Wednesday, April 20, 2016

10 Blogging Infographics to Achieve "All-Star Blogger" Status (Jeff Bullas Featuring Zac Johnson)

Find the original article at www.JeffBullas.com See links at bottom of this article.

10 Blogging Infographics to Achieve “All-Star Blogger” Status

10 Blogging Infographics to Achieve %22All-Star Blogger%22 Status
If you want to make it in the world of blogging, you need to know what it takes to stand out from the crowd.
Actually, it’s a whole lot more than just standing out from the crowd, it’s having the ability to be dedicated to your blog, putting in the time and work to create amazing content and then knowing how to promote it so your audience can find you.
With over a billion active sites on the internet and hundreds of millions of them being blogs, you are guaranteed to get lost in the mix when you first get started.
Don’t worry, every successful blogger at one point had to start from zero – and that’s where you will start too.
If you have what it takes to become an All-Star Blogger, you will look back at these initial stages and remember how exciting and fun they really were.
So what does it take to become a successful blogger? A little bit of everything, such as:
  • Skill, Dedication, Time and Passion – Yea, all of these are important and each of them have their own reasons why. At the end of the day, you need to realize that the more you put into blogging, the more you are going to get out of it. Unfortunately, most people don’t have the patience to get through the first initial slow phases.
  • Real Content that Matters – Blogging is all about content. If your content is garbage and provides no value, you are simply wasting your time. Before publishing content to your blog, ask if it’s something you would actually spend time reading.
  • SEO and Content Marketing Knowledge – Content creation is a major component of blogging, but if you don’t have a basic knowledge of SEO (how to rank in the search results) and how to use social media and backlinks to increase traffic to your site, you will have a nice blog with content… just no one to read it.
  • Business Mindset and Monetization Plan – This one isn’t necessary for all bloggers, but it does apply to the majority. If you want to make money with a blog, you need to know who your audience is, what value you are providing to them and also how you are going to make money in the process.
All of these fine points are things that you should consider before even starting your blog.
What’s even better is to learn how each of these elements should be used with blogging through the use of powerful and engaging infographics. Once you have a good idea on what type of blogger you want to be and how you are going to start scaling up your content and reaching new audiences, then it’s time to set your sights on how having a blog can really change your life and business for the better!
Now let’s take a look at ten unique infographics that will help you get to “All-Star Blogger” status at a faster pace.

1. The Evolution of the Blogger

Before jumping into the world of blogging and expecting to become the next dot com celebrity, you should first understand where blogging came from and how we got to where we are today.
In this “Evolution of the Blogger” infographic, we can take a look at the very first individuals who helped turn blogging into what it is today, while also seeing how it has scaled up in size – going from individual bloggers passionate about their self interests and activism, to food and travel bloggers and even into the lucrative corporate world where blogging is still so important today.
Take a look at this infographic and see what type of blogger you are, then set yourself on a path for success!
The Evolution of the Blogger

2. How to Start a Blog

At one point or another, we all had the desire to start a blog, but had no idea where to start.
While it’s funny to think back at how complicating and confusing it all seemed in the beginning, it’s dead simple for many of us today. However, thousands of people will be starting a website or blog of their own for the first time today, and like many of us in the beginning, they also have no idea where to start.
Before becoming an all-star blogger, you must first make your way through the initial entry phase of blogging, and while this might not be the most exciting part of blogging it’s extremely important as it’s going to make for the foundation of your site.
This infographic highlights the 7-step process every blogger must walk through, such as choosing a topic, setting up hosting, site customization, content creation and much more.
How to Start a Blog in 7 Simple Steps

3. The 7 Elements of Smart Content

At the end of the day, the success of your blog comes down to the type of content you have on it.
Way too many bloggers think they need to create content just for the sake of putting something out there. This can’t be further from the truth. Google wants real content that provides value and they also want it to be lengthy.
This means you should focus more time on creating amazing content and publishing once or twice per month, versus publishing boring content daily or a few times per week.
In this seven elements of smart content infographic, you will have the perfect checklist for your content. If your content isn’t helpful to your audience, consistent with other material on your site and doesn’t have a call to action or no real data to back it up — you probably shouldn’t post it!
7 Elements of Smart Content

4. Copywriting Cheat Sheet for Blogging and Social Media

Blogging isn’t just about creating content on your own site, it’s also about knowing how to connect with your audience through email and social media networks.
In this infographic we take a look at the different ways content creators and site owners should be using email, blog copy and social media to reach their audiences – while also pointing out actionable tips for each source and why they are important.
After skimming through this infographic you will have a different perspective on how you should share, syndicate and promote your blog content across different platforms.
Copywriting Cheat Sheet

5. Explode Your Blog with Social Sharing Traffic

With over two billion users spread across the major social networks, it would be a huge mistake to not be using Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram in your favor.
In this infographic, Ian Cleary breaks down exactly what it takes to get thousands of social shares on every piece of site content you create. Such factors include having a compelling title, making it easy for your audience to share, using Pinterest friendly images, sharing with your email list, doing outreach and much more.
One of the most important things for bloggers to remember is that it’s not just about ‘content creation’, it’s also about the ‘content promotion’ you do after the blog post goes live.
How To Promote Your Blog To Get 1000 Shares

6. The Many Benefits of Guest Blogging

Guest blogging has become the absolute best way to make your blog stand out from the crowd.
One of the many benefits of guest blogging is that it’s free, however it will take up a decent amount of time to create high quality content that gets accepted on other sites.
Other benefits include increased exposure for your brand, gaining backlinks and putting your name and face in front of a whole new audience. In short, guest blogging is pretty amazing when it’s done correctly.
Follow the eight actionable tips in this infographic to boost visibility and viral activity to your site through guest blogging.
In addition to guest blogging for authority status and backlinks, there are also many sites that will pay you to write content for them.
8 Ways to Boost Brand Awareness with Guest Blogg

7. How to Make Money Blogging

It’s easy to start a blog, but it’s not easy to make money with one.
When planning to start a blog just with the intention to make money, you are going to have to put a lot of time in beforehand to pre-plan your launch, choose a niche focus, study your audience and map out the whole process.
In this infographic, you are walked through the process in a simple 9-step visual. Though there are many factors that go into successfully making money with a blog, the most important is choosing a niche focus for your site in the beginning and knowing how to monetize and target your content along the way.
How to Make Money Blogging

8. Top Bloggers Focus on Long Tail Keywords

As mentioned many times already, it’s easy to create a blog and it’s easy to create content – but it’s not easy to create a successful blog that gets traffic and makes a lot of money.
Why is that? Simply because there are a lot of components in play and if you aren’t focused on how to create high quality content and get incoming links to your site, then your blog’s chain of links all fall apart.
Just as important as choosing a niche audience and getting focused with your monetization methods, so is the ability to rank your site in search results for long tail keywords. Not only are long tail keywords easier to rank for, they also provide you with an audience that you know is looking for exactly what you are providing to them.
In this infographic we take a look at the hidden value of long tail SEO and also why you should be trying to rank for a set of keywords or phrases versus high traffic generic keywords.
Hidden Value of Long Tail SEO

9. How Top Bloggers Make Money with their Sites

It’s one thing to know how to make money with a website or blog, it’s another to actually see how other’s are doing it.
Ever since word got out that people were making money with blogging, the whole blogosphere has been flooded with new bloggers and content sites like crazy – which is fine, because only those who put in the massive time, work and effort will find success.
In this infographic we get to break down the many components of why and how top bloggers make money with their sites. Topics covered are; the five different types of bloggers, average earnings, monetization methods, highest earning blogs and actionable tips to help increase traffic and revenue for your own sites.
Ways to Earn Money with Blogging

10. 50 Blogging Tips from Expert Pro Bloggers

One of the greatest things about blogging is that there are so many successful individuals, brands and resources out there to help you along the way.
The benefit here is that so many of these different resources and outlets are always willing to go out of their way to help fellow bloggers. This is exactly what you will find in this “50 Blogging Tips” infographic, which highlights actionable tips and advice from top bloggers Pat Flynn, Corbett Barr, Ana Hoffman, Amit Shaw and Jeff Goins.
Read what the experts have to say about their sites and their blogging success, then implement these same methods into your own site.
50 Blogging Tips From The Experts

Your journey towards All-Star Blogging Status

All of the tools and resources are here for you, now it’s time to put them into action and propell the growth of your site.
There are simply no excuses for why you can’t succeed! While it may seem like a long journey ahead, take it one-step at a time and do at least one thing to get your site a step ahead each and every day.
Before you know it, we will be 3, 6, 9 then 12 months down the road – where will you be?
Guest Author: Zac Johnson is a world renowned blogger and entrepreneur with nearly 20 years of experience in the online marketing space and has helped his readers generate millions of dollars online. He shares his story and guidance at ZacJohnson.com

Jeff Bullas (@jeffbullas) tweeted at 1:35 PM on Tue, Apr 19, 2016:
10 Blogging Infographics to Achieve "All-Star Blogger" Status https://t.co/qkdmEIKtZs #blogging #infographics https://t.co/jTTIuOxhQY
(https://twitter.com/jeffbullas/status/722524019942125570?s=03)

Sunday, April 17, 2016

The 17 Best Social Media Management Tools

The 17 Best Social Media Management Tools

Originally published on Jeff Bullas Blog. 
The 17 Best Social Media Management Tools
Social media can be pretty overwhelming sometimes.
Especially if you’re running an agency or managing the social media accounts of other businesses.
How do you juggle and manage the many hats you need to wear as a social media manager?
Creating contentscheduling shares, engaging with followers, repurposing content, sharing others’ content, community management… This list could go on forever.
The only way to effectively manage social media at scale is with the use of social media management tools that can improve your efficiency, and over time get you better results.
The tools we discuss below help you do that. Many of them have similar features, however they are all different in terms of the BEST way to use them. Choose the ones that fit your your needs and give them a whirl.
Here are 17 of the best social media management tools available;

1. EveryPost

Everypost - example of social media management tools
EveryPost lets you curate visual content, schedule customized posts, and share content to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr. This is useful for posting from your Android and iPhone devices.

2. Bit.ly

Bitly - example of social media management tools
Bit.ly is a url shortener and click reporting tool all in one. It’s great for Twitter with short posts, and also tracking the clicks to help you understand how well your content converts traffic to your website.

3. Hootsuite

Hootsuite - example of social media management tools
Hootsuite is an enterprise level social media management tool used by over 10 million professionals. They can help you schedule and analyze your social media marketing campaigns.
Furthermore, Hootsuite has a number of team tools to help your team create content for social networks.

4. Agora Pulse

Agora Pulse - example of social media management tools
Agora Pulse lets you schedule content for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all in one place. Plus, Agora Pulse has dynamic reports for all three social networks. You can run contents and promotions from Agora as well.

5. Social Oomph

Social Oomph - example of social media management tools
SocialOomph helps you schedule content on Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, you can create welcome messages on Twitter. Socialoomph has a number of premium options that allow you to schedule photos, use Facebook, and LinkedIn.

6. Sprout Social

Sprout Social - example of social media management tools
Sprout Social is the complete social media management tool for social media agencies because you can use this premium social media management tool for multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts.

7. Crowd Booster

Crowd Booster - example of social media management tools
Crowd Booster is a social media analytics tool to help you optimize your social media marketing decisions. Instead of doing the analytics manually, get it automatically updated on a consistent basis. You can even create custom reports that can be useful for clients. Finally, use the reporting information to schedule Tweets for optimal times.

8. Edgerank Checker

Edgerank checker - example of social media management tools
Edgerank Checker, from Social Bakers, helps you understand the best ways to optimize your Facebook content. You can create custom content that increases engagement and optimizes your newsfeed response.

9. SocialBro

SocialBro - example of social media management tools
SocialBro is a Twitter marketing tool. SocialBro helps you with all of your Twitter needs from scheduling content, to reports, to creating ads on Twitter.

10. Tailwind

Tailwind - example of social media management tools
Tailwind is a comprehensive tool to help you with your Pinterest marketing efforts. This is the official partner for Pinterest marketing.
Tailwind helps you create multi-board pins, bulk uploads, and calendar scheduling. They can also help you optimize the best times to send your pins to get the highest engagement.
Finally, Tailwind was designed to help teams manage multiple accounts. This makes it an ideal tool for agencies providing social media services.

11. Buffer

buffer - example of a content marketing tool
Buffer is a great tool to schedule social media posts from links you share across the web. You can share posts to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest.

12. Oktopost

Oktopost - example of social media management tools
Oktopost is a social media management tool focused on generating leads for businesses. This is in comparison to what they believe is lacking with Hootsuite – Hootsuite helps businesses schedule content, whereas Oktopost helps businesses gain money.

13. MeetEdgar

Meet Edgar - example of social media management tools
MeetEdgar recycles your posts, so you can reach a larger percentage of traffic from recycled content later.

14. IFTT

IFTT - example of social media management tools
IFTTT is an automation tool that is simple and easy to use. You just select the recipe you want in order to market your business on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.

15. Tweepi

Tweepi - example of social media management tools
Tweepi will help you find targeted users on Twitter, and then stay connected to them by interacting on a regular basis.

16. Socedo

Socedo - example of social media management tools
Socedo is an automated social media lead generation tool that works with Twitter and LinkedIn to help you find the right leads from social media. Find qualified leads and then add them to your sales funnel.

17. SocialFlow

SocialFlow - example of social media management tools
SocialFlow helps you manage paid, owned, and earned social media campaigns in one place. Social Flow recommends specific posts, pins, or tweets for you to promote. Then you can use keywords and segmentation to analyze these campaigns.

Final thoughts

Choosing the right social media management tools for your business requires you to have a good understanding of what your needs are. While a lot of the programs here seem very cool, you might not need all the widgets and doo-dads to succeed.
Instead, your business needs to focus on which tools can improve what you are already doing on social media currently. When you do that, you have a much better chance of using the right social media management tool for your business.
Guest Author: As Founder and Director of Shout Web Strategy, Michael Jenkins is at the forefront of social media marketing. Since it’s inception in 2010, Shout has built a strong reputation as Australia’s leading social media agency.
Visit http://www.jeffbullas.com for more great articles.

Friday, April 8, 2016

Quizzes


How to Grow an Email List: 3 Case Studies on How Silly Online Quizzes Produce Serious Business Leads

How to Grow an Email List: 3 Case Studies on How Silly Online Quizzes Produce Serious Business Leads
You have seen those stupid headlines.
They are everywhere. Buzzfeed, Viral Nova and Upworthy and on many other new age media sites, blogs and websites. The headlines lead to content which are interactive quizzes.
  • Why Are You Single?
  • What character from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” Are You?
  • What’s Your Hidden Talent?
Even though you know it is click-bait you can’t help yourself. You have to click. Why?
They tap into our curiosity gene. Often they get 1 to 2 million views and are shared at high velocity on Facebook and Twitter.
But they aren’t new.

Some quiz tips

Quizzes are both an art and a science. You can create quizzes on a blog, Facebook or even a website.
Infographicholic has some tips in an infographic on how you can make them more viral. They include
  • Use an ideal number of questions
  • Use an enticing headline
  • Keep it timely and relevant
how to grow an email list

Quizzes are like Apple products

Quizzes are also like Apple products.
Every few years a new edition comes out and the world is fascinated all over again.
Take a look at the picture below; it’s two screenshots from Time Magazine side-by-side. The first one is from 2002 and the second is from 2015. However, they have the exact same title – they are both dog quizzes.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool  
The Internet is fascinated with these silly quizzes, so much so that virtually the exact same quiz can be popular twice, thirteen years apart.
As marketers, quizzes present an interesting opportunity because of their stickiness and ability to harness the power of social sharing. The only problem is, simply getting shared or driving traffic doesn’t quite cut it unless we can show concrete results from our marketing efforts.
Today I am going to show how three companies have created quizzes not unlike the Time Magazine dog quiz, but with a twist. These companies have tied a lead capture form to their quizzes, and together have brought in 6,232 new email subscribers.
Let’s meet our three example companies, take a quick peek at their business models, and get an idea of how new email leads feed into their goals.
First up we have  Kroll Ontrack. This is a legacy technology company that does security for enterprises. For them, email leads go into a database the uses marketing automation to identify potential clients who can turn into customers who pay a lot to use the Kroll services.
Second we have Afar Magazine, they are a rising travel website dedicated to feeding wanderlust. For Afar, new email leads means a larger list that can be contacted whenever a new travel guide or article comes out.
Third we have Viewsbank. This is a company that pays people to take surveys, and their customers are large companies who need survey respondents. For Viewsbank, they use quizzes to reach more potential survey-takers so that they have a more appealing offer for large companies who want a diverse group of survey takers.
These three companies rely heavily on email lead generation to fuel their respective businesses, join me as we examine exactly how they use quizzes to help their lead generation efforts and grow their businesses.
Here is how to grow an email list using quizzes.

Case study 1: Kroll Ontrack turns a trivia quiz into leads

I applaud Kroll Ontrack for their forward thinking. They are a well-established technology company that chooses to innovate rather than settling for the status quo. They came up with this fun trivia quiz to test potential future clients on their knowledge of Ediscovery (I’m not sure what Ediscovery is, but it sounds complicated).
The quiz ended up bringing over 801 new leads that were fed into a marketing automation system to nurture the people along into customers, and that was from only 1,350 quiz takers. That’s an impressive conversion rate, here’s how they did it.
Idea.  This is the pub quiz concept. Pub quizzes have been around since the 1970’s and continue to draw crowds around the world. There’s something visceral about putting your knowledge to the test and pitting your wits against a machine.
Kroll did a good job of making their trivia applicable to their industry, so that it appeals to the type of audience that could become their customers.
Online Quizzes for building an email list
Questions. Quiz questions give businesses the unique opportunity to talk with potential users on a mass scale, even if it is a scripted conversation. For a lead generation quiz, the goal of these questions is to build up some trust with the person taking your quiz so that they’ll be more likely to opt-in when the lead capture form is presented.
The Kroll quiz builds this trust by asking typical trivia-type questions. These questions make you think a bit, they are fun to look at and answer, they make you forget that you are taking a quiz created by a brand – exactly the right combination to set the quiz taker up for entering information at the end of the questions.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool
Lead Capture. The unique lead generation capability of quizzes is their ability to put a “lead gate” between the questions and the results. The incentive of seeing your quiz results is a big part of the reason these quiz can achieve such high opt-in rates (this one was a 60% opt-in rate).
However, it’s nice to add an extra opt-in incentive. This Kroll quiz uses the offer of a contest as a secondary reason for putting in an email address.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool
Share-ability. This quiz ended up being shared 187 times, which is a 14% share rate (14% of people who completed the quiz shared their results).  Facebook and Twitter pretty much dominate the social referral traffic market, so in order to win the sharing game a quiz needs to be optimized for those networks.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool
We tend to share things that invoke an emotional response in us. There are various ways to accomplish this, and each quiz takes a unique path to eliciting emotions. The Kroll Ontrack quiz brought out either pride or anger. If a person scores highly, they are prideful and want to share their knowledge. If they score low, the person is angry and wants to vent their anger on social media.

Case study 2: Afar uses a personality quiz to build an email list

“What’s Your Spirit City?” sounds exactly like something that would be printed in the pages of Cosmo in 1922. That’s not an accident – Afar Magazine understands that people enjoy sharing quiz results like what their Spirit City is.
The good time this quiz provides led to 12,801 hits, and 4,240 new email subscribers. Here’s the play-by-play on the process for Afar.
Idea. This is the narcissism concept.  What I mean is that every spirit city is awesome – like Havana, Los Angeles, New York, there are no bad Spirit Cities. Afar knew this going in to the quiz creation process, and it’s the strategy behind the entire thing. By telling people they rock, but doing it in a believable format like a quiz, you can produce good feelings and increase opt-ins.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool
Questions. The Afar quiz gets people to be introspective and think about what they are really like, but it accomplishes that in an enjoyable way. The example below is a question asking what your favorite drink is, with lots of vibrant pictures of beverages.
These questions are the kind of back-and-forth banter that you might find among acquaintances in a pub, lighthearted, but still passing enough information back and forth to establish a real connection.
For Afar, these questions serve as an icebreaker to a new visitor who finds this quiz through social media.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool
Lead Capture. Now that the quiz taker has gotten a little taste of what Afar has to offer through this quiz, they are given the opportunity to opt-in and receive a newsletter with more travel inspiration. This form achieved a 29% opt-in rate.
The main incentive here is to get more information about something you are obviously interested in, which is traveling. Afar left a clear skip option so as to eliminate tire-kickers, but was still able to get a strong opt-in percentage because the call-to-action was personalized to the quiz itself.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool
Share-ability. This quiz was shared 2,043 times, which represents a 16% share rate. Whether people agree with their results or disagree, there is a strong response to finding out which city is your Spirit City.
Again, going back to the idea that an emotional response leads to more social shares, when people see their quiz results on this Afar quiz they say things like “You like the finer things in life – Amen to that” (as shown in the tweet below). This is an outpouring of positive feelings towards the quiz because it is uplifting.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool

Case study 3: ViewsBank turns a holiday quiz into real business

Perhaps the most “quiz-like” of all these quizzes is this one from Viewsbank – it’s called “Which Reindeer are you?” And I mean, come on – who doesn’t want to know which Reindeer they are?
In spite of, or maybe because of, this goofiness, the Reindeer quiz was taken 1,647 times and brought in 1,191 new subscribers for ViewsBank. Why? Let’s find out.
Idea.  This is the holiday concept. Take a Holiday, make a quiz out of it. ViewsBank has done this several time – for Halloween, (“Which Monster are You?”) for Christmas (this Reindeer quiz), for Valentine’s Day. (“What Kind of Valentine are You?”) It’s a great concept, and one that’s easily replicable for any business.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool
Questions. These questions get a bit psychological frankly. I feel like I started with a Reindeer quiz and ended up laying on a couch talking about my childhood. I think this juxtaposition between the silliness of the quiz and the somewhat seriousness of the questions is what provides the right combination to produce strong opt-in rates at the end of the quiz.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool
Lead Capture. Viewsbank takes advantage of knowing that people who like quizzes might also like taking surveys. Their call to action asks you to opt-in to see what kind of Reindeer you are (obviously), but it also mentions that they’ll send you opportunities to take surveys for money. Surveys are kind of like quizzes, and you took the Reindeer quiz, so why not take surveys?
Share-ability. Come on, who doesn’t want to tell the world what kind of Reindeer they are? This quiz was shared 194 times, which represents a 12% share rate. Again, they appeal to the quiz takers’ emotions with flattery “Dasher- The Fastest Reindeer on Santa’s Team” Even if this is a silly Internet quiz, I like hearing that I’m Santa’s fastest Reindeer.
How Silly Online Quizzes Have Become a Serious Lead Generation Tool

Now over to you

Just like Apple products, Internet quizzes just keep coming back in new forms, enamoring the general population who can’t help themselves when presented with something like “Which Reindeer are you?” As marketers we are responsible for capitalizing on content like this and turning it into new business. Hopefully one of the three examples we looked at today has sparked an idea for a quiz that will fit your business. I’d love to discuss quiz ideas or strategy in the comments!
Author: Josh Haynam is the co-founder of Interact, a platform for creating fully customizable quizzes that help you generate engagement and capture leads. He also enjoys a good game of pickup basketball – Follow him at @jhaynam.

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