Search engine optimization, aka SEO, is the process of getting traffic on your website based on search results in search engines. It aims to get your website listed higher in search rankings. It is designed to send traffic towards websites that use specific keywords that are linked to your article.
A backlink is where a page on the internet references a page on your website and includes a link that goes to your website. These backlinks are important to search engines, because it shows them that your website has worthwhile information on a topic to the site linking to it. They will start showing your website when someone searches it, and you're website will go higher if more websites backlink it. Your website can end up on the top of the search results if enough websites are backlinking it.
Guest blogging is when you have someone outside of you company write a blog for your website. The writer that you're inviting should be someone that writes about similar subjects that your organization tends to cover.
There are a lot of benefits for both the guest writer and the company. If it's a new writer that you're inviting to write a blog post, they will have the chance to get their work seen by more people. The guest blogger often gets paid for their work, and there are a lot of people that make a good living from writing guest blogs. This will also be a good opportunity for the writer to build relationships with people in the industry.
The company itself could gain brand awareness from hosting guest posts. People will see that you have more content to offer if you bring on more people to write blog posts. The blog posts will feel more fresh than what was on there previously. If something is constantly written by the same people, it can start to feel repetitive. You will help provide your readers with more knowledge if you bring on experts in the field.
When you first start off with blogging, you're probably wondering how you can start making money with blogging. A lot of money can come from having ads on your website. A quick way for a beginner blogger to start earning a passive income could be with Google AdSense. AdSense is when you can run Google ads on your website. Any time a visitor clicks on those ads, you will get a percentage if the ad costs. Two popular ads that you can place on Google AdSense are CPC and CPM ads. CPC, aka cost per click, ads are banners that you can place in your content or sidebar. As the name suggests, you are paid each time a reader clicks on those ads. CPM, aka "cost per 1,000 impressions," are ads that pay you based on the amount of people that view your ad.
You can also sell private ads. If your blog ends up getting a lot of traffic, some advertisers might directly come to you and ask if you can place their ads on your website. Or you can directly contact advertisers. The difference between Google AdSense and private ads is that selling private ads means that you can determine your own ad rates. You can also make money from sponsored posts; a company could pay you to write about/review their products or services. To make more money, you can sell sponsorship space in your email newsletters.
You can also include affiliate links in your content or through banner ads. The link will be unique that tracks your affiliate code so that the advertiser knows when a buyer used your link. That way, they are able to give you a commission from each sale if the buyer is coming from your website.
There are two different ways that you can get your book published. You can publish it traditionally or independently; both have their pros and cons.
Traditional publishing is good if you're writing literary fiction or non-fiction. Your publisher will cover most (or all) of the expenses for publishing your book. Other than that, you will be paying for your website and email. You also have a higher chance of being on the New York Times list if that's something that's important to you. You won't get that opportunity if you publish independently since New York Times have a thing against indie authors. Traditionally published authors have a better chance of being eligible for awards. There's also better distribution when it comes to traditional publishing.
Independently publishing is good if you're an entrepreneurial author or a fast fast writer. It's also good if you are writing niche nonfiction or genre fiction. You will have complete control over the publishing of your book. You will have all of the marketing data and have complete control over advertising. You can also make $2-$10 per book you sell. The cons of independently publishing outweigh the cons. It can be very expensive, but you could start a crowdfunding campaign if you a big enough platform. You will need to find professionals to work with on your own. There's no one to tell you that the book isn't ready for publishing. You won't be eligible for most awards or bestseller lists.
You need to consider which would be best for you. If you need something that's more affordable, you might want to go with traditional publishing. If you're a fast writer and want your book to be published fast, you might want to independently publish your book.
Writing for a magazine could be a good way to earn money. You don't need to have any qualifications or any previous experience to be able to write for major national magazines. If you know how to write and have good grammar, you could make it on a magazine. A lot of writers end up making pretty good money such as $1 a word or maybe more. A lot of it is luck based. Some writers don't go in with a strategy and end up making it pretty far. Others might have a really well thought out plan, but that won't guarantee them the same outcome.
There are some things that you could do to help with your chances of making it on big magazines. Study the magazine that you want to write for. Study their editors (managing editor, articles editor, features editor, or department editor), what topics they've covered recently, what kind of headlines they use, etc. After you find out what they've recently covered, you need to find similar topics that are still new and haven't been covered by that magazine. You can look for story ideas through conversations with your friends, local events, newspaper, competing magazines, controversies and trends, etc. Once you have your topic, you need to find the hook (the reason it's written). When you pitch your idea, it needs to be months ahead. Give them a summer story while it's still winter. If something is pitched too late, it normally gets rejected.
Don't get discouraged if you do get rejected. You can try to get feedback on why it was rejected. Take that feedback, rewrite your work, get feedback from your peers that have experience in editing or experience in writing, make any changes that are necessary, and turn in your story on time.
What exactly is affiliate marketing? It's the process of earning money by promoting a company's products or services. You will only get paid each time you drive a sale (aka a commission-only sales representative).
The first step to affiliate marketing is to find an affiliate program or network that your interested in. When you sign up for one, you'll need to wait for confirmation of your acceptance. After that, you can start creating content and adding the custom links the affiliate program provides. These links will track when one of your users make a purchase, and you will earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using your link. You can promote your affiliate links on your website, newsletters, social media, and anywhere that you're allowed to share links. The network that you are working with will send you a payment when you reach the minimum payment level (these payment methods can be through PayPal, bank transfers, and checks).
Copyright is the legal right of the owner of a product. This basically means that the original creator and anyone that they give authorization to are the ones with rights to reproduce the work. The reason for copyright is to protect your work from being stolen or republished as another persons. Many musicians and artists have their work copyrighted so that others aren't making money off their original work. You can get sued for copyright by republishing copyrighted work and/or claiming it as your own.
There are some cases where you wouldn't have to face a lawsuit if you do end up using copyrighted work. For example, if you have copyrighted music playing in the background of your YouTube videos, the video will get taken down followed with a copyright strike. This isn't too big of a deal until you hit a certain amount of copyright strikes, where YouTube will either demonetize you or take down your channel. Another example is Twitch. If you use copyrighted music in your Twitch streams, those parts of the stream will get muted when the VOD is uploaded onto Twitch after you go offline, and you will get a copyright strike. Again, it's not a big deal unless you get 3 strikes. At that point, your channel will get banned, but it is possible to get it back.
Getting sued for copyright will mostly be up to the person that you are stealing or republishing work from. One way to keep from getting sued for copyright infringement is by simply not copying work or using anything that's copyrighted. If you are making videos and want background music that isn't copyrighted, a quick Google search can tell you what music is okay to use.
Cryptocurrency is a digital asset that people can buy, sell, or trade and can circulate without the need of a central monetary authority (bank or government). These cryptocurrencies are supported by blockchains which maintains a record of transactions and keeps track of who owns what. There's more than one way in which cryptocurrency is created. One of the most common way is through mining in which computers solve complex puzzles to verify the authenticity of transactions on the network.
There are different ways in making money with cryptocurrency. You can start by buying coins; there are many different exchanges that let you buy and trade coins. You can sign up on Coinbase, as that is the exchange that is best if you have no experience with crypto. You can also accept payment in crypto if you have a business where you sell products or services. Keep in mind that you will need a digital wallet and work with people who are willing to pay in crypto. Or you can mine your own crypto coins. Although, you will need to invest in a good graphics card, the right setup, and will need to know how to build a computer.
Freemium is a type of business model where you offer a good for free at the bare minimum. But to enhance the user's experience, suggest things that cost money. A lot of mobile apps use this tactic where the app itself is free but things such as no adds, in-game currency, premium subscriptions, etc. will cost money.
A lot of companies use the freemium business model. One of them being Roblox which is a big company among younger people. You can make an account and play for free, but you need to pay for the in-game currency to buy limited items or certain experiences. There's also another app called Finch. It's a mental health app that's free, and you're able to use a lot of things on the app. But you have to pay to unlock everything in the app.
It's a good and ideal business model. Offer the bare minimum for free, so that customers don't feel financial risk. If they like what the company has to offer, they are more drawn towards paying to make their experience better.
In order to help sell your online products you should look at different marketing strategies. One of these being email marketing. Email marketing can be used for things such as branding, engagement, direct sales, generating traffic, etc.
The purpose of email marketing is the customer value journey. First, you make them aware of your business and what you are selling. Then, you get them to engage with your business by heading to your website or finding out what you sell. You can get them to subscribe to your emails so that they can get excited every time you come out with something new. Your audience can also advocate and promote on your behalf if they end up liking what you have to offer.
There are different types of emails that you have to use in email marketing. First is transactional to provide people with customer service. This is normally order confirmations, purchase receipts, shipping notices, account creation, return confirmation, support tickets, password reminders, unsubscribe confirmations, etc. Next is relational in order to engage with your subscribers and form a relationship with them. This is normally a new subscriber welcome, gated content delivery, newsletters and blog articles, event or webinar confirmations, surveys, social updates, contest announcements, and referral requests. Last is promotional to generate sales. This is normally promotional content, new gated content, flash sale announcements, new products releases, event or webinar announcements, trial offers, upgrade offers, etc.
Podcasts are a form of entertainment of audio. They can have multiple episodes and can be downloaded or found on various platforms.
There are many steps when it comes to creating a podcast, but overall it isn't too difficult. You need to plan out your podcast. What will it be about and what will you name it? How will your episodes be formatted? How will you make your cover art? What kind of intro and outro music are you going to use? How are you going to record and edit? Where are you going to submit it? How are you going to promote it? These are all questions that you need to keep in mind while planning out your podcasts.
When you are planning your podcast, you want to focus on a particular topic. This topic can be something that is either popular or something that you have an interest in. When picking a topic, narrow it down to something that you will be able to talk about for many episodes. Don't be too broad, because you won't appeal to your audience. You can expand on your topic later when as you get more popular. You will also need to brainstorm names for your podcasts. Pick a name that is broader than your actual topic, so that you can expand you topic later on if you choose to. And see if you have anyone in mind to potentially co-host with you. That's optional as you can do a podcast solo.
Your episode formatting is also very important. You want to make sure that you're staying on topic. Don't make insanely long episodes, because people normally stop paying attention after an hour. If you normally go off topic a lot, consider having notes with you while you record so you don't get lost when you're talking. Whether you are solo or co-hosting, you don't need to do that for every episode. You can also add some interview episodes. An example of a formatted episode could be a teaser, intro music, welcome, ad spot, interview, call to action (leave a review), outro music. You can take this format and change it however you see fit for your podcast.
Cover art is the first thing that people see before clicking on your podcast. It's important to make a good first impression with it. You want to make it eye catching. You can get a bunch of designers to produce drafts so you can choose which one you want to potentially use. It's important to also know what you have in mind for your cover art.
WordPress is one of the most popular website builder. Millions of people use WordPress for their blogs, small businesses, companies, etc. You can use this to your advantage by selling themes that will make people's websites look more appealing and stand out. The marketplace for themes is very competitive, but there's lots of ways to showcase your products.
The first step is to focus on a particular subject to base your theme on. Find out what people are searching for so that you can make your theme based on the needs of that audience. The next step is to develop your theme with the device in mind. You'll have to consider font/image sizes, menus, etc. If your theme works well for computer users, make sure it works well for mobile users. Make sure that you are making appropriate theme templates. Use the right templates included in your theme so users have a level of customization.
Some users prefer releasing a free theme to gain traction. Many people would be more drawn to it, because there's no financial risks. When things started taking off and they gained more attention, they would offer features for that theme that cost money. Consumers can try out the free version to see how they liked it, and then they can purchase the commercial version. The commercial version would have more value because of exclusive features and easier customization.
When your WordPress theme is done, you have to find where you can sell it. Many people sell on Creative Market. You get 70% of the profits and can price your product how you see fit. You'll also retain the rights to sell your theme on any other website. There's also ThemeForest which draws a lot of traffic. You do get charged a fee up to 55%, but you can lower this by giving ThemeForest exclusive sales rights. And the fees get smaller the more you sell. There are many other marketplaces where you can sell your themes. One thing that you would want to consider is whether you want to be an exclusive seller in a certain marketplace or if you want to keep the rights of being able to sell your products elsewhere.
You can earn an income by selling digital goods. These can include digital art, videos, apps, etc. The first step is to create the product. One digital good that gains a lot of attention is video games. If you're passionate about making your own video games, you can make a career off it too.
In the early stages of game development, it's important to think of how you'll promote/advertise your game and make sure that you reach your target audience. You can do this by making social media accounts for your game such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. And you want to keep updating your audience on your game before it releases to keep them engaged.
After your game is complete and you've gained an audience, you want to find which platform you think will be best to publish your game to. There are quite a few platforms that will let you publish your game for free such as Itch.io. It would be best to start on this platform to see the demand on your game as you aren't really losing anything. You can set a price that you think your game is worth. Keep in mind that Itch.io does take 10% of the profits from your game when setting the price. But don't make your first game overly expensive, because most people might not be drawn to it. And on Itch.io, you can change the revenue split to whatever you think is fair.
You don't have to publish your game on Itch.io. If you want your game to gain a lot more traction, you can consider publishing your game to Steam. Steam is the best known platform, so your game would get a lot of attention if you were to publish on it. The downside is that there's a $100 publishing fee. If your game ends up doing poorly, then you just lost a lot money for nothing. It's up to you do decide whether that risk is worth it or not.
There are free alternatives to Steam such as GOG, Gamers Gate, and Game Jolt. There are some downsides to GOG. You can only submit your game if it's fully developed. They don't accept alpha or beta versions of your game. They tend to be really picky and only accept a few games a month, so you shouldn't be discouraged if you get rejected by them. Gamers Gate is a good alternative for Steam or GOG. They allow you to publish a demo or a beta version of your game if it isn't fully developed yet. Lastly, Game Jolt a good platform for indie games. The revenue split is completely up to you, and you can choose whether they get 0-10% of your profits. They take 70% of ad revenues generated on your page, so you can pocket the 30%. Not only are you making money from your game, but you also get some ad revenue.
Working remotely is desirable and practical for a lot of people. However, there are some downsides for searching for a remote job. You always want to weary of scammers who will offer you "too good to be true" jobs. You want to do your research on any online positions that you are interested in before you sign or provide personal information. Research who is offering the opportunity; what can you find out about the person or company? See if there are fees that you might need to pay now or later on, and check if you meet the requirements in order to qualify for the job. And if the position seems too good to be true, it's most likely going to be a scam. You should do more research if that's the case.
Another good tip is to check how much the position offers. If the position pays a lot more than it would normally be for that position, it most likely will be a scam. Employers don't want to pay their employees more than they have to, especially if someone will take that position for a lower pay. Another scam is being offered a high-ranking position, even if you have no experience in that field, by taking a course. These types of "courses" are normally very expensive, and you won't be qualified for that high-ranking position in the end. You just end up losing a lot of money.
There are great deals and job offers that exist out there, but you should still be conscious of the fact they might be scams. It is up to you to find out the motivation to these kinds of deals. Do your research more in depth about online opportunities that can seem too good to be true. They might end up being real.
It is a common misconception that people who work remotely experience a drop in their productivity. It's understandable why people would think this if you are working from the comfort of your home, but you can still be very productive working remotely.
It has been found that working from home can be more stressful than working in an office due to people having a hard time maintaining a healthy work-life balance. It's important to take breaks while working as it is the most effective way to keep remote employees staying productive. The "pomodoro technique" happens to be the most effective method.
Another way in staying productive is following a schedule. Remote workers should try to maintain the same schedule that they had when they worked in person. Having them follow a routine will help them stay focused on their tasks. In addition, they should also keep a to-do list to keep track of what they hope to accomplish while they are working. It will keep them more organized rather than jumping between different tasks.
Working remotely could also lead to distractions. You might check your phone every two minutes for notifications and calls. The best ways to keep from getting distracted while working is to keep your phone on silent and have it out of sight so you won't be drawn to it. And you want to make sure that you are working in an office like setting such as your desk. You don't want to work while in bed or on the couch, because that might draw your attention elsewhere.
It may be difficult to maintain work relationships if you're working remotely. If you are an employer, it's important to schedule video conferencing at least once a week to make everyone feel like a team even while working from home. You want to make sure that you aren't overdoing how many video calls there are as that can take away from some employees work and can hinder performance.
There are many steps to take prior to starting a job interview. Researching and understanding a company that you are being interviewed by can help provide you a solid understanding of the company's goals.
You want to make sure that you are prepared to answer common interview questions, so that you can quickly communicate who you are and what values you can bring to the company. Think about how your background, interests and qualifications connect back to the job. Prepare to be asked about times in the past where you have used a specific skill. You should also have a peer help you practice answering questions out loud; this will help gain confidence in answering questions during your interview.
You will most likely be asked about previous work that you have done in relation to the position that you are being interviewed for. Make sure to read the job description ahead of time and think of any past jobs or volunteer positions that show you have what they require. You want to make sure that you also prepare some questions for your employer.