Tag: entrepreneur

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11 Ways To Get Free Website Traffic From Social Media

Many online entrepreneurs fail to utilise social media to promote their products. When social media is used correctly, it can drive traffic to your website, increase brand engagement, awareness, and lead generation.

These are some of the proven 11 ways to get free website traffic from social media.

Optimise Your Profiles

Your social media profiles have a role to play when it comes to brand recognition and building. The right social media profile can drive traffic to your site. Therefore, there is a need to optimise your social media profiles.

You should ensure the social media profiles are optimised with relevant keywords. Moreover, you should not miss crucial information when filling in profile details.

Engage Your Audience

The good thing about social media is that it helps you to connect with the target audience directly. As a result, you can interact with the audience, improve customer experience, and get feedback.

Make sure you engage with your audience regularly. In this way, you can boost traffic to your website. Also, you can take into account the opinions of your target audience in your content.

Remember social media is not a one-way communication platform. Rather, it is a two-way platform. This means you should not ignore your audience. Make sure you keep it engaged.

Post Regularly

As a social media marketer, you want to build a list of loyal followers. You can achieve this by posting regularly. There are several factors to guide you when posting. These include your target audience, content, profile bios, hashtags, and time zone.

Keep checking what other brands are doing. If your competitors are posting regularly, you should also do the same.

Create Viral Content

Viral content is common with social media. If you find content that is enticing, relatable to your audience, and unique, you can post it to acquire more traffic. Viral content can help you increase website traffic with minimal effort.

You should note that not all posts will become viral. Ideally, viral content should make others share and spread it to reach more people. Some examples of viral content include memes and short videos.

Share Visual Content

Visual content will get more shares and likes than ordinary content. You should invest your time and resources in creating visuals. Your visuals should be unique to attract your audience. Also, you should share your visual content with your target audience.

The good thing about visual content is that it increases social media visibility. Make sure you use visuals that tell stories and deliver information.

Research Your Competitors

The right marketing strategy must take into account what your competitors are doing. There are various online tools you can leverage to get performance and insights. Other than analysing traffic, you can gather performance metrics and ideas.

Before you start posting and sharing your content, you should analyse the performance of your competitors. This will help you come up with strategies to beat them.

Use Hashtags Effectively

When you use hashtags correctly, you can expose your content to many people. However, make sure you use them ethically. Only use hashtags that are related to your niche, industry, and brand.

Avoid Over Promoting Your Products

Most businesses post only about their services and products. This is likely to bore your audience. Instead, you should make your posts useful and interesting for them. Remember your aim is to retain followers and then convert them into potential customers.

Partner with Social Media Influencers

Social media influencers have created a huge impact in the digital space. Ideally, they are internet celebrities. You can benefit from their immense popularity and followers count on social media.

These celebrities are known to influence how their followers think. Usually, they have a huge network of followers and fans through their social media accounts, blogs, YouTube, and more.

You do not have to work with every influencer out there. Instead, find one with whom your target audience resonates. The idea is to find an influencer who can endorse your products and brand.

Measure Results

There are many tools you can use to measure your results. You should keep a record of visitors from the social network and then analyze its performance. This will help you understand the best social media networks suitable for your business.

There are also tools you can use to publish or schedule your social media posts. You should always keep monitoring the performance of your content across different social media platforms.

Participate in Groups

It is advisable to join several active community groups. Look for groups with people you share the same interests. Such groups can help you drive traffic to your website.

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How to drive traffic to your website with Pinterest

As an online entrepreneur, driving traffic to your website is an important task. Social traffic is equally important as organic search traffic. Most social networks like Instagram and Snapchat are designed to keep users on the networks as long as possible. It is now challenging to drive traffic from social networks.

However, Pinterest is one of the easiest social networks you can use to drive traffic to your website. Other than being a social network, it is also a search engine. These are some proven ways to drive traffic to your website with Pinterest.

Publish at the Right Time

Like other social networks, you need to choose the right time to publish your content on Pinterest. Ideally, you should publish at a time when many people are online and ready to interact and engage with your pins. In this way, you can acquire more traffic.

There are tools that can analyse your pins and determine the best time to publish.

Create Unique Images

You should note that Pinterest is a platform for sharing images. Therefore, you should create unique images. Ideally, you want the images to stand out from competitors. This ensures your images get more clicks naturally.

The recommended size of images is 1000 X 1500 pixels or with a ratio of 2:3.

Optimise for SEO

Since Pinterest is also a search engine, you need to optimise it for SEO. That is because your images are ranked by an algorithm on the network. If you do your search engine optimisation right, then your images rank higher and you acquire more traffic.

Make sure you use the right keywords. There are many keyword research tools you can use. Ensure you add some of these keywords in your pin description. Also, Pinterest offers keyword suggestions.

Use Group Boards

This is another great way of driving traffic from Pinterest to your website. Ideally, boards are platforms where you invite people to contribute.

You have probably seen where users with massive followers encourage others to join their boards. When you send your pins, board members can see them. This will increase your traffic in a great way.

There are free tools to help you find relevant group boards.

Run Ads

It is advisable to combine both organic and paid methods to scale your results quickly. The good thing about ads is that they put your images in front of your target audience. This will ensure you get the best return on investment from your ads.

Make sure you monetise your ads. This is because you can only continue running ads if you earn from the. Track your income to get a better return on investment.

Grow Your Following

If you have many followers on Pinterest, it is easier to generate a lot of traffic. That is because your pins will get more clicks and impressions with minimal effort.

Although Pinterest SEO can help you grow traffic, for long-term results, you should consider growing your followers. You can do this by increasing pinning frequency and promoting your account.

Pin Consistently

Make sure you aim consistently. It is advisable to publish your images daily. Although there is no given number of pins you can post a day, it is important that you become consistent. In fact, as far as Pinterest marketing is concerned, consistency is more important than quantity.

One of the best practices is to add pins over time instead of uploading in bulk at once. You can also pin other people’s content too. By doing this, you are creating a valuable experience for the followers.

Study Pinterest Analytics

As a marketer, you have to pay attention to analytics. Pinterest analytics can help you determine whether your marketing strategies are working or not.

From the dashboard, you can find information about users who view your pins. Also, you can learn various demographics concerning your audience.

You can also collect data on your daily viewers and impressions. Consider learning more about understanding and navigating your analytics data.

Be Patient

There is a need to be patient when it comes to using Pinterest to drive traffic to your website. This is because your efforts will not produce results overnight. Thus, you might not get instant traffic.

You should keep on creating pins and analysing Pinterest analytics. This will help you know what is working and what is not. Keep refining your marketing strategy to make it better. Find out pins that drive the most traffic and engagement.

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10 Insidious Traps That Waste Online Entrepreneurs’ Time

As an online entrepreneur, you have to be wary of insidious traps that waste your time. These traps can rob you of your energy, focus, and time if you allow them. You need to know they exist, block them, and stay alert.

These are 10 insidious traps that waste online entrepreneurs’ time and how to deal with them.

Email

Many online entrepreneurs waste a lot of time reading and responding to emails. You might be surprised to learn that you spend about 2 hours daily on email.

It is advisable to limit the amount of time you spend on email. Set aside a few minutes to check your email and respond to your emails.

Web Surfing

There are times you are searching for important things only to end up surfing the web. This is especially the case when you open your social media accounts.

Make sure you track your time online. You cannot know you have a problem unless you measure it. After knowing the extent of online surfing, you should take steps to limit it.

Only surf the web when looking for important information. Avoid stopping by to check social media updates. Ensure your social media accounts are logged out always.

Meetings

Research has shown that online entrepreneurs spend most of their time on meetings. Some meetings are a must. However, you should ensure they are short.

Understand when a meeting is necessary and when it is time-wasting.

Although it is necessary to get status updates, getting them through email is better than scheduling a meeting. Schedule for a meeting if only there is confusion.

When you call a meeting, make sure you send the agenda in advance. This ensures everyone is aware of what is required and all involved persons can prepare.

Perfectionism

The work looks good, but it can be made better. Why not change the font? This is what is called perfectionism. You should avoid it at all costs.

The truth is that nearly everything can be improved by doing some tweaks. If you believe the task you were doing is nearly complete, you can set it aside and have a look after a day or later.

Not Delegating

Some online entrepreneurs like the DIY route. Although you are your own boss, it does not mean everything should be done by you. For instance, you want to be the writer, editor, designer, and SEO expert.

If you find you are not good at something, you need to learn how to do it. Unfortunately, this will end up taking a lot of your time.

Learn to delegate some tasks. This will free up a lot of your time. Determine some of the tasks that can be done by your employees and assign them with deadlines. Some tasks like accounting can be done by online systems, such as QuickBooks.

Constantly Looking for New Processes and Vendors

Sometimes you feel you are not getting the best services and prices. It is a good idea to carry out a periodic audit to find vendors that can offer better terms. Also, you might need to consolidate services with a single provider. This will make it easier to manage your bills and relationships.

Unfortunately, new processes come with a learning curve. Thus, you should not just try something new just because you need change.

Instead of wasting time looking for new processes and vendors, hire someone to do the legwork for you.

Being Disorganised

Very few people are natural organisers. Studies have shown that online entrepreneurs waste a lot of time because they are not organised.

Most people have not learned organisational skills that can help them deal with increasing demands and workloads.

Make sure you are always organised. This will reduce the amount of time you spend searching for missing documents.

Not Taking Breaks

It is a fact that you cannot concentrate for over 90 minutes without taking a break. Most online entrepreneurs are known to work for long hours without taking a break. Unfortunately, you will end up spending extra time on tasks.

For you to stay productive and focused, you should take routine breaks. This will ensure you are always refreshed and with renewed energy to tackle your tasks. Also, this will protect you against burnout.

Procrastinating

Procrastinating is a time sucker. When left unattended, it becomes a vicious cycle that can leave you unproductive and demotivated.

You can avoid procrastination by breaking your working time into small manageable chunks. Try to do your most un-enjoyable tasks in the morning.

Multitasking

Doing multiple things at the same time is counterproductive. Studies have shown that multitasking makes you less productive. This is because you need to switch between tasks instead of focusing on a single task at a time. Also, it can harm your brain.

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6 Ways To Overcome The Fear Of Failure In Online Business

As an online entrepreneur, failure is inevitable. You should note that failure is part of life, and this includes online business failure. However, the way you deal with it determines whether you succeed or not.

Many people fail to start their online businesses because of fear of failure. These are six ways to overcome the fear of failure in online business.

Prepare to Succeed

Before you even start your online business, you need to prepare to succeed. This means you first learn how to do your business. Well, you know how to fail. Ideally, you can fail by not doing anything or doing stupid things.

Therefore, you need to find exactly what should be done to be successful. Acquiring knowledge will ensure you achieve success.

For instance, you need to know people who will buy your products and services. Make sure you offer a price and quality that is competitive enough to encourage people to purchase it.

Make sure you have a business plan. This will help fill in your knowledge gaps and provide you with steps you will follow. Think of your business plan as a blueprint for success.

Change Your Attitude

You need to figure out what scares you from starting an online business. Many people are terrified by fear because it makes one feel bad and you can end up losing your investment.

The truth is fear cannot change your personality. Therefore, even if you fail, you do not become a bad person. Failure will affect your actions negatively.

It does not matter what others say about you. You cannot control their actions or thoughts. Hence, there is no need of losing sleep over them.

Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

Every niche has a group of companies and individuals that get to the top. You should make it a habit of learning from their approaches and then emulate them.

It is advisable to study the failures and successes of entrepreneurs, no matter the industry or business they are in. However, you need to be careful not to compare yourself to others.

Remember you are on a mission to build a unique online business. Then, you should stick to your uniqueness. Respect the performance of other online entrepreneurs but do not envy them. You can never be the other people. Do things your way and you will achieve success.

Just Keep Going

You can also overcome the fear of failure by taking action. When fears, negative thoughts, and doubts fill your mind, you should stay focused on the right actions to take.

Fear is common when doing things for the first time. That is because when you are doing something new, you are leaving your comfort zone and getting into the unknown. Instead of retreating to the comfort zone, embrace fear and keep going.

There is a need to face fear head-on and keep on taking action. As a result, your comfort zone will expand and your fear will subside.

As an entrepreneur, you should use fear to fuel your motivation. It can be fear of mediocrity, fear of rejection, and fear of failure.

Focus On Solutions Not Problems

Remember your business exists to provide services or products that solve problems people have. If you want to succeed, then you should know how to embrace problems. This does not mean you focus on problems. Instead, you should focus on solutions.

Consider problems as opportunities to come up with solutions. If employees complain about a given challenge, an opportunity might be existing there. As more problems bile up, more opportunities become available.

Education and Research

As you know, knowledge is power. You can eliminate or minimise risks by utilising the experience and expertise of others. Before starting a business, you should educate yourself on different topics.

Learn expert tips and common mistakes you should avoid. Get to know the commonly overlooked business challenges.

During your research, you will discover that many entrepreneurs have faced fear before and they have overcome it. You should also learn the methods they used to overcome fear.

There are many online resources where you can learn some business knowledge to help you overcome obstacles. If you know of a successful entrepreneur, you should seek advice from him or her. Also, you can discuss challenges and brainstorm ideas together.

You can also seek a business mentor who can help you overcome fear. Consider joining networking groups with other online entrepreneurs. These are people who face the same challenges and fears as you.

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9 Steps to Start an Online Business

When starting an online business, there are certain steps you should follow to achieve success. There is a need to do due diligence the same way you would for a brick-and-mortar business.

The internet gives everyone an opportunity. It is easier to start an online business than an offline business. However, this does not mean you simply jump in and invest your money.

The following are 9 steps to follow when starting an online business.

Find a Business Idea

This might seem too obvious. However, studies have revealed that many potential entrepreneurs skip this step. They start with website creation and branding without having a solid business idea.

These are some questions you should ask yourself when coming up with a business idea:

Is there a need for this product or service?

What is your motivation behind this?

What problem does your business solve?

Can you leverage your strengths in this business?

These questions will help you determine whether your business will be successful. Remember you are on a mission and you need passion to push you forward.

Determine Market Viability

You need to have a solid understanding of your target market. Start by thinking about the people you serve and the value you offer.

If you are part of the target audience, then it can be easier for you.

For instance, if you have been hiking, you understand the challenges, desires, and problems you face. It would be easier for you to sell hiking products online. Also, you can easily communicate with other hikers.

Create a Business Plan

After determining the business idea and market gap, you should start developing a business plan. The business plan will help you seek funding and forecast your financials. You might need to revisit and revise it as your business grows.

A business plan will help you spot potential challenges down the road. In addition, it will help you plan for profitability and future growth.

An effective plan helps you clarify your objectives, identify the market gap, and in making decisions. It can mean the difference between a successful business and failure.

Build Your Website

Now you need to build your business website. Your website design does not have to be completed. Instead, make it simple and easy to navigate.

The website is your first point of contact with the customer. Therefore, it needs to grab the attention of the visitor. Avoid using too many graphics, videos, and audio. Use them only when it is necessary.

You can also hire website design and development companies. Outsourcing website creation has its share of benefits.

Make sure you write a copy that sells. High-quality content helps you build authority.

Analyse Your Competition

No matter your niche, you are not alone. Even if your product is unique, there are substitute products that can serve the same purpose.

Competitive analysis is important as it helps you to know your competitors and the strategies they use. Also, you can identify resources available at your disposal.

Drive Traffic

There are many ways you can drive traffic to your brand-new website. For instance, you can invest in PPC advertising.

PPC ads are instant and you can test multiple keywords, prices, selling approaches, and headlines. Other than getting immediate traffic, you can discover best performing keywords. You can then use these keywords in your website copy. This will boost your rankings in search engine results.

In the long term, you should invest in search engine optimisation. This will help your site rank higher in search engine results organically.

You can also drive traffic from social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Build Authority

People search for information online. If you can provide the information for free, you will acquire more traffic and boost your search engine rankings.

The idea here is to create high-quality content and build backlinks. Create videos, articles, and infographics that your visitors find useful. You can then share this content on social media pages and article directories.

Ideally, you need to become an expert in your niche.

Invest in Email Marketing

During website creation, you need to build an opt-in list. The list is an important asset for your online business. This is because it permits you to send emails and newsletters to your subscribers and customers.

With email marketing, you can develop lifetime relationships with customers and offer them whatever they need. Also, you can easily measure the performance of your email marketing efforts.

Unlike other marketing methods, email marketing is cheaper.

Try Upselling

Upselling is an important online marketing strategy that can improve your revenue. Use it to encourage your customers to buy from you again.

Make sure you offer products or services that complement their purchase. Another option is to offer related products and send coupons periodically.

When you reward your loyal customers, you are likely to keep them for a lifetime.

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