Your Questions, Answered

Hey there! Ok, so just recently I sent out an email to my subscribers asking them if they had any questions they’d like me to answer.

Related to starting an online business, or any aspect to do with “online marketing”.

I’ve been involved with internet marketing, product creation, eCommerce and affiliate marketing for many, MANY years now so wanted to give back some value in the form of ‘advice’ or guidance.

Which you can take or leave. After all, it is just my opinion and point of view… but given from experience.

I had a number of responses so thought I’d take some of those questions and answer them in a blog post, seeing as though I haven’t posted on this blog in such a long time.

Maybe some of these questions and answers will resonate with you, maybe they don’t – But hopefully this blog post will help some of you in some way.

Let’s Get to it!

I have been trying to work out this online marketing thing for over a year now but struggle to find the time. I have two young children and a full time job which I can’t afford to leave. It’s quite a demanding job and that coupled with my home life leaves me very little time left over to succeed with an online business. What do you suggest?

(Asked by Jay)

That’s a good question Jay and one that I believe many people will be able to relate to.

I myself used to be in that very same position many years ago. I also had two ‘young’ children and worked within a family business that I lacked passion for.

Juggling a job and family life can soak up a lot of time. Here’s what I did.

I set specific’ family time’ when I got in from my job. Whether that was take my children to the local play park, or spend time with them in the garden.

I made sure that time was quality time – they got my full attention.

When my children went to bed that’s when I got my laptop out and worked on my online business. My side-hustle. My goal.

Yes I got tired at times but it was worth it. Choosing between an extra couple of hours sleep each night, or moving closer towards my dreams and ambitions was an easy decision for me.

When I went through this transitional period it was WELL before the era of Netflix and other video streaming platforms… but my suggestion would be to look at what things you can sacrifice in your life, even if it’s just temporarily.

Do you binge watch Netflix on a Sunday? Do you go out for a pint with friends once or twice a week? (Just to give you some examples).

We all have the same number of hours in a day… it’s how we spend those hours and if we are truly honest with ourselves, we could all find an odd hour or two to work on a side business if we really wanted to.

I’ll tell you something funny that I noticed fairly recently.

I have a number of friends who over the years have always said to me, “Hey Andy, I wish I could do what you do… I just don’t have ANY time at all to learn or do that”.

Or, “My job prevents me from learning a new skill because I’m working all the time”.

THESE SAME FRIENDS were posting on Facebook asking for “TV Series” recommendations to binge watch on Netflix whilst they were furloughed and off work “bored” during the Covid-19 lockdown.

They had the PERFECT opportunity to spend time to learn a skill, learn to build blogs, learn SEO, coding.. whatever.

But they chose not to.

Most people want the dream, they just don’t want to do the work to reach that dream.

I’m not suggesting that’s you… I’m just saying if you dig deep enough and evaluate your “schedule” or routine, you’ll likely find some time each week to either learn skills, or work on an online business.

Sometimes you just have to make some sacrifices to do that. Most people make excuses WHY they can’t do something, because it’s easier to do that than actually “doing something”.

Look at what time you have available… mornings, evenings, weekends. Look at what things you can sacrifice to free up a little more time.

If you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way.

In a nutshell, in 2020 what is the best way to rank a niche website?

(Asked by Paula C)

To answer this as quickly as possible… Make sure your website is content rich, topically thorough and well structured / formatted.

Create “branded” social accounts for your website on the major social platforms (Facebook Page, Twitter, Instagram etc).

Spend some time getting some relevant followers for each platform.

Every time you publish new content on your website, push that content out across your social sites. (ie – The first few sentences of your post with a direct link back to that post). Or, an image or meme with a link back to your post.

Be sure to have Google Analytics installed on your website.

After some time Google will pick up the social presence and direct traffic from those social links… and send you more visitors via their search results.

Andy, what is the absolute BEST backlink that you can get?

(Asked by Danny)

One that brings visitors to your website. The more visitors it attracts, the more valuable the backlink – For both traffic and SEO.

What’s the key difference between paying for an ad on Facebook vs paying to be included within Googles search results?

(Asked by Tom)

With Facebook they try and match your advert to the people who are most likely to be “interested” in what you have to offer. It’s more a numbers game, and if they show your advert to enough people, some of those will be interested enough to click through and see what you’re offering.

With Google you can bid on specific keywords, so when you appear in their search results, people have actually searched for what you’re offering. It’s a much better matching system and is far more targeted… but it can be pricey!

Would You Like to See More?

I don’t want to make these posts TOO long for you so i’ll leave it there for now.

If you’d like to see more of this, then drop a comment below and let me know.

Or, if you have a question – Send me an email and I’ll do my best to answer it shortly.

Keep an Eye Out for My Email Tomorrow

There’s a worthy SEO software offer being launched tomorrow by Joshua Zamora and his team called SyndTrio. It’s a fully automated syndication system that will syndicate your videos and backlinks across lots of social platforms.

It creates the accounts for you, creates content for you, and then posts across these social accounts for you.

His previous version of this software has around 9,000 users and he has lots of good testimonials and case studies from many of those users.

So, this is what it will do for you:

  • Automated Account Creation (with NO proxies or captcha costs needed)
  • Automated Content Generation for ANY niche
  • Automated Social Syndication to 25+ Authority Sites

It’s one to look out for and I’m in the process of putting together a BONUS for you… So keep your eyes peeled for that tomorrow.

To your success!

Andy Black

Andy Black

How to Improve Your Blogs Rankings, Clicks, Traffic and Income

Hey Andy here! Today we’re going to take a closer look at how you can transform the performance, rankings, clicks and traffic of your blogs and websites.

As a result, if your blogs and sites are monetized, then these tactics that I’ll be covering in this blog post will also increase the income that they will generate.

Ok, Let’s Get Started

These tactics are spawned from the data you already have access to (or, could have access to).

The data that I’m referring to is Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

These are both FREE tools / resources offered by Google, and if you haven’t set these up already then it’s straight forward to do so.

Here are the steps to follow…

  1. Create a Google Account at Google.com (or log in if you already have one).
  2. Go to Google Analytics HERE and add your “Properties” (websites).
  3. Go to Google Search Console HERE and add your “Properties” (websites). Click on the menu icon in the top left corner, then “Search Properties”, then “Add Property”.

After those steps you should be all set!

Google Analytics and Google Search Console need some time to collect data about your sites. The more time they have to collect this data, the better insights you’ll have, and the more you will be able to do to improve your sites rankings and traffic.

Let’s Take a Closer Look at Each Platform to See How We Will Use them

Google Search Console

The Google Search Console will reveal the actual keywords that your site ranks for in Google. However, it reveals FOUR other pieces of data that can be very useful.

These pieces of data are…

  1. Total Clicks – The number of clicks a particular keyword has received in the Google Search Results for a specific time period.
  2. Total Impressions – The number of times that your listing (post or page) has appeared in the Google Search Results following a “search” by a real person.
  3. Average CTR – This is the average percentage that those people searching for your keyword (where your listing appears) actually click on your listing, to visit your post or page. The higher the better!
  4. Average Position – This is the average position where your listing appears in the Google Search Results when someone searches for a specific keyword.

Ok, so now we’re going to look at how we will use this data. To do this I will include a screenshot below showing an example.

* You can access an entire list of all keywords that you’re appearing for in the Google search results.

In the Google Search Console you’ll be able to access the entire list of keywords that your “site” is appearing for in the Google search results.

This list will be comprehensive and WAY beyond the amount of keywords that you were targeting… or thought you were targeting.

First of all you can look at which keywords are attracting clicks in the search results. The ones that are actually generating traffic for you.

In the example above you can see that the keyword “sleep paralysis in spanish” generated 47 clicks within a specific time frame. Those 47 clicks came from a whopping 4,520 impressions. That means that my post listing appeared in Google 4,520 times following a search for that specific keyword.

In the 3rd column you will see the average CTR which is the average click through rate. This shows just 1% of those people that searched that keyword (and SAW my listing in front of them), actually clicked on my listing.

1% isn’t very good.

In the 4th column you have the average ranking position. Numbers from 1 – 10 mean that your listing is ranked on page 1 of Google.

In the example above you can see that my listing ranks between 7th and 8th place. Although it’s on page 1 which is great, it’s not the best position for getting the most clicks and traffic.

Ok, So What Would I Do to Get Better Results from this Search Result?

Well, before I go into that we would need to find out TWO other factors that can affect that ranking. These are “Bounce Rate” and “Time on Page”.

We can get this data from Google Analytics, and below you will see the data for the example I provided.

Now we have all the data we need so that we can decide on the actions that we can take.

It’s likely that this particular keyword is being searched for so people can access the Google Translate Tool… But I’m only using this as an example of what you need to look for and how you can read the data.

PLEASE NOTE – This particular example is for an automated blog post that was initially created and published to “probe” Google. The quality of the blog post is poor BUT can be improved!


Using the above data we can see that only 1% of searchers are clicking through to my search listing, and there are TWO things that we can do that will get us more clicks, and improve our CTR (click through rate).

These are…

  1. To improve our post title and meta description so that it is more enticing to our audience. We need to let the “searcher” know that our post will provide them with the answer / solution they are looking for, and that it is relevant to their search query. This will result in MORE people clicking through to our listing, which will generate more traffic, and also help to increase our search engine ranking.
  2. To actually push our result higher up the search results. To do this we would need to look closer at our post / page and further improve the content, structure, and optimization. The better we can make our page for the visitor, the higher Google will rank it.
* This is the current listing as it appears. As you can see this could be massively improved to attract more clicks.

You can sort ALL of your ranked keywords in Google Search Console by “Impressions”. These are all of your keywords that are appearing the most in the Google search results.

Click on these keywords individually to see what their CTR (click through rate) is, and what position they are ranked.

Remember this…

The higher your keyword is ranked in the search results , the more clicks you will receive.

The more enticing and descriptive your title and meta description is, the more clicks you will receive.

The better your content is… ie – informative, provides answers, includes rich-media such as images, info graphics, videos, polls, user comments etc – the higher your content will rank.

The more optimized that your “good” content is, the higher it will rank.

Now we will look at the actual monthly search volume for this particular keyword.

That’s an average of 1,600 searches per month for this exact keyword.

To get an insight into whether our content is quality, relevant, and well received by our visitors we can look at the “Bounce Rate” and “Time on Page” data.

In the screenshot further up this post we can see that the average amount of time that a visitor stays on this particular page is 1 minute and 36 seconds. Although that isn’t terrible, it’s not great.

My own personal opinion, a good time on page would be 3 – 5+ minutes. That’s ample time for someone to land on your page and digest your content.

The more content you have on your page, the longer it’s possible to keep your visitor on the page!

A time on page of say 5 – 20 seconds is BAD.. and will certainly affect your rankings long-term.

The longer visitors stay on your page, the better your content is and the more relevant it is. At least that’s what it will signal to Google.

The “Bounce Rate” tell us the percentage of visitors that bounce back off that page, back to Google. A high bounce rate % tells Google that your post or page isn’t really answering their users question or requirements.

As a result of this, your Google ranking might start to drop.

A LOW Bounce Rate % will tell Google that they have found what they are looking for.

As a result, your Google ranking might increase further.

If you have a high Bounce Rate or Exit Rate then it’s a sign that you need to improve your content. Think to yourself what people are actually looking for when they search for the keyword.

What answers are they looking for? What are they seeking?

Create some content… an article, video, images that provides those answers / solutions and when visitors start landing on your page they will stay on it for longer.

This will reduce your Bounce Rate and help your revamped post or page to rank higher.

EVERYTHING you improve… whether it is your title, meta description, content… will all help to push your listing higher up the search results.

Another Tip

Once Google Search Console has been gathering data for your site long enough you can use that to do improve your listings, posts and pages as illustrated above.

However, you can EXPORT all of this data as a CSV file directly from Google Search Console.

This will allow you to “sort and filter” the data to find those keywords and posts that provide you with the best opportunity to get more traffic, clicks, and better rankings.

Those 4 columns of data can provide you with a wealth of knowledge when you know how to use it.

Even improving just 3-5 posts or pages using what I have outlined within this blog post can potentially add hundreds, or even thousands of new visitors to your blog each month.

I hope that you enjoyed this blog post and got something from it!

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop a comment below and I’ll answer what I can.

Alternatively, feel free to share your won tips and advice in the comments section below.

To your success

Andy Black

How to Use Citations to Rank Businesses at the TOP of Google

One of the most effective strategies for pushing your prospects or clients into the Google 3-Pack on page 1, is to focus on building citations.

What is a Citation?

It is where a businesses name, address, phone number and website is mentioned / published on another website.

A full citation is the name, address and phone number (also referred to as a NAP).

Then there is a partial citation which might be one or more of those elements – such as the business name and a phone number.

How Do Citations Help Rank a Business in Google?

A citation is like a VOTE, similar to how backlinks work. The more sites that a business is cited (mentioned on), the more Google takes notice and rewards them by sending more visitors there way. Of course, it does this by giving better rankings and positioning in their search engine.

However, just like backlinks, not all citation are equal.

A citation on a website that has strong SEO metrics (Domain Authority, Trust Flow etc) will be worth more than a citation on a lower quality site.

A citation on a site that is relevant to the niche of the business will be worth more than a citation on an unrelated website.

What are the Effects of Building Citations?

Here’s an example of one business that I pushed up from 6th place in Google Maps, to the #1 spot.

Not only their business listing, but also their website.

Below is a screenshot taken before any citations were built.

As you can see the business went from 6th place in the MAP listings (completely out of view), to being ranked #1.

The Facebook Page of this business was previously ranked #2 in the organic listings, but also got pushed up to #1.

This is a great result! The business has recently changed address but so far the rankings have stuck.

So, How Do You Build a Citation?

You have to copy the business name, address and phone number, exactly as it appears in their Google My Business listing.

Here is an example

You copy those exact details (NAP – Name, Address and Phone Number) and publish them on other websites. You can add the website URL too!

These are typically directory type sites, or sites that allow businesses to “Add listings”, “Submit their URLs” etc.

There are literally endless amounts of sites in every niche and industry that allow you to add listings, citations and backlinks.

The more of these that you publish over a period of time, the higher Google will rank that particular business. Both the Local 3-Pack Listing and the website.

Here is an example of a published citation and what it can look like on another site. Note that this particular citation includes the business name, address, phone number and website URL.

What is a 3-Pack Listing Worth to a Business?

The answer is a LOT! It varies from business to business depnding on the industry and location where they are based.

However, these 3-pack listings can generate a huge number of phone calls and new business so being visible in this 3-pack, above competitors is extremely profitable.

SEO Agencies can demand hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month for a good 3-pack ranking.

Where Do You Find the Best Sites to Get Citations and Backlinks from?

A year ago I used to use my own secret methods for finding the best sites to publish citations and backlinks on.

I decided to build a software tool that will “find these sites” for me. For any niche / industry, and for any location.

Any time I needed them!

However, I didn’t want it to only find me sites… I also wanted it to retrieve vital SEO metrics for EACH site returned so I knew which were the BEST, most authoritive sites to use, and which ones to avoid.

This software tool is called Local SEO Pro and it is hands-down the best tool to help you achieve these 3-pack rankings.

No matter what clients or prospects you want to work with, or what niche or industry they are in… this software will help you get the desired results.

I have created a special coupon code that you can use for a limited time only that will reduce the cost of this software for you.

It’s only a one-time investment anyway so you only pay once (discounted!) but can use it again and again to find amazing sites for your citations and backlinks, no matter WHO your client is, or where they are located.

Use Coupon code: BLOGPOST to get $30 off today!

You don’t need to build lots of citations or links in one go either. You can create between 2-5 per week and see great results… all whilst charging your prospects or clients a substantial, or even monthly fee.

There are a huge number of businesses and prospects in dire need of your services. Go and grab your discounted copy of Local SEO Pro today and start putting it to good use.

To your success!

Andy Black

5 x Different Ways in Which to Create Articles for Your Blogs and Websites

In this blog post I am going to cover the different ways in which you can create articles for your blogs and websites.

When writing articles there are FAST, EASY ways. There are 100% automated ways. And there are slower, manual ways.

Each type of content creation has their advantages and disadvantages.

The different methods that I will be referencing in this blog post are…

  1. Writing an article from scratch.
  2. Rewriting an existing article one sentence at a time..
  3. Creating an article using existing sentences and snippets of content from various sources, around the web.
  4. Article spinning.
  5. Pure content curation and quick content curation .

Ok, Let’s Dive Right Into it

#1: Writing an article from scratch

This is for pure writers. Those people that can sit down and crank out a quality article on a specific subject or topic. Not everyone is capable of doing this due to writers block, a lack of creative flare, or even a lack of writing ability – Grammar, etc.

Writing an article from scratch usually requires some degree of topical research prior to writing, and it can be a timely process to complete.

However, if you’re a good article writer this will usually result in the highest quality content (purely unique in idea, concept and structure), good visitor engagement, and better rankings.

Conclusion: Need some natural talent, takes the most time, but potentially the best results.

#2: Rewriting an existing article one sentence at a time

This is a GREAT concept that I devised and actually created some software for back in 2007-2008.

Many people struggle to research a topic, read existing articles and then sit down and write a brand new (100% unique article in the eyes of Google) based on the information they have digested.

So, by taking a quality ‘existing’ article – Or merging 2-3 quality, relevant articles together – and then rewriting that content one sentence at a time, breaks down the entire writing process and makes it much easier.

Instead of digesting an entire article, understanding it, and then rewriting it in your OWN words – You would simply break that article down into sentences, and then rewrite each sentence in your OWN words, one sentence at a time.

A 500 word article might contain just 22-25 sentences. You’d be suprised how fast you can rewrite 22-25 sentences.

Here is an example of rewriting a sentence…

Original: Andy used to enjoy his job at the local DIY store, but after a number of years decided he wanted more from his life, so he left to explore new avenues.

Rewrite: Previously, Andy worked at his local “Do it Yourself” store which used to give him a sense of fulfillment. However, after some time had passed it became mundane and he decided to leave and delve into a new venture.

As you can see, both the original and rewrite have the same meaning / context – But just worded differently, creating 100% unique content in the eyes of Google and the other search engines.

Reading a sentence and writing it out again, but in your OWN words – and then rinsing and repeating that simple process with the next sentence, is much easier than reading an entire article and then writing it ALL out again, in your OWN words.

Conclusion: It’s relatively simple, creates 100% unique content for Google, takes between 10-30 minutes to rewrite an article.

#3: Creating articles using existing sentences and snippets from around the web

This is quick and easy (using my software that is specifically designed for this method), and the results can be quite good.

When you use this method of article creation it is always best to create flow by joining some of the sentences together, and of course write a brief intro and outro for your articles. This makes them more unique, and Google pays particular attention to the opening paragraph when crawling your content.

Here’s the advantages of using this method.

  1. You don’t have to do much writing. You simply drag and drop ‘factual’ sentences and snippets into an article editor, and make a few simple edits.
  2. These articles CAN and DO get indexed in Google, and can even rank and bring in real traffic to your sites.
  3. It’s quick and easy. You can create a 500+ word article in just 2-10 minutes.

Here’s the disadvantage.

It’s not suitable for ALL types of articles. It’s very good for factual articles about a specific topic.

Here’s an example of what I mean…

It’s not good for writing an article on “The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin, and the Projections for 2020”.

It is good for writing an article on “Tips on How to Stop Your Dog from Barking”.

This method isn’t the best for story telling, or creating an article on a very specific, in-depth topic, with a consistent tone.

But for articles on general / broader topics – then it is great for that

If you’d like to see how you can create articles within minutes using this

method, then feel free to watch my video demonstration HERE.

Conclusion: Quick and Easy, little writing or editing, can get indexed, can rank in Google.

#4: Article Spinning

Yes, I know article spinning has been around since prehistoric times but it still works.

Again, there is spinning with ZERO input (and using a good spinning software such as SpinRewriter this can produce pretty good results).

And then there is “spinning and then taking just a few minutes to read through the article and make any minor edits to improve it”. Remember, spinning is done by a “machine” so it won’t be 100% perfect all the time, if that is what you want.

If you don’t know what spinning is, it is where a software tool takes an original piece of content and then switched certain words and replaces them with synonyms. Words that have the same meaning. Spinning can also re-structure phrases or part phrases which can change the contextual structure of an article.

Content spinning is purely carried out to take an existing piece of content that has already been indexed / ranked in Google – And create a NEW version of it that Google thinks is unique, so that it gets indexed and ranked (but maybe for new keywords!).

Conclusion: Fast, zero to little work, may need editing and improving depending on the purpose of the article.

#5: Pure content curation

When people talk about content curation there are TWO types. There is pure content curation where you take a piece of content or news story, and then take parts of that and write your own editorial around it. Or, simply curate the story by adding your own thoughts and views on it.

In fact, here are TWO good descriptions of PURE Content Curation…

News curation is the art of finding, distilling, adding value, preserving and sharing the most relevant stories on a specific topic or issue for a specific audience.

Content curation is the process of finding and collecting online content and presenting the best pieces in a structured way.

So, there you have it – Content curation in its purest form.

However, in the internet marketing industry content curation can be even simpler, more automated, and can still bring great results.

If you want to create and build up a niche site, on a particular topic but don’t want to spend time writing your own content, or even editing content – then you can use this simpler method of “content curation”.

You simply take a trending news story related to YOUR niche or topic. Spin the article through a spinning software such as SpinRewriter (so that it makes it unique in the eyes of Google) – And then you publish that on your site using a new, unique POST TITLE… and cite the URL or source of the original news story (to keep it ethical).

This is a good way to build up a site full of unique content that you can then monetize using different monetization methods (ads, banners etc).

A Plugin Can Do this For You BUT The Offer Ends TONIGHT!

A new plugin was released last week called WP News Ranker that will curate trending news stories for your chosen topic, and publish them on your site. Creating rankings and traffic for you.

It’s a great way to build sites that you can monetize or even SELL, with very little work or input.

The offer ends today at midnight (Tuesday 17th at midnight EST).

You can get this news curation plugin HERE.

It even has a built-in spinner so you pay once for the plugin, and you aren’t required to pay anything else for any other 3rd-party services or spinners.

Conclusion: No research required, can be as easy or hard as you like, can be as quick or slow as you like – depending on which type of curation you want do carry out.

So there you have it! 5 different ways to create articles for your sites.

I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below.

To your success!

Andy Black

How to Create Content that RANKS Highly for Your Keywords

In this blog post I’m going to share with you some insights that will guide you in the right direction for creating content for your blogs or websites.

When you’re wanting to rank highly in Google for your keywords the best place to turn to for ideas – is Google themselves.

That’s right, if you look in the right places Google will actually provide you with subtle hints that you can utilize when writing your content.

Ok, so here’s what you need to do

Go to Google and search for your target keyword. The keyword you would like to rank for.

Google will serve you the top 10 results for your keyword – Scroll towards the bottom of the search page and you will see keywords that are “Related” to your target keyword.

This is where you can get ideas from so you can build out your content / article with information that Google deems as relevant to your chosen keyword.

See the image below.

So, in the image above you can see suggestions that are related to the keyword “how to stop your dog from barking”.

These are suggestions from Google themselves and they’re actually serving you suggestions that further expand on your keyword – In case you wanted to “dig” a little deeper into the topic.

I have underlined the words that you could use to write content about within your article or blog post.

In the example above you could include information on how to stop your dog barking at night, how to stop your dog barking at a window, how to stop your dog barking at your neighbors, and also stopping them barking using ultrasonic devices.

Google deem these (let’s call them sub-topics) as highly relevant to your keyword and if you write a great article that “answers” these additional questions, you will have a strong piece of content that will stand a better chance of ranking higher in Google

Let’s take a look at another example.

In this second example you could take the words: homemade, pool noodle, and inflatable – As well as Petsmart and Walmart, and include information about those within your article or blog post.

By serving up these search suggestions at the bottom of all / most search results, Google are essentially giving you content ideas.

They’re letting you know what’s relevant to your keyword, and what people are actually searching for that is similar to your keyword.

By creating amazing content that provides information on these suggestions, you’ll be publishing content that is both useful and relevant – and that will naturally answer a lot of questions themed around your target keyword.

As a result – Google will reward you for creating great content by sending more of their users your way.

So, don’t just use guesswork when writing your next article, or creating your next blog post. Let Google themselves tell you what would “interest” and provide real value to your visitors.

If you have any tips of your own, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Alternatively, if you are interested in getting your hands on a little software tool that will help you to create articles, or even retrieve lots of little factual pieces of information that you can use within your content (even if it’s just for some inspiration or to rewrite), then you can check out my own article creation software HERE.

It can be used in so many different ways and is already used by thousands of people around the world to help them create content for their blogs and sites.

To your success

Andy Black

How to Get Your Content in Front of 2,500+ People Within an Hour

Without having a HUGE email list or an insane budget for an ad campaign, the only way in my opinion to reach a lot of people is viral marketing.

Successful viral marketing creates a snowball effect and it should feed itself allowing your viral campaign to build up speed and momentum.

The best viral campaigns are often accidental but the effect is the same. These are usually funny videos, or videos that capture a wide-appeal event. People watch them and SHARE them for others to watch. More and more people talk about it and share further.

This creates a viral effect that ends up reaching potentially thousands or even millions of people within a short amount of time.

HOWEVER, how can the likes of you and me create a similar effect?

How can the everyday person create some content that will go viral – enhancing a brand, company or event by getting it in front of thousands of people, quickly?

In this blog post I am going to share with you a case study from a viral campaign I created just yesterday – on Facebook.

The post was published 21 hours ago as of right now, and so far it has reached 17,591 people, had 3,002 engagements, 561 comments, and 480 shares.

This is increasing as I type this!

So, how did I do this and how can you replicate this for yourself, or a client.

Here’s the secret – Yet it is so simple. And although you will have seen something like this before, I have seen so many others leave out the vital ingredient.

Let me break the whole process down for you

First, you need to have an incentive for others to SHARE your post and follow your instructions. This is usually a chance to win something. In my case study it is RIDE TICKETS for an annual LOCAL fair / carnival that my father organizes each and every year.

The incentive has to be enough for people to…

Tag TWO people in the comments, and SHARE the post on their timeline (in Facebook).

If the incentive isn’t strong enough, they won’t participate.

My post offers them 10 free ride tickets for a carnival that is taking place in just 2 days time (from me posting). This means they don’t have to wait long for their incentive if they win.

In fact, below is a screenshot of my post just 43 minutes after publishing it.

As you can see above, after just 43 minutes it had already reached 1,637 people, had 486 engagements, 110 comments, 58 Likes, and 98 shares.

Not bad, eh?

You’ll notice that the image I used gets straight to the point. It shows a fairground ride and the HOOK… my incentive is written in the center of the image.

It’s also important to include your incentive right at the start of your posts text. This hooks them in.

This needs to be followed with simple instructions on how they can enter.

This has to be simple and clear. Don’t over complicate this by asking them to tag more people, or to also LIKE your post.

People will naturally LIKE your post anyway so you don’t need to ask them to. It will have little impact on your results, and the more hoops you make them jump through, the more likely they won’t participate.

Why Do they Need to TAG People in the Comments?

Simple – Because it will draw direct attention to those people as Facebook will show them a notification saying that XXXX person has just mentioned them in a comment. Human nature makes people curious so they will naturally click through to see what they have been tagged in.

Pro Tip: If you are promoting a product, service or business you can ask them to TAG two people who are interested in XXX.

To give you an example, if this post was to promote a dog grooming salon you would ask them to TAG TWO dog owners who live within XXXX area.

This means that the audience of those being tagged are 100% relevant and the right target audience.

Sharing the posts will reach more people but this will be via the NewsFeed.

So, it’s important to get TWO people tagged and also a SHARE for them to qualify for your contest.

Under these instructions within your post you can also include a little information about the event, product, service, brand, or business that you’re promoting… but right at the end, remind them on how to enter again.

Also, include WHEN the winner(s) will be announced.

Having more than one chance to WIN will give you an advantage too, as people know that more than one person has a chance to win, which will increase their chances.

My viral campaign is not over yet. I will be drawing the winners tomorrow morning – About 22 hours from now.

However, here are some more screenshots of my campaign so that you can see how it progressed rapidly.

Below is 1 Hour into the Campaign

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Below is 21 Hours into the Campaign

As you can see, these campaigns can catch on and go viral quickly.

It’s a great way to create FAST, massive exposure for an event, brand, product, service, or business.

If you follow my guidelines you should see great results!

To your success

Andy Black

6 Ways to Monetize Your Blog

Ok, I’m going to keep this as short as possible whilst still revealing ways in which you can turn your content into profit.

Having a content site and adding to it regularly will help you to generate more rankings and bring in more visitors to your site 24/7.

Rankings and traffic is down to your content. However, monetizing that content is down to you.

Here’s 6 ways in which to earn from your content and blog.

1 – Google Adsense or Equivalent

Strategically placing ads on your site and within your content will mean that a percentage of your visitors will exit your site by clicking on an ad. Every time they do, you will earn a commission.

Commissions will vary depending on the niche and how much the advertising is paying to be on your site.

Like all methods of website monetization it’s a numbers game. The more traffic you get to your site, the more clicks on ads you’ll receive, and the more money you will make.

It’s important to get the best CTR (click-thru rate) that you possibly can and to do this you need to place the ad code in the most prominent places of your site.

This is above your content / articles, as well as in the middle and at the bottom. At any stage a visitor could leave your site via an ad, so it’s best to have them in places that their eyes are going to be focused on.

This works WELL and you can earn a lot of money from it but it is VERY traffic dependant.

Long story short I had a site 2-3 years ago (and still have it) that started seeing an insane amount of traffic as it was ranking #1 for a keyword that became viral. I was earning between £500 – £550 per DAY at one point, before the traffic died right down.

The trick with Adsense sites is to have lots of them, so it’s a case of rinsing and repeating this process over and over.

2 – CPA Offers

CPA, which stands for “Cost Per Action” is a popular method of earning an income from your niche sites. You would generally need to get approved by a CPA Network first.

However, after being approved it’s a case of adding a banner or CPA offer to your site / content and when people complete the required form, or submit their details – YOU get a commission. Commissions with CPA offers can be a larger amount. It is certainly more than you would get for a “click” on an ad.

CPA offers can pay out quite a lot when a visitor submits their details for a “free offer”.

What you’re essentially doing here is sending qualified leads to a company. They know on average what a lead is worth to them – and then you get a cut.

It’s a win-win for everyone.

3 – Collect Leads and Build an Email List

Building a list that is highly relevant to your niche is one of the most profitable ways to monetize your site.

You would do this by adding a lightbox popup to your site, or opt-in forms within your content.

If you have a WordPress site then you can use a FREE plugin called MailOptin. It’s free, can be used with any AutoResponder, and it does the job of collecting leads.

You can then build up your email list daily and send them emails regarding interesting, relevant content – and of course – OFFERS that you can profit from.

An email list allows you to drive traffic on demand.

4 – Place Banners

Placing banners on your site is similar to placing Adsense on your site. However, instead of getting paid when someone clicks on your banner, you generally get paid per impression – Or, via a click thru and purchase. Ie – a sale.

You can join a banner advertising platform where you can obtain some code to place throughout your website theme and relevant banners will appear.

Alternatively, you can manually place banner graphics on your site and link them to affiliate products so if visitors click through and make a purchase, you earn a sales commission.

5 – Add a Drop Shopping / Amazon Store

It’s very easy to add a store to your site, or at the very least place some code that will display relevant products from Amazon.

Every time your visitors click on these products and make a purchase you will earn a commission.

The products need to be relevant to your websites content so that they are of interest to your visitors.

6 – Negotiate a Branding / Advertising Deal

If your website traffic gets to a significant amount it’s possible to negotiate an advertising deal with a relevant manufacturer or retailer.
This is great for them as it will either drive sales, or their target audience to their online store. Or, if it is a manufacturer or brand, it will increase brand awareness.

You can add tracking to the banners and links that you place for them and can either charge them for impressions, or for clicks.

With regards to clicks you can use Adwords to find out how much they would pay for clicks via Adwords. Then simply undercut that price.

Conclusion

You can use one or more of these methods on your site at the same time.
Remember, track everything to so that you can discover which is the most profitable for you.

Once your site is earning money each month you can purely focus on adding more quality content to your site(s) and gaining more traffic.

Then your sites income will increase!

I hope that you found this useful.

To your success

Andy Black

Why People HATE Cold Calling, and What is the Alternative?

Today I thought we could take a look at the dreaded “cold calling” sales method that has been used by businesses all over the world since telephones were invented.

And delve into WHY many people shy away from using this method.

So, “cold calling”. In a nutshell, picking up the phone and calling businesses or consumers that you have had ZERO prior contact with, and trying to pitch your services or products to them.

Well, the truth is, the majority of people don’t like to receive these types of calls because 1) They don’t like to be put on the spot. 2) They probably receive LOTS of calls like this as their ‘business’ number will be accessible across major directories and phone lists. 3) It intrudes their day and they do not like pushy sales people.

But WHY do people hate to utilize this method themselves within their business?

The answer is simple – The FEAR of rejection.

When you pick up the phone and try to cold call another business, and get a loud and clear “NO thanks!” harshly delivered by the recipient, it can knock your confidence, and make you start questioning if your product or service is any good.

When this happens over and over again, it can really cause you issues, creates self-doubt, and often make you want to give up. Cold calling is generally only for the hardened sales type people who are willing to brush off 100 “No’s” for every “Yes”, or “Maybe” they receive on the other end of the line.

Of course, you can outsource this to a “Call Center”, or another company. However, this can be costly and there is no guarantee they will deliver your message and represent your brand the way you would like them to.

So, What is the Alternative?

COLD EMAIL!

That’s right. Personalized emails (not generic!) that quickly addresses their issues, and highlights HOW you can help them, and the benefits of you doing so.

For example – Maybe they have ZERO SEO on their website meaning they have poor rankings. Maybe they have ZERO social presence and are NOT utilizing the major social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to create brand-awareness.

Maybe they aren’t utilizing VIDEO within their business, or their website isn’t mobile-friendly.

Literally ANY issue that you could help them resolve for a FEE.

The Downside to Cold Emailing

The only downside to sending cold emails is JUST LIKE making “cold calls” over the phone, it can take a number of emails before you get a response.

And crafting a cold email means you have to first find the businesses that NEED your services, which in turn means reviewing their websites, viewing source code… and checking other factors – Which of course, can take a lot of time.

The Solution

Use my Web Prospectr v2.0 software and remove all the above headaches and hurdles.

My software will not only find your perfect prospects by analyzing their websites for you, and finding issues that YOU can fix.

It will also CRAFT the perfect PITCH EMAIL for each and every one, that will be 100% tailored to the issues they have, and the services that you offer.

It will even pull in specific data and information for EACH specific business, and include it within the email so that it looks like the email has been hand-typed and was written purely for them. So it is not generic in any way!

After all, the email will be created purely for them. It’s just that it will be done automatically by the software, and not hand typed by yourself which would take you a lot of time.

With my software all it takes is just 2-clicks to send each business a fully personalized email pitch. No having to manually type each email.

Just click-click. It doesn’t get any easier than this.

DEAL Opened Back Up Until Tomorrow Only

Ok, here’s the deal. I have created a new coupon for you that will give you a whopping 52% off the price of my new Web Prospectr v2.0 software.

This will be as cheap as it gets, but tomorrow it will go back up to full price.

If you want to get MORE clients without having to do any cold calling, or having to spend time writing lots of emails… then GRAB my software today before my coupon expires.

>> Get 52% Off My Web Prospectr v2.0 Software HERE

Until next time

Andy Black


How to Get MORE Visitors From Google / Youtube With Your Existing Rankings

Well, I had 15-20 minutes spare today so thought “Why not write another blog post for my followers”.

So, here it is – And today’s topic is all about getting MORE traffic from your current / existing rankings.

You see, it’s a common misconception that in order to get more visitors to your site from Google you need to…

  1. Get higher rankings.
  2. Get MORE rankings.

And although that is true to “some degree”, as that WILL get you more visitors, it’s not entirely true.

You see, there is something called “click through rate”… often referred to as “CTR”.

This is the number of people who SEE your listing and then CLICK on your listing, compared to those that do NOT click on your listing.

BEFORE focusing on your SEO efforts you should always make sure you’re converting as much of your VISIBILITY into actual CLICKS to your websites, videos or web properties.

Here’s an example so you better understand what I mean…

Let’s say you appear in the Google search results 1,500 times per month (called impressions), and 3% of those searchers who see your listing, click on your result.

That would result in 45 clicks to your site, video or web property.

Now let’s say you improve your title, or video thumbnail image so that it appears more attractive and intriguing, and as a result of that, 8% of those searchers click on your result.

That would mean 120 people would click on your search result, instead of just 45.

That means MORE traffic for the SAME Google Rankings!

(And as a result – your rankings will actually INCREASE! As you’ll get rewarded for that)

Always seek to increase your CTR (click through rate) and not just focus on getting more / better rankings.

Something that Will Help You With this – If You’re Quick

There is a new software that has been recently released called “Thumbnail Blaster” and it helps you with this exact thing – “click through rate”.

You may have already heard about it by now, and may have even got access to it yourself already.

However, if you haven’t and are interested in taking a look at it, then you have until midnight (EDT) today to get a great deal on it.

It’s the last day of the launch offer, and you can SEE WHAT IT DOES HERE.

It’s purely for videos and will help you to get more views for your videos in both Google and Youtube, and it’s well worth taking a look at.

Either way, be sure to word your titles, and design your thumbnail images so they bring you the most clicks possible. Making some small tweaks can sometimes massively increase the number of clicks you receive – So bear that in mind.

Until next time

Andy Black

How to Get Monthly Search Volume Using a FREE Tool

Today I wanted to tell you about a FREE tool that you can add directly to your browser, that will not only give you a ton of keyword ideas, it will also give you the monthly search volume, CPC (Cost per click) and also indicate the level of competition, for each keyword.

You may or may not have already heard about this plugin, but this post was created more for those that haven’t heard about it.

It’s called Keywords Everywhere and it is a simple browser add-on that is available for both Chrome and Firefox, and displays it’s data and results when you visit Google from within your browser.

Here’s a short 3-minute “over the shoulder video” I recorded for you, so you can see what it does, and how to get this added to YOUR browser.


Again, this post won’t be valuable for you if you already use, or are aware of this little FREE keyword tool.

However, if you haven’t heard of it, I’m sure it’ll be a nice welcome addition to your tool set.

You can get this keyword browser add-on HERE

Enjoy!

Andy Black