Income Report Roundup – June 2016

One of the most popular posts I publish are my income reports.

So I decided to round up as many income reports as possible and rank them based on earnings to see how I stack up against the rest.

If you publish an income report on your blog and would like it included in next month’s post then please let me know in the comments!

Here we go-

#1) MakingSenseOfCents.com – $67,685.00 (-$2,876.30)

With slightly lower page views Michelle is happy to say income is still at a great level. This month saw her release a new course and her latest featured question focuses on what to do if your blog post goes viral.

She’s expecting things to slow down a little through the summer months and is planning to work on another course and maybe take a break in August to hike the Colorado Trail!

Her current goals are to promote more, continue learning, do more interviews, double her income, diversify her income streams, increase her page views and create a digital product!

#2) JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com – $32,790.00 (-$10,501.00)

This month Donnie & Abbie have had fun watching students go through their new Ebook course and taking action to create their own.

After selling over 400 copies during the pre-launch they’ve made a lot fewer sales since and they go over some of the reasons for this in comparison to their first product.

They got a lot done to promote their new course including updating their primary lead magnet, creating and promoting Pinterest images and adding a new sidebar image.

Going forward they plan to target eBook related posts with popups to promote the new eBook course, change to sidebars that change to suit the content on each individual page, continue to do webinars and JV webinars and experiment with paid advertising.

#3) AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com – $26,910.00 (-$8,787.67)

It’s a slight dip in income for Jon this month since the sale of his FBA business as he no longer counts its income.

He’s celebrating his last full month of working the day job and after his last shift next month he will be focusing on his online business full time!

After moving into his new office he’s now looking forward to grinding away at the backlog of work that needs to be done to push the business forward.

#4) MatthewWoodward.co.uk – $20,661.90 (-$194.00)

After spending all of last month on boring grinding back office tasks this month I decided to take my foot off the gas entirely for a while, which led to a slight drop in traffic and income.

In my time off from the grind I took my passion for free diving and spearfishing to a new level when I launched my own 12 foot boat to get around on!

We’ve put it to good use so far and we were greeted on the maiden voyage by a pod of playful dolphins! I also took care of all of my dental problems in one hit, arranging 3 surgery sessions over 4 days.

I’ve enjoyed the time off but with friends arriving to visit soon for 2 weeks, that means I need to catch up on last month and get ahead of next month ready for more time off as well!

Get all of my income reports & round-ups direct to your inbox!

#5) HumanProofDesigns.com – $20,426.00 (+$10,862.00)

After going through a serious re-structure in the company Dom’s feeling good and reporting his best month so far this month!

This month saw them break their record number of sites sold and bring their turnaround time down to 4 weeks, with some customers getting their sites in as little as 2 weeks.

He puts their success this month down to the new team structure and explains what has changed in an overview of how things are running now, he’s also looking forward to introducing the whole team next month!

#6) BrendanMace.com – $7,205.80 (-$1,676.26)

It’s a slightly lower month for income than usual for Brendan as he reflects on how complacent he’s become since he began making more money this year and decides it’s time to experiment with new growth strategies.

This month saw him invest in his first property as part of his end goal and freedom plan. He talks about the path to becoming truly free by having passive income with assets.

With his asset being a vacation rental at a ski resort he’s looking forward to making his first truly passive income in the winter months and says he’s now using his earnings to build additional income streams instead of only making money online.

#7) MissBiziBee.com – $6,188.23 (+$2,240.53)

It’s been an incredible month for Kaitlin as she broke a bunch of records on the blog and celebrates her highest earning month so far along with the arrival of her baby!

With an increase in organic traffic the month has seen consistent performance from her digital revenue and Etsy shop, which means she not only had her best month so far but also a very manageable one.

Things were turned on their head with the early arrival of their baby and having planned to close her Etsy shop in June she somehow managed to find time to quickly shut up shop before arriving at the hospital!

The blog will still be around but as a result of this step back Kaitlin & Travis have decided to stop producing monthly reports in favour of a quarterly report. Good luck guys!

#8) Untemplater.com – $5,863.00 (-$13,298.00)

After April’s work overload Sydney was relieved to take some time off to recharge the batteries this month.

She took advantage of the late summer sunsets to get some evening gardening in and got some quality movie watching time and house de-cluttering done.

With her workaholic tendencies she says it was a welcome change for the month and going forward her main goals are still to grow more traffic, invest at least $5,000 per month and increase her net worth by $75,000.

#9) OneHourProfessor.com – $4,570.31 (-$70.33)

It’s a slight dip for Ron this month but he’s happy to report his second best month for income. While he hasn’t spent much time on One Hour Professor, his JFFHub website and new authority site have kept him busy.

He’s been managing both pages, proof reading articles submitted by his writers and reviewing analytics while also overseeing the creation of his latest Udemy course on email marketing.

With his goal of launching his new authority site completed this month he has moved his plans to launch his email marketing course forward to next month.

#10) GetPostCookie.com – $4,116.43 (+$1,092.56)

It’s been a nerve wracking month for last month’s newcomer Dave as he watched in anticipation to see if last month’s sales trend would continue into May and he’s now reporting his best month so far!

He achieved 4 out of 5 of the targets he set himself last month and he now has a much better idea of how the site is likely to perform going forward.

He finished this month’s report talking about his time restrictions and how there’s always time to take on a side project, as he gives an insight into how he fits in his projects between the hours of 10pm and 2am!

#11) IncomeBully.com – $2,585.29 (-$236.28)

It’s a slight decrease for Nathan and after deciding to invest 40 hours a week into the blog last month he managed to fit in 31 hours this month.

He’s now decided that 20 hours a week is a more realistic goal. HE spent the month working on lots of tasks he hadn’t planned, including finding a new social media management tool and getting his SSL certificate.

While finding a good social platform will save time in the future he was disappointed in his lack of focus on his main goals this month.

Going forward he’s decided to get more organised and stick to his plans more, work on his local SEO course, launch his coaching service and create sales pages for his products.

#12) TrueValhalla.com – $2,030.00 (-$7,100.00)

Matt’s keeping it short and sweet this month because although he had a fairly easy month in May, he’s writing this month’s report in June which he’s finding to be a tough month!

This month saw traffic to his HTML5 games drop due to technical issues and he moved his attention from Twitter growth to instead focus on the launch of his game testing group.

He didn’t have time to write a full report but says everything will be back to normal in june when he’ll be sharing his 50th income report!

#13) LivingOffCloud.com – $1,320.98 (-$37.85)

It’s a slight drop this month for Nadya who says that although the total income was up, her expenses were a little higher so she fell just short of last month’s record.

She’s had money coming in from new streams as the blog and one of her sites bought from Human Proof Designs have started to generate income and she also won a referral contest on kickfurther!

She was busy with selling her condo in may which took time away from working on her niche site and going forward plans to get serious about finding expired domains for her PBN.

#14) IncomeMesh.com – $1,105.34 (+$16.87)

It’s been a busy month for Drazen this month and he’s happy to be regularly hitting $1K per month now, with a slight increase this month.

May saw him designing lots of templates and preparing things for his ne ‘Landing Page Factory’. He was pleased to see referral traffic up by 40% and he’s getting closer to his goal of 5,000 sessions per month.

His next plan for the blog is to create a post about how to make a blog which he says is long overdue, and he’s looking forward to sharing what he’s learned with his readers.

#15) OnlineMoneyz.com – $933.41 (-$1,029.66)

This month has been chaotic for Ilya who has been busy with his school graduation, running with his track team and partying which didn’t leave much time for his projects.

This month he hired a new V.A for only $2 an hour, published his big post, joined a mastermind group on Facebook and figured out where he will be focusing his attention for the next 3 months.

On top of that he also did a bunch of work for his college entrance exams and online he only completed one out of six goals he set for himself.

He’s still happy with how the month went, he’s decided to focus on a gaming guides website and says he will only focus on one big project at a time!

#16) MyPathToPassiveIncome.com – $718.81 (+$479.27)

Income is on the up again for Esteban and he’s much less stressed this month now he has taken up a day job again.

After a worrying few months with a big drop in income he’s pleased to have a little stability to put bread on the table while he starts to pursue another passive income strategy.

He’s decided to take a look at real estate once his trial period is over and next month hopes to publish 4-6 reviews on the blog, have his guest posts published, earn at least $100 profit and make a sale on his new site.

#17) AliRaza.co – $650.96 (+$522.98)

It’s been a busy month for Ali as he spent most of the month travelling in the UAE and Milaysia and he’s reporting his best month for income so far!

Always looking for ways to improve user experience, this month saw him test a new image optimisation tool which resulted in a 47% decrease in page loading time!

He completed 5 out of the 6 goals he set for himself last month and going forward plans to write at least 6 posts on the blog, earn $700 from freelancing, complete his eBook and publish his guest posts on other blogs.

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In Summary

We’re missing a couple of blogs as they haven’t posted their reports this month which means it’s a bit of a drop down $39,562.02 from last month to $205,761.46.

May can be a quiet month for marketing as the summer draws in and people spend more time outside enjoying the warmer weather and late nights, and this is reflected in the reports with 11 of our 17 sites featured seeing a drop this month.

That said, it’s great to see some of our newer members of the roundup not struggling with that so far as they continue to build solid foundations and 4 of the blogs are celebrating a record month for income!

If you feel inspired to start your own blog then why don’t you start a blog now? It only takes a few minutes!

Performance Tracking

I only include the earnings history of the top 10 blogs each month to make the graphs easy to read.

I’m having a problem with the graph right now and will update the post when fixed

from Matthew Woodward http://ift.tt/29542Af

I Need Your Help…

Do you know what my greatest accomplishment to date is?

I’ve been blogging for almost 10 years and spoke at hundreds of conferences. I’ve built a nice size following on social media, and I’ve even made a healthy income doing all of this. But that isn’t what I am most proud of.

What I am most proud of is helping other people. From helping people generate more traffic to their sites to helping people accomplish their dreams and even showing a mom how she can make money from her bed-and-breakfast so she could support her family—helping others is my greatest accomplishment.

In the last couple of years, I decided I wanted to do even more to help others. So I partnered with two good friends of mine who share a similar vision: Jonas Koffler and Patrick Vlaskovits. To accomplish our vision of helping as many of you as possible, we decided to write a book.

Many of you have been bugging me to write one for years, but the timing wasn’t right. I didn’t want to write a book for the sake it. I wanted to create something that would empower others and help them accomplish their goals in life.

If you are wondering what the book is called…well, we decided to call it Hustle.

Here’s what Hustle will teach you

Have you been feeling that life is tough, that it’s hard to succeed when others have more money, a better degree, or more valuable connections?

Even if you don’t like the cards you’ve been dealt, it doesn’t mean you can’t do better than someone who is privileged.

That’s where the book comes into play. Packed with the knowledge we accumulated and tested throughout our business lives, Hustle will teach you:

• How to find your talents and make money doing what you love.
• How to succeed even if you don’t have much money or education. This is especially useful if you are feeling stuck or trapped in a job you hate.
• How to increase your focus and productivity. Learn how to master and use the 10-minute rule so you can get more done in less time.
• How to be an entrepreneur. Hustle will teach you the three main skills you’ll need.
• How to get more freedom in life. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or work in a 9-5 job, learn easy ways to make more money.
• How to improve your luck. Do you think you’re unlucky? Hustle will show you how to make more of your own luck every day!

Pre-order Hustle today

The good news is, you can now pre-order Hustle today. And if you decide to, I am going to offer you something you can’t refuse.

If you pre-order 1 copy of my book, you’ll receive:

an exclusive training video created by me that will teach you how to create a blog that generates a million visitors a month without spending a dollar on advertising. This training video, called “A Million Visitors a Month and Counting: How to Create a Blog That Doesn’t Suck!”, contains:

• Data on what has worked for me as well as what has worked for all the top blogs I’ve consulted (Mashable, Gawker Media, TechCrunch, HuffingtonPost, etc.).
• Step-by-step instructions on how to start a blog, create content, and promote it.
• How to create and generate headlines people want to click on.
• How to consistently come up with blog topics to write about even if you are in a boring industry.
• How to promote your content even if you don’t have a following online.
• The secret strategy I use to get mentioned on sites such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, Inc. Magazine, FastCompany, etc.
• How to rank your blog posts in Google without spending money on links or using any blackhat techniques.

Click here to pre-order 1 copy, then email your receipt to hustle@neilpatel.com with “Preorder #1” in the subject.

If you pre-order 5 copies of my book, you’ll receive: 

the training video described above as well as a training video called “7 Advanced SEO Hacks That’ll Double Your Traffic.” In this training video, you’ll learn how to:

1. Hijack traffic from the number 1 spot – even if you don’t rank at number 1, it doesn’t mean you can’t take some of the top-ranked sites’ search traffic.
2. Dominate competitive terms – I will teach you how I rank for terms such as “online marketing” and how you can too. Just don’t use this technique to compete with me.
3. Get links from high domain authority sites – I’ll show you how to build links the ethical way.
4. Achieve the perfect site architecture – your on-page SEO has a huge impact on rankings. Most people get it wrong, but with this training video, you won’t.
5. Expand internationally – people take this for granted, but it’s so effective that I’ve already expanded to Germany, Brazil, and Italy.
6. Grow your social media influence – a key part to succeeding in SEO is having a big social following. I will teach you how to build one without spending money. This strategy helps me get upwards of 80,000 visitors a month just from Facebook.
7. Hack number 7?… – this is my favorite hack, and you’ll have to wait to see what it is.

Click here to pre-order 5 copies, then email your receipt to hustle@neilpatel.com with “Preorder #2” in the subject.

If you pre-order 20 copies of my book, you’ll receive:

both the blogging and SEO training video courses I described above, plus a 30-minute call with me.

I usually don’t offer phone consulting, but when I do, I typically charge $5,000 an hour.

Considering you can get a 30-minute phone call with me by buying 20 books, that’s a really good deal. We can discuss anything you want on the call. From entrepreneurship to marketing and helping you with your business, I can discuss whatever you want.

Click here to pre-order 20 copies, then email your receipt to hustle@neilpatel.com with “Preorder #3” in the subject.

If you pre-order 50 copies of my book, you’ll receive:

the blogging and SEO training video courses I described above, plus an analysis of your business and what you need to do in order to grow it faster.

Here’s how it works:

You send me any information about your business you are comfortable sharing; I’ll personally analyze your site; we will hop on an hour-long phone call; and I will share every single change I would make if I were running your business to grow it faster.

This, of course, is the most expensive option, but it’s also the best value as I don’t really offer this unless you are a Fortune 500 company. My consulting rates start in the 6 figures per month. But you can get my personal help now by just pre-ordering 50 books.

Click here to pre-order 50 copies, then email your receipt to hustle@neilpatel.com with “Preorder #4” in the subject.

How to redeem your offer?

You can pre-order your books on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Whether you buy the digital version or the physical book, you can redeem the offers above. In certain countries, the digital version won’t be available. In that case, some of you will have only the physical book option.

Once you make your purchase, email me a copy of your receipt at hustle@neilpatel.com, and I will give you your bonuses.

Conclusion

I hope you pre-order your copy of Hustle. I’ve been working on it for over a year, and a lot of the lessons I’ve learned in life and in business are in the book. Even if the book isn’t a good fit for you, it would help me a lot if you shared it on the social web.

I’ve never released a book before, and I want to ensure this one is a success. Anything you can do to help would really mean a lot to me.

from Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/29qs9Ng

A 30-Day Master Plan for Marketing Your Brick-and-Mortar Business

Many small business owners today think that owning a brick-and-mortar business excuses them from having to learn and master digital marketing.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, mastering SEO and local optimization for your locally run business will bring a higher ROI than just about any other marketing activity you use.

It’s one of the quickest ways to quickly and simply (notice I did not say easily) get your business in front of thousands of new eyes and earn customers for life. With a few simple steps, you can set yourself on the path to long term digital marketing success.

But how do you start marketing your brick-and-mortar business in the digital world? What steps do you need to take over the next 30, 60, or 90 days to successfully grow your online reach and increase sales like you have never seen before?

I’m glad you asked.

In this article, I’m going to give you a step-by-step and day-by-day plan for marketing your brick-and-mortar business.

Thirty days from now, if you follow the steps I’ve outlined below, you’ll be well on your way to having a successful and profitable local marketing plan in place.

The basics: Days 1-10

The irony of digital marketing is that the simplest steps are often the most important.

Sure, PPC advertising, advanced Facebook campaigns, and AdWords can play a huge role in boosting your sales. But what’s next?

For brick-and-mortar business owners, particularly owners who don’t think they are very “tech savvy,” following these simple steps for the first ten days alone will result in a huge increase in the number of sales they see from their marketing budget.

Step 1: Create a platform

Something I have found with many brick-and-mortar businesses is that the owners think that having a website is an unnecessary luxury.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Having a place for all your customers and fans to congregate is one of the simplest and most important steps on your path to success.

The first step to mastering local SEO is the simplest one. Give your audience a place to find you!

Notice that almost none of these shops have websites that come up in Google…

For the first 10 days of this master plan, focus on building your website and ensuring it has a great design. After that, focus on 1-2 social media platforms.

That’s it.

Creating presence on a couple of platforms that are easy to navigate and even easier to find is the first key to your marketing success.

Once you develop your website, set up your Facebook page and a Twitter or Instagram account. Then, the real work begins.

And what is that “real work?”

Creating quality content.

Step 2: Start creating high quality content

One of the fallacies many entrepreneurs believe is that simply having a website with some on-page SEO is enough.

But that’s not how Google works, and that’s not how people work either.

If you want to attract new customers and build a loyal fan base, you need to place a premium on creating and curating high quality content.

Look at the bottom of the image above. Ramit has 241 PAGES of content on his blog.

I’ve got 162 pages of blog articles on Quick Sprout.

Content is huge.

But how does this apply to marketing a brick-and-mortar business? Here’s how…

Let’s say you own a coffee shop in Boulder, Colorado.

You take the first 2-3 days and pay to create your website—design it to look great and navigate easily. Then you set up your Facebook page.

Now, it’s time to start populating your website and your social media with killer content.

Continuing with the coffee shop example, the next step would be to start writing articles or filming videos based on your niche.

You could write an article about the best locations for growing coffee or about 3 unconventional brewing methods you can try today, or you could film a video showing people how to do cappuccino art.

The list of things you can do is endless.

By creating this content you will improve your chances of ranking on Google, and you will also start providing free value to customers, which will increase their trust and their desire to give you their business.

Step 3: Increase the number of your email subscribers with a lead magnet

Now that you have a great website and are regularly uploading content and sharing it via social media, it is time to increase your email subscriber list. That’s where the real money is made!

The key to a successful lead magnet is to offer something that a customer would be willing to pay for—but free.

An excellent example of a lead magnet is from Lucky Brand (above).

Back to the coffee shop…

A great marketing method used by many successful brick-and-mortar owners is the free giveaway.

If someone has found your site or is in your store, offering them a free coffee or pastry (which they would normally pay for) in return for access to their email is a win for both parties.

They get something free. You get a direct line to market your company.

Once you have collected the email, you can start sending updates about specials you are running, events you are putting on, and other cool things happening with your business.

Anytime you have a special event or a 2-for-1 deal, people will actually know about it. They will then take advantage of it.

Mastering local SEO: Days 10-25

Many brick-and-mortar business owners make another mistake when delving into the world of SEO. They don’t fully understand the difference between “regular” and “local” SEO.

The biggest difference is that local SEO contains a geographical aspect. This geographical information is crucial in “convincing” Google that you’re a bona fide local company serving local people.

The entry into local SEO may seem a little bit more complicated than normal SEO. Why? Because it’s no longer just about the keywords. There’s an element of mystery.

The result? You may have experienced this yourself. Few businesses execute local SEO efficiently.

However, in my opinion and experience, local SEO is easier. Why? Because there is less competition!

Don’t worry. I’ll remove some of the mystery and help you understand how it works.

Here are some of the essential ways to get started on your path to local SEO mastery.

Step 1: Set up Google Search Console and Analytics

These two tools are absolutely instrumental for successful on-page SEO.

There is a ton of information you will be able to gather about your website from these tools. Using them effectively will allow you to run tests, analyze the results, and make changes as necessary.

Here’s how to set up Google Analytics.

• First, create an Analytics account here.
• Sign in to your new account.
• Select “Admin.”
• Select an account from the “account” column.
• Select a new property from the “property” column.
• Click “Tracking Info” and then “Tracking Code.”
• Copy the ID.
• Insert this number into your website’s code.

Here’s how to set up Search Console:

• Create a Search Console account here.
• Log in to your new account.
• Click “Add a site.”
• Add your website’s URL.
• Copy the ID.
• Add it to your website’s code.

Step 2: Make sure you have the correct NAP data on your site

While this may not seem like a big deal, it is one of the quickest ways to accidentally shoot yourself in the foot with your SEO pursuits.

What’s NAP?

It’s the Name, Address, and Phone number of your business.

If you do not have the EXACT same Name, Address, and Phone Number on your website that you have on your Google My Business account, you will basically ruin all the hard work you have put into mastering local SEO.

Let me give you a few pointers on doing the NAP portion right.

Make sure the phone number listed is your local number (no 1-800 numbers).

Make sure the NAP info is listed as text on the page and not as an image. You need web crawlers to read the information. They won’t be able to do that if it’s in an image.

Include the NAP info in your website footer if possible. This means it will be visible on all pages.

If you’ve had a different name, address, or phone number in the past, find the variations anywhere on the web and correct them. You don’t want to confuse users or web crawlers. NAP consistency is important!

Step 3: Optimize your meta descriptions and title tags

For on-page optimization, this is one of the most important steps you can take.

The first step is to make sure your title tag includes these three things:

1. Your city
2. Your state
3. The keyword you’re trying to rank for

It is easy for this to come across as spammy and artificial, so put some time and effort into this before you hit “Publish.”

For example, these websites are perfectly setup for local SEO success:

If you’re looking for some more inspiration, check out this article for a list of local SEO-optimized title tags.

Next, you want to optimize your meta description.

The meta description is what appears beneath your title tag. It explains a little bit about your company and what you do. The meta description appears in the SERPs to help users understand what they’re about to click on.

I recommend that you include your city, state, keyword, and phone number for maximum efficiency.

A meta description doesn’t technically improve your SEO. It’s designed for users. However, user behavior does influence SEO, so it’s still important to optimize this bit of information.

Step 4: Include your hours of operation and directions

According to one study, Google said that 54% of smartphone users who search for a local business are searching for the hours of operation. And 53% wanted directions.

The simplest thing to do is simply put an “Hours of Operations” or “Business Hours” heading and image next to your maps widget.

This will make life easier for your customers. Plus, it will make Google love you.

Step 5: Leverage the power of social proof

While it doesn’t directly influence your local SEO ranking, including customer testimonials really helps. Adding BBB ratings, integrating Yelp, or citing other highly trusted sources will build customer trust.

In the example below, The Worthwhile Company cited their “Small Business of the Year” award from the local chamber of commerce. Information like this helps local residents to feel a greater degree of trust in the business.

Social proof also decreases your site’s bounce rate, increases the views on your site, and likely increases your opt-ins—all things Google is looking for.

Reaping the rewards and keeping the customers: Day 25-30

By following all the above advice, you will likely see an increase in your SEO ranking and the number of emails you collect within the first 30 days.

Things will move slowly at first.

That’s okay.

These things take time. Slow and steady wins the race.

The final step is to continue producing great content that you can rank on Google. Educate yourself on more advanced local SEO tactics you can start implementing. Most importantly, keep your customers happy.

The more satisfied customers you have, the more people will share your site with others, the more email opt-ins you will receive, and the better your business will be.

All that’s left to do is sit back and reap the rewards of a job well done.

And of course, keep on hustling.

Conclusion

To many entrepreneurs, SEO seems like a black box. And local SEO? It’s even more of a mystery.

Often, it’s viewed as something to be feared, something far too complicated to get involved in, and something that you sure as heck don’t have the required experience to excel at.

My hope, however, is that after reading this article, you’ll realize that SEO is just like any other skill. With a few simple tweaks, you can massively improve your local business’s results for years to come.

So, take this advice, and implement it. You’ll see the results for yourself.

What’s your experience with using digital marketing to drive a brick-and-mortar business? Share your worst mistakes or best tips!

from Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/29hn892

Surprising Things You Need to Put in Place in Order to Save Thousands of Dollars on Digital Marketing

It wasn’t that long ago when an entrepreneur’s marketing options were limited to flyers, tacky magazine ads, or expensive TV commercials.

However, with the advent of the Internet, the number of marketing options available to both budding and experienced entrepreneurs has become staggering.

Sometimes, when I’m surfing the web—it’s what I do a lot—I find myself thinking, “Wow! So many tactics! So many choices!”

If I were just getting started in digital marketing, I would be in a total freakout mode. Where do I start? Which one should I pick? What do I need to do first?

But it gets worse. Few businesses have the luxury of trying a lot of tactics. Marketing costs money—quite a bit of it, actually. And if you’re just testing out a bunch of tactics, you’ll run out of money before you run out of tactics.

Thankfully, with a little bit of know-how, you can achieve more marketing success than you ever imagined, even on the tightest budget.

How do you go about shaving thousands of dollars off your digital marketing costs without sacrificing the quality and results of your marketing campaigns?

Seems like a tough call, right?

Maybe not as tough as you think.

I’ll show you how.

First, some ground rules

Before I delve into all of the juicy strategies for increasing the success of your digital marketing while saving money, I want to discuss the most important principle of this whole article.

Here it is: less is more

The ultimate goal of all the points I list below is this: eliminate the fluff from your marketing strategy, and focus only on the things that work.

This is why I recommend minimizing your approach and using the 80/20 rule. This rule dictates that

80% of your results come from 20% of your marketing.

You need to understand that this means that you’ll have to give up good marketing opportunities—but only so that you can take advantage of the great ones.

If you are looking to save thousands, you want to put your focus and your money only into the opportunities with the highest yield. That way you can not only save money but also increase your results.

With that in mind, let’s begin.

1. Create a rock-solid strategy

I know that the title of this article promised to teach you “surprising” things you need to put in place for a great marketing strategy. Some of you may be scratching your heads right about now, wondering why I put something so seemingly obvious as a rock-solid strategy as the first point in this article.

Quite simply, I put this first because most people don’t do it!

We live in an era when entrepreneurship has such a low barrier to entry that many first-time business owners and online marketers just throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks.

They don’t ever take the time to develop a proven plan of action with contingencies, review processes, and clearly defined goals.

Sure, it may not be the most exciting part of digital marketing, but it sure is the most important.

Before you even begin to try to save money on your digital marketing, you need to have a clear strategy in place.

Are you wondering how to create a strategy? Here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• How much will I spend? This question is essential since it prevents you from spending money on low yield opportunities.
• What are my goals? Do I want increased traffic, sales, SEO ranking? Everyone wants revenue as the ultimate goal. Back down from this top-level goal, and figure out what KPI-related goals will get you there.
• What competencies do I have that can help me determine which channels to use? Am I good at SEO, copywriting, ad design? Use your existing skill set and resources to determine which marketing channels you’ll be focusing on.

Don’t just ask these questions. Answer them. And write your answers down.

There. Now you have a strategy.

Remember, like the Navy SEALs say,  “The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.”

Or in our case, “The more you plan in marketing, the less you spend on useless garbage and experimentation.”

Trying out new marketing tactics like Kim Kardashian tries on new outfits will only waste time and money.

Get your strategy in place, and the smart tactics will follow.

2. Hire a team of experts for your niche

While it’s common sense to allocate a sizable amount of your budget to hiring experts and consultants with experience in digital marketing, it’s paramount to hire the right experts.

Who are the right experts? People who have experience in your specific niche.

Just because someone is good at digital marketing doesn’t mean they are the best fit for your company.

Remember, you need to find the best options, not just good ones.

How would you like to have the guy in the middle working with you on your music label?

If you run a copywriting firm and are looking to rank higher on Google, what should you do? Hire an SEO expert with a portfolio full of previous clients from copywriting firms for whom they were able to boost rank and quantifiably improve results.

This will ensure you are hiring someone who not only knows the trade but understands how to optimize in your niche as well.

3. Set up a tiered approach to your marketing

It’s easy to get caught up in pursuing all the latest marketing fads and trends. The result, however, is not fun. You spread yourself too thin instead of focusing on one thing and mastering it.

This is why I recommend a “tiered” approach to marketing.

What exactly does this mean?

Basically, create a list of 3-5 digital marketing mediums where you have a certain amount of strength and expertise or affordable access to people who do.

Next, decide what strongest one is—the one you believe will have the highest ROI based on the data for your industry.

Master that one.

I mean really master it. Don’t be content with a novice status. You’ve got to nail this thing!

Once you master the first medium (I’d say Facebook Ads), you can move on to the next one.

Keep doing this until you have mastery over several forms of digital marketing.

If you take this approach, you’ll be able to understand the best practices for each medium, know how to optimize your investments within each medium for maximum ROI, and automate your marketing systems.

You’ll be amazed at the impact. Not only are you gaining solid ROI, but you’re also building a foundation for future marketing efforts.

For example, let’s say you own a landscaping company in Tennessee. You understand Facebook marketing, AdWords, and have a basic grasp of SEO.

Your approach may look something like this:

• Master Facebook marketing with a budget of $1,500/month and an ROI goal of $2,250 a month.
• Once you hit your ROI goal and have created systems or hired experts that allow you to continue this marketing, move on to AdWords.
• Using the ROI from Facebook, invest into AdWords marketing with a budget of $750 a month and an ROI goal of $1,500.
• Now, you have mastered both mediums. Plus, you’ve been able to boost your ROI within each. You are now spending a total of $2,000/month for digital marketing between the two mediums but netting $5,000/month. You’re already winning. But don’t be content.
• You can now systematize both your Facebook and AdWords marketing based on the mastery in each field. Use a set amount of the profit from the marketing to fund your next step, maybe SEO.
• And on and on it goes until you start dominating each marketing medium.

You see, most people (myself included) dive into a new project and focus on far too many things at once, blowing their budgets and diminishing the potential for their ROI.

By limiting yourself to a single medium at a time, you’ll be able to master each one and save yourself time and money in the long run.

4. Analyze your metrics, and be willing to adjust

If you’re familiar with Murphy’s Law—”anything that can go wrong will go wrong”—you understand the struggle many digital marketers face.

Even if you have a rock-solid strategy, completed an 80/20 analysis of your business, have a team of experts at your disposal, and you are focusing on one medium at a time taking a tiered approach, you can still fail at your digital marketing efforts.

Which makes this point the most important.

Analytics.

And pivoting.

Marketers must know their numbers. Become BFFs with Google Analytics or whatever analytics platform you choose. Know your numbers. Understand them. Interpret them.

The only way you can make smart marketing decisions is with data!

For example, if you have an analysis system in place, you’ll be able to see why your conversion rates significantly increased between the 15th and 22nd of June. Then, you would be able to replicate the process moving forward.

You wouldn’t know any of that if you aren’t tracking your progress and monitoring your analytics!

To be successful in digital marketing and save yourself thousands of dollars, you need an efficient way to analyze your efforts.

This happens through knowing data.

For example, let’s say you have gone against my previous advice and are trying to master Facebook marketing and AdWords at the same time.

After you’ve run a few campaigns and been investing for a couple of months, you decide to take stock of your efforts.

Let’s say you are spending $10 on AdWords a day and are earning back $10.50. That’s a positive ROI. Great!

But when you look at your Facebook marketing, you notice that you are actually losing money on the ad campaign. You’re earning more likes but seem to be hemorrhaging more money.

This presents an interesting conundrum.

On the one hand, logic would say to ditch Facebook marketing and double down on AdWords. However, depending on your niche and your vision for your company, those likes and views may be worth more than the pennies you are earning from AdWords (especially if you earn money from affiliates or sponsorships).

Without a clearly defined goal and an understanding of your ultimate vision for your marketing, you’ll be like a ship in a storm with no anchor, getting tossed around by the waves of emotion and confusion.

That’s why it’s important to know your numbers, analyze your data, and make strategic pivots based on what you discover.

Once you’ve clearly defined your goals and selected a marketing medium to pursue, don’t be afraid to discard other campaigns and move on.

If you are not seeing the results you want after a reasonable amount of time, pivoting is your best option.

5. Build a personal brand

I’ll let you in on a little secret:

People rarely buy from a company; they buy from a brand.

Others have made this point and even written books about it (so maybe not that much of a secret, after all).

It’s true.

A company is about profits, losses, products, management, revenues, and shareholders. How boring is that?

A brand is about excitement, engagement, smiles, experiences, and personality.

You’ll understand this dichotomy if you recall the old Apple ads.

Think about it: there are thousands of companies failing every year. While there could be a great number of reasons for their demise, one of those reasons is poor branding.

People like to buy from people they trust.

I want you to take a look at the branding behind 3 SUPER successful online entrepreneurs.

Here is Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income:

Here is Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You to be Rich:

And here is, of course, the 4-hour emperor, Tim Ferriss:

Do you notice anything in particular about these blogs…other than the fact that the owners are multi-millionaires?

All of them are about PERSONAL brands. They are focused on the face behind the site, not some ambiguous logo that people can hide behind.

I’m not saying that every business needs to have a figurehead like Ferris or Sethi. What I am saying is that your brand needs personality.

Before you invest a cent into digital marketing, you need to make sure your brand has attitude, emotion, and an authentic feel.

And then, by all means, build your personal brand too—the brand of you.

As an ambassador for your businesses, you can use your personal brand to drive your business.

The better you brand yourself, the less business-focused digital marketing you’ll need to do. People will find you, and they will want to buy from you without needing to be persuaded to do so.

I’ve spent thousands of dollars on courses and seminars I knew very little about. Why? Because I trusted the person selling it and knew their track record as a top performer.

Conclusion

Saving money with digital marketing is more straightforward than many “gurus” would want you to believe.

To have a bigger marketing impact you don’t need a bigger budget.

What does it take instead?

It takes discipline.

It takes discipline to pick a single marketing medium at a time and stick to it.

It takes discipline to invest all your money into your personal brand and continue doing so even when you aren’t seeing an immediate ROI.

It takes discipline to develop a strategy, hire the experts to execute it, and then trust them to do their jobs even when results aren’t coming as fast as you want.

Like most things in life, mastering digital marketing on a budget is simple but not easy.

If it were easy, everybody would do it.

Tactics are tempting, but it’s the rock-solid strategy—driven by experts, strategically structured, backed by data, and built upon a personal brand—that will get you places!

How have you learned to save money while also improving and expanding your marketing reach?

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