The Proven Guide to Using Live Video to Build Your Personal Brand

2015 was a banner year for video and, in my opinion, a big year for video marketing—something that ramped up through 2016.

We saw a lot of brands jumping on the video bandwagon as Snapchat gained steam, Instagram unleashed live video, Twitter released video auto-play, and Facebook introduced video ads and, of course, native live streaming.

Live streaming has become one of the best ways to forge an authentic, one-on-one connection with customers. Brands are using live video to build a larger, stronger presence and reach audiences on the fly like never before.

As a professional, you can leverage live video to give your personal brand the same kind of lift.

You should strongly consider live video, given that by late 2017 video is expected to make up more than 70% of all traffic on the web.

Here’s how you can get the most out of live video to bolster your brand.

1. Make your videos personal

There are a lot of ways to present information in videos, but most fit into two formats.

Type 1: The video focuses on objects, backgrounds, or scenery while you narrate. In some videos, I’ve seen marketers record in “first person” while they travel. You see what they see, and they narrate.

Type 2: The camera is on the broadcaster, so you’re in the center of the frame. The viewers’ eyes are on you while you’re talking and presenting your information or ideas. The occasional pan to include surrounding sights or other people occurs, but for the most part it stays on you.

The second type is what you should stick with when working to build your personal brand. Videos should stay personal because that’s how you’re going to make a personal connection and build your brand.

It’s easy to turn off a video of a place or an object like a whiteboard. It’s not as easy to do that when you’re in the video, making eye contact with the audience, speaking to them directly.

2. Don’t script it

If you’re not used to streaming or broadcasting live and the idea of speaking off the cuff makes you nervous, you should relax. Everyone feels that. Eventually, you’ll get over it with practice as long as you keep at it.

Just don’t make the mistake of trying to script your videos.

Reading from a script ruins authenticity. It’s okay to be prepared, but you want your video to feel natural. People are attracted to those who are confident in themselves and capable of being themselves.

Rather than trying to read from a script, which creates an off-camera glance or stare with unnatural delivery, prepare yourself with a handful of bullet points.

Those bullet points can guide your delivery, and you can fill in the rest as you go. Don’t write those down; rather, keep those bullet points or target ideas in mind. Recall them, and practice a few times before you go live, and you’ll be good to go.

Jason Carr did a great “impromptu” live feed en route from his old job at Fox 2 Detroit to his new job at Local 4 Detroit News.

Hey!

Posted by Jason Carr on Monday, May 23, 2016

3. Go for quick delivery

Even the most devoted among your audience are going to tune in only for so long. If you want to grab people on the fly and grow your audience quickly, make sure you’re consistently providing a fast delivery on your ideas.

Long videos aren’t likely to get clicked on, so keep content as short as possible.

When I’m browsing content and a video grabs my attention, one of the first things I check is its length. I’ll happily drop a few minutes on a video, but those that exceed 6-10 minutes had better have a serious hook if they want me to click.

Wistia’s study on video length shows that shorter videos consistently get more engagement.

For a live stream, aim for 5 minutes or less. If you’re consistent with short clips, your audience will be more likely to tune in again and again because they know the delivery is quick and the value comes fast.

4. Don’t go cheap on hardware

There are plenty of options for live-streaming when it comes to equipment. When you’re out and about, a quality smartphone can be good enough to live-stream on the fly without too much worry over lighting and sound.

But if you’ve got a static setup in your home office, workplace, or studio, you need to be a bit more concerned about your equipment.

Sound quality is especially important. If your audience can’t hear you, there’s no reason for them to stay tuned in.

Always do a few test recordings to sample the sound and make sure everything sounds great before you go live.

5. Be funny, but with a purpose

Don’t make the mistake of trying to be funny just because you think you need to be funny. It can come off as poorly as a forced joke before a serious speech. On the other hand, don’t be stoic and serious because you’re afraid people won’t find you funny.

The right type of humor, with a purpose, can keep people entertained and will help improve your personal brand. The content you share is more memorable when it’s funny and encourages viewers to return and share what they’ve seen.

When working humor into your live stream, always remember to work within the boundaries of your brand message and personality.

6. Maintain authenticity

Avoid going over the top just to drive a point or create controversy for the sake of trying to gain views. You don’t want to grow your personal brand in a direction that doesn’t accurately reflect your true character.

When you try to create a character that doesn’t match you or say things out of character, the audience will eventually catch on, and it will reflect poorly on you. You wind up confusing your audience when you act differently from one video to another.

7. Diversify your content

Don’t just rely on live broadcasting to build your personal brand. It’s only one tactic—a part of a much larger and robust content strategy.

While it’s a great way to share ideas, think of it as a means for repurposing some of your best content.

Go through the topics you’ve covered while guest-blogging or writing on your own site. Review Q&As or interviews you’ve done, and pick out the gems. Use those as the foundation for a quick live broadcast to share great information.

Use live feed videos in addition to other content marketing methods to reach more audience segments and grow the visibility of your personal brand.

8. Build your audience to promote your stream

You won’t see much traffic when you initially start live streaming, which is why it’s important to start building your audience early on. There’s no better time than now.

Promote your other content through social channels to draw traffic and increase engagement for your articles and ideas. This way the initial engagement is in place, and you have some kind of baseline audience when you begin.

If you’re using native streaming on Facebook or broadcasting on other channels and sharing through social, you can always promote the replay.

The bulk of your viewership will come from video replays, which also might be shared on other channels.

Most importantly, be sure to actively engage the people joining your live stream. This keeps the comments up, spreads the visibility of the viewers’ activities, and encourages sharing.

9. Always bring value

Every video you create needs to have a purpose, not just random rambling. Whatever takeaway you’re providing should be made clear almost immediately. That’s the hook to get the attention of the viewer.

With the uptick in video and live streaming and with on-demand content available via mobile devices, people have developed pretty short attention spans.

Share that value upfront to keep them engaged.

Be obvious right from the start about the topic you want to cover. Say, for example: “Today, I’m going to talk about…” or “I’m going to show you…”

Remember, a live stream is another form of content marketing. When producing content, you always need to provide value, perhaps in a form of a takeaway. That’s what keeps people coming back and greatly increases the odds of shares, opt-ins, and continued engagement.

This clip from a tour of Arnold Palmers’ office by his long-time friend Doc brought sheer storytelling gold for golf enthusiasts who followed the live stream.

10. Brand yourself

Don’t forget one of the most important points of live streaming to build your personal brand: introduce yourself.

It doesn’t matter what you’re talking about or how short the video is going to be, always tell your audience who you are. You could also include where you are if you’re trying to brand yourself by location.

You never know who is watching, and every video could be their first introduction to what you’re sharing, so always start out with “Hey, it’s so-and-so, and I’m at…”

11. Go live regularly

With live streaming, there’s nothing wrong with creating a schedule and sticking to it. It won’t seem any less authentic, but it’s not absolutely necessary—not like having a blogging schedule.

What’s most important with live streaming in terms of frequency is just doing it often and regularly.

The more often you stream live video, the easier it gets. Your comfort and confidence will increase, which will ultimately improve the quality of the videos and the value you share.

Your audience will also come to expect regular videos and will look forward to your live stream, which is the keystone of personal branding: getting people to return and stay engaged, trusting in you to share your knowledge.

Conclusion

Live streaming is incredibly easy and doesn’t require a huge investment, but it can do wonders for your brand. It creates a visual connection with your audience, especially the segments who prefer video over reading.

Keep those videos short, stream valuable content frequently, and you’ll see consistent growth in the number of live views as well as post-live replays of your content.

Have you been using live video? What have you learned?

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2016 Year in Review: How My Business Grew with Niche Sites and Ecommerce Brands

At the beginning of each year, I think it’s important to reflect on the successes and perhaps failures that I’ve had in the previous year.

In addition, since I no longer provide regular monthly updates on my own business, I think this review post will give you some good insight into my business and what’s working for me.

In particular, I haven’t really talked much about the new websites that I built in 2016, and so I’d like to share some stats from those sites.

Overall, 2016 was a fantastic year for me and my business!

I Sold Long Tail Pro

The biggest event in my business for 2016 was the fact that I sold Long Tail Pro in Feb. 2016.  I wrote an entire post about the deal here if you want to catch up.

Overall, I had been running the business since 2010, and so it wasn’t an easy decision to let this business go.  However, I was offered a great deal and I still retain some equity in the business.

Going from spending a large amount of time working on Long Tail Pro to virtually no time after the sale, has given me a chance to rethink what I want to pursue.  Some of those ideas are discussed below.

Growing and selling Long Tail Pro was a life changing event for me, and this is by far the biggest business accomplishment of 2016.

I Got Serious About My Amazon FBA Business

I launched my first physical product on Amazon in early 2015.  However, I didn’t “try” too hard with this business until after I sold Long Tail Pro.

I took a look at all my businesses, and decided that selling products through Amazon was something that I could scale faster than some of the other options I was looking at.

With the help of Jake (my employee), we grew this business significantly in 2016.  I provided a more in-depth review of the lessons I learned in 2016 from this business right here.

I launched several products and towards the later half of the year really started to focus on more unique ideas.  I’ve found that more unique offerings tend to sell better and command higher prices.

This probably seems like obvious business advice; however, many of the Amazon FBA courses or “gurus” teach that you should start by mimicking products that are already successful.  I’ve found that throwing up a “copy” product doesn’t always get the job done.

If I were to start over again, I’d only focus on unique or improved product offerings.

2016 Amazon Sales

2015 Amazon Sales

So, in 2016 the top line revenue was roughly $775k, while in 2015 the revenue was just $185k.  That’s some serious growth in 2016!  I’m hoping to more than double the revenue in 2017.

(And in case you are wondering, the net profit is roughly 28%).

In December 2016, we did about $87k in sales.  We would have likely done over $100k in December if we hadn’t run out of stock on 3 of our products.  A couple of our products starting selling MUCH better than expected and we didn’t have enough stock.

However, the holiday season was still huge.

We have a few new products in the works and expect to launch those early this year.  I have no doubt that 2017 will be a high growth year, and I look forward to expanding this business.

Hiring

Part of my plans for growth is additional hiring.  I now have 3 brands that can essentially “afford” to pay for a brand manager.

As a result, in the last week, I’ve hired 2 new employees to help grow a couple of my physical product brands.  These brand managers will be able to put the time and energy into the products and websites needed to help them grow.  I’ll provide the strategic vision.

I’ve hired one manager to grow the brand I have in the music niche (sells physical products and has a Shopify store).  The other manager is going to grow the brand I have in the household goods niche (sells 7 products in one particular niche).

Niche Site Growth

I know it’s been a little while since I’ve discussed what I’ve been doing on the niche site front.  In 2016, I’ve built or been focusing on 5 niche sites.  Here’s a quick review of each of these:

Niche Site/Ecommerce Brand 1 – Household Goods Niche

This is a site that I technically started in 2015.  However, most of the growth has happened in 2016.

This site also sells 7 physical products (that I sell on Amazon).  So, I’m driving traffic to my Amazon listings using this niche site.

I’ve actually written in depth how I’ve grown this site in a previous post here.

The primary strategy has been low competition content. I have done absolutely NO linkbuilding in all of 2016.  I’m a big believer in keyword research and writing quality content.  That strategy has worked really well for me on this site.

Between a couple of different tracking ids (only 1 shown above in screenshot) and Google Adsense earnings, this site made just over $4,000 in affiliate commissions in December 2016.  However, the real win of this site is that it contributed MUCH more in sales to my Amazon listings.

Niche Site/Ecommerce Brand 2 – Music Niche

This is actually an ecommerce brand that I purchased in early 2016.  This site came up for sale on EmpireFlippers.com and I just couldn’t pass up on the deal after I spoke with the previous owner.

The product that this site sells is a very unique and high quality product for musicians.  The business has actually been around for 15 years; however, the website was a new addition in the last couple of years.  Also, there’s a long story, but the business was at rock bottom, very little monthly sales when I purchased it.

However, the product was so cool, I just couldn’t pass it up.

As a first order of business, we revamped the website to make it more user friendly and ramped up the content to start getting some traffic.  Our strategy here was simple, we focused on low competition keywords and quality content (we found a musician/author to write the content).

We essentially did no link building.  We did outreach to get mentions on Youtube and Instagram, etc…but our intention was not to get links; although that may have been a by-product.  The growth in the traffic you’ll see below is all due to our content ranking well in Google.

When we bought the site, it was only getting about 30 visitors a day, or close to 1,000 per month.  As you can see, we’ve grown that significantly since we purchased the site.  The site now consistently gets 2,000 to 2,500 visitors EACH DAY!

The brand sold about $5,000 worth of product in December.  Yes, this was higher than normal due to the holiday season; however, I see huge potential here that hasn’t been fully tapped into yet.

As a result, I just hired a brand manager (that happens to be a musician) to help us take this brand to the next level.  With an amazing product, now a great website with real traffic, and a dedicated brand manager, I expect great things for this ecommerce business in 2017.

Niche Site 3 – Health Niche

In October 2016, I got the itch to buy another site.  However, instead of going to the available marketplaces, I decided to reach out to owners of sites to see if I could pick something up.

Well, I found a site in the health/dieting niche that I thought was a good deal for $1500.  I basically wanted something that had age and would help me “skip” the Google sandbox.

So far, we’ve hired writers to add new content and we revamped the look and feel of the site a bit, but haven’t ramped things up too serious yet.

We haven’t seen any huge success yet, but its only been a couple of months, and I still think there is potential here.

Traffic stats

Niche Site 4 – Treasure Hunting Niche

This site was started in February 2016.  As you can see from the screenshot below, the growth has been pretty consistent.

The strategy on this site has been very simple: find low competition keywords, write great content, then repeat.  We have done NO link building whatsoever on this site.

This is an interesting niche and we don’t sell any physical products in this space.  As a result, I have focused only on growing the traffic (through content) and not so much the earnings of the site. In 2017, the focus will shift to get more serious about monetizing the site.

In Dec. 2016, this site earned about $78.

Niche Site 5 – Automotive Niche

This site was started around late Oct. or early Nov. of 2016.  The site only has 10 articles or so published right now.

However, we’ve hired a writer that is very knowledgeable in the automotive space, and he will be producing content on a regular basis.  And you guessed it, the strategy is the same: find low competition keywords and produce high quality content.  No link building for the foreseeable future.

This is a space that has the potential for us to build physical products around and build into a real brand.  I’m hoping that by the second half of 2017, the site will have grown enough that I can start experimenting with my own products there.

Traffic

Investments Made in 2016

Outside of my own projects listed above, I’m also a financial investor in a few businesses.  Clearly, when I sold Long Tail Pro I had a little extra money that I was able to use here.

I think this just gives a bigger picture idea of where I’m involved and where I’m invested.

• Long Tail Pro.  Even though I sold a majority of the business, I technically still own a minority stake.  I’m no longer involved in the day to day operations, so it’s a passive investment for me now.
• 50% of Jake’s eCommerce Brand.  I invested the start up capital needed for Jake to launch a couple of products on Amazon.  This is already profitable for me.
• 6% of PicReel.com.  I’m just a financial investor here and discussed it briefly here with Kevin Peterson who manages the business.
• 33% of 2 Niche Sites.  These are just a couple of sites purchased with some partners.
• 7% of Personal Finance Site.  This is another financial investment that I made; someone else runs the day to day operations.
• 23% of a Digital Marketing agency.  This is a deal I did with WiredInvestors.com.  It has some complexity to the deal, but I’m planning to be a financial investor only here, not actively promoting the services it offers (even though my audience here is clearly a perfect fit). I’m not involved at all in the day to day operations.
• 9% of a travel/destination site.  Again, I’m just a financial investor here…a team is already in place to run and grow the site.
• 50% of my brother’s ecommerce business.  We launched one product last year that didn’t go anywhere, but we have a couple of new products in the works that I think have potential.  My brother is pretty much doing everything, I’m just providing the seed capital.
• Bitcoin.  I also took the plunge in early 2016 and bought some bitcoin.  Last time I checked, the value of this investment had doubled.  But don’t ask me to check again, because it’s so volatile!

Overall, I made a number of website purchases and business investments during 2016.  Most of these I have very little input in the day to day operations of the businesses.  I definitely am enjoying the passive nature of these investments, and I hope they continue to do well!

NichePursuits.com

As I look at NichePursuits.com and what was accomplished with this site, I see both some wins and some areas that need improvement.

In 2016, we conducted an epic case study: Niche Site Project 3.  Jake, Perrin, and I coached 3 students on starting a niche site from scratch.  As a result, we created some VERY in-depth training videos and podcasts, that outdo almost any training course on the subject.  And all of this was provided for free.

The students have all created sites and a couple of them (Samara and Colleen) are now making money.

I also launched a private Facebook group that has gone from 0 to about 14,000 members.  The group is active and lots of great discussions are happening there.

I see these as some big wins for Niche Pursuits.

On the flip side, I see some areas for improvement.  The Niche Pursuits podcast hasn’t had a new episode in months.  And I haven’t produced as much high quality content on the blog in the second half of the year as I did in the first half of the year.

As a result, I have some plans under way to “re-launch” the podcast…just give me some time!  I also plan to focus more of my time and energy into producing high quality content on the blog.

Now that I’ve hired a couple of people to help me manage my ecommerce brands, I think I’ll be able to dedicate a bit more time NichePursuits.com.

At the end of the day, I really think this will be a good thing for you, the reader of Niche Pursuits.

How Was 2016 For You?

Overall, 2016 was a very eventful and successful year for me.  I sold a company.  I launched several physical products.  I built a few new niche sites.  I invested in several businesses as a passive investor.

I expect good things to happen in 2017.

What about you?  How was last year for you, and what do you expect for 2017?

The post 2016 Year in Review: How My Business Grew with Niche Sites and Ecommerce Brands appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

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11 Advanced Techniques for Repurposing Old Content

When it comes to content marketing “hacks,” this is one of my absolute favorites.

So many marketers finish a piece of content and never touch it again. But why do that when you can get so much mileage out of one piece of content?

That’s the power of repurposing content.

It’s a lot like creating passive income. You do the hard work once, and you continue to reap the benefits.

With repurposing content, it’s the same idea. You create a piece of content once and then use it in a bunch of different ways.

That means less work and more results. It seems too good to be true, but I promise you it’s not.

The beauty of this technique is that you can repurpose any type of content. Articles, videos, checklists—you name it.

So grab a piece of your content you want to repurpose, and let’s look at 11 advanced techniques for repurposing.

1. Create a SlideShare deck

If you’re on LinkedIn (and you probably are), you can leverage SlideShare to get more life out of your content.

SlideShare is an extremely popular site that showcases slideshows from professionals all over the world. It’s a great way to get your voice heard and expose your content to an entirely new audience.

List-type articles or guides work especially well for slide decks. But just about anything will be successful as a slide deck—you just have to format it correctly.

Here’s a great example of a SlideShare deck from Barry Feldman:

What’s even better is that Barry adapted this from an old blog post of his:

The content works well as both a blog post and a slide deck. By repurposing the content, Barry put his content in front of two completely different audiences.

2. Make a video tutorial

Video marketing is a hot topic right now. Because videos are so widespread and popular, more and more marketers have been using them.

Videos are easy to watch, share, and save for later. You can watch them at home or on the go. And they don’t take too long to make.

When you repurpose existing content as a video tutorial, the process gets even easier. People love how-to videos, and if you offer a high-quality video tutorial, you’ll get a lot of traffic and shares.

So, what kind of content makes for a good video tutorial?

If you’ve ever held a webinar, you can quickly and easily turn it into a video tutorial. This is an awesome way to repurpose content. It’s taking a limited resource (webinar) and making it unlimited in the form of a video.

Source: WordStream.com

Here are some more ideas:

• In-depth blog posts can be slimmed down into a whiteboard or explainer video
• A list post can become a list video
• Turn a slide deck into a narrated presentation

The only limit is your imagination.

3. Turn your blog posts into an ebook

If I told you to write an ebook, you’d probably be bewildered. You might not know where to start or how to write a huge ebook.

But if you blog, you have an almost completed ebook right before your eyes.

You’ve probably amassed some blog posts. If so, you can make these into an ebook.

Ebooks make excellent lead magnets, and you can sell them too. I love using ebooks in my marketing strategies because of how flexible (and popular) they are.

When your readers look at a site for the first time and see an offer for a free ebook, they’ll automatically position you as an authority in their minds. And if they download it, you’ll get an email and possibly a customer out of it.

Michael Hyatt offers new visitors a free guide on his blog:

Whether you call it a guide, a blueprint, or something else entirely, an ebook is a powerful way to repurpose content.

4. Transform your slides into an infographic

Infographics can drive more traffic than you’d think. At Kissmetrics, we’ve used infographics to generate millions of visitors and tens of thousands of backlinks.

But sometimes, infographics can take a while to create. You’ve got to find the right facts, get the right visuals, and combine the two well.

If you have a slide deck, you probably have everything you need for an infographic. Like infographics, slides present information in a short and sweet format and often incorporate media.

To get started, you can use a free infographic maker such as Piktochart or Canva. Just plug in the data from your slides, format it a little, and voila!

(Another tip: You can combine slide decks to create a single infographic, or you can split up one slide deck into multiple infographics.)

5. Get your blog posts on the air as podcasts

Podcasting has gotten pretty big lately, and it shows no signs of slowing down.

Podcast listeners don’t like fluff—they want substance.

What better way to create an awesome podcast episode than by repurposing a blog post?

If you have some detailed blog posts in your archive, pull them out and dust them off. With a little reformatting, editing, and scripting, they’ll make excellent podcasts.

Keep in mind that if your posts use lots of media, you’ll have to find a different way of communicating that information. And you’ll probably need to rework some of your writing so it sounds more natural when spoken.

Even though this option can be a little tricky, it’s worth it. You can share your podcasts on all kinds of platforms, including iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and Podbay. And with each platform you use, you’re sharing your content with a new audience.

6. Include your comment responses in a newsletter

If you’re regularly responding to comments on your blog, you’re creating helpful content without even knowing it.

In my opinion, this is one of the most powerful “content hacks” you can use. When you respond to comments, you’re not thinking about creating content—you’re thinking about helping people.

And when you take that raw advice and edit it, you’ve got some powerful tips and tools, perfect for newsletters.

Readers expect bite-sized advice in newsletters. Pop in a comment (or a few), and you’ll satisfy your readers while breathing new life into content you thought you’d never use again.

7. Use factoids as social media posts

When you maintain a blog, you come across a lot of facts. Some of these are small factoids perfect to be reused as social media posts.

Factoids give your readers something new to learn, and they don’t take up much space. Statistics, trivia, and other “did you know?” type of facts all work well.

Here’s Microsoft using a statistic to spread awareness of Internet unavailability:

A little goes a long way. Factoids definitely deserve to be a regular part of your social media strategy.

8. Share shorter blog posts on Medium and LinkedIn Pulse

Most people think LinkedIn is a boring, stuffy place, but it’s not. In fact, it can be your secret marketing weapon if you use it correctly.

Medium is a popular blogging platform where professionals and experts share articles on all kinds of topics. If you spend some time with it, you’ll find it can be a powerful tool.

Besides SlideShare, another cool LinkedIn feature is Pulse. Like on Medium, you publish a post there and hope it gets featured. If it does, you can gain new followers.

And don’t worry, republishing old content on Pulse or Medium won’t get you penalized by Google.

9. Make new content out of old

Buffer’s Kevan Lee suggests refreshing old posts that might not be as relevant today as they were when you first published them.

Usually, these old posts just need a bit of an update to become relevant again. It’s worth it to take a look at your archives and see which posts need a touch-up or two.

Here are a few easy ways you can modify old posts:

• Find a new title
• Update the post with new facts and figures
• Add more substantial content

Once you’re done, you can either publish the new post or update the old one (if it ranks well and brings in traffic).

10. Share your old content on social media

Certain social media sites work insanely well for sharing content—if you do it right.

Two excellent options are Reddit and Quora.

Reddit can drive a ton of traffic, but self-promotion is usually frowned upon. To combat that, find a relevant subreddit, and only post content that you genuinely know will help readers. (You can also try Reddit ads.)

Quora is a little friendlier about self-promotion. As a bonus, if you find a question that a piece of your content answers, you can give a short, helpful answer and then link to that piece of content. This is another great traffic builder.

11. Merge multiple pieces of content into a webinar

Everyone loves a good webinar.

If you’ve never hosted a webinar, you’re missing out. Webinars create a high level of engagement and communicate your value to everyone watching.

Obviously, it’s super easy to turn slides into a webinar. It’ll take almost no work, but you’ll have a completely new piece of content.

I suggest merging multiple pieces of content into a webinar. If you have a slide deck and a blog post on the same (or a similar) topic, integrate both of those into the webinar.

The more content you use, the more value you’ll be able to provide. (But don’t overdo it!)

If you’re on a budget, I recommend using Google Hangouts to create a webinar for free.

Source: Tutsplus.com

Conclusion

Repurposing content is hands down one of the most useful content marketing strategies I know. This is a strong tool—don’t be afraid to use it.

It helps you avoid one of the worst pitfalls of blogging: stale content.

Too many people let their well of content run dry. Eventually, all that’s left is an outdated collection of subpar content. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Think of all your content as living, breathing documents. They can be changed and improved over time.

Once I realized this, my blogging strategy was transformed. If a piece of content performed well for me, I knew I could reuse it in the future.

The next time you create a piece of content, remember to revisit it down the road. Maybe you’ll turn your next article into a video in a year.

What’s your favorite way or repurposing content?

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6 Ways You Can Make Money Using the Amazon Platform

Amazon is the future of retail, and it is unfolding right before our very eyes.

What started as an online bookstore has now turned into a one-stop shop for consumers.  In addition, people are starting to learn how to make money on Amazon as it turns to 3rd party sellers in various ways.

In 2015, Amazon surpassed retail giant Walmart in size and value.

The trend of online shopping has also affected other traditional retail stores. According to this NASDAQ article, while the war between online versus traditional retail enters a new round, the latter no longer hires as many employees. Also, malls nowadays are much emptier.

The reason for the shift of consumer behavior comes from the power bestowed upon the customers. Back then, they were at the mercy of retail stores as they drive from one store to another, hoping to get the best value. Nowadays, consumers can sit back at their homes while flipping through different online stores.

The convenience of online shopping is evident in this Wall Street Journal article, as sales continue to grow annually since 2014.

More importantly, a 2,000-person survey conducted by BloomReach reveals that 55% of users search on Amazon first for their online shopping needs, 27% more than Google.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “what do these all mean to me?”

The statistics above only prove that there is serious money to be made on Amazon!

As the trend of online shopping continues to become more of a fixture, you need to ride the Amazon wave now before it’s too late.

Today, I’m going to share how you can make money on Amazon…in 6 different ways. In fact, a lot of people have earned thousands of dollars, some of which will be featured below.

1. As an Amazon affiliate

Amazon Associates is its affiliate program that lets you earn up to 10% per commission for every product that you sell.  Now, I’ve shared many examples of Amazon affiliate websites; including all the niche site projects.

Once you sign up for free, you can begin choosing which products to sell. To earn commissions, you need to link to the product using a unique tracking ID when selling it. This way, the sale will be credited to your account.

Selling an Amazon product can be as simple as sharing the link on social media and your blog.

However, becoming a profitable Amazon affiliate takes time, effort, and lots of planning.

In fact, I have covered a lot of articles that prove the possibility of making big bucks with Amazon Associates.

One of those articles covers how I was able to make $3,000 a month a year after launching my Amazon niche site.

Key takeaways

• Research your niche – To maximize your Amazon earnings, you need to build a site where you can sell the products. More importantly, you need to determine the niche your site will be about. Some niches will be much more profitable than others. On the other hand, the high-earning niches may not be in line with your hobbies or interests. Therefore, you need to find the perfect balance between profit and passion so you can sustain the site until it makes money.
• Find the right keywords – If you want to rank your website on search results, you should be aware that not all search queries are the same. There are those that will be difficult to rank for but will potentially give you the most sales. In this case, I always use Long Tail Pro to help me find profitable keywords that have the least competition.
• Develop a link building strategy – To boost your search rankings to the top, you must devise a link building plan using different tactics. Guest posting and influencer marketing are some of the better tactics you can use since both piggyback on the success of others. By guest posting on sites will lots of followers, you can tap into its readership and get them to visit your site in the hopes of converting them. Also, getting positive feedback from influencers in your industry lets you rub some of their authority onto your site.

2. Selling Private Label Products via Amazon FBA

I’ve now been selling private label products via Amazon for a couple of years now.  The potential to make money with the Amazon FBA program is huge (millions of dollars a year potential).

In a nutshell, you actually need to create a product, find a manufacturer, and start selling that product on Amazon.  It’s actually not as complicated as it sounds.

This method is different from “retail arbitrage” in which you purchase cheap products and selling them at a higher price. By selling private label products, you get more control on how your products are sold. If you choose your products correctly, there is also less competition, thus giving you greater profit in the long run.

Once you have the product on hand, you can upload the details on Amazon so users can buy it from there.

Aside from being the biggest online retailer in the world, Amazon will take care of packaging and shipping your products to customers. Fulfillments by Amazon (FBA) lets you worry about growing your business as it does the rest for your clients while also scaling your performance.

By selling private label products and Amazon FBA, I sold over $4,400 worth of product within 30 days.  And as I shared recently, I’ve sold over $750,000 since I started less than 2 years ago.

I actually interviewed Chris Guthrie, another successful seller, about his process which you can listen to here.

Key takeaways

• Pick a product that will sell – You need to conduct keyword and market research to see if your private label product will sell or not. WebRetailer provides a general checklist of factors that you need to consider when determining your product.
• Sell low at first – To gain traction from the market, sell your product at the lowest possible amount. With a low barrier of entry, not only will more people purchase early, but they will also leave their reviews, which you can leverage for social proof and more sales in the future.

3. Selling Retail Arbitrage products via Amazon FBA

As mentioned earlier, retail arbitrage lets you determine inefficiencies in the market by marking up low-cost products on Amazon.

Some products are more expensive when sold on Amazon due to factors like availability in your region, convenience in buying from Amazon, and others.

Unlike private label products, the product is already in the market. All you need to do is purchase and ship them to be sold on Amazon. You can reap the benefit once users buy them.

There are also disadvantages with retail arbitrage. Users may end up not buying your stock. Not only will you lose money from your initial investment with these products, but their value may lower over time. Also, going from store to store looking for cheaper prices of the same product can be time-consuming and may not be worth the effort.

Nonetheless, retail arbitrage is the perfect side hustle for people who don’t have time to think about creating their own product. This post by Jake Cain goes in depth about retail arbitrage and how it works.

Key takeaways

• Use a scanning app – Instead of manually doing your research, tools like Inventory Lab lets you break down the profitability of selling the product on Amazon by scanning its barcode.
• Gateway to private label products – Truth be told, you likely won’t earn as much in retail arbitrage as you would selling your own products. At best, this approach is a great way to acquaint yourself with how to sell products on Amazon. Ultimately, you will want to earn more, which will encourage you to move away from this method to a more profitable one.

4. Merch by Amazon

Merch by Amazon is the online retail store’s answer to sites like Etsy and Zazzle. You upload your design on the platform and use its promotional tools to make sales and profit.

While its competition has a larger foothold in the market due to years of existence, Merch by Amazon holds the advantage of millions of Amazon users at its disposal. The designs will be searchable from Amazon, which draws the attention of existing Amazon customers.

At the moment, Merch by Amazon is not open to the public. You can only sign up and request an invitation in the hopes of getting an account soon.

To see how Merch by Amazon works, read this post at Passive Marketing. The author also shows how he was able to earn $150,000 using the platform in 2016. In the end, he leveraged the earnings to flip the site.

Key takeaways

• Research for your t-shirt niche -T-shirt research software like Merch Informer will help organize your data and provide metrics so you can identify which t-shirt designs to sell.
• Use optimized colors for t-shirts (or other products) – According to the case study, the four most popular t-shirt colors sorted in the display are black, blue, gray, and navy blue. Make your design compatible with these colors to increase the chances of people purchasing your design.
• Feature keywords on title and bullet points – Find the most relevant keywords to your design and include them in both sections of your product details page. Also, put yourself in the shoes of your customers to know keywords that you would type that will get you the results you want.
• Getting the right designer – Find designers on UpWork to get the biggest bang for your buck. To attract good designers, be as detailed as possible in your project description. Also, promise them steady work over time and give 5-star reviews if you like their work.

5. Self Publishing books via Amazon Kindle

Freelance writers struggle with the problem of clients. They need clients who will supply them with paid work. Without clients, writing will be nothing more than just a hobby to them.

The Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing allows writers to profit from their self-published work without relying on clients for their income. You need to upload your work on Amazon and sell the book from there. Now of course, you need to start marketing your book.  Most books won’t sell unless you promote it and start getting reviews.

If you want to see the steps I recommend for launching a book on Amazon Kindle, read this guide I wrote: how I earned $100 a day by self-publishing a book on Amazon.

Key takeaways

• Use your book as a lead generation tool – Create a page on your site that provides buyers of your book access to free resources relevant to the book’s topic. Place the link to the page in the first few pages of your book. To download the resources, they need to enter their name and email first.
• Prepare a follow-up book – True profitability as an Amazon Kindle publisher lies in your ability to publish more than one book. The idea is to build a library of books related to each other to increase the chances of your reader to purchase another title from you.
• Develop smart pricing strategy – After getting your self-published book listed, introduce it in the market for free in its first few days to gain traction. You can proceed with marking up the price for less than a dollar for a week to drum up interest. Once you feel that the hype has peaked, increase the price again to its normal price.

6. Get paid for tasks on Mechanical Turk

If you fancy yourself as a busy bee, then Mechanical Turk is right up your alley.

The platform is best used by small business owners and entrepreneurs looking for a quick fix for menial tasks. Mechanical Turk provides you access to people who will help you get the job done on the cheap.

However, if you are looking to make money via Mechanical Turk, its easy to sign up and get started working.  You likely won’t make a ton of money doing these simple tasks that often only pay 10 cents or so, but it could be an easy way to save up some money to start a business.  (I discussed saving up to start a business recently as a great way to go).

Michael Naab wrote a post at Side Hustle Nation on how he was able to make a cool $150-300 a week as an MT user.  So, the potential is there to earn some extra spending money for sure.

Key Takeaways

• Work more to earn more – Higher paying jobs will only be available to users who have completed lots of jobs using the platform (as low as 100 jobs). Therefore, you need to put in the time and effort first before you reap the benefits of your hard work.
• Work more as a supplement to your current job – As mentioned in the link above, Mechanical Turk will pay less than the minimum wage in most cases. If you want to turn this gig into a full-time job, then be prepare to burn the hours answering surveys and doing data entry jobs. However, if you are just looking for productivity ways to spend your extra time, then Mechanical Turk may just be for you.

Wrapping it up

Amazon has proven to be a critical not only for buyers but also for online entrepreneurs and marketers. It has changed the landscape of commerce and has provided a platform for people to get creative and make money using the platform. The ways and examples for each should inspire or give you an idea on how to make the most out your time in Amazon.

Have you tried any of ways to make money on Amazon listed above? What were the results and how do you think you could have done it better? Share with me your answers by commenting below!

The post 6 Ways You Can Make Money Using the Amazon Platform appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

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8 Advanced Tips for YouTube Search Optimization

When was the last time you watched a YouTube video?

If you’re a normal human being with access to the Internet, my guess is you interacted with YouTube in some way in the last 24 hours.

YouTube is one of the most visited websites on the planet, with over 6 billion hours of video streamed monthly from the service.

That, my friends, is insane!

Since YouTube is part of the Google universe (Alphabet Inc.), YouTube videos are integrated into Google search results. If you watch videos on Facebook, there’s a pretty good chance it’s a Facebook video (even though Facebook is fighting back).

YouTube videos are everywhere. And YouTube isn’t shrinking, no matter how popular Facebook Live is, no matter how viral Instagram stories are, and no matter how trendy Snapchat is.

The platform is a gold mine, and popular YouTubers like PewDiePie (whose estimated net worth is around $70 million) are outearning traditional celebrities like Allen Iverson, Meghan Trainor, and Hillary Clinton.

Like with Google, part of being discovered on YouTube is how you optimize for search.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on YouTube recently, and wow—I’m still learning power hacks and insane techniques that are helping my clients blow their revenue sky high.

YouTube isn’t dead. It isn’t old school. It isn’t lame.

YouTube is a red hot tool for search engine power, and you can benefit from using it.

I’ve already covered the basics of building a successful YouTube channel. In this article, I want to cover some of the advanced ways to increase your YouTube search visibility.

1. Write long, detailed descriptions for each video

You wanted advanced tips? Okay, so including a detailed video description doesn’t seem that advanced, but I mention it first because it’s absolutely vital.

And you may be missing something.

The longer and more detailed your video description, the better you’ll be able to rank for relevant searches.

Here’s why: contextual keywords. Contextual keywords are at the heart of all Google and YouTube searches.

The concept is simple. You’re not simply trying to rank for a single long-tail keyword. You’re trying to rank for a variety of loosely-related searches, which may or may not include the exact keyword phrase you’re targeting.

What do you do, then? You create a long and detailed video description that will inevitably contain some or all of the relevant keyword verbiage.

The below example of Dove’s video description shows how a hashtag and website link can be used in the video description field to maximize ROI.

Because it hosts user-generated videos, YouTube is often referred to as a social network. Detailed video descriptions are often applauded by the YouTube community and can help you gain followers.

Long-tail keywords are as important on YouTube as any other site as they allow you to provide specific information on five- to seven-word key terms through the usage of contextual information.

Jenna Marbles built a 16+ million following and is the most subscribed-to female user. Marbles uses her video descriptions to disseminate website, blog, and social media information.

2. Carefully research and select the right keywords for each video

Since YouTube’s videos are also searchable through Google, it makes sense to optimize for both search engines.

In fact, YouTube is second only to Google as the most heavily used online search engine. Here’s what video results look like on SERPs:

Search Engine Journal has a great article on optimizing YouTube videos for both YouTube and Google search using long-tail keyword research on Google’s Keyword Planner tool.

Those in-depth instructions explain how to determine which keywords will work best across both platforms.

Know that the devil is in the details. Adding as much text information to a video as possible provides both humans as well as robots (and whatever hybrids, like Stephen Hawking, may exist) with the necessary contextual information.

3. Embed and share videos wherever possible

Direct video SEO for contextual keywords is great (70% of all Google search results in 2012 included video), but where YouTube is very useful in hosting video content is for videos used on social media and the web.

Video embedding and sharing buttons are already included in your default options, so you don’t even have to do anything special as a creator unless you want to limit the distribution in any way.

The more websites, forums, chat rooms, and social networks link to your video, the more likely it is to be found. This is basic SEO backlinking applied to video content.

Adding video content to your blogs and websites increases engagement in a variety of ways I won’t go into too deeply here as I’ve championed the use of video throughout my blogs.

People love watching online videos, and these shares are what will ultimately drive your video’s traffic until it creates organic search traffic.

4. Curate themed playlists

In addition to having videos as a way to increase viewership, having playlists (curated lists of videos) also increases channel time, engagement, video length, and other important KPIs that improve your ROI.

Anyone can create a YouTube playlist by clicking this button:

When you’re in a playlist, you’ll see a list of videos in it while watching the current video. You can then navigate through the playlist.

This format provides a more immersive channel experience, and curating great playlists can have a greater impact than creating videos. Spotify built its entire $10 billion brand in the face of stiff competition from Apple, Pandora, and even YouTube because of curated playlists.

Here’s what it looks like:

Playlists are heavily promoted by YouTube, and your video is more likely to be viewed as part of a playlist than on its own in YouTube’s ecosystem of over 1 billion unique monthly users.

However, solo videos show up more often in Google searches, so each provides value.

5. Watch your metrics, and grow your subscribers

On YouTube, having subscribers equals having clout. In fact, you can even link your YouTube account to Klout to find out a general estimate of your YouTube clout in relation to other social media platforms and influencers across all channels.

For brands, businesses, and organizations on YouTube, the key metrics to measure the success of video content marketing campaigns are a bit different. Here’s an idea of key metrics to look for in video SEO:

Subscribers do increase views, which can increase your Adsense affiliate revenue, but that’s just a side project to help the channel pay for itself and sustain itself.

Where your video ranks in YouTube searches, the click-through rate of people who view it, and the bounce rates of people leaving after watching only one video are your true measurements of video content marketing success.

Phil Defranco built his $1 million fortune on the back of 6 million+ YouTube subscribers. Encouraging people to subscribe to your channel can quickly build viewership for new videos and help increase your odds of appearing in YouTube SERPs.

6. Optimize videos for the correct length

People who tell you length doesn’t matter are probably upset about how short their video is.

If you’re creating a video ad, the requirement is less than 1 minute (30 seconds is even better), but for video content, you’ll need videos that are ideally 10 minutes or longer.

The device the video is watched on does make a difference, as does video length. Music videos, for example, are commonly 3-6 minutes, making them ideal for mobile consumption.

Hollywood has taken note, and Dreamworks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg explained during a sit-down discussion at CTIA’s Super Mobility Week that studios are focused on providing 3-5-minute video clips with the Game of Thrones level of production.

Shorter videos are also often preferred when making live clips on other social networks, like Facebook, Vine, or Instagram.

Here’s a list of the average video length of top 10 most shared videos on Facebook as of September 2015:

With mobile video usage on the rise, a 5-10 minute video will suffice, with 20+ minute videos serving as tent poles to draw viewers.

Some podcasts and vlogs stretch longer, but until you get the hang of things, these are the lengths you should focus on.

Remember, quality counts. Most popular videos are shot in at least 1080p, and both 4k and 360-degree videos are on the market, while TVs are reaching beyond 8k as of this year’s CES trade circuit.

Spend the time, money, and resources to professionally shoot, edit, and animate a video to increase the likelihood it will be viewed more widely.

7. Consider crowdsourcing views

Market research is an important part of marketing, but to perform this research with online videos is difficult.

You can solicit views, but you need to keep in mind YouTube’s community guidelines. Some companies have found success using services like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to crowdsource video views.

Here’s how it works:

Instead of directly buying views, firms hire crowdsourcing platforms to perform market research: “Watch this video and let us know what you think by filling out this survey.” Each person is compensated $.10 to $1.00 for their time.

This market research increases views, which does help your videos rank, and it also provides the extra benefit of giving you hundreds to thousands (however many crowdsourced tasks you pay out on) of surveys about the video’s quality. This feedback can be invaluable in creating more content.

The most important consideration, however, I saved for last.

8. Be thorough

I started this article by mentioning the importance of filling out all fields, and I’m going to end on the same note because it’s that important.

Have you ever noticed how much information is crammed onto the packaging of anything you buy, from candy to electronics?

Businesses succeed by pushing through mounds of paperwork and grinding away at providing the most information possible. There’s no example of a popular YouTuber who doesn’t meticulously label their videos.

Here’s what YouTube’s video upload form looks like, asking for closed captioning, language, category, tags, descriptions, and other information:

Fill it all out every time before publishing to increase visibility.

You can also add filming time and location, enable/disable commenting and ratings, control whether your video can be embedded on external sites, add annotations, and more. Watch a few YouTube videos, and you’ll see how often these features are used.

Conclusion

Having a presence on YouTube is incredibly important, especially with the push for spherical video content and video search results.

Creating professional video content is only the first step.

Making it visible requires meticulous labeling and attention to detail to create a finished product.

What do you do to help increase views on your YouTube videos?

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