Podcasts about optinmonster

This is an unbelievable WordPress story. How does one person go from a developer to the President of the best WordPress SEO plugin. Not only is this chat with Ben Rojas informative and inspirational from a business point of view, on a personal and very human level this is one of the most inspirational conversations I've ever had, with a very inspiring individual. We will go all the way from his beginnings writing out pieces of code on lined paper, through his passion for WordPress, his family and finally to his meteoric rise through Awesome Motive to President of AIOSEO. This is not to be missed. If you want to check out AIOSEO then just click here - https://aioseo.com/If you want to check out OptinMonster then just click here - https://optinmonster.com/ If you want to find a specific section of the video then use these CHAPTERS0:00 Who is Ben Rojas? 2:02 Growing up Without Computer Access2:40 Where Did Ben's WordPress Journey Start4:45 How Did Ben Get Started?6:43 What Was Ben's First Role With Awesome Motive7:44 How To Become A WordPress Developer 11:29 What Are Are The Best Languages To Learn? 14:36 The Best Advice For Becoming A Developer 17:20 How Did Ben Become The President Of AIOSEO pt120:00 Ben's Mindset & Inspiring Others21:50 How Did Ben Become The President Of AIOSEO pt2 23:23 What Was The Biggest Challenge Becoming President of AIOSEO 25:30 What Is AIOSEO & New Features 31:15 What's Next For AIOSEO & Ben RojasTop Resources⚡Use Promo Code WPBVIP⚡►Best WordPress Contact Form Plugin https://wpforms.com/wpbeginner►Best WordPress Analytics Plugin https://www.monsterinsights.com/ ►Best Lead Generation Plugin https://optinmonster.com/►Best WordPress SEO Plugin https://aioseo.com/►Best Theme Builder for WordPress https://www.seedprod.com/Related Videos►WordPress Tutorial - How to Make a WordPress Website for Beginners https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvbFBxKcORA►WordPress Gutenberg Tutorial: How to Easily Work With the Block Editor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjfrzGeB5_g►What is SEO and How Does it Work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjfrzGeB5_g►How to Install a WordPress Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIPQRQLAz90If you liked this video, then please Like and consider subscribing to our channel for more WordPress videos.https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=wpbeginnerFollow us on Twitter:https://twitter.com/wpbeginnerCheck out our website for more WordPress Tutorialshttps://www.wpbeginner.com/#WPBeginner #WordPress #WordPressTutorialIf you liked this episode, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. Or watch our Podcasts on YouTube. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

This episode dives into the secrets of crafting high-converting landing pages that turn visitors into customers. Landing pages play a critical role in online business success, and WPBeginner shares actionable tips to optimize yours for conversions.Key takeaways:Minimize Distractions: Prioritize focus by removing unnecessary elements like headers, footers, and sidebars. Landing pages should have a singular goal – driving visitors towards the desired action (e.g., purchase, signup).Streamline the Conversion Process: Frictionless user experience is essential. Reduce clicks by simplifying the buying journey. Aim for a streamlined purchase process (ideally 3 clicks or less) and remove unnecessary form fields. Consider using tools like WPForms to capture partially completed forms.Craft Compelling Copy: Speak directly to your target audience and understand their needs. Craft persuasive content that resonates with their emotions and logic, ultimately motivating them to convert.Headline Optimization: Headlines are crucial – 80% of visitors will read them. Utilize free tools like WPBeginner's Headline Analyzer to craft catchy headlines that integrate relevant keywords naturally. Focus on highlighting your unique value proposition – why should someone choose you?Boost Credibility: Include visuals like images, videos, and testimonials to build trust and social proof. Strategically use contrasting colors and visual cues to direct visitors' attention towards your call to action (CTA).Capture Leaving Visitors: Even optimized landing pages experience bounce rates. Utilize tools like OptinMonster to target visitors with exit-intent popups, special offers, or other incentives to convert them before they abandon the page.Additional Resources:WPForms: https://wpforms.com/OptinMonster: https://optinmonster.com/WPBeginner's Headline Analyzer: https://www.wpbeginner.com/news/introducing-headline-analyzer/By following these steps and focusing on a clear goal, user experience, persuasive copy, and trust-building elements, you can significantly improve your landing page conversion rates.If you liked this episode, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. Or watch our Podcasts on YouTube. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Want to grow an engaged email list? Discover the tips and techniques we used at WPBeginner to generate subscribers and build a loyal following.Show NotesWelcome and Overview:Importance of building an email list for direct audience communication and marketing.Proven Email Growth StrategiesExit-Intent Popups:WPBeginner's use of OptinMonster to capture abandoning visitors.The value of offering a useful resource like a newsletter or toolkit.Lead Magnets:Definition of a lead magnet (opt-in bribe).Promoting WPBeginner's "Ultimate WordPress Toolkit" to capture emails.Giveaways:Use giveaways sparingly to gain new subscribers and social media followers.WPBeginner's annual birthday giveaway with WordPress-related prizes (plugins, ebooks, etc.)Using RafflePress to manage the giveaway logistics.Quizzes:Creating quizzes for engagement and offering custom results.WPBeginner's WordPress hosting quiz for personalized recommendations.Using Thrive Quizzes for interactive quiz creation.Free Courses:Offering beginner-friendly WordPress courses on your website.Examples include WPBeginner's WordPress 101, WooCommerce, and SEO courses.Utilize MemberPress for course management and access control.Call to Action:Which of these strategies would you want to implement to grow your list? Let us know!Refer to the show notes on the WPBeginner website for the tools and resources mentioned.Additional ResourcesOptinMonster: https://optinmonster.com/RafflePress: https://rafflepress.com/Thrive Quizzes: https://thrivethemes.com/quizbuilder/MemberPress: https://memberpress.com/If you liked this episode, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. Or watch our Podcasts on YouTube. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

During this podcast episode, Amanda shares her experience of making money while on vacation through an evergreen webinar funnel. Amanda and Jess discuss using tools like Facebook ads, Kajabi, Optin Monster, Canva, and Zoom. Amanda explains how she promote her webinar titled "Three Steps to Building Student Independence in the Secondary English Classroom" and offers valuable content while also promoting her program, Empower English Teachers Now. They talk about pricing options and the breakdown of their sales. Jess asks questions about technical aspects and promotes webinars with a small email list. Amanda helps listeners understand they can build their email list with tiny offers that are really valuable but offered at a low no-brainer kind of price. Check out this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HJQJZwIKajA

Do you want to save time and increase efficiency in your small business? Are you tired of tedious and inefficient processes? Look no further! I have the solution to help you streamline and optimize your operations using powerful tools and strategies. Say goodbye to wasted time and resources and hello to increased productivity and profitability. Let me show you how to streamline and optimize your business processes like a pro!In this episode, you will be able to:Unravel the secret behind Asana, Metrical, and Canva for effectively running your business.Identify other indispensable resources to elevate your email marketing and landing pages.Master the art of podcasting with Buzzsprout, Calendly, and Riverside FM.Grasp the importance of investing time in result-driven tasks.Understand how implementing powerful tools and systems can propel your small business toward growth.Here are links to the websites of the tools that I use. Please note that some of these are affiliate links, but many are not. Enjoy:Check out Asana for task management and team collaboration.Save money with Metricool for social media scheduling and custom-branded metrics.Use Canva for easy and affordable graphic design.Consider Constant Contact or ConvertKit for reliable email marketing.Grow your email list with OptinMonster's pop-up tools.Use Buzzsprout for simple podcast hosting.Schedule guests easily with Calendly.Record high-quality podcasts with Riverside.fm.Edit audio files with Audacity for a professional finish.Find guest spots and guests with Podmatch.Build a flexible website with WordPress.Create online courses with Kajabi and its mobile app.Design attractive landing pages with Leadpages or Optimize Press.Map out your sales funnel with Funnelytics or create urgency with Deadline Funnel.Use AI tools like Chat GPT, Capshow, and Descript for content creation, Looking to save time or get more information from AI?If you're just starting out with AI or looking to enhance your outputs, my book 'Mastering AI in Communications' is your essential guide. Whether you're a beginner or ready to take your skills to the next level, grab your free electronic copy or purchase it on Amazon right here!Amazon: https://a.co/d/bhblVcGFree e-version: https://courses.kendracorman.com/aibookDon't miss this opportunity to transform your approach and make AI your most powerful tool yet in saving time and improving efficiency!

Cómo crear un podcast Premium de pago por suscripciónQué opciones hayCuánto cobrar Qué ofrecerCuándo hacerloMi experiencia¿Podcast de pago por 100€/mes con Newsletter o 500€/año? ¿Solo podcast? ¿Solo se accede al contenido que se publique desde que entres? FOMO. https://substack.com/ permite crear podcast de pago y newsletter.Que se escuchen en todas las plataformasSin publicidad.Exclusivos en mismo feed o en otro.Perdemos control si usamos plataformas.- Acceso a podcasts premium antes que nadie y después en abierto como hace El Sentido De La Birra con Ricardo Moya que está en Podimo.Audiencia actual: Spotify 40%. Apple Podcast 30%. Ivoox 17%. Google Podcast 8%. (YouTube más)¿Creo podcast nuevo de pago o episodios de pago en alguno actual?Siempre he dicho que hacia todo gratis. ¿Cambio de opinión?Ya probé SEO para Google pero nadie se apuntó en ivoox hace unos años.¿Cuáles son los beneficios exclusivos para suscriptores que puedo ofrecer?Si bien depende de ti, según tus objetivos y tiempo invertido, los beneficios pueden incluir acceso a contenido adicional, acceso anticipado al contenido, acceso a entrevistas exclusivas o una versión sin anuncios de tu contenido.PLATAFORMAS PARA CREAR PODCAST DE PAGO- Substack. MEJOR OPCIÓN. (we charge 10% and there is a credit card fee charged by Stripe): Se crea un rss distinto para cada suscriptor de pago y al suscribirte se te mandan los enlaces con acceso directo para cada app que uses con la que se añade ese rss con un click.Casi todo en inglés.- Anchor/Spotify: https://es.blog.anchor.fm/paid-subscriptions Obtén la mayor ganancia posible. Solo deja 1, 5 o 10€/mesEl programa de suscripciones más amigable para los creadores: sin tarifa anual ni tarifa por plataforma hasta 2023 (luego se cobra un 5%). Eso significa que recibirás el 100% de tus ingresos por suscripción (a excepción de las tarifas de procesamiento de pagos). Probar una nueva fuente de ingresos nunca ha sido tan fácil para los creadores.Si bien Spotify ofrece la suscripción y experiencia de escucha más fluidas, los oyentes tienen la opción de agregar una fuente RSS privada a su aplicación de reproducción preferida una vez que se hayan suscrito a tu programa.- Ivoox (5% del total de los apoyos recibidos, sobre los cuales hay que aplicar la comisión de la pasarela de pago y los impuestos correspondientes) Muestra 7 minutos de inicio de cada episodio. Solo acceso y pago con app de ivoox. ¿Widget para web?- Podimo: Audiencia joven. Reparten ingresos. Creciendo.- Mumbler (20% comisión RSS abierto y privado): Opción interesante.- Spreaker con Patreon poniendo cada episodio con acceso limitado. Patreon: Entre 5 y 12%. Además, tramitación del pago.Si tu podcast o episodio es de Acceso limitado, podrás compartir la URL para que los oyentes lo sintonicen desde Spreaker.com o desde un reproductor integrado de tu sitio web (desde una página a la que solo podrá acceder una audiencia específica. Membership site).Podrás copiar el enlace del acceso limitado desde la página de información básica mencionada anteriormente.Además, los oyentes podrán utilizar un feed RSS de acceso limitado especial en plataformas como Apple Podcasts o Pocket Casts.- Apple Podcast: Pago mensual o anual. Crear canal con acceso a varios podcasts. Red de podcasts. 14 días gratis. ¿Widget de pago? https://www.pushkin.fm/join-pushkinhttps://www.apple.com/es/newsroom/2021/06/apple-podcasts-subscriptions-and-channels-are-now-available-worldwide/https://podcasters.apple.com/Crear canal y luego abajo: Las suscripciones te permiten ofrecer a tus oyentes prestaciones especiales, como acceso anticipado, contenido extra o episodios de archivo.Tendrás que pagar una cuota anual de 19.99 EUR- Audio de Podcast en tu web con suscripción mediante membership site con Paid Membership Pro por ejemplo.WordPress con membersite site que accedan a los audios desde la web 1. MemberPress · 2. Restrict Content Pro · 3. OptinMonster · 4. WooCommerce Memberships · 5. Paid Memberships Pro · 6. S2 Member7. https://simple-membership-plugin.com/8. También WPForms de pago https://wpforms.com/how-to-accept-recurring-payments-on-your-wordpress-forms/PowerPress Podcasting plugin by BlubrrySeriously Simple PodcastingSmart Podcast PlayerPodlove Podcast PublisherSimple Podcast PressBuzzsprout PodcastingLibsyn Publisher Hub- Ivoox Originals, Amazon Audible exclusivos, Spotify...Me doy de alta en https://www.ivoox.com/podcasts-patrocinios-welcomeEnlaces recomendados:Prueba gratis Audible y escucha audiolibros desde https://borjagiron.com/audible Prueba Canva Pro 45 días gratis para crear diseños fácilmente: https://borjagiron.com/canva Hostinger: Mejor hosting WordPress al mejor precio: https://borjagiron.com/hostinger Semrush: Herramienta SEO y Marketing Digital todo en uno: https://borjagiron.com/semrush Sendinblue: Herramienta de Email Marketing: https://borjagiron.com/sendinblue Benchmark Email: Herramienta de Email Marketing: https://borjagiron.com/benchmark Manychat: Automatiza mensajes en Instagram: https://borjagiron.com/manychat Cursos Marketing Digital Gratis: https://triunfacontublog.com Blog: https://borjagiron.com

We recently had Angie Meeker from OptinMonster on to talk about why building an email list is so important. And today we've asked her back to cover how to get your first 100 email subscribers. We'll also talk about why we picked that number as our first goal. Resources:How Trading Strategy Guides Added 11,000 Subscribers With A Content Locking ScriptHow Lilach Bullock Converts 57% of Visitors By Using Messaging Repetition in MarketingHow to Run an Online Contest to Grow Your Traffic & Generate LeadsRafflePress 

Debby read the job requirements and wondered how much to charge per blog post. You see, Debby started as a freelance writer a few weeks ago so she's fairly new to the field. Although she had general training on how to become a freelancer the thing about her specific skillset is that every writing project is different. The freelance writing space is so broad because there are so many niches and tons of writing sub niches. How can Debby figure this out on her own without undercharging or overcharging for her work? Since you're here, then you're most likely... Interested in becoming a freelance writerUnsure of how to price your servicesLooking for guidance on how to find clientsWondering if freelance writing is a sustainable career If so, then you've come to the right place! Freelance writers are in high demand. Every small business needs a copywriter at some point and many are willing to pay freelance writers top dollar to produce consistent content for their websites and blogs. So how much should you charge per blog post? That all depends on your experience and the market rates in your area. In this post, you'll learn what factors go into determining how much to charge for freelance writing services, as well as some tips to help you get started. Why small businesses need blog writers If you're just getting started as a freelance writer, you're probably curious about how you can put your skills to use. The answer is blog post writing. Most small businesses understand that blogs are necessary to improve their visibility and reach on the internet–and many take advantage of this SEO-boosting business tool. Blogs help small businesses build trust with their audiences. The ability to share helpful, informative, and engaging content regularly shows their audience that they're an expert in their industry. And when they trust you, they're more likely to do business with you. Blogs can also help small businesses drive traffic to their websites. Every time a new blog post is published, they get the opportunity to optimise it for search engines and share it across all social media platforms. This means more eyes on their websites–and more potential customers for their businesses. 10 Blog marketing statistics you should know Bloggers who write articles of 2,000+ words are far more likely to have strong results.Websites that also have a blog are shown to have 434% more indexed pages.Companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites.Blogs have been rated as the 5th most trustworthy source for gathering online information.77% of internet users read blogs.36% of readers prefer list-based headlines.The “how-to” headline—a close cousin to the listicle—is the third most popular headline preference at around 17%.Titles with 6-13 words attract the highest and most consistent amount of traffic.SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.72% of online marketers describe content creation as their most effective SEO tactic. (All statistics are sourced from OptInMonster.com) What's involved in running a blog writing business Running a professional blog writing business requires some forethought. There's more to it than just firing up your computer and banging out a few posts for clients. As a new writer it's very important to produce good high-quality content. Here's a detailed breakdown of what's involved: 1. Establishing Your Niche When it comes to a blog writing service, the first question you need to ask yourself is: what's your niche? What are you going to write about? What do you have expertise in? Who is your target audience? This is critical because if you're going to be a professional blogger, you need to be able to provide value to your clients. Otherwise, they'll just go find someone else who can. Finding a niche that you can really sink your teeth into will help you...

This week's 2nd Act Entrepreneur Show gives you 3 tips to write compelling emails that make people want to buy from your follow-up email series. In case you're new, let's backtrack for a minute and talk about the importance of using email marketing to grow your business. Before we dive in, I have a juicy bonus tip for you toward the end of this episode so be sure to stay tuned for that. I also created a free guide to help you write your welcome series so that you don't have to be stressed out about what to say, how many emails to send, and how often you should send them. It's all in this handy dandy guide that you can go download at alisaconner.com/emailguide. Now, let's dive into why use email marketing at all? In 2020 an estimated 306.4 billion emails were sent and received every day. (according to this study by FinancesOnline) And, according to OptinMonster 58% of users check email when they go online before conducting a search (20%), social media (14%), or the news (5%). If that hasn't convinced you in 2021 4 out of 5 marketers said that they would rather give up social media as a marketing tactic than email marketing. (Litmus, 2020) There is a 4200% return on investment when it comes to email marketing. The highest ROI for any marketing tactic out there. Why? Because it enables you to stay top of mind and in front of your potential and current customers so that when they are ready to buy they think of you. This leads us to how to use email marketing effectively to create a relationship with your future and current clients. First and foremost, welcome your new lead. Truly - throughout the welcome mat and show them some love. How many times have you signed up for a free resource and either: 1. Received a single email with the resource and then crickets until they had something to sell or realized they needed to be emailing you or 2. Received a barrage of sales emails after signing up for the “free” resource and then ended up unsubscribing. If that's you, you're not alone and how did that make you feel? Chances are it felt slimy like forgotten leftovers in the back of the fridge slimy. Here are some ways to build that relationship so that they begin to know, like, and trust you. First and foremost is consistency. 90% of the world's troubles could be solved by just being consistent. Regardless if you're trying to lose weight and you need to be consistent with exercise and eating healthy. Or if you're trying to grow your business and you need to be consistent with marketing, sales calls, or in this case building a relationship with your leads. Consistency in your email does two things. First, it reminds people who are and how you can help, and second, that you have something that they may need now or in the future. The third thing that makes our hearts sing like little angels in the choirs of heaven is when they remember the first two and then tell someone else about us. Second, don't wing your email marketing. Just like everything else with marketing your business, creating a plan will keep you on task, help you over the procrastination hump and most importantly enable you to measure your progress and success. It's much easier to pump out marketing emails when you know who you are talking to and what they are struggling with. When you have the power to “read their minds” because you know them so well and you consistently show up in their inbox, that is pure gold. And it's a HUGE differentiator between you and the competition. Third, write headlines that make people stop the scroll. I get so many questions about headlines from my audience that I have covered just headlines in multiple pieces of training, podcast episodes, and events. Headlines can be tricky. The best advice I have is to just start writing. It isn't unheard of that I will write 30-45 headlines for an email before I send it. Truly practice makes perfect when it comes to headlines. Plus testing. You won't know what will work if you don't test it first. The bonus about testing your headlines is that you get to show up in your audience's inbox more often (which leads us back to #1.) Here are some specific things you can do to test your headlines: 1. Ask questions. Our brains can't not answer the question. It is like a dog with a bone. If you ask a question relevant to your audience, they will not stop until they find the answer. So questions in your headlines work well. 2. Use emojis and characters. Pull up your email inbox. Scroll through the emails you received just today. Which ones pop out without you even searching them out? My guess is any email that has something different in the headline naturally grabs your attention. That's the power of emojis and characters. Just don't go wild because the SPAM filter will eat you alive. 3.  Count your characters. Think about it, if your headline is too long our distracted brains will either tune out or, the inbox will cut off the most important part. (because that's what happens, Murphy's Law) Luckily, many email service providers like ActiveCampaign, Convertkit, or Drip have built-in headline character counters. If you go over, it will send you a message that says - “hold up there cowgirl, that headline is a little long.” (Okay so maybe that's what it sounds like in my head.) If you're unsure, use a character counter like WordCounter.net. The best performing headlines have 11 words and 65 characters according to Hubspot. Before we dive into the bonus and end this episode, just a reminder I created a free guide to help you write your welcome series (the first series your new subscriber gets from you) so that you don't have to be stressed out about what to say, how many emails to send and how often you should send them. It's all in this handy dandy guide that you can go download at https://alisaconner.com/emailguide. Ready for that bonus tip? Tune in to the entire episode here. That's a wrap for this episode on three tips to create compelling follow-up emails. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next week. Now, go write some kick a#* emails, ~ Alisa

 We are going on a website and after some time a window is covering the site and demanding our name. And that is very aggressive and for sure not promoting. What I don't like, that other people do to me I don't do to other people. And so we should do it also on the Internet (Jerry Banfield, Udemy founder) The Build Listing Marketing Strategy is not working anymore. Because people open in average only 2% of their emails.Only the buyer's list is selling. You need to build up a buyer list and the “for free list” is not working since 2014. |(Ask Gerry Roberts) This fancy and stupid approach with this down falling subscriber window to get attention will reduce the chance to convert people to buyers.I personally hate such sites.You build up a modern website with this fancy Javascript design and you get punished….Google has changed his algorithms and promote fast, small mobile-friendly pages. Check your website with https://gtmetrix.com and with google https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/Because Google found out that the mobile phone is dominating the Internet. Most of the Internet users will not have a high Internet speed for their mobile phones in the next years. If your website needs too much time to open up, the user will not wait and stop to load your site.My experience:I had the server of Inmotion Host, the server slowed down. My website was not visible anymore from Google. I optimized my website for speed and changed the server (Siteground Hosting in Singapore)  for only $36/year including https. After a half year, I am on a high rank for google in Asia, America, and Germany for the Google search: Rudi Zimmerer. I have 3 times more views than ever before. My website is mobile phone friendly and not fast enough for mobile phones (google is complaining). I want 100 viewers/day for a particular created website for mobile phone users.The owners of websites are getting cheated from great website designs. For instance: Optinmonster…. Alone the name tells me everything, Optinmonster or how to crunch the customer. Why not, “Optionvampire”, how to suck out the customer. And such great website designs are very slowly. Forget them!!!Our customer is a dear person to us and we love to help him, said Jeff Walker (Internet strategist, P. L. Formula).   The customer wants genuine problem-solving articles and not your promoting self-image. This means you serve with great articles and only then you can also promote yourself. See my website https://ask-rudy.com It is even with a language translation button that needs quite a lot of time to load. Most of my visitors are from Latin America, Ukraine, Russia. Get Google Analytics for your website to make that research… I hope I have served you…My video: Get rid of your Internet EGO  https://youtu.be/fKoHzPTD-eEMy Audio on Podcast: RELAX WITH MEDITATION or see link in the end. My Audio: https://divinesuccess.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/Podcast.A/Get-rid-of-your-Internet-EGO.mp3

#105 Jason K Williamson From E2 - SMS Marketing Can Blow Up Your E-Commerce Sales We're beyond thrilled to welcome Jason K Williamson, the founder of E2, as our guest for this episode of The Ecom Show. E2 is an email and SMS marketing agency that helps Shopify eCommerce brands scale. They create tailored automations to help boost sales and revenue and help businesses profitably scale. Today's episode is special since we've got two email and SMS marketing experts, Jason and Daniel Budai, our podcast host and CEO, to break down everything e-commerce businesses need to know about SMS marketing. If you're an eCommerce brand looking to learn more about SMS marketing, tune in to this episode and uncover: ✔ Jason's Background In Digital Marketing. ✔ The Crash and Rise Of SMS Marketing. ✔ The Trojan Horse Method Of SMS Marketing. ✔ How SMS Marketing Can Skyrocket Your Sales. Jason's Background In Digital Marketing Jason's story starts far from the world of digital marketing. He'd completed his schooling and apprenticeship as an electrician and was just one step away from getting his fully qualified license when he decided to switch gear and start afresh in the world of sales and marketing. Jason had always been interested in lead generation, and he'd been avidly following Russel Brunson, the famous digital marketer, to see how he could apply his learnings to generate more leads as an electrician. Jason poured in all his savings and then some to attend an event where Russel was a speaker. At the event, Jason met several other speakers in the field, and after receiving some advice from one of the speakers, he decided to pursue email marketing. Jason taught himself email marketing and provided his services to a teeth whitening clinic for free; this helped him kickstart his career. Three months after setting up Klaviyo campaigns and experimenting with popups using OptinMonster, Jason was able to generate $60,000 extra revue for his client. Not only did he start getting paid for his services, but he also received several referrals that kickstarted his email marketing agency. One of Jason's clients, Joshua Tatum, offered him an incredible opportunity to scale his operations, and that's the point where everything pivoted in his career. Here's how he describes his journey taking off:  “So he says to me, 'Look, you can be an electrician for the rest of your life, or you can come work with me; I'll give you a couple of months to get your stuff together. And then you can go ahead and do your business.' So I threw all my stuff in the back of a bag and drove like 18 hours to Sydney to stay with a guy I'd only met online to start my business. And literally, whilst I was driving to Sydney, I got about four phone calls and landed three or four new clients. So it was kind of like that massive action, I put everything into plan A, and my plan B was to make plan A work, and it just kind of took off from there.” The Crash and Rise Of SMS Marketing Jason had several years of email marketing experience under his belt when the founder of Oodie approached him to take over their SMS marketing. Jason helped the brand set up Postscript, which is the SMS marketing equivalent of Klaviyo, and began running campaigns. Oodie already had a large volume of website visitors, and in the early days, they were easily able to capture both phone numbers and email ids. In just six months, Oodie was able to capture over 100,000 subscribers and generate $500,000 in sales from abandoned cart recoveries each month. However, SMS marketing keeps changing, with new compliances being frequently introduced. It became increasingly difficult to capture leads as compliance became stricter, and Jason suddenly saw a drop from $500,000 a month to just $50,000. New compliances made it compulsory for brands to have the visitors knowingly subscribe to receiving promotional SMS via a separate check inbox; this deliberate extra step is what led to the crash in the growth of SMS marketing. Jason realized they needed a new strategy to pivot out of this situation and fell back on one of the most powerful tools in email marketing - Pop-ups! But there needed to be a careful strategy to execute this because while you want to grow your SMS marketing list, you don't want it to hurt your email marketing campaigns. And not to forget, phone numbers are far more private than emails. You can't just walk up to a stranger and ask them for their phone number; chances are they'll say no! However, people are more open to sharing their email IDs. This is where the Trojan method was born. The Trojan Horse Method of SMS Marketing. “I was going through a drive-thru one day to order a regular meal, and the lady at the cash register asked me if I'd like to upgrade for just $1. I agreed without a second thought because my buyers' resistance was already so low. I realized that because they had broken through that wall by already getting me to spend, upgrading my order was much easier. And that's the exact same thing we do with upsells. And I thought to myself, How can I take that exact same philosophy or that same mentality into the popup? How can I get the SMS? Whilst also getting the email and thus the Trojan horse was born.” The Trojan Horse is basically a method where you entice a visitor by providing them with a discount to sign up on your mailing list; you then include a secondary offer to upsell your SMS list to the same user. Like, say for example, if you provide 10% off for subscribing to your email list, you then give your customers a choice to upgrade because customers love to feel like they're in control. This could be a secondary banner where you provide 20% off for joining the SMS club. It's a win-win for both you and your customers. Your customers receive a bigger discount, and you receive a new lead on a platform that offers a 98% open rate. You can also apply the Trojan horse method by offering your customers convenience in place of a bigger discount. For instance, once a customer opts-in on your email discount banner, you can simply offer to send them the code via text message instead. How SMS Marketing Can Skyrocket Your Sales SMS marketing has 98% open rates. This automatically increases your click-through rates as well. For instance: In a list of 100,000 people, you're likely to receive a 5-15%. I just did a launch for a conservative US apparel brand where we sent out communication about a limited edition launch to a list of 400,000 people, and we got an open rate of 20 to 25% on the email. However, the click rate was only 0.3%. We also sent out SMS broadcasts to promote this collection. And we saw a click rate of 28% from the 3500 messages we sent out. SMS marketing can help boost your eCommerce sales since it's reaching your audience on a device they spend most of their day on, and unlike emails, your message isn't getting lost in spam.  Here are Jason's top two SMS marketing tips to help you design your next SMS campaign: Use Postscript: This is one of the best SMS marketing tools available to eCommerce stores looking to expand. They offer advanced analytics tools, an easy-to-use interface, and several options to customize your message. Optimize Your Popups: Design your popups to be optimized for mobile users. Also, have a strategy to capture your customers' phone numbers along with their email ids in the popup. Creatively using images with real people using your product works better than just showcasing your product. Sell your customers the lifestyle your product offers; it'll drive more engagement. If you'd like to know more about Jason, you can reach out to him on LinkedIn. If you enjoyed this episode of The Ecom Show, please leave a review, and stay tuned as we release new episodes each Tuesday and Thursday. You can also view our previous episodes by clicking here. Follow Daniel Budai: Daniel's LinkedIn Daniel's Facebook

With it in place, you'll be able to get at least one influencer in your corner and work with them on future projects. Internal links are a great way to promote your content and help Google understand how your internal pages relate to each other. You can use HelloBar or OptinMonster to create pop-ups, pop-ins, and modal boxes that display information to visitors based on pretty much any criteria you choose. How Content Communities and Social Bookmarking Can Help You Promote Your Content. Both involve users submitting content to a central location, which can be accessed by the public. Each site will have different areas of specialty, different expectations, and most importantly, different forms of etiquette. StumbleUpon allows users to browse the web and bookmark pages that appeal to them. Reddit's "sub-Reddits" are a good place to start if you're looking for niche audiences. The more specific an audience you target, the better. Paid advertising can be used as a way to promote your content. If you're looking for a short-term boost or to "seed" your new content with eyeballs, consider using paid advertising. Inbound marketing relies on the creation of permanent assets and compounding growth.  If you're building a landing page for a major piece of content, consider using paid advertising. You could also use paid advertising to direct traffic to a certain page of your site. Google AdWords and Facebook are the two heavy-hitting platforms for your campaign. Facebook Ads have a number of unique advantages over Google Ads Management Services. In an effort to get brands to pay for visibility in newsfeeds, Facebook has shown a pattern of changing its algorithm to reduce the visibility of content posted on brand pages. More info about how to build a kickass content strategy for SEO:    https://seo.co/content-marketing/content-strategy/   Connect with us:  SEO // PPC // DEV // WEBSITE DESIGN

As a teacher, you may be sick of hearing about data. But as a blogger and business owner, you can't ignore the numbers. If you want to know if your efforts are paying off, you need to track your numbers.  If you want to know what people are responding to, you need to track your numbers. If you want help determining where to reinforce your efforts, you need to track your numbers. You know this. The good news is that, thanks to Google Analytics, gathering data for your blog is much easier than it is in your classroom. You can literally just log in and find out what you need to know! If you've not set up your Google Analytics account, you can find the instructions on how to do so here. Once you set up your account, Google will track your site's activity and you can check on it at any time. It's a beautiful thing! The not so good news is that Google Analytics gives you a ton of data, and it can be overwhelming.  So let's dig into the numbers you really need to know to track your progress. What Are Key Performance Indicators? Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the data points that are going to help you evaluate whether your blog is growing in the way you want it to.  Over time, these KPIs will also help you  identify trends, like whether or not it's normal for your traffic to drop after Christmas, or that your bounce rate drops when you include at least 3 internal links in your posts. This knowledge will give you insight, inspiration, and peace of mind when you're going through the ups and downs of blogging. Page Views Your page views represent the total number of pages people have viewed on your blog. This is a great number to know as a basic overview of your site's performance. Page views are tallied each time someone views a page on your site. So if a visitor reads a blog post, follows an internal link to another blog post, then clicks to go to a page to sign up for your freebie, that would count as 3 page views. Another data point you can look at are Sessions, which is counted as a single visit, regardless of how many pages the reader views. The example above would be 1 session. There's also Users, which counts the number of unique visitors to your site. The example above would be a single user, and if they returned to your site on another day, it wouldn't add another user to your count. Generally speaking, you want your page views to go up, but don't obsess over them. Your readership is going to have natural peaks and valleys. For example, a health and wellness blog might see a big jump in page views around the first of the year, but November might be a bit of a lull. As long as the numbers are trending up over time, it's all good. Pages Per Session To calculate this number Google takes the total number of page views and divides it by the number of sessions over the same time period. The higher this number is, the more your readers are interacting with your site. Shopping sites tend to have higher average pages per session because people click around looking at different items. Sites that attract more cold traffic, like blogs, have lower pages per session. To increase this indicator provide more opportunities for readers to click to other content on your blog. You might add more internal links to your posts, add a stronger call to action, use a related posts plugin, or add a sidebar that entices readers to click on your opt-ins. Bounce Rate Your bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that include a single page. It indicates that people are coming to your site for whatever content drew them there, but are not engaging past that post. Of all your KPIs, this is the number you want to see decrease. A lower bounce rate means more people are sticking around and clicking through your site. Like above, to improve this focus on encouraging your readers to do something or click somewhere in each of your posts. Inbound Traffic Sources Your blog can get traffic (visitors) from lots of different sources. In Analytics, Google breaks it down into 6 basic categories in the Acquisition Overview: Direct: people who click on a link in an email or just type in your web address Referral: people who find you through a link on someone else's website Organic Search: anyone who finds you through entering a search term in Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc. Organic Social: those who get to your page via any social media network Organic Video: people who find you through YouTube and click over to your site Unassigned: anyone who finds you in a way that doesn't fit one of the other categories But here's a little tip; In the bottom left corner of this page is a box called Sessions. This box will show you where your traffic came from based on the 6 default categories. But… you can choose to dig a little deeper.  The graphic below shows the Sessions box with the default categories (on the left) and by session source (on the right). I prefer to look at the session source because it tells me exactly where my visitors are coming from.  [sessions image] My focuses for acquiring new traffic are email and Facebook. This information confirms that my efforts are paying off. You can see that direct traffic tops my report, and Facebook (mobile and standard) make up another large chunk. I can also see that my SEO game is on point because I'm getting a very nice amount of traffic via Google. I could also use information about my inbound traffic to determine if a new campaign is working or not. For example, if I had just implemented a new Instagram strategy I'd be pretty disappointed because I have literally no traffic from Instagram. I could then decide to revamp my efforts or just stick with what I can see is already working. Top Posts and Pages This KPI tells you what your most popular posts and pages were over the selected time period, based on page views.  Beyond just feeling good about yourself, there are some big benefits to knowing what posts are driving your blog traffic. First, once you know what type of posts your readers are engaging with most, you can create more of this content. Write a part 2 or follow to that post, or just craft more posts geared to that specific segment of your audience. (This may be part of niching down even further.) This data can also help you decide which older posts to promote in your email newsletter or on social media. If it's something your audience has already told you they liked through high engagement or page views, it can't hurt to put it out there again. Since you originally published the post you've likely gained new followers, and there's a better than decent chance not everyone in your audience didn't see it the first time you shared it. Finally, once you know which posts are your top performers, you can take a bit of time to optimize them. Make sure those posts have lots of internal links in them (we talked about this in the previous post 17 Essential Dos & Don'ts to Get More Traffic to Your Blog), have a really strong call to action, and that you've checked that these posts are well formatted for mobile. New Email Subscribers This is the only metric that you won't find in Google Analytics. Instead, you need to go to your email service provider (I use ConvertKit), to see how many subscribers you've gained in the month. As I mentioned above, my email list is one of my best, and most consistent marketing channels. In order to get the most value from it I need to make sure it's continually growing, with new people being added. Here's what my report looks like for the last 5 weeks. [email image] It's important to note here, that when you check this report you're also going to see the number of people who are unsubscribing from your list.In the image here they're shown in light gray. Don't get discouraged by unsubscribes. As long as over time you're gaining more subscribers than you're losing, it's all good.  New subscribers are a good indication that your opt-in is connecting with your audience. If you want this number to go up faster, there are some things you can do. While you might be tempted to scrap your current opt-in and create a new one, first play around with your call to action, and the placement of your opt-ins. You might even want to try a pop-up if you don't have one. Yes, they're annoying, but they work! (I use OptinMonster, which you can try here.) Once you know the KPIs you want to track, set a date in your calendar every month to review them. You can make a spreadsheet to record month over month, or just write it in a notebook. You don't need a complicated system, especially at first.  Instead, simply make an appointment with yourself once a month to review your numbers and don't be afraid of them. They're just numbers. They're indicators of your blog's growth, not it's success or failure (or yours). Just like your students' standardized test scores or the number you see when you step on the scale, it's just data you can use to continue to grow. And what's the most important thing when it comes to growing your blog? Consistently putting out great content. Now you can enroll in the 5-Day Content Challenge and never be stuck for what to write about. Click here to enroll for free!

#87 Daniel Budai from Budai Media: 3 More Tools to Scale Your E-Commerce We're building quite the e-commerce toolbox here! For episode 87 of The Ecom Show, our CEO and podcast host Daniel Budai takes a look at: ✔️ 3 More Tools to Scale Your E-Commerce ✔️ Entrepreneurship ✔️ Advice from Dan Kennedy and Tim Ferriss Let's dive straight in. 3 More Tools to Scale Your E-Commerce VideoWise If you want to keep up with the rise of social commerce, VideoWiseshould be your go-to software tool. VideoWise allows e-commerce owners to connect their Shopify store with TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media channels to add product review videos and other forms of user-generated content (UGC). E-commerce owners are also free to upload videos from their libraries. VideoWise significantly increases conversion rates for e-commerce stores on both desktop and mobile. On average, if you have 250,000 website visitors, VideoWise increases your revenue by $20,000. That's almost 10¢ per visitor. As for pricing, they only charge $49 per month and 2% of direct video sales. A direct video sale is when a customer converts within your product video. If they watch the video and buy your product elsewhere, this does not constitute a direct sale. Their analytical tools are also top-notch. On your analytics page, you can see the number of views for each video, average watch times, direct sales, and more. The Founder and CEO of VideoWise, Claudiu Cioba prides himself on being transparent about conversion. Take a look at what he has to say about honest attribution models in episode #74 of The Ecom Show: How to Use Video on Your Shopify Store Without Slowing Site Speed. VideoWise is an excellent tool for increasing conversions, engagement, and harnessing UGC without slowing down your website. Daniel highly recommends checking it out. FreeCashFlow.io Daniel cannot emphasize enough the importance of having a good accountant for your e-commerce, or even any business. If your e-commerce is in the US, Daniel recommends checking out FreeCashFlow.io. FreeCashFlow.io are absolute experts on bookkeeping and tax planning. Here are just a couple of examples of how you can save money with proper tax planning: Startup Cost Deduction This startup cost allows US entrepreneurs to claim a deduction of up to $5000 for any business cost up until the point their business is created. This includes product research, travel, and work with lawyers and accountants. You just need to keep your receipts and documentation. Home Office Deduction There are two ways you can claim a tax deduction from running your business at home. The first way is the Simplified Calculated Method in which the highest deduction available is $1500. The second method is more complicated but lucrative: The Actual Expenses Method. The actual expense method takes the square footage of your office space as a percentage of your total home. Your tax deduction can then cover whatever cost is included in that percentage. That includes rent, mortgage, or even repair maintenance. The biggest deduction FreeCashFlow.io has claimed for their client using this method is $14,000. For more tax advice, check out Daniel's podcast episode with the Co-Founder of FreeCashFlow.io: Tax Planning and Deductions All E-Commerce Owners Should Know About. OptinMonster Daniel is a huge fan of OptinMonster. When he began his email marketing career in 2018, OptinMonster was the first pop up tool he ever used. And he's still using it today! Despite testing many pop up tools over the years, (Privy, Klaviyo's pop up feature, OptiMonk), OptinMonster always comes out on top. OptinMonster stands out with its multiple customization options. Including lightbox pop ups, floating bars, scroll boxes, exit-intent pop ups, and more. With its integration with Google Analytics, on-site retargeting and personalization, lead segmentation, exit-intent technology, purchase history, and advanced traffic redirection, OptinMonster is a great tool to use if you want to increase your conversions without spamming your visitors. Returning visitors, for example, will see a different pop up to new visitors. This provides a more personalized and optimized experience for your customers. At Budai Media, we see pop up conversion rates as high as 10 - 20% using OptinMonster. Check out our case study: Over $1.2 Million Generated Using Klaviyo Email Marketing to see how you can use OptinMonster pop ups to generate revenue for your store. Some Thoughts on Entrepreneurship Last week, Daniel asked his LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram followers a question: How many years ago did you launch your business? Over 100 people responded, many with their own stories to tell. Entrepreneurship is not always easy in the beginning. But once you gain some traction and success, looking back to your humble beginnings can be a beautiful thing. Daniel's question put him in contact with some people he hasn't spoken to in years. When you look for it, there is a thriving community of business owners ready and willing to help each other out. Reflections from Dan Kennedy and Tim Ferriss “The company that can spend the most to acquire a customer wins.” - Dan Kennedy Dan Kennedy is an absolute legend in direct response marketing, but Daniel believes that there's more to acquiring customers than money. If you understand the buyer persona better than your competitors, you can still win. Even if you have less money. Gymshark, for example, began in 2013 as a relatively tiny competitor to other sports brands such as Nike, Adidas, and Puma. Its Founder and CEO, Ben Francis, identified a niche that his competitors had failed to fit. In other words, he sought to serve his buyer persona. While Gymshark is not as huge as Nike just yet, it grew exponentially over a few short years, valuing at over $1.45 billion in 2022. It's safe to say that Gymshark hasn't been suffocated by its competition. “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” Tim Ferriss Now, this is something Daniel agrees with! Take a moment to think about your deepest fears. That's the first step in addressing them. Daniel's biggest fears are deep water and heights. And guess what he has planned? Deep diving, sky diving, and mountain climbing! Feeling the fear and doing it anyway is not only a huge confidence boost, it trains you to power through difficult situations. If you liked this episode of The Ecom Show, please feel free to leave any comments you have on our YouTube channel, contact Daniel on LinkedIn, or check out another episode! Follow Daniel Budai: Daniel's LinkedIn Daniel's Facebook

#82 Daniel Budai from Budai Media: 3 E-Commerce Trends to Look Out for in 2022 For this episode of the Ecom Show, our CEO and podcast host, Daniel Budai, takes center stage with his advice for scaling your e-commerce in 2022. Let's dive straight into: ✔️ 3 E-Commerce Trends to Look Out for in 2022 ✔️ Fond Memories with E-Commerce Powerhouses ✔️ The Best Email Marketing Software ✔️ Advice from the Best in Business 3 E-Commerce Trends to Look Out for in 2022 Trend #1: Being Mobile First According to Statista and Neil Patel, 73% of all sales online happen through mobile phones. In 2021, the percentage increased by 13%. People are shifting towards using apps over websites. They are far more likely to use Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, and Gmail for example, on a mobile app than on a desktop website. People want to buy in the app, they don't want to switch platforms. Gmail is the 3rd most popular mobile app. It's no surprise that, as an email marketer, Daniel is particularly excited about Gmail and optimizing email marketing to a mobile-first approach. Daniel's Tips for Going Mobile First: 1. Check your site speed on mobile Speed is absolutely essential to conversion. No one likes anything on their mobile to be slow. Their attention span is short and they want to act fast. 2. Check the percentage of visitors on mobile In B2C e-commerce, mobile is the winner. Check where your visitors are coming from to see how crucial it is that you optimize for mobile. 3. Check Tapcart Tapcart is a fantastic platform for creating apps for your e-commerce store and business. It doesn't require any complicated coding, it's affordable, and it's super easy to use. Trend #2: Supply Chain Issues This may not have been something you wanted to hear about. But the more you know the more you can do to address the problem. Let's take a look at Daniel's advice on how to optimize your supply chains. Europe, North America, and Asia - pretty much all over the world are having difficulties finding the right ingredients or materials for their products. These are mostly due to COVID-19 and varying restrictions and regulations between borders. According to Statista, 57% of e-commerce stores don't fully understand their own supply chain. If you don't know anything about how your product is made or how it gets to your customers…well, that's a big problem. You need to be an expert in your supply chain in order to address any potential issues that arise. Here are Daniel's tips for optimizing your supply chain: 1. Make it possible for customers to track their product If you have a Shopify store, tracking codes are very simple and easy to use. Customers are likely to be more forgiving of delays when they know where their parcel is. 2. Set expectations around shipping Be as transparent as possible about shipping times as cost. Put shipping times and costs on both your product page and checkout page. People are more likely to convert when they know what to expect. 3. Use SMS and Email Marketing Keep your customers updated while they wait for their shipping. Lead them to your FAQ pages, consider upsells and discounts. This builds trust and confidence in your brand. Honesty is the best policy here. Trend #3 Conversion Rate Optimization Will Become More Important Than Ever iOS 14 and iOS 15 heavily disrupted Facebook advertising and email marketing analytics. Third-party data is on its way out. Daniel recommends keeping an extremely close eye on your data and conducting in-depth data analysis. It's not worth spending lots of money on ads when you don't know anything about your ROI. The best thing about conversion rate optimization (CRO) is that it allows you to track what works and what doesn't in Google Analytics. Usually, the more e-commerce stores spend, the more CRO becomes important. Investing in CRO comes before ad investment. Fond Memories With E-Commerce Powerhouses Now we've covered the three trends you need to look out for in 2022, Daniel would love to share some fond memories he's shared with some awesome friends and partners in e-commerce. Daniel's first photograph is with Angie Meeker and the Optinmonster team in San Diego, California at the Traffic and Conversion Conference, 2019. Optinmonster is a fantastic popup builder and marketing plugin. We've tried out many popup tools at Budai Media but Optinmonster always comes out on top. Daniel's next photograph was also shot in the US, this time in Boston, at the 2019 Klaviyo Conference. Daniel and Budai Media's account manager, Ben Erdelyi got the chance to chat withHustler Marketing and their CEO Bostjan Belingar. Daniel sees a lot of brands and competitors in e-commerce that doesn't even acknowledge each other. He prefers a more civil and collaborative approach. It's a good thing to share and learn with your competitors. Daniel's last photograph is with Ezra Firestone at the San Diego Traffic and Conversion Conference. Ezra is the Founder of Smart Marketer, and the Co-Founder of BOOM! and Zipify Apps. Check out his LinkedIn - Ezra shares a lot of useful advice and resources for e-commerce owners and entrepreneurs. Ezra's email marketing course was Daniel's first-ever course in email marketing! The Best Email Marketing Software - According to You Guys! Daniel recently asked his followers on Facebook and Instagram a simple question: “What is your favorite email marketing platform?” On Instagram,ConvertKit emerged as the preferred choice for bloggers, coaches, and consultants. On Facebook, Klaviyo proved to be highly popular for e-commerce owners. If you're familiar with Budai Media, you'll know that Klaviyo is our preferred choice too. If you're just starting out in the online space, Daniel recommends MailChimp as the most affordable option for newbies. If you are in e-commerce and represent a bigger company, Daniel says that Klaviyo is your best option. It's pricier than MailChimp, but Klaviyo has deep segmentation options, advanced data analysis, and great integration with Shopify. If you're using MailChimp and you're ready to move onwards and upwards in customer data and personalization, it's very easy to move your list to Klaviyo. Advice from the Best in Business Daniel looks up to a lot of people in e-commerce and indeed in business generally. Here are a few of his favorite quotes: Henry Ford “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” Daniel has seen a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs who are motivated only by money. These are the ones who burn out. Focus on creating value beyond money. Don't forget your passions and principles. Jeff Bezos “If you can't feed a team with two pizzas it's too large.” When we're talking about decision-making, Daniel recommends keeping team meetings to 8 members or below. No meeting should last longer than an hour. Thank you for joining Daniel's Master Show! If you'd like to learn more about CRO, retention marketing, and scaling your e-commerce, visit Budai Media today. It won't be long before Daniel releases his book packed full of actionable tips for scaling your e-commerce in 2022 - watch this space! Follow Daniel Budai: Daniel's LinkedIn Daniel's Facebook

Matthew Kepnes runs the popular travel blog, Nomadic Matt, and also writes a successful newsletter. In fact, Matt's newsletter is one of the biggest I've had on the show. His book, How to Travel the World on $50, is a New York Times Best Seller.After a 2005 trip to Thailand, Matt decided to leave his job, finish his MBA, and travel the world. Since then, he's been to nearly 100 countries, and hasn't looked back. Besides being a New York Times best-selling author, Matt's writings have been featured in countless publications. He's a regular speaker at travel trade shows, and is the founder of FLYTE, a non-profit organization that sends students overseas to bring their classroom experience to life.I talk with Matt about his unique approach to running his business. While others are building online courses, Matt has shifted to doing more in-person meetups and events. We talk about his newsletter, and we also talk about growing your Instagram follower count, scaling a business as a solopreneur, and much more.In this episode, you'll learn: When & why you need to start outsourcing day-to-day tasks Matt's email opt-in strategies and tips to get more subscribers The most important metric about your email list How to quickly get more followers on Instagram Links & Resources Blue Ocean Strategy Matador Lonely Planet Blue Ocean Strategy book Pat Flynn Women In Travel Summit Traverse Cheryl Strayed ConvertKit TravelCon FinCon Podcast Movement World Domination Summit Hootsuite Tim Ferriss Seth Godin OptinMonster Seth Godin: This is Marketing Rick Steves Nathan Barry Show on Spotify Nathan Barry Show on Apple Podcasts Matthew Kepnes' Links Matt's website Follow Matt on Twitter Matt's Instagram The Nomadic Network Nomadic Matt Plus Episode Transcript[00:00:00] Matthew:When I started these courses back in 2013, there wasn't a lot of folks. Now you have so many people with courses, so many Instagrammers and TikTokers selling their stuff. It's sort of like, is this worth the time to really invest in it when my heart really isn't in it? How can I maintain 400K in revenue a year? Is that the best use of our resources? The answer is, not really.[00:00:33] Nathan:In this episode, I talk to my long time friend, Matt Kepnes, from Nomadic Matt.Matt's got a travel blog that's wildly popular, and he gets into that—shares all the numbers. He's probably one of the biggest newsletters that I've had on the show, so far.What I love about him, in particular, is how thoughtful he is about his business model.Most people are just adding more courses and figuring out how to grow revenue; honestly, what's now fairly traditional ways, and it's quite effective. Matt takes another approach. He gets into in-person events and meetups. We get to talk about why in a busy, crowded online world, he's actually going offline.I think that Blue Ocean Strategy he references, the popular book by the same title, I think it's interesting, and it's something worth considering when some of the online strategies don't work. We also get into a bunch of other things like growing his newsletter. Like I said, it's quite large.Then, also growing an Instagram following. Instagram is not something that I'm going to actively pursue, but it's interesting hearing his approach of what you do if you're at 5,000 followers on Instagram, and want to grow to 50,000 or more.So, anyway, enjoy the episode.If you could do me a favor and go subscribe on Spotify or iTunes, or wherever you listen if you aren't subscribed already, and then write a review.I check out all the reviews. Really appreciate it. It helps in the rankings, and I'm just looking to grow the show.So, anyway, thanks for tuning in today. Let's go talk to Matt.Matt, welcome to the show.[00:02:06] Matthew:Thanks for having me, Nathan. I've been trying to get on this podcast for ages.[00:02:10] Nathan:Well, don't say that, that'll make people think they can get on just by asking. Really, you came to my house and stayed in my cottage on the farm, and then you're like, “Yo, have me on the podcast!” And that's when I was like, “Absolutely.” But if anyone just asked, that would not be a thing.[00:02:26] Matthew:No, I just mean I finally—I'm excited that I'm worthy enough in my blogging career to be on.[00:02:33] Nathan:Oh, yes.[00:02:35] Matthew:I've made it.[00:02:36] Nathan:Yeah. It's only taken you, what, a decade and a half?[00:02:39] Matthew:13 and a half years. Slow and steady wins the race.[00:02:43] Nathan:That's right.I actually want to start talking about that side of it, because I've been in the blogging world for 11 years now. But even I feel like things changed so much in the first couple of years, even before I entered into the world. So, I'm curious, going back to the early days, what were the prompts for you to come into the blogging world and say, “Hey, I'm going to start publishing online”?[00:03:10] Matthew:Yeah. You know, it was a very haphazard, there was no grand plan. Like I had Zanger when people had Zeno's, which is, you know, a personal blog, way back, you know, 2003, whatever. And so what, I went on my trip around the world in 2006, I just kept updating this Zynga. You know, it was called, Matt goes the world and it was just like, here I am friends here I am.And then, you know, everyone was really excited in the beginning. And then after a while I got sick in my update because the know their back of their office job. So I kinda just forgot about it until I came home and January, 2008 and I need money. And so I started a temp job, and I had a lot of free time and I really just hated being back in the, the office with the walls and everything.And so I was like, I need to earn money to keep traveling. And so I started the website really as with the goal of it being an online resume, you know, it was very bare bones. I used to share a travel news, have an update, like tips and stories from my trip. And then there was a section where we're like, hire me and it had my features and, you know, the guest blogs I did, I used to write for Matador travel.So just as a way to sort of build up, a portfolio of like, Hey, Yeah, freelance writing because I'm wanting to read guidebooks, you know, I wanted to write for lonely planet. That was a dream, right. The guidebooks. And so just the blog was a way to hone my skills and just get in front of editors to be like, Hey look, I do right.You know, here's where I've been, you know, and, and sort of build that base. And eventually that became a thing where I didn't need to freelance. Right.[00:05:03] Nathan:Was it called nomadic Matt from the beginning.[00:05:06] Matthew:He was, yeah. I B two names, nomadic Matt. And that does the world. Right. Because I like the double entendre of it. Right. Even though, but just cause I have a weird sense of humor and all my friends were like, you can't do that one. You gotta do nomadic Matt. It was really good because it's much better brand name, you know, in the long run.But again, I wasn't thinking about that. Right. I wasn't thinking like, oh, I'm going to start this brand. You know, I gotta think of a clever name that people can remember. It was like,Oh a place where people can see my work.[00:05:39] Nathan:Right. Okay. So now 13 and a half years later, what's the, what's the, the blog and newsletter look like. and I want to dive into the business side of it because I think a lot of people build successful newsletters, audience-based businesses, but don't make the leap to like something bigger than themselves.And so I want to dive into all those aspects of it.[00:06:01] Matthew:13 years later, it's seven people. We just hired a new events coordinator to help. my director of events, Erica, coordinate all these virtual in person events that we're going to kick off again. I have a full-time tech guy, a full-time director of content. We changed his title, but like three research assistants, because.I picked a niche that like is always changing. Right. You know, you have a fitness website, how to do a pull up. It's just, that's it,[00:06:37] Nathan:You ranked for that keyword. You're good to go.[00:06:40] Matthew:Yeah. Like how to do a pull up, doesn't change what to do in Paris or the best hospitals in Paris, constantly changing, you know? so it takes three resources, distance.Plus my content guy, me that basically keep up the content and then I have a part-time, graphic designer and part-time social coordinator.[00:07:00] Nathan:Nice. And how many subscribers do you have in the list now?[00:07:03] Matthew:We just called it, so it's a two 50 because we just, cause I haven't shaved it off in like five years or so. So we basically everybody that hasn't opened the email in one year where we're like, you want to be on.And like 2% of them click that button. And then we just got rid of the other 90%. It was like 60,000 names.[00:07:30] Nathan:Yeah. So for everyone listening, two 50 in this case means 250,000.[00:07:35] Matthew:Yeah.[00:07:36] Nathan:Just to clarify, I 7% businesses off of 250 subscribers would be remarkable. That would be just as impressive, but that's not what we're talking about here. going into, so a lot of people, talk about or worry about, should I prune my list or that kind of thing?What were the things that went into that for you? That's a big decision to, to prune 60,000 people off a list.[00:08:00] Matthew:I think it was probably more, maybe I want to say six 60 to 80 I somewhere around there. we were pushing up against our account before I went to the next billing step.So that's always a good impetus to prune the list, but you know, I I've been thinking about it for a while because. You know, I I really want to see what my true open rate.Is You know, like, okay, I have all these people and we were sending it this, I have multiple lists, but the main weekly list was like, 310,000-315,000 but it's been so long since we called and we have so many emails there and I just really wanted to get a true sense of like, what's our active audience.And so between, between that and, pushing up against the next tier price tier. Yeah. it yeah. It's cool to say like, oh, we have 300,000 300, you know, rather than 250,000 Right. But who cares? Right. I mean, at the end of the day, it's just a vanity metric, right? Yeah. It sounds cool. I get a million emails. Right. But if you only have a 10% open rate, You really only have 100,000.[00:09:20] Nathan:Right. I think that the times that it matters is maybe when you're selling a book to a publisher and that might be the only time that you like that dead weight and your email us actually helps you.[00:09:33] Matthew:Yeah. Like if you're, or you have a course, you know, are you trying to promote your numbers, but people would probably lie about that stuff too. yeah, so like, it really doesn't matter because all that matters is like, what's your true audience? Like who Who are the people that are really opening your stuff?[00:09:50] Nathan:Yeah. So let's dive into the, well, I guess really quick, I should say I am a hundred percent in the camp of, like delete subscribers, like do that once a year, that kind of thing. Clean up the list, go for the highest number of engaged subscribers, rather than the highest number of subscribers. It's just[00:10:06] Matthew:Right.[00:10:07] Nathan:To track.[00:10:08] Matthew:And, and I think you would know better than me, but isn't this a good. Like signal to Gmail. And you know, when you, you don't have a lot of dead emails, just go into a blank account. It's never getting opened or marked as spam or whatever.[00:10:24] Nathan:Yeah, for sure. Cause a lot of these times, there's a couple of things that happen. One is emails get converted to spam traps. And so it's like say someone's signed up for your email list six years ago And, they haven't logged into that email account for a long time.Google and others will take it and convert it to a spam trap and say, Hey, this email hasn't been logged into in six years.And so anyone sending to it, it's probably not doing legit things now you're over here. Like, no that person signed up for my list, but they're basically like you should have cleaned them off your list years ago. And then if that person were to ever come back and log into that Gmail account, do you remember like, oh, just kidding here, have the, have the email account back, but they're basically using that.And so you can follow all the. Best practices as far as how people join your list. But if you're not cleaning it, then you will still end up getting these like spam hits and, and other things. So you absolutely clean your list. Let's talk the business side, on revenue, I don't know what you want to share on the, on revenue numbers, but I'd love to hear any numbers you're willing to share.And then the breakdown of where that comes from, whether it's membership, courses, conferences, that sort of thing.[00:11:35] Matthew:Yeah.So there's like the pre COVID world and the post COVID world. Right. You know, like,[00:11:40] Nathan:Yes.[00:11:41] Matthew:Cause I work in travel, so like, you know, pre COVID we did over a million and like I was probably gearing up to like in 2020, like one, five, I think I were going to get a little over one five. and again, you know, this is, I work in the budget travel side of things, right.So like it's going to sell a lot of $10 eBooks to get up to seven figures. salary books are 10 bucks. and so. Postcode during COVID week, I think in 2020 made like half a million. and this year we'll probably get up to three quarters,[00:12:23] Nathan:Okay.[00:12:24] Matthew:K.[00:12:25] Nathan:He was coming back,[00:12:26] Matthew:Yeah. Yeah. and I think next year we'll, we'll get back over seven and then basically like how to go from there.You know, so maybe 20, 23, I might get to that one, five that was going to get to in 2020. most of the revenue now comes from ads, and then affiliates. we did, we did do a lot on courses, but then I, one of the things that, you know, a big pandemic that stops your business, allows you to do is really look at the things you're doing because every.Zero. So it's like when we start back up, is this worth investing time in? And so the answer is no. So we dropped down from, I think, peak of doing like $400,000 a year and horses, and this year we'll do maybe 40. and that's mostly because we just leave it up as like, you can buy this, we update it every six months.If it needs, it's basically like a high that blog course get all my numbers and tactics and strategies in there. but we don't offer any support for it. Right. It's just, you're buying information. and so it's very passive in that sense, but it's not like a core business where we're really moving and we were doing this pre COVID is moving into events and membership programs.So like we have pneumatic map plus, which gets you like all our guides, monthly calls and sort of like a Patriot on kind of thing, but like free.[00:14:03] Nathan:That cost.[00:14:04] Matthew:Five to 75 bucks a month, depending on what you want. So it's 5 25, 75. Most people opt for the five, of course. And it's really geared to like, get the five.But you know, that brings now, I think like three or four K a month. and then we have the events, which is donation based, but there's just like another two K a month. And so this is like, since COVID right. So like, that's say call it 50 K a year of, of revenue that we've added in. They didn't exist before.And now I know you're, you can compare that against the loss of the courses, but we had been phasing those out for years. and so that's really where we want to grow is bringing in more, you know, monthly revenue for that. Right. You know, Once we started, it's easy and we're gonna start doing tours again and, you know, so more high value things that don't take as much time.[00:15:08] Nathan:Right. So on the core side, I think a lot of people listening, maybe they have an email list of five, 10, 15,000 subscribers, and they're like, Hey, the next thing is to launch a course. And they're hearing that's where a bunch of the revenue is. And so it's interesting you moving away from that. So let's dive in more.What, what made you look at the core side of your business and say, I don't want to like restart that in a post COVID world.[00:15:33] Matthew:Yeah, there's just, there's a lot of competition, right? So like, I think it was like a blue ocean, red ocean strategy, you know, to think of that book of, you know, Blue Ocean Strategy. Right? One of the reasons we went into events is because a lot of our traffic comes from Google. And so it's a constant battle of always trying to be one or, you know, in the first couple of spots.Right with every blogger in every company with SEO budget, but there's not a lot of people doing in-person events or building sort of a community in the travel space. So I looked at that of being like, okay, there are a lot of people doing courses and they love doing courses and they're great teachers, you know, they're, you know, you get folks who know like path when, you know, low, like everyone, all these teachable folks, you know, they, they love that stuff.That's not where my heart really was. And so thinking of like, this is a red ocean now, because you have, when I started this, these courses back in 2013, there wasn't a lot of folks. Right. But now you have so many people with courses, so many Instagrammers and tic talkers selling their stuff. It's sort of like, is this worth the time.To like really invest in it when my heart really isn't right. Like how can I maintain your 400 K in revenue a year?[00:17:02] Nathan:Right.[00:17:03] Matthew:What's it going to take, you know, is that the best use of our resources? And the answer is not really, you know, let other people do that. Who love it. I mean, you want to buy my information.It's it's solid stuff. Right. Everyone loves the advice, but to really create like a cohort, like your class, which is sort of like the new version of courses, you know, like, whether it's a month or three months, it's sort of like, you go with this like cohort, right. My heart really wasn't into it because we can invest more in doing events and conferences and really in-person stuff.Especially now that everyone's really excited to do stuff in person again, with a lot less competition. It's easy. It's easy to start a course, but there's a lot of capital investment in doing events that we have the resource to do that, you know, somebody with a 10,000 email list might not.[00:18:03] Nathan:I think I see a lot of people going into courses in, particularly as you alluded to cohort based courses where they're doing it, like, Hey, this is a whole class that you're doing, you know, you're doing the fall semester for the month of October or whatever it is, I'm doing it, doing it the first time and really enjoying it because it's a new challenge they're showing up for their audience.It's just, it's super fun on that, doing it for the second time and going, huh? Okay. That was way easier and way less. And then the third time they go, I don't think I want to do this anymore. Like if the money is good and I just don't enjoy showing up at a set time for a zoom call or whatever else. So it's interesting of watching people jump on a bandwagon and some people it works for really well, and that is their strength and they love it.And then other people that I'm going to like, look, the money's good. And this is this just, isn't what I want to spend my time on.[00:19:02] Matthew:Yeah. You know, I've been doing it for, you know, seven, eight years now and I just sort of lost the passion for, you know, I think it's, I like when people take the information, they succeed with it. But I think after a while you start to realize, you know, it's sort of a 90 10 rule, right? You, 90% of your students, aren't really going to do anything with it.And it's not your fault. It's just because they become unmotivated or, you know, so we tried to switch to the cohort based to be like, okay, this is the class weekly, weekly calls.You know, come on, come together and you still get this drop off rate. That's, you know, sort, it gets this hard and you're like, all right, I've been doing this for eight years, you know, like moving on.But I mean, if you have the love for like pat loves it, you know, like you've got a whole team about it, he's got all these cohorts stuff that speaks to him where I think I'd rather do stuff in person that[00:20:01] Nathan:Right.Well, let's talk about the in-person side. Cause you did something that most people think is really cool and almost no one realizes how hard it is. I think I know how hard it is because I've attempted the same thing and that starting at a conference where everyone's like, you have this big online following, like what you just need to, you know, you have hundreds of thousands of people you just need, I don't know, 500 or a thousand of them to show up in a suit, that's gotta be easy.Right. And so they go and sort of conference, it's wildly difficult. And so.[00:20:33] Matthew:Difficult.[00:20:34] Nathan:I'd love to hear what made you want to start the conference and then yeah, how's it. How's it gone so far?[00:20:40] Matthew:Made me want to start the conference was I really don't think there's a good conference in the chapel space. Yeah. And there are good conferences in the travel space that are very niche and narrow. you know, like there's a woman in travel summit.That's really great. There's one in Europe culture verse, which I liked, but that's like a couple of hundred people there. Wasn't like a, something to scale, right. With wits, which is women to travel is like 300 people. There was, this is no thousand person, 2000 parts. And like mega travel conference for media that has done like, you know, the conferences we go to where it's like high level, you know, people coming outside of your immediate niche to talk about business skills.You know, there's, you know, In the conferences, there are, there's always the same travel, like it's me and like these other big names, travel bloggers over and over and over again. I want to take what I've seen and, you know, from social media world to, trafficking conversion, to mastermind talks, you know, to take all these things that I had gone to, we were like, let's bring it together for travel.Let's create a high level, not a cheap, like hundred dollar events, like, you know, with major keynotes who get paid to speak, because you know, in a lot of travel conferences, you don't get paid to speak, right? So you're high. You're going to get, you know, Cheryl strayed that come to your event for free.That's not waking up to do that. You know, I, you know, and while I can get nice deals from my friends, you still got to pay people right. For their time. And, and so that allows us to have a larger pool of people to create the event that I want to do. Because we will also get into the point where why should somebody who's been blogging for five or six years, go to travel blogging conference app when nobody is at a more advanced stage of blogging than you are, you know, nobody understands SEO better than you do, right?So like after a while you get into this, just drop off of people being like, do I want to fly around the world and hang out with my friends? So I wanted to also create an event where that I could go to and learn something is that I knew that would attract some of the other OJI, travel bloggers.[00:23:06] Nathan:Yeah. So how the, how the first one go, like what was easier than you expected and what was much harder than you.[00:23:14] Matthew:The first one went really well. We had 650 people, and you know, the next one we had 800. But now we're closed because of Kobe, but we're going to do one in 20, 22. And hopefully we get 800 again, things that shocked me, people buy tickets and don't show up. Right. That's weird. Right. Cause I was like, okay, we have 700, you know, I expected maybe like a 5% attrition rate, you know?So like I sold my 750 tickets, but then like six 50, those 600 showed up because the other 50 of those speakers, right. I was like, wow, that's a lot of no-shows for not achieving conference, you know? And so we plan, you know, a 10% attrition rate now.[00:24:04] Nathan:And you just mean someone who doesn't even pick up their badge? Not even, they didn't come to share us rates keynote, but just like they didn't show up to anything at the conference.[00:24:13] Matthew:Yeah, they just did not show up to the conference at all, you know? And. So that was a shock me. I mean, I know I work in travel and, you know, people get last minute of press trips or they, you know, they buy their ticket and they can't come cause, or they got stuck in the Seychelles or whatever, but I did not expect such a high level of no-shows. Because the food here's another thing, food costs a lot of money. Right.You know, I, I fully understand why the airlines took one olive out of your salad. Right. Because it's one olive, but times a million people every day it's actually adds up. Right. So like you think, oh, well it drinks five bucks.That's cool. We'll do a happy hour. Okay. Now times that by a thousand drinks Write, you know, times two, because everyone's drinking two or three, at least two. Right. So then you're like, okay, that's a $15,000 bill that you ended up with. you know, when everyone is all set up. Tax and tip hotel.It's crazy. It's like, okay, these fees, you're like, oh, I got to spend this like, yeah. Okay. Here is your lunch bill 50 grand.But then there's this fee that fee, this fee, this fee like Jake had like 65. You're like, all right. I guess I got a budget for that too. So that was, that was really weird. Like high is the lunch cost, $40,000, you know, and actually hotels, overcharge, and they add a bunch of fees and yeah, you can get them pretty quick.[00:25:46] Nathan:So if you were, if I was starting to conference. They have 50,000 people on a email list or a hundred thousand. And I'm like, Matt, I heard you started a conference. I'm going to do it too. What advice do you have for me? Like what are the first things that you'd call out?[00:26:03] Matthew:It's going to cost like three times more than you think. pricing. Where I went wrong in the second year. Right. So like we've lost money the first two years doing it, but I expected to lose money. It wasn't because I was investing in this long-term thing. Right. But we're at where I lost more money on the second year is that I really factor in flights as well as I did, like I kind of low balled it.And so I always think he should. Oh. And I also invited, I kept inviting people without really seeing, like, where was I? on my like speaker fees. Right. So like really creating a budget and then sticking to it. And even if that means not getting some of your dream folks, to a later year, but working up the food and beverage costs first, because you know, you go to the hotel and they're going to say your F and B, you know, is $90,000.And if they never going to hit that, no, you're going to go way. You're going to blow cause you got to get them to say, what are all the fees? You know, like, okay. You know, if I have a 300 person conference and I want to do two lunches, what does that look like?Plus all the taxes and fees,[00:27:23] Nathan:Okay, well, you, the launch price and you'll, you'll pencil that into your spreadsheet and they'll fail to mention that there's mandatory gratuity on top of that and taxes and whatever[00:27:33] Matthew:Yeah,And whatever, you know, plate fee there is. Right. So you gotta factor all that in and then look at what you got left.[00:27:40] Nathan:It's like when you're buying a car and you have to talk in terms of the out the door price in[00:27:45] Matthew:Yeah.[00:27:46] Nathan:The sticker price,[00:27:47] Matthew:Yeah. I made that mistake when I bought my car last year, I was like, oh 17. And I was like, wait, how did 17 go from 17,000 to 22? And like, well,[00:27:56] Nathan:Right.[00:27:57] Matthew:Thing that I was like, ah, okay,[00:28:00] Nathan:Yeah. Do you think w what are some of the opportunities that have come out from running the conference and has it had the effects of your community that you've hoped? It would,[00:28:10] Matthew:You know, this is a very, blogger faced event, you know, more than just travel consumers. but it's definitely allowed me to, you know, meet folks like Cheryl Austrade, you know, great way to meet your heroes. Is there pay them to come speak at a conference? so, you know, I, I know Cheryl, like, that's cool.The becoming more ingrained in sort of the, the PR side and with the demos and the brands, because, you know, on the website, I destination marketing organization.[00:28:44] Nathan:Okay.[00:28:45] Matthew:So they're like, you know, visit, you know, Boise visit Idaho, we call them a DMO. And so like since I don't really do press trips on the website, I don't know a lot of them really well.And so this has been a way to be, become more ingrained on that sort of industry side of events and not live in my own. and that's helpful because now I know all these folks, when we want to have meetups that might be sponsored when I do a consumer event, which is next up. So get these folks to come for that.So it's just really been good, just professionally to meet a lot of people that I would normally just not meet simply because I go to events and they were like, Hey, come to our destination, we'll give you a free trip. And like, you have a policy. And so I don't get invited to as many things as you would think.[00:29:37] Nathan:Yeah. Why, why do you have that policy? What do you like? What's behind it. And why is that different from other travel bloggers?[00:29:45] Matthew:Hi, it mostly stems from my hatred of reciprocity. You know, like if you, if I go on a free trip and it sucks, like I then create, it's awkward. If I have to go like hot, like, Hey, you suck. And I have to write this online. Then it creates a lot of bad blood that gets talked about, you know, it's a very small industry.People move around a lot, so you get less opportunities or I can just go, Hey, I'm not going to write that. And then they feel bad. Cause like, you know, like you're a nice person just doing their job, you know, like it's not your fault. I had a bad time. you know, I did this once with a friend and she gave me a couple of places to stay, at a hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica and chill out and sort of tell was really far out of town.And th the amount it took me to take a taxi back and forth. Like, I could've just got a place right. In the center of San Jose, you know? And so I was like, I really, I just don't think it's a good fit for my Anya. And she was very unhappy about it. I was like, I mean, I could write in, but I have to say that.Right. Yeah. And so I just never wanted to put myself in those situations again. I also think that taking a lot of free travel, like I do budget travel. So you given me a resort like that. Doesn't how does that help my audience? So if I start living this awesome life and getting free stuff, that's great for me, but it's not good for my audience.And so I don't mind taking free tours. Like, let's say I'm going to go to Scotland. Right? I did. This actually was real life example. I wanted to access cause I wanted to write about scotch. So I was like, Hey, I don't want to do like the public tour. you know, that 20 bucks, you know, it's like 10 minutes and you get the, I like, I want to talk to people because I want quotes for articles.I'm going to do like history stuff. So I contacted the Scottish tourism board and they got, got me visited. I that's where I went to. I just love P scotch. and so they got me like private tours. So I can like take notes in such. and they gave me a free accommodation that I was like, I want to be really clear about this.I'm not mentioning this place. And they're like, just, just take it. And so, and I didn't mention it and I didn't mention that, you know, I got access to these, you know, distillers to ask some questions, but it was more about building this article as a journalist than,Hey, I want like free tours, you know, like, I mean, I saved 20 bucks. Right. But the point was, I wanted to learn about the process to write about this story beam. And then they offered me free flights and stuff. It was like, now I just, I just want the tourist, please. Thanks.[00:32:44] Nathan:Yeah, it's interesting of the, what a lot of people would view as the perks to get into travel blogging. Right. I want to get into it because then I'd have these free chips or I can have these offs or whatever else, I guess the right apps you get, no matter what, but, You know that that's the other side of like, everything comes with a cost.And I think it's important to realize what you're doing because you want to versus what you're doing, because now you feel obligated because someone gave you something for free.[00:33:12] Matthew:Yeah. The most thing is I tend to accept our city tourism part, which gets you like free access to museums and stuff. I was like, okay, that's cool.But beyond that, I just, you know, I don't want to get into, like, you want to give me a museum pass. I'm going to see these museums anyway. Sure. I'll save some money and I'll, I'll make a wheel note, but I'm going to no obligation to write about which museum, because I write about the ones I like anyway.So,[00:33:39] Nathan:Right.[00:33:40] Matthew:You know, that's not to me like free travel. That's not what people think of Like the perks of. the job are.[00:33:46] Nathan:I, that was funny. When I learned about the, like the welcome packet that cities will, will give, like the first time I saw it in action was. I went to Chris, Guillebeau's like end of the world party in Norway. and I was hanging out with Benny Lewis there who runs, you know, fluent in three months, a mutual friend of both of ours.You've known him longer than I have, but like, we're both at our check into the hotel and he's got like this whole thing of all these museum passes he's got, and he's just like, yeah, I just emailed the tourism board and said, I was going to say, and they're like, oh, blogger. And they gave him like, you know, access to everything and you only ended up using half of it because we weren't there for that long, but,[00:34:28] Matthew:Yeah. That's great. You should always get these discount cards, like the comparison museum pass or the New York mic go card that will save you a lot of money if you're doing lots of heavy sites in.[00:34:39] Nathan:Yeah. Yeah, for sure. okay. So how does actually let's dive into the COVID side, right? Cause COVID took a hit huge hit on the entire traveling. we saw that just in the like running ConvertKit where, you know, having bloggers in so many different areas, we had a lot of growth because lots of people were stuck at home and start like, I'm going to start a new blog.I'm going to have time to, to work on this or whatever. And it was a lot of cancellations, mostly from the travel industry. If people like, look now that what this 50,000 person list, that was a huge asset is now just a giant liability. because no one's planning trips. How did you navigate that time? And what, like, what's the journey been?You know, the last 18 months, two years,[00:35:28] Matthew:Well first I would say that's really shortsighted of someone canceling their 50,000 person list like[00:35:34] Nathan:I think they were like exporting sitting on it and they're going to come back. But, but I agree. It was very shortsighted.[00:35:39] Matthew:Yeah. Like just like throw it away. 50,000 emails, right. I mean, it was tough in the beginning. You know, we went from like January and February were like best months ever, you know? And like, I mean, even, and then all of a sudden like, like March 13th is like that Friday, you know, it's like everything crashes, like again, like we were on our way to have a banner year, like, like, like hand over fist money, you know?And, and then to being like, how am I going to pay the bills? You know? and so, cause you know, we, haven't sort of the, the overhang from Java con, right. You know, like we didn't make money on the first two years. And year three was the, the breakeven year and travel con was in, Right in the world ended in March.Right. And so I had laid out all, like, you're so close to the event, that's you? That's when you start paying your bills. Right. And the world hits and all the sponsors who, you know, have their money, you know, in the accounting department are like, oh, we're not paying this now. And so you're like, well, I've just paid $80,000 in deposits and all that money that was going to offset.It has gone. and then you have people canceling. A lot of people were really mean about it. They're like, oh, I'm, I'm back now. And we're going to do charge backs, that, you know, you have that overhang and just, you know, fall in revenue it's it was really tough. thank God for government loans, to be quite honest, like I, I went to native through if it wasn't for, all that, because a lot of my.My money was tied up in non-liquid assets. So it wasn't like I could just like sell some socks though, you know, pay the bills. but things have come back a lot. I mean, there's a lot of paint up the man, for travel, I view it like this way, right? You got kids, right. You know, they get in trouble, you take away their toy and then you give them back.Right. Where do they want to do now? They just want to play with that toy even more because it's like, no, it's mine. No one else can have it. And like where you want to do this other toy. No. And so now that the toy of travel is being given back to people like people are like, never again, am I going to miss out on this opportunity to travel on my dream trips?Let's make it happen. So we had a really good summer. I spoke to mediocre fall and winter just as the kids are back in school, people are traveling less, you know, but as more in the world, that? will be good. but again, as I said, at the beginning of this, it's going to take awhile for us to get, to get back to where we were, but there's definitely demand there,[00:38:36] Nathan:When's the next conference when the travel con happening again.[00:38:39] Matthew:April 29th,[00:38:41] Nathan:Okay.[00:38:41] Matthew:22,[00:38:42] Nathan:So what's the how of ticket sales benefit for that? Is there like that pent-up demand showing up and people booking conference tickets or are they kind of like, wait and see, you know, you're not going to cancel this one too kind of thing.[00:38:55] Matthew:Yeah, I mean, we're definitely not canceling it. I mean, the world would have to really end for it. We just launched, this week. So, early October, we just announced our first round of speakers. and we sold like 10 or 15 tickets. I don't expect a lot of people, to buy until the new year I saw this.And the old event, right? Because in the old event we were had in May, 2019. Right. And we announced in the fall, but it wasn't until like, you know, a few months prior that people started buy their ticket. Right. Because they don't know where they're going to be. You know, where are they flying from? What were the COVID rules going to be like, the demand is there.But I, I know people are probably just waiting and seats for their own schedule too, you know? So, but you were against so 800 tickets and honestly, from what I've heard from other events, you know, people are selling out, you know, because there was such demand, like it's not a problem of selling the tickets, so I'm not sure.[00:40:01] Nathan:Yeah, one thing, this is just a question that I'm curious for myself. since I also run a conference, what do you think about conferences that rotate cities or like Mo you know, move from city to city, which we've been to a lot of them that do it. You know, the fin con podcast movement areTwo longer running ones that you and I have both been to. obviously that's what you're doing. The travel column. well, domination summit, which we've both been to a lot, you know, it was like very much it's Portland. It's always Portland. We'll never be anywhere anywhere else. What do you think, why did you chose? Why did you choose the approach that you did in what you think the pros and cons are?[00:40:39] Matthew:Yeah, for, for me it was, you know, we're in travel. I wanted to travel. Right. And plus, you know, I mean, you get up, we get a host, right? So like Memphis is our sponsor. Right. It's in Memphis. Yeah, it was supposed to be in new Orleans. New Orleans was our host sponsor. Right. So moving it from city to city allows us to get, you know, a new host sponsor every year is going to pony up a bunch of money.Right. I don't know how Podcast move into it, but I think if I wasn't in travel and it was more something like traffic and conversion, or maybe we'll domination summit, I would probably do it in the same place over and over again because you get better consistency. you know, one of the things I hate about events is that they move dates and move locations.Right. And, and so it's a little hard to in travel cause you know, COVID really screwed us. Right. But we're moving to being, you know, in the same timeframe, right. We're always going to be in early May. That's where I want to fall into like early may travel car, change the city, but you got the same two-week window, because it's hard to plan, right?So like if you're changing dates in cities, you're, you're just off of a year. So I wanted some consistency, make it easier for people to know, like in their calendar, Java con early Mac, Java con, early Mac, you[00:42:17] Nathan:Yep.[00:42:18] Matthew:It doesn't really work out cause of COVID, but post COVID we're we're moving to that, that, early may[00:42:24] Nathan:Yeah. Okay. So let's talk more about sort of scaling different between different levels of the business. So there's a lot of people who say, all right, 10, 20, 50,000 subscribers, somewhere in there. And it's very much the solopreneur of like, this is, I'm a writer. I just do this myself. Or maybe they, you know, contract out graphic design or a little bit more than that.What were some of the hardest things for you and why and what worked and what didn't when you made the switch from it being nomadic, Matt being just Matt to Matt plus a team.[00:43:00] Matthew:Yeah, it It's definitely hard to give up that control, right. Because you always think no one can do your business better than you can. And I mean, even to this day, I still have issues doing, you know, giving up control. Right.[00:43:14] Nathan:What's something that you don't want to, that you're like still holding onto that, you know, you need to let go of[00:43:19] Matthew:Probably just little things like checking in on people and, you know, Content probably like Content. I'm very specific about my voice, the voice we have. So. But I should let my content, people make the content that I know is fine. but I definitely, probably overly check on my teams to be like, what'd you do today?You know, you know, that kind of stuff. but I did take a vacation recently and I went offline for a week and they didn't run the thing down. So I was like, oh right. That was my like, okay, I can, I can let go. And it's going to be okay. But, so getting comfortable with that much earlier on, I would probably save you a lot of stress and anxiety.I definitely think you should move to at least having somebody, you know, a part-time VA, if you're making over six figures, hire somebody because you know, how are you are not going to go from a 100k to 500k really by yourself? Unless, you know, you just have some crazy funnel that you do, but even the people I know who are solopreneurs, they still have two or three people helping them a little bit part, even if it's just part-time because the more money you make, the more time you have to spend keeping that income up.And so your goal as the creator in the owner should be, how can I grow? How can I make more money? It should not be setting up your WordPress blog. You know, It should not be answering joke emails It should not be, you know, scheduling your social media on Hootsuite, that kind of low level stuff can be done by, you know, a part-time VA And maybe that part-time VA becomes a full-time VA as you scale up more. But you know, if you, you have to free up your time and you're never going to free up your time, if you're spending a lot of that time, scheduling. So you mean that the people I know who have half a million dollar businesses, selling courses, you know, and they're really just a solopreneur.They have somebody do that grunt work, right. Plus if you're making that much money, is that the best use of your time now? Really? Right. So getting somebody to do sort of the admin front work, as soon as you can, even if it's on a part-time basis will allow you to focus on growth marketing, and monetization, which is where you should be like Podcast.This week. I have like four or five podcasts I'm doing, right. You know, that is a good chunk of my week. If I have to spend that time scheduling on social media, you know, or setting up blog posts, like I can do that. And this is where the growth in the audience comes in.[00:46:12] Nathan:Okay. So since we're talking about growth, what are the things that you can tie to the effort that you put in that drives growth? Are there direct things or is it a very indirect unattributable[00:46:27] Matthew:Yeah, I think there's some direct things like, you know, before, you know, asking 10 years ago, I would say guest posting on websites. Right. You write a guest post on like Confederacy's site and boom, tons of traffic. Right. that doesn't exist anymore. I mean, yeah. You can get a lot of traffic, but it's not like the huge windfall it used to be, but it's still good for brand awareness.SEO. Great for links. Right. I would say things today that I can tie directly to stuff Podcast and, Instagram. So doing, like, doing a joint Instagram live with another creator. Right. You know, like me and, you know, it's I know pat. because someone with a big following there, we do, we do a talk, you know, 30 minutes, you know, I can see in my analytics, like a huge spike in my following right after that.And so that's a great way to sort of grow your audience is to do Instagram collabs in just like 30 minutes tops and[00:47:32] Nathan:Podcasts[00:47:33] Matthew:I get a lot of people will be like, I saw you on this podcast. I was like, wow, cool.[00:47:37] Nathan:I always struggle with that of like, of all the activities that you can do. Cause you get to a point where there's just so many opportunities open to you and it's like, which are the best use of time. What should you say yes to, what should you say no to, and I don't know. Do you have a filter along those or do you just, is it just kind of gut-feel[00:47:53] Matthew:I will say yes to any text-based interview, normally it is the same questions over and over again. So I sort of have a lot of canned responses that I can just kind of paste. and tweak But those are links, so I'm like, sure. Yeah. Send your questions over. Cut paste, tweak, you know, you know,[00:48:12] Nathan:Customize[00:48:13] Matthew:Customize a little bit, but you know, how many times do I need to rewrite from scratch?How'd you get into blogging, you know, what's your favorite country, Podcasts I definitely have a bigger filter on like you, I don't do new podcasts.[00:48:27] Nathan:Okay.[00:48:27] Matthew:I know that's like bad. because you know, this new podcast could become the next big thing, but come back to me when you have some following.[00:48:36] Nathan:I like Seth, Godin's rule I'm not on south Dakotan's level by any means, but he says like, come back to me. When you have 100 episodes, I will happily be your 100th interview on your podcast or something[00:48:47] Matthew:Yeah.[00:48:48] Nathan:And he's just like, look, Put in your time and then we'll talk.[00:48:51] Matthew:Yeah, so I like, I don't look for just following, but like again, you know, knowing that people give up on blogs, people give up Podcast too. So. You know, you have to have been doing it for like six months a year, like week a weekly, you know? So I know like this something you care about. and I like to listen because you know, you get a lot of new people and they're not really great.You know, they asked us like a lot of canned questions and you're like, listen, you're taking, you know, an hour, hour and a half of my time. You gotta make it interesting for me.Well, yeah, Podcast. And then for Instagram stories you gotta have, or Instagram lives, either a brand new audience, or if you're in travel, at least 75,000.Cause I have like a one 30, so I want to keep it in the same in a level.[00:49:43] Nathan:Yeah.I know nothing about Instagram and promotions on Instagram and all of that is there. If someone were to, like, in my case, if I came to you and say, Hey, I want to grow my Instagram following. I've got 3000 people or 5,000 people or something like that. And I want to be have 50,000 a year from now.Where would you point me?[00:50:05] Matthew:I would say, do you join Instagram lives with people like once a week, you know, and just, or maybe once a week for you and then go to somebody else on their side once a week. So, and just kind of work your way up, like find people in your, your sort of follower count level, you know? So in this case, I'd probably do, you know, you know, 1000 to 5,000, I would look for in your niche and like get online for 30 minutes and talk about whatever it is you want to talk about and and then go to someone else's channel and do that, and then keep doing that because you'll just see giant spikes and then you can move up the the ladder.Then you have 10,000 followers and someone with 25,000 followers might give you the time of day. And then you talk about that, you know, and you just sort of build awareness because you're always there. You're always around.[00:51:03] Nathan:It's a really good point about the figuring out what those rough bands are and reaching out within those. Because I think a lot of people are like, I'm going to go pitch whoever on doing Instagram live together. And it's like, you have 5,000 and they have 150,000. And like the content might be a perfect fit, but they're most likely going to say no, because you're not[00:51:24] Matthew:Yeah.[00:51:24] Nathan:Driving that much value for, or that many subscribers for their audience.[00:51:29] Matthew:Yeah. You know, and so you, maybe I would, you know, someone was like a finance blogger, and they had like 40,000, 30, 40,000. I'd probably.We do it because people who like to say money, like say money on travel. So it'd be like, there's probably a good fit. And you know, 30,000 people, they might not know me or they have like, like you said, 3000, come back to me, you know, when there's another zero,[00:51:57] Nathan:Right. Well, and then the other thing that's going to be true is if I'm bringing you to, to my audience to share and teach something, if you're using this strategy, like go do another 20 of these or 50 of these, and your pitch will be better. And the way that you teach finance to travel bloggers or whatever else it is, is going to get so much better.[00:52:17] Matthew:Yeah,[00:52:18] Nathan:It's like, I kind of don't want to be your Guinea pig. You know, I don't want my audience to be your Guinea[00:52:23] Matthew:Yeah,[00:52:24] Nathan:Pig for your content. And so just get more experienced and come back.[00:52:28] Matthew:Yeah. And you know, you also gotta think about, you know, people are so time-starved right. You know, when I started blogging, I could. There was no Instagram. There was no Snapchat. There was no Tech-Talk, you know, Twitter was barely a thing. So I didn't have to split my focus on so many different platforms and channels.Right. I can just, alright, I can be on this one blog, but now when people are like, whoa, sorry, I have to like manage all these different social channels and all of these comments in the blog and everything. They not don't have like an hour to give, you know, to just anybody way do you could have before,[00:53:12] Nathan:Yeah. Yeah. That's so true. Okay. So on the email side, specifically, if someone came to you with say 1,000 newsletter subscribers today, and they're like, I want to grow, I mean, you're looking to grow to 5,000. This might be so far removed from where you're at that you're like, I don't even know if that was, you know, a decade ago that I was in that position, but what are you seeing that's working?Where would you point them?[00:53:33] Matthew:What works for us right now? one having email forms everywhere on your site, sidebar, footer, we have one below the content below the content forms, and popups, popups, the work they're really great. we find for really long posts, having a form in the middle of the post converts better than, at the end of the post, because know a A lot of people don't read to the end, but when they get to in the middle you're still there.You know, if you look at heat maps are really long websites, right? You just see that drop-off right. So if all your forms are at the bottom of the page, they're just not getting the visibility, that you need. so middle of the page,[00:54:19] Nathan:Do you play with a lot of different incentives of like, you know, Opt-in for this fee guide, you know, or are you customizing it to something for a particular country or there, the content that they're reading[00:54:30] Matthew:Yeah, so we use OptinMonster for that. and so we have, like, if If you go to our pages that are tagged Europe, you get a whole different set of options. than if you go to Australia, like, and like the incentives are like, you know, best hostels in Europe, you know, best hostels in Australia, right? Like little checklist guides.And I tweak what the copy for that, you know, just to see what wording, will lift up a better conversion rate. But yeah, we definitely, because, you know, we cover so many geographic areas. The needs of someone going to Europe are a little different than somebody going to New Zealand. So we, we definitely customize that kind of messaging. And I think that helps a lot, you know, and definitely customizing messaging as much as possible. Um know, but in terms of just, you know, we can talk about, you know, the market, like how do you word things, but middle pop-ups and mil of blog posts definitely converts the best. And so like that's where we see a lot of growth, as well as, just on Instagram telling people to sign up for my newsletter or Twitter or Facebook, but don't let the algorithm, you know, keep you from your travel tips, sign up now and people do.[00:55:58] Nathan:Okay. And is that like swipe up on stories that you're doing[00:56:02] Matthew:Yeah.[00:56:03] Nathan:You know, on an Instagram live or all the above?[00:56:06] Matthew:All the above.[00:56:07] Nathan:Yeah.[00:56:07] Matthew:You just constantly reminding people to sign up for the list, you know, and. One of the failings of so many important for influencers today is, you know,They always regret everyone as everyone does. They always regret not starting to list, you know? And so, you know, you just got to hammer into people, sign up for the list, sign up for the list, sign up for the list.Yeah. And a lot of the copy is, do you see all my updates? No. Would you like to sign up for this newsletter?[00:56:39] Nathan:Yeah, because everyone knows. I mean, I come across people all the time. It's like, I used to follow them on Instagram. I haven't seen, oh no, I do still follow them on Instagram. Instagram just decided that I apparently didn't engage with their content enough or something.[00:56:53] Matthew:Yeah,[00:56:54] Nathan:So now I no longer see their posts,[00:56:56] Matthew:Yeah. You like, I go, I always go to my like 50 least interacted profiles. Right. And, you know, there are some people that aren't there. I interact with this guy all the time. How is this the least attractive? But that that's Instagram and saying, here are the people we don't show you in your feet.[00:57:13] Nathan:W where do you see that? Is that[00:57:16] Matthew:If you go to your, who you're following, it's it should be up on the top.[00:57:20] Nathan:Hmm. All right. I'll have to look at that.[00:57:22] Matthew:Yeah. I'll send you a screenshot. and so like, that's the algorithm be like, here are the people who you interact with the least, but it's like, no, I, I love their stuff. why why do it take them from me? So,[00:57:36] Nathan:Zuckerberg is like, do you really love their stuff? I just not feeling it.[00:57:40] Matthew:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, it's just, you know, the algorithms are terrible and what I hate and I learned this last year, and this was sort of a unsurprising, but surprising thing is that stories, which used to be like the latest first.[00:57:59] Nathan:Yeah.[00:57:59] Matthew:That is, they have an algorithm for that now, too. And I was like, I, I shouldn't be surprised, but I am surprised.And I'm annoyed by that because like, I liked it when it was just the newest first, but Nope, now that is based on, you know, sort of like Tik TOK thing of like, oh, this story is getting really a lot of interactions. We'll bring it up the front of people's queue or, you know, so it's not just like your first, because you had one, one second ago, you know, like it could, it's based on an algorithm[00:58:35] Nathan:Yeah.And that's how it's all going to go. Facebook did that a lot, you know, with Facebook fan pages back in the day where it used to be fantastic for engagement. And then they were like, yeah, it's fantastic. If you pay us[00:58:46] Matthew:Yeah. And even then it's like, I would pay to boost posts. I was like, great. You saw, I lectured five people. What? I just gave you a hundred bucks and that was. And there was some guy you remember him commenting last year. He was like, whatever happened to this page? I was like, I'm still here. He's like, no, no, no, no.And this isn't a common thread in Facebook. He's like your pages to get a lot more engagement. What happened? I was like, oh, Facebook algorithm. I was like, people just don't see it. Let me tell you where all my analytics side it's like this page. So I have 2000 people. You're like great. 1%, woo[00:59:23] Nathan:Do you do paid advertising? I'd like to get email subscribers.[00:59:28] Matthew:We used to, but, the CPMs went up so much that it wasn't worth the effort. You know, like paying a dollar 52 bucks for an email subscriber, is just a lot of money for, for, for things. We don't mind ties directly. Like we're not taking people through finals buy a course, right? Like just to get rot email, I'm not paying two bucks for.Yeah. And, and so I just, we stopped paying, like during the pandemic, like, June, June of last year, we were like, oh, we're going to take a break. And then we paid somebody to help us for it to make kind of reset it up. But I just had to spend down so much. I was like, you know what, I'm going to turn off for a bit.And yeah, that's been like,[01:00:17] Nathan:Didn't really miss it.[01:00:18] Matthew:Yeah, I looked at the numbers recently cause I was thinking, should we do it? And it's not that big of a difference of just doing it organically on like Instagram stories or just on the page. Right. And I also don't really like giving money to the Zuckerberg empire of VO. I just not a fan of that business.And so like, I know my ad spend is low, but I can't say just. On a rod number. Like it wasn't that big of a deal. Like, you know, like, cause the CPMs were so high, we were having to pay a lot of money. So like we put in like two grand a month and we weren't getting thousands. We getting hundreds of people, you know, I want four for two grand.I want thousands of people.[01:01:06] Nathan:Yeah. For my local newsletter, we're doing paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram and averaging about $2 per subscriber. And that I think now that's considered pretty good. You'd like a lot of, with a broader audience, you'd be at $3 or more per subscriber and it gets expensive pretty fast.[01:01:23] Matthew:Yeah. I mean, but I think at some point you'll just see such diminishing returns that, you know, I mean, how many people are in Boise, can you hit, you know, over and over again?Right.[01:01:35] Nathan:Yep.[01:01:36] Matthew:I, I was just reading Seth Godin's book. This is Marketing. And he said, you know, they talked about ads.You turned off ads when the Content says turn ‘em off. And my Content, I was like, you know, they're not really paying for themselves.[01:01:50] Nathan:Yeah. Let's see. Yeah. You turn that off. Looking forward, maybe like two or three years is that I think your business has fascinating of the approach that you have of taking an online audience, building a real team around it, and then building it into the in-person community. what do you think the business is going to look like in two, three years?Where, where is revenue coming from? What's your vision for the events and meetups and what are the things that like over that time period, they get really excited.[01:02:19] Matthew:Yeah. Two, three years. So we're talking, you know, 20 by 20, 23, most of our revenue coming from stuff in person, you know, having chapters around the world, people pay to go to them. So, you know, it it's like 10 bucks and you can bring your friends for free, right. So it's like five bucks versus. Just for the cost of like hosting events.Right. doing lots of that, doing tours, we're bringing back. and they won't be just with me cause they're community events. Right. So we'll have guides, right. So it's not just, you're coming to travel with me, sort of what Rick, Steve does. Right. You go on and Rick Steves tour, it's his itinerary, but he's not on the tour.Right. He shows up to a couple of them throughout the season when it's not like you don't expect him to be your guide at the time. So moving to that, having a consumer event for like, like a, like a world domination summit, you know, a weekend somewhere just for travel consumers, having an app for both having an app for that company. then online just being a lot of and affiliates and you know, even me. Just even taking away just having this like passive income course, just because, you know, one less thing to worry about. Right.And then travel con, so being around, but actually making money this time.[01:03:47] Nathan:Do you think travel con is going to turn into, I mean, obviously it's a significant amount of revenue, but the expenses are so high. Do you think it will turn into a profitable business[01:03:56] Matthew:Oh yeah. Yeah. Like, I mean, a lot of the unprofitability is just comes from the fact that I had no idea where that was doing.[01:04:02] Nathan:Yeah, I know that firsthand from my own conference, so yeah.[01:04:07] Matthew:It was, I didn't realize how quickly expenses gets that. Right. You know, being like, oh, okay. Like my food and beverage budget is 120,000 writing that in there. And then getting $145,000 bill because, oh yeah, it's 120,000 food, but then there's tax fees, which we, you know, all this stuff and like, Okay, well, that's $25,000 off the profit.Right. and so with a better handle of expenses, like we were definitely like this year, we were gonna like reg even, you know, at the very minimum, we'll pre COVID and this year we'll also break break event. Um it's and just keeping a handle on, you know, like, well, how will I don't invite a hundred speakers, you know?And, and be like, oh, I had planned to only budget, you know, 50,000 speaker fees, but now I'm at 80. Okay. Like, handling the cost better. We're good. Now I have a professional events team that kind of slaps me around and it's like, can't spend that money.[01:05:06] Nathan:I know how it is, where I'm like, Hey, what if, and then just like, now[01:05:10] Matthew:Yeah,[01:05:10] Nathan:Love it, but no,[01:05:12] Matthew:Yeah,[01:05:12] Nathan:Don't like, you don't have the budget for it.[01:05:15] Matthew:Yeah. But no, I mean, you know, we used to have a party. And we're getting rid of the second night party because people don't want to go. Like we didn't have a lot of people show up cause like they're out and about on town. So it's like, wow, I just spent, you know, $40,000 for like a third of the conference to come, you know, why not take that money and use it to something that's more valuable for everybody that has more like impact for dollar spent and still not like go over budget.You know, same thing with lunches. We got, we were getting rid of, we're doing one lunch now.You know, cause people don't really care that much, you know, about in[01:06:01] Nathan:Yeah, it's super interesting.Well, I love the vision of where the conference is going, and particularly just the way that the whole community interplays. I think it's been fun watching you figure out what you want your business model to be, because obviously, with a large audience, your business model can be any one of a hundred different variations.I like that you keep iterating on it, and figuring out the community.[01:06:26] Matthew:Yeah, we're definitely going

This week's WordPress news for the week commencing Monday 25th October 2021

Repurposing content is all about maximizing your ROI. But many of us neglect the simplest and hugely effective way of increasing your ROI when it comes to your existing content: updating it. Updating your content is a proven method for getting more eyes on content that already exists. There's no going back to the drawing board or spending hours creating a new X, Y, or Z. All it takes is a little dust off, and your content could perform like never before. In this podcast episode, I share my three-step process to rejuvenate your existing content that will save you time, improve your audience reach, and ensure your content stays relevant for longer. Find out about:  How updating old blog posts can increase your website traffic by 362% Why it's vital to revisit your SEO and keyword strategy Three steps you can take to optimize and repurpose your old content effectively Important Links & Mentions  Episode 200, https://www.content10x.com/200 (200 Episodes, Looking Forward & 3 Strategies For) https://www.content10x.com/200 (Maximizing Content) https://databox.com/updating-old-blog-posts (Databox study) https://jessicagreene.marketing/blog/updating-website-content/ (Zapier study) https://optinmonster.com/blogging-statistics (Optin Monster statistics) Episode 178, https://www.content10x.com/content-library-how-to-create-a-content-treasure-trove-for-unlimited-repurposing/ (Content Library: How to Create a Content Treasure Trove for Unlimited Repurposing) My book: https://www.content10x.com/book (Content 10x: More Content, Less Time, Maximum Results) Join hundreds of business owners, content creators and marketers and get content repurposing tips and advice delivered straight to your inbox every week https://www.content10x.com/newsletter (https://www.content10x.com/newsletter) To watch the video, or read the blog post, https://content10x.com/203 (click here)

How to Turn Your Blog Posts into Audio Podcasts (And Why You Should)  You might be thinking that starting a podcast isn't right for your business. But that's not the case. You can turn your own blog content into podcast episodes that your audience can listen to while they drive to work, while they're walking, while they're working out — pretty much any time, anywhere.  Why should you turn blog posts into audio podcasts? Everybody has their own preferred way to consume content; some people like to read, some like to watch videos and others like to listen. Turning your blog post into audio podcasts has a number of benefits for your business marketing objectives overall. You can widen your reach and connect with target audience members that you wouldn't have encountered before. Just by repurposing your written content into audio content. When users follow a podcast, they're likely to listen to each podcast episode and stay through to the end. https://optinmonster.com/blogging-statistics/ (Written content more often is skimmed). In fact, 43 percent of people admit to skimming blog posts, according to OptinMonster.  Podcasts episodes may just be the perfect way to get your message absorbed by consumers. Now that you know the “why”, here's how to turn your blog posts into audio podcasts. Determine your best blog posts You need to determine which blog posts will best lend themselves to engaging podcast episodes. Not every single blog post on your website will make a great podcast episode.  When repurposing content in general, it's good practice to repurpose the content that performed the best. You already know it works.  Now with an audio podcast, some of your blog posts that didn't perform as well might make awesome podcast episodes. Your first steps will be to do some digging through your blog content and figure out what posts you'll turn into podcast episodes.  You can also use a free tool like Google Analytics. To find your most popular pages, go to your website's Google Analytics. Navigate to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages, you'll be able to see page view data for every page on your site. Record it You can simply read some of your best blog posts using your own voice, you as the owner of your business. You do need to consider quality. No one will want to listen to your podcast if the audio is poor, or if it's poorly edited. Audio quality has been scientifically proven to have a significant effect on how listeners evaluate a speaker. Check out this study by USC and the Australian National University: “https://news.usc.edu/141042/why-we-believe-something-audio-sound-quality/ (The quality of audio influences whether you believe what you hear)”. It shows that audio quality influences whether people believe what they hear — and whether they trust the source of information. This is where Circle270Media Podcast Consultants can help you.  Our years of experience in content creation ensures that our clients create content that is effective and representative of their business. Find out more by contacting us on our website. Promote your podcast When your podcast episodes are ready for download, you've got to promote them. Don't expect to send them out into the world and have tons of people flocking to listen to them. After you've put them up on the platform of your choosing, whether it's your own website or Circle270Media's preferred media hosting platform, https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=circle270media (CaptivateFM), let people know it exists. Start promoting your podcast episodes on all of your social media accounts. Send an announcement message to your email subscribers. Also, revise the original blog post you are recording, announcing your podcast episodes. Embed the audio player provided to you by your media hosting platform on the blog page. And in the future, all of your posts should include information about where to find your podcast as well. What are...

Syed is a Multi-Founder, CEO & an award-winning entrepreneur, recognized as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by the United Nations. He's also been  featured on Inc., Forbes, Entrepreneur magazine, Fortune, Fast Company, FOX Business, and The Wall Street Journal.  With over 15+ million websites using the software built by his companies to grow, he's become a thought leader and expert in the WordPress industry. During this interview we cover: 00:00 Contentfy, Your On-Demand Content Team (Sponsor) 01:02 - Intro  02:03 - Syed's Background, Past Ventures & Running Various Companies 03:10 - Founding Optinmonster 05:57 - Focusing on WordPress & the Community  07:48  -  Most Common Mistake Founders on their Websites 10:19 - Conception & Creation of AwesomeMotive 12:33 - Selling Soliloquy & Envira to Only Focus on Growth Tools 16:06 - Best Acquisitions & Passing on Opportunities (Red Flags) 21:38 - On Managing Multiple Companies 23:40 -  Scheduling to be Effective & Productive 25:42 - Current Challenges Syed's Facing in Order to Continue to Grow 26:23 - What Advice Would Syed Give To His 25 Year Old Self? 27:38 - Best Advice to Grow Your Business  30:08 - Best Resources Instrumental to Syed Success 31:10 - What Does Success Means To Syed Today? 32:18 - Future Plans for AwesomeMotive & How To Get In Touch With Him Tools: https://blog.rescuetime.com/time-blocking-101/ (Time Blocks) https://fs.blog/mental-models/ (Mental Models) Mentions: https://awesomemotive.com/ (AwesomeMotive) https://optinmonster.com/ (OptinMonster) https://www.wpbeginner.com/ (WPBeginner) https://wpforms.com/ (WPForms) https://www.cloudflare.com/plans/ (CloudFlare) https://memberpress.com/ (MemberPress)  https://aioseo.com/ (AIOSEO) https://wpmailsmtp.com/ (WPMailSMTP) People: https://www.poorcharliesalmanack.com/ (Charlie Munger) https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/john-d-rockefeller/367109/ (John D. Rockefeller ) https://fs.blog/ (Shane Parrish) Books: https://www.victorcheng.com/books (Extreme Revenue Growth) Quotes: “Don't give prob;ems energy to expand” - Syed Balkhi “Consistency in more important than intensity” Get In Touch With Syed: https://www.linkedin.com/in/syedbalkhi/ (Syed's Linkedin) https://syedbalkhi.com/ (Syed's Website) Tag us & follow: https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ (Facebook)  https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital (LinkedIn)  https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (Instagram)  https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/) More about Akeel: Twitter - https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber (https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber) LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar (https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar) More Podcast Sessions - https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast (https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast)

The Notary WAR ROOM Live (Special Guest: Kenn Collier of iHR Buddy) I am super excited to intoduce to you Mr. Kenn Collier, CEO of IHR Buddy. iHR Buddy stands for (International Human Resource Buddy). I've been working with Kenn since last year and he was able to get me a great Virtual Assistant to assist me with my day to day operations. Check out our interview together. It will change your life. -------------------------------------------------------- https://www.ihrbuddy.com/​ SAVE TIME, MONEY, AND GAIN MORE FREEDOM - HIRE YOUR OWN VIRTUAL ASSISTANT. iHR Buddy pairs you with top vetted and trained Virtual Assistants to help you run and manage your business ------------------------------------------- Peace, Love and Happiness, TIGER TOLEDO International Sales and Marketing Villain Have a topic you would like me to cover in my next video. Leave your suggestions in the comment section. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Want To Learn The #1 High-Income Recession Proof Skill in Business and Life? Click Below To Discover What Universities Refuse To Teach. This FREE "Art of Persuasion" Webinar has been known to Change Lives. https://NotaryCashflow.com​ HELP TIGER REACH 100,000 SUBSCRIBERS YOUTUBE - Subscribe Today. http://bit.ly/2fSKBBX​ 7️⃣ DEADLY SINS THAT MOTIVATE PEOPLE TO BUY - FREE DOWNLOAD http://bit.ly/DEADLYSINS​ Tiger Toledo, a.k.a. The Hip-Hop Sales Coach, is a Haitian-American and one of the most sought after and respected consultant in the sales and marketing space. Tiger has worked with small business owners to Fortune 500 companies in the United States. His clientele ranges from Entrepreneurs to Grammy Award-winning songwriters, law firms, manufacturing companies, and many others. Tiger is now breaking into the public speaking arena and wishes to equip Entrepreneurs around the world with never reveled secrets on sales and marketing. Not only has he been featured on iHEART radio platform to millions of listeners around the world, he's also an author, successful entrepreneur and host of a podcast show with over 15,000 views and listeners around the world. Yet he's still down to earth and very humble. Tiger's availability is extremely limited. As such, he's very selective and he is not cheap. But if you think you or your brand might benefit from one-on-one interaction with Tiger, visit CONNECT WITH TIGER ON SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter: http://bit.ly/2fKjPg2​ Facebook: http://bit.ly/2fg29EP​ Instagram: http://bit.ly/2eNDMxD​ iTunes: http://apple.co/2eF7eVm​ THE NOTARY CASHFLOW ACADEMY | THE ULTIMATE VIRTUAL SALES AND MARKETING ACADEMY FOR NOTARY ENTREPRENEURS http://www.NCF.LIFE​ TIGER'S FAVORITE PRODUCTION GEAR Microphone/Zoom H1: http://amzn.to/2dq9kxU​ Zoom H1 Accessory Pack: http://amzn.to/2ddbxax​ Mic/Lavalier: http://amzn.to/2draIxL​ Lighting: http://amzn.to/2froO1b​ ★☆★ Tiger's HYPER-SPEED PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS ★☆★ Aweber: http://bit.ly/2fbLPaw​ Buffer: http://bit.ly/1XXmguV​ Evernote: http://bit.ly/20DP5KO​ OptinMonster: http://bit.ly/Tj5QNS​ TIGER'S YOUTUBE SECRET SAUCE TubeBuddyhttps://www.Tubebuddy.com/gully​ ENJOYING THE CONTENT AND WOULD LIKE TO SEND A LOVE TOKEN? You can make a donation of any size to: http://bit.ly/2Xdovwz

Affiliate marketing has been a huge source of passive income for me ever since I started blogging in 2015. It's because of affiliate marketing that I generate a steady side income of over $10,000 a month. So I wanted to do an episode on affiliate marketing, where I wanted to share some of the things I've learned so far. Then I realized a few months back I did an interview with Jules Dan for his podcast, Storytelling Secrets. In that episode, I shared my experience with affiliate marketing, the mistakes I committed while starting out, and shared a few actionable tips and tricks for affiliate marketing beginners. So I thought it'd be a great idea to publish my full interview with Jules Dan for this episode. (with his permission of course) This interview you're about to hear is from episode 46 of Storytelling Secrets. In this interview, I share everything I know about affiliate marketing. So if you'd like to dabble in affiliate marketing and would like to learn the secrets that will allow you to earn a steady stream of passive income each month, this episode is for you. Here are a few things this episode covers: Mistakes you should avoid in affiliate marketing How to incorporate storytelling in affiliate marketing 3 best affiliate marketing tools Tips to stand out in affiliate marketing 3 books I'd recommend to affiliate marketing beginners I hope you find the episode useful. -=-=-=-=- Resources discussed in the episode: Jules Dan's podcast (Storytelling Secrets) - https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/storytelling-secrets-jules-dan-uzqlxKrb2Ng/ 3 Best Affiliate Marketing Tools Thirsty Affiliates - https://thirstyaffiliates.com/ OptinMonster - https://optinmonster.com/ BuzzSumo - https://buzzsumo.com/ -=-=-=-=- BONUS RESOURCES + FREE DOWNLOADS If you're a fan of the podcast, here are some FREE online marketing resources from my blog, 99signals, to help you level up your marketing skills: The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit (https://resources.99signals.com/blogging-tools-ebook) - This eBook features 75+ marketing tools to help you blog better and boost your traffic! Top-rated articles at 99signals (https://www.99signals.com/best/) - This page contains a list of all the top-rated articles on my blog. It's a great place to get started if you're visiting 99signals for the first time. More Resources for Entrepreneurs: 75+ Best Books for Entrepreneurs - https://www.99signals.com/best-books-for-entrepreneurs/ 10 Best YouTube Channels for Entrepreneurs - https://www.99signals.com/best-youtube-channels-entrepreneurs/ 10 Best TV Shows for Entrepreneurs - https://www.99signals.com/best-tv-shows-entrepreneurs/ -=-=-=-=- Visit https://www.99signals.com for more insights on SEO, blogging, and marketing. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sandeep-mallya/message

If you're working on growing your email list, you probably have a lead magnet to encourage sign-ups. This piece of free content entices leads to give you their email addresses, in return for a guide, video training, case study, or whatever “goody” you've chosen to give away.Lead magnets are still useful, but they're not the only way to build your email list. There's a similar strategy that may provide a better conversion rate and more sign-ups. It's called the Content Upgrade.In this episode, I will show you how best to use content upgrades as a content marketing strategy.Here are the plugins I mentioned in the show:Optin Monster: https://optinmonster.com/PoptIn: https://www.poptin.com/General Info:If you want to get a hold of us, or you would like to be a guest on our show simply click here: https://www.lbmsllc.com/contact-us/Is there a topic you would like us to cover? Send an email to info@lbmsllc.com or simply call 888-416-7752Want a free evaluation of your digital marketing presence? Simply click here: https://www.lbmsllc.com/marketing-consultation/and we'll connect with you as soon as possible.For a free copy of my book, 7 Steps to Recession-Proofing Your Business, click this link: https://www.lbmsllc.com/bookConnect With Us On Social Media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lbmsllcInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lbms4350/Twitter: https://twitter.com/lbmsllcLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/local-business-marketing-solutionsAlignable: https://www.alignable.com/fanwood-nj/local-business-marketing-solutionsConnect With Frank Directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fdemming/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC97CxzX4YnOazsF39DOe34A

On this episode, we're going to discuss 23 easy ways to get more viewers on your live streams to help you overcome your fear of live video so that you gain the confidence needed to keep creating live videos for your business. Summary: Promote your live streams ahead of time Update your banner or cover images (Easil, Canva, Crello, Adobe Spark, Wave.video) Create a landing page - get sign-ups, send reminders (native, LeadPages, OptinMonster, Aweber, ConvertKit, etc) Encourage your guest, partner or co-host to promote it. Review when your live streams are happening (analytics or insights) Encourage viewers to share Tell the viewer what they are going to learn - make a promise to your viewers Be descriptive - title and description (TubeBuddy for YouTube Live) Review the length of your live streams (shorter vs longer, enough time to join?) Messenger Bots (ManyChat, ChatFuel) Broadcast everywhere (StreamYard, Restream, BeLive.TV) Be consistent Turn live videos into clips - (Boxcast, Lately, Camtasia, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premier - manual process)  Reward your viewers. Ex: Free eBook, PDF, help, giveaways, blog post, etc  Cross-promote your live streams Stream live video to one channel Review your audio and video quality Review your Internet - Speedtest.net Is your topic right for live streaming? Use multiple cameras (liven up the presentation) Use a switcher - ATEM Mini Use a virtual cam (Ecamm, Prezi, SnapCam, OBS, vMix) Interact with your viewers (Say hello, ask them if they have questions, highlight comments (StreamYard, Restream.io, BeLive.TV) Thank you for joining us for episode 34 of the Launch Your Live podcast where we discussed 23 easy, proven ways to get more viewers on your live streams. For more information, head to https://launchyour.live/ep34 (https://launchyour.live/ep34). We will see you all on a future episode. Remember, if you need help with your livestreaming, contact us for a consultation by messaging us on our Facebook page @launchyourlive Click the subscribe or follow button, push play, and let's get you moving with live video Link: https://launchyour.live/ep34 (https://launchyour.live/ep34) Launch Your Live Official Site https://launchyour.live (https://launchyour.live) Facebook https://facebook.com/launchyourlive (https://facebook.com/launchyourlive) Instagram https://instagram.com/launchyourlive (https://instagram.com/launchyourlive) Twitter https://twitter.com/launchyourlive (https://twitter.com/launchyourlive) LinkedIn https://linkedin.com/company/launch-your-live (https://linkedin.com/company/launch-your-live) YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjAelMZ-TPHw-vn0fWTxQ9A (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjAelMZ-TPHw-vn0fWTxQ9A)

In this episode of the Working From Home podcast, Nelson is joined by professional writer and blogger Sharon Hurley Hall. Sharon has written for various publications including IBM, OptinMonster, CrazyEgg, Search Engine People, and Unbounce.Topics of conversation include: transitioning to the working from home lifestyle, connecting with experts and finding sources when working solo, working from home as a POC, racism, the wage gap, finding ways to stay connected as a remote worker, financial planning in the gig economy, and other topics.[4:22] - Sharon shares her career background as a writer and journalist, and her early inspiration to be self-employed.[7:50] - Making the transition from print to digital publications and the difference in styles.[10:15] - Guidelines for networking with experts and researching writing topics.[17:41] - Working from home as a POC. Experiencing racism in the professional sphere.[24:04] - “Doxing” as a means to fight racism.[31:18] - Nelson and Sharon share their experience with the wage gap and question the tradition of not sharing information about your salary with coworkers.[34:16] - Sharon dives into the workflow for her podcast and the organizational tools she uses to balance multiple projects.[47:31] - Finding connection and human interaction when working from home full-time.[52:34] - Financial strategies for working in the gig economy as a freelancer. Pro-tip, always request a 50% deposit prior to beginning work on a project!...Resources Mentioned:linkedin.com/in/sharonhh/antiracism.substack.com/podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-introvert-sisters/id1507284997nelson-jordan.com/

Most marketing strategies suck even when they get you clients. Nobody enjoys harassing strangers with aggressive cold-calling scripts. Getting blocked on LinkedIn a hundred times per week after pitching in the first message? No thanks! You can make money with all sorts of marketing strategies. But some take tons of time and make people hate you. Others attract red-hot leads on autopilot.  In this episode, you’ll find out about a marketing tool for financial advisors which lets you automate most of your marketing without sounding like a robot.  Want to sign more clients without cold-calling? Listen now! Show highlights include:  How “inbound” marketing helps you gain trust in a world where most people hate financial advisors. (3:38) Why old-school advisors with a cell phone and a legal pad often beat young guns with a high-tech marketing strategy. (4:59) The 1999 marketing strategy Hubspot found to boost lead flow by 126%. (5:47) How to separate red-hot prospects from time-wasting tire kickers in your email list. (7:12) How to stay active on social media without wasting time on the newsfeed. (12:09) Why financial advisors should never use Leadpages or OptinMonster. (17:15) If you’re looking for a way to set more appointments with qualified prospects, sign up for James’ brand new webinar about how financial advisors can get more clients with email marketing.  Go to   https://TheAdvisorCoach.com/webinar  to register today.  Go to the  https://TheAdvisorCoach.com/Newsletter  and pick up your free 90 minute download called „5 Keys to Success for Financial Advisors“ when you join The James Pollard Inner Circle. Check out LeadPilot here: https://www.theadvisorcoach.com/lead-pilot-review.html and use coupon code ADVISORCOACH10PERCENTOFF to save 10%! Want even more resources to build a business that sets you free? Check out these articles! https://www.theadvisorcoach.com/seo-for-financial-advisors.html https://www.theadvisorcoach.com/the-best-crm-for-financial-advisors-crm-software-for-financial-services.html https://www.theadvisorcoach.com/9-actionable-seminar-marketing-tips-for-financial-advisors.html

We are keeping it in-house in this episode as we speak with two of our very own specialists at Budai Media! Ben is our Senior Account Manager who was a guest for our inaugural episode of The Ecom Show where he spoke to us about life as a digital nomad in Bali and his expertise in ecommerce. Zsófi is an account manager and an SMS/messenger guru with a knack for learning quickly! Listen in as Daniel, Ben and Zsófi discuss: The unique backgrounds of people working in ecommerce Building your own ecommerce store in any niche Owning an ecommerce store during the times of COVID-19 The importance of SMS/Messenger marketing Different tools you can use to engage your audience and keep them interested Both Zsófi and Ben bring their unique skillsets and knowledge to the table and discuss with Budai Media founder Daniel, for a productive and fun learning opportunity that is guaranteed to help you improve your situation. Be Your Own Boss Both Zsófi and Ben are business owners on their own, having created companies that bring value to customers. Zsófi mentions that she decided to work for her own if she couldn't find a perfect fit company to work for, and last year she opened her own ecommerce brand in Hungary. With all the potential struggles and setbacks associated with owning a business, there is nothing like the freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want! Adapting Your Ecommerce Brand to the Age of COVID-19 With her own fitness niche ecommerce brand up and running and a great deal of success selling the entire inventory of fitness gear, COVID-19 significantly disrupted the supply chain for Zsófi and many other ecommerce shops around the world.Adapting is a crucial skill for ecommerce owners, and Zsófi explains how she had to secure another supplier to meet the increased demand for fitness products while people were stuck at home and unable to go to the gym. What Tools and Softwares Should you Work With? Ben and Zsófi run us through their favorite companies when it comes to software, and they discuss Octane AI, Recart, SMS Bump, OptinMonster, Facebook Ads, and Klaviyo among other industry-leading tools.Knowing the pros and cons of all the potential resources you can work with is another key component to figure out when you own your own ecommerce brand. SMS, Messenger, Email Marketing, and More! All of these important strategies revolve around enhancing the customer experience. Zsófi mentions that the most fulfilling part for her in her time as a business owner has been tailoring the experience to be more enjoyable. Carefully designed packaging, responsive customer service, and intelligent marketing strategies are how she succeeds. Don't reinvent the wheel, just find something that works and make it your own! Make sure to balance your use of these tools and strategies, and remember that people want to feel like part of something, not like they are being constantly bombarded by campaigns, discounts, and messages about sales! Follow Daniel Budai: Daniel's LinkedIn Daniel's Facebook Follow Ben: Ben's LinkedIn Ben's Facebook Follow Zsófie: Zsófi's LinkedIn Zsófi's Instagram Zsófi's website

Do you want to know the best way to get email subscribers and social shares? You have to get locked up! In today's episode, we talk about content locking, what it is, what kinds of content are good for locking, and my two favorite tools for content locking. OptinMonster: https://l.fearlss.fm/OptinMonster Thrive Leads: https://l.fearlss.fm/ThriveLeads Connect with us: Twitter: @FearlssLLC Facebook: @FearlssLLC Instagram: @FearlssLLC --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fearlsstogether/message

We're talking about exit strategies for your Web site. I'm not talking about getting out of, or selling your business. The term exit strategy is used for that, too. I'm talking about a visitor who chooses to leave your site without doing what you want them to do, like purchase something or opt in to your email list. So what can you do about it to get some of them to change their mind? Listen to this episode for all the details. Screw The Commute Podcast Show Notes Episode 322 How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Higher Education Webinar – https://screwthecommute.com/webinars 04:21 Tom's introduction to Profitable Website Exit Strategies 06:05 "Pick Your Price" deal 07:47 Offering a finance option 11:07 Increasing opt in rates 13:36 Make a good looking and compelling exit pop up 14:12 Sponsor message 17:44 Favorite exit strategies Entrepreneurial Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Higher Education Webinar - https://screwthecommute.com/webinars Screw The Commute - https://screwthecommute.com/ Screw The Commute Podcast App - https://screwthecommute.com/app/ College Ripoff Quiz - https://imtcva.org/quiz Know a young person for our Youth Episode Series? Send an email to Tom! - orders@antion.com Have a Roku box? Find Tom's Public Speaking Channel there! - https://channelstore.roku.com/details/267358/the-public-speaking-channel How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Retreat and Joint Venture Program - https://greatinternetmarketingtraining.com/ OptInMonster - https://optinmonster.com/ Hello Box - https://hellobox.chat/ 5 Best Exit Pop-ups for 2020 - https://www.autopilothq.com/blog/exit-intent-software-reviews/ Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Related Episodes Upselling and Advertorials - https://screwthecommute.com/22/ Ad Tracking & Split Testing - https://screwthecommute.com/133/ ClickBank and JVZoo - https://screwthecommute.com/321/ More Entrepreneurial Resources for Home Based Business, Lifestyle Business, Passive Income, Professional Speaking and Online Business I discovered a great new headline / subject line / subheading generator that will actually analyze which headlines and subject lines are best for your market. I negotiated a deal with the developer of this revolutionary and inexpensive software. Oh, and it's good on Mac and PC. Go here: http://jvz1.com/c/41743/183906 The Wordpress Ecourse. Learn how to Make World Class Websites for $20 or less. https://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/wordpressecourse Join our Private Facebook Group! One week trial for only a buck and then $37 a month, or save a ton with one payment of $297 for a year. Click the image to see all the details and sign up or go to https://www.greatinternetmarketing.com/screwthecommute/ After you sign up, check your email for instructions on getting in the group.

In this episode, the team talks about some of our favorite new marketing tools. We discuss SparkToro, Headliner.app, OptinMonster, Instories and NetSocial.

Sponsored by EzoicWhite Label Product NumbersGross sales: $2,542COGS: $3.82Amazon’s cut: 30% = $757.30Profit: $1,125My 50% take: $562Future plans: rolling out 3 more products within weeks.Strong Pinterest Growth75,000 monthly visitors to 270,000+ monthly visitors (as of May 13, 2020)DisclaimerAll income report figures do NOT include any revenue or expenses for Fatstacksblog.com.It’s incomprehensible to me why I would include income from the very site that talks about this stuff.The POINT of income reports is to demonstrate that niche sites can be a good business. The POINT is NOT to show how much a site that teaches this stuff can make… otherwise you might as well just start a site like this.April Income Report: RevenueNiche Site 1 Revenue: $38,152Niche Site 2 Revenue: $5,348Niche Site 3 Revenue: $1,103Niche Site 4 Revenue: $650Niche Site 5 Revenue: $20Niche Site 6 Revenue: $40Niche Site 7 Revenue: $106Total Revenue all 7 sites: $45,798 (March: $45,548)ExpensesTOTAL: $8,316Significant expenses:VAs: $4,874Hosting (Kinsta): $1,833Shutterstock: $400Others: Ahrefs, OptinMonster, Cloudflare, Amazon AWS, Canva, Nitropack, Tailwind, etc.NET INCOME (Before content): $37,103Content Investment in AprilTOTAL: $10,256WriterAccess: $8,000In-House writers: $1,096Content Strategist: $1,160Net Income after content: $26,847

Sponsored by Ezoic.This is the income reports for Feb. and March 2020. Includes niche site revenue, expenses and content investment.Show Notes:New DevelopmentsPinterest - doubled traffic from Pinterest in one month (from 4,000 to 10K).Feb & March 2020 RevenueFeb. 2020Niche Site 1: $39,794Niche Site 2: $5,355Niche Site 3: $1,694Niche Site 4: $954Niche Site 5: $41Niche Site 6: $42Niche Site 7: $90TOTAL: $47,970*March 2020Niche Site 1: $37,978Niche Site 2: $5,261Niche Site 3: $1,430Niche Site 4: $707Niche Site 5: $31Niche Site 6: $41Niche Site 7: $100TOTAL: $45,548**Does NOT include any revenue from Fat Stacks.Feb. & Mar. 2020 ExpensesFebruaryEzoic premium ads: $575Kinsta: 1,200VAs: 3,350Plus a handful of software I use (Ahrefs, Tailwind, OptinMonster, etc.)TOTAL EXPENSES: $6,857NET INC. $41,113 (before content investment)MarchEzoic premium ads: $575Kinsta: $1,200VAs: $4,435Plus a handful of software I use (Ahrefs, Tailwind, OptinMonster, etc.)TOTAL EXPENSES: $7,799NET INC. $37,749 (before content investment)Content Investment Feb. & March 2020FebruaryWriterAccess: $10,000In-House writers: $3500Podcast content: $750TOTAL: $14,250Feb. net income after content: $26,863MarchWriterAccess: $5,500In-House writers: $900AskWonder: $960Podcast content: $750Content Strategist: $1,520TOTAL: $9,630March net income after content: $28,119

In episode #1251, we look at how you can use success gaps to steer your content marketing strategy. So what exactly is a success gap and what does success look like for your customers? The key is that it is not always about selling! If you can educate and help people with all their problems, you are more likely to succeed in the long run. Tune in today to learn more about how to build brand trustworthiness and help your potential customers find success. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:25] Today's topic: How Success Gaps Can Guide Your Content Marketing. [00:33] Success gap: what your customers need to become successful. [01:45] Importance of helping your customers solve their problems and be more successful. [02:18] Building brand awareness and trust to leverage word-of-mouth marketing. [02:40] Why content marketing is essentially another way to help your potential customers. [03:34] A tool to determine to best way to help your customers: Ubersuggest. [04:08] That's it for today! [04:31] To stay updated with events and learn more about our mastermind, go to the Marketing School site for more information. Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: David Henzel Syed Balkhi OptinMonster The Success Gap Lincoln Murphy Reebok Ubersuggest Leave Some Feedback:   What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.   Connect with Us:  Neilpatel.com Quick Sprout  Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel  Twitter @ericosiu

In episode #1251, we look at how you can use success gaps to steer your content marketing strategy. So what exactly is a success gap and what does success look like for your customers? The key is that it is not always about selling! If you can educate and help people with all their problems, you are more likely to succeed in the long run. Tune in today to learn more about how to build brand trustworthiness and help your potential customers find success. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:25] Today’s topic: How Success Gaps Can Guide Your Content Marketing. [00:33] Success gap: what your customers need to become successful. [01:45] Importance of helping your customers solve their problems and be more successful. [02:18] Building brand awareness and trust to leverage word-of-mouth marketing. [02:40] Why content marketing is essentially another way to help your potential customers. [03:34] A tool to determine to best way to help your customers: Ubersuggest. [04:08] That’s it for today! [04:31] To stay updated with events and learn more about our mastermind, go to the Marketing School site for more information. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: David Henzel Syed Balkhi OptinMonster The Success Gap Lincoln Murphy Reebok Ubersuggest Leave Some Feedback:   What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.   Connect with Us:  Neilpatel.com Quick Sprout  Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel  Twitter @ericosiu

In episode #1245, we discuss why the best marketers out there are usually more entrepreneurial! Looking at our own experiences coming up in marketing and in particular the example of our friend Syed Balkhi, we can see the links between creativity, innovation, and success. Tune in to get some inspiration for how you can turn your marketing skills into a business! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:25] Today’s topic: Why the Best Marketers are the Most Entrepreneurial.  [00:34] Eric's practices around learning when he started out in the marketing game. [01:29] Why Neil values creativity over all else in marketing. [02:01] The example of Syed Balkhi and his career path in marketing. [03:31] Frugality and creativity; a winning combination. [04:44] Taking your marketing skills and applying them to a business of your own. [05:38] That's it. [05:43] To stay updated with events and learn more about our mastermind, go to the Marketing School site for more information. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Syed Balkhi OptinMonster Awesome Motive WordPress Leave Some Feedback:   What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.   Connect with Us:  Neilpatel.com Quick Sprout  Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel  Twitter @ericosiu

In episode #1245, we discuss why the best marketers out there are usually more entrepreneurial! Looking at our own experiences coming up in marketing and in particular the example of our friend Syed Balkhi, we can see the links between creativity, innovation, and success. Tune in to get some inspiration for how you can turn your marketing skills into a business! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:25] Today's topic: Why the Best Marketers are the Most Entrepreneurial.  [00:34] Eric's practices around learning when he started out in the marketing game. [01:29] Why Neil values creativity over all else in marketing. [02:01] The example of Syed Balkhi and his career path in marketing. [03:31] Frugality and creativity; a winning combination. [04:44] Taking your marketing skills and applying them to a business of your own. [05:38] That's it. [05:43] To stay updated with events and learn more about our mastermind, go to the Marketing School site for more information. Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: Syed Balkhi OptinMonster Awesome Motive WordPress Leave Some Feedback:   What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.   Connect with Us:  Neilpatel.com Quick Sprout  Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel  Twitter @ericosiu

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你在打造你的網路事業跟品牌？卻沒有電子信名單？（怎麼開始建立你的電子信名單Mini-series 1） 你知道你損失多少可能的獲利機會？ 很多人在網路創業或是建立個人品牌，都沒有想過使用電子信名單？但你知道，電子信名單的Conversion Rate是多少？根據Optinmonster的調查：6.05%，社交媒體才多少？1.9% ， 更不要說ROI了？4400%！！！！ 看到這你你還在考慮要不要建立電子信名單！？ 如果答案是肯定的那麼不要錯過們這集！ 在我們開始之前，我也需要提一下：這集跟下面一集是我們音頻節目的Mini-Series：怎麼開始建立你的電子信名單？ Mini-Series是什麼？課程內容，會用音頻的兩到三集內容來教導大家 ! 延伸閱讀跟收聽：如何在2020年，設計你的免費資源，來吸引你的潛在客戶下載？ 想看這集的部落格文章：請看這裡 我是Irene，我是個旅居歐洲的創業家，行銷人（Marketer)，專欄作家，創業教練(Business Coach)。 || 來說 H I

So hopefully I've convinced you of the importance of email marketing.  If not, please read my article Email Marketing - Yes You Need to Do It!  An Email Address is an Asset Your email list is an asset, something that all of those social media followers are not.  Email is a tried and true way to stay connected with your clients and prospects.  I'm a big fan of soliciting email addresses from my website visitors, as you can probably tell.  My goal is to create content that my readers enjoy and find meaningful, and keep them coming back for more.  The best way to do that is to subscribe to my monthly newsletter where I highlight the content that I've recently created. You've already subscribed, right?  Here let me help:  One thing about an email address, everyone wants to get their hands on it. It's not just a commodity but a thing of value and you need to treat it as such.  A lot of marketers now offer a discount or a freebie in exchange for an email address. It's a great way to encourage someone to sign up for an email list.  Again, think of it as an asset. I'm not going to get into the "incentive to sign up" topic here, but I am going to share a great tool for making simple forms for your website that will be sure to increase your sign up rates. Utilize Email Capture Forms on Your Website Using a high-converting email capture form combined with targeting and behavior automation will dramatically help you boost conversions and grow your email list.  I'm integrating OptinMonster forms into my website for exactly that reason.  OptinMonster helps to convert website visitors into subscribers and ultimately customers.  OptinMonster's features include: Beautiful forms that are proven to convert Personalized messages based on user behavior Referrer detection that shows targeted messages based on where user is coming from Exit-Intent Technology Lightbox Popup Drag N Drop Builder Retargeting Seamless integration with Constant Contact, MailChimp, Hubspot and email providers Plus Insights that help you to fine-tune your lead generation strategy I love these guys and it's so easy to use.  Check out OptinMonster today and let's get going with that email list of yours! I can help you with your email marketing strategy. From navigating email marketing providers and developing content down to setting up and integrating subscription forms into your website.  And to make it easy, check out this free trial being offered by Constant Contact! To learn more about how to manage your marketing strategies, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me! Best, Laura Nowak Brown aka The West Coast Cyber Chick

Hold on and listen in closely today, as Roland and 28-year old Syed Balkhi talk smart and fast about his progression from problem-solving innovator to Award-winning entrepreneur - honored by the United Nations. 10 million websites use his software, so it’s no wonder he’s been featured in Forbes, Inc, e.t.c Roland asks questions about how he has built his amazing, multi-faceted, 8-figure business from nothing. They quickly move into a conversation regarding how he is ‘boot-strap’ growing his company with smart acquisitions and more. “I learned how to code because I didn’t have the money to pay people to code. I literally opened the source code and started googling. I’m pretty good at reverse engineering…I can 'make crappy' fast!” Syed Balkhi To find out more about Syed and dig a little deeper, visit his site. Listen Today for How Syed started earning money for himself at age 12 - with forum posting. How his determination to play video games in High school drove his creative problem solving, teaching himself how to make a proxy and how to code. How he evolved into making websites for people and hiring people by age 16. How his now 10-year old blog was birthed in order to solve problems for his clients (for free) and this blog turned out to be the foundation for his success. How he built his content purely on user-fed content, and the affiliate marketing revenue and rev shares grew as word of mouth spread. How (and why) he made the leap to a software developer. How his Exit-Intent Popup code changed the game (and he even trade-marked the term) increasing traffic by 600%. How he dealt with people knocking off his work. What he learned from taking OptIn Monster outside his primary ecosystem. Why he stays within the WordPress ecosystem (35% of the web) to double down on his unfair advantage. How to define a success gap! How (and why) Syed is growing his business through Acquisitions. How his reputation for not abusing his user base has opened acquisition doors. How he got connected with his highly successful mentor. His perspective on mentors and paying for them. Syed’s travel hacks for the monthly trips he takes with family. “Look at LeBron James. He has a professional coach for everything. If you’re an entrepreneur you need that network to improve. You can only improve if you’re around people that are smarter than you.” -Syed Balkhi Click to find us on Apple Podcasts and other podcast players

Shownotes: http://fizzleshow.com/342 What are the necessary steps to take to start selling online courses? Do you need to be at a certain level before you should start thinking about that at all? How do we pitch online courses at the right level and niche to maximize our reach and potential? The world of learning and the promotion of web-based resources and teaching has evolved very quickly over the last few years and as it has grown and changed, new companies have sprung up and filled spaces some of us never even knew existed. With the multitude of options out there, you might be wondering where can you content fit in and if there is even space for you? In this episode, we have a big discussion on this fertile topic, looking at pillar content, accelerator models and the big one: personalization and segmentation! Our panel of guests gives amazing perspectives on referrals, funnels, scaling and outsourcing. Today on the show we are joined by Janelle Allen from Zen Courses, Barrett Brooks of ConvertKit and Brennan Dunn from RightMessage! These three friends of Fizzle all have valuable and contrasting experience in the fields of online learning and we promise they have all the beans to spill! We also talk about using your collected data smartly, when or if to hire a virtual assistant, baselines to reach before creating courses and how far you should niche down. So for all this and a whole lot more, join us on the Fizzle Show today! Today's episode is brought to you by Podia. Podia is a Swiss Army Knife for selling anything you need online. It's an all-in-one digital storefront where you can sell courses, memberships, and digital downloads all in one place. The cool thing about Podia is that they eliminate all the technical headaches. You don't have to install anything, you can host your sales pages there, your files, your checkout process. You can even do your email marketing and your newsletters from Podia! Fizzle Show listeners can get 15% off of Podia FOR LIFE by signing up for a free trial over at http://podia.com/fizzle. Key Points From This Episode: Is it possible to still make a dent in the online teaching world? [0:02:32.4] Helping people with their own success through different formats. [0:06:12.7] Standing out in a crowded market and the accelerator model. [0:09:36.4] The unique opportunity for interactive and sticky courses. [0:13:52.1] The vital importance of referrals and testimonials in marketing and sustainability. [0:15:31.7] Personalization, segmentation, and customization; the future of online courses. [0:17:25.9] Finding common ground and reflecting this to customers through email. [0:23:40.4] Niching down versus personalization; why segmentation comes first. [0:27:12.3] Weighing the creation of new content against refining existent content. [0:33:17.7] Baselines for successful first course sales! [0:39:02.5] The benefits of collecting segment data for focussing your marketing. [0:42:01.4] Scaling up and the differences between small teams and big companies. [0:47:20.3] When to do things yourself and when to outsource certain jobs. [0:52:45.2] Prioritizing work and letting go of tasks that you do not need to do. [0:58:47.9] And much more! Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: Fizzle — https://fizzle.co Podia — https://www.podia.com/fizzle Zen Courses — https://www.zencourses.co/about Janelle Allen — https://www.zencourses.co Brennan Dunn — https://brennandunn.com RightMessage — https://rightmessage.com ConvertKit — https://brennandunn.com/ Barrett Brooks — https://barrettbrooks.com/ Inc 5000 — https://www.inc.com/inc5000/index.html Teachable — https://teachable.com Coursera — https://www.coursera.org/ Thinkific — https://www.thinkific.com/ Udemy — https://www.udemy.com Masterclass — https://www.masterclass.com Double Your Freelancing — https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/ Bryan Harris — https://videofruit.com Tim Ferris — https://tim.blog Airtable — https://airtable.com Pat Flynn — https://www.smartpassiveincome.com OptinMonster — https://optinmonster.com Corbett Barr — https://corbettbarr.com

Digital Marketing with Growth hack | Day-2 Optin Monster

In episode #1082, we give you the opportunity to hear Eric's conversation with Syed Balkhi from the Marketing School Live event to talk about how to design your thinking for unstoppable growth.  Tune in to hear all about what Syed does and how he runs his business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:55] Today's Topic: How To Design Your Thinking For Unstoppable Growth [01:15] Syed's company creates Wordpress plugins.  [02:34] They have over 9 Million websites using their software. [04:31] Syed tries to be consistent and do the simple stuff that delivers over time. [05:15] Syed has personal health goals, because he gained a good deal of weight. [05:40] He applied a similar principle here and did the simplest things with consistency.  [07:58] An external success gap is the gap between what the product does and what the customers use the product for. [10:00] An internal success gap is what your product does and what the user thinks it should do. [10:10] Sometimes, there are things that the product can do, but doesn't yet, because the company hasn't anticipated all of the users' needs. [10:43] Affiliate marketing is having a commision-only sales team. [13:05] If someone is ranking for the best article on marketing, you can reach out to them to try out your product. [17:32] Syed got his first customers through his blog that already had a big following. [17:41] He also used influencer marketing. [19:01] Content marketing is still key to success and Syed leverages this to attract more customers. [21:56] Syed has in-house writers, because he needs people with a certain level of expertise. [24:45] Publish Press is a great tool for tracking content. [27:05] Wordpress powers 34% of the web. [27:30] Syed sees it as the operating system of the web. [29:15] Hiring the right people has helped Syed, as is having a physical planner and blocking off his Fridays. [34:56] Syed found that building relationships (strategic partnerships) with other companies has proven successful. [37:40] Streaks has added a lot of value to Syed's life; it's a great accountability tracker. [38:08] The Content Template feature in SEMRush has proven helpful to his company, as well. [38:30] One book Syed recommends is Extreme Revenue Growth. [39:13] That's it for today! [40:00] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just go to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In episode #1082, we give you the opportunity to hear Eric’s conversation with Syed Balkhi from the Marketing School Live event to talk about how to design your thinking for unstoppable growth.  Tune in to hear all about what Syed does and how he runs his business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:55] Today’s Topic: How To Design Your Thinking For Unstoppable Growth [01:15] Syed’s company creates Wordpress plugins.  [02:34] They have over 9 Million websites using their software. [04:31] Syed tries to be consistent and do the simple stuff that delivers over time. [05:15] Syed has personal health goals, because he gained a good deal of weight. [05:40] He applied a similar principle here and did the simplest things with consistency.  [07:58] An external success gap is the gap between what the product does and what the customers use the product for. [10:00] An internal success gap is what your product does and what the user thinks it should do. [10:10] Sometimes, there are things that the product can do, but doesn’t yet, because the company hasn’t anticipated all of the users’ needs. [10:43] Affiliate marketing is having a commision-only sales team. [13:05] If someone is ranking for the best article on marketing, you can reach out to them to try out your product. [17:32] Syed got his first customers through his blog that already had a big following. [17:41] He also used influencer marketing. [19:01] Content marketing is still key to success and Syed leverages this to attract more customers. [21:56] Syed has in-house writers, because he needs people with a certain level of expertise. [24:45] Publish Press is a great tool for tracking content. [27:05] Wordpress powers 34% of the web. [27:30] Syed sees it as the operating system of the web. [29:15] Hiring the right people has helped Syed, as is having a physical planner and blocking off his Fridays. [34:56] Syed found that building relationships (strategic partnerships) with other companies has proven successful. [37:40] Streaks has added a lot of value to Syed’s life; it’s a great accountability tracker. [38:08] The Content Template feature in SEMRush has proven helpful to his company, as well. [38:30] One book Syed recommends is Extreme Revenue Growth. [39:13] That’s it for today! [40:00] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just go to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In this episode Sam and Corey interview Thomas Griffin from OptinMonster. The discussion is how you can successfully shift your business from a plugin model to SaaS model. Listen to the show Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners S5B: E11: Thomas Griffin Play Episode Pause Episode Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 00:46:04 Subscribe Share RSS Feed Share Link Embed Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:46:04 Guest: Thomas Griffin is the co-founder of OptinMonster and CTO of Awesome Motive which houses the brand. Prior to OptinMonster, he founded Soliloquy, the fastest WordPress slider plugin, and Envira Gallery, a revolutionary gallery solution for photographers. He is an expert developer with deep knowledge of building products for mass-market. Thomas knows firsthand that software for marketers is generally poor in quality. He's proud that OptinMonster is changing that by creating extremely easy to use and technologically sound SaaS (Software as a Service) that works for users outside of the WordPress framework. Thomas is a frequent speaker on topics of performance and scalability. What you will learn from this episode: The decision was made from Awesome Motive – which houses the OptinMonster Brand to move to a SaaS product in January 2013. (4:56) OptinMonster used to be a WordPress plugin managed through the dashboard. (6:03) The product was tested out from the WPBeginner website when it was realized that there were problems scaling. (7:24) Data portability was available in WordPress and Thomas had that experience from the Soliloquy product. (7:40) The demand to use OptinMonster was coming out of the WordPress ecosystem, so it was profitable to look at the product as a SaaS. (9:15) The host partner for the SaaS is Pagely and they have the expertise to scale the product quickly. (13:00) Your website visitors need to have meaningful data available. (21:18) You can have page level targeting and categories on your site with a lead magnet. (Ex: Target baseball enthusiasts instead of all sports). (21:20) You can segment your list to get immediate value out of your subscribers. (22:18) The technology exists in OptinMonster called the display rules engine with very powerful targeting that can be used by people outside of WordPress. (22:52) Challenges of going from a WordPress Plugin to a SaaS: The onboarding was very critical and the focus is on clear documentation when the product is purchased. (24:49) You bypass the WordPress download, install, etc. (25:00) There is strong documentation on connecting to the WordPress plugin. (25:06) The SaaS provides the user with a dashboard and a guided tour of the product. (25:56) Most questions about WordPress connectivity come through the presales calls.  This is where the education of how OptinMonster works with WordPress is handled. (11:36) There is a strong user base that uses Shopify and other CMS platforms. (28:30) Moving to a SaaS product for OptinMonster was a necessity and an organic migration. (29:28) OptinMonster is powered by WordPress but scaled without “using the WordPress way” with the SaaS product. (30:42) Pricing from the WordPress Plugin to the SaaS: The WordPress payment ecosystem was not mature when the SaaS product was launched. (31:55) There was not a good WordPress solution for subscriptions. (32:00) The SaaS subscription model was difficult. OptinMonster was established from the start as a premium paid product so you started by buying a one-year license with support. (32:46) It was discovered that the yearly subscription was not a way to build business and continue to add value.  A subscription service was added where you paid every month or for the year. (34:09) As the application was updated it added more value by providing subscribers with features and support. (35:08) Users transitioning from the lifetime plugin purchase of OptinMonster were grandfathered into the SaaS product. (35:50) The Business decision was made for lifetime users because it was the right thing to do. People and customers come first. (37:00) You need to manage expectations when moving from a WordPress plugin to a SaaS. Communication is so important. (39:30) The best marketing is having a great product with great customer service. (40:19) Episode Resources: Awesome Motive WPBeginner OptinMonster API connector plugin OptinMonster Thomas Griffin Twitter To stay connected with the Matt Report, head on over to mattreport.com/subscribe. If you like the show, please leave a 5 Star review over on the Matt Report on iTunes. Sponsors: Pagely Gravity Forms ★ Support this podcast ★

In this episode, I interview Syed Balkhi Creator of WPBeginner, List25 and OptinMonster. List 25 has videos with 120 million views. His work has been featured in NYTimes, Wired, Yahoo, Mashable, Business Insider and more. A fantastic story of a

In this Tactical 20 episode I talk about how you can quickly and easily create ActiveCampaign integrations with your other favourite applications such as LeadPages, ClickFunnels, Optin Monster, HelpScout and more. How to integrate your other applications with @ActiveCampaign #podcast #marketingautomationClick To Tweet Optin Monster API Integration LeadPages API Integration Zapier Integration We chat about: API […] The post TAM 025: T20 – ActiveCampaign Integrations appeared first on The Active Marketer.

Syed Balkhi is an award-winning 24-year-old entrepreneur with several 7-figure online businesses. He was recognized as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by the United Nations. His businesses include WPBeginner, which is the largest free WordPress resource on the planet and OptinMonster a popular lead generation SaaS product that you see on so many sites around the web. Links, Resources & People Mentioned OptinMonster WPBeginner List25 Syed Balkhi Envato Tutsplus Infusionsoft Ontraport Matt Mickiewicz - @MattMickiewicz Syed Balkhi - @syedbalkhi Omer Khan - @omerkhan Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to the podcast Leave a rating and review Follow Omer on Twitter Need help with your SaaS? Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support. Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue. Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Syed is an entrepreneur who has been working online since the age of 12. He has a strong marketing background and is the mind behind WPBeginner.com, List25.com, and OptInMonster among others.

I can't believe it took 51 episodes to get the guy who puts the hustle in being a WordPress entrepreneur. Meet Syed Balkhi the man behind WPBeginner.com, one of the world's largest free WordPress resources. How does he manage this publication, monetize and build a team around it? He's also spearheading a new SaaS app built on WordPress and managing two other web properties that he's managed to monetize and become profitable with. Tune in to find out the full story from a true WordPress entrepreneur! Interview with Syed Balkhi of WPBeginner.com Listen to the audio version Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners Episode 51: A true WordPress entrepreneur Play Episode Pause Episode Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / Subscribe Share RSS Feed Share Link Embed Download file | Play in new window The art of hustle Syed shares some great insights for those of us looking to land that next opportunity. “It's not rocket science, just go out and do it.” He once called Robert Scoble's phone to talk about his WordPress site. Shocked that Robert actually picked up the phone, but it worked! I've talked about not attending a WordCamp to find your next client and this rings true for Syed as well. Spend time where your clients are and not just networking for the sake of networking. Don't be afraid to approach folks and be approachable at the same time. The OptinMonster SaaS app & giveaway! When we recorded this, his SaaS app OptinMonster was right around the corner. We'll talk about the benefits of running a SaaS service on WordPress and what that means to the bottom line. The giveaway! Leave a comment below about how using OptinMonster could benefit your business and we'll chose a winner! What you will win: A free “Basic” version of OptinMonster good for your site, unlimited forms and 1-year of support. My very own Minimize Pro theme great for powering your blog or next WordPress project. Example: “If I had OptinMonster, I could capture leads for my __________ business!” So what are you waiting for? Comment below and enjoy the show! ★ Support this podcast ★