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7 Reasons Every Student Should Start a Website

7 Reasons Every Student Should Start a Website

From career boosting to money making, a site of your own comes with the kind of benefits that make a big difference while you’re studying or looking for a job.

1. Think of it as your career ‘game face’

Not only do most recruiters use the web to screen job applicants, more than a third have even knocked back candidates because of their social media activity. According to Andy Sumner at Monster UK, “a Google search will tell a recruiter more than a CV can” — but as scary as that sounds, it’s actually the perfect opportunity to manage your online reputation.

Whatever else you get up to online, a website gives you a professional digital presence to fall back on, as well as a chance of appearing in search results ahead of distracting social stuff. There’s no harm in spreading your personal brand across third-party sites such as LinkedIn too, but starting a website gives you the chance to tell your story in your own way.

2. It’s the ultimate CV

If video content, demos and photos do the best job of showing what you know, a website is what you need. Plus, it’s a lot more discoverable than print or PDF resumes.

An online CV isn’t only a calling card, though: it actively demonstrates you have the skills you say you do(remember the ‘show, don’t tell’ advice about CV writing?). If you’re aiming to get into web design, marketing, publishing— and loads of other professions—a well planned site can sell your enthusiasm for and knowledge of the industry, as well as prove hands-on skills such as coding, picture editing, writing, retail, or flair for SEO.

If your social media already does that, but in lots of different places (Pinterest plus YouTube, or wherever), a website will allow you to keep the highlights in one place — and that means less clicks for employers.

3. You can make money

How to make money from your website is the golden question! Luckily, it’s simple:

Affiliate marketing: Link to partners’ products or services on your site and get a cut of sales from your readers. It’s a neat way to make passive (long-term, low effort) income.

Advertising: Earn cash every time visitors click ads on your site. Google Adsense can automate the process, but if you have the traffic — or the gift of gab — you could make more profit approaching companies directly.

Sponsorship: Allowing retailers to post content on your site (for a fee), or being sent freebies in exchange for a product or service review.

Members’ content: Set up a paid subscribers’ area, or sell downloads of premium content (ebooks, PDFs, insider tips, tutorials, and even audio guides).

Sell products or services: You can sell things you’ve made or can do, too.

There are plenty of other ways to monetize a website but if the ones above sound familiar, it’s because they’re the business backbone of tons of sites you visit everyday. From news and education portals to entertainment, dating, and gaming hubs. And—like them—if you enjoy making content as much as cash, it’s perfectly possible to turn your web work into a whole career.

4. The freedom to do what you love

Got something to shout about? Whatever you care about, you can write, blog or brainstorm it any way you like, including:

Raising money or awareness for a cause.

How-to guides for something you’re an expert in or enjoy doing.

An online journal and/or advice to help others in similar situations.

The freedom to do your own thing is a pretty potent reward but once you’ve got a bank of content, you can always go the monetization route (above). You can also sell your content outright as print or digital books or for use on other websites. It’s great to have the option!

5. A sense of professionalism

It doesn’t matter if you’re applying for jobs or running a business: your own domain name, an email address to match, and some good content looks much more professional. Whether you’re selling products, services, or your career skills, a website demonstrates that you believe in what you’re doing, and are prepared to put in the time and effort.

6. Hands-on experience

Whether you use a website to make money or get your CV seen, there’s nothing like rolling up your sleeves and getting started to see how things work.

Getting and keeping content online is the perfect opportunity to practice problem solving and research skills. You can also perfect your persistence, idea generation, curiosity (how did they do that? And how can I do it?), and network with other influencers. It just so happens, these are all valuable transferable skills as well.

7. It’s ridiculously easy

Luckily, it’s not rocket science! You can start a website — from choosing your domain name and hosting to publishing your first post — in a lunch break or less. Building and buffing your content and brand does take time, of course, but the fewer the hurdles to get to that point, the better.

A website is a bit like a Swiss Army Knife: it’s good for more than one thing. The beauty of it is, you don’t need to be technically minded to be digital. Starting or maintaining a site doesn’t have to take any more time than your average social media fix — and that means bite-size effort, but big-time rewards!

By Ruth Bushi

4 surefire ways to skyrocket your online sales

4 surefire ways to skyrocket your online sales

With the plethora of eCommerce websites vying for people’s attention, it’s getting harder to not only find a unique niche, but also to turn a respectable profit. Of course, if you aren’t able to attract customers, your eCommerce sales will undoubtedly suffer.

The good news is that there are some sure-fire ways you can bolster your sales income, and you likely already have all the tools and expertise you need to implement them. You might need to introduce a new business strategy or tweak your home page’s effectiveness, but a high-converting website is well within reach.

In this post, we’ll take a look at four ways you can maximize your eCommerce sales without resorting to unethical or overly complicated methods. Let’s get started!

Maximize your eCommerce sales with these 4 steps

  1. Sell to your existing customers first.

  2. Introduce a Pay What You Want strategy.

  3. Optimize your home page for increased conversions.

  4. Introduce Micro-Moments for mobile users.

1. Sell to your existing customers first

Traditionally, you conduct business by encouraging a constant influx of new customers. However, many businesses have discovered that their existing customer base offers a better opportunity to bolster sales.

For starters, your existing customers should already be onboard with your philosophies, meaning they enter the sales funnel later in the process. Also, it’s actually cheaper to sell to your current customers than to acquire new ones.

Fortunately, this strategy is well within the reach of most businesses, and it all starts with your email list. First, target your email list subscribers consistently and often, as they’re ready-made potential customers. Next, make sure you’re automating your emails to follow up with new customers, as this is a great opportunity to turn them into regulars.

2. Introduce a Pay What You Want (PWYW) strategy

This is a concept that on the surface seems to devalue your offerings, but could actually help business boom. A PWYW strategy is just what it sounds like: you give the customer the opportunity to name their price for your products or services.

Before you dismiss this approach, consider the benefits. You’re enabling more customers to enter the sales funnel and boosting your reputation by displaying generosity. If you sell digital products, you can even reduce piracy by making your product easily obtainable.

There are plenty of tips for implementing this strategy. First, you’ll want to find out what the relevant options are for your current eCommerce solution (for example, WooCommerce has a Name Your Price extension). Then, promote urgency by limiting the offer to a set time period. Finally, it’s smart to still set a minimum price for your product to make sure you’re earning something from every customer, although this will obviously impact conversions.

3. Optimize your home page for increased conversions

Your home page is akin to a storefront. As such, it needs to be deftly laid out to maximize conversions. It makes sense to offer an entry to your sales funnel here, which can supercharge your eCommerce sales figures if done correctly.

This isn’t simply about tweaking your call-to-action (CTA), although that’s a good start. After that, here’s our advice on how to improve your home page:

  • Offer a Unique Value Proposition (UVP). You shouldn’t assume visitors will understand why they should buy from you. It’s important to add content to your home page outlining why you’re the best.
  • Introduce risk reducers. The goal here is to make purchasing less risky. Including prominent verbiage — for example, referring to your free shipping and returns options, or adding a lowest price guarantee — can make all the difference.
  • Split test your changes regularly. Making site tweaks without judging their effectiveness is akin to throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. Testing and refining your changes will pay off in the long run.
The takeaway here is not to rely on your product pages to do the heavy lifting.

Your entire website should get customers moving through the funnel, starting with your home page.

4. Introduce micro-moments for mobile users

Micro-moments is a fairly new concept from Google. It considers the number of engagement opportunities a potential customer experiences before making a purchase, and aims to take advantage of as many of them as possible. For example, think about how people use Google and Amazon on mobile devices when shopping for in-store items. Given the dominance of mobile browsing, this is a simple way to slot into the customer’s buying process.

The idea of micro-moments is still a developing strategy, although there are some key aspects to consider. You’ll want to make sure your mobile search engine optimization is solid, then consider these four key micro-moments:

  • I-Want-to-Know moments. This first moment is the customer’s curiosity phase when they’re searching for any worthy information on the product they’re considering.
  • I-Want-to-Go moments. If you have a physical store, getting your details in front of curious visitors at this point can net you a sale.
  • I-Want-to-Do moments. This is the how-to phase — i.e., when people do research on how the product will be used — and could come either before or after the purchase. Your site’s content is key here.
  • I-Want-to-Buy moments. The customer is in buying mode in this phase, and it’s now up to you to help them make a purchase.

There’s a lot more you can do with this burgeoning conversion strategy, so we recommend delving into the Google microsite to find out exactly how you can maximize your eCommerce sales using micro-moments.

Conclusion

eCommerce is more competitive than ever before, which means you’ll have to pull out all the stops to make sure your store turns a profit. Failure to keep ahead of your competitors could see you enter a lean period you might not recover from.

This post has looked at four different ways you can maximize your eCommerce sales. Let’s recap them quickly:

  1. Focus on selling to your existing customers, rather than trying to constantly gain new ones.
  2. Implementing a PWYW strategy could see your profits rise, but requires an invested customer base.
  3. Your home page should be optimized to convert as many customers as possible.
  4. Micro-moments is a new concept, but could be the difference between mediocre and bolstered sales.

Editor’s note: Just getting started and need a platform that can handle your eCommerce sales? Check out GoDaddy’s Online Store. You can have a site running in less than an hour, and it’s fully equipped with multiple payment and shipping options, inventory tracking, eCommerce design features and more. Best of all? You can try it for free.

How small business can find the right social media influencers

How small business can find the right social media influencers

I’ll let you in on a little secret — traditional marketing alone is dead. Gone are the days of solely relying on TV ads to showcase your business. Now, your brand is up for debate. Blog posts, product reviews, insider tips, social media sharing and more. Consumers can take to the streets and share their opinion, even if it’s different from yours. So how do you spread a positive message in this type of environment? You find social media influencers who are passionate about you, your brand or your business.

When starting a business, relationships are everything. There’s a reason word of mouth is still the best form of marketing. If you use large, impersonal channels, your results will be sterile and disappointing.

Small businesses that put love, care and quality into their products should put love, care and quality into their marketing.
Social media influencers are a great way to get your clear, personal message out there.

Social media influencer evolution

If you think back to the early days of social media, which wasn’t all that long ago. It was typical for businesses, brands and peddlers of products to virtually shout at people to buy their wares. Sadly, some still continue to do this and then wonder why their sales aren’t going up.

Think of it like this: Would you run up to a stranger on the street and scream in their face about your product? Probably not. It’s ineffective, not to mention annoying, and it causes people to tune out, or run away if you’re standing on a sidewalk.

Since those early days, it’s been realized that consumers still want to be treated like humans (surprise!) and not invisible beings on the interwebs. Businesses and brands have leveraged brand advocates to serve and influencers to attract more people authentically to their products.

What is a social media influencer?

Social media influencers are a marketing channel just like TV or radio marketing. This type of marketing leverages the captive audience of “influencers” (people with large, passionate followings) on social media platforms. For example, when one of the Kardashians posts about the product of the moment on their social media channels, their followers listen, subscribe and purchase.

You’re probably thinking, “Well, I can’t get one of the Kardashians. Now what?” You don’t need someone with millions of followers.

If you can find a social media influencer to promote your business in an authentic way, with even 5,000 highly engaged people as their core audience, that’s 5,000 people who likely haven’t heard of your business or product before.

And they’ll be more likely to buy because they trust their “friend.”

Why are social media influencers hot right now?

Customers are more likely to purchase something based on a friend’s recommendation than an ad. Social media influencers have become people you look up to and view as friends. People always trust their friends more than brands.Influencer marketing is hot because traditional advertising can’t meet all the demands of today’s consumers. Many use a second screen, like a smartphone or tablet, while watching television, causing traditional advertising to miss the mark.

It doesn’t make sense to pay for TV time when no one is paying attention.

People don’t want to be disrupted — meaning, they don’t want to watch a beer ad during their favorite TV show or sniff a cologne leaflet while reading a magazine. They want a seamless experience. Social media influencer marketing intertwines “ads” (sponsored content) within that influencer’s life.

Finding the right social media influencer

Now what? How do you find the right people to represent your business? Here are some tips:

  • Determine what your brand stands for. What is your business or brand really about?
  • Find social media influencers who share your values and already use your product. Search on social media channels like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
  • Make your messaging as authentic as possible. In other words, find or create brand advocates and give them a megaphone.
  • Empower them by giving them free products, politely asking or offering payment. Just remember that if they receive something from you in exchange for their review, they’ll likely disclaim that.

Social media influencers are not a magic pill or a cure all. They’re simply a magnifying glass.

Find the right people who are already loyal to your brand or niche and empower them to spread your message. Authenticity is the way of the future. Consumers have the power. People have the power — brands and businesses don’t. When you make a great product and have the right people shout about it from the rooftops, you really can’t lose.

What is Google Data Studio and how can you use it?

What is Google Data Studio and how can you use it?

Google Data Studio allows you to create branded reports with data visualizations to share with your clients. Columnist Sherry Bonelli explains the benefits and how to try it out.

Analytics has always been a challenge for most digital marketers. It can be confusing, overwhelming and, quite frankly, difficult for the ordinary human to understand and decipher. In many cases, marketers don’t even report back their clients’ analytics because they’re just not sure where to start — partly because of information overload and difficult-to-understand data.

To make matters worse, there was really no easy way to provide their local SMB clients with an overview of how their site or campaigns were performing that was easy to read and understand. If you’re like most agencies that do provide clients with analytics reports, it typically means laboriously downloading Google Analytics data and putting that data into Excel spreadsheets to create charts and diagrams from there.

Google now allows you to create reports that even your clients will understand — thanks to Google Data Studio.

Google Data Studio is part of the Google Analytics 360 Suite — the high-end (i.e., pricey) Google Analytics Enterprise package. Since most of us can’t afford to spend that much money for an analytics tracking tool, we typically opt for the free version of Google Analytics. But Google has decided to give those of us using the free version of Google Analytics a taste of what’s possible.

What is Google Data Studio?

Google Data Studio (in beta) gives you everything you need to turn your client’s analytics data into informational, easy-to-understand reports through data visualization.

The reports are easy to read, easy to share and even customizable to each of your clients. You can select how you want to present the data — bar graphs, charts, line graphs and so on. You can even change fonts and colors and brand the reports with your logo.

One thing that’s cool about Data Studio is that you can pull in more than just Google Analytics data – you can even import Facebook data, as long as you put that information into a Google Sheet. (That’s right. Any reporting information you have on a Google Sheet can be pulled into Google Data Studio — and your beautiful reports!) If you can get your data into Google Sheets, it can show up in your reports.

The reports are also dynamic, so when there’s an update to the data source, the updated/new information automatically shows up on any reports that reference the source. Additionally, the reports are shareable, so you can grant people permission to view the reports and/or allow them to make changes.

Google Data Studio uses the same functionality as Google Docs and Google Sheets, so all you need to do is press the “Share” button to let your clients or other members of your team view or edit the reports.

How to Access Google Data Studio

To access Google Data Studio, visit https://www.google.com/analytics/data-studio and log in using your Google Analytics login information. Right now, if you’re using the free version of Google Analytics, you get a limited version of Data Studio. You can create up to five custom reports for free.

Note: This program is currently only available in the US, but it’s expected to be rolled out to other countries throughout the rest of this year.

When you first log in. you will see some sample reports that will give you a good idea of the look and feel of the reports and the types of information you can pull into your custom reports once you get going. Go through each of these sample reports so you can see all of the possibilities.

Welcome Data Studio

When you click on the “Welcome to Data Studio! (Start here)” link, you’re taken to a visual, interactive tutorial that will walk you step-by-step through what Data Studio can do and how to get started. Be sure to check this out.

Click Data Studio

Google also provides you with a YouTube video that you can watch to get a quick overview of the tool, and it gives you a walk-through on how to connect your data sources and create your first report.

In the upper left-hand corner of the home page, you will see Reports and Data Sources. Reports lets you create reports and data visualizations. Data Sources are reusable components that connect a report to your data, such as Google Analytics, Google Sheets, Google AdWords and so forth.

Report Data

Google Data Studio uses the Google Drive interface, so it’ll be familiar to you if you use Google Drive. If you DO get lost, all you need to do is click the home button:

Google Data Studio Home

To create a new report, click on the blue plus (+) button at the bottom right-hand corner and accept the terms and conditions:

New Report

Then you’re off!

Is Google Data Studio right for you?

If you’re the type of person who likes working with spreadsheets, you might not think that Data Studio is a big deal. But for the huge number of us who hate spreadsheets, this is a godsend. (Finally! You can take a look at your analytics data — and it makes sense.)

Now, when you’re talking to your local clients, you can easily show them the results of your efforts in an easy-to-understand, brandable report! By sharing these reports with your clients, they will be able to see how your digital marketing efforts are paying off — which is definitely good for your business.

By Search Engine Land

Do you really trust businesses that only have 5 star reviews?

Do you really trust businesses that only have 5 star reviews?

Sometimes the best thing to do when dealing with your clients is to put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. No matter how good a business is, consumers expect to see negative reviews. In fact, 95% suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don’t see bad scores (Reevoo, 2015).

However, as an agency, you want to see your clients shine. We’re here to help. Here are some best practices for providing review management services to your clients:
1. Ask the customer to leave a review (email survey, in store sign, etc.)
2. Read and analyze the review. Does it meet the criterion to suppress or remove?
3. Respond to the review
– If the review is positive, thank them for their feedback
– If the review is negative, try to move the conversation offline. Try to remedy the situation to win the customer back. If you have remedied the situation, try asking them to adjust their review. If not, then at least the customer may come back.

Are you more of a visual learner? We’ve got you covered. Get the one page printable infographic so you can better help your clients follow the review management best practices.

Crowdfunding: everything you need to know

Crowdfunding: everything you need to know

You have an idea for a book, movie, product, or game, but there’s only one problem. Where’s the startup capital going to come from? Crowdfunding has become a viable way to get started. In fact, it’s what most people turn to when they’re not interested in going to a bank or traditional investor. However, there’s more to it than simply posting a few lines on Kickstarter, a lot more.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding serves as a way for entrepreneurs, small business owners and creative professionals to acquire capital by asking a collective group of people to contribute money. You generally state a monetary goal, and once you reach it, the funds are released to you so you can start working on the project. Crowdfunding has been used to fund a wide range for-profit entrepreneurial ventures such as artistic and creative projects, but also medical expenses, travel, or community-oriented social entrepreneurship projects

A crowdfunding campaign doesn’t take the money without giving something in return to the contributors. Instead, those people can choose from rewards which must be delivered by the person running the crowdfunding campaign. For example, if someone backs a movie idea they might have reward options like a credit, a role, a copy of the DVD, or an option to meet the cast and crew. Some crowdfunding campaigns are equity based, which means investors aren’t contributing money for a reward, but instead, for a piece of the company.

After reaching your crowdfunding goal, it’s expected that you go to work and complete the project. Keep in mind, however, that many crowdfunding campaigns fail to do this.

Crowdfunding success stories

Although the chances of becoming a crowdfunding runaway success story are slim, it’s interesting to take a look at the aspects that made some of these so successful. This way, you have a chance to explore what they did right and wrong. For instance, almost all great crowdfunding campaigns have a video as the main pitch. You’ll also find fun and creative rewards, beautiful imagery, constant communications with backers, and a full outline of the plan to complete the project.

Here are some of our favorite crowdfunding success stories:

  • The Broken Lizard comedy group raised over $2 million in around 26 hours for the second Super Trooper movie. They eventually reached around $4.5 million.
5 Tips to Create a Compelling Call to Action That Gets Clicked

5 Tips to Create a Compelling Call to Action That Gets Clicked

*Buy now!* *Sign up today!* *Join our mailing list!* Blah blah blah… Oftentimes, call to actions are bland and fail to do their intended job: getting people to engage in an action of your design. Luckily, there exist quick fixes to save your call to action (CTA) and make it more effective. For example, by adding one single call to action on your web page or in your email, you can increase your sales by 1617%!

This is just one of many ways you can improve your CTAs. Read on to discover some of our top tips to get the best out of your call to actions:

1. Design and position your call to action wisely

Design a clickable looking call to action and position it carefully so that your readers can’t miss it. Always keep in mind that for your customers to take action, your CTA needs to be appealing and stand out from the rest of your page/email. Here are some of the best tips to achieve this:

  • Use a large rectangular or oval button
  • Position it on a clean, contrasting color background
  • Surround it with blank space
  • Fill it with an inviting text that tells your visitors the action they are about to take

Then, it’s time find the best position for your CTA. A study conducted with over 232 users showed that people generally scan a web page in an “F” shaped pattern. Now, what does that mean?

F-Shape Heat Map
Heat maps show that people read web pages in an F shape.

Essentially, it means people scan a website in 3 steps:

  1. They begin scanning horizontally across the upper portion of the page content, hence forming the top piece of the F.
  2. They then move a little bit down and once again read horizontally, but this time not as far across as the first portion; this makes up the second horizontal bar of the F.
  3. They finish scanning the page by reading the bottom left content, in a vertical movement,  completing the F shape.

Of course, these are general reading patterns as people do read differently; but essentially, the F shape is mostly used. That being said, where should you then place your CTA? Although anywhere within the F shape would be fine, some studies have shown that placing it at the bottom left section of the page can increase your conversions by 304%, but there are arguments for placing your CTA above the fold as well. Placing your CTA above the fold draws immediate attention to it without going into any explanation. Studies have shown that people will only scroll below the fold if the information above the fold is promising enough.

2. Use the right content

Having the right copy for your CTA can make the difference between a click and a pass. CTA copy needs to be compelling, yet short and to the point, if you want people to click and not lose interest.

Use short words – in fact, no word extending beyond 3 syllables. But yet, don’t settle for “Buy now” or “subscribe” either. Your CTA should tell visitors exactly what they will be getting by clicking on that button. For example, when Fitness World changed their CTA button from “Get your membership” to “Find your gym & get membership”, they increased their conversion numbers by over 200%!

You will also want to consider using “power words” – words that writers use to instill emotion in readers. It can be as simple as changing “win” to “victory” or “triumph”. Power words, in general, have a little more pizazz than regular copy. For more on the subject, have a look at this SmartBlogger article which lists different power words, each for a different emotion, and see how you can apply them to your copy.

3. Create a sense of urgency

Without urgency, there’s a great chance your visitors won’t click the CTA right away, which in turn lowers the probability they will ever click it. Improve your CTA’s urgency by using buzz words that inspire visitors to act immediately. Words and phrases like “buy now”, “limited time offer”, “the first 100 customers only”, or “subscribe today” can help create that urgency and push viewers to click.

Amazon does a great job of creating a sense of urgency: when browsing products on their site, you’ll find some of them have a limited time offer, coupled with a countdown clock informing you of the time left to take advantage of the deal.

What’s important to remember is that urgency is created when a product appears to be limited in supply or an offer is limited in time. Your message should make viewers feel like they are missing out on a fantastic opportunity if they don’t quickly click on the CTA.

4. Don’t spam!

Spam is the most annoying thing for any user, whether it appears in their inbox or while browsing. Keep your viewers happy and spare them the spam. For example, never send customers more than 1 email a day about any special offer or product, and even that might be too much. Surveys show that 53% of email subscribers say they get too many messages from retailers. To resolve this, ask your subscribers their preference in terms of email frequency – once a week or month?

You’ll also want to avoid displaying pop-ups on your website. Ever tried reading an article and then part way down the page you get interrupted by a pop-up pushing a product you haven’t quite finished reading about? Yes, quite irritating! Give your readers the information they need and then present them with your CTA.

5. Test your work

Just because you created a CTA that looks great doesn’t mean it will be effective. You will need to test which CTAs work best with your visitors by trying out several of them: A/B testing pits two of your webpages against each other to see which one gets better conversions. There are many A/B testing softwares available on the Internet like VWO or Optimizely to help you with this task.

Try as many different CTA variants as you can: change the text style, size, color, placement and the message. Compare the results, check which CTA produces the most conversions and then choose the one that works best for your business.

A call to action is crucial to the success of your business as it drives conversions. Because of that, always keep in mind that the smallest mistake can drive visitors to ignore a CTA. Thankfully, minor adjustments can fix it: try out different CTA variations with the tips we provided and select the one that will drive your business results.

Be sure to visit Wise Host Blog often for more helpful business tips.