Rich Brooks, Author at - Page 23 of 26

Need More Subscribers? 5 Online Platforms Every Marketer Should Use

By Rich Brooks 03/03/2013

More subscribers = more time for you and better content for your audience. Here’s why.

If your small business struggles to attract the attention of the same ideal customers every day, you need to focus more of your attention on turning readers, listeners and viewers into subscribers.

When you have subscribers, you can put more time into creating valuable content that you KNOW will be seen by your ideal customer, and less time trying to get that content in front of them.

Building a subscriber base is critical to every small business, but platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter don’t give us all the access we need.

Although Facebook gives us fans, Twitter gives us followers and LinkedIn gives us a network, none allow us to create an opt-in that guarantees delivery and visibility.

Only 16% of our Facebook fans see our latest update. An even smaller fraction of our Twitter followers see an average tweet. And some of our LinkedIn connections don’t get on to the platform for weeks or longer.

Building an opt-in subscriber base allows you to better connect and deliver quality content to your audience.

In this article you’ll discover five great places where you can truly develop an opt-in subscriber base of your ideal customers. Keep reading! →

13 Podcasting Tips from The Experts

By Rich Brooks 02/18/2013

I considered calling this article “13 Expert Podcasting Tips from The Experts,” but it felt too Spinal Tap for me.

If there is such a thing.

There’s a “Podcasting Renaissance” going on right now. Businesses and Internet marketers are realizing the benefits of having their own podcast…their own Internet radio show.

The benefits of podcasting are plentiful:

Creating a podcast is simple and inexpensive (although you can certainly make it difficult and expensive if that’s how you roll.)
You have a captive audience, because people often listen to podcasts while they’re doing something that keeps them from reading or watching videos, like driving in their car or running on a treadmill.
You are quite literally inside your audience’s head, and they feel like they know you.
People subscribe to your podcast, so it’s delivered to them automatically, not unlike an email newsletter.

Since I’m no podcasting expert, I decided to tap some friends who were. Here are expert podcasting tips from 13 professionals who are knocking it out of the park. Keep reading! →

13 Free or Cheap Stock Photography Sites for Your Blog

By Rich Brooks 02/15/2013

One of the best ways to spice up any blog is with good photography. But if you’re posting, once, twice or three times a week, those blog photos can get expensive.

[Heads up! Here’s a newer edition of Free & Cheap Stock Photography Sites for Your Blog!]

If you’re looking for good, affordable, legal stock photography for your blog, you do have some options. I recently needed an image for a blog post on creating the perfect blog post (I know: pretty meta, right?) and fell down a rabbit hole, looking for a cheap photo for the post.

Here’s what I found from doing some research on a dozen or so different stock photography sites that have a blogger’s budget in mind. Keep reading! →

How to Generate Online Revenue with a Content Marketing Pyramid

By Rich Brooks 02/11/2013

Have you ever wondered how giving away free content on your website or blog can generate profits for your business?

For years I’ve been doing presentations and consultations on how to generate leads and revenue from a website. There’s usually a lot of focus on creating valuable blog posts, articles or short how-to videos.

Invariably, somebody voices the concern, “but if I give all of my best secrets away, why do they need me?”

If your “best kept secrets” can be condensed into a single blog post or two-minute video then you may need to rethink your business model. [Click to tweet!]

On top of that, chances are your quick-typing competitors are already sharing all of your best kept secrets on their own blog or podcast. And in doing so, they’re getting in front of your prospects and customers while you’re still worrying about over sharing!

Sure, there is a percentage of their blog visitors who say, “oh, I can do that,” and leave forever. But for the rest of their visitors, how many are more likely to hire the business or consultant who has just established their credibility and demonstrated their experience?

That’s not to say that you should just push out all of your content without a plan to generate leads, business, and revenue. That’s where developing a Content Marketing Pyramid comes into play.

Keep reading! →

More subscribers = more time for you and better content for your audience. Here’s why.

Do you want to get more followers on Twitter? Build an audience? Drive more qualified leads to your site? Grow your business?

I considered calling this article “13 Expert Podcasting Tips from The Experts,” but it felt too Spinal Tap for me.

One of the best ways to spice up any blog is with good photography. But if you’re posting, once, twice or three times a week, those blog photos can get expensive.

Have you ever wondered how giving away free content on your website or blog can generate profits for your business?