When July comes, probably the first event that comes to your mind is the Fourth of July. And, for those of you who are into ecommerce think of things that are specific to your niche and anything that appeals to your demographics and use this as a basis for generating content marketing ideas. But, whatever your niche may be, you can definitely check out the following content marketing ideas.

1. How to Have a Great Fourth of July Party– in your niche you probably would have older women in their 30s, 40s or 50s. You may also have people in their late 20s whom you can give ideas on how to have an awesome party with the Fourth of July theme in mind.

2. Barbecue Tips – If your niche caters more to male 30s,40s and 50s then you can write about barbecue tips. In fact, aside from barbecue tips you can think about what your specific niche would like and then go after that.

3. Fashion Tips for this Fourth of July– this topic may work for people in their 20s

If your niche is so specific, like for example for my website Bdancewear.com, we sell dance clothing so my content marketing ideas for this July may include:

4. 6 Dance Moves to Celebrate the Fourth of July

5. Canada Day -this happens every 1st of July where Canadians celebrate this day in a way that is almost similar to how Americans celebrate the fourth of July.

6. Movies– Summer is famous for movies so you can just write about movies.

You can also come up with a top ten list for example:

7. Top 10 Summer Blockbusters that Dancers Need to Watch

8. Every Dancer Should Watch This Movie – and then you can talk about in your content why everybody should watch that.

You can also come up with lists (more…)

I will share to you some of my proven tips for adding products to your online store to ensure that the people who come to your website will more likely to buy your products.

1. Do Keyword Research.

What should your product be named? This is a classic question. There are times when your customers refer to your product with a different name. For example, in our website Bdancewear.com, some people refer to our high waist shorts as fold over shorts. So, what name should we use to refer to the same product? This is when you need to check which product name has the most views. One way to find out this is to do keyword research.

I also have a video that talks about How To Do Keyword Research and Use Google Keyword Planner properly. You should use Keyword Planner to figure out how often specific keywords are used by people when searching in the internet. Through Google Adwords Keyword Planner, you will have an idea how often is a keyword such as “fold over shorts” is used versus the keyword “high waist shorts”.

2. SEOd Properly

On-Page SEO is crucial when adding products to your store. It is one of the most important things for your ecommerce site. I also have a video about On Page SEO, feel free to watch it. I also have an ecommerce success pack that contains SEO checklist that you might want to check. This success pack will give you a list that ensures your On-Page SEO is in order.

3. Good Product Description

Your product description should be SEO friendly. This means that the keyword you use to make your site rank is sprinkled in two or three sentences. However, when sprinkling some keywords in your sentences see to it that they look natural. Product description should be written (more…)

Microsoft Acquires LinkedIn

The increasing number of consumers using mobile devices is one reason why Google is now making changes to its Adwords. But, are these changes also beneficial for people who are into ecommerce? Wait, there’s more. Microsoft also recently bought LinkedIn. How will this impact your online business?

If you haven’t been thinking about how LinkedIn can help your business grow, might as well check out their five advertising formats:

• Sponsored content

Almost similar to Facebook where you could post something and say Hey! Here’s a story of our company or look at this dancewear that we have.

• Text ads

These are the ads that you see on the side when you log in to LinkedIn.

• Display ads

These are typical banner ads

• Sponsored InMail

This can be a bit expensive because you will be paying just to be able to send messages to people on LinkedIn. With sponsored InMail, you can send personalized messages. One advantage of using sponsored InMail is that it offers huge space for marketing copy.

• Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads enable you to send personalized messages to your chosen audience. This ad format dynamically populates with relevant content and profile images that are relevant to the target audience’s interest, career history and skills.

If you have not tried these types of ads on LinkedIn but you think that this could be beneficial to your ecommerce store then I recommend that you should try it. Make a research and get better acquainted with it.

Hopefully, Microsoft will make it a little more affordable. The last time I tried it the minimum bid was $2 per click which is pretty pricey. But, I was able to make profit out of it and it is something that I am also going to revisit.

For Bdancewear, what I did was I targeted dance teachers because I know they need (more…)

The Keyword Planner is a very helpful tool from Google Adwords. It allows people to analyze hundreds of keywords relevant to the kind of niche that their businesses are in. Although it is a paid search tool but the information it provides is no doubt very helpful.

Step 1: Sign Up for Gmail and Google Adwords Keyword Planner

For you to be able to get started, you need to have a Gmail account. After signing up for your Gmail account, sign up for the Keyword Planner. Search in Google for Keyword Planner, and you will find in one of the search results the Google Adwords Keyword Planner. Sign in to your Google Adwords . After logging in to your Keyword Planner, you will be taken to a screen where you can see options such as:

• Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category
• Get search volume, data and trends
• Multiply keyword lists to get a new keyword.

Step 2: Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category

Click on the first option, “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category”.

Step 3: Enter your product name.

When you click this option, you can now see a search box where you can type your product name or the service that your company offers. For example, for my site Bdancewear.com, I sell yoga pants, so I type in the words “yoga pants”. Then hit the “Get Ideas” button at the bottom.

Step 4: Add your chosen keywords to your plan.

You will then be taken to another screen where you can see the “average monthly searches” for the keyword you entered. As you click on your chosen keyword, save it to your plan by clicking the “add to plan” button at the last column on the right. Make sure that the keyword you choose is (more…)

In this article you will be able to learn how to properly create a brand. Keep in mind that if you fail at this point when creating a brand, it might be difficult to recover. Therefore, it is a must that you have to do it right from the beginning. Although it is not impossible to make some changes later but doing it right the first time and right from the start could bring about a huge positive impact to your business.

Coca-cola, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Apple, etc. -are just few of the many brands that are known to have dominated the market over the years in so many ways. You may be able to use some of the principles that they used to help you get to where you are right now. However, since your ecommerce business is still in its infancy, you will need to use a different strategy while also taking into consideration your budget. Since your business will be starting on a low budget you have to make it more niche specific.

Narrow Down Your Niche

Why would others choose your ecommerce business? Why would they buy from you? What sets you you apart from Amazon or Ebay? You have to narrow down your niche and think about what makes your ecommerce website so special. Narrowing down your niche is so important especially that your business is still new and will be operating on a small budget. In other words, your site is not for everyone. So, narrow down your niche right from the very beginning.

Your website should imply something specific about you. When creating a brand for your business, think about your target market. Your website has to look more like what your ideal customer really wanted. It should give your target market an idea that you have read their (more…)

With the increasing popularity of Instagram why not use it to your advantage! This article will cover 7 tips on how to use Instagram to increase traffic to your website.

1. Track your links.

This is one of the biggest mistakes marketers seem to make, they don’t track the incoming flow of Instagram visitors. By simply inserting a traceable link to your website in your Instagram Profile you can create in-depth reports about how much traffic is coming into the site through your profile. Using a 301 redirect will allow you to strategize and know what steps will be required to add more impact to your Instagram page.  I have a whole video and short article on how to track the progress of your e-commerce website link on your Instagram page on Google Analytics in the link below.

How To Track Instagram Link Clicks In Google Analytics

2. #Hashtags

Properly using hashtags is key to expanding your brand awareness. Effectively using the correct researched hashtags can increase your Instagram visibility. Using the correct hashtag will ensure a long term drive of relevant traffic to your website. Searching for hashtags Instagram users will find your photos and click on your interesting photo and follow your profile. After seeing enough of your pictures on their feed they are likely to find out more about you. You are able to use up to 15 hashtags, 5 in the main description and 10 in the comments. Using this tactic can create a stronger Instagram presence and increase the chances of being found on Instagram.

3. Videos Do Well

With Instagram introducing the addition video they bring you another method to advertise. By sharing an eye catching story, users that are scrolling will stop and view your profile. There are different ways of making videos, get creative with it. If (more…)

Google Analytics is the most powerful free tool you can use for your ecommerce store. Although many people have already used this tool but many are still not completely aware of the tricks on how they can get as much profit from their store by using this tool. With Google Analytics, you will be provided with data that is crucial to your ecommerce site. Here are my five best tricks on using Google Analytics:

 Where is most of your traffic coming from?

Traffic to your site may come from direct sources (i.e. people actually typing in your website url) or organic (i.e. traffic coming from regular Google search results). The importance of knowing where most of your traffic comes from is for you to also know how to increase it. With the use of Google Analytics, you may be able to find out that most of your traffic comes from organic, direct or other sources. For example, there are cases when most of your site’s traffic comes from Facebook. By knowing where most of your traffic comes from you will also be able to decide or create steps on how you can better capitalize on such traffic. Why is it that most of your traffic comes from Facebook? Is there something that you did that lead to the increase of traffic from Facebook? Can you also do the same thing on Pinterest, Twitter,  Instagram and to any other areas of your business? Decide what steps to take so that the same thing will also occur on your other sources of traffic. When talking about traffic, remember the 80/20 principle. 80 per cent of your results will come from 20 percent of inputs.

Where does your highest converting traffic come from?

Let’s say you are getting a thousand people from Facebook but then they are not (more…)

The Home Page is extremely important. It is the number one page that people land on when they come to your website.But, how do you make one that will surely make your web visitors get hooked to it and never leave right away? Below are five easy steps on how you can create a killer home page.

1. Create a Static Clickable Banner

The banner should have a clickable link. Most ecommerce sites have banners on them and most of the time people will tend to click on them, so make sure that your banner is clickable. Some websites have banners that slide between different ones but then based on my research static banners do better than those that slide. But, if you think that sliding banners do good for your website, let me know under the comments section.
It is also in the banner where you will display your USP or Unique Selling Proposition. For example, my website is all about hand- made clothing from USA, so I made sure to put hand made from the USA on my banner. What makes your product unique or special? Make sure to put that on your banner. It is also in your banner where you will highlight your best selling products, special promos and discounts.

2. Display Your Best Selling Products

Display your products on your home page. What products do you have are more likely to become best-sellers? Go ahead and display them on your homepage. Based on experience, the products I placed on the home page were the ones which I found to be the highest-ranking products in Google. The products that you put in your home page will create an impression among your target market that those are the most important products that they should buy. Therefore, if there are certain products that you (more…)