Today social media platforms has invaded and taken over public consciousness. It has become a big part of day to day routines and an indispensable communication tool for people to connect and stay in touch. Consumers have used social media presence as one of the integral basis of a company’s legitimacy, reliability and viability. Businesses today are judged based on their Facebook or LinkedIn profiles and consumers expect companies to respond to the concerns and queries they have tweeted within the day or within the hour. Social media has managed to steal the thunder away from traditional marketing methods. Modern marketing strategies today have a mix of social media tactics as its integral component for reaching business goals.

Highly competitive companies have taken the aggressive path and actively pursued the Social 5-Pack made up of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube. This is in line with the aim to engage their target market and existing client base in order to fill the top of the sales funnel as well as understand the prevailing consumer preferences and behaviors to ensure brand loyalty. However signing up and maintaining multiple accounts on all social networking sites is not as easy as it seems. Jumping right in without any in-depth understanding of the social media process can prove to be potentially detrimental for a company which can lead to exposing its online presence at serious risk and leading it towards an unproductive direction.

Given the power of social media. It is critically important for businesses to work through their strategies and develop processes to lead to scalability, efficiency, and successful social engagement. If you want to drive your business forward you need to make sure it stays social, current and relevant in consumers’ consciousness. Discover how social media can become your most effective and influential marketing workhorse.

Let’s discuss how you can guest post for other blogs and websites in order to drive traffic to your website. Now you might think that you have to be a pretty decent writer in order to use this method and unless you are willing to spend money on outsourcing or have a friend that is a good writer and is willing to do you a favor. However if you are a terrible writer it doesn’t mean that you should discard the idea completely because it can be one of the most valuable ways that you can get traffic.

Why Guest Posting Works

So why would someone allow you to post on their website or blog? The simple answer is because it provides value to the readers and it something that they didn’t have to write themselves or outsource themselves. However the key word here is providing value to the readers. If your post does not teach the reader something or entertain them it could actually work against their blog instead of for it. So if you’re going to use this method you definitely have to make sure that whatever you’re providing is valuable content. The thing is if you provide this valuable content to the people that are reading the blog then they are going to want to know more about the author of the content that they enjoyed. That means that if you have a visible link to your website at the end of the article or blog post. You have a biography page or snippet right there on the blog post itself then people are going to follow it and come to your website. This is great for you because all it cost you to get this traffic was a couple hours writing a good blog post.

How to Write a Guest Post

Writing a guest post for someone else’s blog can be a little different than writing for your own. For some blogs you can write in your own style and that is okay with them. In fact it is the way that some people prefer to have guest posters write. Others would rather that you looked at their blog posts and followed the same sort of general writing guidelines as the other people that have guest posted or their own blog posts. When you communicate with someone about guest posting on their blog you’ll need to ask them which method they prefer and for any writers guidelines that they want you to follow. Make sure that you’re actually approaching blogs that are involved within your industry because approaching a random blog on fashion when your particular niche is grooming is not only going to get your email blocked it wouldn’t do you any good anyway, even if they were willing to let you guest post. You want to communicate with the same type of audience that would want to come to your website in the first place and that means posting on blogs that are similar to the products or services that you sell. Also keep in mind that you have this one chance to sell yourself to the readers of this blog. That means you need to make this post as high-quality as you possibly can. Make sure that you set it aside for a few days and then come back to revise it so that you can see any mistakes. Better yet have a friend or relative that is a regular reader look it over for you and point out any mistakes. You also need to look out for any typos or grammar mistakes is this will make you look amateurish and the one will follow the link to your website. Make it the best post that you possibly can and make it is useful and valuable to the readers as you can, and you might get invited back to guest post over and over again, each time with a link to your website.

How to Approach Someone to Request a Guest Posting Spot

You might be wondering what exactly you should do or say to get someone to allow you to post on their blog as a guest. Obviously you first need to send them an email and see if they allow guest posting for one thing and at the same time sell yourself and your expertise so that they want to use you.

The first step to getting what you want is knowing what you want. This is something that all too often gets overlooked and all too often it’s assumed that we already have this. How many motivational posters tell you things like go after that one thing that makes you truly happy! That’s all good and well if you’ve always wanted to open your own restauran or if you’ve dreamed of having your own successful ban. But what if you don’t know what you want from life? What if you have lots of different interests that are all pulling you in different directions?

In these cases, telling someone to seize the day and live theirdreams’ just isn’t all that helpful! What you need to do then is to prioritize and you need to look for the things you can get from life that will make you happiest and tick the most boxes. Let’s look at some of the ways you can do that.

Look for the Common Themes

Very often what this comes down to is identifying the commonalities in your dreams and objectives. In other words if you want to be twenty things then what do those twenty things have in common? If you want to be an actor and you’d love to be a rock star then what is it about both those things that makes them appealing? What does being a rock star have in common with being an actor? Most likely the answer is that both put you in the public eye, both are a kind of performance and both bring a fair amount of wealth. So as long as you can tick all those boxes you should be happy whatever you do.

The Five Whys

Another way to get to the bottom of what it is you really want and to discover why you want it is to use the five whys technique. Here you ask yourself the question why five times in a row in order to dig deeper and deeper into your motivations. This then opens up a huge selection of different potential career options: now you could be a comic writer, you could be an artist, you could work at a creative design agency. You can get what you want in a different way. Likewise if you still dream of being an astronaut then you might find that it’s actually the sense of discovery and pioneering that appeals to you. Being a researcher can actually bring about this same buzz and excitement even though you’re sitting right at home! Ultimately, you’re still being the first person to discover something exciting.

Look to Your Role Models

Another way to find out what it is you really want is to look at your role models and to see what it is about them that you admire. What parts of their lives would you like to emulate? Another tip is to look back at what you wanted to be when you were younger. Sometimes this will have no bearing  we can change an awful lot in a few decades but in other cases you’ll find that whatever it is you wanted to be back then still has some kind of appeal for you. Back then you likely dreamed of being something much more ambitious and less ‘realistic’ because the cynicism of adulthood had yet to sink in. Does that same thing still excite you though? Once again, you can then start thinking about what it is about that thing that appeals and how you could realistically achieve the same end.

Best Regards,

Tom

Creating your own product can be a time consuming task. A lot of people can become intinidated by this concept rather quickly. They begin to question if their product is ready to be unleashed unto the online world. And so they place it on the back burner for another day. Then the day turns into a week, a month, six months, and so on, until they have completely forgotten or given up on the prospect of creating something of their own. Let me tell you this creating your own product is not a hard think to do. As long as you have the right toolson hand to do it. So the first thing you are going to need is a tool to turn your words into an official eBook. But, before we get to the free tool let me take a moment to explain WHY we are focusing on the e-book format.

First they can be produced rather cheaply. Second they can be produced quickly. And third they can be downloaded almost instantly by your customers. So easy to make, cheap to make, and no physical shipping. It takes work on your part but after initial work creating the product is done then distribution will be next to nothing. And best of all distribution won’t cost you anything!

Okay now for the free tool. All you need to create your own PDF e-book is Open Office Suite [http://www.openoffice.org]. It’s 100% free and you can use it to make PDF e-books in a snap. Why PDF e-books though because PDF e-books can be read by anyone no matter the operating system their computer is running on. And because there is not a threat of malicious viruses being attached to them like .EXE files. Better for you and better for your customers. Once you have your Open Office Suite downloaded and installed on your computer you will notice there are several tools ready for you to use. For ebook creation all you will need is the writer tool. It operates almost exactly like Microsoft Word but you can do more with it including and most importantly saving your compilations as PDF e-books with the click of a button.

After you have your product all finished up it’s time to take it to market and sell it. While you can of course sell your product as it is there are a few other things you can do to make it more of an attractive product to potential customers. And that is by offering some form of Resale Rights with it. Another thing you can do to try and boost your sales and this has been proven to work is to create a virtual eBook cover. This can get pretty expensive if you hire someone to do the cover but it is possible for you to create your own for a lot less with 3D Cover Creator.

Thomas

Niche is a part of the market on which different products are focusing. All markets can be broken further down to specific interests. Some sub niches are very profitable it’s always necessary to put the time in and do the analysis to see if what you are passionate about is profitable. Having a well-defined niche can supercharge your business if the niche has enough demand and money in it. Researching profitable niches can be very trickery. Sometimes niches seem profitable but once the research is done they just fall short of being profitable. Now I will show you how I go about researching a niche. As well as share some free tools. My approach is geared toward creating a revenue generating website but can be used for many purposes.

1] Who are you targeting? If you are looking to start a business in a market that you’re passionate about you should start by learning about the market’s audience. Then after you understand the market you can focus on products for your audience. Products come and go but your audience stays around. When you take the time to understand your audience the product ideas come easily.

2] You want to research the best keywords that your future customers will be using in your niche market. Usually these our searches that your audience is passionate about or causing them pain. During your research you will discover how profitable these keywords are in your niche. 11 | P a g e

3] There is a free tool available called Google AdWords’ Keyword Tool. This tool provides lots of information such as cost per click, competition, and search volume just to mention a few. The monthly search volume is critical to focus on during your research. I target anything over 1,500 exact matches. Sometimes smaller niches can be profitable when there is little competition. Keyword niches are usually characterized by cost per click, number of pages of ads, advertisers in top positions, and ads highly targeted to the keyword. One of the best ways to get an idea is if the niche is profitable is to see if Google AdWords ads on the right side of the search pages. Lack of PPC advertisers suggests that key phrases aren’t particularly lucrative.

4] Another piece of information is where the market is heading to in the future. Another free Google tool can help us. Use Google Trends which will show if the market is declining or is it climbing. To establish yourself you need to enter a market that’s stable or climbing.

5] Now you need to decide if you want to enter this market. As a rule if you see lots of highly targeted ads at the top of the page and in the right sidebar. Then it will be tough to break into this market as a beginner because of established brands with large marketing budgets. However you could target a less competitive keyword and target that audience if you deem it profitable.