.

3. Get Personal, Hands-on Help With Your Business

My Private Brainstorming Group is my pride & joy. It is my absolute favorite spot on the 'net, and where I hang out most. With Facebook pulling a close second - lol.

This is the one place where I work hands-on with people to start an online business, or take their established business to maximum profit potential.

See: http://www.clicknewz.com/6098/hands-on-help/

I originally offered a really sweet New Year special, and shortly after had an unexpected surgery and exceptionally long recovery. I decided to extend it as a Spring Special, which will last through the end of April.

Check it out if you would like a dedicated private mastermind & brainstorming group of serious action-takers on your side 24/7 as you work on your online business.

Again, all three of these GREAT offers will end on May 1st, so you have 6 days to make a decision - including today. If you have any questions, send me an email. If you don't have my address, you can use the contact me form on this page.

I'll keep an eye out for your message, and I'll respond personally...

Best,

p.s. The free webinars have been a big hit so far! If you want to leave feedback, or if you want to invite someone to join in on future webinars, here is the link: http://www.clicknewz.com/6695/free-webinars/

Are You Wearing Too Many Hats?

I know I'm guilty.

So many of us do SO many different things. We wear probably twice the number of hats that we really need to.

It's time to delegate!

That should be a piece of cake, right?

Well, not always.

Whether you're a solopreneur, a small business owner or a CEO running a large corporation, finding the right people can be a major challenge.

Some of us need a great Virtual Assistant (VA); some of us need full-time employees; and some of us just need a reliable person to take care of a short-term project (contract work).

But how do you know you're getting the right person?

I used to hire people after a good look at their resumé and a decent interview. I was pretty successful with this approach. I believed in my “gut instinct.” But I made a few “bad hires.” Most of these weren't a big deal. But a couple were very costly.

I'm not a rocket scientist, but I eventually realized a key principle: the more you know about someone BEFORE you hire them, the better your hiring decision will be.

So, with the help of a great partner, we created a company to help people make better hiring decisions. Decisions that lead to more profits and less stress. Not a bad combination.

Here are three ways we can help you...

Employee Testing

Our testing service is easy-to-understand, very accurate and delightfully affordable. It can be used before taking on a VA, contract worker or employee. It can also be used to better understand your existing staff.

This three-minute video will give you more reality on this.

Below the video is a link to take a free test. We do NOT get into a major selling process with our prospects. We ask them to take a free test. It’s their test. They see for themselves how accurate it is and we go from there.

Use the link below the video to take the free test yourself:

Hiring Tips Newsletter

Our free newsletter has over 100 Hiring Tips with new tips always being added.

It goes out once a week and covers ALL of the key hiring subjects, including how motivated are they, what are their basic skills, what to pay them, what questions to ask, what not to ask, frequent mistakes and how to evaluate your candidates.

We also have over 20 tips written by an attorney who specializes in employee law. Those tips are very well received.

Here’s the link to get the newsletter: The Hiring Tips

Affiliate Program

We offer a very healthy exchange for referrals.

In this case, we would still like you to take our free test. Whether you use our testing service or not, we want you to see for yourself how accurate it is and how it can help people make better hiring decisions.

It doesn’t make sense for you (or for us) to promote a service that you do not have some first hand knowledge of.

We will answer all of your questions about the affiliate program at the end of the free test evaluation. No strings attached here, we just want you to know how valuable our service is, and we feel this is a better method than an extensive sales landing page.

Here’s the link: Free Employee Test.

If you have any questions, contact me here.

Whether you’re delegating a project to a contract worker, shedding some hats to a VA or hiring an employee, we want you to be more confident in making these decisions. We know how much of an impact this can have on your bottom line.

Thank you.

Yours,
Stan Dubin

* This post was written by Stan Dubin and sponsored by the Employee Testing Center. If you have any thoughts or questions, leave a comment below:

Top 3 posts for you on Google+ this week

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Google Science Fair . The human central and peripheral nervous system. Check out the kooky eyes. 8) https://www.googlesciencefair.com/ 154 shares View or comment on this post » Mohamed Sowaid For you 1267 shares View or comment on this post » Sarah Love S Cute A - Hot R - class bunker A - Hot H - Easy to fall in love with All of them are untrue _- 759 shares View or comment on this post »
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What is the Fastest Way to Learn WordPress?

If you’ve been putting off learning WordPress because you think it’s too difficult or will take too long then I've got some good news for you.

By the end of this post you’ll know a way that you can learn WordPress in about 2 hours so you can build your first, great-looking, website in one day...

Imagine what you could accomplish if you could build and maintain your own sites anytime you want, especially if you could build the entire layout and design in just one day without any design skills or coding ability...

The ability to build blogs or websites is a core skill for anything you do online. Being successful online is all about traffic and conversion, but you also need a place to drive the traffic to so you can convert it into sales or leads. This is your website, your blog, your opt-in page etc.

WordPress is the fastest and easiest way to build your site.

The problem is that most people go about learning WordPress in the wrong way and the long way. This leads to overwhelm and frustration and they get stuck spinning their wheels. What are the wrong ways and the long ways?

1) Trying to figure it all out on your own. Let’s say you manage to get WordPress installed. Now you have to figure out how to set it up properly, which plugins to use, how to make it look the way you want it to look and do what you want it to do and also make sure it’s optimized for the search engines. Figuring this all out by searching Google could take weeks, months or longer.

2) Buying a “Dummies” type of book. Trying to learn software from a book was one of the most difficult and frustrating things that I’ve ever done. There are over four hundred pages in those things! By the time I got to page ten I had already forgotten what it told me to do on page two. I can just about guarantee you’ll never make it have way through the book let alone past page twenty.

3) YouTube videos are another way that people try to learn WordPress. This can be okay if you are trying to learn a specific task, but I haven’t found a complete set of WordPress videos that takes you from start to finish. What I have found is blurry and poor quality videos or the instructor is difficult to understand because English is his second or third language. Also, I’m sure you’ve seen those videos where the instructor’s cursor is moving all over the screen without any talking or explaining. All you hear is music blasting in the background. I don’t know about you, maybe I’m just getting old, but those videos give me a headache.

4) Paid workshops may, in fact, be a very good way to learn WordPress; however, these courses usually last six to eight weeks and teach everything there is to know about WordPress. This is fine if you’re looking to do web design for a living, but most of us don’t want to spend six weeks learning. We just want to learn what we need to know to quickly create and maintain a great looking site for our own business.

So what is the fastest and easiest way to learn WordPress?

It’s the WordPress Crash Course. I’ve developed a simplified method of teaching WordPress that drastically cuts the learning curve.

You can actually learn just what you need to know to build your first, great looking WordPress site in one day instead of weeks even if you are a complete beginner. Anyone can do it. The training is fun and designed for non-techy type people. It’s all video based so you just watch what I do, pause the video, then do it yourself. You can go at your own pace.

So if you’ve been waiting to start your online business, but technology has you stuck, spinning your wheels, there is no reason to wait any longer. The WordPress Crash Course is an online video training program so you can start right now.

Click here to watch a cool 3 minute video that will give you more info.

* This post was written & sponsored by JohnP of Crash Course Training. If you have any questions or comments for John, leave a comment below:

6 Ways To Improve Your Social Media Marketing

Guest Post by Dan Vassiliou

What do casual internet users, bloggers, webmasters, businesses, and even government offices all have in common?

An increasing obsession with worrying about how many friends or followers they have on their social media profiles.

While numbers can correlate to higher conversions, shares, and a greater likelihood of your posts going viral, just amassing thousands or millions of followers is a narrow view of how to approach social media.

In order to tap into the true power of social media you need to foster an engaging community that interacts with what you have to share...

The Benefits of an Active Community

Let’s just start off by stating the obvious: it’s not hard to build a large number of followers on most social platforms. There are plenty of “cheap” ways to get followers from giveaways to actually buying likes and followers. All this allows you to do is shout to whomever will listen that you have “10,000 Twitter followers!” Stop worrying about increasing that number, and start worrying about getting the followers you do have to start engaging with you and start seeing these benefits.

Improve Your Social Media Traffic

Even if you’ve gained a big percentage of followers simply through a promotion, you’re still likely to see spikes in visitors coming through social media every once in a while. But the goal is to see a continual upward trend in your unique visitors.

To do this, track your social media traffic with Google Analytics and see which posts of yours draw visitors into your site, and also pay attention to the Bounce Rate (how long they stay on the page). If they’re jumping in and out faster than jack rabbit in a fox den then you know that your landing pages and content need work. Paying attention to the analytics can give you a big picture view of how your social community is interacting with your brand and posts.

Good Timing is Everything

It might be a cliché that is reinforced in every single romantic comedy since A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but timing really is everything when it comes to social media. If you share your posts when most of your followers are asleep or at work, you’ll see very little interaction because they’ll often go unseen.

This means you have to time your posts to your demographic and share the same post multiple times in order to get as many of your followers to see it. This post on Mashable highlights the best times for sharing on Facebook and Twitter.

But you, or your marketing team, can’t be at the computer 24/7 to post and re-post at the most opportune times in order to drive clicks towards your site. To address this concern, there are a host of automated or managerial programs that can be used to scheduleyour updates automatically so you do not need to be engaged on a device to do it. This linked post breaks down the differences between the three most popular applications: HootSuite, TweetDeck, and Buffer.

Keeping Your Followers Engaged

A big part of engaging your followers is not flooding them with posts at the same time, which the apps above help you do to, but it also means not flooding them with posts that only serve to help yourself. It’s important to share the love and promote work from outside sources (other than yourself) that you think your followers will like, and even highlight certain followers who have helped you out in some way.

This could be as simple as retweeting someone or mentioning them in a post, or even sharing their own works. This helps to show that you recognize who makes your brand powerful.

Baiting for Likes and Re-Tweets

Nothing is more demoralizing on social media than to see your posts go ignored time and time again. If you’re varying your tweets by sharing other people’s content, breaking news, some funny posts, as well as your own great content then you should be getting interactions anyway, but if you’re not you may need to look at how you’re tweeting. Here are some tips to clean up your tweets:

• Try to use slightly less than half of the allowed characters for tweets that you want to get traction. Known as the “65 character rule,” this allows people to add their own voice to their retweets without having to edit your post down. Make it easy for them.

• Utilize hash-tags, but don’t overdo them. Two is the magic number and make sure you use them naturally within the post, not before or after the fact. And make sure you’re contributing to an ongoing conversation – not just making up a new hash-tag for every post because #omgnobodyissearchingforthis.

• Ask for retweets and views! It may sound spammy, but if you can fit it into your tweet (remember the 65 character rule!) then you should have a call to action that asks users to “retweet” or at least “RT.” Tweets that directly ask people to retweet and share have been reported to have 12x the interactions as tweets that do not ask.

Don’t get lost in the wide ocean that social media has turned into.

Rather than worrying about how many followers you have, worry about cultivating followers that you can support and who will support you in turn. A small group of users that retweets and shares your content is worth much more than thousands of followers who ignore most of your posts, and that small group will grow over time as they (and your brand) attract the same type of followers.

About the Author:

Dan Vassiliou is the owner of Endurance Seo, a forward thinking SEO agency that looks to provide effective solutions to clients online marketing requirements. If you want to discuss this post with Daniel, or anything internet marketing related, then you can contact him through www.enduranceseo.com . You can also get him at his local office in Derby UK by clicking through this .

Please feel free to leave any comments expressing your views regarding this post below, I will happily respond to them. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Featured Editorial Q&A – Get Creative! :-)

I've been working with people one-on-one on the option to Get Your Site or Product Featured on ClickNewz and several great questions and ideas have come up in the process. I'll share those with you in this Q&A to shed some light on the opportunity...

First, read the post on Featured Editorials for details and live examples. This will explain what they are and how they can benefit YOUR business.

The post you're reading now serves as a follow-up to that post, with creative ideas and answers to questions you may have about publishing your post here on ClickNewz for a serious traffic or sales boost.

I'll work with you personally to get the most out of a Featured Editorial. From your angle to your objective, even helping you with keywords and headline, I'll help you get maximum exposure for your website and/or products.

Meeting Your Advertising Goals

A Featured Editorial will get a lot of exposure when first published, but it's also a permanent post and a long-term advertisement for your online business. With that in mind, consider what you most want to get out of this exposure, and work from that end on your post topic and angle.

What end result do you most want from your advertising? Do you want more email subscribers, more sales of a specific product, or what exactly? Knowing your objective upfront will help you craft a strong and specific call-to-action that will bring ideal visitors to your site.

Featured Editorial vs Guest Post

A guest blog post is generally a how-to or informational piece that you write, with a short byline or signature at the end that includes your website address. Ideally the topic is a good lead-in to who you are and what you offer, but the byline is more an aside - even if you do use a strong call to action.

With a Featured Editorial you can spotlight your offer and speak directly to my readers about who you are and what you can do for them. It gives you an opportunity to "advertise" in an introductory and conversational way - engaging my readers specifically on the topic of your offer - which will result in much higher click-through and conversion rates!

How Long Will This Offer Be Available?

During the month of April 2013 the rate for a Featured Editorial is only $150.

On May 1st the rate will double to $300, or $500 if you prefer for me to write a business/product spotlight for you.

See the original post for stats & benefits.

I will only publish a limited number of Featured Editorials. This is first come first serve. I personally review each post, and reserve the right to accept or decline posts based on what will serve my readers best.

Now is a great time to take advantage of this unique opportunity!

Basic Requirements

• You may only submit unique content.
• Exclusive reprint rights: content may not be republished anywhere else online.
• Post Length and Post Format (text/video) are completely up to you.
• Payment is accepted via PayPal, only if your post is reviewed and accepted.
• It must be a good match for my readership.
  (I am happy to help you with your angle!)

Can I Use Affiliate Links?

Yes, you may! If you would like to publish a Product Review as an affiliate, this would make an excellent post. I highly recommend you see my post on How to Write a Product Review to create a review that will spark interest and improve sales.

Additional Advertising & Exposure

I currently have only ONE Site Sponsor opening. You can see ClickNewz stats in the original post. This option is for site-wide advertising in the right sidebar. The current rate is $500/month - or $3600/year (40% off the monthly rate).

As a bonus during the month of April, you will get one free Featured Editorial for each month that you are an active ClickNewz Sponsor, giving you even more reach and an opportunity to *engage* my readers in addition to direct advertising.

Choose the annual option to save 40% and get 12 opportunities to interact directly with my readers, subscribers & social media connections!

Ready To Get Started?

Again, the rate for a Featured Editorial is only $150 through the end of April 2013. The rate doubles beginning May 1st, so you'll want to get your post to me as soon as you can for it to be considered.

If your post is not used for any reason, I will let you know right away so you can publish it on your own blog or elsewhere on the web - so there's no risk, no loss.

Once you have the post written, simply send it to me via email as an attachment. It's best to draft it on your own blog, then click the HTML tab, copy the HTML code and paste it into a text file - then attach that in your email. I recommend you include an image to use in the post as well, as posts with images get a higher click-through rate from my social media channels.

-> My address is AskLynnTerry *AT* Gmail.com

Tip: Be personable. My readers love to meet new people and hear about interesting new sites and products. This is also a great opportunity to recruit active affiliates.

See these tips to improve your success with my audience.

I look forward to working with you to increase your traffic & sales!

Best,

p.s. If you have any questions, need help with your topic and/or angle, or would like to discuss other advertising options, you can leave a comment below or email me directly at the address above. I also have a contact form here. I am happy to work with you personally for the best exposure possible.

Use the Power of Graphic Design to Increase Your Profits

Guest Post by Roey Pimentel

Good graphic design can automatically increase your profits. Bad graphic design can kill your conversions and profits.

As a qualified graphic designer, I can teach you exactly how to profit from good design and how to avoid losing sales due to bad design.

Whether you realize it or not, good graphic design is often the psychological trigger that causes your prospect's mind to embrace your offer, making your sales message as irresistible as can be.

It drives me crazy when I see friends try to run their business online with the wrong graphics; they are shooting themselves in the foot. Their products and services are good, but their message doesn't get through to the potential customer.

When I ask them why their page design looks random or haphazard, the response I hear over and over is that they can't afford to hire a professional designer.

That's the frustration! It doesn't matter how good the product or service is, if the message doesn't make the potential buyer sit up and take notice, the conversion doesn't happen. I see this over and over.

When I first entered the world of Internet Marketing years ago, one thing became brutally clear - good response-generating design was sorely lacking.

From blogs to sales pages, websites to ebooks, the content was good, but the design did more to push away potential buyers than to attract them and get them to reach for their credit card.

This breaks my heart because I KNOW there are many ways you can create more magnetic and professional looking webpages, websites, ebooks, etc. without having to pay hundreds of dollars outsourcing to a professional graphic designer.

Graphic Design For Internet Marketers

That's why I decided to write Graphic Design Impact - Design Secrets That Sell, an easy to understand book specifically written with the online entrepreneur in mind.

This book helps you make sense of the millions of design options out there. It is a heavily illustrated and breaks down the concepts into practical easy to understand bite size pieces.

It takes away the "intimidation factor" and replaces it with the "I can do it!" attitude.

Graphic Design Impact covers vital topics, like:

• Increase your sales and conversion rates
• Use these subtle psychological triggers to make your reader see exactly what you want them to see
• Impress your target market with your professionalism
• Make ALL your websites and advertising POP with appeal
• Save a TON of money on professional design by following my simple principles
• Take the results straight to the bank

Graphics Impact Your Bottom Line

Graphics impact your profits and conversions more than you may realize. That's a fact. Communication and getting your reader to take the action you desire, is the goal. If your message doesn't influence the potential customer, that's all they will be - potential. Remember the saying, "A confused mind doesn't buy."

You MUST take the confusion out of the equation. Good design choices help deliver your message in a clear and supportive manner. It's all about the customer. Connect with them and deliver your features and benefits in a way that makes them want to click the Buy button.

How Do You CAPTURE Your Prospect's Attention?

I realized many online entrepreneurs were missing the boat when it comes to capturing their prospect’s attention. There are many ways and techniques to help people want to buy. From color choice to psychological triggers, you can make your message as irresistible as it can be. However, just as the right choice can help you, doing it the wrong way can hurt you. The key to remember here is that your message is the same; it's the delivery that changes.

How Graphic Design Can Increase Your Sales

Once you have connected with your potential customer the next step is getting them to purchase. Good page design can go a long way towards subtly guiding your reader towards the call to action. Whether your call to action is an opt-in box, buy button, or whatever, purposeful design can guide their eye through the page towards your desired result.

What GOOD Graphic Design Impact Can Do For You

• Less is More – Place text on the page to make your visitors want to sit back, relax, and read on!
• Breaking the Frame – Use the visual frame (the computer screen) to your advantage, creating more interest and ultimately convert your copy into sales.
• Mind Control – Did you know you can actually control where your prospect looks on the screen? There are simple techniques you can use to guide your traffic to read what YOU want them to read first, and gently guide your reader towards the “Buy Now!” button.
• Logo Design – A correctly designed logo will convey a powerful message without words.
• Typography – Also known as fonts, fonts, fonts! It's important (and easy) to choose exactly the right fonts from the thousands and thousands of choices once you know my secrets.
• The Psychology of Color – Understanding how color choice influences your prospective buyer’s decision making process.
• Layout Design – Why are some pages more appealing than others? You've got to understand what makes the difference between good and bad page design. Good design helps you create a page that flows well, is easy on the eye, and ultimately directs your prospect towards the goal – making the purchase.

Best of all, good design is evergreen.

Your design efforts will not be affected by the latest Google Update or trend.

Isn't Graphic Design Expensive?

Believe me; I understand the "money's tight" factor. In fact, that was part of why I wrote this. I want you to succeed, and I understand not having the budget to hire a professional just yet. The thing I've learned in my graphic design career and education is that most graphic design concepts can be easily applied without having to hire a professional.

It's just a matter of learning the core concepts, and that is exactly the reason I published my book, Graphic Design Impact (which took me over two full years to create). I went to school for you and I'm handing you all the golden nuggets that will help you finally see the results you've been missing out on.

Another way you can benefit from Graphic Design Impact is to become an affiliate. Sign up today and recommend this guide to your friends and peers that are marketing online. They'll thank you for it!

About the Author

Roey Bannon Pimentel, M.A., is a graphic designer and photographer. Her focus is on advertising design. Roey has many awards to her credit and is an accomplished speaker and facilitator. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and publications. Roey is a natural born teacher with a passion to share her knowledge of design. Helping others succeed in business through better design is one of her goals. She is passionate about the importance of graphic design in business and in our daily lives.