Digital Profit Success

Using the power of video in your marketing reviews

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Many people new to online marketing are attracted to affiliate marketing as they enjoy the behind-the-scenes direction of connecting buyers and sellers and making a commission off of that process.

But you eventually need to increase your expert status (even if you don’t have a product of your own) and doing this will convert visitors to your site into buyers more easily. And one way to do this is to use video.

Video isn’t hard to create. You can start off with an iPhone or a mini video camera to capture the video. And getting it live online is as easy as creating a free account on YouTube and then clicking the upload and file selection buttons.

Typically, you won’t even need to do any editing or fancy formatting to your product reviews, but as you get better you will be able to deliver a more polished and professional compilation. You basically want to put out the best video that you can, and here are some tips to help you do that:

1. Look directly into the camera.
You want to be speaking directly to the viewer. You want them to feel like you’re right across the table from them having a friendly conversation. Consumers need to feel like a product is being chosen for them specifically.

2. Have good lighting in the room when you create a video.
You don’t want to be recording in a dark or poorly lit room. Natural sunlight is perfect, so if you can open the curtains and let the sun shine it, it will work wonderfully.

3. Speak up.
Your viewers need to hear you! Also try to minimize any background noise. You can either make sure the house is quiet, or use a noise canceling microphone so that you keep background noises to a minimum. If there is noise you can use a free piece of software called Audacity to clean up and remove any background noise.

4. Try not to speak in a monotone voice.
There’s nothing worse than listening a boring speaker try to make someone enthusiastic about buying their product recommendation. On the other hand, there’s no need to sound like one of those loud used car dealership commercials, either. Just be yourself.

5. Don’t read off a script.
Some people make the mistake of trying to read their product review on camera. Unless you have years of experience that allow you to achieve this flawlessly like a newsreader, don’t try it but do have your thoughts organized. Why not create a few bullet points to help jog your memory and keep you on track. You don’t want to lose focus and sit there for 30-60 seconds saying, “Um, where was I? What did I want to tell you about next? Oh yeah…” That looks unprofessional and people will click out because they don’t want to wait for you to finish. Now, you can edit this out if you have video editing software such as Camtasia but this is expensive, so the best approach is to be organised in advance and get it right first time.

Add the video reviews to your blog and YouTube channel to maximise visibility and see your affiliate commissions increase.

Top Branding Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Business!

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Creating a consistent brand for an online business is a highly effective way to get more customers and clients, to increase awareness of your organization and to generally propel yourself to new heights. Having a strong brand will create many more opportunities for you and will mean that every aspect of your business helps to strengthen every other aspect.
But creating a brand isn’t easy and that’s why there are so few sites on the net that have that strong presence and identity that they need. This is the complete opposite offline where I am sure you can reel off dozens of brands off the top of your head! Here are some of the most common mistakes that companies and individuals will make when creating their brand…

Lack of Congruency
Your visual consistency – in terms of the way your brand looks across various channels and the way you have positioned yourself in your industry and the values you put out MUST be congruent.

Lack of consistency
This is closely linked to congruency.The point of a consistent brand is that it should represent a certain degree of quality and a certain predictability in terms of what users get. People should know that something with your logo on it will be something that they enjoy. So if your website is talking about puppy dogs one week and programming the next, you’re going to lose people. Likewise, if you put out a brilliant product one month and the next thing you release is garbage, people won’t be able to trust you in future. Stay consistent and stay true to your vision.

Poor Visual appeal
Aesthetics are an important aspect of your branding and if you don’t have a strong logo and strong visuals through your advertising and web design, then your brand isn’t going to be memorable to your customers and users. If your logo is a grainy JPG that looks like something you made in college, then it might be time to hire a professional or at least have a rethink.

Missed Opportunities
Every business card, social media account, invoice and email is a chance to strengthen your brand. Make sure you include your logo everywhere and don’t miss an opportunity to show it off.

Lack of Self Awareness
When creating your branding, you are creating the way that people are going to see you. To do this effectively though, you need to be objective and realistic. If you’re a one-man-band tinkering in your free time, then don’t try and brand yourself as a global corporate enterprise. It will ring false and your brand will fail as a result.

Do Your Actions Support a Strong Mindset?

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It’s clear that life doesn’t divide up all good things evenly among all people. Just look around you for the evidence of that;  some people are more attractive than others. Then there are people who are richer or more successful than their peers.

There are people who come from a good background. They are well-educated, intelligent and well-liked. And from the outside at least, it appears that the world is their oyster.

Then, there are people who are average in looks. They don’t have a lot of money, let alone all that they want in life! They come from backgrounds full of various struggles. They may not have attended a prestigious college;in fact they may have little or no education at all.

Yet, so many times, it’s this second group of people who end up far more successful and enjoying more personal satisfaction than the first group. The simple reason for this is their mindset.

Just because someone appears to have it all doesn’t always mean that it is true or that it will always stay that way. And what you see on the outside – the nice car, the fancy clothes – doesn’t necessarily reflect inner happiness and fulfillment.

It’s not enough to wake up every day and tell yourself positive things. Don’t get me wrong; positive affirmation is great, but mindset alone isn’t enough to change your life. You need to take an active role in taking action to leverage that mindset into a new existence for you.

Next time, we’ll look at understanding mindset…

How to Stick to Your Marketing Dream!

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Do you remember when you first made the decision to become an internet marketer?  Many of you will have felt the heady rush of quitting your boring 9-to-5 job in favor of starting afresh where the success or failure of your business rests squarely on your shoulders and yours alone; you are in control of your own destiny now! And you look at the financial gains which are  virtually unlimited and the possibilities seem endless.  It’s an exciting moment, to be sure… but are you still excited?

The problem is that far too many marketers end up treading down a road of frustration and drudgery; what happened to the path that was laid in gold?!?  This causes them to burn out.  They get discouraged as they hit an obstacle, or perhaps they get bored and lose interest; this is a problem with the instant gratification culture we live in today.  Whatever the reason, it’s important to know how to get yourself back on track if you see yourself floundering or lacking motivation.

Many of your biggest obstacles will be mental:  While you want to be constantly learning and getting smarter from your experiences, you don’t want to lose sight of your original vision and mindset.  And don’t learn for learning’s sake; you should be implementing what you learn and not just keep learning more. Learn from your experiences whether they be success or failure and don’t let them make you overly cynical or worse, discourage you.  Remember the excitement you felt about being your own boss.  And remember how excited you felt about bringing your business/product/vision to the market and having a positive influence in peoples lives.  Feel that way again and become that idealistic, go-getter again.

Never underestimate the power of routines to help nurture such mindsets.  One of the biggest struggles with working for yourself is actually motivating yourself to do the work as there are so many distractions at home.  Having a strict daily schedule in place can help you stay focused on the task at hand.  Many productive people  use their first few actions of the day as a psychological trigger to set them up for the rest of the day.  For example, you might begin each day by walking your dog (or going for a stroll by yourself if you don’t have a pet), then brew your morning cup of tea/coffee before sitting down at your desk and writing your first 500 words of the day.  Repeating your process each day can get you in the mood to work and it becomes a habit.

Don’t be afraid to expand or outsource tasks. This may be difficult at first if you have little spare capital  but think of it as an investment; if yo. can get someone to do the tasks you hate then you can focus on those you enjoy and bring money into the business.  Not long ago, article/content marketing was huge.  But do you think that the people making serious money from it were spending every waking hour glued to the keyboard?  No, these people quickly hired writers to allow them to capitalize on the opportunity and grow (and profit) quickly.  Alternatively they may have started a large writing outfit to cater to the marketers working with content volume.  Whatever they were doing, they were running a business and not a self-employment hobby. Remember that a business makes you money whilst a hobby costs you money.

Look at your business and identify which tasks can be quickly outssourced to freelancers to help give you more time to work on your business, not in it.  For most entrepreneurs the first task to outsource is content creation as it is cheap and easy to get done and gives you content or products that you can quickly bring to market.  For others, it may be SEO tactics to increase the ranking of their website.  Outsource the tasks you hate as soon as financially possible and you will be a much happier marketer.

Finally, you need to be able to adapt  You may have started your marketing journey two years ago, and a lot can change in two years, especially in the online marketing world.  Keep learning, researching, and ensuring that your own methods are still considered best practice today; never mistake comfort with effectiveness. But be careful to implement what you learn or you will be left behind.

The key to making your vision a reality is to set goals – both long and short term –  and start working on your highest value tasks first thing in the morning, everyday.