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Lead Generation. The Perfect Guide

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Before we dive in, let’s start by defining what the basics of Lead Generation is.

What is a lead:

A lead is a potential client who has an interest in your brand.

This interest is shown as a trade of personal data, such as providing their contact details on your website or subscribed to your newsletter.

What is lead generation:

Lead generation is the most well-known approach to attracting, and connecting with your target audience to the point where you convert them into potential customers.

This process works by driving targeted traffic to your website, capturing their information and nurturing those who fit your buyer list.

Lead generation strategies:

These are the various marketing tactics you use to start someone’s interest in your product or services. They include anything from creating a landing page to holding a virtual event.

Here are some lead generation strategies:

1. Strategic and easy-to-navigate landing page 
These are independent website pages that have been made just for a showcasing or promoting effort, and they’re one of the most important components in any advertiser’s stockpile. unlike site pages, landing pages have a solitary objective: to direct visitors towards a call-to-action CTA.
To generate leads using a landing page, use CTAs such as “Sign Up” or “Register Now.” Then, ask people who click to leave their contact details. Once you have their email, you’ll be able to follow up with them and build their interest in your products.
  • Plan your layout
  • Know the goal behind a landing page
  • Your page should be responsive for both desktop and mobile users
  • Keep the page visually appealing.
  • Create a strong headline. The headline must tell the readers what the product or service is all about
  • Add visual appealing images
  • Add a short explanation about your offer.
  • Avoid distractions on your page . Keep the offer concise and ask for the required information.
2. Social media advertising

Advertising on social media is also a strategy used in getting leads. But among all the social media platforms, Facebook has been recognised as the most efficient platform for generating leads. Running your Ads on facebook gives you an advantage because the platform allows you to connect with more customers than any other platform.

As of October 2020, there were 45.94 million Facebook users in the United Kingdom. This was over a million more than the number of Facebook users a year prior, in October 2019.

According to Statista. As of the third quarter of 2021, there were around 3,5 billion cumulative monthly users of the company’s products worldwide. With around 2.9 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most popular social media worldwide.

The traffic objective is designed to drive people to a destination such as a website, landing page, app, phone call or Messenger conversation. This helps you connect with your target audience to the point where you convert them into potential customers.
3. Referral marketing

This is one of the unmistakable ways of producing leads.

According to Wikipedia. Referral marketing is a word-of-mouth initiative designed by a company to incentivize

 existing customers to introduce their family, friends and contacts to become new customers.

Referral marketing focuses on the word-of-mouth promotion of your brand, which establishes your authority and credibility, which, thusly, builds your possibilities of producing more leads.

The first step towards a fruitful referral program is having an excellent product or service that will provide value to your customers’ and meet their expectations.

The quality of your business’s offerings may be good enough that customers do this for free, or you could set up an incentive system. For example, give your customers a certain percentage off their next monthly retainer fee for every client they refer.

4. Take advantage of website live chat

Website live chat bot are a great way to help your visitors answer their queries, doubts and questions. This helps to make them feel comfortable to buy fro you, easy navigation and reduces drop-out rates in your lead generation funnel. Answering chat messages to users who start a conversation improves conversion by 65%.

This encourages visitors to enter key contact details such as their name and email address. Giving you an advantage over your competitors. Besides being used for middle of funnel lead capture, you can also use site chat to capture more information from ready-to-buy visitors and lead them directly to sales.

5. Connect with social media influencers

Influencers are social media users with a large following (mostly celebrities) who have established credibility as well-known figures in their industries.

Consumers are likely to listen to their opinions because their posts seem genuine and authentic. Depending on your business, it might be worthwhile for you to work with them, as they are a trusted third party who can help build interest in your product or service by giving it a positive review.

You can start by reaching out to well-known influencers in your industry, and offer an incentive for working together. Some influencers charge huge amounts depending on the nature of business and the time frame you’ll like to work with them, while others may ask for a flat fee.

6. Use a short and direct Lead Capture Form.

This is a mistake most businesse with websites and landing pages make almost all the time is using a lead capture form that is long with lot of personal details to fill. It can be boring at time. Not every body likes to share their personal details. Shorter forms are likely to convince your site’s visitors to fill them out.

Your lead capture form should include:

  • Name
  • Email Adress
  • Phone number
  • Gender
  • website

On the other hand you may not collect enough information to evaluate the quality of a lead. But this is better than losing them to your competitors.

7. Host a webinar or (online event)

What is a webinar? : Webinars (online event) are video presentations, workshops, or lectures hosted online, usually used by brands to instruct, demonstrate, or educate their customers.

This is a strategy used buy both B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to buyer)

Webinar can help draw in people who want to learn new information or acquire knowledge about a particular field. Meaning If you offer an important and valuable product or service within that field, you are more likely to guide audiences toward your offering. At the end, you can even provide a discount to attendees who want to make a purchase and even offer their their personal details to get morw updates from you.

 

CONCLUSION:

Lead generation is important for business growth. Without lead generation, your company will have a hard time attracting new customers and sales opportunities. So by focusing on lead generation, it gives you an edge to  drive more traffic from high-quality prospects. And with high-quality prospects comes high-value customers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Important Facts About Video Marketing

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Video marketing means using videos for promoting and telling people about your product or service. It helps increase engagement on your digital and social channels, educates your audience, and allows you to reach them with a new medium.

Video marketing is the easiest to understand, whether it is a tutorial, a product demo, or even a simple recipe. It is one of the most powerful and versatile digital marketing tools of today. 63 percent businesses have already started using videos to promote their business. It is high time you made the switch too.

In this article I’ll share some reasons why you should use videos in your marketing:
Build Your List

Video is the fastest-growing type of online content. With more people in the world preferring to get their news and other information through videos, and being more likely to share videos with friends, you need to promote your brand where your biggest audience is. 64% of buyers will purchase after watching branded videos on social platforms. This is enough reason to integrate videos in your marketing.

To build trust

Whether it’s a presentation, Q&A or informal content such as a behind-the-scenes tour, video gives you opportunities to show the real people behind your business. This makes you more relatable and trustworthy to your audience, who are more likely to follow and recommend your brand to others.

For Search Engine Optimization

MarketingSherpa stated that Videos attach 300% more traffic and help to nurture leads. This is a result of the fact that search engines tend to consider videos as more high-quality, comprehensive content.

HubSpot’s research also showed that 65 percent of business executives polled said they visit a marketer’s website after viewing a branded video. This shows that high-quality video content that boosts viewer engagement and piques consumer interest can drive traffic to your website.

To Inform & Educate Your Audience

One of the most powerful methods you can use for video marketing is to educate your audience.

Sales pitches are constantly being replaced with value-based content that specifically speaks to the audience. It also helps pass your message clearly and gives real-time experience and a closer look at your product or service.

To connect with your audience

Videos attract the type of audience base who are not ardent readers but can happily stick around for two whole minutes or even longer when there’s a video. This provokes a feeling of personal interaction and builds brand loyalty.

Increasing conversions

As well as helping you reach more people and driving traffic to your websites, including video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by more than 80%, according to HubSpot. Visitors are more inclined to watch a video explaining what you do or breaking down complex instructions than to read about it.

Video Engages Even the Laziest Buyers

While most brands are still stuck on using long-form text, using videos gives you an edge, leaves a mark in the mind of your prospects, establishes you as an authority and the go-to brand in your industry.

 

CONCLUSION.

There are soo many other ways in which video marketing can help your business. In fact, 81% of customers have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. … 97% of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service which increased brand awareness. 76% of marketers say video helped increase sales as well as traffic.

It helps increase engagement on your digital and social channels, educates your audience, and allows you to reach them with a new medium.

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How to Increase Conversion Using The Psychology of Urgency

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If you’re reading this article, It’s because you know urgency works. There’s absolutely no doubt about it.

Everyone knows this – Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales bring in huge returns because once those deals are gone, It will be a year till something as good comes along.

The use of urgency is an important tactic to master if you want to boost conversion on your site & offers.

As human beings, we are wired to act when a situation becomes urgent. And it’s this behaviour that marketers have been able to pick out to drive the psychology of urgency on customers & interested buyers.

When something is scarce, the value is believed to be high so it moves people to get it immediately.

Back in 1975, three researchers carried out a study looking out how scarcity influenced people’s perception. The study asked participants to rate cookies from two jars. One of the jars held ten cookies, the other contained just two.

The participants rated the two-jar-cookies as higher, even though the cookies were identical.

The jar with fewer cookies inside had more value in the eyes of the participants(despite the fact that the cookies are identical). Because it was just two cookies inside the jar, the thinking goes that the people who bought the cookies have a very good reason for doing so.

 

What is Urgency?

Urgency is the use of trigger words or tactics to get your prospects or clients to act fast.

The number one key to activating a sense of urgency in your audience is that the product or service involved must be something relevant to your audience. people won’t take action on something they are not interested in, regardless of the tactic you use.

Urgency amplifies already present feelings on wanting something, It won’t create the feeling if it’s not there.

In this article, I’m going to reveal the different ways you can create urgency and scarcity in your marketing to increase leads & sales;

 

1. Use Words That Encourages Action

 

Using powerful words with action triggers can make all the difference in your marketing. You don’t need buyers waiting around when they land on your site, so it’s important that you use the right words to activate the sense of urgency in them.

Here are examples of such words;

– HURRY
– FAST
– LAST CHANCE
– CLOSING SOON
– LIMITED TIME
– INSTANT

2. Clearly State a Deadline

It’s not urgent until there’s a “deadline or closing date” that is well written and is attached to the offer. This is where the true power of urgency is released.

You must give people a very good reason to take urgent action… This is why cyber Mondays & Black Fridays generate the most sales because the end date is first communicated clearly & people know that if they miss that date, it’s the end.

If your customers see that there’s no rush to purchase for your product or service, they’ll put off buying it for that time & may never come back to that product again.

This is why another good way to create urgency is by clearly showing deadlines – A date for when your product or offer is ending & how long they have to get it

For example;

  • The deadline for signing up is May 7.
  • This sales ends at 12 am on November 1st.
  • Beginning June 5, I will no longer be accepting new patients
  • Orders must be placed within 48 hours.

 

3. Use a Clock or Countdown Timer

In today’s world, a clock represents time, and it also represents that time is passing.

When users see that a clock is ticking and it’s counting down, It raises their urgency level and compels them to take action immediately.

You can add countdown timers in your emails and also include them to your website to make use of this tactic.

 

 

4. Use FOMO(Fear of Missing Out)

FOMO – the fear of missing out – is another type of urgency that’s known to push people to act. It’s a powerful tactic to get people to take urgent action.

Studies have shown that the scarcer a product is, the more people want it.

When customers see a product is short in supply and that people are purchasing it, It makes them want to get it too. In fact, 68% of Millenials will make a purchase in an attempt not to be left behind by their peers.

So if you can highlight how scarce your product or service is – or at least create the illusion that it’s about to run out – you can drive people to make the purchase immediately.

For example – if you sell physical or even digital products, you can announce that you have very limited stock for the item you’re selling & show the actual number.

If it’s a service-based business, you can active FOMO in your prospects by announcing that you’re only taking a certain number of clients for this month.

The idea here is to put pressure on your prospects or clients and make them see that they will miss out if they don’t take action.

 

5. Show Realtime Behaviour Of Other Shoppers.

This is a very good way to trigger urgency in your clients & prospects – by showing real-time behaviour of actual shoppers on your website.

This tactic works on two levels. Firstly, It adds social proof – when people land on your website & see other people purchasing the same product they are interested in, it immediately builds their trust in that product.

Secondly, It triggers FOMO – as much as your web visitors see other people buying a specific product & they get to trust the product from then on, they also know that if they don’t take action fast, the product will be sold out & they won’t get it. So it makes them hurry & pick the product.

Click Here to get FREE Access to ClickFomo Social Proof Software

6. Add It to Your Email Subject Lines

If you’re sending an email, your subject line is a good place to establish a sense of urgency or scarcity.

Your email subject line is the first part of your email that people sees. By showing urgency in your subject lines, you’re preparing the minds of your subscribers to take action fast as soon as the mail is opened.

 

Conclusion

Urgency is not a new term in marketing. We’ve observed it being used in traditional marketing & recently online marketers have adopted the tactic, but sadly, some marketers are not doing it well.

When it’s used properly, Urgency has the power to boost your conversion rates & explode your sales overnight.

With the points outlined inside this article, we hope you’ll be able to create urgency in your marketing & get more sales & opt-ins.

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How to get Started with Email Marketing in 3 phases

Email Marketing

Is email marketing dead?

With all the talk of video, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and chatbots, it sometimes seems like email is long past its prime.

But if you think email is dead, you’re missing out on the real metrics. The truth? Email marketing is still going strong today, and is possibly the best possible strategy for your business.

The proof?

Based on 2018 data, email marketing is still ranked as the most effective marketing channel, beating out social media, SEO, and affiliate marketing.

Why is that? With all the hype over new channels, why is decades-old technology still one of the most effective marketing strategies?

I think the answer has something to do with the fact that people use email more than other platforms. After all, what’s the good of marketing to someone if they’re not there?

Data from 2017 shows that most people are on email—85% of adult internet users in the US.

That beats out search engines by 15% and social media by 22%—not small numbers in an industry that gets excited over single-digit conversion rate improvements.

That’s why building a successful email marketing campaign is more important than ever for entrepreneurs. But there’s a problem—most people don’t know how to do it right.

Today, you’ll learn exactly how to start an email marketing campaign from scratch.

Remember—you’re a guest in their inbox

People are inundated with interruptions, pitches, and advertisements everywhere they look.

Though you might think your email is special, there’s a high probability that to the reader, it looks the same as the rest.

This is why it’s important to remember where you are, and use your good manners as a result.

Getting into someone’s inbox is like being invited to their home for dinner. If they ask you to take your shoes off, you respectfully do so.

It’s the same with email marketing, so before we begin I’d simply like to remind you to be on your best behavior at all times and remember… you’re a guest in their inbox.

Phase I: Get permission

Of course, no email campaign was ever built without getting permission to get started, so first, we’ll need to focus on building a sizable email list.

There are many ways you can do this, of course. Some prefer to give something away for free while others simply offer a newsletter or product updates.

For example, business newsletter Morning Brew offers readers a simple benefit—their fun, interesting updates every morning.

I can’t tell you which is the right or wrong answer for your incentive, but I can tell you that it’s important to have a clear purpose when asking for an address.

This is where a strong call to action comes into play, and copywriting is super important.

Establish your credibility, explain what the emails are for, and get people interested in receiving them.

Simply posting “enter your email for updates” isn’t going to get anyone excited. Instead, consider sharing specifics.

By sharing a specific call to action or benefit to giving your email address, you can get more people to subscribe.

Some common ways to entice people to sign up include:

  • Email series
  • Free downloads
  • Free white papers or eBooks
  • Update lists, like new releases and product updates

Whatever that incentive is, make it clear and enticing, and don’t be afraid to promote it.

Phase II: Follow through with great content

Email marketing is all about expectations, and it’s up to you to set them.

If your call to action is strong, and your follow-up is consistent, then you can count on a positive campaign.

However, if you promise to send one email per week and instead send them daily, then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

On the contrary, if someone is expecting daily updates or critical product updates and you don’t’ deliver, then they are likely to be just as upset in that case too.

This is why the first follow-up email is so crucial to the success of your email marketing efforts.

For example, here’s a basic welcome email from Airbnb to a new host. It explains the basics of the process and what you can expect to receive from Airbnb.

Almost all email service providers give you the option to create an autoresponder sequence, and it’s imperative that you take advantage of it.

The initial follow-up email should be sent immediately as a way to introduce yourself and detail what you plan on doing with your new subscriber’s email address.

It’s better to be long-winded and detailed than it is to be quick and unobtrusive, but if you can pull off quick and concise, then more power to you.

From here, it’s simply a matter of living up to their expectations.

When to pitch a product

You’re not running an email list just for the fun of it—you’re there to engage customers and make sales.

But transitioning from an email list that provides tons of free value into a list that pitches a product for money can be a tricky switch to make.

To do it effectively, it’s a good idea to think in advance about your pitching. You don’t want to surprise everyone with a pitch all of the sudden.

You’ll have a much more successful campaign if people expect sales pitches every once in a while.

If you’re going to get in the habit of selling often, try to put yourself in the reader’s shoes.

Ask yourself if your messaging is consistent with the expectations you’ve set. If possible, understand what the customer has shown interest in before, and send similar offers down the line.

Those that send blind offers are far more likely to lose permission to keep doing so.

Again, each business has different needs, and there aren’t any hard and fast rules as to how often you can pitch or provide content.

Just remember that an email list is a permission asset and it’s better to err on the side of caution than to play it loose and reckless.

How to write a great email newsletter

While we’re on the topic of content, let’s talk about the difference between a good newsletter and a bad newsletter.

The first sign that you’ve received a bad newsletter is that you don’t recall ever asking to receive it.

Typically, this happens when a business either fails to maintain a regular email routine or uses poor form and manually adds someone to their list after receiving a business card or personal email.

Make sure everyone remembers you—the best way to do this is not to let your emails lapse for too long. Try to send at least one a month, with one a week being closer to ideal.

I find that the most compelling newsletters are those that do a great job of mixing messaging and updates.

For example, while the email might contain a list of product updates and images, it’s balanced by a personal message or friendly memo.

As a rule of thumb, try to use your newsletter as a way to further your relationship with the reader/customer rather than to pitch them.

Save the pitch for unique updates, offers, and announcements.

Using the autoresponder

If you’re just starting out with an email list, it’s easy to imagine you’ll have time to personally respond to every new subscriber.

But once you start getting more than a handful of subscribers every day, it becomes next to impossible to keep this up.

You’ll start to get more and more complex campaigns, and following through with everyone all the time is impossible.

Yet top marketers seem to do this exact thing. How?

Their secret is autoresponders.

An autoresponder does just that—it automatically sends out emails that you schedule in advance.

By scheduling a set of emails to send in advance, you can prevent “going dark” for any length of time.

Oftentimes, companies will plan out a series of emails—ranging from a few days to a few months—that automatically deliver, warming up anyone who signs up for your list.

That way, when you do need to announce a new product or sale, you can count on the fact that you’ve already been in touch.

Since you’ve built up a relationship over several weeks or months, you’re much less likely to annoy your readers.

Phase III: Analytics and segmentation

Now that you understand the basics behind an effective email campaign, let’s talk about how to take things to the next level.

Specifically, that involves using segmentation and analytics to start refining your broadcasts and generating even better results than you would with a basic campaign.

How to understand your email analytics

We’ve talked before about the importance of analytics in web copy, and email is no different.

Every service provider I’ve ever worked with provides complimentary analytics.

Though they’re all important, the 3 most important to me are open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribes. Let’s break down each one and see what there is to learn from it.

First, your open rate explains how many people open your emails. It’s based on a single invisible tracking pixel that loads when someone clicks on your message.

When looking at open rates, it’ll usually tell you how well you’ve built your relationship with readers. Ideally, people are excited to read your emails and open them quickly.

If your open rate is low, it usually means you have a lot of unengaged subscribers. You need to work harder on providing value and managing expectations.

Next, your click-through rate, or CTR, shows how many people clicked on a link (if any) in your email.

If your CTR is low, it means that your message is either not targeted enough, or simply not getting through. In this case, focus on improving your copy.

Finally, your unsubscribe rate tells you how many people have clicked the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of your email.

If your unsubscribe rate is high in relation to your opt-in rate, then you’ve passed the point of building value and writing good copy… you’ve got some serious work to do.

Essentially you’ve built a sieve and people that sign up eventually leave. If this is you, try to examine when people are leaving and take action based on those leaks.

If they’re leaving after a certain autoresponder email, then re-work it. If they’re leaving after marketing messages, then re-work the way you present offers.

If they’re leaving early on in your funnel, then you need to fix your original call to action so that it’s in harmony with what you’re sending.

Email analytics are critical in that if you’re paying attention, they’ll give you very specific clues as to what you’re doing wrong.

Of course, the key variable here is “paying attention.”

How to segment your list

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, segmentation is the practice of splitting up your email list into more targeted groups.

For example, the following are ways to segment a larger, more unified list:

  • Customer list (in comparison to leads who haven’t bought)
  • Newsletter subscribers
  • Daily email list (in comparison to weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc)

In dividing your list in this manner, you give yourself the ability to send more targeted communication.

For example, some customers want both product and sales updates, while others might only want to hear about new versions.

Plus, you can even send specific emails to buyers thanking them for their purchase, like this example from Ales Nesetril.

If you don’t give them the chance to choose, you risk losing them altogether. Since customers are more likely to buy again, it’s fairly obvious why you want to keep them subscribed to your customer email list.

With segmentation, you can send a broadcast only to those that didn’t open your last message (ask them why), or to those that showed interest (a second pitch).

You can also split test messaging amongst different groups in order to refine your best practices.

As you can see, segmentation isn’t rocket science, but it is work, which is why most don’t take the time to do it right.

If you do, you’ll immediately separate yourself from the pack.

How much is your list worth?

Your email list is one of your most valuable resources, and if you learn how to treat it right, the cost of doing so will pay for itself.

Over time, you can start tracking how much money people on your list spend on average. This will tell you how much your list is worth.

If a list of 10,000 people usually spends $50,000 on a campaign, and you run two of those campaigns each year, you could average it out and say that each subscriber is worth $10 a year.

When you do the math like that, you can understand immediately how losing several hundred subscribers could be dangerous to your bottom line.

Conclusion

If you’ve been ignoring email marketing, it might be time to reevaluate your strategy.

Today, email marketing is delivering huge returns for marketers willing to get started with it. It doesn’t have to be too complicated.

First, remember you’re a guest in the inboxes of your subscribers. Your emails are always just one click away from losing their interest forever. Be polite, respectful, and deliver value.

As you get started, you’ll need to ask permission. Of course, it’s the right thing to do. But in the era of new data protections, like the EU’s GDPR, it’s also a legal requirement.

You’ll want to follow through with the promises you make. Provide people what they’ve asked for and email on a regular basis that lines up with their expectations.

There’s no formula for this—it’s all about what works best for you and your company’s voice and style.

And finally, you can move on to segmentation and analytics once you’ve mastered the basics. Start sending separate types of emails to different groups of people and always be improving.

What email marketing practices keep your readers engaged?

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5 Smart Tips to secure your WordPress Website

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WordPress is the most popular Content Management System (CMS) and powers more than 30% websites. However, as it grows, hackers have taken note and are beginning to specifically target WordPress sites. No matter what types of content your site provides, you are not an exception. If you don’t take certain precautions you could get hacked. Like everything technology related, you need to check your website security.

In this tutorial, we will share our 10 Best Tips to keep your WordPress website secure.

1. Choose a Good Hosting Company

The simplest way to keep your site secure is to go with a hosting provider who provides multiple layers of security.

It may seem tempting to go with a cheap hosting provider, after all saving money on your website hosting means you can spend it elsewhere within your organization. However, don’t be tempted by this route. It can, and often does cause nightmares down the road. Your data could be completely erased and your url could begin redirecting somewhere else.

Paying a little bit more for a quality hosting company means additional layers of security are automatically attributed to your website. An additional benefit, by using a good WordPress hosting, you can significantly speed up your WordPress site.

While there are many hosting companies out there we recommend Namecheap or HostGator. They provide many security features, including daily malware scans and access to support 24/7, 365 days a year. To put the icing on the cake their price is also reasonable.

2. Don’t Use Nulled Themes

WordPress premium themes look more professional and have more customizable options than a free theme. But one could argue you get what you pay for. Premium themes are coded by highly skilled developers and are tested to pass multiple WordPress checks right out of the box. There are no restrictions on customizing your theme, and you will get full support if something does go wrong on your site. Most of all you will get regular theme updates.
But, there are a few sites that provide nulled or cracked themes. A nulled or cracked theme is a hacked version of a premium theme, available via illegal means. They are also very dangerous for your site. Those themes contain hidden malicious codes, which could destroy your website and database or log your admin credentials.

While it may be tempting to save a few bucks, always avoid nulled themes.

To ensure that you don’t use nulled Themes, I’ve provided 5 Premium WordPress Themes I’ve purchased and used in the past 2 years…themes that will make your Website look like a Million Bucks!

If you’re also interested in Blog Themes, I’ve got something for you here!

Bottom Line…NEVER USE NULLED THEMES!

3. Install SSL Certificate

Nowadays Single Sockets Layer, SSL, is beneficial for all kinds of websites. Initially SSL was needed in order to make a site secure for specific transactions, like to process payments. Today, however, Google has recognized it’s importance and provides sites with an SSL certificate a more weighted place within its search results.

SSL is mandatory for any sites that process sensitive information, i.e. passwords, or credit card details. Without an SSL certificate, all of the data between the user’s web browser and your web server are delivered in plain text. This can be readable by hackers. By using an SSL, the sensitive information is encrypted before it is transferred between their browser and your server, making it more difficult to read and making your site more secure.

For websites that accept sensitive information, an average SSL price is around $70-$199 per year. If you don’t accept any sensitive information you don’t need to pay for SSL certificate. Almost every hosting company offers a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate which you can install on your site.

4. Use a Strong Password

Passwords are a very important part of website security and unfortunately often overlooked. If you are using a plain password i.e. ‘123456, abc123, password’, you need to immediately change your password. While this password may be easy to remember it is also extremely easy to guess. An advanced user can easily crack your password and get in without much hassle.

It’s important you use a complex password, or better yet, one that is auto-generated with a variety of numbers, nonsensical letter combinations and special characters like % or ^.

If you have difficulty remembering your passwords, just like I do…I recommend you can save them on Google Passwords or LastPass.

5. Always Backup your Website…Always!

The most sensitive part of any WordPress site is the database. Plugins can be added back, themes can be re-installed, but if your WordPress database gets hacked or is corrupted then you are in big trouble. The database is where all the irreplaceable stuff is kept. Your posts, your pages, your content, your comments, everything that makes up your WordPress site is in the database. I recommend you use a premium Plugin called BackUP. With this plugin, you can easily and automatically back up your WordPress database and restore it to any point in the past that you like.

If you have a WordPress site this is something you absolutely need and best of all it’s my free gift to you! Don’t let all the work you put into your site go to waste because some hacker crashed your site or your database got corrupted.

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Top 5 WordPress Themes To Make Your website Look Like A Million Bucks

five high end wordpress themes

[speaker id=top-5-wordpress-themes-to-make-your-website-look-like-a-million-bucks]

When it comes to creating HIGH QUALITY WEBSITES without having to kill yourself, waste time or feel lost, High quality wordpress themes are the answer. WordPress has been my favorite and go-to platform to design websites for myself, my companies and clients for over 5 years now. It has never disappointed me nor my clients and as the years go by – things are becoming easier by the day and more cleaner. Almost all the themes on the market are all Mobile Responsive, Look Modern and are Easy to Make use of.

Today am going to be sharing 5 themes that will make your websites look like a million box. I have made use of each of the themes in my projects for clients and my personal projects. Each of these themes are “High End” in the sense that they can be used to design and create high quality looking websites, they have over 30+ demos you can make use without having to crack your head. You will also be able to download all the themes FOR FREE here on Ideahoncho.com. Okay, lets go!

(1) BeGlide: Corporate Business Consultant Agency WordPress Theme (worth $49)

BeGlide Creative design with corporate look and ultimate theme color options make it unique from other WordPress Themes. BeGlide is an ultimate solution for multipurpose categories like Agency, Consultancy, Corporate, Industries, Small Business and any types of Firm.

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(2) Seofy – SEO & Digital Marketing Agency WordPress Theme (worth $59)

Seofy has an advanced and unique page templates system. It allows you to choose a header layout, sidebar, footer, and over 230 other settings for each page/post/project/etc. individually. You can even have landing pages and micro-sites within your main website with no additional set up!

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(3) Salient – Responsive Multi-Purpose Theme (worth $60)

Salient – Responsive Multi-Purpose Theme

Salient is an impressive WP theme which incorporates a perfect blend of features and styles that helps users to best showcase business and personal projects. It is a feature-rich WP theme which provides users with just the best platform to get started with their website in a matter of no time. Its major features are responsive designs, loads of custom styles, user-friendly admin panel, and elegant layouts.

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(4) Composer – Responsive Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme(worth $59)

Composer – Responsive Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme

Composer theme is a Responsive multi-purpose high performing WordPress theme created by an elite group of designers and developers. The development team has more than 6 years of experience in WordPress. They dedicate their time and are meticulous in all stages of theme creation processes. This is evident as we deliver easy to use themes that are high performing and secure.

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(5) Consultix Consulting – Business Consulting WordPress Theme(worth $49)

Consultix Consulting – Business Consulting WordPress Theme

Consultix is a Corporate Consulting theme which will suit most consulting, finance, corporate agency. This theme is easy to customize, responsive and powered by Drag & Drop Page Builder. If you’re looking to build a site for Consulting, Finance, Business, Corporate, Financial Advisors, Insurance Brokers, Accountants, Lawyers, Consultants, agency, accountant, startup company, finance business, consulting firms, insurance, loan, tax, investment firm or other Finance and Consulting related businesses then this theme is your best option.

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I hope you found one or all of these themes useful.

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Top 5 WordPress Blogging Themes for 2019

Top 5 WordPress Blogging Themes for 2019

WordPress was originally created to be a blogging platform. Now, it does more than that. It powers over 30% of the internet and at it’s core, WordPress is the by far the best platform for blogging. If you go to 10 blogs today, there’s a very high chance that 7-8 out of them run on WordPress.

Million dollar brands such as New York Observer, New York Post, TED, Thought Catalog, Williams, USA Today, CNN, Fortune.com, TIME.com, National Post, Spotify, TechCrunch, CBS Local, NBC all make use of WordPress. 

What makes WordPress one of the best platforms to run your blog is the ease of creating and publishing content, the user-friendliness of the dashboard and the crazy amount of plugins and themes available that can make your “little blog” look like a million dollar blog with little or no upfront investment.

I hope from the way am talking, you can already tell that this blog you are on is powered by WordPress. I even have the WordPress app on my phone that allows me to keep track of things, publish posts on the go or correct blunders I might have made when writing my posts on my PC.

If you are like me and you care about the look and beauty of your blog, then picking the right WordPress blogging theme is paramount. Before I launched ThePresidentialHustle.com, I wasn’t only concerned about how to create content but also how my blog looks, how it makes visitors feel and how things flow.

People will instantly judge your blog by it’s look, no matter how great the content on your blog is – if the layout is poor and looks too busy – it will make your reader(s) bounce off. So, it is important to pick the right theme for blogging.

I have been designing websites for brands and businesses for over 5years now, I have a very high taste in design, I don’t settle for less. I believe in first impressions. So, these 5 WordPress Blogging Themes that made this list all meet my most important criteria:

  • Clean, Modern, Intuitive and Beautiful
  • Mobile responsive and retina ready
  • Beautiful front page and post layouts
  • Quality and not hype or amount of sales
  • Good reviews and comments.

N.B – Scroll to the Bottom of the Page for Download Instructions!

LET’S GET DOWN TO IT!

1. JNews – WordPress Newspaper Magazine Blog AMP Theme. (Worth $39)

This is one of the few Blog themes that has the front end live editor that allows you to edit font, colours, background and more in real time. Termed as the “all-in-one” solution for publishing great content that looks good on all devices and sticks users/visitors in, the JNews blogging theme is one to consider.

With over 120+ homepage demos, this theme is suitable for creating Magazine sites, Blog sites, Editorial sites and for all kind of publishing website needs. Speed is also one of the things the JNews theme has going for them, it comes packed wit the AMP google support and Facebook instant articles support to ensure  that your website loads super fast and gets on the generous sides of Google and Facebook.

Besides being able to import their beautifully designed homepage and page demos, the theme comes packed with Visual composer (front-end) and Elementor that allows you to alter and customize the layouts according to your own taste. You have the power to design your own footer  and header layouts or make use of the pre-defined ones provided by the theme.

This is a Fast & High Performance Theme that is SEO optimized for both Mobile and larger screens. I love the front end submission feature that allows you to run a blog where visitors or users can submit their own content (blogpost) from the front end in a clean and easy to use interface, you can even create a source of income by leveraging their Pay-To-Submit feature.

This is a theme that will instantly make your blog look like a million dollar blog with all the next-level features and functionalities it comes with for free!

Pros

  • Up to 120 Demos
  • Multi-Page Article on One Single Post
  • Supports all major plugins
  • Built with mobile in mind
  • Responsive Design. Tested on Google Mobile Friendly
  • Unlimited Header and Footer designs
  • One click demo import
  • Optimized for Google Page Speed as SEO Signal
  • Google AMP Support
  • Supports Woo Commerce
  • Modern, Clean, Responsive & Intuitive design
  • Optimized for SEO
  • Easy integration with Google Ads and Responsive Advertisement for both Image & Google ads
  • Collection of wide social network Share with social proof
  • Fancy Headers & Footers style
  • Infinite Scroll for more convenient reading
  • View Counter and Popular Post (Dummy number of view counter, share, and like)
  • Very intuitive Live preview option panel (Customizer)
  • Regular Updates

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2. INNOVATION: Multi-Concept News, Magazine & Blog Theme(worth $59)

This the theme my blog currently runs on and obviously, it would make the list because I am in love with the theme. It doesn’t have all the fancy features and functionalities the other themes has but it does the job. It’s modern, clean, intuitive and lays out your content in a very professional manner.

INNOVATION is a multi-concept News, Magazine & Blog WordPress theme best suited for blogs that deliver news about Technology, Fashion, Sport, Travel, Personal, Entertainment, Recipe etc. With an elegant and intuitive design, you can easily create a website that will put your best work first.

I really love the simplicity of the theme coupled with the advanced features contained in the back-end. I also love the fact that it comes with about 8 different posts layout with each of them looking very clean on both mobile and larger screens. This theme takes social media sharing to another level, from the top to the bottom to the sidebar, your readers are encouraged to share your post.

Come to think of it, after creating this post, I am thinking of changing my theme and I have a feeling I will be changing to either #3 or #4, till then…I am loving this theme!

Pros

  • One Click To Import All 11 Demos
  • Retina Support, Sharp High-Resolution Graphics
  • Supports all major plugins
  • Responsive Google Ads
  • Top, Bottom and Aside Share Bar In Single
  • Fullwidth And Boxed Layout
  • One click demo import
  • Multiple posts layouts
  • Modern, Clean, Responsive & Intuitive design
  • Optimized for SEO
  • Infinite Custom Typography. You Can Change Font Size, Style, Subset for almost elements…
  • Unlimited and Sticky Sidebar
  • Fancy Headers & Footers styles
  • Random Specify Post Views Value
  • Mobile responsive and retina ready

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3. Newspaper WordPress Theme (Worth $59)

I tried as much as possible to create this list of the best wordpress themes for blogging based on sales or hype, the Newspaper wordpress theme is the best selling blog theme of all time with over 66,000 sales and counting. Tens and thousands of people cannot be all wrong if they are using this theme right? Yes! The theme is a great theme and I use it to run about 4 of my other blogs.

Its super easy to setup, configure and get the ball rolling without biting around the bush. The Newspaper theme is super fast, simple, and easy to use for almost any niche such as cryptocurrency, fashion, food, lifestyle, modern, personal, travel, luxury, viral, minimal, minimalist blogs and more, the sky is the limit on this one.

With the Google AMP support, your blog will load 5x faster than other blogs on the internet, giving you more retained visitors and higher page views. One other thing I love about this theme is the vast amount of post layouts available, you can pick between 13+ layouts depending on how you want your posts to be shown.

This theme will give your visitors the best first impression they need to stick and grow with you as you grown in your blogging career. The Newspaper theme comes packed with all the features you need to flex on other blogs and slick start your blog with all the industry leading functionalities a professional blog should have.

Pros

  • Up to 50+ Custom Demos
  • Modern and Trendsetting design
  • Blazing Fast Loading Speed
  • Supports all major plugins
  • Blazing Fast Loading Speed
  • Responsive Google AdSense and Ad support
  • Custom widgets
  • Light, Fast and Stunning
  • One click demo import
  • Modern Post Layouts
  • Supports Woo Commerce
  • Modern, Clean, Responsive & Intuitive design
  • Optimized for SEO
  • Free premium plugins
  • Multiple headers and footer types
  • Fancy Headers & Footers style
  • Comes with premium plugins
  • Mobile responsive and retina ready

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4. Soledad v6.3.1 – Multi-Concept Blog/Magazine WP Theme (Worth $59)

If you are looking at positioning yourself and your blog as an expert within your field or niche, you should consider getting the Soledad WordPress theme. Even though it is for “professionals”, it is a very beautiful theme with lots of features that will encourage your readers to share, like and engage with every post you publish.

Pros

  • Multiple Demos Available
  • Supports all major plugins
  • Guest Authors and Multi-Authors Posts with Co-Authors Plus Support
  • Built in beautiful customizable share buttons
  • Sticky sidebar
  • Table of content and numbered headings
  • Super fast clean Mega Menu
  • One click demo import and demo switcher
  • Social media integration and live embeds
  • Beautiful justified galleries
  • Paginated posts
  • Post view counts and reading time of post.
  • Supports Woo Commerce
  • Modern, Clean, Responsive & Intuitive design
  • Optimized for SEO
  • Beginner friendly
  • Fancy Headers & Footers style
  • Comes with premium plugins
  • Advanced dashboard and theme settings

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5. WorldNews – Magazine RTL Responsive WordPress Blog\Magazine(worth $79)

The WorldNews WordPress theme is both clean, modern looking and a responsive blogging theme. It comes packed with over 12 Homepage style demos to pick from. The homepage of a blog is very very very important as much as the post page.

I really love the demo homepages that the people at WorldNews created for this theme. I love the block feel and how it makes the blog look and feel minimalistic, yet clean and beautiful. The font system used for the headings and body text is clean as well, I like it. If I wasn’t making use of the theme I currently have, I would definitely opt-in for this theme.

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I hope you found one or all of these themes useful.

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Top 5 Differences Between a Boosted Post & Facebook Ads

Top 5 Differences Between a Boosted Post & Facebook Ads

When asking a business if they utilize Facebook advertising, the majority will say yes. Unfortunately, most of them have only utilized the Facebook boost option, which pales in comparison to Facebooks Ads within the ad manager.

Because of how extensive the ad manager within Facebook can be, many businesses choose to simply boost their posts without knowing the full capability that Facebook ads present to their business because of the convenience. Which brings up the question, what is the difference between Facebook Ads vs Boosted Posts when it comes to advertising your business on Facebook?

If you’ve ever wondered about the difference between boosting a post on Facebook and running an Ad on Ads Manager, then you will love this Post.

What is a Boosted Post?

A boosted post is a post to your Page’s timeline that you can apply money to in order to boost it to an audience of your choosing. This is the simplest way to advertise on Facebook, As you can see below, it is conveniently located in the bottom right-hand corner of your post so that you can advertise at a click of a button on Facebook.

The objective of a boosted post is to maximize the visibility of that particular post so that users can take certain actions such as liking, sharing, and commenting on that particular boosted post.

What Are Facebook Ads?

While boosting a post is still considered an ad, Facebook ads are created through Ads Manager and offer more advanced customization solutions. There are many advertising objectives to help you reach your specific business goals and the audiences you care about most.

The reason why you want to have more objectives at your disposal when advertising on Facebook is that you are defining what actions you want audiences to take when they see your ad. You can also follow your buyer’s journey directly, to better optimize your campaigns towards your audience’s specific needs.

Here are the 5 reasons why you should choose Facebooks ads over boosted posts:

1. Facebook Ads Offer More Objectives Than Boosted Posts

Within the Facebook ads manager, there are 11 objectives that you can choose from opposed to the 2 objectives that the boost post option provides you. The reason why you want to have more objectives at your disposal when advertising on Facebook is that you are defining what actions you want audiences to take when they see your ad. You can also follow your buyer’s journey directly, to better optimize your campaigns towards your audience’s specific needs. By choosing certain objectives you are spending your advertising dollars more efficiently at an audience that is likely to convert into a lead or an eventual sale.

Here are the 11 Facebook ad objectives and what they cater to:

  • Brand Awareness – Increases the awareness of your brand by reaching more people who are more likely to be interested in your brand and pay attention to your ads.
  • Reach – Show your ad to the maximum amount of people as possible.
  • Traffic – Optimize your ads to lead your potential customers to a destination on or off Facebook such as your website, messenger conversion, or app.
  • Engagement – Can get mistaken for the boost post option. This objective gets more people to engage with your page or your post. The reason why this objective is more impactful than the regular boosted post is that you can target more engagement to not only specific posts but also events, offers, and page likes.
  • App Install – Get more people to download your app by sending them to the app store where they can download your app.
  • Video Views – Promote your videos to get more people to view your video content such as product launches, brand stories, and behind the scenes footage.
  • Lead Generation – Drive and capture more lead information such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers from people interested in your business.
  • Messages – Entice people to send you messages or have conversations with your business on messenger to answer questions and offer customer support.
  • Conversion – Have more people take valuable actions on your website, app, or messenger such as adding payment info or making a purchase. You can also add a Facebook pixel to track these actions.
  • Catalog Sales – Create tailored ads that show items from your catalog or e-commerce store based on your targeted audience.
  • Store Visits – Promote multi-location brick and mortar businesses that drive more traffic to your locations.

2. You Can Create And Target Custom Audiences With Facebook Ads

With Facebook Ads, you have more customization when it comes to creating and nurturing your audiences. As you can see below, you have three options when creating audiences on Facebook’s ad manager: create a custom audience, look-alike audience, and saved audience.

3. You Have More Placement Options And Customization With Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads allow you to have numerous choices when it comes to the placement of your ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Unfortunately, when using the Boosted Post option, you do not have the ability to customize where or how your ads are placed.

By having complete customization of where your Facebook Ads are placed, you are giving yourself the ability to only serve your ads where they are most effective. For example, if you were running a conversion campaign ad on Facebook, you would want to exclude the “Audience Network” placement. The reason being is the “Audience Network” placement is on mobile apps and websites off of Facebook and Ads on these places rarely convert.

4. Boosted Posts Have Limited Creative Options While Facebook Ads Have More

In order for your Facebook Ads to stand out and entice users to take action, your creative has to catch their attention. Unfortunately, with the Boost Post option, you are only relegated to the single image and video ads.

Facebook Ads not only allow you to use single image and videos ads, but they also allow you to use an additional three types of formats, depending on the objective you choose. For example, if you were using the conversion objective you can choose the carousel, slideshow, and collection format for your ad creative, in addition to the single image and video ad format as seen below.

5. You Can Add Call To Actions On Your Facebook Ads

Adding a Call to action on your ads serves as the transition in the buyer’s journey. It makes it easier for your potential customers to take the next action or step. Nothing is worse than having a potential customer confused or disappointed because they don’t know the next step or action to take.

Because of this, not having a call to action on your ads will kill your conversions. So why choose the Boosted Post option when you can utilize Facebook Ads because of the ability to add a call to action?

Should I Ever Use Boosted Post?

Boosting a post is a great way to ensure your posts are shown to more users, and it can be used to effectively grow brand awareness and even to drive page likes. Boosted posts are optimized to drive more engagement (like likes, comments, and shares) on your content, so if that’s an important part of your Facebook strategy, they can be a great fit.

But if your advertising goal is outside Post Engagement, then Boosting a Post won’t be good. You would have to consider running a Facebook Ad from Ads Manager.

Here’s the BIG takeaway.

“The secret sauce and key to marketing online successfully and creating ads that connects, attracts and brings a return on your investments is to connect with people who might already be interested in what you have to offer – based on their pains and desires and using language and words they understand”

I would love to send you 2 Videos for FREE, one of which is called “Anatomy Of A Great Ad” and the other is called “Examples and Deep Dive of Great Ads”. In these videos, I take you behind my shoulder and show you what really makes a great ad, I break down Facebook ads the way top marketers and businesses do it!

In order to learn what I will be sending to you for FREE, I had to spend over a thousand dollars enrolling on top Facebook marketing courses from experts in the field.

To get the videos, just enter your name and email so I can know where to send them to!

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