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Which of these two products would you most likely buy: “How to sell stuff using Facebook ads”… Or: “How to make 461 affiliate sales totaling $8,384 in commissions in the next 72 hours using $112 of Facebook ads”? The second one, right?

How about these two…

“How I lost weight”

Vs

“How I lost 93 pounds in 6 months and went on to win 2 bodybuilding championships at the age of 42”

Of course, it’s the second one that gets your attention.

Why is that?

Because the second titles are exact and precise, which is exactly what people buy.

Vague isn’t interesting. It isn’t sexy. And it doesn’t make sales.

To be clear here, we’re not just talking about having great titles. That’s crucial of course, but so is this:

Base your products around just ONE main promise.

Compare these two:

“The complete, no-holds-barred, definitive encyclopedia on Facebook Marketing”

Vs

“The 3 step formula to selling almost anything on Facebook and making a profit within 24 hours, guaranteed.”

The first one presumably covers everything you could imagine about Facebook marketing.

The second one makes a single, precise promise.

Guaranteed, the second one will outsell the first one 10 times over or more.

Choose one thing and cover it in depth. This is what makes sales. It’s easier and faster to make this type of product. It’s simple to explain in your sales material. And it’s a no-brainer for the customer to grasp.

They know exactly what they can expect, which makes it far easier to get the sale.

And best of all…

…let’s say you’ve got a book/program/software that covers or does a whole range of stuff.

If you break that product down into ‘one promise’ products, you will have more products to sell, and you will sell more of each product.

You might want to read that last sentence again, because it is a million dollar piece of marketing advice if you understand and implement it.

Make the title of your product a single promise. Then go deep, not wide. Rinse and repeat.

Using this method you can crank out a product a week instead of a product every month or two. Frankly, if you work on this full time, you can do even better than that.

And you’ll actually sell more of each product. Paradoxical, maybe. But it flat out works.

One last example:

You’re building a WordPress plugin that does everything but the kitchen dishes.

Stop.

Break that plugin down into several small plugins, with each plugin delivering on a single promise.

Your marketing just became easy as pie.

Your sales letters and videos will practically write themselves because it’s now so simple. People will better understand what you’re offering. And you will sell TONS more.

Okay, I’ve harped on this enough.

One promise products – be specific – go deep, not wide – rinse and repeat.

The National Aquarium of New Zealand once reported that Inky the Octopus escaped. The smart 8 legged creature squeezed out of a small gap at the top of his tank, slithered across the floor of the aquarium and used a sea-water runoff pipe to make his way to Hawke’s Bay, and on to freedom.

Octopus are known to be very intelligent and curious, and enjoy pushing boundaries.

If you can, imagine you’re Inky, trapped in that aquarium. You remember what it was like to be free in the ocean, and your big goal is to return to that ocean.

So you study your surroundings. You learn everything you can about the place. When the human captors are watching. When they’re not watching. Where the possible escape routes are.

You notice that water always runs to that small hole in the corner. You think about that – where does the water go? Where does all water go if you’re an octopus? To the ocean, of course. And as you study the situation, you devise a plan to win your freedom.

Then when the time is right, you make a very daring and risky escape.

Remember, you don’t know for certain where that pipe goes.

You don’t know for certain you can make it to the pipe. After all, you’ll be out of your element. You won’t be able to breathe properly again until you get back into water.

You’re taking a really big chance. It would be safer to just stay in the aquarium, eat the free meals and spend the rest of your life lounging about like a lazy couch octopus.

But not you. You want more out of life.

You push up against the heavy lid on the tank and manage to just squeeze out.

You slither down the outside of the tank, across the floor through an element that is totally foreign to you – air.

You reach the pipe. Little do you know that pipe is as long as 5 football fields and full of the foulest smelling stuff you can imagine.

But you don’t stop.

You. Do. Not. Stop until you reach your goal – open water. The ocean. Freedom.

And yes, it is believed that Inky did indeed make it all the way back to the ocean in his daring night time escape.

Now imagine you’re an entrepreneur.

You have a big goal (or at least hopefully you do).

Just like Inky the Octopus, you study the terrain and formulate a plan. You rehearse it in your head. You know you might encounter obstacles along the way, but you have confidence that you’ll deal with those as they come up.

It’s time. You’re nervous and scared, but you’ve got the guts to go for it.

And once you launch, there is no turning back. You are now on your way to something bigger, better, scarier and a whole lot more exciting.

That sure beats watching reruns on TV or going off to a J.O.B., doesn’t it?

5 lessons from Inky:

1. Have a big, daring goal.
2. Learn everything you can that will help you achieve your goal.
3. Formulate a strategy.
4. Fear is just a word. Do it anyway.
5. Execute your strategy like your entire future and your very life depend on it.

Can’t you just see Inky emerging from that pipe into the bay?

Imagine how happy he must have been. From there it was a relatively short, joyful swim to the ocean and total freedom.

Way to go Inky!

And when you reach your big goal, way to go YOU!!!

That’s the question posed in an online forum recently. Answers ran the gamut of the spectrum, but here are the 28 I found especially helpful, in completely random order…

Become financially educated. Read personal finance management books, starting with Rich Dad Poor Dad. Learn how to budget and how to invest.

Live frugally. If you’re thinking you can’t save more of your money, take a look at homeless people who live on almost nothing. Yes, you can save money. Stop eating out so often. Cancel the cable. Don’t buy a new car. Don’t buy a new used car until you absolutely need one.

Always pay yourself first. Devote the first 10-30% of your pay to savings and investments.

Spend money on assets (real estate, stocks, bonds, etc.) not liabilities (everything that loses value the moment you purchase it). Thinking of buying a new car even though your old one is fine? Take that money and invest it in your business, in stocks, in real estate or something that is an asset. Then buy a good used car in a few years, when you really need one.

Don’t care what people think of you. Your neighbors think you’re poor because you don’t buy new cars? Little do they know that $20,000 you would have spent on a car is now earning you a 10% compound interest rate.

Invest in yourself. Self-education equals new knowledge. Add execution to that new knowledge and you get results. Repeat continuously.

Find ways to help as many people as possible. The more you can help others get what they want, the more money you can make.

Scale. Don’t render services when you can mass produce products. Better to make a $10 profit on a million sales than a $1,000 profit on 100 sales.

Stuck on services? Go upscale. If you’re going to render services, find the niches that pay the most.

Have multiple streams of income. This way if something happens to one, you are still in good shape overall.

Sell stuff. Lots of stuff. Hire others to help you, so that your earnings are no longer tied to your hours.

Always keep the return on investment in mind, whether your investment is time or money.

When you want to buy something, figure out how to make the money. Don’t take money out of your savings to buy a car or a vacation. Instead, figure out how to make the extra money needed to cover the new expense.

Be friends with people who have more money than you. Their mindsets and thought processes will rub off on you. That said, do not try to compete with them – keep the car and house you have now, at least for awhile.

Leverage your abilities to their fullest extent instead of working harder to get ahead. Forget working hard and focus on working smart. For example, a personal coach can create a course and sell it for $297 a million times over, but can only coach a few people one-on-one at any given time.

Take calculated risks. Failure is a part of the journey. If you’re too afraid to fail, you will never take the smart, calculated risks needed to become wealthy.

Use your head more than your heart. Make your financial decisions based on provable fact rather than gut instinct.

If you have a business, work ON it, not in it. Your labor isn’t needed to make the business a success – your ideas and leadership are.

Things like sports and entertainment are simply distractions for the masses. While you’re watching sports and shows 2-6 hours a day, the rich are making million dollar contacts, doing deals and starting businesses. If you get more of whatever you focus on – maybe it’s time to stop focusing on distractions and start focusing on your finances.

Bad decisions are better than no decisions. Any decision that moves you forward is better than total inaction. The key is make decisions quickly and work until you get results.

Confidence and belief in your ability will take you further, faster. The higher your confidence and the more you believe in what you’re doing, the easier it is to bring others on board, to convince buyers and to make money.

Having a lot of money doesn’t change life as much as you think. It’s not a magic shield from illness, tragedy or loss. You’re no smarter for having it (although perhaps wiser if you made the money yourself.) You still have problems, although they might be an entirely new set of problems. On the plus side, you never have to worry about putting food on the table or paying bills, which frees you up to think about bigger things.

People will look at you differently when you are rich. The upside is they respect you more. The downside is most people will want something from you.

It’s best to not flaunt your money, but instead put it to work to make more money. Many millionaires drive beat up cars and live in perfectly average homes. Few people know they are rich and they like it that way.

Don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Rent it, borrow it or do without. And don’t carry a balance on credit cards. Ever.

Never borrow money to make discretionary purchases. Only borrow money to make money.

Start with the end in mind. If you’re starting a company, from day 1 ask yourself what to do to make your company as valuable as possible so you can one day sell it for millions.

Lastly, having money is power. Power to help any charity you choose. Power to help anybody or anyone. Power to make positive changes in your community, positively impact the lives of others and make the world a better place.

…how could you do it?

I’ve come up with not just one, but potentially 4 different ways to make a million dollars in 12 months.

Not an easy task, but it’s certainly possible. And if you only do 1/10th as good, that’s still $100,000.

First, before anything else is even considered, you need to find yourself a very important reason WHY you want to make a million dollars in 12 months.

The stronger your reason, and the more often you play out that reason in your head, the better your odds of achieving your goal, regardless of which method you choose.

Now then:

Method 1: The Chris Sacca Method

Chris initially became a millionaire by leveraging $10-20 thousand dollars into 12 million dollars by taking advantage of a flaw used by online trading brokers.

When the market crashed, Sacca found himself $4 million in debt. He negotiated to have it reduced, and then paid off the balance in no time.

So how did he earn his next millions? That’s the method I’ll cover here.

Of course, if you do happen to find a flaw in online trading software that you can take advantage of, terrific. Otherwise, you might try copying Chris’ second method:

Sacca created a fake company, complete with a great looking website and business cards.

Frankly, your company doesn’t have to be fake, it can simply be new. Make sure you choose an impressive sounding name like the Sadlias Group.

Now get tickets to every networking event in your field. Go to these events and network like crazy, making contacts with entrepreneurs.

Look for people who want to change the world, and find ways to help them make that change.

Introduce yourself and – get this – offer to help them out for free.

That’s right, for free. Do you want to stand apart from everyone else at that event? Do you want them to remember you, contact you and work with you? Offer to help them for free.

Using this method, Sacca became one of Twitter’s first four investors.

Even if this method doesn’t make a million in a year, it will make your life interesting, exciting and highly relevant. You’ll find outstanding mentors to help you along.

And you’ll make contact with investors who can back you when you decide to start your company for real.

Take notes along the way, so when you do make your first millions, you can write your tell-all book letting people know the inside story of how you did it.

Method 2: Day Trading

This is a great way to make money fast. And it’s an even better method to lose money even faster.

You’ve got to be good. You’ve got to know what you’re doing. And you’ve got to leave all emotion and ‘gut instinct’ behind as you follow proven, trusted methods that work.

Frankly, it can take you 2-3 years of daily practice just to get good at this.

Then again, you might have the capability to make a million in the first year. It is completely possible, just not highly likely.

If you choose this method, invest in the best education and hundreds of hours of practice trading.

Your best shot: Start with $10,000, margin it to $30,000, and find 180 trades that will return 2% or more in 1 to 2 days.

Easy? No. Doable? Possibly.

Method 3: Sales Funnel

Build the best sales funnel you can – everything from a free product to get subscribers onto your list, to a $10,000 product you sell to your best customers and everything in between.

Think about this: To earn a million dollars, you can sell any of the following:

– 1,000,000 products for $1 apiece
– 100,000 products for $10 apiece
– 10,000 product3 for $100 apiece
– 1,000 products for $1,000 apiece
– 100 products for $10,000 apiece
– 10 products for $100,000 apiece
– 1 product for $1,000,000

Look at Dollar Shave Club and you’ll see they’ve chosen the first option on this list – selling a $1 product to millions of guys.

But if you have an effective sales funnel, you can take those $1 customers and upsell them to your $10 offer, your $100 offer and so forth.

Once you start selling $1,000 products, it no longer takes massive sales to reach that magical million dollar mark.

Things to remember – focus more on what people WANT than what they need.

Sell them the way they want to be sold.

Make the entire experience fun and easy for the customer.

Whenever possible, find ways to make your messages go viral, even if there is no immediate pay off.

Your primary goal is to get as many qualified people onto your list as possible.

Your next goal is to move them up the sales funnel by always giving them great value for the money.

Do these two things and your final goal of making a million will take care of itself.

Method 4: Sales

If you’re already good at sales, or you can acquire sales skills fast enough, AND you have the right product to sell, then you can make a million dollars in a year.

Obviously you want to sell very high ticket items with lots of commission. And of course already having a sales background will be a tremendous help, if not a necessity.

If you want to take this route and you’re willing to wait two years, it becomes much more likely you will succeed.

Spend the first year becoming great at sales. Study sales techniques, get a great mentor, work in sales 10-12 hours a day.

And during your first year, find out what kinds of products pay the most in commissions. Make contacts in those industries and get yourself a job where you can make the most money.

Then spend your second year making that money.

It will take plenty of hard work, but it will be worth it.

Method 5: ??

These first four methods should get you thinking.

And maybe, just maybe you’re got an even better idea.

Like creating the next social network, winning the lottery, doing one million dollar deal… there are plenty of ways to make lots of money.

The trick is to pick the one that works for you, and then work it tenaciously until you succeed.

Do you have what it takes to succeed in your own online business? You do if you have the following qualities…

You’re relentlessly persistent. When you decide to do something, you tenaciously work towards that goal until it is completed, no matter what.

You’re realistically optimistic. You know that believing you’ll grow wings and fly won’t make it true. But you also know there is a method by which you can fly, and you’ll keep believing this until you find a way to do it.

You take failures in stride. Yes, you did all you could, but you failed anyway. But you realize this is just part of the success process. So instead of lamenting the loss, you ask yourself, “What’s great about this?” And you take what you learned and apply it to your next attempt.

Your face is in the dictionary under the word “self-improvement.” While some people think learning ends with graduation, not you. You are continuously reading and learning more and more, and putting what you learn into practice.

You take action. Planning is a necessary part of the process, but you know that nothing happens until you take action.

You keep an open mind. You realize you don’t have all the answers, and you’re willing to listen to others to find the answers you seek.

You maximize your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. Some folks think they need to work on their weaknesses – not you. If you’re not good at something, you’re smart enough to outsource it. Instead, you focus your efforts where they shine, and that’s what makes you and your business successful.

You’re ambitious. Sure, you could settle for a small online business that just covers the bills. But instead you’re looking to create a real business you can sell in 5-7 years for 7 or 8 figures. Shoot for the clouds and you might only hit the rooftops. But shoot for the stars and you’ll at least hit the moon, which is pretty darn good.

You set goals. You can’t get someplace if you don’t know where you’re going, so you set goals to keep yourself moving and on track.

You spend 90% of your time on the present, 10% on the future, and no time on the past. The past is over and done. Childhood was lousy? Didn’t get into the school you wanted? Passed over for that promotion? First business failed? No matter because it’s ancient history. You’re all about what you can accomplish right here, right now, with an occasional eye to the future.

You delight in delaying gratification. Sure, you could watch TV right now, but you know there is a bigger reward to be had down the road if you just keep working instead.

You don’t listen to naysayers. There’s always somebody ready to tell you that you can’t do it, you shouldn’t do it or you’re an idiot for trying. But you just smile, say thanks for the advice and keep on doing what you need to do to be successful. After all, the best revenge on naysayers is success.

And if you have at least 8 of these 12 qualities, you’re almost certainly going to meet with success on a grand scale, and soon.

A man sets out on a journey of a lifetime. The problem is, he doesn’t know where he wants to go. So he spends the next 40 years wandering the back roads, never really going anywhere. Another man chooses his destination. It’s a promised land, far, far away. The dangers he faces along the route are great and the challenges seem almost insurmountable. Yet because he knows where he wants to go, he is able to find his way, overcome the challenges and reach his destination, where he retires in 10 years’ time.

One man didn’t know where he was going, and so he wandered for 40 years and achieved nothing.

The other man knew exactly where he wanted to go, and because of his belief and determination, he was able to overcome every obstacle and reach his destination in 10 years.

Which person are you?

Most people won’t define what they want until they have clarity on how they will get there. But because they don’t know what they want, they don’t have the clarity, and thus end up doing nothing.

That’s why you’ve got to decide first what it is that you want, and be totally clear on what that is. Write it down in detail. Only then will you figure out how to get to where you want to go.

One more thing: Once you begin your journey, take time every single day to revisit your goal.

Just like a builder continually consults the building plans, you should continually go over your goal so that your subconscious mind knows exactly what it should be doing to get you to where you want to go.

This will also help you avoid time wasting activities that you don’t need.

Advanced Tip: Measure what you treasure.

Whatever your goal might be, take daily measurements of how you’re doing.

For example, if your goal is to reach a certain income level, you’ll want to track your profits daily.

If your goal is to exercise and eat right, you’ll want to keep a journal of everything you eat and every exercise you perform.

Whatever your goal might be, measure what you treasure and you will get more of what it is that you want in life.

Before they share it, readers have to love your content. So how do you write the next viral blog post? I’ll show you…

Offer a simple, practical way of accomplishing a task. According to the New York Times, 94 percent of people share content because they believe it will be helpful to others. That’s why articles such as “10 Ways to Save Money” are popular.

Write “how to” posts. These kinds of posts are always popular and tend to stay evergreen for a long time. For example, few can resist, “How to Make the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever.”

Give them what they want. Figure out what your readers want to learn and write about that.

Use the active voice as much as possible. Instead of writing, “Donna is loved by Riche,” write “Richie loves Donna.” It’s easier, faster and more interesting to read.

Use present tense as much as possible. Instead of writing, “Last week when we were going down the mountain…” Write, “Imagine this: We’re going down the mountain when a cougar leaps in front of our motorcycle…” It puts the reader right there in the scene with you and makes it more exciting to read.

Entertain the reader. If you can delight the reader, make your content irresistible and even bring humor to it, so much the better.

Be credible. If you can back up what you write, your readers will trust your content enough to share it.

Cut the fat. It’s not the length of your content that matters, it’s the conciseness. Tighten up your sentences, rewrite anything that confuses, eliminate words like “very” and “just” and basically tighten up your writing. Every word should count.

It’s not War and Peace. Use shorter lines instead of longer sentences whenever possible.

Engage the reader emotionally. It’s not just about the facts, it’s also about grabbing the reader by the emotions and not letting them go until the end.

Tell stories. If you can illustrate your point through a story, do it.

Never, ever be boring. Have someone read your content before you post it. Ask them to watch for any place where their mind starts to wander. These are the places you’ll need to work on, so you don’t lose your reader’s attention.

If you find yourself writing in a style your English professor would adore, try again. The best tip of all to getting your content shared is to write as though you’re talking to your best friend, sharing useful stuff s/he wants to know.

Every now and then I like to show an offline method of making money. As a bonus, it gives you an “in” with local businesses by offering them a very low cost way to advertise.

Once you’ve signed them up for this service, you can then offer other services, such as website development and SEO.

Here’s the case study in a nutshell:

While waiting in line to prepay for gas, this guy notices that no customer – including himself – remembers what their pump number is.

They all have to turn around, crane their necks and stare out the window to figure it out.

So this guy goes home and develops a map of the gas station layout on his laptop. He then goes back to the gas station and speaks to the owner.

He offers to make a professional looking, laminated version for the countertop so customers can point to where their car is.

And of course this map will include tasteful ads promoting local businesses.

The gas station owner has 4 stations in all. They agree to split profits 50/50 on the advertising.

Our guy gets advertisers for all 4 locations signed up within the week. 8 ads per map, 4 maps, $25 per ad per week, payable for a month at a time.

That’s $3,200 that he splits with the station owner.

And of course that’s $3,200 per month. Naturally he could do the same for other gas stations, as well as any other potential ad space.

And if you think about it – EVERYTHING is potential ad space.

Using this simple technique, you can make some quick cash and also get your foot in the door to provide many other online services for your new brick and mortar customers.

There is a kind of cruel, ancient story that goes like this… A group of people are standing at a river bank and suddenly they hear the pained cries of a baby. Shocked by what they are hearing, they then see an infant floating in discomfort in the water.

One person immediately dives in to rescue the child. But as the rescue is commencing, yet another baby comes floating down the river in the same way, and then another and another! People continue jumping in to save the babies and then see that one person has started to walk away from the group towards the bridge.

Angrily they shout at the person, “Where do you think you are going? Come here and help!”

The response was this: “I am. I’m going upstream to stop whoever’s throwing babies into the river!

The story is a mad one, but if we remove the content of the story and just focus on the metaphor, there is a massive lesson for us to learn both in business and in life.

When your online business is not working as well as you might hope and customers are not buying or your sales material isn’t converting – do not a/ blame them or b/ dive straight in and see the problem from the end.

You must go back to your strategy and check what is going on behind the scenes – what are you missing in the back-end that the front-end users are experiencing? It’s about focusing on the source of the problem and healing it, rather than trying to bail yourself out by adding more money or focus into something that is already flawed and not working. You need better foundations.

Imagine that the babies are your customers and each one is unhappy, there is no point in wasting your energy dealing with customers by trying to convince them that everything is fine and that they are wrong because your site/strategy (whatever) is perfect and other people have ‘said so’, instead go to the source – listen to them – why are people leaving? Why are the numbers decreasing? Why are people complaining? What can you do as a whole rather than trying to deal with the consequences?

Below are 3 overlooked things that I want you to focus on and see if there are any corrections to be made within your business that may be stopping your business from growing:

1. Are you using old strategies? Long form articles, chasing influencers and buying links are all old-school strategies that won’t grow your online business or presence as much as you think they might. It might have worked then, but you must move with whatever is working now.

2. Are you copying others or being authentic? We are told to model the already successful and yes, this is good. But not at the cost of who you are. People want an original, not a clone. If they want the person you are copying, they’ll go with them. You need to be you and don’t copy everything that the successful leaders are doing. What you want is to take what you need from others and design your own brand around it in a personal ‘you’ way.

3. Are you focused on building traffic? It doesn’t matter how good your website looks or how your funnels are set up… If you don’t have website traffic, you don’t have a business.

Current strategies that build traffic include interviews, podcasts, writing guest posts for large authority publications. You can always jazz up your systems if you have an audience, but it’s ineffective the other way around.

Ultimately, the problem unfortunately lies with you and how you are marketing, not the customers. If something isn’t going the way you want, don’t dive into the river to try and fix it, go to the bridge and see the root of the problem before moving on or throwing more money into an existing and floundering strategy.

Today we’ll cover 16.75 content marketing secrets of driving targeted, lucrative traffic to your blogs and websites. And while no single method will provide an avalanche of traffic, combining your favorites can result in unstoppable traffic keeping you in profit, indefinitely.

Below you’ll discover how to get major bloggers and influencers to gladly share your posts, how to piggy back off the best content on the internet, how to make your content interactive to garner more traffic and a whole lot more.

Let’s get started:

1: How to get bloggers (big and small) to share your blog posts with their readers

This is so easy, yet few bloggers take the time.

And the benefits are two-fold: First, you will likely get extra traffic – maybe even LOTS of extra traffic. And second, it’s a great way to begin building relationships with other bloggers.

Here’s how it works:

Choose a topic for your next blog post. Now search out other content related to the post you’re writing. It could be articles, podcasts, infographics, blog posts, videos, etc., as long as it directly relates to what you’re writing about.

Not sure how to find the best content? Use a tool like Buzzsumo to locate the highest shared content for your keyword.

Get in touch with these content creators right away. Let them know you’re working on a post and you’re going to include a reference to their work.

Ask if they would like to see the post when you’re done. Be friendly and keep your messages fairly short and straight to the point. If you want to gush a little bit about how you love their (blog, videos, products, etc.) go ahead.

When your post is published, let them know they’re featured in your newly published content. Even if they didn’t reply to your first email, let them know. Maybe they were just busy.

If they like your content, many of them will share it with their readers and social media. Be sure to THANK THEM profusely when they do this.

2: Offer bribes in exchange for social media shares

When you create a new piece of content, create what you might think of as a bonus, too. It could be an infographic, a resource list, a pdf of the article, the biggest, baddest and best technique of all, etc.

Sign up for a Pay with a Tweet service and create a new campaign. Integrate the campaign button or campaign link into your content page. Feature it prominently, and talk up the benefits of what they will receive in exchange for a simple share on social media.

3: Optimize Your Facebook Posts

Things to know…

– Run tests to see what types of posts, headlines and images your audience prefers.

– Avoid clickbait headlines, as these will hurt your new feed rank.

– Definitely use hashtags whenever appropriate, since they increase interactions by 60%.

– When appropriate, use a question to get 100% more comments than non-question posts (Source: KISSMetrics)

– Link titles should have less than 100 characters

– Publish between 5pm and 1am for the most interactions (Source: TrackMaven)

– Engage with photos because 93% of the most engaged posts contain photos

– Use videos as well for even more engagement

– The most engaging length for a Facebook post? Is between 50 and 99 characters. (Source: Simply Measured)

– Posts with emoticons receive 33% more comments and are shared 33% more often. (Source: AMEX Open Forum)

– Saturday and Sunday posts have much higher average engagement (Source: TrackMaven)

4: Join Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are an excellent way to connect with people interested in just about any topic – including yours.

In Facebook groups you can really get to know your audience, and eventually promote your content. Here’s how:

Create a list of keywords that best describe your niche.

Enter each keyword or phrase into the search field, click search and click on ‘groups.’

Join the groups that look the most promising, but don’t share your content right away. Read the rules, participate in the conversations, help others and answer questions.

When someone asks a question that your content can answer, then share your content.

Or share your content as updates, asking the group for feedback.

5: Share your content on LinkedIn (Maybe)

This one depends – can you find your target market on LinkedIn? If so, this is a great place to share great stuff, keeping a few things in mind:

Many LinkedIn groups are nothing more than spam groups. In other words, everyone is shouting, “Look at me!” But no one is listening.

You’ve got to find relevant groups with lots of activity and very strict anti-spam rules. Try different keyword variations, and use group filters in the search settings. As you gain experience searching, you’ll get better at finding the right groups.

Once you’re in a group, read the rules and see how people interact. Help others, like, comment and ask questions that move conversations forward. Do this for a few weeks before sharing.

Remember, you’ve got to give first if you want to receive.

When it’s time to share, ask for comments and feedback, opinions, questions, etc.

The main goal of LinkedIn is to build your network. It’s entirely possibly you could meet someone who has a list of buyers who would love your product. It’s also possible you’ll meet your next joint venture partner, or your next $10,000 client.

But you do need some patience and the willingness to be in it for the long haul, helping others and initially expecting nothing in return.

6: Sending traffic from LinkedIn to your blog

Is your audience on LinkedIn? Then every time you write a new blog post, also write a 300-400 word teaser post for LinkedIn.

This post will give the gist of what your blogpost is about and provide a link back to your blog so they can read the entire post there.

Remember to use teaser bullets demonstrating what they will discover when they read your blog post, as well as a direct call to action to go read the post.

7: Get 10,000 new Instagram Followers

The more followers you have, the more traffic you can potentially drive to your blog, your website, your offers, etc.

And it’s easy to get followers if you have some time to invest.

NOTE: Instagram makes you do this manually, so when you have spare time, here’s how to do it:

Open Instagram, tap on the search icon, select ‘tags,’ and search the hashtag associated with your topic.

Choose a photo and start following the account. Like their most recent three photos.

Soon you will see people following you back.

8: Get More Shares (and traffic) With Interactive Content

People love to discover more about themselves, what their spirit animal is, what their personality says about them and so forth. This is why for decades the Cosmopolitan Magazine Quiz has been one of the favorite features of the entire magazine.

It’s also why you can use simple quizzes to drive more interaction and more shares from your readers.

Here’s how:

Register for a free account at apester.com.

Click ‘create new’ and select the type of content you would like to create – polls, quizzes, personality, video or countdown.

Add your questions and mark the right questions.

Press ‘publish’ and install the Apester plugin to your WordPress site.

Copy the code and insert it on your website, wherever you want it to be.

9: Run a Contest

Offering a contest on social media is a great way to get lots of engagement, traffic and new subscribers.

But be careful – you’ve got to tailor your prize to the audience you seek. Otherwise you’ll end up with a ton of subscribers who care nothing about your niche, your blog or your products.

For example, don’t offer a free electronic device (as so many do) unless it’s 100% directly related to your niche.

If your niche is gardening, offer a big selection of free bulbs or your latest book on growing vegetables.

If your niche is online marketing, offer free access to your latest marketing course to bring in super targeted leads, and so forth.

Here’s how to set up a contest:

Sign up at Rafflecopter to launch and manage your giveaway.

Click ‘new giveaway.’ Put in the prize(s) your winner(s) will receive.

Choose how people can enter to win the prize. Subscribing to your newsletter? Tweeting about the contest? Etc.

Set points for each method. The more points they get, the better their chances of winning.

Choose a start and end date and click ‘preview and install.’

Either embed the contest to your website or run it on your Facebook page.

Want to have even more options? Upgrade to the premium version.

10: Use other people’s great content to drive traffic to your site

This is a great technique on several levels. First, you’re sharing relevant, timely content via social media, so your followers and fans benefit.

The person whose content you are sharing will see you’re sharing their stuff, which can help build relationships with these marketers.

In the process you can actually drive traffic to your own content as well. Here’s how:

Find articles and posts related to your newly published post. You can use Google Alerts, Mention, or simply do a Google search for new content on the topic.

When you find an article your audience will likely enjoy, use Sniply to share it via your social channels.

To do this: Go to Sniply and register for a free account. Insert the article’s link and click ‘create snip.’

Then customize the call to action that visitors to that article will see, and link it to YOUR blog post.

Click ‘snip’ and you’re set.

11: Create Roundup Posts

This is a great way to get social media shares from other bloggers and marketers, and even begin building relationships with them.

Each week, biweekly or monthly (you choose a time frame) you will create a collection of the best content related to your topic.

To find this content, you’ll want to subscribe to relevant blogs, set up keyword trackers, or use a notification service like Feedly.

Choose the best posts and write a few sentences of introduction for each one, linking back to the original source.

Notify your sources before you publish your post. Let them know you’re working on a roundup post and their article or post will be included.

Once you publish, let everyone in your roundup article know you are live.

For those who don’t promote your article via social media, it is okay to politely follow up in a few days just in case they missed your email. When they do promote your article, THANK THEM very nicely.

Rinse and repeat at your next interval.

12: Create News Posts

This is generally done weekly and it’s similar to the roundup post. Only in this case, you are focusing on newsworthy items from your particular niche.

Your traffic here is likely to come more from people sharing your post than from the sources you are quoting, since many times those sources will be actual news sites.

However, for sources that are regular sites, blogs, etc., be sure to let them know you’ll be including them, and then let them know when you publish.

13: Do Influencer Roundups

Want to create something epic that really stands out and gets shared by a lot of people?

Then doing an influencer roundup on a hot topic could be exactly what you’re looking for.

Choose a question that will appeal to both your readers and your influencers. For example, in online marketing you could ask what one piece of advice your influencers most wish they had been given before they got started, and why.

Search for your influencers. Odds are you already have a list just from the blogs you subscribe to, but you can find more by using sites like Buzzsumo.

Next, get in touch with each influencer with a short message. Tell them you’re working on an expert roundup and you want to include them, and give them the question.

If you don’t hear back from someone within a few days, you can make one more effort to contact them. If they don’t respond the second time, leave well enough alone.

Once you’ve written your post, send it to your experts for any feedback they might have. Some of them might want to amend or change their answers slightly, based on something else they thought of or answers others have given.

After you publish, let your influencers know your article is live so they can share it with their followers if they choose to.

But don’t get pushy. If they share, that’s great. If not, you don’t want to ruin your budding friendships before they start.

14: Get Social Share from the Tools and Resources You Recommend

Here’s something almost no one thinks to do…

When you write a “how to” post or article, do you recommend resources and tools?

If so, here’s a little trick:

Locate the email address for each of the resources. Then get in touch and let them know you’ll be recommending their tool/resource to your readers in an upcoming post. Ask them if they would like to know when it goes live.

Once your article is live, let them know and politely ask if they might like to share it with their subscribers. After all, your endorsement is validation that their product works, plus their readers might find a new way to use the product, too.

15: Share. A LOT.

You’ve just finished a brand new blog post and you are proud as can be at the way it turned out. Time to tell the world, right?

Yes! Tell your followers on every social media avenue on which you’re active.

But don’t make the same mistake most marketers make.

Most folks don’t want to ‘bug’ others. They’re afraid if they ‘over promote,’ then people will get mad, unsubscribe, stop following, etc.

Actually, the exact opposite is true. You’re going to have to share your content many times before some people ever see it.

Think of Twitter – do you see all of your tweets the first time? Not likely, but let’s say you do. Do you click all the links the first time you see them? Of course not. You’re busy, you’re distracted, things get in the way…

Your followers and fans want to see your content, so make sure they can by sharing it multiple times.

Create different versions of the posts and tweets you make – maybe 5-8 variations. Change the titles, use different pictures and even emojis to boost engagement.

Set up a sharing schedule in advance by using a service like Buffer.

Share right after the post is published, and again an hour later, 3 hours later, 7 hours later, the next day, the day after, the next week, the next week after, the next month and the next month after that.

Track how your posts perform and adjust your schedule accordingly. Also, try to share both during the morning, the afternoon and the evening for full coverage.

16: Use Jump Links to Share Even More

You wrote a great post and you shared it several times via social media. But you don’t want to get obnoxious about it, so you stop sharing.

But… what if your post is a list? For example, “10 Great Ways to Drive Traffic” or “7 Key Secrets to a Great Relationship.”

Then you can continue to share without getting redundant, simply by using jump links.

For example, you want to share tip #3 from your list, so you create a jump link that takes readers directly to that specific tip on that post.

If you’ve never created jump links, here’s a great tutorial:

blog.hubspot.com/marketing/jump-link-same-page#sm.0001raqtw6hekf26y7914pn0o9ev5

Create a new social media message for each tip and use the jump link to point to that specific tip.

Then add relevant, interest-provoking images for each tip, so they stand out and apart when you share them on social media.

16.75: Keep Your Readers Coming Back Without Social Media or Email

This tip isn’t so much about driving new traffic, as it is bringing traffic back to your site time and time again.

No doubt you’re already building a social media following, right?

And of course you’re building your email list, too.

But… what about all those readers who either don’t fall into one of those two categories, or who ignore social media and your emails?

You can still bring them back to your website with push notifications. Here’s how:

Register to get a free account at VWO Engage.

You’ll get a unique code to insert in your website. Or if you have WordPress, you can install their plugin.

Customize your push notification. Just edit the title, subtitle and button text.

Then set up automatic scheduling notifications for your subscribers. Your subscribers will be notified 30 minutes after you publish a new post.

Easy!

And there you have it… 16+ proven content marketing ‘secrets’ that drive wicked traffic. You’ll notice there isn’t a difficult one in the bunch. It’s simply about taking the time to do these things and watching the traffic flow in.

Once you do, it won’t be long before you have a huge loyal following, an ever growing list of subscribers and continuous stream of sales notifications in your inbox!