How to Increase your Email Optin Rates – Part 2?

There is no better way to get a boost in traffic from sending an email to your huge email subscribers list informing them about your new post.

If you have 10000 subscribers and they are highly engaged, you can get a minimum of 50% visits, this means 5000 subscribers.

All this from only a click.

And the best part is that you can do it again and again. But how to have higher email optin rates?

This is what I am trying to cover recently. Here are more tips to get more email subscribers. Continue reading to check those tips.

1- Optimize your about page:

The about pages?

Yes, the about pages.

It’s the most visited page on most of the blogs. Optimizing it right can result in more subscribers. So here is the best way to optimize your about page:

1. Share some information about your blog, how it’s different, and how can they benefit from your blog.
2. Place an optin form that is simple, sweet and ask them to subscribe.
3. Share some information about you and why they should follow you.
4. Place another optin form.
5. After that show some of the places you were featured on and some testimonials if you have, if not then no problem. Then you can place another optin form.

Not only this structure will help you to get more subscribers, but also you will be able to get more engagement from your readers and subscribers.

Go and try this structure now, you’re going to love it.

2- Create a “Start Here” page:

This is also another great page type you can try.

Show to your readers some of the important posts in your blog. You can also place an email optin forms.

The real benefit isn’t the no. of subscribers you’ll get. The best part is that your readers will check more posts on your blog, your page views will increase and the engagement will also increase.

Not only they will be email subscribers, they will also be engaged email subscribers. So you can really sell products to them and get higher opens rates.

They may also promote your blog.

They will be in love with you.

3- Ask people to subscribe:

Placing your optin forms isn’t enough to get a lot of subscribers.

You need to ask them to do so. Place a strong call to action in your optin form.

So instead of saying “How to make your blog better” you can say “Grab our free ebook to make your blog better”.

Do you see the difference? You are asking them to subscribe and grab your ebook. This will actually convert more.

Also, place a direct call to action at the end of your post asking your readers to subscribe.

If they came to the end of the post then they will be more interested to subscribe, so ask them to do so.

Last words:

I am sure that your subscribers increase rate is increasing a lot.

The interesting part is that you can increase it more, wait for our next post to know how.

Just apply the tips here and I am sure you’ll see a great increase in your email optin rates.

Did I Choose a Wrong Affiliate Marketing Niche?

What’s more important – product or market? If you don’t know, a market has more importance than a product. No matter how useful an affiliate product it is, you won’t be able to make any sales unless there’s a really hungry market for that specific product. Sadly enough, most of newbies think that making money withaffiliate marketing is as easy as finding a couple of affiliate products and start promoting or selling them on their sites.

Sorry, affiliate marketing is not that easy.

When you jump on to the bandwagon of affiliate marketing, you’ll easily come across with plenty of good products. But what’s the point of promoting those products that won’t make you any money? A good product also needs a hungry market, where you can sell it quickly.

There are several reasons due to which most of the marketers fail with their affiliate marketing efforts. Many fail because they have chosen too expensive or too cheap products to promote. Many others fail only because they promote tons of products at a time, making it hard for themselves to pay adequate attention to the promotion of each of their chosen products. There are others who fail due to their lack of knowledge of the products. It’s only because they haven’t tried or used the product themselves.

Though there are several other reasons of getting failed with affiliate marketing, choosing a wrong niche is also a big common reason.

There are plenty of bloggers, website owners or online marketers who are unable to make enough affiliate sales only because they have chosen a niche which isn’t profitable enough. They have chosen a niche that doesn’t have a hungry market for the product they are trying to sell.

Furthermore, a chosen niche is wrong not only because it’s not profitable enough or doesn’t offer a good market. Any niche that you don’t have much expertise in or don’t feel passionate about is also a wrong niche for you. If you lack knowledge about a particular niche, you won’t be able to build authority and trust, essential ingredients for getting success with affiliate marketing.

If you plan to get started with affiliate marketing and hope to earn a handsome income online as well, the first thing you should do is to find a niche that’s profitable enough. Don’t make the mistake of finding affiliate products when you are getting started. In fact, conduct some extensive research to identify a niche which has less competition but offers a hungry market for some specific affiliate products. You may also identify a niche which is profitable but there are not enough products to sell in that hungry market.

That’s actually a golden opportunity for you!

If you come across a profitable niche where there’s a scarcity of product, you can also consider creating some of your own. Provided you do it in the right way, you can cash in on such opportunities really well.

In case you are struggling to make enough affiliate sales on your website or blog, you should take a closer look at your chosen niche. If it’s not the niche, you must be making other potential mistakes. If it’s the niche, however, you’ll need to find a profitable niche for yourself and start all over again. If you are just getting started, on the other hand, you have all these good pieces of advices at hand. Use these tips and suggestions so you can achieve success.

What’s the Best Niche for Me?
One size doesn’t fit everyone. One niche that works best for someone may not work at all for someone else. Therefore, the best niche for you is the one that you possess solid knowledge about, that you are truly passionate about and that where you think you have the ability to beat the competition out.

Do you think you have chosen the right niche for affiliate marketing? Feel free to share your opinions as the comment section is all yours.

Common Reasons: Why Most Bloggers Fail at Their First Attempts

Most of thenewbies I see actually give up for a common reason – they don’t get results. And they never wonder why that is? Not actually thinking what were the factors that detained their site and what could have been the small little steps that they could have taken to resolve.

Not choosing the correct category where they belong.

They are mostly the people who actually choose a category they like, not the one they could work on. Like take me for example: two years back I actually took a category of health, and not only health it was about “home remedies for skin treatment and beautification”, just because I went to an Ayurveda’s saloon twice or thrice; I thought I knew enough to tell others about it. Well no it was a decision I still regret.

My point – if you don’t know about rocket science, don’t write about it. Write what you can, even if it is about football. People are there searching for everything. And it is better to write more about something you know you are sure about rather than writing less about something you don’t know.

They don’t spend time on correct issues. (Or maybe they just don’t want to work a little more)

Second most common reason for their failure is because they just spend too much time in just making the website look better, yeah I know look and feel of the site does matters but; what’s the point if you are spending your time ONLY on the outer beauty what about its soul, where is the content. Don’t just spend every minute on its design, post something – something worth people visit it for.

The best way to drive traffic is from search engines and I definitely know they don’t go over your sites body and see if it’s black or blue. Write “Quality Content” about the topic you choose and write more. Search Engines eat on content, it’s what they and their users want, but to post something that is not in your niche will not only make you a false information provider, even your regular users may decrease. Never write something that is not under your category, only if that affects you.

They have lost the spirit of sharing.

Another most important reason is the point of sharing that they don’t understand, they think- they can do it alone, but it’s the world of internet, you have to share to get into the top league, no one stands out. “Everyone needs everyone” – remember that. Most of the bloggers including me share our links, articles and even our strategies sometimes. No one is perfect and has to help others and they return the favor when you need them.

P.S: If you are trying blogging, and are not getting results, be patient and most importantly be determined; not only in writing but also in finding new ways to promote. It’s the age of social media anything can click and any working formula can fail. No sure shot way to anything.

Best Tips on Blogging for Newbies

So you’ve finally decided that blogging is what you want to do for a living.

The good news is it’s a really fun and fulfilling job. The bad news is it’s not easy to do at first.

No, don’t think that I am discouraging you from blogging. What I’m simply trying to say is you have to brace yourselves for the hard work required. Don’t get me wrong. It’s challenging especially at the beginning and you’ll even face some as you go along your blogging journey, but if you really like it and have what it takes to succeed as a blogger, then these challenges should not be a problem.

Once you’re in, it’s important that you don’t forget some really important tips on  blogging.

Don’t forget to implement these tips on blogging

Write regularly. To be a successful blogger, you need to be consistent. Write regularly. It can be daily, weekly, or even monthly. The important thing is to write regularly. Whether it’s your own or someone else’s blog, regular posts are necessary. It shows your commitment.

Spend a lot of time researching for facts. A post that doesn’t have anything to say is useless. Make sure that your posts are backed with accurate facts. Research is a very important skill for a blogger. Nothing attracts readers more than blog posts that have relevant, useful, and accurate facts.

Have something to say and say it differently. In this age, almost everyone has a blog. That’d also mean the topics we blog about have already been written by others. When you blog, make sure to say something different. Tackle every topic differently. Find a new angle and write about it. That’s going to help you stand out.

Always put your readers in mind. If you’re a businessman, you’ll want to give your customers everything they want. That’s how you’ll make money. Similarly, bloggers need to put readers’ needs first. When you write, make sure to structure your post according to what your readers want.

Some helpful tips on blogging effectively for your readers include these questions: What do my readers want to know? What kind of language are they comfortable with? How can I present technical terms and facts in easily?

Stick to your schedule. This is similar to the first item on the list. Sticking to a schedule is important. The last thing you want is for your blog to sit for days and weeks without a new post.

Know how  to identify relevant images. Images can add so much appeal to blog posts. Make it a point to include a photo in all blog posts. The most important thing here is images need to be relevant. There are sites that will allow you to use their  images for free as long as you attribute properly.

Know the benefits of interlinking posts. Interlinking posts is beneficial for SEO, so don’t forget to do that. This will also allow you to promote other posts that are not doing as well as you expected. It can improve traffic and linkjuice. Part of interlinking posts effectively is using the right anchor texts.

Keyword research is an important skill. Blog posts have to be centered around a certain keyword. Know how to pick the best and most profitable keywords by using Google’s Keyword Tool. If you have cash to spare, you can purchase keyword research tools that are just as effective and even offer other features.

Plan your posts. An editorial calendar is a must-have. This will make your job easier. Also, knowing what you have to write will give your blog a sense of direction.   

Encourage reader interaction. At the end of your posts, it won’t hurt to write a short line encouraging readers to share the post or add a comment below. You’d be surprised at how effective that can be.

Respond to comments promptly. When people do comment on your posts, make sure to respond promptly. This will let your audience know that you’re sincere in establishing a relationship with them, which is very important in obtaining a loyal following for your blog.

Go all out. Give as many advice as you can. Whenever possible, give away freebies. Or point your readers to other places where they can find useful stuff. They’ll thank you for it and to compensate, they’ll stay loyal.

Cite other blogs/bloggers in your posts. This will not only add more credibility to your blog posts but encourage relationships with more established bloggers. Obviously, when you link to them, you’re helping increase their link juice and traffic. They’ll also thank you for it. This will help you get the attention of famous bloggers.

Meet Eric Gati of My4HrWorkWeek.com

One of my favorite things about the blogging niche is that so many people get started with their own blog to document their process for starting their own business and maybe even leaving their job. This is something that Eric has done with his blog over at My 4 Hour Workweek. The site is loaded up with great content for anyone who is looking to start their own blog or business online, but also goes into detail on Eric’s earnings, his niche sites and many of the other resources and experiences he had in the world of online marketing. Yet another awesome addition in the meet the bloggersinterview series.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

Very briefly about me: I’m a 28 year old CPA who lives in Chicago, and I have a little over 4 years of experience working at an accounting firm.  I like what I do, but I’ve always felt that there was more I could be doing outside of work.

For me, blogging was initially inspired by the book “The 4-Hour Workweek”.  I knew I wanted to create some kind of income outside of my “9 to 5” job, and I wanted a blog to document my journey.

So, in 2009, My 4-Hour Workweek was born.  Although the blog has grown in popularity over the past few years (now hovering around 25,000-30,000 visits per month, with over 8,000 subscribers between RSS and my Aweber e-mail list), I’m still a regular guy with a regular job.  I mention this not as a point of pride, but more as a partial explanation for why I haven’t achieved the great success that many other bloggers have (who you have interviewed in this series).  As much as I hate to admit it, my job as a CPA still comes first.

In a way, one of my goals is to show people that you can have a very time consuming “day job” and still make some significant money online.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

The focus of my blog is really about my journey to create sources of online income (preferably passive income).  You could call it an “internet marketing” blog, but it’s really much more than that – and I definitely don’t consider myself an internet marketing “expert” or “guru”.

I like to think that one day, if/when I “make it big”, someone else or I will be able to look back at all my posts and clearly see what led me to success, and more importantly, where I failed along the way.  I chose this niche because it allows me to discuss everything that I’m doing online to make money, all in one place.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

Because I don’t sell ad space or use PPC ads like AdSense, my blog traffic is almost exclusively monetized using affiliate links.  My top income source is usually Commission Junction, where I earn affiliate income through hosting services, peer-to-peer lending, and other services/products offered through CJ (that are relevant to my readers).  Because my blog was not intended to be a source of my income online (it’s merely supposed to document my journey), I don’t aggressively try to monetize it.  However, it still happens to be the most lucrative part of my online business.

One of my recent successes was with this page that I was able to rank on page 1 of Google for the highly competitive phrase “make money online” for the past 6+ months.  The ranking fluctuates quite a bit, as you would imagine – at one point, I was ranked #2 on page 1, and currently, I’ve fallen to the second page (depending on where you look).  The crazy part is, I had no intention of ranking for that phrase, but nevertheless it turned out to be a great source of my blog’s income.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

The importance of working hard and sticking with it despite slow growth initially.  It’s so easy to give up when you’re first starting out and not seeing results.  I know my first year of blogging was nearly wasted because I didn’t think anyone would ever read my writing.  If I would’ve put a little bit more effort in early on, and started many projects sooner, I probably would be a lot further ahead today.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

1.  Smart Passive Income
2.  Quick Sprout
3.  Niche Pursuits

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

Because I know most bloggers use WordPress, here are 3 plugins that I find helpful:

1.  WordPress SEO by Joost – This is probably the only SEO plugin most blogger’s need, as it makes just about everything SEO-related easier for you.
2.  Tweet Old Post – A great way to give some love to your older blog posts automatically – I use this on a few of my blogs, and it works quite well.
3.  Sharebar – An attractive way to add sharing buttons (Tweet, “Like”, etc.) to your blog posts.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

1.  Keep pushing forward.  As I mentioned above, it’s so easy to give up when you’re starting out.  Success (except in very rare occasions) doesn’t happen quickly.  And even those who appear to succeed quickly probably had many earlier failures that you just aren’t aware of.

2.  Work hard and be consistent.  This probably applies to many areas of life, but it’s especially true with blogging.  Fight the urge to be lazy – if you planned to blog three times a week, hold yourself to that schedule.  And as a side note, don’t sacrifice quality just to publish a blog post.  Once you’ve start putting out quality content with a level of consistency, you will find that your audience will return with consistency.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Build relationships – even though most of your online relationships are virtual, they can have a very real impact on your blog’s success.  You can build relationships by starting small and doing something as simple as leaving a comment on another blog in your niche.

Get to know people, and don’t immediately jump on the opportunity to ask for something.  Strong relationships are built on a two way street, and the best thing you can do is offer value without expecting anything in return.  Don’t worry, good things will come.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

I would probably buy hosting, a domain, and good keyword research software (such as Market Samurai or Long Tail Pro).  You won’t know how to use it right away, but there is plenty of free information out there to show you how to use it.

I wouldn’t spend a dime on any eBooks or training courses (with a few exceptions) – again, there is a wealth of free information on the internet, and if you’re willing to invest your time, you can do most things without spending any money.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

Blog: http://www.my4hrworkweek.com
Twitter: @My4HWW
Google+:https://plus.google.com/u/0/100898169973038258562

Thanks again Eric for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

Some Great Tips for Writing Killer Content

By now you’ve heard it time and time again, but it bears repeating—there’s no substitute for writing killer content. It’s not just writing about interesting topics and writing well anymore either: in today’s market you need to know how to adjust your efforts and combine them with solid white hat SEO techniques.

Content Is King

First off, you need to make a decision about the length of the piece that you’re writing well before you start to make any decisions about where to place keywords and links. The conventional wisdom for blogs is the pieces should be anywhere from 200 words to 1000 words depending on the subject matter, but there are no hard and fast rules.

Just remember that most people reading your blog online will be scanning and not looking to read the piece in its entirety in one sitting. That means shorter paragraphs are better than longer ones and bullet points and subheaders neatly categorize the work so readers can get to where they need to be quickly.

Be Clear and Concise

It’s also important that you learn to be clear and concise when you’re writing. Getting straight to the point is one of the quickest ways to hold your readership’s attention. Meandering all over and getting off point will have people clicking away from you and on to competitors’ websites. Learning a few rules of self-editing can be invaluable as this technique will help you cut down on the words that are unnecessary in a sentence or even a paragraph.

Adding those keywords

All the while you should be aware that keywords need to be placed in the right locations. Usually, one keyword per every hundred words of text is a good marker to go by, but that hint only provides part of the picture.

Finding the right keywords is a process in itself that involves research and deciding on which target market is in your best interest. After you’ve gone through that process, it’s best to blend the keywords into the text as much as possible so they don’t stand out.

Remember that writing killer content involves a few different variables so that in the end you have a complete package that scores with the search engines and your target market at the same time.

Meet KJ Rocker of KJRocker.com

One of the common themes among thebloggers we interview in these series is that many of them use their blogs to share their online money making journey with their audience and document the process along the way. Not only is this beneficial to the blogger, but also to their audience as many of you are also looking for the same type of success. In today’s interview we have KJ Rocker who has a blog with the same make money online and document along the way concept. Be sure to read through all his answers as it’s been quite the journey for KJ and his blog.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

My name is KJ, and I am 23 years old. I am an internet entrepreneur. I first started my online career as a Freelancer in January 2010, before that I was working as an call center agent and had really tough times, which lead me to look on the internet for alternate income sources. As I was already familiar with website development and design, I started freelancing on freelancer.com. I can still remember I spent countless sleepless nights bidding on projects, as I invested the money I had in my pocket into buying internet connection etc. So it was a do or die situation for me. Thankfully I did it! Anyway, Later on, a client introduced me to affiliate marketing and I started making good money with it. I loved what I did so I wanted to share my experiences with other people so I joined a few well known forums in order to do so, how ever I kind of felt that without having your own blog or your own site you can`t always share your opinion openly. For example, I posted about an affiliate who was spamming and I personally received their spam mails on a well known forum, In return I got a warning from a moderator of the forum and that was the time when I really thought about starting my own blog.  And thus in October of 2011 I launchedkjrocker.com.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

My main focus is Affiliate marketing and to be honest, that`s where my passion is. I love what I do and I love telling others what I do.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

To be honest when I started my blog my aim was only to share my experiences and my ideas I never had any intention to monetize my blog, or in simple words I was n`t blogging for money. However, later on as it started getting famous and people started liking that`s when affiliate marketer inside me suggested me to monetize my blog. Now I monetize my blog by Paid ads, and by promoting products and services which are related to my niche for example courses , competitive analysis services etc. However, I only promote genuine and useful products, it is not about the money, it is about quality and my passion.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

Building relations with other bloggers is very important and I wish I knew it when I was starting out. Your relationship with other bloggers is what helps you most in order to gain more traffic and more exposure, I was always a kind of shy person and was very hesitant to contact other bloggers, thinking they are too big, whereas I am just starting out. So that fear of being just a newbie in blogging kept me away from increasing my reader base. But to be honest there is nothing different and super bloggers are also humans and most of them are really nice people, so I wish I knew that at start.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

zacjohnson.com, dukeo.com, shoemoney.com , copyblogger.com

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

First of all I would recommend all bloggers to have yoast SEO Plugin this plugin  is really amazing. After that I would suggest bloggers to use Content Delivery Network, as it makes your site load faster and increases your site performance. Adding to this, seomoz in order to track your all SEO performance.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

For new bloggers I would say go where your passion leads you and target those niches which you have personal interest in. I have seen many people getting confused over what to write about and what topic and niche their blog should cover. I always suggest to follow your passion and in this way you won’t ever have to worry about content.

Also being a blogger your first priority should be your readers, so make sure you give them correct information and what you know best. It’s a fact that we all need money but we will only make money if your readers are happy with you and they trust you, so try your best to never hurt their trust. For example let’s talk about the affiliate industry, just for a few bucks some bloggers won`t even hesitate to review and suggest a network which never pays its affiliates. Always value your visitors more than anything else and specially money.

Socialize with other bloggers participate in get-togethers conferences and always try to have a friendly relation with other bloggers.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Consistency pays, No matter what you do in your life, If you are consistent and you refuse to give up, You will succeed. That`s guaranteed! Nothing is impossible in this world, everything is possible.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

After domain and hosting costs I`d buy aweber subscription to build a mailing list and start publishing content on my own blog, but also I would start guest posting on other related industry blogs and build my reader base of loyal blog readers.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

I love to connect with my readers and they are always welcome to get in touch with me through my blogcontact page.
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/imkjrocker
Twitter : https://twitter.com/kjrocker
Google Plushttps://plus.google.com/u/0/109354601972176427604/

Thanks again KJ for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

Viralheat brings Social Media Management to Mobile

It is estimated that 920 million smartphones will ship globally this year. That number has steadily climbed year over year as our dependency and fondness for mobile devices grows. These small devices now act as our lifeline to news and information across the globe and keep us up-to-date with our friends’ Facebook statuses and tweets. It is said that the average smartphone user checks social media 20 times per day via their phones. So it’s no wonder Viralheat, a social media marketing suite, released an iPhone app this week that is modeled after their popular web based product.

The app, which can be found in the Apple App Store, allows users to manage multiple social media accounts across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn from anywhere at anytime.

The app includes access to the Viralheat Stream where users can view and engage with social conversations in real time. All the normal engagement actions are offered including: reply, retweet, favorite, comment, like, share, and email content from the stream. Other advanced features available with the Viralheat iPhone App include the ability to schedule posts in advanced, publish across various social media platforms, account analytics, and the option to create and save custom stream views based on user’s preference.

The new app makes staying on top of your social media efforts easy with its user-friendly and on-the-going design.

To learn more about Viralheat’s social media marketing suite, visit their website. And download the free iPhone App through the Apple App Store, available today!

Guidelines for your business’ online reputation management

One of the most important responsibilities that you as a business owner see to it is to ensure that the status of your company staysintact. This is very imperative as it can either boost up or damage your business’ name. However, it is usually the latter that businesses should take precaution for it not to happen.

How important is online reputation management?

Online reputation management comes in when a business organization experiences some damaging publicity. They are the ones who will take action in making certain that negative commentaries are contained. Basically it is their job to come up with a plan that counteracts the current condition and pushes down the negative publicity.

How to ensure that your business reputation stays intact?

With the evolution of internet, communication is made easy. It is because of this that once you post your products and /or services online many individuals would automatically recognized it; provided that you are using the right tools to make it happen. What makes it more interesting is that whatever you post online will forever stay online. Hence, you must be very careful with what you say on the internet. To avoid facing unnecessary problems caused by negative publicity, here are some tips for you to ensure that this does not happen.

Be mindful with what you say online

The internet has a very distinct memory. Unlike people wherein they sometimes forget what they say, the internet does not do the same. Whatever comments or pictures or videos you post online stays there indefinitely. It does not forget nor can it be deleted. Therefore, you have to learn to be careful with whatever you do online. One minor mistake and it can do great damage to your business’ reputation.

Never argue online

If you encounter customers saying negative remarks against your product, do not argue with them. The right action you should take is to apologize and ask them what you can do to make it better. Remember, you cannot please everybody. Out of 10 customers that you have, 7 might agree with you while the rest do not. Hence, you must learn to control yourself not to lash out to these types of customers. Part of being a reputed company is providing good customer service. How can you give them these good services if you do not know how to placate irate customers?

Immediately address all complaints and/or queries of your clients

To ensure that your customers are always satisfied with your services, answering their complaints and/or queries within 24 hours is a good plan of action. Be polite and courteous to them even if you think that your clients are asking questions with obvious answers. Be cool and never lose your temper. Once you lose your temper you tend to say hurtful words or opinions that might insult your customers. Although expressing oneself is okay, do it with tactfulness.

Create a strategic plan

One of the best ways to avoid negative publicity is to create a strategic plan. Included in that plan are guidelines on what to say or how to act in the event that such incident does occur. You must always stay ahead of the game so that you will not be taken aback once problems like this arise. If possible, create different scenarios and make an action plan for each scenario. In the event that one of the scenarios you have created indeed shall happen you will know exactly what to do.

A path to a successful online business

By following the tips mentioned above, you won’t ever have to undergo problems in dealing irate customers and negative publicity. As much as you hate other people saying negative comments about your business you cannot prevent them from doing so as it is also their right to express themselves. The reason why these guidelines are mentioned is for you to be aware on what you should do and how you should react in the event that you might experience it in the future. This is just one of the many circumstances that you would be facing in your quest to make your business a success. Therefore, take it all in stride. Never falter and strive hard to work on your goals.

How to maintain your business credibility

One of the most important responsibilities that any businessowner must perform is to ensure that the credibility of their company stays intact. Without it their goal to succeed in promoting and selling their products will not be well received. The result would be a disappointing decrease in revenues that would lead to bankruptcy. If the credibility of their business organization is well-received and have been proven to satisfy the needs and wants of their clients, then they wouldn’t have any problem in achieving success. However there are times when a business receives negative comments about their company or the product their selling. When this occurs, you will need serious help before the damage gets bigger.

Online Reputation Management

Online reputation management refers to the practice of monitoring a business reputation when it comes to addressing negative publicity that are damaging to the organization. This practice shall be the one to help your business get out of the hole that it is in lately. They will help influence the masses not to be deterred with the negative comments that some customers are saying.

How do online reputation works?

To keep track of what your customers are saying against your products they will use customer feedback. These feedbacks that your business is receiving will show early signs to reputation problems. Once situations like this occurs, online reputation management usually focuses on pushing down negative search results by publishing more articles or blog posts saying positive feedbacks on their products. Usually internet produces articles or blog posts that are published the latest. Thus the negative posts will show up in the latter pages of the search engine results.

In addition, online reputation management helps bridges the gap between businesses and their clients by helping businesses notice the difference between how they see themselves and how others sees them. It is very important for businesses to know that not everyone is entitled to agree with what you say about your products. You don’t have to feel bad about it. You cannot please everybody. What you can do is focus on your clients who are continuously patronizing what you’re selling. They should be the one you need to take care of.

Can negative publicity be avoided?

Negative publicity cannot be avoided as you cannot control what others have to say against your product. It is their right to express their feelings. However, you can avoid the situation from getting worst. First, never argue with your clients online. Even if you don’t agree with the opinions of your clients, learn to control your temper. Instead, apologize to them and ask them what you can do to make it better or offer them freebies to appease their frustration. Once you lose your temper, you might say something insulting thus aggravating your customers more. Keep in mind that other people can read what you are writing. If they see that you do not have the capability to handle your customers, you will start losing them one by one.

Second, whatever articles, blog posts, or comments you submitted online can never be deleted. Hence, you have to avoid from arguing your clients online. Even expressing political opinion might do some damage to your image thus affecting your business. Not all might agree with what you have to say. Therefore, refrain from being too expressive online as any subject related to politics is very sensitive.

Third, provide good customer service. Customers would want that their questions or complaints are addressed to immediately. If you can provide answers or solutions to their problems as soon as possible, you won’t have to worry about negative publicity. In addition, never make an excuse for your lapses. Customers always expect that you should know everything or have prepared solutions to all possible scenarios that might happen in the future. They never accept excuses even if it is a reasonable one.

Making a strategic plan

To come up with good business strategies, you need to create a strategic plan; a plan that covers all aspect of your organization such as goals, objectives, budget, and finance. If every detail is written and has a plan of action, rest assured that when you experience situations where your organization receives negative publicity, you will know what to do.

11 Free and Easy to Use File Sharing Websites

Online file sharing is a simple process of uploading your files online and then sharing the links for their downloads via email, chat or other options with those whom you want to share your files with. There are a variety of websites available to share your files via them. Few provide limited access, with restrictions and require downloading softwares, while others do not require even SignUp, provide spam free service and have a large memory size available to be used without downloading any software, and they are also secured. Here you will get a list of websites that describe your purpose completely and easily.

List of free and easy file sharing sites

1. Dropbox: Dropbox is, currently ranked among the top online file sharing service providers available. With this you can synchronize your files very easily and then share it with anyone using its public or shared folders. You can create an account to manage your files and talking about size, you can upload individual files up to 300 MB file size to a maximum limit of 2 GB, which can be increased to multiple times also.
2. Windows Live Skydrive: Microsoft isn’t quite famous in the market of web applications, but a few of the giant companies are exceptionally good at serving you the purpose, like the Microsoft’s Skydrive service, that allows you to send and receive large files via the internet. Here you can create an account and then enjoy 25 GB of free online available memory space to be used for sharing your files worth 50 MB of each file limit. Also, you can create personalized folders to restrict rights for users.
3. ADrive: ADrive is the leader of the industry of the online sharing and backup creating service providers. They lead the industry due to the availability of the largest amount of online space to use and the simplest interfaces making the use of this website easy and fast.
4. Oosah: Oosah is another website that provides an easy and fast access to the sharing purposes online. Apart from this, oosah serves its users with its rich in features website and also allows users to manage their content that may be any personal or private, might be photos, videos, music or other audio files.
5. Mozy Online Backup: Mozy is a leader in the industry for providing secured service for the backup of your files including your important files, documents, pictures and other files in a simple and easy to use automatic manner. You can upload your files to make an online backup or you can share links for downloading the files to your friends or other known persons you want to share your uploaded files with.
6. Fileai: Fileai is a website that provides you a secure way of sharing your content with others online. When a file is uploaded to this site, it isn’t uploaded to any server, rather, it is encrypted and sent directly without any storage online.
7. Sharesend: Sharesend is a free and easy to use service providing website for sharing your files instantly. In this service you don’t need to create any account to upload your files and then share them with others. Here you simply need to upload the file, after the completion you will get a link, which allows others to directly download the files.
8. Gigasize: Gigasize is another name in the list when it comes to easy and fast online sharing of your files. Large sized files, that cannot be uploaded or sent via emails can be uploaded to generate a download link by just a click of the mouse.
9. Filebanker: Filebanker is a solution to online sharing, when it comes to sharing files that have a very large size. You don’t need to sign up for any paid options, nor you are irritated with repeated messages to use paid services. This site allows a spam free service with a storage capacity of 10 GB.
10. Dropsend: Dropsend provides a fast, simple and a secured online service to send and receive files. Other than sharing, you can also store your files on the website.

11.  Badongo: Bodango is an online community allowing users to share large sized files by sharing a simple link and also it allows to create a network to access each other’s files on the network.

4 Essential Pinterest Tips for Bloggers

When Pinterest (a visual bookmarking tool) first made an appearance in the social media arena, people thought it was meant only for industries like fashion,design, travel, wedding and real estate. But the mindset gradually changed and today it’s quite evident that participating at Pinterest can be beneficial for almost any industry or any blogging niche. You’ll find tons of bloggers (regardless of what niche they belong to) using Pinterest effectively.

Pinterest is today an ‘addiction’.

Whether you want to reach out to a new audience, connect with influencers in your niche, promote a brand or attract traffic to your blog, spending some time on Pinterest will be truly worth the effort.

So, how do you achieve success on Pinterest as a blogger? Given below are four essential tips that will be of great help to you.

#1. Add Images to Every Blog Post
If you are an active blogger, the first thing that you need to do is include engaging images to each of the posts that you publish on your blog. Depending on the topic you are writing on, you can always find one or two images that would be good enough to be pinned by others.  You can also create your own pinboards and pin these images yourself to your account.

Pinterest is basically a social platform where users share all the wonderful images (and videos) they find across the web. By being a little more creative, you can benefit from this opportunity as well, in many different ways.

#2. Pin Content from Other Blogs Too
If your pin boards feature content (images and videos) only from your own blog, it might not look credible to others. In order to win the trust of your audience, you should never hesitate to pin images from other blogs on the same board where you have pinned your own images.

By pinning content from other blogs in your niche, you can also build connections with influencers and fellow bloggers.

#3. Run a Contest
One of the best ideas to attract tons of eyeballs quickly is to run a contest or competition on Pinterest. First, you’ll first need to go through all the Pinterest terms so that you don’t violate the rules in any way. Second, you’ll need to choose a right type of competition – Best Pinboard, Most Repins and Sweepstakes Entries – and create them with your important goals in the mind.

In any case, you should not forget to promote your Pinterest contest so that you can attract the maximum number of participants. With such contests, you can market your brand or product quickly, engage the target audience and attract lots of blog traffic within a short period of time.

#4. Use Analytics Tool
Google Analytics is a nice tool to find out which of the pages on your blog are getting the most traffic from Pinterest. With this tool, you can also check out which of the images on your site are being pinned the most. Such valuable data will help you tweak your Pinterest strategy.

Apart from Google Analytics, you can also find many other tools that are specific to Pinterest. A good example is Curalate.

Are you on Pinterest? How are you using this visual pinboard to your blogging benefits? Feel free to share your opinions.