Create Quality websites: 2016

29/11/2016

Convert More Affiliate Sales With These Credibility Boosting Tactics

Convert More Affiliate Sales With These Credibility Boosting Tactics

Posted: 28 Nov 2016 08:11 AM PST

Being an affiliate marketer can be tricky sometimes.

You want to make money, but you don’t want your audience giving you the side-eye every time they see a recommendation with a link.

It’s about striking a balance, and here are some effective tips to help you promote your links in a more credible way.

Don’t Just Show The What, Show The How

My tools page is a good affiliate income generator for me. If you don’t have a page like this on your site, then you need to create one immediately.

These pages tend to convert well because people are naturally curious about what you use, especially if your site is tutorial-based.

Now here’s something you might not have thought about doing on this page that’s really helpful.

Don’t just list the products you use. Show specific examples of HOW you use them with pictures, links to content or video.

Here’s a snippet from my tools page…

This just kicks the credibility factor up a notch and will help with your conversions.

Ask for a Personalized Landing Pages

Once you start making sales, some affiliate program managers will have a personalized landing page created for you that’s hosted on THEIR servers.

These can often look more credible/official than self-created landing pages.

I happened to mention AWeber in a tweet earlier this year and the affiliate manager reached out to me via email and asked if I wanted them to create a personal landing page.

Thanks for the affiliate gift @AWeber If I earn even more next month do I get matching shoes? ??? pic.twitter.com/sB0ASmqbxi

— Lisa Irby (@2createawebsite) June 21, 2016

TIP: Always tag companies on Twitter when you are sharing fun or useful info about their services. They love this, and you never know what can come of it! I got a landing page out of the deal!

So if you belong to a program and are bringing in sales regularly, reach out to them and ask if you can get your own landing/sales page.

They don’t typically create these for everyone, but if you have a steady flow of sales, you may qualify!

Be Ethical & Announce Your Policy

I don’t like affiliating with products I don’t use myself. And I make it a point to mention that over and over again.

When you remind people that you are selective about what you promote, they take your recommendations more seriously.

You’ll even find that people will often ask you for your affiliate link before they buy something.

This happens to me on YouTube all the time.

Mention The Good & The Bad

My Visual Composer post from earlier this year brought in a good amount of sales.

But if you read the blog post, I also revealed a few things I don’t like.

Most products have cons. And you might be afraid to mention some negatives because it will turn people off.

Ya know what? It just might. But the net effect is more important.

In other words, you might prevent a few from buying, but in the long-run it builds trust so when you do have a glowing recommendation, people will trust your recommendation more.

Disclosure Is Not A Bad Thing

Back in 2009, the FTC updated their policy and declared you must disclose all your affiliate links, and stated that the disclosure needs to be clear and obvious.

They haven’t really enforced this at all, but you should at least have an affiliate disclosure link on the footer of your site.

What I typically do here on the blog is put (affiliate link) in parenthesis after every link.

But I ALSO disclose when I’m not an affiliate. There have been times that I mention products I don’t use. You may have seen (no affiliation) next to the link.

I do this to reinforce my own policy about only affiliating myself with products I use.

Some people are afraid to disclose their affiliations because it could discourage sales. It may, but I still believe the overall net effect is positive.

Put Ethics First & You’ll Be Rewarded

Who doesn’t love to make money? And those potential commissions can have you salivating sometimes.

And I’d be lying if I said affiliate commissions don’t influence certain content. I mean c’mon, this is a business at the end of the day.

But when you are selective about what you promote and show how you use products, it will make a tremendous difference in your conversions.

And since we’re coming off the official Holiday of thankfulness, this is a perfect time to say “thanks” to all who have supported me throughout the years.

This year, I reached my 10 year anniversary of working online full time, and I never take a single thing for granted.

Appreciate ya!

08/11/2016

Bloggers: Are You Violating Canva’s Terms Without Knowing It?

Posted: 07 Nov 2016 08:19 AM PST

Canva is, without a doubt, one of the best, free online image creation sites.

They have tons of stock photos, shapes, beautiful fonts, and you can create very modern graphics for your site without any design experience.

But do you fully understand their terms for commercial projects?

Many people don’t, and I guarantee there are some using Canva images illegally without realizing it.

I know of a blogger who was sued for $8,000 over improper use of an image. (Not by Canva.) So you should never assume that “free” means you can do anything you please.

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about using images from free stock photo and image creation sites.

You have to read the fine print.

Thank goodness for people like Nicholette Styles and Patrice Perkins who really helped clarify Canva’s very lengthy terms for me.

Both consulted with legal experts to help make sense of the legal gibble gabble.

I’ll do my best to summarize the main points I learned from them.

You Cannot Use Canva For a Trademarked Logo

The key word here is “trademarked.”

If you want to create an image with your site title on it that may change over time (colors, fonts, etc.), then that’s not technically a logo.

However, if you use Canva to create a unique mark or symbol that you plan to have trademarked to use permanently, then that is against their terms.

So let’s say you use one of their shapes for your logo, and you want to register your design with the Trademark Patent Office.

You cannot do this because this image would be legally set in stone by the trademark.

Using Canva Images in Books You Sell

Yes, you can use Canva images in your books (print or digital) that you sell, BUT just make sure you read the rules for the elements in your image.

If you use one of their stock images, then there are terms you have to abide by.

So let’s say you’re creating a title image for a book you want to sell, and use one of their $1.00 stock photo images.

You are more than welcome to sell the book with the $1 stock image you bought.

However…

You can only use that image in ONE design (unless you buy a Multi Use License).
If you sell/distribute more than 2000 copies of your book, you need to upgrade to the Multi-Use License
If you sell/distribute more than 250,000 copies, you need an Extended License

You can read about all their licenses here.

Using Canva Images for Resale on T-Shirts

According to Lee Torrens, the Marketplace director at Canva, you can use Canva elements on T-shirts as of Fall, 2016.

However, you have to purchase an extended license ($100) for the elements you want to use.

Keep in mind, if you use Canva to create an image that is comprised of images you own rights to yourself, then you don’t need to purchase a license. The license is only required if you use Canva elements.

What’s Not Clear to Me

One thing I couldn’t confirm was the use of the free elements.

Their license agreement references the stock photo images. Canva purchases a license for these from other image sites.

But what about the free backgrounds and shapes that Canva provides? I was not able to get a clear understanding about the terms for these.

For example, if you create a title image for an ebook you’re selling, but you ONLY use text and free backgrounds (no stock photos), would you need to buy a multi-use license if you sell more than 2,000 copies?

Could you create a T-shirt design with one of the free background elements and sell it?

My guess is that if you’re selling something that uses any of their elements, the same terms would apply.

I tried reaching out to Canva, but haven’t heard back.

Photoshop Will Always Be My #1 Choice

One thing’s for sure. If you create your images from scratch, you never have to worry about rights.

Photoshop is, without a doubt, one of the best investments I’ve made in my business.

Not only has it given me 100% creative control, but I’ve been able to make thousands of dollars in passive income by selling T-shirts online since 2011.

Big shout out to my former Team Lead for FORCING me to learn it at my old 9 to 5 when I really didn’t want to. I had no idea how much it would help me in my business years later.

Just remember, if you add fonts or patterns to Photoshop, you still have to read the license for those!

I love Canva for certain projects, but nothing will replace good ole’ Photoshop as far as I’m concerned!

However, with so many people making money from Teespring, Zazzle, Spreadshirt and Merch, it’s great that you can now use Canva’s Extended License. Yay!

11/10/2016

Why You Should Simplify Your Homepage… Immediately

Posted: 10 Oct 2016 08:10 AM PDT

Earlier versions of The 2 Create a Website homepage weren’t too inviting.

Let me be blunt…

Some of my homepage designs were a wreck — especially the first several years when only part of my site used WordPress.

I recently gave my homepage a cleaner look thanks to the Visual Composer plugin, and my analytics tell me it was a good move.

In some previous versions, I was more concerned about sharing what I thought was important instead of putting myself in the shoes of someone who first arrived.

The content YOU value, might not be the same content your visitor’s value.

It’s a common mistake…

When we create our homepages, we tend to assume that people are going to read every word and click every link on the page, but that’s just not the case.

In fact, most people only read about 10% of your site. And the busier the homepage, the less they read.

Your Homepage Is Not About What YOU Like!

We all have content that WE PERSONALLY FEEL is important and want to highlight:

We want to sell a product or earn an affiliate commission
We want to tell our story
We want to highlight our popular posts that we’re proud of
We want to display our latest posts

But it’s not about us.

Look at your site with a critical eye and ask, “Is this content important to my desired visitor when they first arrive?”

Imagine you have a gardening YouTube channel or podcast, and you tell your subscribers to go to your website to learn how to start their first garden.

Yet when they arrive, there’s nothing but your latest blog posts about personal gardening experiences you’ve had.

How is that helpful to someone who wants to learn how to garden?

Ken Evoy of SiteSell used to say this all the time, and it’s so true…

When a new visitor arrives at your site, they don't care about you. They want to know how you can help them.Click To Tweet

For years, I had links to AdSense and other random content that I might have been proud of on my homepage.

But it just wasn’t relevant to my visitor at that point.

If someone arrives at my site from googling “how to create a website”, it’s highly unlikely they care much about Google AdSense.

So why clutter my homepage with links and content about it?

Big mistake.

SEO Imprisoned Me For Years

One reason we are tempted to pack our homepages with content and links is SEO (search engine optimization).

And that can be a hard habit to break.

The number of words on a page played a big role for many years, but it’s no longer as much of a factor.

If you have strong links pointing to your site from others, those matter much more. That’s why it’s not hard to find sites ranking first with very little content on the homepage.

While it does bite that Google continues to push small businesses down the rankings, the positive side is we can concern ourselves more with creating websites for PEOPLE instead of SPIDERS.

I remember counting words on my pages before launching to make sure I had at least 750 words. I would add fluff just to beef up the word count.

It’s so freeing to not care about that anymore!

I’ll be talking more about this in my next post, but I’m completely revamping the content layout on this site.

I deleted about 30% of the outdated and less relevant content
I’m adding more focused content about using WordPress
I’m simplifying my menu and organizing the content more logically
I’m using WordPress categories more efficiently

And it feels so freakin’ good to not give a HOOT about what Google is going to think.

The Post-Only Format Is Not Ideal For Every Site

WordPress is typically synonymous with blogging, but it’s NOT just a blogging tool where you only arrange your content from newest to oldest.

It’s a content management system, and unfortunately most WordPress users don’t take advantage of how dynamic and flexible it truly is.

There’s nothing wrong with a traditional blog because for you, that might be all you need. We all have different needs.

But for me, 2 Create a Website was always created to be a tutorial site for people who want to create websites.

So that’s why I’ve never liked or relied on the TOTAL blog post layout or only highlighting my recent posts on my homepage.

Sure, I have this blog section that is organized in a traditional blog format, but the rest of my menu goes to landing pages that I will be building out logically.

This site has always been like that, but now I’m decluttering and re-focusing the content again, and more importantly, making it easier to reference!

2 Create a Website sort of lost its identify over the years with so much different types of content as I discussed here. Now it’s time to gain it back!

They’ll be more on the new site additions and the strategy/tools behind the layout in another post. This one is long enough!

Does Your Homepage Pass The Test?

So if your site is about teaching someone how to do something, look at your homepage and answer these questions…

Would a first time visitor know how to start?
Am I distracting people from what I want them to do with too much clutter?
Is all this homepage content really relevant to people when they start?

And if you don’t know WHO your likely visitor is, then that’s a problem in itself. You need to define that first.

Fear Not!

If you’ve always had a busy homepage, it can be scary to trim it down. Trust me. The first time I did it two years ago, I had some serious anxiety!

You might feel like you’re leaving something important out.

But if you answer those three questions above you’ll realize…

Simplifying a homepage is not about leaving anything out, but focusing on THE most important thing you want people to do.Click To Tweet

Oh and by the way, as a result of streamlining, my homepage’s bounce rate went from 65% to 49% and my email opt-in rate is higher than it’s ever been.

A bounce rate is the percentage of people who exit on the page they entered on. The lower the better. Blogs typically have a bounce rate in the upper 60s to 90s because people often read one post and leave.

Tutorial/informational sites tend to have lower bounce rates because the information is arranged more logically.

You can see your bounce rate by installing Google Analytics.

And if you’re wondering how your bounce rate stacks up, here’s a quote from RocketFuel.

As a rule of thumb, a bounce rate in the range of 26 to 40 percent is excellent. 41 to 55 percent is roughly average. 56 to 70 percent is higher than average, but may not be cause for alarm depending on the website. Anything over 70 percent is disappointing for everything outside of blogs, news, events, etc.

Bottom line…

There’s a reason you’re seeing so many people streamline their homepages and go with a more personal, clean look.

They’re ditching the clutter and highlighting their blog posts elsewhere.

These homepages are much more inviting and they convert!

I’ll be back to discuss more lessons from my re-org in a future post. Now, if you’ll excuse me… I’ve got a LOT of work to do.

07/09/2016

5 Different Ways to Earn With Amazon

Posted: 06 Sep 2016 07:19 AM PDT

It feels weird to launch a blog post on Tuesday instead of Monday, but I’m a day late because I HATE launching posts on Holidays.

Anywho… let’s get to it.

No doubt you know about Amazon’s affiliate program by now.

It’s been coined “The Web’s #1 Affiliate Program” by many, but do you know about the other 4 ways you can make money on Amazon?

In the video below, I go over all 5 ways.

If you’re not into video, I’ll list the 5 ways underneath it. But you’re going to miss my cheesy Amazon delivery truck animation.

Oh well. Your loss.

#1 Amazon FBA

FBA means “for sale by Amazon.” You partner up with suppliers, send the products to Amazon’s Fulfillment center and get paid when people buy.

There are people who are making a killing with this — yes 5 figures per month — but there is a learning curve.

Check out Rob Cubbon’s story on his experience.

Thank you, Rob, for highlighting both the good and bad. I love the transparency you displayed here.

#2 The Associates (Affiliate) Program

You can complain about the low commissions all you want, but I love this program. I have never been an affiliate for any other company where people buy so many products in addition to what you promote.

That’s a testament to Amazon’s great upselling and the overall brand trust.

They even pay you when people sign up for Amazon’s free trials.

The only thing I don’t like is that they have a 24 hour cookie. That means if someone buys 24 hours after using your affiliate link, you don’t get the commission. So I guess that’s a trade off for the multiple product commissions per order.

You definitely need traffic in order to make worthwhile money. My last check was for over $500, and I had to generate over 10,000 clicks to the site.

#3 Amazon CPM

I published a podcast on this in February, 2015. In short, I wasn’t impressed. I think it can be great if you happen to have the right kind of site, but my results weren’t impressive.

There were hardly any ads relevant to my content, and that’s a killer for advertising.

Also, if your traffic is very low, don’t bother. It would take you way too long to earn a worthwhile amount.

It’s very similar to AdSense where you paste code into your site and they display ads. You choose how much you want to earn for every 1,000 impressions, or you can let Amazon suggest the amount for you to optimize your earnings.

In order to get accepted, you must apply for the Amazon Associates program first. Once you’re in, you can create ads from that account.

#4 Amazon Video Direct

Did you know you can get paid for uploading videos to Amazon? Much like the YouTube partner program, you earn money for video views (or streaming in this case).

The one thing to keep in mind is that people search Amazon a lot differently than they search YouTube. So the same kind of content that performs well on YouTube might not perform as well on Amazon.

They seem to market the program for episodic content, but you can upload almost anything you want.

Your videos must have a closed caption script or they won’t be approved. You can use a service like Rev to create the file. Others have figured out a way to use their YouTube captions for the service as well.

#5 Merch By Amazon

This program is a lot like Spreadshirt, RedBubble, Zazzle and other print on demand affiliate programs.

You upload a design, add it to a T-shirt, and any time a shirt is sold, you get a commission. Amazon handles all the shipping and customer service.

Being a big fan of this monetization model (check out my recent Spreadshirt video), you KNOW I’m sitting here waiting anxiously to get in.

You’ve got to love the fact that the Internet provides us the opportunity to sell shirts without even having to handle inventory. Sure, you sacrifice bigger profits compared to selling them directly, but it’s worth it for the convenience.

I’m not interested in running a full-blown T-shirt business, and these kinds of services are PERFECT for people like me — and probably many of you too.

Right now, Merch is an invitation-only program and unfortunately it can take months before they get to your submission. I’ve heard some say it took over a year to get in. Yikes!

I even included a link to my Spreadshirt store to display my art when I applied, hoping that would speed up the process. I figured it would have little impact, but a girl can try, right?

You can apply here.

So how many of these have you tried? Hope you learned something new today!

16/08/2016

Your Traffic Struggles & My Candid Comments

Posted: 15 Aug 2016 07:50 AM PDT

I can’t believe I managed to pull myself away from the Olympic coverage long enough to get this post up.

I typically get into the Summer Olympics, but this year, I’ve found myself watching sports I’ve never given a second thought to like rugby and judo.

The ongoing competitive atmosphere has kept me and my fam on the edge of our seats while we cheer and feast on carbs like they’re going out of style!

Speaking of carbs, you haven’t lived until you’ve O.D.’d on Trader Joe’s Herbs and Spices Popcorn. I’m sure I could eat 5 giant bags of this stuff in one sitting. Easily.

But enough about my weird Summer addictions. Let’s get to it…

How’s Your Traffic?

Let’s have a candid convo about your traffic building experience thus far — especially those of you who have started your site in the last year or so.

Have you noticed there are more posts on traffic building than any other topic on Internet marketing (That includes SEO, social media, etc.), yet it is an ongoing challenge for many people?

Do you see any irony in that?

Try this…

Go to Google and search for “how to build traffic to a website (or blog).”

You will be flooded with oodles of content about how to drive thousands of visits to your site with Google, blogging and social media.

So if the information is all right there – just a quick Google search away – why isn’t building traffic more straightforward?

Why aren’t you growing your traffic by thousands of visits every single month after reading these articles?

Have you not taken the time to try these strategies?
Are you overwhelmed with where to start?
Not having much success with what you’ve tried?

Ah, I know…

These tips are completely bogus!

Yep… That must be it.

Only kidding. Of course, that’s not it either.

In this podcast, I discuss why I believe there is often a disconnect between the amount of info available and the results for a lot of you.

I’ll also reveal how the evolution of Internet Marketing really encouraged the direction and topic of the new site. I had to realize where I can be most helpful due to how things have changed.

This is a very short podcast (under 14 minutes), but jam packed with some candid comments.

I hope you take time to listen below. If not, there’s a transcript for ya. You can also download the mp3. (Right click and choose “Save As” to download.)

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

26/07/2016

How YouTube Tripled My Daily Email Opt-In Rate

Posted: 25 Jul 2016 08:17 AM PDT

I received a pleasant surprise after checking my email opt-in stats, and it’s all thanks to YouTube Annotations.

I must say…

I’m not a huge fan of how YouTube Annotations and Cards function.

Both features allow you to overlay a link on top of your videos, but they are both pretty limiting in terms of design and functionality.

For example, Annotations don’t work on mobile devices, and you cannot control the length of time YouTube Cards stay on the video.

However, I received really good results in one of my recent videos so I thought I’d share.

Two weeks ago I launched an updated, 2-part video series for people who are starting websites today.

They are pretty elementary videos with various tidbits you need to know today, such as…

The state of the web hosting industry (EIG owns many of the popular web hosts today)
Why I don’t think everyone needs a blog (Yes. I said it.)
Free vs. Premium themes
How I will segment my email list in the future and the benefits of doing so
WordPress Plugins to use for selling products and videos
Why you shouldn’t wait so long to launch your first product (like I did)

At the 15:26 mark of the 2nd video, I reminded viewers about my upcoming site.

Click play below to instantly jump to that part. If you’re still on my old Feedburner list, you’ll have to watch on the blog.

This is where I used a Call to Action to encourage people to sign up for my email list to get notified and receive a course discount.

When I logged into my AWeber (affiliate link) account later that night, I noticed my daily opt-in rate was 3x’s higher than usual.

Believe it or not, I thought little of it because I forgot about the call to action. I had used Annotations in the past, but didn’t notice worthwhile results.

Then I had another noticeable increase the next day (more than double my daily average), and it dawned on me that I added the call to action.

Duh, Lisa!

How to Add a Clickable Call to Action on a YouTube Video

It’s super simple to do, and will only take you a couple of minutes.

NOTE: I recommend adding a prominent call-to-action message in your video software during editing.

You can use the YouTube Annotations box, but they don’t stand out as much and look kinda cheesy to me.

See my image below…

The blue and black subscribe box was created in Photoshop (you can easily create one with Canva too). I overlayed it on top of the video with animation in Camtasia 8.

By the way, I use Camtasia 8 (Windows) for all my videos now — even the talking head vids.

It’s crazy that I’ve had this software for over 8 years, and I’m just really learning how to create cool effects such as animation with sound effects and even picture in a picture.

By the way, I will be offering a Master Course on Camtasia on the new site where I’ll be teaching how to do all this. Yay!

OK, here are the deets…

Click the Annotations button below your video and scrub to the part where you want to overlay the link.
Choose the “Spotlight” Annotation from the menu.
Drag the Spotlight box around the text you want to be clickable. It will turn red as seen in the image below.
Add some call to action text in the smaller, text area below the Spotlight Annotation (optional and not really needed if you create your own image).
Choose the length of the Annotation and add a Link.

In order for this to work, you must verify your website with YouTube. You can only link to the website that is verified.

I always send people to my subscription page when I verbally announce my list. I recently added a short video for a bit of pizzazz.

Any Cons?

The only downside is the Annotations won’t work on smartphones and tablets. YouTube Cards work on mobile devices, but the call to action is not very obvious.

I read that the Cards were supposed to replace the Annotations, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Perhaps this feature was underutilized so YouTube decided to keep the Annotations (fingers crossed).

I’ll have to play with this some more. As I said, I’ve never gotten much of a noticeable benefit from using Annotations, but I think the discount is what encouraged more people to sign up this time.

So the other lesson is you have to make the offer worthwhile to entice people to join your list!