How Marketers Can Leverage WhatsApp’s New Payments Feature

How Marketers Can Leverage WhatsApp’s New Payments Feature

Since launching over a decade ago, WhatsApp has gained popularity all over the world.

As the chat app’sglobal user-base has continued to expand, so has its platform. After adding features like group chat and video capabilities, the platform quickly became a place where brands can directly interact with consumers.

In 2019, due to WhatsApp’s booming popularity, it launched one of its biggest features yet:a specialized app called WhatsApp Business. This app, which passed five million active users in its first year, is quite similar to the consumer version of WhatsApp. However, it allows companies to create a public business profile that includes links to ecommerce stores and a catalog of product shots.

But WhatsApp didn’t stop at Business pages. In 2020, the company began rolling out an online payment feature. The feature has already launched on the Brazil-based app but will ultimately expand globally.

According to the brand, the WhatsApp payments tool will allow payments to be accepted by brands with WhatsApp Business pages for a 3.99% processing fee.

One of the major reasons WhatsApp’s payment feature, powered by Facebook Pay’s transaction software, is being launched in Brazil first is so WhatsApp can learn more about how local benefits can benefit from chat transactions. Prior to this launch, WhatsApp was already one of the top messaging platforms in Brazil and had already seen a number of brands use it to engage with audiences in this region.

“Over 10 million small and micro-businesses are the heartbeat of Brazil’s communities. It’s become second nature to send a zap to a business to get questions answered. Now in addition to viewing a store’s catalog, customers will be able to send payments for products as well. Making payments simple can help bring more businesses into the digital economy, opening up new opportunities for growth,” a blog post from WhatsApp explains.

Below, I’ll walk through how the payments feature works and how brands can leverage it within their WhatsApp or mobile messaging strategies.

How WhatsApp’s Payment Feature Works

Because the payment feature is powered by Facebook Pay’s software, sending a payment on WhatsApp will be quite similar to sending one via Facebook.

To give you a better idea of how the tool will work when it appears on global WhatsApp platforms, I’ll start by walking you through what the consumer sees.

Like Facebook Pay, WhatsApp users will have to enter their MasterCard or Visa information in the settings area of their profile. Users do not need Facebook to use the WhatsApp feature, however, the two companies are working on an integration that will enable users also on Facebook Pay to submit one payment method for both platforms, rather than having to enter the same information twice.

Aside from adding a credit or debit card, users will also need to include information for the bank account which will receive their payments. Currently, to receive or send money, users need an account at one of WhatsApp’s three Brazilian bank partners. However, as the feature expands to different countries, WhatsApp will be partnering with banks in each new area.

Once payment information has been added, users can open a chat thread with a friend, go to the message field, and tap a pay button. From there, they can type in the amount they’d like to send, and send it to their contact with no added transaction fees.

WhatsApp payments in whatsapp message threads

Image Source

Before the transaction is finalized, WhatsApp will ask senders to confirm their identity with a six-digit pin or fingerprint.

Although WhatsApp has not gone into great detail about how this feature will look for brands, its announcement suggests that shoppers can start a chat with a business — as they would with a friend, discuss a product or service, and then securely make a purchase directly in the chat.

Now that you know a bit about how WhatsApp payments will work, here are a few benefits that this feature could offer your business.

How Brands Can Benefit From WhatsApp Payments

1. Chatting with customers could result in immediate purchases.

Each day, conversational marketers and community managers answer a handful of questions asked in social media posts, comment threads, and direct messages. Meanwhile, sales reps might communicate with prospects via email, Slack, WhatsApp, or another form of direct messaging.

While modern technology has provided a number of ways to communicate with prospects, there can still be a major friction point when the chat ends. After that point, the rep or marketer needs the prospect to venture to an ecommerce site or landing page, fill in their personal information, and buy the product or service. When prospects spend a lot of time chatting with company reps, but ultimately don’t buy the product, the time devoted to messaging them can feel like a major waste.

WhatsApp’s payment tool removes some of the friction that comes between a chat and a purchase. Rather than sending a prospect links to your WhatsApp Business catalog or ecommerce site and hoping they click, research the product, add it to their cart, and buy it, you can give them all the information they might need, answer any of their questions, and then offer them the opportunity to purchase a product or service directly in the chat.

2. The WhatsApp payment tool offers local businesses new or additional revenue streams.

As WhatsApp noted in its announcement, consumers in Brazil were already contacting brands, asking them questions, getting product recommendations, and even sending their payment details in chats before WhatsApp added the option to make a full transaction. WhatsApp has also become a common way for people in Brazil to learn about and interact with local businesses or shops that might not have full ecommerce sites.

For small and local businesses dabbling in online sales, WhatsApp offers a new revenue stream opportunity that doesn’t require them to build a robust online catalog or website. They can now promote their business and current products, chat with prospects, and sell products all from one platform.

For example, if you own or work as a marketer for a small or local business, especially in a region that heavily uses WhatsApp, creating a Business account could allow you to promote your brand with a business page and online product catalog. From there, when a user is interested in one of your catalog items, you can begin to experiment with processing online purchases for the first time.

If you already have an ecommerce site, you can use a WhatsApp Business account to promote your online store while also using your catalog and chat features to highlight or sell specific items, such as products that are new to the store

3. Marketers and brands can better track customer journeys and ROI.

Now that customers can learn about a brand, chat with them, and make a purchase directly on WhatsApp, brands can use past threads to learn more about which chats lead to purchases, which don’t, and how much ROI they’re getting from WhatsApp payments — even with the service fee.

As brands tiptoe further into digital transformation, learning about how to reel in and convert customers will be important. Because the entire buyer’s journey can now happen on WhatsApp, brands can better get an idea of why consumers convert and what might be knocking them off of a conversion path.

Similarly, if a brand tests out a marketing campaign on WhatsApp, that company isn’t limited to sending online store tracking URLs to determine how successful their marketing content was. If a user who interacts with the WhatsApp campaign also makes a purchase through a private chat, this could also be tracked as ROI.

On WhatsApp, marketers and sales reps might use chats to get to know the user, inform them of great purchases they could make, and ultimately build the trust needed to convert the person to a customer.

Although a brand could simply end a chat after a customer makes a payment, they could alternatively check back in with a customer to let them know their package was shipped, check-in to see how the product is working, and inform them of new deals or products they might be interested in later. This method could, in turn, result in upselling, more purchases, and more brand trust.

If you intend to leverage WhatsApp’s payment tool once it’s fully launched, keep in mind that there are major benefits to continuing customer relationships rather than just abandoning the chat after you get their money.

Bringing the Buyer’s Journey to WhatsApp Chat

Now that WhatsApp allows users to better discover, learn about, interact with, and pay brands through WhatsApp Business, the platform has brought the buyer’s journey fully mobile.

As a marketer or sales rep, it will be your job to help the prospect with their questions and guide them through the buyer’s journey. With the WhatsApp payment feature, you can more smoothly move them from a lead to a customer. Then, you can continue to use the chat and other WhatsApp features to build your brand to customer relationship with them so their buyer’s journey and brand trust still continue even after the first purchase.

To learn more about how to leverage WhatsApp to guide users through the customer funnel, read this post on effective WhatsApp marketing campaigns and this guide to WhatsApp for Business. Still not sure if a messaging platform like WhatsApp is right for your marketing or sales strategy? Check out this list of messaging app stats to learn more about this landscape.

The post How Marketers Can Leverage WhatsApp’s New Payments Feature appeared first on Local SEO Resources.

Why Shared Hosting? – Answers To Common Questions About Shared Internet Servers

Why Shared Hosting? – Answers To Common Questions About Shared Internet Servers

Why Shared Hosting? Indeed! It is a good question and is answered here with answers to similar common questions about shared internet servers (the type of servers we all need to share our websites on the internet).

On This Page

  1. What are Shared Hosting Benefits?
  2. What is the difference between Shared vs WordPress Hosting?
  3. What is the difference between Shared vs VPS Hosting?
  4. How do I get started with Shared Hosting?
  5. Shared Hosting Advanced Features
  6. How Do Microsoft Server Based Websites Work?
  7. Is Shared Hosting Right for My Site?
  8. Why Is Shared Hosting More Affordable?
  9. Pick the Shared Hosting Plan That’s Best for You
  10. DreamHost Shared Hosting Quick Start Guide
  11. How to Start a Website in 5 Minutes with WordPress

What are Shared Hosting Benefits?

Buying, installing and maintaining your own internet server or your website is the ideal way to make a website available on the internet.  However, very few people have the budget or technical capabilities to build, configure, and operate a standalone web server for their website. Especially when they start, the budget will be limited, or minimal and your big idea may bring you a fortune, or may not be quite as good as you hope… So, most people settle for a shared hosting service to provide a home for their website, hoping to be able to upgrade their hosting as their website brings in revenue to pay for improvements.

There are thousands of bloggers and small businesses who use shared-hosting to set up their own website without any hassle or trouble on their end. Running your own server would be expensive, and by using a shared hosting service provider, businesses and individuals can save themselves money and hassle while enjoying the benefits of having their own website. Shared hosting plans offer convenience. You don’t need to worry about much besides building the website and maintaining it. All of the technical work is handled by the shared hosting service. If you want, you could handle application installations and file permissions on your end. But most often the customer simply uses the built-in applications to build their websites without needing to be involved in the geeky technicalities that make it all work. That is the essence of why shared hosting is so popular that well over 90% of all websites are served from shared-hosting web service providers.

On shared hosting plans, you share your server’s resources (bandwidth and storage space) with other customers on a first-come-first-served basis. To help better illustrate this example let’s compare shared hosting to transportation via Uber. In this example, shared hosting is the equivalent of selecting their ride-sharing option. This mode of transportation comes with certain benefits, such as being more cost-effective than riding alone. However, since you’re sharing the mode of transportation, it may be more efficient for your driver to make additional stops for other passengers first. As a result, the overall travel time to your destination gets increased.

What is the difference between Shared vs WordPress Hosting?

Many “website hosting companies” offer options featuring shared physical servers and shared cloud servers, and even shared WordPress hosting. The question is: What are the differences between them?

The three main shared hosting plans are:

  1. Traditional shared,
  2. Shared cloud, and
  3. WordPress shared.

While all three have “shared” in the package name, they are each very unique. Let’s weigh the pros and cons and see which types of websites benefit:

  1. Traditional shared is where your website is hosted on a single server located at a server farm. Loading speeds tend to be slower for the most distant visitors, but for regional and local websites this is not a concern provided that you choose a server near you. In this case “near you” means in the same country or continent.
  2. Shared Cloud webspace is where a “cloud” server hosts your website with multiple other websites. Most hosts rent web space with the largest providers such as Google and Amazon so that your website is always available on a whole network of servers. Files are copied around the network automatically in order to serve them quickly where they are most in demand. The is no such thing as a server physically located in a cloud! It is a concept, but a worthwhile one because your website will normally be received more quickly than with so-called “terrestrial” services.
  3. WordPress shared hosting are normal/ traditional hosting plans set up for the website owner to create WordPress websites alone, in a very simple newbie-friendly way. The low-cost versions of this style of hosting plan may not allow full access to their own “root server” controls which more “geeky” users might want. However, these are generally very easy, even “one-lick-easy” to create a WordPress website and many website publishers will need no more.

Should customers on any of the above hosting plans find a need for additional services as their website grows, all customers are offered an easy upgrade to more sophisticated hosting plans

Why Shared Hosting is explained in this graphic. It's not quite as good as alternatives but its all about the cost.If you’ve poked your head around web hosting websites, you’ve likely seen the term “managed. ” hosting can be unmanaged, semi-managed, or fully managed, and understanding the difference can be a major factor in what plan you choose. That said, it isn’t as big a factor as the hosting type you get. Many shared plans, for example, are semi-managed, though the web host may not explicitly say so. In most cases, you only need to pay attention to this aspect if you’re talking about WordPress-specific plans or VPS or dedicated hosting.

Our shared hosting packages have been specifically designed for single websites for individuals and small businesses that get 1,000 visitors or thereabouts per day.

At EZi-Gold Hosting we offer multiple hosting packages to suit your requirements. Visit here for more information and look for eZI-Gold hosting specials.

The difference between these packages is the amount of disk space offered as well as the number of add-on domains per account. The average WordPress website uses around 500mb – 1gb of disk space. However, if you host a lot of media files, such as photos and videos you may use much more.

What is the difference between Shared vs VPS Hosting?

What is the difference between shared, VPS, reseller hosting and Dedicated Servers?

1 – Shared server: you share the server space with other clients. Good to start with, but as your traffic grows you will need to move out to your own dedicated server.

2 – VPS (Virtual Private Server): is a server running a Virtual Operating System (OS) thus creating an environment that can accommodate your demands. e.g. A Windows Server can have a virtual server running Linux and you could host your domain/site on the Linux server.

Security is essential no matter what kind of website you own. Both hosting types are relatively secure and stable methods for hosting your site, but there are some differences. With shared hosting, your site might be affected when there’s an error on another site. Also, if other sites eat up too much of the shared bandwidth, your website might get slowed down. This is especially crucial if your site hits high traffic numbers. You can avoid this problem by using VPS, as the partitioned servers make sure each website works accordingly. However, if you lack the technical knowledge of how to take care of your virtual private server you should consider your options. When poorly managed, it can lead to a whole bunch of other problems.

A woman is shown, who is presumably working on a website which is served from a shared host - one reason why shared hosting is so popular.The key points of difference between the two can be boiled down largely to resources. In shared hosting, as the name suggests, the server’s resources are shared between all the customers hosted on that particular server. On the other hand, a VPS, while technically being a part of a server, gives the impression of a dedicated server, thanks to its design. The advantage of VPS in terms of resources is that you’ll have access to a higher number of resources for your own private use as compared to shared hosting. This allows greater flexibility to scale your website.

How Do I Get Started with Shared Hosting?

There is an enormous number of shared hosting providers that can be perfect for getting started online. Built on top of a reliable platform and backed by 24/7 expert support. Just one fairly ordinary example would be Bluehost’s shared hosting which very many people use for blogs, hobbies, and even small business websites. But why not consider us? We offer EZi-Gold Hosting which we would say is just as good, but offered with a much more personal service! We are relatively small and we also house most of our websites on our hosting. That means that it is always well-maintained and up to date, we can assure you! Choose the plan that’s right for you and get started quickly and easily with an EZI-Gold hosting! – our own hosting.

Going for a VPS hosting plan from the existing shared hosting plan? Choosing a VPS hosting provider is a difficult decision mainly because when you go through VPS companies each one of them offers almost the same kind of disk space, bandwidth, third party software, customer support, and money-back guarantee. I started my website on a shared hosting plan, but later mainly due to bandwidth and poor performance of the server, I had took the suggestion of going for VPS/dedicated plan to get better control and improved server performance.

The answer to this vital question is based on your website’s needs and goals. We recommend using shared hosting if:

  • you want to launch your website quickly
  • you want to focus on getting your website live without worrying about server configuration,

If this describes you, shared hosting is the best option.

Shared hosting is also for you if:

  • You have a limited or restricted budget. As shared hosting is known to be the least expensive, it can be a great hosting package for getting started.
  • You want to grow over time. Starting with shared hosting can be a wise approach. When your website starts to grow, you can reach out to your hosting company to upgrade your account.

Shared Hosting Advanced Features

One reason for using shared hosting and not VPS is shown here - Putting the pieces you need into the cart!With Inmotion hosting, a mid-range shared hosting provider, getting your website online is quick and easy. You can install over 400 applications (such as WordPress or Drupal) with just one click. Inmotion hosting offers interesting features for advanced users, including SSH access.

Shared hosting is for those website owners who don’t have the knowledge to manage and control everything. But this lack of sufficient control comes with its own drawbacks. There are limitations to the kind of scripting language and types of files that can be used. But if you don’t want advanced applications and features to run on your site, shared web hosting could be an economical option.

  • Like most web hosting service providers, Siteground also has 3 shared hosting plans for you to choose from:
    their first plan, the startup plan gets you:, 1 website, advanced priority WordPress support, pre-installed WordPress. Also: Website builder.

Are you wondering why Siteground’s shared hosting pricing plans are a bit more costly than their competitors? It’s because of Siteground’s dedicated plugins that do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to ensuring WordPress runs efficiently and fast. They also provide a truly no-hassle way to apply entry-level website encryption for free.

How Do Microsoft Server Websites Work?

Asp stands for active server pages and it is a tool that was created and developed by Microsoft. Because of this, it is invaluable due to its ease of integration with other technologies. It makes creating your website simple by working seamlessly with other Microsoft-created tools. Developers and programmers like it because of having asp or asp. Net offers them the chance to build rich websites that are both dynamic and use various compiled languages like vb and c#. It’s convenient and loaded with robust capabilities!

It does end up being more expensive than the open-source alternative used by the vast majority of websites, namely Linux Servers and WordPress both of which are free.

The use of the internet has therefore penetrated almost every sphere of urban life in all countries, including third world countries. A good percentage of people, use social networking sites to share ideas and communicate important messages on issues that affect their day-to-day lives. Most businesses in third world countries are now using the internet to run their affairs. This has been necessitated by the urge to remain competitive in the global market. The introduction of cheap web hosting services has, therefore, come at an opportune time. Cheap web hosting services have enabled most businesses to have websites. This is a good development since even growing businesses with limited cash flow can afford to advertise their services on the web and reach their target audience globally. Cheap web hosting services has seen the creation of many online businesses in developing countries.

The cloud is not just a place to store your pictures anymore. Utilizing the cloud allows your website to share server space with other websites, but with more than just one server. Instead, your website is attached to a network of different servers, allowing its data to transfer freely from one to another. Why is this a good thing? well, we’ve mentioned what can happen on a traditional shared server if another website gets a large traffic spike. With a shared cloud plan, this is a lot less likely to happen. If another site gets a traffic spike, your site’s data just simply move to a different server that has space open for it.

What Is Microsoft SQL Server and Is Shared Hosting Right for My Site?

MySQL stands for Microsoft SQL Server. This is the Microsoft database system. Again, it is brought to you via Microsoft and works seamlessly with Windows shared web hosting solutions. To make building and maintaining a website as simple as possible on Microsoft Web Servers, MSsql databases provide dynamic content delivery. By using Microsoft products, users can have all the tools they need to build their brands and content online.

Shared hosting provides the most cost-effective hosting solution. With many people contributing to the costs of the server, the hosting company’s costs are distributed between them. Basic plans start at around $30 a year while you can expect to pay over $300 a year for premium plans with unmetered disk space, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited websites.

Why Is Shared Hosting More Affordable?

The base of any shared hosting plan is going to be the same: shared. But what is shared? Shared hosting means that one server will store data from multiple websites and that also means that the cost is shared. By sharing the cost these hosting plans are cheaper. These are the most popular types of plans because they are usually very cost-friendly.

Deliver your presence to your visitors now and in years to come when your needs grow. You’ll find that shared hosting is flexible and that’s another reason why it’s such a popular option. Your account includes a set amount of disk space, monthly traffic, databases, FTP accounts, and more.

Our shared hosting package is designed to help your website succeed at the most affordable price. Whether you’ve got a tiny blog, a big eCommerce site, or anything in between, our hosting package will give you all the tools you need. Come try out our expert’s decades of experience and top-notch support to find out for yourself why so many people choose EZI-Gold hosting.

Shared hosting, also sometimes referred to as virtual hosting, is a web hosting environment where each individual hosting account is stored on a single web server. Think of a web server as a very powerful computer loaded with resources. Each of the accounts on the server shares the server’s system resources. These resources include disk space, data transfer, and server processing power. Shared hosting offers you an affordable solution to get your web site up and running because all the related server hosting costs are shared and spread out among the other users/accounts who are being hosted on that server.

Pick the Shared Hosting Plan That’s Best for You

When you search with the keywords “best shared hosting“, you will get a good number of sites with reviews and providers. But as a customer is it a wise decision to simply follow reviews and signup with a particular provider?
Before going for a shared or maybe even a VPS provider, make serious thoughts about the items featured in your plan. There are many things that need to be considered before a shared hosting customer begins even thinking about VPS plans.

When you are looking for a shared hosting plan, make sure you have certain uptime guarantees. The absolute minimum you should accept from a host is 99%.

Usually, website hosting plans are made to accommodate a large variety of website platforms. However, as you can guess, shared WordPress plans are specifically tailored for WordPress sites. The benefit of choosing this type of shared plan is that the support team handling your website’s data is highly trained and skilled with WordPress. Having a support team that specializes in your website’s platform allows for easier updates to plugins, optimized performance, and better security. While working with only WordPress sites might seem to be a detriment to a hosting company’s business, clients seem to appreciate the streamlined security and support. That’s why there has been increased interest in shared WordPress hosting recently.

DreamHost Shared Hosting Quick Start Guide

Shared hosting is usually the best option for small websites to get started. It’s also the most affordable. Whether you are an experienced website developer or a local business startup, VPS hosting should absolutely be considered. When choosing a hosting package for a larger website, VPS hosting is excellent in providing reliability, speed, as well as customization. The main deciding factors between shared hosting and VPS hosting are the website’s requirements, your technical understanding, and your budget.

A shared hosting provider is available with plans starting from $7. 95/month. Dreamhost offers Cpanel, 100% guaranteed uptime, their award-winning 24/7 available support, and 97 days money-back guarantee. With all this, you will get a free domain plus privacy if you will go with the annual plan. You can create unlimited custom email addresses with pop/IMAP/SMTP accounts. Free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificates are also included with every plan and all of your website’s data will be stored in their SSDA which are 200% better in performance as compared to traditional hard drives. Also server side caching. Although Dreamhost servers are completely Linux based and they don’t support Windows-based hosting as of now that will not be a problem if you are not going to use your server for development purposes.

How to Start a Website in 5 Minutes with WordPress

For startup businesses and personal websites, such as a WordPress blog, shared hosting provides the best and most cost-effective solution. Yes, you’ll have to share your server and its resources with other websites but for most small businesses the limitations that come along with sharing these resources typically isn’t a problem. For small businesses and larger websites, like e-commerce shops and online communities, VPS hosting will provide the flexibility and performance necessary for your continued growth. Yes, you’re going to pay a bit more for the level of service provided by VPS hosting but this should be seen as an investment into your growing business.

Because of the highly-tuned nature of the setup, your website will be able to handle a much higher number of viewers with a managed WordPress host than it would be able to when running on shared hosting — although, keep in mind that many leading hosts, such as WP Engine, will have predefined limits on the number of monthly visitors your site will be able to accommodate before being subject to additional charges. Furthermore, if your site does start to outgrow the particular managed WordPress plan you’ve chosen, technicians will usually let you know you’ll need to consider upgrading to a higher level of service.

SUMMARY

WordPress is the most widely used website platform in the market. And they only officially recommend three hosting partners to use with a WordPress site and Siteground is one of them.

The security risks on a shared server are higher, but it’s more of a situation you need to keep an eye on as opposed to being a show stopper. As a business grows, however, the resources its website demands grow as well. As more traffic and transactions begin to strain a shared server, it’s time to upgrade to the next tier of the hosting plans.

When you’re selecting the shared hosting provider to host your website, the most important thing to consider is how the provider deals with overages. While most providers will offer unlimited bandwidth and storage, others might not. If your website gets incredibly busy and starts going over the CPU cycle limit, the provider might pull the plug, and suspend your account for the remainder of the month. It’s your responsibility to know the limits of your plan, and you should also monitor your site to ensure that you don’t break these limits. Some shared hosting providers will alert you when you’re close to reaching the limit, and if you go over, they’ll charge a fee to offset the costs. Others might also give you the option to immediately upgrade your plan, so your site remains up without interruption.

We offer a hosting package which we think beats even the best! Check out our hosting packages here! (Hint: We install WordPress for you! What could be easier than that!)

The post Why Shared Hosting? – Answers To Common Questions About Shared Internet Servers appeared first on GQ Central.

What is a Google Local Guide? How to Get Perks and Badges

What is a Google Local Guide? How to Get Perks and Badges

It’s difficult to dispute that local search is more important than ever right now. There are countless stats that underpin this assertion, such as the fact that 46% of all Google searches are made with the intent of finding local information.

It’s also impossible to deny that user-generated content (UGC) is quickly growing in importance against this backdrop, with an expanding body of data suggesting that it is a critical tool in the decision-making process.

In this online landscape, Google Local Guides have taken on new relevance.

Let’s quickly go back a step though before diving into Google Local Guides, as the role of user-generated content in the customer journey and online user’s psyche is extremely relevant to the Local Guides concept as a whole.

According to research performed by Salesforce, user-generated content was already showing signs of its importance in 2016. It reported that pages with user-generated content enjoyed a range of performance benefits, including a 90% uplift in time spent on site, a 50% increase in engagement rates, a 73% improvement in email click-throughs and a 10% boost to conversions.

Fast-forward four years and the BazaarVoice 2020 Shopper Experience Index definitively concludes that more and more brands are empowering their customers to “advocate and sell on their behalf”. Significantly, the Experience Index says that consumers now control product pages, with user-generated content replacing traditional image carousels. Consumer product ratings, reviews, images uploaded by consumers and question and answers all play a pivotal role in purchase decisions.

It’s also important to remember that people trust people. Many consumers, especially the Millennial generation onwards, distrust advertising and brand-generated content. In fact, 84% of Millennials classify themselves as distrustful of traditional marketing. That leaves peers as the most trusted form of recommendation when it comes to everything from finding a restaurant and booking a hotel to finding a contractor or choosing a vet.

The Experience Index backs this up, with its findings revealing that there is a 159% increase in revenue from visitors who engage with reviews. Scientific research also cites empirical evidence that reviews have a significant impact on online sales; in the travel industry for example, just a 10% increase in user reviews led to a more than 5% increase in bookings.

Our own research has tracked this trend over the last decade. Year after year we find that the vast majority (over 8 in 10 people last year) read online reviews for a local business, while 89% of 35-54-year-olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

UGC and Google Local Guides

So, what does this have to do with Google Local Guides? The relevance and impact of UGC directly underpins the function of Google Local Guides.

Google says that Guides are people who “who write reviews, share photos, answer questions, add or edit places and check facts on Google Maps”. These are all examples of user-generated content. The search engine claims that millions of people around the world rely on the information shared by Guides to decide where to go and what to do.

This makes Google Local Guides important local influencers, able to help shape which local businesses are popular, thanks to the trust consumers naturally place in information shared by peers, rather than brands.

The Local Guides program is most closely linked with Google Maps, with points and rewards for Guides all geared around the contributions made to Maps.

Why Google Local Guides?

Google describes its Local Guides as a community. Members of the community are local consumers who go out and rate local businesses, take photos, share their experiences, leave reviews, answer questions based on their direct knowledge of those businesses, add places not listed on Maps, and check facts.

Participation is rewarded with points, badges, and perks. The rewards system tells us this work is meaningful to Google, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Guides act as an army of fact-checkers and researchers with boots on the ground around the world. Guides hit the streets specifically searching for, noting down, and uploading local business information in real-time. They are a hive mind for the search engine, helping it to ensure its Maps product is more accurate, more up-to-date and superior to rival offerings. It’s not a stretch to say that the work Guides do in their towns and cities around the world powers the whole Maps ecosystem.

wheelchair accessibility

It should be noted here that the actions that Guides carry out aren’t restricted to those who register for the program. Even without signing up to be a Google Local Guide, you can perform many of the same functions. You can, for example, leave an unbiased review of a business on local search via Google Reviews. You can upload your own images of a local business, which will then show in local search and on that company’s Google My Business profile. You can also ask a question, suggest an edit on a local business listing and answer Google questions, such as whether a location is wheelchair accessible by clicking on the ‘share the latest info link’ in local search.

The difference is that as a Google Local Guide, your contributions will be linked to gamification, meaning the more you share, the greater the points and rewards you’ll receive.

How do I become a Google Local Guide?

It’s very easy to join the Google Local Guides program. So easy in fact, you can sign up in a matter of minutes.

Step 1

Sign in to your Google account and then navigate to the Local Guides signup page.

Sign up to Local Guides

If you have location enabled on your device, you’ll see that your town will be pre-populated for you. If not, just add your location, confirm you’re over the age of 18, and agree to receive emails.

Step 2

You’re now signed up and can begin to make contributions to Google Maps. You’ll find a welcome video on your dashboard and an option to leave your first review.

Leave your first review

Just search for the place you wish to review and then click the ‘Contribute’ button to start earning points, badges, and rewards.

Step 3

Once you’ve added the name of the local business you wish to review, you’ll be asked a series of questions by Google, based on the type of business under review.

Leave a review

If you’re reviewing a hotel, for example, you’ll be asked for an overall star rating and then information about the type of trip (business, vacation, solo, friends, family, etc.) you took. You’ll also be able to assign individual star ratings to rooms, location, and service, and upload images.

Step 4

You can also now begin to make contributions directly to Google Maps. Just go to Maps and you’ll be able to fact check and verify information that other users have submitted about businesses nearby to your location and make edits to incorrect information.

Local Guide Google Map

If you turn on location history, Google will also give you suggestions for places to review and verify based on where you’ve been.

How do I unlock Google Local Guide points and badges?

As mentioned, Google Local Guides has a strong gamification aspect with each Guide rewarded for their contributions with points and badges. Those points and badges can be traded for rewards with Google partners. You’ll need to make contributions to Maps to begin earning points, and then increase your activity to earn badges.

Contributions:

  • Score a local business by giving it a rating
  • Review a local business
  • Share photos
  • Upload video
  • Answer a question about a place you have visited on Maps
  • Ask a question and/or provide an answer on the information panel in local search
  • Edit information
  • Add a missing place
  • Check facts

What perks and benefits are available to Google Local Guides?

Each type of contribution you make via the Google Local Guides program (such as leaving a review, uploading a photo, answering a question, making edits or adding missing places), will earn you a certain number of points. If you review a local business, for example, you’ll earn 10 points. If your review is more in-depth and exceeds 200 characters, you’ll get 10 bonus points. Add a photo and earn another five points, and so on.

Google Local Guide Points System

Just as in a video game, the more points you get, the higher the level you achieve.

Get to a certain level, and you’ll then get a badge. Make more contributions to earn more points and move through the levels, and you’ll also earn better badges. You’ll only receive a badge when you reach level four and above, which requires 250 points. Level 10 is the highest and requires 100,000 points. If your contributions are removed for violating Maps policies, the points earned will be deducted.

Perks and Points

Google frequently refers to the benefits that you can enjoy as a Google Local Guides participant. These are likely to be of the most interest to those who are enthusiastic Google users, with Google describing one of the core benefits as receiving early access to new Google features. It also says Google Local Guides can receive special perks from partners, but doesn’t elaborate on what those perks could be, or which partners they’ll come from.

On this Reddit thread, some Guides report receiving freebies such as socks, money off Udemy courses, a free phone case and 1TB of free storage on Google for a period of two years. Others say they haven’t received any perks from partners. In that same thread, some Guides also suspect that those partner perks have been reined in to crack down on Maps fraud. This is a possibility given the local search community’s frustration with Local Guides who abuse and misuse the system to level up their points.

Google does say that badges give the Guide recognition for their contribution so, for those who pride themselves on their local knowledge, the badge could be reward enough.

Can being a Google Local Guide help with SEO?

Bad news if you’ve signed up to be a Google Local Guide to give your local search presence a boost; the notion that you can make suggested edits to Google My Business profiles more easily as a Google Local Guides is a myth. All edits are checked before they make it into Maps or search results. So, while there are no SEO benefits to joining the platform, there could be plenty of downsides for local businesses.

Many local search professionals report that some Guides are too focused on earning points, which means that rather than making valid contributions which are helpful for Maps users and fair to businesses, they’ll make pointless comments simply to add points to their profile for their ‘contribution’.

I spoke to Steady Demand’s Ben Fisher, a Google My Business Product Expert about Google Local Guides in 2019 and he said:

Personally, I have not liked the system ever since it was put into place. It is too easy to manipulate. The Local Guides program was instituted with an incentivized, point-based system, which rarely gives out real-world rewards (the points mainly translate to ‘levels’). There are drawbacks to gamification. The first is that it makes a user feel like they have more power (they don’t) and encourages behaviors to gain points for the sake of gaining points.

Another local SEO expert, Greg Gifford of SearchLab, says Local Guides are actually an indicator of spam for many. He says, “I almost look at non-Guide reviews as more legitimate because they’re left by someone who truly wanted to leave a review, rather than by someone who was vomiting out reviews just to get a few more points in the system.”

Google has policies in place to prevent Guides scamming the system to obtain false benefits for their own business. Its content policy stipulates that all contributions should be an accurate representation of the location while “inappropriate reviews” including fake and spam reviews can also be detected. If you do violate the policy, the offending content is removed and the points deducted from your profile.

Google Local Guide reviews do tend to be given priority when it comes to reviews displayed in Google My Business, but that shouldn’t matter to you as a business owner, because Google does not permit you to review your own business.

However, as of the date publication of this article, Google appears to be testing a new feature with which Local Guides of Level 5 or above are being asked to give feedback on which business reviews are “better”.

This may well be beneficial to your business if it allows you to vote for your favorite reviews and improve your review profile that way!

Conclusion

Google Local Guides perform an important duty for Google Maps, offering reviews, editing incorrect information, adding missing places, and sharing images and videos. This insight is useful for local consumers and the gamification of the system makes it a fun way for committed search users to get involved with Google products.

That said, there is no SEO reward for signing up to the Google Local Guides program so it shouldn’t form a part of any local search strategy or be relied upon for perks such as preferential edits or better rankings.

The post What is a Google Local Guide? How to Get Perks and Badges appeared first on BrightLocal.

The post What is a Google Local Guide? How to Get Perks and Badges appeared first on Local SEO Resources.

Make Money Writing Blogs While Enjoying Your Passion Subject

Make Money Writing Blogs While Enjoying Your Passion Subject

I make money writing blogs while enjoying my passion subject as a hobby, and I honestly can’t think of a better, more fulfilling, and enjoyable way to spend a part of my free time. Read on and I’ll explain how you can do it too.

On This Page

  1. Why You Should Make Money Writing Blogs
  2. Learn Exactly How You Can Start A Blog To Make Money Writing Blogs
  3. One of the most popular questions in blogging answered
  4. How to make money from blogging
  5. Can you really make money from blogging?
  6. How Do You Make Money from Blogging?
  7. How much money can you make money from blogging?
  8. Can you blog about your life and make money from blogging?
  9. The Easiest Way to Make Money from Blogging
  10. How to earn money from blogging
  11. Other Ways of Making Money From Blogging
  12. How I Actually Started Making Money From Blogging
  13. Thoughts on “How I Actually Started Making Money From Blogging”
  14. How to Make Money from Blogging Beginner Guidance

Why You Should Make Money Writing Blogs

Did you ever consider starting your own blog to make more money from writing on your blogs? If not, you really should, because by tapping into the blogging scene, you can easily increase the profitability of your website. Just right now is a great deal of hype and talk about blogs, but when one strips them down and looks at them clearly, they discover that a blog is nothing more than a web site. In essence, a blog is a website featuring an easy to use content management system that allows for quick updating in chronological order. The roots of blogging trace back to online journaling and community-building efforts, but approached from a business perspective, blogs are uniquely positioned to make you money.

On the other hand, if you think of how when you have a hobby, many people spend much of their leisure time, reading and thinking about it when not actually doing it, and can enjoyably give that a purpose by blogging about it! So, I could write this article solely from the point of view of this being a commercial venture. However, do bear in mind that for your blog to be successful you will need to apply consistently your energy and interest in the subject. That being the case, do remember that the number one point to bear in mind is that you will need to base your blog on something you have a real interest in and commitment to. Otherwise, by human nature, if you are solely motivated by the idea of profit, it’s unlikely you will succeed.

So, in today’s blog post, I will tackle the topic of different ways to make money writing blogs. If you know what your options are for making a sizable income from your blog, it will be that much easier to plan your content. Because really, a money-making blog is just a money-making machine. It’s science! you need to create a system that allows for money to come in. Without this system, you can blog as much as you want and you won’t see a dime at the end of the day!.

Having your own Facebook group with which you share every blog posting is a great way to grow a tribe of followers. These are the people that will invest in you and eventually buy what you recommend. How do you get started with making money using Facebook groups? It’s simple and free. You create a community that is for your audience. From what you name your group to what daily posts you create, your group will grow gradually to be authentic and wanting to learn from you. If you position yourself as the authority in your niche, (don’t worry because after a while you will be!) then your audience will pay attention to you and buy from you. For example, you could create a Facebook group for Mom bloggers to whom to share your expertise in blogging and digital marketing.

Learn Exactly How You Can Start A Blog To Make Money Writing Blogs

Learn how to create a blog in about 20 minutes following these steps:

  • Pick a blog subject and name
  • Get your blog online by registering your blog domain and opening a hosting account (such as our EZi-Gold hosting!).
  • Customize your blog, by choosing a free template and tweaking it.
  • Write and publish your first post.
  • Now the fun part is simply to regularly write about your interest/ hobby/ or passion!
  • You can also promote your blog, and use some of the many ways to get more people to read your blog.
  • After a while, you will start to make money blogging. Choose from several options to monetize your blog.
  • Let’s start your blog! (Hint: We provide some of the very best hosting services you can find anywhere, right here at EZi-Gold Hosting!)

Blogging is a long, on-going journey, but only by taking the first step will you ever get to see where this road can take you. Still haven’t started your blog? Click on the EZi-Gold hosting Plan option you prefer here to get started. Of course, there is still much more to learn about blogging once you get started, but the important step is to start. You can continue to read more tips and tricks on this blog or check out some of David WhiteGold Edwards’s tutorials including his guide on how to build a brand.

One of the most popular questions in blogging is how to make money from blogging.

How to make money writing blogs by selling things your readers want!The questions “how to make money writing blogs” or “how to monetize a blog” might be disturbing you because starting a blog and making real money with it are two different things. This is my favorite topic as I have tried numerous methods to monetize my blog in the last 3 years (including micro-jobs ) and got good success with some of them.

Monetization methods such as selling products as an affiliate, and allowing guest posting on your blog for a payment per article, have become incredibly popular over the last few years. As a result, there are many bloggers out there making a ton of money sharing their knowledge online, while people simply come to them and ask for product promotion as an affiliate, and offer their articles for publication for a payment.

Another perfect way to make money writing blogs is online course creation. We can say from experience that creating courses isn’t a walk in the park. It takes a lot of time to create and, depending on your topic, maintain your course content. However, they can also be a very lucrative way to make money blogging. There are many WordPress plugins that enable you to use your blog as a platform for creating online courses. It’s the way we publish our own courses.

So, start a blog! Plant seeds for the future now; they’ll yield acorns and trees later!

Some of my most popular blog posts and the highest sources of income will be articles you write early on while fired up by your hobby and blog subject. Making money blogging is a labour of love for the first two or three years. It usually takes that time to find your voice and to learn from your growing audience what they want from you. helps if you have another source of income or a wealthy spouse to pick up the financial slack. I worked part-time as a freelance writer while creating my “blossom” blog series, and took the full-time plunge about a year ago. Like any small business or seedling, a blog needs time and energy. Nurture your blog from the ground up, and you’ll make money writing blogs.

How to make money from blogging

To keep you from feeling discouraged with the reality that blogging for profit is hard, I want you to consider the small portion of bloggers who make $100,000 a month. Immediately dismiss those who are using fake news, celebrity trends, or blog hosting to make money writing blogs. Focus on the real people who are creating real things like Erin chase, Kim Sergius, and Kelly Snyder. Who? you may or may not have heard of these women but this proves an excellent point. Most money-making bloggers are quietly hustling and creating a business… but you will never hear them talk about how much money they are making.

If you’ve got a hankering for SEO that a 90-minute course can’t satisfy, check out SEO for bloggers, a blogging course by money lab that’ll tell you literally everything you need to know (and more) about SEO. Aside from an overview of SEO, he also goes through the plugins and software he uses and recommends, how to find the right keywords to target, formatting and optimizing your content, link building, and much more that would make this list way too long to read.

Harper started “Shout Me Loud” in 2008 and has been posting his income report since February 2009 when he earned just $434. He started blogging as an interest but when he found out he could make money, he started posting aggressively. The result is, he now makes $39k per month. Harper is one of those bloggers who gets a huge amount of traffic. He reports all his traffic stats in his income report. The blog receives more than 1. 5 million page views a month. “Shout me Loud” has blog posts ranging from tech tips to creating blogs. He is one of the few survivors of google’s algorithm change. He also has a youtube channel where he creates, guess-what, video guides about creating blogs.

Can you really make money from blogging?

Do you think all these people would be doing it if they couldn't make money from blogging?

Do you think all these people would be doing it if they couldn’t make money from blogging?

Although it may take some time to generate significant revenue from your own blog, you can make money from blogging right away by blogging for other, well-established websites. Just show them the writing quality you have already achieved on your own blog and you will be in demand. You don’t have to give up your own blog. In fact, you’ll want to keep up your own writing as a way to build your writing portfolio, as potential clients will want to see samples of your work before hiring you. Most long-time professional freelance writers continue to write on their own blogs as a way to keep building credibility, expertise, and their own audience. They do this even while making six figures or more writing for others. Top freelance bloggers such as Elna Cain use this strategy; their blogs are a way to sell their writing services.

In the beginning stages of blogging (typically the first six months), you will likely feel a little lonely with few visitors and even fewer commenters. It’s very easy to give up during this stage. Don’t! instead, network with fellow bloggers, comment on other sites, and build relationships. I commented on hundreds of sites for the first year, and eventually, other bloggers took notice. I never would have imagined starting a personal finance blog would allow me to break free from corporate America three years later. This let me make money writing blogs while traveling for months on end, and give me the opportunity to pivot into the financial technology space.

Blogging can be a fulfilling hobby – a great way to express your passion for a particular subject. But make no mistake: it can also be a great way to make money, either as a side hustle or as a full-time career. Don’t believe me? Pat Flynn of smart passive income made over $2 million one year recently through his blog. Matthew of “True Valhalla” is a 20-year old game developer who is on track to make $500,000 this year from his blog. And Anil Agarwal of “Bloggers Passion” isn’t getting rich, but earns around $70,000 a year from his blog.

How Do You Make Money from Blogging?

You might have seen earning reports of top bloggers and wondered how they are able to make money from blogging. Well, the fact is that you too can make money writing blogs. It’s not rocket science. And it is pretty much possible. The heartening fact is that you have come to the right place. Here, I will list out how to make money from blogging. By going through this post, you can start your journey on the road to make money from blogging. Here, you will get to know different ways to make income as a blogger.

You’ve heard that you can make money writing blogs. And it’s true. You can. But only about 5% of bloggers earn a full-time income from their blogs. Really? You would think that number would be a lot bigger considering the income reports going around right? But just think about the small percentage of bloggers who actually post their income reports and make money compared to the thousands of blogs online. What you see is a very small fraction. So how do you make money writing blogs?.

Also, let me just say that every now and again I am pulled aside at a conference or am emailed and/or tweeted by someone wanting to get the “real” scoop on whether it is possible to make money blogging. Is it really possible to make a living from blogging? Or, is it just a small number of people making money from blogging? Is it only really possible to make money blogging if you write about the topic of making money blogging? I completely understand the questions and would probably want answers myself, if I hadn’t already made a lot of money with my blogs. The truth is that it is hard not to make money if your blog is half decent at tall!

How much money can you make money from blogging?

Diagram shows a multitude of ways to make money writing a blog.

Diagram shows a multitude of ways to make money writing a blog.

You’ve probably heard of people who work from home blogging and make good money doing it. But have you ever wondered how much money they make blogging? One guy on Reddit recently
said:

“I’m asked all the time much I make. Just put it this way. Blogging funds our life, 2 adults, 2 kids now almost grown, full-time travel. Travel blogging and running my travel blog allowed us to see the world. We’re 100% legitimate and the money comes from the blog, not selling courses. We genuinely love travel and sharing the world with our readers, we’re going to continue to be travel. So here are some pointers and tips to help you make an income from your blog or website.”

If you put in a lot of effort on your blog, you probably want to know if you could make money from it. People love talking about the exceptional amounts of money they’ve earned with unusually successful blogs. There are a number of ways you can monetize your blog. Not all are equal, and but many are truly passive. I’ve tried my hand at monetization a few times, and while I’ve yet to strike a truly golden income, I’ve learned a lot in the process. These experiences give me a good understanding of what it takes to earn money blogging, and week by week, month by month I get better at it and earn more.

Can you blog about your life and make money from blogging?

Chart shows the Marketing Budgets of various industries.

This Chart shows the Marketing Budgets of various industries. Choose any one and you bet the businesses in your niche will have the money to pay you!

This question has come up quite a bit lately and I’ve answered it many times. Yes!

I wish I would have discovered blogging earlier in life! If so I would have been so far ahead of where I am now. I probably wouldn’t have fallen for so many scams and I wouldn’t have lost thousands of dollars trying to make money doing things that just didn’t work.

Do you love having a beautiful kitchen? are you proud of the tips and tricks you’ve used over the years to make it come to life? If so, you may already have the knowledge you need to start a kitchen design blog. Sure, there are a few technical things to work out, but there are many online resources to help you. This goes for anything from buying a domain name to making your blog’s logo. The creative opportunities are endless. Plus, if you do it right, you can turn your blog from a hobby into a full-time, money-making business!.

One of the best ways to develop a strong online presence is blogging. Blogging and win you friends, and for some even help their career. A quality blog opens many eyes. If you’re a business owner, you can increase your customer base, helping your business to succeed. Or, if you’re just looking to give your opinion on a subject, you may be able to earn money. Don’t let blogging consume you; continue doing other activities not related to blogging. When you fail to take time away from your computer to enjoy all that life has to offer it can lead to obsessive behaviors, often resulting in blog burnout.

The Easiest Way to Make Money from Blogging

Before you can start making money from your blog, you need to have a decent amount of consistent traffic. Attracting people and building readership takes time, but it’s worth the benefits you will get in the long-run. The only tried and tested method to attract and retain blog traffic is to write high-quality content regularly. You need to maintain an active blog in order to make sure that your readers (no matter how many you have) keep coming back. Once you have a decent number of followers, you can consider monetizing your blog.

Delighted blogger holds money after learning How to make money writing blogs.I began to network with other bloggers in Facebook groups and attended an in-person mastermind in may. The mastermind was a turning point in transforming my blog into a business. Most bloggers do not make their money from one income stream. I learned a ton from the ladies in my mastermind group and began to implement many of the steps immediately when I got home.

If you’re thinking about starting a blog for profit, there are some things that you should know going in. If you don’t take one single another thing away from this post, know these two things:

  • Blogging is a legit way to make a lot of money (and in 2020 this is more true now than ever).
  • You will be able to make good money doing this, I had no experience when I started, and in the grand scheme of life, I started making money very quickly.

So, if your burning question is “is blogging really profitable?” The answer is a resounding yes – it sure can be!.

How to earn money from blogging

An article written for others will earn you only one-time income, but an article written for your own blog can make you a lifetime income. And… that’s why blogging can make you lots of money. There are many ways you can make money writing blogs. One of the easiest ways is by placing AdSense ads on your blog.

Being a blogger differs from other online work. This is because you need to build a blog or a website by yourself. Even though it is among the best work from home jobs, you might earn money from it after a few months or years. However, depending on your niche, the nature of the blog, and your audience target, you can make good money from blogging.

Other Ways of Making Money From Blogging

The Big G Logo - Google loves well written blogs with well-written articles.I’m assuming you’re starting your own blog on a blog platform that you’ll own and run — your own website. That’s not the only way to start a blog. You can use a blog or social site like Medium, Linked In, Instagram, or Facebook. But, if you want to make money writing blogs, you need to build your own site. If you’re thinking about launching your blog on a blog site, you should stop here, and go check out the best blogging platforms and blog sites.  This step — choosing where to start your blog — is the “ one thing gurus always get wrong about blogging ” according to Gary Vaynerchuk.

It takes stamina to build a blog. You’ll need to nurture it by writing interesting and informative posts, publishing on a regular basis over time. Little by little, the number of people reading your posts will grow. Initially, you will have to be the one to reach out to possible sponsors. But if you can gradually and consistently grow your readership, money-making opportunities just might come looking for you. Blogging is not for the fainthearted. This is not about going viral or hitting it big overnight — you could easily be writing for a year before you start to make any money from it. But if you stick with it, it can be quite rewarding.

There is much potential for money-making through a website by selling text link ads. If you are planning to take blogging as a full-time profession then any of the extra sources of income that comes to you might help. So you must seriously try to consider selling the text links as a source of extra income. When the Adbrite guide started they used to contact the bloggers in order to give them a golden opportunity to sell the text link ads. Adbrite. Com was created with the aim of helping the publishers and also the advertisers so that they can maximize their return from many of another text link brokers. Adbrite works as a mediator in dealing between website publishers and advertisers.

How I Actually Started Making Money From Blogging

If you’ve got a penchant for the pen, and you’ve got a passion that you could reliably write to, then you might have what it takes to make money from blogging. But how, exactly, does one begin with blogging as a professional? Here are a few of the first steps that can help you find your seat.

Build the website the first thing to do is to build your blog. There are plenty of guides that go into detail on how to build a WordPress website from scratch. While you’re building it, it’s worth investing a little in a premium theme and some visual assets that won’t be so readily ripped and used by other websites.

After all this talk you might be asking yourself should even bother starting a blog. You most certainly should! Blogging is the ultimate gateway to making money because it opens yourself up to the world. Every day we are constantly fighting messages from millions of brands that we do not care about. Blogging helps you to build a connection to people that those brands can’t. Every day we are looking to find solutions to the problems we face. Blogging helps you provide those solutions for people.

Thoughts on “How I Actually Started Making Money From Blogging”

But earning a steady income from your blog won’t happen overnight. Making money as a blogger takes patience and perseverance. From hobby blogger to blogging for profit: are you ready to make the switch and start earning money as a blogger? When I started blogging five years ago, I didn’t set out to make money from my writing. I blogged because I wanted to meet new people. I wanted to learn about writing for the web and I wanted to create a website I could be proud of. I never thought about starting a blog that would one day make money.

If you landed here because you’re wondering how to start a blog and start blogging for money, then you’re in the right place. This article will cover, step by step, how to start a successful blog that you can use to start blogging for money. Even if you’re a total newbie and thinking “there’s no way I could ever start a blog – I have no experience blogging for money,” trust me – you can do it! You can use some cheap blogging tools to get started. With just a little help from the tips below, you can easily get started on making your own successful blog.

Around FWhen you get loved by Google - as shown here. You will start to make money from writing on your blog.ebruary of 2016, I started actively growing my blog audience and email list. I knew I eventually wanted to make money writing blogs plus grow a community of people I could help with freelance writing/blogging advice. My audience grew fairly quickly, which was awesome. But as far as making an income from my blog? But, for the first several months, I didn’t make shit. After putting in a lot of work, learning a ton, and busting my ass to help my community, my blog now generates a full-time income.

How to Make Money from Blogging  Beginner Guidance

Most of us feel extremely unconfident about the technical part of blogging. I know that a lot of people have so much to say to the world, but they just don’t know how to create a blog! Before you start thinking about how to make money writing blogs, the whole thing of maintaining a site, hosting, posting content looks so complicated. And it drives you away from the dream of making money blogging. This is why I created a step by step guide for beginners. You can start your blog virtually in 10-20 min following easy steps. Imagine, in so little time you can have your blog live, and everyone can see your progress and read your new posts! I find it very challenging and motivating at the same time.

If you search the internet for “how to make money blogging,” you’ll no doubt find a lot of advice. Sadly, much of what you’ll learn from well-intentioned gurus is incomplete—or inaccurate—and will at best guide you down the path to mediocrity. At worst, that advice could lead to dismal results. To create a profitable blog, you must treat your blog like a business, choose the best monetization strategies, and promote your business effectively. You must also track and analyze your results like a hawk and adjust your strategies when change is warranted.

When I first got into travel blogging, the way to make money was by selling links and having 40-50 niche websites with Google AdWords ads. Press trips didn’t exist for bloggers in those days and getting paid for my work was tough. There was no such thing as an Instagrammer or an ‘influencer. ’ ads didn’t pay much, and the idea of getting paid to travel was laughable to most of the industry. Thankfully it is much easier to monetize these days. It’s also a more competitive market. But, there are ways to jump ahead, though.

Need a low-cost high-value hosting service for your blog? Need it to be run by experts who know what bloggers need in order to make money on their blogs? Look no further! Not only do eZI-Gold Hosting offer a variety of hosting plans including starter plans, but they also don’t have hidden extras like Godaddy and most of the supposedly cheap hosting services, and they’ll help you get your first blog site up and running in no time. Let us help you get a great domain and start your blog, today!


Disclaimer: Blogging is not a quick and easy way to make extra cash. Anyone who promises you can make money writing blogs in your first month is likely misleading you. But if you’re interested in a long-term opportunity to build your own business and work from home on your own schedule, blogging could be for you!

The post Make Money Writing Blogs While Enjoying Your Passion Subject appeared first on GQ Central.

25 Stats That Prove Why You Need Link-Building in Your SEO Strategy

25 Stats That Prove Why You Need Link-Building in Your SEO Strategy

You probably already know how crucial SEO is for your website’s traffic.

One of the most important sub tactics within an SEO strategy is link-building. Not sure what this means? Here’s the quick explanation.

When websites link to your website, search algorithms determine that you have “authority” in  your industry because other brands are referring to you. The higher your authority gets, the better your search rankings could be. Additionally, linking to other posts within your site can also help to boost your authority as its a sign to algorithms that you’ve thoroughly covered a topic you’re discussing.

But, here’s where it gets a bit more tricky. When a more credible website, such as a notable publication with a high search ranking links to you, that link counts for more than an internal link or a link from a site with less search credibility. Also, if you link a blog post or page to a site with no or poor search authority, your ranking might go down because you aren’t linking to sources that search algorithms deem as credible.

These are just a few of the nuances that make link building difficult and time-consuming for many marketers. But, research shows that taking the time to build a solid link strategy can quickly boost your search rankings.

In fact, in 2019, most SEO experts said external links were one of the three most valuable aspects of their search optimization strategies. Meanwhile, 51% of marketers say they notice positive effects of general link building strategies within one to three months of executing on those tactics.

The above stats are just a taste of what link building can do for your web strategy. To help you understand the opportunities, challenges, common tactics, and costs behind successful link building, here are 25 helpful stats.

Link Building Opportunities and Challenges

  • Links are one of the top two criteria considered in Google’s page ranking algorithm. (Search Engine Land)
  • SEO experts say the third most important factor for search optimization is external linking. (Databox)
  • In the near future, 53% of marketers believe link building will have the same impact on search rankings, while 41% think it will have less of an impact. (Aira)
  • 52% of marketers believe brand mentions impact organic search rankings. (Aira)
  • In five years, 92% of marketers believe that links will still be ranking criteria in Google algorithms. (Aira)
  • 13% of search experts say link building is the most valuable SEO tactic. (Ascend)
  • 51% of marketers say it takes one to three months to see the impact of link-building efforts. (Aira)
  • In a study of web content, zero correlation between backlinks and social shares. (Backlinko)
  • 94% of the world’s content gets zero external links. (Backlinko)
  • Only 2.2% of content generates links from multiple websites. (Backlinko)
  • 41% of SEO experts consider link building to be the most difficult part of search optimization, (Ascend)
  • 65% of marketers measure their link quality by looking at their domain authority. Meanwhile, marketers also use domain ratings (48%) and page authority (36%) to determine link quality. (Aira)
  • If they could only choose one metric for studying link quality, 34% of marketers would look at domain authority while 22% would look at domain rating. (Aira)
  • 38% of marketers say page rankings are the top KPI they use to determine the effectiveness of their link-building efforts. (Aira)

Link Building Processes

  • 36% of businesses hire outside experts or freelancers for link building efforts. (Aira)
  • 48% of marketers report on “nofollow” links as part of their process. (Aira)
  • 42% of SEOs spend equal time on building internal and external links. (Databox)

SEOs spend most of their link building time on getting external links

Image Source

Link Building Costs

  • 46% of marketers spend $10,000 or more annually on link building, while 22% spend between $1,000 and $2,500. (Aira)
  • 61% of marketers say they use zero to ten percent of their total budget on link building.  (Aira)
  • It often costs brands $1,000 or more to gain a quality link. (Siege Media)
  • 41% of marketers expect the cost of link building to increase in the future. (Aira)

Common Link Building Tactics

  • 69% of marketers believe that buying links positively impacts search rankings. (Aira)
  • “Why” posts, “What” posts, and infographics received 25.8% more links compared to videos and “How-to” posts. (Backlinko)
  • Long-form content gets an average of 77.2% more links than short articles. Therefore, long-form content appears to be ideal for backlink acquisition. (Backlinko)

long form blog content pulls in the highest amount of backlinks

Image Source

  • 51% of SEOs say bloggers should include two to three internal links in a blog post while 36% say three to five should be included. (Databox)

How to Embrace Link Building

As you can see from the stats above, link building can be crucial for search rankings, but can also be quite challenging. Luckily, there are a few simple strategies that you can take on immediately to help boost your site’s authority through links.

For example, you can include internal links in your blog posts and web content, publish original quotes or data that people will link to, or create a basic outreach strategy that allows you to share your newest posts. To learn more about how you can start or broaden your SEO strategy, check out this detailed link building guide.

Want to learn about other search optimization techniques and tools? You might also enjoy our Ultimate Guide to SEO.

The post 25 Stats That Prove Why You Need Link-Building in Your SEO Strategy appeared first on Local SEO Resources.

SEO A/B Testing – Ignore This And We Guarantee You’ll Leave Money On The Table

SEO A/B Testing – Ignore This And We Guarantee You’ll Leave Money On The Table

On This Page

  1. SEO A/B Split Testing: How Coderwall Grew 57% with one A/B test
  2. How to Split Test Without Harming Your Site’s SEO
  3. Split Testing vs AB Testing: What Are the Types of Tests?
  4. A/B Split Test All Aspects of Your Business!
  5. Split Testing Buttons By Color
  6. What Is The Difference Between A/B Testing, Split Testing and Multivariate Testing?
  7. The Power of Split Testing
  8. Conducting an SEO split test
  9. Myth: Conversion Rate Optimization equals A/B Split Testing
  10. Beginner’s Guide to SEO Split Testing
  11. What is Split Testing?
  12. The Benefit of Split Testing

SEO A/B Testing is often neglected, but ignore it and we can guarantee you’ll leave money on the table. It takes time and careful thought to set up the tests, and there is no guarantee that the tests you do will prove productive. Not only that, as there are no instantaneous results, and the time spent on them can seem boring and tedious. That’s why we make no apology for starting this article by emphasizing the importance of doing split tests!

SEO A B Split Testing: How Coderwall Grew 57% with one A/B test

Ever since Distilled has started talking about SEO a/b testing, the subject has been much debated in SEO circles. Many, many posts have been written on the virtues of SEO split testing. If you want to get hooked, just watch this series of videos by Dominic Woodman.

However, about 3 years ago it became clear just how easy it could be for even the most experienced marketers to neglect SEO a/b split testing. This happened when Coderwall did their tests long after everyone assumed they would have been doing them, and they experienced a huge surge in their business growth just through a very minor (or so it seemed) change in their meta-tagging.

Coderwall was already pretty advanced in their SEO, with a rich backlink profile and 130,000 pages of user-generated landing pages generating organic search traffic at the time. Nevertheless, they still achieved growth of a legendary 57% with one A/B test!

How to Split Test Without Harming Your Site’s SEO

Blindly following SEO best practice may actually be harming our websites, say some well-respected SEOs. As with articles on most other digital marketing channels, a great many SEO guides, Checklists, and How-Tos include no more than a line, paragraph, or short section about testing. They often glibly state that their students should make sure that they A/B split test any changes made to any website. They often say it is advisable to constantly test various optimizations to find the ones with the biggest impacts. Whatever you’re doing, testing is an integral part of digital marketing, they say. But what exactly does it mean to “test” something for SEO? It means that you have to test almost all aspects of your blog, from the wording of your ads to the very themes and even CMS you are using.

Image shows a diagram of the SEO A/B Testing process.The problem is that SEO doesn’t lend itself to standard test methods, and a lot of SEO actions don’t have either a rapid effect to measure or a clear comparative method for the assessment of the most successful outcome. It’s fortunate for other marketers that they have it easier when it comes to split testing. paid marketing is pretty straightforward to test: split test an ad, landing page, or offer and draw a direct line between change and ROI improvements. Unfortunately for SEOs looking to increase search rankings, search engines operate as “black boxes”, and rank sites relative to each other and the search term.

Split Testing vs AB Testing: What Are the Types of Tests?

A/b testing, aka “SEO A/B split testing”, is the practice of comparing two versions of a webpage or app against one another to determine which performs better. Think of it as a scientific experiment and always make sure you minimize the number of variables in any test. Typically limit the “split” to one to two webpage elements.

The truth is that running split tests can be scary, especially if you’re running them on a huge website with lots of potentials for things to go wrong. In Linkedin’s write up of the common a/b testing challenges in social networks, they stated that :

“Running large scale a/b tests is not just a matter of infrastructure and best practices; establishing a strong experimentation culture is also key to embedding a/b testing as part of the decision making progress.”

What we have certainly found is that to make SEO split-testing work for you, you need to practice. Provide your team with lots of opportunities to run experiments — so long as they’re done correctly and safely. As Linked In explained, you need to build an experimentation culture.

First, it’s important to understand that user experience and design come before link building. Put simply, these factors increase the value of traffic from any source, including search engines. If you aren’t doing split tests and usability tests to maximize the value of your site, what’s the point of doing SEO in the first place? But there’s even more to it than that. You can use traditional tests like these to improve your “pure” SEO. First off, if you don’t know anything about split testing, take a look at this beginner’s guide. It should be easier to follow than some of the more advanced stuff we’ve been talking about today. I also have to say that I completely agree with many of the gurus. You should test strategies, not page elements.

Start with a hypothesis and how you think the recipients will react and from that how you think each variant will perform. The actual experiment follows from that point, showing the different variants to users at random. Once the data is in, its the turn of analysis. In other words, using your metrics and data to determine which performed better. When done well, running a/b tests can help take the guessing out of website optimization and give you a real insight into changes you’re looking to make. Not only can you test variations, but you can collect actual data to back up your decisions.

A/B Split Test All Aspects of Your Business!

A chart showing the result of an a b split test.Convert is perfect for small to medium-size clients and businesses doing in-house optimization. It is well-loved for its exceptional customer support over live chat. Convert operates using an intuitive drag and drop system. You can create a/b, multivariate, multipage, and split tests using the provided visual editor and break out more the more advanced style sheet editor for dynamic pages, giving you full control of your content. It also boasts a smooth onboarding process of your CMS and eCommerce platform and seamless integration with Google Analytics. Personalization is also an option with over 35 different elements you can use to build customer profiles.

A/b testing sometimes referred to as split testing, is the process of comparing two versions of the same webpage, email, or other digital assets to determine which one performs better. This process allows you to answer important business questions, helps you generate more revenue from the traffic you already have, and sets the foundation for a data-informed marketing strategy.

A/b testing is usually used to refer to when you experiment with two or more landing pages at the same time, comparing the data to see which page performs best for your business. Although the process is called a/b or “split” testing, it can be performed on as many pages as you need. Doing the split test means that you’re going to show slightly different versions of your site to a segment of your traffic, and compare the results. If the varied sample shows the best result after a significant number of hits you consider the test successful and from then on adopt the new, more successful of the tested variants. To begin a/b testing, first, you must determine the areas of your landing page that you want to test. Then, you will need to create new versions so that you can experiment with these elements. Areas of your landing page that may benefit from a/b testing include the text, the images, the layout, the font and font size, use of color, etc.

Split Testing Buttons By Color

While most marketers recommend that you must start your experimentation journey by running small a/b tests on your website to get the hang of the entire process. But, in the long run, sticking to plain vanilla a/b testing method won’t work wonders for your organization. For instance, if you are planning to revamp one of your website’s pages entirely, you ought to make use of split testing. Meanwhile, if you wish to test a series of permutations of CT buttons, their color, the text, and the image of your page’s banner, you must use multivariate testing.

Engaging page design improves user experience with amplified site quality and rankings. Clean, impressive layouts can either guide the eyes effortlessly down the page or fail to retain visitors — and SEO testing can determine which your current design is. You can select your two layouts from a range of column widths, appealing fonts, and color schemes. However, you’ll probably only make minor changes in layout rather than substantive design modifications. Consider split testing your buttons and forms, too, during layout checks. Implementing an SEO tester for design can control the path that people take as they scan your content, giving you a higher chance of converting users.

Now that you’ve successfully optimized our site it’s time to look at some great tools around the web that you can implement to continue making improvements. In the world of e-commerce, making minor tweaks to the design and layout of your site can have a huge impact on the number of sales that you make. While this type of testing isn’t directly related to search engine optimization, learning how to a-b-test design tweaks on your site can clarify exactly how to present your information to visitors that you’ve worked so hard to acquire.

What Is The Difference Between A/B Testing, Split Testing, and Multivariate Testing?

Seo testing is essentially the same as hypothesis testing in CRO, but with a couple of key differences. First, we’re not sampling users landing on one page, but rather two or more sets of pages. Second, we don’t get to use a statistical test like chi-squared or the two-sample t-test. One of the biggest differences is that we’re comparing the two-time series and not comparing two averages.

A/b testing is the process of creating two completely different versions of given landing pages, (homepage, product page, promotional offering), and allows companies to determine the impact of differences to key landing page elements such as design, content, functionality, product pricing, and functionality changes. Creating multiple versions of a specific landing, and splitting the traffic between the two unique pages provides insight for companies to identify which specific design, content, or pricing point differences is providing the most impact and driving higher sales and conversions.

Ab testing (also known as split testing or multivariate testing) is a web design and development term that’s used­ to describe the testing of different elements on a website. It involves changing different website elements, where the impact of the different changes can be measured towards reaching a certain goal. A/b testing is too often ignored or overlooked by designers and developers as a way to improve a websites’ design and aid in its development. Whether its the landing page or checkout page, ab testing can help optimize the whole customer journey from start to finish. When done right, ab testing is a very effective method of increasing the conversion rate on a website.

The Power of Split Testing

A/b testing is a powerful technique that helps you improve your website with real data. Instead of guessing whether a design or post title is the best option, you can simply test it and know for sure. But if you want to run these tests, you’re going to need a WordPress a/b testing plugin to help you create and track your experiments.

The v/c splitter pro plugin adds a/b split testing options helpful for anyone using the powerful page builder. The VC splitter testing module is available when building visual composer layouts. Simply create your variations within the module and give your split test a name. To check performance, all you have to do is go to the page editor and click on the VC splitter module – it will update with new stats each time you open/view it.

Conducting an SEO split test

Google backs split testing in Google Analytics.

Google backs split testing in Google Analytics.

A/b testing allows you to determine which version of your website is working better in terms of reaching your goals. Ultimately resulting in increases in leads, hits, click-through rates, etc. It allows you to conduct an experiment on virtually anything and implement the outcome that engages the majority of your consumers – enabling you to optimize your website to exactly what increases your conversion rates. Google backs split testing and offer the option to conduct an experiment through Google Analytics. However, we do end up wondering what Search Engine Robots see on your site when you’re conducting an a/b test!

Myth: Conversion Rate Optimization equals SEO A/B Split Testing

The biggest myth that most split testers frequently adhere to is that conversion rate optimization equals a/b split testing. But this is not true. Testing is an important way to validate your ideas and make sure that they improve website performance. But if you refuse to occasionally redesign your whole site experience, or add new capabilities to your marketing technology stack you won’t gain the biggest possible benefits, Some will change their whole business model including the nature of their customer touch-points and back-end workflows, they see their testing as that important. Do you testing in a narrow sense and you will never be likely to unlock the true value of your business. By relying only on testing, and focusing on the testing velocity you will do what is familiar and the easy, and continue to fight with one hand tied behind your back.

Beginner’s Guide to SEO Split Testing

G2crowd reports that:

“60 percent of companies believe a/b testing is highly valuable for conversion rate optimization. ”

A/b testing is an effective way to optimize your business systems. Simple page testers simplify the set up for split tests. It’s an easy-to-use WordPress plugin for beginners because it requires no coding. Plus, you don’t have to worry about tests affecting your SEO rankings. The tool creators follow strict guidelines and recommendations from the Google Webmaster site. You also can track unique visitors to each variation in your split test. To get even more value, try the premium version of the plugin. It comes with in-built conversion tracking and automatic statistical confidence calculations. With an easy onboarding process, you will be testing in just a few minutes.

What is Split Testing?

A/b testing (also known as split testing or bucket testing ) is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage or app against each other to determine which one performs better. Ab testing is essentially an experiment where two or more variants of a page are shown to users at random, and statistical analysis is used to determine which variation performs better for a given conversion goal. Running an ab test that directly compares a variation against a current experience lets you ask focused questions about changes to your website or app, and then collect data about the impact of that change.

Consumer-focused companies have typically been ahead of the curve when it comes to search engine optimization, including SEO split testing. The practice was pulled further into the spotlight by Pinterest when growth engineer Julie Ahn shared a famous post on their successful SEO a/b testing framework. According to Julie, SEO is one of Pinterest’s biggest growth drivers, but in the past, it had been difficult to manipulate it for predictable growth.

“You might have a good traffic day or a bad traffic day and not know what really triggered it,”

she wrote recently,

“which often makes people think of seo as magic rather than engineering. ”.

A/b testing, also known as split testing or bucket testing, is a tried-and-tested tool in the SEO toolbox. Essentially, when you make a change to a web page, you need to compare different versions of the page to see which performs best and isolate the changes that are more valuable than others. By serving users with different versions of a page at random, you can better determine which version of the page performs better. You will no longer have to wonder whether or not your changes are making a difference, and this certainty can help drive further changes, which you can trust to turn into further revenue.

The Benefit of Split Testing

The most surprising thing about a/b split testing for me was finding out I could easily get 10x results by doing “stupid” things. For example, the only difference in the test may be something nominal and unlikely to even be noticed such as reversing line 2 and line 3, that’s it. One may never know the precise reason why, but my theory is, the 2nd ad puts the benefit first before it tells you the form you receive the benefit in. That makes a lot of sense to me.

Consistently test your CTA button text copy as your buttons are elements that visitors will definitely read before clicking on them. The copy on any CTA button has to most importantly be very clear. Site visitors have to understand what it is you want them to do before they can determine how completing this CTA will benefit them. When creating a hypothesis to split test the copy for CTAs, always keep the users and their needs in mind. Try to keep the CTA copy consistent with your business persona and products or services.

Seo can take a long time to pay off, so you might be waiting a while for results to start coming in before you find the winner. But who said that SEO split-testing had to rely completely on organic strategies? Danilo Godoy of search evaluator uses Google Ads data to run his split tests before mapping the changes over to organic efforts And, here we quote him:

“While the results of an a/b test for paid marketing can generally be assessed within a few days, SEO is a long game, [in] which [the] rules are more complex and constantly evolving. Google deploys minor changes in the algorithm daily.”

SEO A/B Testing Summary

SEO A/B testing (sometimes referred to as split testing) is the type that gets the most attention, but there are other types of tests that you can run to get information on how your visitors behave.

It’s just a way of comparing two versions of a webpage or program contrary to one another to identify which performs better. This type of testing is an experiment where several variations of a full-page have been shown at arbitrary for users. Statistical analysis can be subsequently employed to ascertain which version works for a conversion objective. Running an a/b evaluation that directly contrasts a version against a current experience enables you to ask focused questions regarding changes to your website or program, then collect data.

The post SEO A/B Testing – Ignore This And We Guarantee You’ll Leave Money On The Table appeared first on GQ Central.

Best On-Page Optimization Tips

Best On-Page Optimization Tips

The Best On Page SEO Optimization Tips

If you’re trying to improve your SEO, you should give these on-page optimization tips a try. These suggestions should be a big help to you.

Always Use URLs That Are SEO Friendly

Your URLs should be short, and they should contain keywords. Studies have found that shorter URLs get better Google rankings than long URLs do.

Use Engaging Images

You should include visually-appealing images in all of your content. Images can dramatically reduce your bounce rate, which can increase your search rankings. Images can also be an excellent way to draw people to your site. If you add keywords to the ALT tags of your images, people will be able to find your site through image searches.

Always Place Your Keyword Within The First 100 Words

When you’re writing a piece of content, you need to make sure your keyword appears within the first 100 words of your post. This will make it easier for search engines to identify your keyword.

Switch To A Responsive Design

Mobile devices are what many people use to access the internet. That’s why it’s essential for sites to have a responsive design. Some search engines, like Google, penalize sites that are not mobile-friendly. Make sure that your site will load in perfectly on any device.

Link To Your Own Content

You should try to include at least two internal links in every piece of content that you write. Internal links can keep people on your site for longer. They can also make it easier for search engines to crawl your site.

Add Share Buttons To Your Site

Does your site have share buttons? If it doesn’t, you should add them. The easier it is for people to share your content, the more likely they are to share it.
Follow these on-page optimization tips, and you should see a big SEO boost!