5miles May Challenge Craigslist as the New Online Classified

5miles, the Dallas and Beijing-based challenger to Wallapop and Craiglist has secured $30 million in new investment as it celebrates its first year in business this month.

The 1-year-old 5miles mobile marketplace app has managed to attract more than 5 million users (averaging 30,000 downloads a day) and is continuously working towards becoming a major player in the local online classified advertising business that’s been long dominated by Craiglist.

Its list of investors now includes IDG, Morningside, Blue Lake, and SIG-China (part of the Susquehanna Investment Group). In addition, individuals who have worked with or have ties with e-commerce giants like eBay and Alibaba have also invested in the app.

“We can’t imagine a better way of celebrating our first anniversary than with renewed confidence and support from our investors,” 5miles CFO Garwin Chan said in a press release. “We’re proud of the operation we’ve created, and especially grateful for the loyal, growing base of buyers and sellers from all over the country who’ve been able to connect. We are excited to see them successfully transact with one another through our marketplace.”

5miles employs about 45 people in both its Beijing and Dallas offices and was able to use its last round of investment to expand beyond Texas. The company now serves New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Tampa, Los Angeles, Miami and Orlando. The company has also expanded its marketplace services to 12,000 services, and they are also trying to differentiate themselves from other mobile app competitors by allowing small businesses like used car lots to use the platform.

The mobile app essentially updates the concept of classified ads with newer innovations that makes it easy for users to engage with and purchase items. The app uses “Pinterest-style” grid layout to present items across categories like clothes, collectibles, cars, phones, and contracted services like housekeeping, plumbing and babysitting.

Buyers can view items by date of listing, price or distance from the location. They can as well ask questions, bookmark items, make purchase offers and even share and “follow” certain sellers that they like.

Sellers on the other hand can opt to attach voice descriptions other than text to a listed item.

The startup is positioning its app as a safer alternative to Craiglist by using multi-layered verification procedure for new sellers, cross checking people on social media and on email.

The new series of funding brings the total investment in the company to more than $50 million. In its first year, the startup attracted 4 million users and generated $1 billion in gross merchandise volume and in December alone, they facilitated $81 million in local transactions of secondhand goods. These record numbers do not include the startup’s unique offerings of services, job listings and housing.

“We have been following 5miles’ progress since the beginning of 2015, and have been very impressed with the company’s rapid growth and the innovation they have brought to local sellers and buyers,” said Alex Yin, co-founder and general partner at Blue Lake Capital. “We very much look forward to working with the company as they continue to expand.”

Image: 5miles

This article, "5miles May Challenge Craigslist as the New Online Classified" was first published on Small Business Trends

10 Ideas for Improving Your Business Website

Your business website isn’t just a place for potential customers to learn about your business and potentially make purchases. It’s the face of your business, an arm of your online marketing plan, and so much more.

For some tips on making your business website as great a tool as it can be, check out these tips from members of our small business community.

Work to Gain Return Visitors

Getting people to visit your website is a great first step. But if you want your business to succeed, you need return visitors. In this article on Target Marketing, Gabriel Shaoolian shares three simple methods for gaining return visitors.

Add eCommerce Stores to Your Website

Ecommerce platforms have gotten much more sophisticated in recent years. The amount of options that you have for different store types and features can be overwhelming. This post on Inc by Anita Campbell shares five eCommerce stores that are easy to add to your website.

Sharpen Your Headline Writing Skills

The headlines that you use for blog posts and other parts of your website are incredibly important, since they can convince visitors to read or see what you have to say. This post by Ileane Smith includes some tips for writing great headlines. And the BizSugar community shared their input here.

Increase Customer Satisfaction with Exit Overlays

You can use an exit overlay on your website for a variety of reasons – to get customer feedback, to encourage interaction, and to help solve problems with your website. In this post on the Exit Bee blog, Victoria Stamati discusses the various types of exit overlays and the benefits they can have for business websites.

Protect Your Data from Insider Threats

You’re likely already taken some steps to secure your business data from outside hacks or similar threats. But people who have insider access to your data can also pose a threat. This post by Vadim Vladimirskiy on the ADAR PersonalCloud blog explains more about insider threats and how you can protect your onine data.

Consider .Co and Other Domain Extensions

For years, .com was the king of domain extensions. But now some other extensions like .co and .io are making an impact on business websites. This article from Olivia Scala on Trellis discusses the growing trend of .co and similar domain extensions. You can also see discussion about the post over on BizSugar.

Include Educational Content in Your Marketing

Including educational content in your website and other online marketing materials can help make customers see you as an authority in your industry, and have a variety of other benefits. Renee Teller discusses the benefits of including educational content in your marketing on the Carben Creative blog.

Boost Your Brand on Social Media

As a prominent arm of your online marketing efforts, your social media channels are sort of an extension of your website. So your social media marketing efforts should reflect your brand and the hard work that you put into your website. Gosia Letki shares some tips for boosting your brand on social media on the Brand24 blog here.

Learn to Fail Better

Failure is an inevitable part of running a business. But whether that failure relates to your website or other parts of your business, there are ways you can fail that will prevent your business from completely falling apart. In this Noobpreneur post, Chad Stewart explains how you can fail better. And BizSugar members discussed the post further here.

Master the Art of Trial and Error

Whether you’re working on building your website, your marketing, or any number of other parts of your business, you’re going to need to try out some things that might not exactly work out. In this post from The Experiment, Danien Ndukwu shares some thoughts on using trial and error as an entrepreneur.

If you'd like to suggest your favorite small business content to be considered for an upcoming community roundup, please send your news tips to:  sbtips@gmail.com.

Web Design Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "10 Ideas for Improving Your Business Website" was first published on Small Business Trends

Snapchat Rolls Out Add Me URLs: This Week in Social Media

Welcome to our weekly edition of what's hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention. What's New This Week Snapchat Makes Adding People Easier With Profile URLs: Users can copy their "unique URL or instantly share it [...]

This post Snapchat Rolls Out Add Me URLs: This Week in Social Media first appeared on .

- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Building Business Ideas That Succeed: How to Preflight Your Ideas

Do you have a great idea for a business? Is there a new product you want to create? To discover how to improve your chances for success, I interview Pat Flynn. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers [...]

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- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

11 Excuses That Serious Bloggers Don’t Make

You have decided you want to spend more time on your blog.

You’ve been thinking about this for quite some time, discussing it with friends and maybe even your cat.

But you haven’t started yet.

There’s a long list of things that are holding you back. You don’t have time, money, ideas, confidence or anything else you think you need in order to blog professionally. Maybe you’re tired, busy or stressed. So you tell your cat, “Maybe once I’m feeling perfect, with an abundance of wonderful blog ideas, I’ll start on my blog. I need a guaranteed audience, anyway.” 

It’s time for you to face it.

Even professional bloggers, making money hand over fist, have to struggle through obstacles. Very seldom do professionals blog under perfect conditions. There will always be something in the way – no support, little confidence, poor health or very little time.

But guess what?

Nearly every blogger on the internet faces the exact same problems.

These things holding you back from blogging begin to look very much like excuses when you realize that professionals often have the same problems you do, don’t they?

Below are some of the most common reasons used to excuse yourself from becoming a blogger.

If you previously believed any of them to be true, you will probably have changed your mind by the time you’re done reading this…

1. People aren’t going to like my opinions

Blogging is often an extremely personal business. Especially when you’re writing about topics such as home décor, fashion and health, you can feel like you are posting your personal feelings out on the internet for everyone to see.

Even non-personal topics can expose your personal feel and touch.

While you may consider yourself to be alone in feeling hesitant to reveal your personal opinion, this is a common feeling among bloggers.

Even your favorite hero of the blog world feels nervous every time he or she hits the “Publish” button. If you are hanging back from blogging because you are afraid no one will like your blog, just try writing a post and publishing it.

If no one at all likes your post (which is extremely unlikely), you will have lost nothing. However, if people do like your writing, they’ll let you know (and come back for more!).

If you’re starting to feel discouraged from negative reviews, always remember that a negative response is actually positive.

It means your writing is powerful.

It means that your writing has the ability to make your readers react.

2. I have nothing new to contribute

“There is nothing new under the sun, is there? So why bother blogging? Everyone’s already said everything there is to say.”

This is a common feeling among first-time bloggers.

But it is not true.

Everyone has their own personal voice and the unique way to describe something, for example, might be what sets you apart from the competition.

No one has had exactly the same experiences that you have, no one has read the books and articles you have and no one has had exactly the same experiences. Genuinely original ideas very seldom come to even the top dogs of the blogging world.

What sets these bloggers apart is the unique lens through which they view the world, their personality and their writing style.

3. Everybody’s already writing about this topic

Let’s say you want to write a blog on dance music.

To get ideas flowing, you do a Google search and discover to your horror that countless other people have had the same idea and actually beat you to writing the blog. And some these people have been blogging on dance music for years.

So why would anyone want to read your blog?

Look at it this way: There are lots of blogs on this topic because there are lots of people who want to read about dance music. They want new and better information on the topic, so you should feel encouraged by the presence of numerous blogs on the same topic you want to write about.

“If there aren’t popular blogs in the niche you’re interested in, find a new one!”

So don’t be scared to write about a topic many other bloggers are already writing about.

There are countless ways you can cover any given topic, and your personal spin will add a unique edge to your articles.

Alternatively you could collaborate with some other people and use the 6-3-5 method to come up with over 100  new ideas in just 30 minutes.

4. I’m far too busy for blogging

You are on your feet, running from place to place from midnight to midnight (it feels like) and it doesn’t look like you have time to work on a blog post every day, or week, or how ever often you’d like to blog.

You tell yourself you just don’t have time… but guess what?

Unless they’re getting an actual salary for the work, professional bloggers don’t have unlimited time for working on their blogs either.

They are often just as busy (in fact most likely busier) than the average person.

So how can you find the time?

Probably, you take your smartphone everywhere you go.

Take advantage of the little blocks of time you have while you’re waiting in traffic, in line at the grocery store or while you’re waiting to pick your kids up from school and work on your blog.

You might feel a little silly, and people may think you're obsessive, but that’s okay.

At least you’re getting your blog post written.

Another way to make time for your blog is to set up a non-negotiable date with yourself at a quiet coffee shop once a week and work on your blog post at that time.  A handy online tool to keep you on track to making time for writing is 750 Words, which helps you build a streak of daily writing and rewards you as your streak grows.

If you try to wait until time to blog pops up, you will be waiting forever.

So create the time and blog away.

5. I don’t know where to start

So you make a list of everything that needs to be done for your blog and immediately go into a state of brain freeze.

What should you do first – brainstorm blog post ideas, create a social media presence, work on the blog design or any one of the other 101 things on your to-do list?

The best way to start is to write up a list of everything that needs to be accomplished and select tasks based on how you are currently feeling at the moment.

Perhaps you’re feeling artistically creative, but are dead sick of writing. When you’re in this mood, you should focus on designing your blog.

If your creative writing juices are flowing, perhaps you should work on brainstorming ideas. Try to match your current mood and disposition to an appropriate task on your list.

It really doesn’t matter what order you decide to accomplish your tasks.

Getting the work accomplished is what’s important.

So create a list of things to be accomplished and get to work.

6. I can’t blog right now – It’s not a good time

Perhaps your cat is sick and you want to wait to start blogging until she feels better.

Or perhaps you feel your bank account balance is chronically low and are hesitant to commit your limited resources to blogging.

Every time you contemplate beginning your blog, you say to yourself, “No, it’s not a good time right now. As soon as I have problems A, B and C under control, I’ll start blogging.”

The sad truth is, the moment you have A, B and C under control brand-new problems will pop up out of nowhere and smile at you.

There is very seldom a perfect place in your – or any blogger’s – life where you can blog to your heart’s content with no problems whatsoever.

If you try to wait until your blogging conditions are perfect, you will be waiting forever. If times are hard for you, you can take baby steps towards your blogging goals every day – maybe coming up with one blog post idea per day, if that’s all you can do.

Record your tiny steps dutifully, and when life calms down again, you’ll have jumpstarted your blog.

7. I’m too tired

Coming home after the nine-to-five job, you have to make dinner, clean up, put the kids to bed and do whatever preparations you need towards getting out to work the next day.

After accomplishing that, you’re too exhausted to do anything except curl up on the sofa with a cup of joe and watch The Walking Dead.

You tell yourself that you are simply too tired to work on your blog.

This excuse just doesn’t pass muster.

Nothing gives a person more energy than working towards a goal you care about. If you’re feeling wiped out at the end of the day, just sitting down and working on the blog can get your creativity working and get you excited and energized.

One of my students recently had an idea for an e-book. The excitement and energy she got from the idea enabled her to work on it from late in the evening until 2am. She accomplished the 180-page project, as well as the marketing plan, in just three weeks.

So if you’re feeling exhausted and unmotivated, make yourself open up the laptop and try working for 15 minutes.

Usually, you’ll find that after ten minutes, you’ve almost magically found the brain power and energy to keep on working for a long time.

8. I shall fail

Of course, you don’t want to fail, be rejected or ignored.

But this isn’t a good reason to not work on your blog.

Yes, you tell yourself that no blog posts means there’s no way you can look up your traffic on Google Analytics and panic as you realize nobody cares. But not writing is a failure in a class of its own.

Besides, if you start on the blog, at least there is a chance people will be interested, right?

The authors of all the blogs in your inbox all took a risk when they released their first blog post.

If you try blogging, there’s a 50% chance you will succeed and a 50% chance you will fail. If you don’t even try, there’s a 100% chance that you will fail.

9. If my blog succeeds, my friends will hate me

Maybe you’re worried that, if your blog becomes popular, you’ll lose friends, who will envy your success and refuse to socialize with you anymore.

To be honest, you are better off without friends if they become envious over your success.

True friends will rejoice with you in your achievements. Don’t waste time worrying over whether fake friends will ostracize you. Just get writing.

10. I have to study more

You are virtually – no pun intended – inundated with books, webinars, tips and blogs on how to start a blog.

The next one may have the perfect compilation of data you need to get your blog off the ground. So you keep learning about WordPress, learning about Social Media, learning about SEO and never getting anywhere.

This is a common excuse, because there is no exact way of knowing when you’ve studied enough to stop learning and start blogging.

The fastest way to determine whether you’ve studied enough or not is to get your blog up and running and start posting. Your readers’ response -or the lack thereof – will inform you where exactly you are when it comes to know-how.

Don’t feel bad if your first posts are terrible – before you know it, they will become lost in time’s shifting sands.

11. I don’t have any good ideas

This is one of the most common excuses in the blogging world.

Wondering how to generate one idea after the other on the same topic for days, weeks and months can be so daunting that you want to quit before you even begin.

One great way to come up with new ideas is to be prepared for “inspired” moments. There are usual times where you are suddenly buried in a deluge of great ideas all at once – while going to sleep, driving or showering.

Try to be prepared for these moments by carrying a notepad or your smartphone with you at these times. But don’t take your smartphone in the shower unless it has a waterproof case!

If you are still stuck you can check out my list of 47 content ideas for bloggers.

Conclusion

If these or any other excuses are preventing you from blogging, remember that even successful bloggers face little demons like these.

Even the most successful bloggers aren’t immune to hesitation or doubt – they’ve simply learned to push through and take action.

And you can, too.

Guest Author: Jamie Spencer is a blogging coach and helps bloggers to start their first blog at setupablogtoday.com . Follow Jamie on Twitter @setupablogtoday.

The post 11 Excuses That Serious Bloggers Don't Make appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

Facebook Professional Services: How Your Local Business Can Rank

Do you have a local business page on Facebook? Want to reach more local customers? Facebook recently launched Professional Services, a directory that helps consumers find the best local businesses and services to fit their needs. In this article I'll share how to use the Facebook Professional Services feature to boost visibility with local customers. [...]

This post Facebook Professional Services: How Your Local Business Can Rank first appeared on .

- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Have You Heard of the Flat Lay or Boho Design Trends?

You've probably seen Flat Lay designs, even if you haven't heard the term.  Flat Lay design refers to a shot of items lying flat on a table, floor or other surface, shot from above. You see these kinds of images on eCommerce sites and other websites frequently. The Flat Lay design trend is up 160 percent according to the just-released Creative Trends 2016 report by Shutterstock.

This fascinating report outlines a number of other visual and creative trends that Shutterstock predicts will be popular during 2016.

If you're looking for design ideas for your website, social media headers, advertisements or other graphics — this is one report you need to check out.

Here's another insight from the report. Have you heard of the Boho trend?  Boho is short for Boho-chic, which refers to Bohemian or hippie design according to Wikipedia.  Boho refers to swirling, feathery, often flowery patterns and imagery. Think of that old Bohemian style skirt that women wore during the Woodstock era.  (And for those of you younger than that … come on, you've seen a picture at least!)

The Creative Trends report covers images, but it also points to cultural and technology trends.  For instance, the choice of images that people make indicates that there's a lot of interest right now in certain tech phenomena.  Did you know that images of smart watches are up a whopping 900 percent?  And images of drones are up 181 percent.  Those tech phenomena and more are obviously popular subjects of discussion and interest.

The report is based on data gathered by Shutterstock. According to Flo Lau, the Marketing Digital Designer at Shutterstock, that data can be used to predict the popularity of certain design trends in the coming year.  Lau acknowledged that it's risky to make predictions.  However, based on the considerable data the company has collected, she said Shutterstock expressed confidence that these will be the design trends during 2016, noting:

"Luckily Shutterstock uses data to make our predictions. With information gathered from millions of searches and downloads, our annual Creative Trends infographic shows what’s on the rise around the world. From global trends to local developments, it’s an in-depth look at how the creative world will look in 2016.

Expect to see a mix of opposites this year: the latest technology and the natural world, clean lines and intricate patterns, the old and the new."

Go here for the infographic, and find the full trends report here.

Flat Lay Design, Boho Design Photos via Shutterstock

This article, "Have You Heard of the Flat Lay or Boho Design Trends?" was first published on Small Business Trends

5 Growth Hacks to Help You Grow Your Blog Business

“One of the most misleading perspectives of a dinosaur’s history is the one that effectively proves that this creature was unintelligible and inhumane and therefore faced a grave threat to its existence and continuance, ever since the pre-Jurassic period. This distinction demolishes the creature’s uniqueness and cognitive abilities and overlooks, in its entirety, all rescinding factors that suggest evidence to the contrary.”

Confusing, isn’t it? It is nearly impossible to understand the above paragraph without reading it at least twice. Some might still not understand it. And this is one of the biggest reasons why many blogging businesses fail to take-off.

Blogging is an art. However, you do not need to be like Picasso to create a compelling blog post, nor do you need to be an art-fan to appreciate it. Some of the most SEO-revolutionizing blog posts are written in simple and easy-to-read language with little-to-no technicalities.

If you’re a small business wondering how to grow your blog business to boost your SEO rankings and get more clients, here are 5 growth hacks to help you grow your business blog:

1. Sharing case studies

What is the best way to improve your blog quality? Robbie Richards considers the mix of right keywords and case studies as the “ultimate guide to limitless organic traffic and potential business leads.”

Nowadays, most readers and first time buyers are looking for product reviews before making their final buying decision. They have particular keywords in mind, when using a Google Search. If you want to make your blog posts relevant, reliable and action-oriented, then case studies are what you need.

This means juicing up your blogs with the right keywords. UAV Coach, a small business that offers educational resources for aspiring aerial videographers, used this tactic. To build up its reputation, the organization searched for high-density keywords and created relevant blogs.

2. Don’t take competitors lightly

Competitor resources are powerful. Think of them as an alternative route to a congested road. As a blogger, you need to keep a check on your competitors business if you want to stay ahead of the game and leave clients begging for more.

Brian Dean reiterates that, “Testimonials and Competitor Keyword Analysis are two of the most important resources you need to make your blog business grow.” In 2014, Shane and Jocelyn Sam made a little over $140,000. They were not selling any products!

They were two online marketers who spent an adequate amount of time reading testimonials of competitors and understanding the specific keywords such competitors used. This allowed them to create compelling blog posts that helped skyrocket their earnings.

3. Connect with your audience

Imagine you’re planning to launch a new range of high-calorie chocolate pastries and your blog posts are published in an online fitness journal. Similarly, think about a new range of baby care products being marketed to singles. Neither strategies work.

Your blogs are only good if your readers can relate to them. Unless you’ve identified your target audience, you’ll end up running around in circles and praying for a miracle! Blog Guru Jon Morrow remarks, “Being a popular blogger isn’t about being a teacher, it’s about being a performer.”

As a stalwart inspirational blogger, Jon Morrow first identifies his audience and evaluates their needs. He then relies on anecdotes to create blog posts that compel his audience to take the desired action.

Here’s an example of his work:

4. Hosting irresistible contests across Facebook

Let’s admit it. There’s a lot more to Facebook than memes, cat videos, keyboard warriors, and selfies! The popular social network makes Zuckerberg a rich man through promotions, contests, and advertising – something that guarantees a slice of the pie for your blogging business too.

“You can easily generate leads without spinning out 2000 word articles every week. The simplest approach is to rely on Facebook for the job. Hosting an irresistible contest on Facebook gets you more viewers and readers than any other source,” remarks Jon Loomer.

Dinesh D’Souza is a public figure and author. Sometime back, he decided to launch a Facebook contest. The winner of the contest was to get a free eBook, written by the author. The very idea of a giveaway was one of the most powerful reasons why his Facebook page had more than 4,500 views and over 2,200 registered with his mailing list.

The conversion rate swelled to 50%. The contest also grew his fan base and following exponentially. Here’s a small snippet of what happened:

5. Never underestimate emails

Some marketing moguls opine that emails are a waste of time. In today’s world, people barely have time to read an email and most of them are likely to skim through the content. However, one simply cannot deny the power of a short and sweet message.

Short emails can help improve your response rates. We’re not saying that long and overly personalized messages are good or that short and cold emails do the trick. The key is to strike a balance. Here’s an example of a short and powerful email, attached to a blog post, which i sent to a blogger:

And here’s the response i received:

In a nutshell…

Blogging is an integral part of digital marketing. The industry is relatively new and is booming. Several new entrants are making their way to the top. The creativity pool and talent is global and potentially limitless.

In such a scenario, you cannot leave anything up to chance. Enough has been said on how to write an effective blog. But no attention is paid on how to get your message across? How to connect with your audience? How to add that perfect finishing touch to your blogs?

Case studies, competitor analysis, social media, email, and avid readers are some of the many factors that separate a good blog from a boring one. Think of these as the five stepping stones towards effective blog marketing.

If you have some other Holy Grails to Effective Blogging in mind or want to share your success story, feel free to leave your comment below!

Guest Author: Bill Achola is a digital marketing consultant and a professional blogger specializing in content writing and marketing at Billacholla.com. He works closely with B2B and B2C companies providing the right content that generates social shares, comments, and traffic back to their business blogs.

The post 5 Growth Hacks to Help You Grow Your Blog Business appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

Controversial Ad Blockers: Ask Customers to Just Say No to Them?

Ad blockers are every online publisher’s worst nightmare. While Web and mobile users may dislike seeing ads on their favorite sites, they should also remember the value they are receiving as a result.

After all, advertising is what pays for much of the free content online. And as the number of people using various ad blockers continues to increase, the challenges increase for publishers trying to provide that content.

This includes small business owners seeking their share of the multi-billion dollar online ad industry.

But one publisher is suggesting an interesting solution to the ad blocker problem.

Online publishing giant Forbes recently announced getting 42.4 percent of its visitors to voluntarily turn off their ad blockers in exchange for an ad-light experience. In the process, Forbes says its fix monetized 15 million ad impressions that would otherwise have been blocked.

Giving the Ad-Light Experience to Readers

Here's how Forbes was able to start solving its own problem with ad blockers. Since December 17, 2015, a small percentage of readers with ad blockers received the following message from the online magazine:

“Thanks for coming to Forbes. Please turn off your ad blocker in order to continue. To thank you for doing so, we’re happy to present you with an ad-light experience.”

The remainder of readers using ad blockers became the site’s control group. They did not receive a message and continued to have complete access. Meanwhile those who turned off their ad blockers got an experience free of "Welcome" ads, which some readers find annoying. They also avoided any interstitial video ads between Web pages or video ads.

The Forbes ad blocking experiment is hardly isolated. Magazine staffer Lewis DVorkin writes that German publisher Axel Springer had taken a similar approach with one of its online newspapers earlier, offering an ad light version of its content for a fee.

And Conde Nast publication GQ has recently followed suit.

Learning from the Forbes Ad Blocking Experiment

So what does all of this mean for your business? Well, make no mistake, ad blockers are a growing problem for every online publisher relying on ads to monetize traffic.

A 2015 ad blocking report from PageFair says 200 million use ad blockers online today, 45 million of them in the U.S.

Since the dawn of the Internet, online content creators have relied on advertising revenue as one of the only ways to monetize a product or service they essentially provide to customers for free.

Certainly, if you use your online content to market another product or service or promote live events, for example, maybe online advertising isn't a big part of your business model. But if providing free online resources is your primary or only business, you almost certainly do.

Meanwhile, DVorkin suggests the escalation between ad  blockers, publishers and advertising  platforms is only likely to increase. He writes:

"Publishers and ad blocking companies (Germany’s Eyeo is one of the biggest with AdBlock Plus) are engaged in a cat-and-mouse game. Ad blockers work by blocking a list of known urls/domains associated with companies that serve ads (industry leader DoubleClick.net, a Google subsidiary, is among them) to sites like Forbes.com. Some ad blockers will approve, or white list, a publisher’s ads if they’re deemed acceptable — but only for a fee. To some, this screams extortion."

The solution for online publishers is to reintroduce visitors to the value they offer. Consider asking whether your visitors would be interested in an ad-light experience in exchange for turning off ad blocking software when visiting your site.

Or give them the opportunity to pay for some of that content instead.

Image: Pagefair

This article, "Controversial Ad Blockers: Ask Customers to Just Say No to Them?" was first published on Small Business Trends

Finalists: Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2016

We received over 300 nominations for our seventh-annual Top 10 Social Media Blogs contest (the blogosphere’s biggest contest for social media blogs)! As in the past, the list of 20 finalists has some returning reader favorites and some new titles for our judges to consider. The Judges Our judges include Ann Handley (chief content officer for MarketingProfs, author of [...]

This post Finalists: Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2016 first appeared on .

- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Local Small Business SEO: Why Your Business Needs It

Plain and simple, SEO isn’t dying; it’s only changing. This means that you still need SEO, local business or not, you just have to make sure your strategy is up to par with the latest best practices. When it comes to your local business, however, this is even more crucial. Remember that the way you create a plan for local SEO is slightly different than if you were focusing on a global audience because there are different factors at play. It should be easier to get rankings and see success, but it won’t come to you without a little bit of strategy on your part.

If you’re just getting into the local SEO game and are not sure how it differs from “regular,” or what many call global, SEO, check out some of the points below. Hopefully you’ll see a trend: Local SEO is something that your local business needs — it’s no longer optional.

1. Local SEO Gives you a Better Spot on SERPs; Thus Improving Visibility

You’ll notice when you visit a Google SERP that they prioritize local results, meaning they put them at the top of a results page. If you can work to improve your local SEO you should earn a space in the local results (as opposed to your typical organic results), as shown below. Notice how the results look different in the local “box” and the organic results below:

As you might imagine, this helps improve your visibility because it’s the first thing that searchers see. Local results are also more targeted and therefore appealing to a searcher who searchers for something that has local results, which brings us to our next point:

2. Local SEO Helps Bring in a Targeted Audience; thus Helping Conversions

If someone types in a search query and local results come up, that means they’re likely searching for something specific. This means they are a more targeted audience and more likely to convert. Remember that it’s better to have 100 searchers that are local and serious about your business than 200 searchers who are just browsing around for something they may want to invest in sometime in the future (which is what you often get with organic results). Think about your own search habits: If you type in “plumbing services,” you’re probably not going to be searching for that just for fun, are you?

3. Local SEO has Less Competition; Therefore Helping Improve Rankings

The cool thing about local SEO is you’re really only competing with others who are trying to optimize for your same local search queries. This means that the pool of competitors is much smaller than if you were trying to earn the number 1 spot for organic rankings for any given term. You can think of local SEO similarly to the way you think of long tail keywords. You still have to work hard to optimize, but overall local SEO is much less expensive, things move much faster, and through it all you get more targeted results. In fact, many of the businesses we work with survive on local SEO alone.

4. Local SEO Helps you Create Local Connections and Partnerships

Again, the more visibility you have the better known you will be in your community. With local SEO it’s not all about earning visibility on a search engine in general, but earning that visibility amongst searchers and other businesses. After all, those who find you through a local search are probably in your area!

5. Local SEO is Crucial for Mobile Traffic

If you think about, most of the searchers that happen on mobile phones are local searches. You want something right there, in the moment, so your phone is the way to make that happen. According to Google research (PDF), local searches lead 50% of mobile visitors to visit stores within one day, and according to Search Engine Land, Google announced that mobile searches have now outnumbered desktop searches. The moral of the story is that’s a lot of traffic you’re missing out on if you’re ignoring local SEO.

6. Local SEO Helps your Business Improve Trustworthiness and Credibility

What many companies don’t realize is that local SEO isn’t just about rankings, but it’s also about reviews. When you see a local result you can easily click on the review section, so these listings in general are more trusted than organic results and especially paid results. You can click a local listing before going to that listings website if you want to learn more right there on a SERP, which takes you to something called Google’s Knowledge Graph, and reviews are very prominent as you can see below:

According to BrightLocal’s 2014 Local Consumer Review Survey, 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This means you should get involved in review sites as well — Yelp, TripAdvisor, Yahoo! and Bing Local, etc. — which is all a part of local SEO and creating that online local presence.

Extra: National Companies Still Need Local SEO

While local SEO may seem like it’s only necessary for small businesses or businesses with a physical location, it can benefit all types and sizes of companies. If you don’t have a physical store, that doesn’t mean that you can’t take advantage of all the benefits listed above. If you still want a targeted audience, optimize for your headquarters and then when someone clicks they can see that you do work all around the world. If you’re a national company with multiple locations, you can still optimize for each location.

The Next Step: Local SEO Best Practices

So understanding why you need local SEO is the first (and major) step, but the next step is of course putting it into action. So how exactly do you improve your local SEO? Learn about best practices for local SEO and how to create a successful plan, or work with an agency to improve your local SEO to help you better meet your goals.

Republished by permission. Original here.

SEO Blocks Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "Local Small Business SEO: Why Your Business Needs It" was first published on Small Business Trends

How to Use Pinterest Analytics to Improve Your Marketing

Do you want more from Pinterest? Have you considered using Pinterest analytics to inform your marketing decisions? When you know where to look in Pinterest analytics, you'll find actionable information you can use to improve your Pinterest strategy. In this article you'll discover five ways to use Pinterest analytics and improve your Pinterest marketing. #1: [...]

This post How to Use Pinterest Analytics to Improve Your Marketing first appeared on .

- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

21 Ideas for Creating and Marketing a Business Book

Writing a book can be a great way to share your business expertise with the world. But just writing a book won’t guarantee that you can get anyone to actually read it. However, there are some ways you can increase the likelihood that your business book will sell. Here are some tips for creating and marketing a business book online.

Choose a Platform that Will Reach as Many People as Possible

Whether you’re creating a book or an ebook, you need to find a platform to publish and sell your work. The most popular of which is Amazon. You don’t absolutely need to stick with Amazon alone. But your goal should be to get your book in front of as many people as possible, so large platforms like Amazon give you a good opportunity to do so. However, if there are any more niche platforms that are popular with your specific audience, they may be worth considering.

Find a Platform that Makes It Easy

Aside from the distribution ability, you also want to look at the process involved with any given platform. Some make it easy for you to just upload a file. And others are a bit more involved. Just make sure that you have all of the information and the time to put into getting your book published on the platform or platforms of your choice.

Pay Attention to Percentages

Different platforms also have different payment systems. Some will take a percentage of your sales, while others may charge you up front or by the month. So you need to take that into account when choosing where to publish your work.

Consider Using Multiple Platforms

There’s also no rule saying that you have to stick with just one publisher. You can choose as many as you want, as long as none of them require you to work with them exclusively. However, some platforms like Amazon will give you a higher percentage if you work exclusively with them, so you really need to weigh the pros and cons of each option carefully.

Build Your List Beforehand

When it comes to marketing your business book, one of your biggest assets will be your own email list, according to online business expert Jim Kukral. So while you’re working on your book, or even before that, you need to really focus on building that list so you have a built-in network of potential customers when it comes time to launch.

Write for Your Audience

That network of potential customers should always be in your mind as you create your business book. If you’re writing something that won’t appeal to those people, then you won’t benefit from all that work you did to build your list. So make sure that you’re writing with that audience in mind. And you might even consider asking them questions along the way to really cater your offering to that audience.

Create Early Buzz

You can also build some interest around your book before its launch by simply announcing its release shortly beforehand. You can let people know through your blog, social media accounts and email list. And you might even try and get some industry leaders to cover the release.

Consider an Early Release

You might also consider selling or giving away a few early copies of your book to generate some buzz and reviews among your target audience. You could offer the book to a select group of subscribers or even bloggers or other influencers within your industry who are likely to share their thoughts on your work.

Offer Some Freebies

Another way you can generate some early excitement around your book is by creating some similar products or offerings leading up to your launch. For instance, if your book revolves around building a team for your business, you could offer a small course or email series that offers some similar information, though not all of the same information. This can help you really zero in on your target audience and also show people the value of your expertise.

Focus on Reviews

Aside from announcing your launch to your subscribers and trying to build some early buzz, getting positive reviews for your book should be your main focus early on. You need several good reviews before a large number of people are really going to trust your work enough to invest in it. So you really need to encourage the people already in your network to share their thoughts.

Kukral says, “I always tell people you have got to have good reviews before you can really focus on anything else. You need that social proof.”

Plan Your Publicity Ahead of Time

However, you should have at least a general idea of your promotional strategy before releasing your book. Create a calendar of any promotional events you might attend. Plan out your blog, email and social strategies. And come up with a plan for getting some press mentions. You just don’t want to wait until after releasing your book to come up with a plan.

Get Social

Social media should, of course, be a part of your online promotional strategy. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow you to interact with customers on a really personal level. So you can both find people to add to your network and tell them all about your latest work.

Answer People's Questions

People always have questions when it comes to new books. They obviously want to know if it’s going to be a good investment for them before they buy. So do your best to answer any questions they might have. That could mean just making yourself available on social media, setting up a Google Hangout or even gathering questions from your subscribers and putting together and FAQ section. The more questions you’re able to answer, the less people will have hesitations about purchasing.

Create the Right Summary

A book summary is also an important part of answering people’s questions about what the book is all about. You need to put a lot of thought into coming up with a summary that gives enough information, while still being short enough that people will actually read it. Ideally, you’ll come up with something that really shows the value of your work without giving anything away. Then they’ll be so intrigued that they have to buy it.

Market the Author

Your marketing efforts should also focus on you and your personal expertise. There are plenty of business books out there from plenty of different authors. So you need to tell people why they should listen to you above all those others.

Offer Snippets

You can also offer small snippets of your book on your website or other selling platforms. You don’t want to give away too much. But you need to showcase the value that you can provide. So offering a little bit of it for free may help you attract the right people.

Target Readers with Facebook Ads

To get some new people added to your list of potential customers, you might consider using online ads. Facebook in particular can really help you target the exact customers you’re looking for.

Kukral says, “Facebook advertising lets you target really specific people or interest groups. So if you’ve written a horror book you can target people who like Steven King or are just interested in the horror genre. And you can write your ads for those people specifically.”

Go Multimedia

You can also get a little creative with the content you use to promote your new book. Consider making a series of images that people can easily share or even a video trailer for your book.

Try to Get Featured on Book Sites

In addition, you can try submitting your book to be featured on sites like BookBub that cater specifically to active readers. It’s not guaranteed that your work will be chosen, but it can offer a huge boost if it is, according to Kukral.

Create a Press Kit

You can also create a press release and similar materials to send to publications that cover the subject area of your book. Providing those materials can increase your chances of getting your book in front of as many potential readers as possible.

Make It Easy to Buy

Wherever you’ve chosen to list your book for sale, you need to make sure that it’s easy for people to actually purchase. Make sure that you include a link and very clear instructions on your website and in all of your marketing materials.

Fanned Books Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "21 Ideas for Creating and Marketing a Business Book" was first published on Small Business Trends

9 Unexpected Ways to Ramp Up Marketing Productivity

Fair warning: You may think I've lost my mind after reading this, but science backs me up.

Almost every person reading this works too hard. We are connected 24/7. We work during our commutes, at the dinner table, before breakfast and after dinner. And we may be spending more time to get less done.

If you feel like you're spinning your wheels, it may be time to step back and reassess. Crank up your productivity by working smarter – getting more done in less time.

1. Get more sleep

Seven to eight hours, and don't skimp. In study after study, sleep deprivation has been found to lower productivity. In Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation, aggregated studies estimated the U.S. cost of lost productivity due to sleep deprivation at $41.1 billion per year. Add in injuries, illness, and on-the-job accidents, and you're looking at hundreds of billions.

Workers who get a good night's sleep pay more attention to detail, have better memory, and are better able to make decisions.

Arianna Huffington, Co-founder and Editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, says more sleep is no less than the secret to success.

2. Take breaks

That's right, to get more done, you should literally work less. DeskTime studied the habits of their users and found that the 10% who are most productive work 52 minutes at a time, and take a 17 minute break. I know, oddly specific.

Set a time and devote yourself to work for those 52 minutes – no distractions. It's similar to the concept used in The Pomodoro Technique, which advises 25 minute working sprints.

Scientific study backs the concept of beneficial breaks. Researchers at the University of Illinois found that focus starts to drop after 40 minutes of sustained mental effort.

Cornell University found the same results when they studied insurance company workers in 1999. Working on the theory that computer workers tend to be overly focused and ignore breaks. They developed a program to remind workers to take a break and stretch. The fastest typists showed a 40% improvement in accuracy over comparably skilled workers in the control group, who were not reminded to take breaks.

So what's the most effective kind of break? To boost creativity and energy, take a walk. In just 20 minutes, you can improve memory and cognitive skills.

3. Collaborate more

Millenials are on the right track. Unlike older generations, they are the internet generation –  crowdsourcing from birth. Working with a team helps you stay on track and increases your productivity. Interestingly, the productivity boost and other benefits of teamwork apply to collaborative, self-directive teams. Team management has actually been found counter-productive. Teams overburdened by management tend to suppress personal initiative and authoritative action.

Don't have a team? Me either, I'm a freelancer, and I work (mostly) alone. But every day, I have regular work meetings with an accountability partner, my friend and fellow writer, Cindy Watrous. We start the day by discussing what tasks are on the agenda for the day, then check in at intervals to report progress, brainstorm ideas and talk over career goals. I find that if one of us can't make check-in for some reason, my productivity suffers.

4. Singletask

We've all been so proud of it for so long, it's strange to think that multitasking might hurt productivity, but that's exactly what Devora Zack, author of Singletasking: Get More Done – One Thing at a Time, says. And she documents solid neuroscientific evidence to back it up. One brain scan study even reveals that chronic multitaskers lose brain matter over time.

Singletasking is simple and easy to understand. Shut everything else down and do one thing at a time. James Hamblin, MB the health editor of The Atlantic says to have one tab open at a time. I just counted mine. 35.

5. Eat right

Eat the right foods. The food you choose can enhance your creativity, sharpen your focus, and help you avoid distracting health issues. And you might even lose a few pounds, which, let's be honest, would make most netizens feel better overall. Sujan Patel wrote a list of the 15 foods you should be eating for better productivity.

(Source: Life Is A Bowl Full Of Cherries)

6. Schedule your day

Many of us are most alert and productive first thing in the morning, but that's not the case for everyone. To find your optimal work schedule, keep track of what you"re already doing and figure out when you're at your most alert. Schedule the most mentally taxing tasks of your day when you're most focused and awake. Seems like a no-brainer.

Many of us who work online face similar problems as shift workers. Our clients might be anywhere in the world, and that can result in some very strange work hours. It's not unusual to have bursts of creativity in the morning and again in the evening. And most of us are pretty useless in the middle of the afternoon. Good time for a nap.

7. Use the IoT

There's no scientific evidence for this one, but it makes sense to put everything on auto. My medicines arrive at my door every three months, my car sends me an email when it needs a service, and now, not only can you order your office supplies online, your office supplies can order their own refills when they run low. How meta is that, when your stuff can order stuff?

All kidding aside, we are becoming increasingly automated, and that's probably a good thing. Once we grow accustomed to interconnected devices, our machines will pick up a lot of slack – by monitoring home safety for better piece of mind, optimizing heating, cooling, and lawn watering to save money and maintain comfort, and by providing us all the info we need to do necessary maintenance on everything… including our own health.

8. Harness the power of Kawaii

Don't say I didn't warn you about thinking I've lost my mind. Researchers in Japan studied the effect of cuteness (kawaii) on productivity. You read that right, cuteness. Specifically, baby animals. They found that students performed a simple task much better after viewing baby animals than after looking at either adult animals or pictures of food.

(Source: The Power of Kawaii: Viewing Cute Images Promotes a Careful Behavior and Narrows Attentional Focus)

9. Have better sex

You're paying attention now, aren't you? Sex is great. It's relaxing, life-affirming, and it makes you happy. There's even evidence that people who have sex at least four times a week make more money.

“These days we're busier than ever, and many people tell me that they're too tired to have sex. Yet, most people agree that sex is one of the most relaxing and pleasurable activities in our life. It connects us to our partner and helps us feel more confident and alive. When we have good sexual experiences, we feel more balanced, whole and happy. Making the time for ourselves and our relationship is important to feeling good at our jobs, which makes us more productive and successful!” – Lori Buckley, Psy.D., CST.,  Sinclair Institute

And, let's not forget that exercise makes you more productive and sex is great exercise. Are you still here? Get busy!

Guest Author: Sherry Gray is a freelance content writer from Key West, FL, currently suffering the burbs of Orlando. She’s a science geek, a business and marketing writer, and an unapologetic fan of all things bacon. Connect with Sherry on Twitter@sherisaid or on Linkedin.

The post 9 Unexpected Ways to Ramp Up Marketing Productivity appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

A Step By Step Guide To More Clickable Banner Ads

Banner ads are one of the most common forms of advertising used in the online world.

As an affordable, effective and measurable medium they enable companies to draw attention to their brand and attract traffic back to a web page.

However, much like any other form of advertising, the success of a banner ad often depends on its design. The reasoning is simple – better design will make you stand out from the crowd, improve your click-through rate and ultimately get you ahead of the game.

Even if you have no design experience there are some cool and free design applications such as Content Creator that have beautiful typography templates that you can pair with photos and create banner ads on your iPhone or iPad in just few minutes.

But you need to know that creating an ad is not just about putting some photos and text together and hoping for the best. As we have examined best practices in banner advertising we are here to share with you what a creative and effective online ad is really all about:

Size matters

Of course there is no one-size-fits-all type of banner ad as the size needs to be adjusted to the requirements of a particular site. But Google AdSense is stating that: “wider ad sizes tend to outperform their taller counterparts”. It is presumed that the position of such ads and the fact that it’s more comfortable to read from left to right are among reasons why these sizes are so popular. For more information about top performing sizes check out the Google Ad guide.

Make it simple

Easier said than done, I agree. Many companies are trying to put too much information into one ad and in the end everything looks busy, confusing and even suspicious.

As a general rule-of-thumb your ad should stand up to the 2 second glance rule, during which it should be clear to the audience who you are and what you are saying. So keep it minimal and clean with no more than 10 words per ad.

Take a look at the example below where powerful background and product color are contrasted with minimal text and a visible call-to-action button. It is simple, functional and to the point.

Create an order

If there is no order in the way you arrange your text, viewers will not know where to look first and where to start reading.

Greater size indicates greater importance, so use that logic when arranging your visual elements. Use one size (bigger or bolder) for the main text and another for additional text and the call to action (button).

Keep in mind that the font style, size and the total amount of text should be adapted for smaller mobile screens so do NOT use embellished, shadowed or extremely thin fonts nor the ones that are smaller than 10 pt.

Stick to simple sans serif fonts that are direct, trustworthy and easy to read. When in doubt about font color remember that black or white work best in most ads.

Choose relevant images

Complex or abstract images take longer to scan and understand so it’s important to make banner ad images obvious and relevant to the ad.

If you choose to go with high quality product images surround them with a lot of empty space so that the product and the message can come to focus.

In case you decide on using photos of people you can try looking for some free people photos at Pexels or Picjumbo, as they have a separate “people category”. But for more close-up photos of human faces you will have to go to budget photo stocks such as Istock or Shutterstock.

Always make sure that a person in the ad matches the persona of your buyer or rely on the power of brand ambassadors and celebrities that embody and promote brand values.

Build trust with a logo

If your banner ad doesn’t have a logo viewers will not know who is behind the ad so they will probably never click on it. That is why it’s important to use Content Creator app and place your logo on the top or bottom of the ad, depending on the placement of the copy.

Keep it visually dominant but not as much as the main call to action. If you don’t want to put your logo at least write your brand name or website as a signal to viewers that there is a real landing page behind the ad.

In that case, even if viewers fail to click-through, you will still generate brand awareness with impressions.

Rely on your colors

Branding of your ad should be consistent with branding of other marketing materials, not only in terms of images and fonts but also in terms of color. It will significantly improve brand recall and leverage brand identity.

You can choose to have your signature color dominantly present on the image or you can choose to use your color for the call-to-action button only. In the latter case you can make the button stand out even more by adding a (transparent) background or filter to your ad image.

Call them to action

Once viewers notice your image and read the message what do you want them to do? Go to your website or e-shop, right?

For that to happen your ad must inform the viewer on what they need to do and what in return they can expect to receive once they click through.

The best place to give such instruction (aka. the call to action or CTA) are buttons, positioned at the end of your message or at the bottom of the ad. When possible use bright colors or prominent sizes for the button so that it can become a focal point of the ad.

The most frequent CTA’s are “click here”, “buy now” or “sign up” but you can expand on that to give more information about the choice that is ahead of them. For example you can write: “Click here to save 25%”, “Watch now for free”, “Redeem now”.

In the end don’t forget to follow through, as the ad is just a small part of a much bigger picture and it must be linked to a landing page that looks and feels like an ad. This means that if your ad promises a 50% mid-year sale your landing page has to deliver on that promise through the same offer, image style, font and color.

Where do you stand when it comes to banner ads? Do you use them or pay attention to their design? Are there some other design tips that have proven to be effective for you? Please share them in the comments section below!

Guest Author: Aida Gadzo is a Social Media Strategist at contentcreatorapp.com. She helps small and medium businesses master the “what”, “why” and “how” of producing and delivering engaging digital and social media content that will activate audiences and drive sales.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for Content Creator.

The post A Step By Step Guide To More Clickable Banner Ads appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.