What tools are popular to create or run a blog online? Hi, Simon Zaku here. One of the most frequent questions I get about blogging is what tools I use to run my blog. This list contains social media and blogging tools that I use, resources I trust, and recommendations for entrepreneurs, marketers, startups, and agencies that run blogs today. The Blogging Toolkit: Essential Blogging Tools I Use & Recommend What tools do you need for blogging? To begin with, you need web hosting tools. Blogging Toolkit (Click to Navigate): Web-hosting tools for blogs Social media management tools for bloggers Video & design tools Other important blogging tools 1. Web-Hosting Tools for Bloggers Namecheap The next blogging tool is Namecheap. Namecheap is one of the oldest domain hosting platforms on the Internet today. It has been around since 2000 and it is the one. Namecheap is my go-to hosting platform for my domains every single time. One thing I love about Namecheap is it is inexpensive, and provides great services like customer support, system upgrades, and more. Whenever I want to get a website running, I get my domain from Namecheap and then I direct it to whichever hosting platform I use (Wix, WordPress). For instance, I make use of Wix for my hosting. So what I do is I get my domain from Namecheap and link it to my hosting on Wix. The domains on Namechip are quite cheaper than most domain hosting providers, like wix.com domains, or say GoDaddy or all of that. Hostinger My next go-to hosting service provider is Hostinger. Hostinger offers one of the best domain hosting web building, and website building platforms on the Internet. Hostinger has over 21,358 reviews on Trustcorp with an average of 4.6. Hostinger offers the business plan which goes from $3.49 a month. We have the premium which gives you everything you need to create your website and then it goes for $2.49 per month. The cloud startup plan goes for $8.99 per month and allows users to enjoy optimized performance and dedicated website hosting resources. One thing I love about Hostinger is that it offers a 30 30-day money-back money back guarantee and 24/7 customer support. That is priority support. Eukhost The next best hosting platform is the EUK host. Now the EUK host is trusted by over 35,000 customers and offers fast and reliable managed web hosting ServiceNow services. It also offers domain name registrations and servers with 24/7 live support now. One amazing thing is they also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee and then eUKhost is guaranteed to be reliable for websites, applications, or even servers. They offer 24/7 world-class support and have a 4.9 rating or reviews on trust pilots and google.com. The different services offered by Euk hosts are CPANET Web Hosting, Windows Web Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Servers, Cloud Servers, WordPress Reseller, and Business Web Hosting. Wix Wix is probably the easiest website management platform as it has a sleek interface that allows users to navigate, edit, and manage their wites either on Desktop or mobile. This very website and blog is currently running on Wix and I love it. Wix is very easy to use and user-friendly. This is the best platform to use especially if you are just starting online as a beginner. I have a detailed blog article on how to start a blog on Wix. Here: [Watch Me] Start a Blog for Free and Make Money Shopify The next essential blogging tool is Shopify. You might be wondering why I'm adding Shopify as a blogging resource but the reason is that some bloggers and content creators make money selling digital products. Products like ebooks, courses, or memberships. How does this work? As a Blogger or content creator, you build an audience then you can pitch or sell them certain products that may or may not be directly related to your website. Here’s what I mean; For example, you could run a food or fashion blog and sell different fashion books or magazines. You can use Shopify to host all of your products and link them from your blog. If your web hosting provider offers product selling then you may not need Shopify for your blog. I decided to add this because it is also important. After all, you can also run a blog from your Shopify. Shopify is a tool that I use and recommend for my stores and brands. Bluehost Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting services on the Internet today powering over 2 million websites. HostGator offers one of the best hosting and domain services I have seen on the Internet. Bluehost is very powerful, and fast and offers different hosting services like online stores, WordPress hosting, design services, etc. You can build different stores for your brand or your website using the powerful store tools by Bluehost. The enhanced Woocommerce feature is available to users and then you can do SEO as well. We have WordPress hosting which starts at $2.95 per month and comes with a free domain when you get it for a year with automatic WordPress updates as well. You have a CDN included and you can also get Bluehost design services which include full website design, search engine optimization, website migration, and more. For the online stores, it starts at $6.75 per month, WordPress $2.95 per month and you can contact Bluehost for the design services pricing. I recommend Bluehost for beginner bloggers, and expert bloggers because it offers one of the best hosting services, tools, and domain features. Hostgator Hostgator is a web hosting company that lets internet users create, design, and manage websites. You can install WordPress or Wix in your HostGator account easily in just a few steps. For me, it is one of the best hosting companies in the world. I've used HostGator for more than 6 years now without any serious or unresolved issues. Why do I love Hostgator even more? It's excellent customer support service - very quick and provides 24-hour live chat support. I've powered dozens of websites and domains on HostGator over the years and highly recommend it. Social Media Tools Buffer Buffer is a social media management tool that lets users schedule, create, design, and plan social media content seamlessly. Even with just the mobile application. I've been using a buffer since day one and I still use it today. It's my easy go-to social media management tool for most of my social media automation tasks. Especially LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. And now, I use it for my Pinterest scheduling as well. I love how simple Buffer is. If you hate sophisticated analytics but love something simple but cool dashboards then the buffer is the right one for you. I pay $15 monthly for Buffer. Worth it for me. You can use Buffer’s free plan (which is okay) but you can upgrade to a paid plan if you need more features like the number of accounts you can follow/unfollow etc. Tailwind Pinterest is one of the easiest ways to generate good traffic from social platforms. It requires consistent quality content. And that's why I use Tailwind. Tailwind is also a service that allows users to schedule, curate, and manage Pinterest pins with ease. It is a Pinterest scheduling and management application that's the best in the game. It's what I use presently. SmarterQueue SmarterQueue is a social media management and automation tool. Most bloggers use these tools to load “share queues” with their blog content (and other people’s content) and to pre-schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. What I love about SmarterQueue is its evergreen automation feature. You get to schedule your blog posts once and SmarterQueue will continually repost them on your social media channels without you having to do it. Pretty cool and recommended! Crowdfire Crowdfire is a social media app that takes care of everything social. It doesn't only help you manage and grow your social media following but also recommends targeted content for you. When you sign up for Crowdfire, you get to select your category/niche, this way, you'll only see content that matches your niche. Crowdfire is also free but also has other paid plans. You can stick with the free plan except you want to do more like schedule more posts daily, add more social media accounts, and many more. Highly recommended app for bloggers, bloggers, and business owners. Ambassador (formerly Agorapulse) AgoraPulse covers everything you could need for social media marketing, monitoring, and management. I am focused on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram currently. I love everything about Agora Pulse except for the fact that I feel it's a little bit clustered. I mean too many things on one dashboard. This is from my point of view as a lot of people prefer tools that provide sophisticated analytics, features, and more. I prefer tools that are as simple as possible. Thus if you want to manage your social media accounts with every feature possible on one dashboard then Agora Pulse is for you. As mentioned previously, AgoraPulse is affordable for small businesses. It costs as little as $19 a month for a small business that wants to manage one Facebook Page and Twitter account. This pricing can change depending on the AgoraPulse plan you choose. AgoraPulse has a free trial option so individuals can try out this system before purchasing a plan. The trial lasts 15 days and allows you to try all the features so individuals get a true feel. Video & Design Tools for Bloggers AIVideoSuite Do you want to be able to create marketing videos, whiteboard sales videos, switch page videos, product videos, and even tutorial videos for your blogs? The AIVideoSuite is an amazing AI-powered video maker that helps you write, record, and generate high-converting videos in any niche. I love this video tool because it has a very fast script-generating feature. It is also powered by GPT-4. This software allows you to generate only reels, videos, business ads, informational videos, tutorial videos, explainer videos, and lots more. If you are into startup blogging then you probably create a lot of videos and with recent email marketing statistics, we can see that videos are effective in generating leads and customers. When you embed a video in your blog posts, it is more likely to rank higher in search engines. Thus, the AIVideoSuite is a powerful tool I recommend to content creators and bloggers. This is also perfect for people who aren’t comfortable showing their faces on camera. Canva Canva is undoubtedly the best social media graphics tool for me. I've been using this tool for more than 5 years now and I love it. Canva is easy and I design all of the graphics you see on this blog using Canva (in minutes). It is super easy to use and comes with a lot of free graphics templates to use. So you can easily go through and work with anyone you like. There are templates for blogs, social profiles, flyers, etc. All my social media & blog graphics are designed by me in Canva. Vidalta Canva Edition The next blogging tool that I recommend is the Vidalta Canva Edition. If you are looking to create promotional social media videos for businesses or startups, the Vidalta Canva Edition is for you. The Vidalta template is a tool that provides users with over 240 Canva Edition video templates to help you create high-catching social media promotional videos that increase leads and customers. This video tool provides numerous templates in different categories like travel, fashion, business, commercial, food, branding, events, typography, and more. Also, with this tool you can export to any format that you want and you can pick from over 200 and 440 templates. If you are looking for great templates that are proven to be high-converting for your blog articles, your blog posts or your websites, then you can use the Vidalta Canva Edition templates. Other Useful Tools I Use for Blogging WP1ClickLogin The next blogging tool on my list is the WP1ClickLogin. This tool is new and I love it. Did you know that you can log into any of your WordPress sites using just a click? Probably not! What this means is you don't need to remember any passwords at all. You don't need to write them down or spend seconds thinking about your passwords during login all the time. This is especially more useful for people with numerous WordPress sites. What this does is it helps you save all of your WordPress passwords so you can just log in using a unique link. How does this work? Simply install the WP1ClickLogin on your WordPress dashboard and after that, you can easily save all of your logins. To log in, all you need to do is put in your email address and then a unique login link will be sent directly to your e-mail inbox after clicking that you get to your WordPress dashboard without having to type in your password. This works if you forget your password too. Tiddly Tiddly helps drive targeted traffic to your website every time you share something online. It's like getting some credit for sharing or tweeting someone's content. With Tiddly Link you can add your own branded call-to-action to just about any piece of content that exists online. Quuu Promote Quuu is a content-curation social platform that focuses on saving time by hand-curating content in over 500 interest categories. On the other hand, Quuu Promote is a premium content marketing platform that allows users to boost their links, articles, or posts. With this social media content curation tool, I've been able to generate 1000s of traffic from social media. And I mostly use this for my clients as well. And at the same time, get good content to share with your audience. Evernote Seriously, I don't know where I'd be in my business without Evernote. I use it for everything. I use Evernote for my notes and I take it with me anywhere. I use Evernote when I write blog posts, email content, webinar notes, client takeaways, and many more. One thing I love about Evernote is that it is accessible on all devices. Thus after creating your free account, you can access your notes on any device at any time. IFTTT This is probably one of the most underrated tools that I use for my blogs, clients, and businesses. It (IFTTT) is a free tool to get all your apps and devices to talk to each other. IFTTT connects different applications, tools, and software to work seamlessly in unique ways. That's the end of my list. Want to download this list for offline purposes? Click here to learn more about our free content marketing forum and request to join. Upon joining, you'll access the 17 free PDF files in the "FILES" section of the forum. Which of these social media or blogging tools have you tried? Which of these will you be trying? Let me know your own tools recommendation in the comments section below :) See you in the group, my friend. Simon Taki Zaku Owner: https://simonzaku.com/ CEO: SimonWrites Agency.

How do you start a blog and make money? What are the steps required to set up a blog for free? Hello and welcome to my blog. This week, we are going to be talking about a very popular topic - how to set up a blog in 2024. Now, I have written several guides on starting a blog including this massive guide on how to make $1,000 blogging. Here: Make Money Blogging: How I Make $1,000 Per Month Blogging - My Success Story My name is Simon Zaku and I'm from Nigeria and I have been blogging for more than 10 years. I started my first blog here in Jalingo, Nigeria around 2010. Click here to read my full Nigerian blogger story :) This happened on a Friday evening when I stepped out of my house to stroll around the neighbourhood. I met this really good friend (and mentor), Benedict. I noticed Ben was really excited so I asked him the reason behind his excitement. Ben said; “Simon, I just got $60 from my blog”. He had just gotten his first $60 pay from Google’s AdSense program. This is one of my favourite stories to tell; probably because it is the story that put me on this career path I am in twelve years later. I was so confused because $60 was a lot of money in Nigerian Naira at the time. So I asked him how he was able to make $60 from his laptop at home. He replied; “I made $60 by showing Google Ads on my blog” I didn't know what Google AdSense was so I asked and he said Google AdSense is a platform that allows bloggers to make money by displaying sponsored ads on their blogs or websites or YouTube channels. I was mute. There was a problem. I didn't even know what a blog was. Yes before 2010, I had no idea what a blog was and got to know from Benedict Job after he got paid $60 from Google AdSense. So I asked Ben what a blog was and he said I should google it out. I hurriedly went home, got my mom's laptop (I didn't have a device, a computer, or a phone), and read anything I could about blogging. At the time, blogging experts and leaders were Ryan Biddulph, Pat Flynn, Seth Godin, Neil Patel, Jon Morrow, and a few more who are still doing awesome stuff today. I used Google and ended up creating a blogger blog that same day. That was how I created my first blog and went into blogging. Fast forward to today, I have created and set up so many blogs for my brand and SEO clients. I have driven millions of traffic to my clients' blogs, my blogs, and different blogs on the Internet and have also grown my blog to $1,000 per month right from my hostel bunk in Joseph Babalola University, Osun State, Nigeria. This whole blogging guide will help you create a blog in 2024. Now, a lot has changed since I started blogging in 2010. Today there are more efficient tools, there is AI, and lots of software and plugins for bloggers. Twelve years ago, I started a blog on Blogger BlogSpot. Today, there are better and faster blogging platforms you can use. I use and recommend a few hosting services like Wix, Bluehost, HostGator, Hostinger, Eukhost, etc (more on blog web hosts later). More on my story here: Let us get into the major aspect of setting up a blog in 2024. Starting a Blog for Free: A Step-by-Step Guide by Simon Taki Zaku How can you set up a blog for free? I have broken this entire guide into three steps. The first step is selecting a niche. The second step is selecting a web hosting service provider. The third step is setting up your blog in five minutes. Now, for this post, I am going to show you how to set up your blog using Wix and I'm going to show you why I prefer Wix over WordPress (even though WordPress is a better option in terms of features). Also, at the end of this post, I'll give you a free PDF guide that contains a checklist of all the pages and posts your new blog must have for it to rank in search results. This checklist contains the major pages you must create after setting up your website or blog. It is completely free and you can download it after this blog post. 1 - Selecting a Niche for Your Blog The first step is selecting a blog niche. This was one of the most difficult aspects for me because I never had a mentor to guide me on how to select my blog niche. Selecting a blog niche is very crucial. Just like starting a business, you must find a suitable space that can attract readers, customers, or clients. Just like a business, you come up with an idea with a profitable market. A market with customers, and clients and can grow. What type of blog is most profitable? As Pat Flynn said, starting a blog also requires the same energy as starting a business. You must pick a blog niche that is profitable enough and is also lucrative It means that the blog niche you are picking must have a huge enough audience that is interested in your blog market. Unlike years back when you could just start a fun blog as a journal where you could jot things or post stories without a plan or strategy in place. If you want to make money blogging, you must be able to pick a niche that is lucrative and has a huge audience you can tap into. Ask yourself… Are people only searching your blog niche or are they also willing to pay for products or services in your space? This is something I see a lot of bloggers get confused about. Selecting a blog niche must be profitable. A blog niche can be huge and popular yet not lucrative. A blog niche can have a lot of users searching for it and wanting to learn about it, but only a few people are willing to swipe their cards and pay for products or services. For example, if you start a music review blog, there are only a few ways you can earn money like sponsored ads, Google AdSense, and maybe sponsorships on music. But if you want to start a blog and make money as a beginner, you should go into something monetizable. For example, you can create courses, and digital products, sell software, join affiliate programs, and lots more to make money from your blog. Thankfully, I have a detailed guide on the profitable niches and how to select a profitable niche for your blog. I also included 30 of the most profitable blogging niches to consider today. Here is the blog guide: RECOMMENDED GUIDE: 30 Most Profitable Blog Niches + How To Find Profitable Blog Niches that Make Money. 2 - Selecting a Web-hosting Service for Your Blog (we use Wix for this Guide) The second step is selecting a web host perfect for your blog niche and the type of blog you want to publish. There are lots of beginner bloggers that I see making mistakes when it comes to selecting the best or perfect blog host for their websites. You see, not every web hosting service provider is the same. There are differences. They offer; different features, different pricing, different functionalities, different upgrades and or additional services. Here is a typical example. At the time of writing, GoDaddy does not offer the SSL certificate to domains for free. Users pay an extra fee to get the SSL certificate. Unlike with HostGator or Wix. With Wix, the SSL certificate is included as a free feature when you get a yearly premium plan on Wix. You should understand the features, and functionalities of some of the web hosting platforms before you go ahead to host your blog. From my experience, these are the best web hosting services for bloggers. These are also some of the popular ones most bloggers use and provide great reviews on. Wix Bluehost Namecheap EUKHost Hostinger (I am affiliated with some of the resources I recommend from personal experience. Thus I make a little commission if you decide to use my unique links to register at no extra cost to you) I use Wix, Bluehost, and Hostinger to host all of my blogs and my client's blogs. I use Wix because it is simple to use, cheap and it provides this Wix ADI feature which is an AI tool that sets up your website for you fast. I love the Wix ADI feature and the pricing plans. Secondly, Bluehost. I also use and recommend Bluehost because it offers more robust features because you can host WordPress which offers a lot of functionalities when it comes to blogging. Which is better, Wix or WordPress? Hosting your blog on WordPress offers a more versatile functionality than hosting it on Wix. However, I prefer to use Wix because it is simple and easy to use and design my website to my taste. Unlike Wix, WordPress is a little bit advanced and not so simple to navigate around or use. You need a little bit of experience to be great with WordPress. But if you want to go with WordPress then Bluehost or Hostinger are great platforms to consider. Hostinger also offers robust features just like Bluehost. But like Bluehost, it is a little bit technical to use compared to Wix. But if you prefer to host your blog on WordPress then Bluehost or Hostinger are great platforms to use. For this guide, I will be showing you a step-by-step plan on how to create a blog for free on Wix. Setting Up a Blog for Free: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Blog on Wix Now, when it comes to starting a blog on Wix, then it means you are in one of these categories: You do not have a Wix Website yet. You have a Wix website but want to install a blog to your Wix website. Let's start with the first which covers all the steps in the first and second categories of bloggers. How to Create a Wix Website: Step 1 - The first step to creating a blog on Wix is to create a Wix website. You can create a Wix website for free. To create a Wix account, head to Wix.com and sign up with your email address. You can also sign up using your Gmail account. Click on the “Blog” and then the Get Started button to create your Wix account. Put in your email address and confirm the email address. Choose a strong password and confirm. Or you can Continue with Google or a Facebook account. Now, you can use the Wix Studio which is great but a bit more expensive than the traditional Wix Editor. Let’s use the Wix Editor option. Today, Wix’s brilliant tool allows users to build their blogs fast, and here is how. Click on the “Start Chat” to begin using the Wix AI tool. Add as much information as possible to ensure you get the perfect taste for your new Wix blog. As you can see, Wix AI has already generated great, powerful words and phrases to use on my new blog. Next, click on the Go to Dashboard to proceed. You should be redirected to your official Wix dashboard. Now this is where you will be spending most of your time and hours as a new blogger. Let’s move to the next steps… Click the “design site” at the top right hand corner of your dashboard to design your site’s look. For this, let us allow Wix to create a site for you using the information you provided to Wix AI. Fill in and review your details and click Next to continue. Select your website design preferences and select Next. Select your Pages and your Wix site should be LIVE. You can click the Go to Editor button to edit your site, the ‘View Live Site’ to see how your new Wix website looks on the internet. Here how this very one we created looks like by visiting my unique Wix-hosted domain link (https://simonzaku.wixsite.com/simonwrites): I will leave this Wix website Live so you can view it to see exactly what we just created. Click here to visit the Free Demo Wix Website I just designed in this post. The next thing is to add the blog feature to your newly created Wix website. How to Integrate your blog into Wix: From this page, access your Wix Dashboard. NOTE: You can access your Wix dashboard from any device by visiting Wix.com and signing in to your Wix account. You will be automatically logged into your Wix dashboard where you can publish blog posts, edit website design, do SEO, add plugins, pages, and dozens more. Here is a typical Wix Dashboard: To integrate a blog to your new Wix website, navigate to the Apps section on your Wix Dashboard and click App Market. And this is what the Wix App Market looks like: Using the Wix App search bar, search for ‘Wix blog’. Click the Official Wix Blog App and Install it. To do this, click on ‘Add to site’. After installing the Wix Blog App. Click on the Go to Editor to add the blog section on your website. Here is how to do it; Click on the Add to Site and in a few seconds, the Wix Blog feature should be added to your newly created Wix website. You should see the ‘Blog’ section in your menu or at the top of your page. After creating your Wix blog, what do you do next? You plan and publish your first blog post. Luckily, I have a series of guides on how to write great blog articles, but here is the one I recommend: RECOMMENDED GUIDE: The Perfect Blog Post: Master the Art of Writing Irresistible Articles for Your Customers But here is a technical step-by-step process on how to publish a blog post on Wix. How to Create and Publish Your First Blog Post on Wix On your Wix Dashboard, navigate to the ‘Blog’ section located on the left sidebar. Navigate to the ‘Posts’ section and click Create New Blog Post. Add great content to generate traffic and social media shares from social media users. Click the Publish button to take your post live online. You can use the Preview button the view how the post looks before publishing. The sidebar (left) includes the Add, Settings, SEO, Categories, and Tags sections respectively. The Add section allows Wix users to insert images, videos, and other files within a blog post. The Settings allows users to view social media preview, author, and the preview image. The SEO section allows Wix users to properly optimize their blog pages for search engines like Google and Bing. Wix SEO does a great job of helping me optimize my blog posts before I publish. Today, my posts are doing great on Google and Bing. Add Categories and Tags to each blog post for better structure and SEO. What is Next for Your New Wix Blog? How do I get traffic to my new blog? How do I get traffic to my blog if I have 0 visitors? After setting up your blog on Wix or Bluehost, the next thing that comes to your mind is how you attract traffic to your blog. How do I get initial traffic to my blog? You need to see blogging as a business rather than an online journal. I mean, there are bloggers out there pulling out $100,000s monthly from their blogs. You can read how I can leverage this blog to make at least $1,000 per month from this blog. To run a profitable blog, you need leads. And to generate leads, you need traffic. Depending on the type of blog you want or how you want to monetize your blog, you can use adverts, display ads (like Google AdSense), or sell digital products. If you want to display ads, you might not need to process leads, attract leads, and convert leads. You might not necessarily need to nurture leads because you would be generating most of your revenue from visitors, from people who view your blog post on your web pages. I put more of my strength into creating my digital products to promote to my audience (you), but from time to time, I also publish display ads on the blog but at the moment, that only accounts for a small percent of my blog’s income. You see, there are some major ways bloggers generate income online. These are the two main categories of how bloggers make money: Display ads (could be from Ad companies or affiliate products just like I do on this blog). Digital products (eBooks, online courses, PDFs, memberships, files, etc). The first thing you want to take into consideration is the necessary pages, posts, and cornerstone pages that you need on your blog. Certain pages are important for boosting SEO, link building, visitor experience, great user experience, and all of that. Some of these pages are very crucial and allow you to rank better. (This introduces us to sitemap. One of the first things you want to do is submit a sitemap to Bing and Google, which are the two major search engines) These pages are your about page, your hire me (or hire us), your ‘store page’, and other major pages your type of blog or website requires. A cornerstone page is a major page on your website that you need vistas to go to when they come. That's majorly your sign-up or buy-from-me or your landing page, your major page on your site. So you can have two, three, four, or even ten, but it is best to keep it to a minimum. I see people creating pages, but that's wrong, it will hurt your SEO. Keep a few and then optimize them properly for search engines. These are the list of the necessary pages that you must create on your website. Here are the most important website pages every blog should have: Blog Homepage Privacy and Cookie Policy Pages Disclaimer Pages About me (or About us) Contact Page Services (or Store) Testimonial Page Pricing and Packages Features FAQ (frequently asked questions) Some of these greatly affect SEO. In fact, Google pays attention to a site’s page navigation: Some of these pages also help you with legal issues like Privacy policy, disclaimer, and cookie pop-ups. These are all the necessary pages to create on your website. I have included a free downloadable resource with all these pages so you can download it and when you are setting up your website you can refer to it and include all of these pages on your blog or your website. After creating these blog pages, how to generate traffic to my new blog. Generating traffic requires a lot of work and thankfully I have an effective strategy that works for beginner bloggers and expert bloggers to generate traffic. I use this to promote every blog post I publish (on my blog and my clients'). It is called the OSISR blog promotion technique. What is the OSISR blog promotion technique by Simon Zaku? The O stands for Outbound links. I link out to influential bloggers in my niche (SEO, B2B) and I email them to check out the posts to see their links. A good number will share your post on their social accounts. The S stands for Similar Post Sharers. I use Buzzsumo for this. I use Buzzsumo to automatically find users who have shared similar posts to mine and reach out to them. Buzzsumo allows users to extract social media users who have shared similar content to mine. I reach out to them and ask them to check my blog piece too. The next is the I, which stands for Influencers (social media influencers). For every blog post that goes live, I try to add an influential quote within my post. I then reach out to them to check it out. The S stands for Social Media Scheduling. To attract blog traffic, you must constantly post on social media. Social media barely generates traffic, so to maximize your followers, you need to regularly post. I use Buffer to schedule all of my social media posts across X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook, and Google Business Profile. The final step in the OSISR blog promotion technique is ‘Reach Community Networks. What are community networks and how can bloggers leverage them for traffic? These are other social directories and networks that let users share website and blog links on the Internet. Some of these are; Medium Quora and Quora Blog Facebook and LinkedIn groups Scoop it Discover Triberr (having a little tech glitch at the moment) Finally, which app is free for blogging? What is the best free blog maker? Wix WordPress Blogger BlogSpot Medium Blog Quora Blog Here is your free PDF guide which contains a checklist of all the pages and posts your new blog must have for it to rank in search results. FREE FILE: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE PDF FILE! Please share this on your Pinterest :) Have a productive day, my blogging friend. Simon T. Zaku Owner of simonzaku.com

Content is a channel through which brands, marketers, businesses, and content creators communicate and educate their audience. It is also one of the fastest channels to reach your ideal target audience without paying thousands in paid or social media ads. Unique content will help you attract and educate your ideal customers or clients, build trust (through a content marketing funnel), and get them to take action. Marketers use content to attract readers or viewers around a specific idea and hopefully get them to purchase your products or services. Digital agencies and startups today leverage content to distribute information and get the right marketing message to the right audience. You see, billions of people ask questions online. Think about the number of Google searches that go on each minute. That's a lot of possibilities for content thus why content is king. But over the past decades, with the evolution and change in the digital and content marketing space is content king? Some of the latest companies like Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and Google still leverage content to grow its user base massively. These companies have billions of users! Content is one of the easiest ways to get your marketing and sales messages. And unlike paid ads, you can create unique and helpful content for your customers. It is simply an organic channel to get your brand message out there. Startups like Buffer, UniclixApp, and Hubspot, have built a platform strongly using content. But in this short article, I want to explain why "Content" alone is not king and also share what is king. Let me show you why creating the best content may generate little to no leads or sales. Bill Gates's Big Lie: Dismantling the 'Content is King' Deception Years back, the phrase, "Content is King" was coined by Bill Gates (at least to the best of my knowledge - and research) in 1996. The phrase has since been widely popular amongst businesses, marketers, companies, and brands. Fast forward, content is unarguably one of the best ways to generate revenue on the internet as predicted by Bill Gates decades ago. During those times, you could publish content and it would rank on Google without much effort at all. That was why content alone was king. Today, the case is different, and I'll explain. Here's a practical example; Go to Google right now and run this search; "how to reduce weight" There are over 10 million search results for just such a term alone. There are millions and millions of results showing. Imagine creating content on "how to reduce weight" and hoping it will beat these results and rank on the first page. That's almost impossible because of the high level of competition for that keyword. There weren't so many websites to compete with. Content creators would easily create any content and easily rank. Today, billions of websites are also creating content. So I leave you with this question; "Is content king?" I mean, if you create content that does not rank and does not generate traffic, is it king? Why would you put effort into creating content that will not generate sales, customer traffic, and leads to your business or startup? There is way too much competition for "mediocre content". If 'content' alone cannot generate sales or leads, it is not king. If Content is Not king, What is? Content marketing is king in 2024. But how true is that statement? Content marketing is the process of promoting content to a specific audience to achieve a goal or an objective (usually visitors and sales). This could be through emails, ads, etc. Content marketing is the art of promoting content to a specific audience or market. The marketing and promotion aspect of this is the most important part. Companies like Buffer and HubSpot built a content empire through effective promotion. They created exceptional content and promoted it a lot. If you publish any form of content and do not promote it, how can you generate leads or sales? You may get a few signups, but is that enough to run your business or startup? What is the aim of creating content if it does not generate sales? The aim of creating good content is to market your business and achieve your brand goals. If your content does not rank or generate sales, then I would not say that content is king. Great content with effective marketing and promotion is king! Heard of the 80/20 rule? Spend 20% of your time and effort creating good content and spend 80% promoting that content. Content without an effective promotion strategy will not cut it. You may have the best content, yet miss out on a lot of traffic, leads, sales, and customers. Here's the thing... Content marketing is not just about sharing your articles on social media networks, Twitter, Instagram, and the rest. These strategies no longer work today and are not as effective. You need a tailored, bespoke content promotion or content marketing plan to be able to promote every single piece of content you publish. Like my friend Rob always says, treat every content like a business on its own. In Conclusion, Content Alone is Not King, Content is King when it Has an Effective Content Promotion Strategy Finally, this is sort of a controversial post, so if you, if you have a different opinion or you want to add up to what I said, then feel free to drop a comment below and join in. Feel free to also join my blog’s forum or newsletter for updates. Are you in need of a blog writer for your business, startup, or brand? You can contact me through the contact page or send me an email and I'll get back to you within 24 hours. Thank you for reading this far; Simon Taki Zaku Founder, SimonZaku.Com Email: simonzakucom@gmail.com

Hello, this is Simon Zaku, and today we will talk about a very popular topic: social media marketing agencies, also known as SMMA or SMMA Business. If you are considering hiring a Social Media Marketing Agency (SMMA) to grow and market your business on social media, this guide is for you. On the other hand, if you are considering starting a social media marketing agency, or what is called a social media marketing business, and growing it, I will also shed deep light on that. What is a Social Media Marketing Agency? To begin with, what is a social media marketing agency? A social media marketing agency or social media marketing company (also known as SMMA) is an agency-model business that helps brands, entrepreneurs, and other businesses generate results on different social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, SlideShare, Quora, and many more. Working with this type of agency allows you more time to focus on other aspects of your business. Social media agencies create social media posts and manage most of the social media management and social media marketing tasks for your brand or business. Social media marketing agencies (or SMMAs) are responsible for creating and managing your Instagram account, and Threads account, or publishing videos on your YouTube channel. SMMAs can also design your social media calendar, create accounts for your business, and handle the accounts on your behalf on a month-to-month or week-to-week basis. If you need support on your social media, a social media marketing agency can also take up this task. This is a powerful way to outsource your business tasks, such as social media marketing. Why do you need to hire a social media agency? Why Do I Need to Hire a Social Media Marketing Agency? Hiring a social media marketing agency comes with a lot of benefits. Over the years, I've worked with several social media marketing agencies and companies and have managed clients' accounts directly. 1) Your Business Can Access Expert-Level Social Media Experts and Professionals The first advantage of hiring a social media agency is gaining access to a team of professionals. Rather than handling your daily social media tasks like commenting, social media content creation, content publishing, and many more, you can hire and work directly with a social media marketing or management agency to handle these tasks professionally for you. A social media marketing agency is usually equipped with a team of professionals and resources that will help you effectively manage your social media accounts. 2) Businesses Spend More than 10 Hours Daily on Social Media Platforms, a Social Media Marketing Agency will Cut This! Another advantage of hiring or outsourcing your social media tasks is time. According to this research, businesses spend an average of 10 hours every week to manage their social media accounts. If you want to save time on social media and focus on other parts of your business, you should consider outsourcing your social media tasks to a social media agency. 3) Great ROI Against Monthly (or Value-Based Subscriptions) (or Value Packages) Cost efficiency is another factor to consider when working with a social media marketing agency. In the long term, hiring a social media marketing agency can be a great and lucrative investment, especially for lead generation and customer attraction. These agencies can effectively grow your business's social media accounts. 4) Building a Solid Social Media Strategy or Plan Requires Some Experience Strategic planning is also a benefit for your business. A social media agency consists of professionals for different social media networks. Rather than having just one person, you have a team that strategically plans your social media content. Content diversification (or content repurposing) on social media is now essential, especially for businesses. If you are thinking of creating content on multiple social media platforms like Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, Threads, and more, a social media marketing agency will help you plan effectively. Who is a Dedicated Social Media Account Manager in Social Media Marketing Agencies? Some social media agencies have dedicated team members for your business accounts. This is someone you can reach out and communicate with at any time. You might have one-on-one calls with this person (the account manager) to communicate your social media needs better. How Do You Hire an Effective Social Media Marketing Agency for Your Business? There is a lot of misinformation on the Internet about hiring a social media agency for your business. I created this simple guide for anyone who runs a business online and wants to outsource their social media marketing needs to an agency. NOTE: Need a freelancer to manage your social media accounts rather than an agency? You can contact me using the Contact Me page to discuss your social media needs. Step 1: Do Your Research. List three to five social media platforms that your target audience lives on. I have a detailed guide on how to select the best social media platforms for your business. This allows you to better select the perfect social media marketing agency for your type of business. Here: How to Choose the Ideal Social Media Networks for YOUR Business For example, if your platforms are Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, look for an agency that specializes in those platforms. Need more reels and YouTube shorts? Work with a social media agency that has these specific experiences in reels and YouTube shorts marketing/management. Step 2: List Your Social Media Marketing Goals. What are your business objectives? Your social media marketing goals should align with your overall business goals. What are you targeting as a personal or business brand? Your social media goals should align with your business goals to create social media campaigns that support them. Step 3: Use Google to Search "Social Media Marketing Agencies Near Me" Search for the best social media agencies around you on Google and different social media platforms. This helps you find a list of the top social media agencies in your area. Follow them, learn about them, and build a connection. Check their testimonials, references, and reviews online. Do not rush to hire any social media agency. Schedule a consultation, ask the right questions, and inquire about pricing. This should help you find the perfect social media marketing agency for your type of business. PART 2: Starting a Social Media Marketing Agency for Business What is an SMMA business? An "SMMA business" simply represents a Social Media Marketing Agency (SMMA) business. This is a type of business that offers social media marketing services to help businesses and online brands grow and succeed on different social media networks. So a social media marketing agency simply offers social media services, which includes followers growth, views, getting likes, and other social media tasks. What are some social media marketing services that social media marketing agencies (SMMA) offer? A social media marketing agency can offer Facebook ad services, account management services, followers growth, x management, LinkedIn management, or YouTube content creation services. Also, a social media agency could offer 2 or more of these social media marketing services on different social media networks. What is a Social Media Marketing Niche? Which niche is the best for SMMA? What is an SMMA niche? As an SMMA business, your niche is that specific part of social media you are knowledgeable in. Most times, social media marketing teams, and agency teams are usually focused on just 1 or 2 social media networks. So you should be able to find your niche. What social media platforms are your strengths? What social media networks do you have more experience in? Or as a social media marketing agency team, what does your team know more about? If you define your specific social media marketing agency niche, you can plan out your social media marketing services. This will also help you better package and sell your social media services to your social media marketing clients easier. The next thing is that I advise as a social media marketing agency is to learn about your industry. Learn about your competition. What other social media marketing agencies are near you? What other social media marketing agencies are providing the niche services you're providing? Who are the top dogs in that niche? You should be able to find and list 3 to 5 social media marketing agencies just like yours. How do you check your SMMA competitors? You can use free tools like Ubersuggest or Ahrefs to check important data about your competitor websites (other related social media marketing businesses around). You can also see their pricing, services offered, plans, and packaging. This way, you can use this to move to the next step, which is having a business plan. I'm not much of a business planner, so I decided to search the net and find you the best guides on how to create business plans. Here are 2 guides I recommend: How to Write a Business Plan Step-By-Step [Free Business Plan Template] How to Write a Business Plan: The Ultimate Guide The next step is to build your brand and build long-lasting relationships. Build Relationships that Build Your SMMA Brand. Once you set up your SMMA brand, create social media accounts. After creating accounts, you want to build your brand - this is why I advise blogging. Blogging is the easiest and fastest way to build authority and influence as a brand in any niche. So you can create blog content consistently as an SMMA business. Not sure how to begin? Here are social media marketing agency blog post ideas to brainstorm: SMMA Blog Content Ideas: What are some blog post ideas to publish as a Social Media Marketing Agency to attract social media clients? How to Manage Multiple Social Media Accounts Efficiently Case Study: How [Your Brand] Achieved [Result] with Social Media Marketing Creating High-Quality Content for Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide How to Create a Winning Social Media Strategy from Scratch How to Measure the ROI of Your Social Media Campaigns Top Social Media Trends to Watch in [Current Year] How Non-Profits Can Leverage Social Media to Drive Donations and Engagement The Future of Social Media Marketing: Predictions for the Next 5 Years How to Get a Client for Social Media Marketing? How do social media marketing agencies get clients? Run the following Google search and see what you get: "Should you hire a social media marketing agency?" OR "How much does it cost to hire a social media agency" Notice the websites that are on the top page of Google. These are mostly social media marketing agencies that are looking to build relationships with businesses looking to hire social media marketing agencies. They educate their readers and give them reasons why they should hire a social media agency. In the end, they offer a chance to connect, follow, or work with them. Get the logic? There are hundreds of thousands searching those 2 terms on Google each month. So as an SMMA business, you should be able to create useful blog content for your target clients consistently. This way, you'll be able to build brand authority as a social media marketing agency. This will then send social media marketing leads your way without having to send cold outreach emails. One advice I got from a social media expert who runs a seven-figure social media marketing agency business is this; "Focus on building relationships that will later build your business long-term rather than get that quick money". Once you focus on building social media relationships that help your business, you will be able to score leads and clients in the long run. FAQs Around Social Media Marketing Agency (SMMA) Business Can you make money with a social media marketing agency business? Yes, SMMA business is profitable, especially in this particular (post-COVID) time where people, businesses, brands, and entrepreneurs are leaning toward social media networks and online spaces for marketing. Social media networks are booming with a lot of users today. So digital marketing agencies and social media marketing agencies typically charge anywhere around $1,500 to $25,000 per client. So social media marketing agency business is profitable and also scalable as you grow. Can you start a social media marketing agency with no money? Yes, you can start a social media marketing agency with no money, but I do not advise that route. Instead, you can start a social media marketing agency with little money. You would want to build a website for your SMMA business. Or purchase a cheap domain or pay for a social media management and scheduling app like Buffer. You may also get a few hires to kickstart your SMMA brand. You may also want branded images designed. You can use premium or free AI tools as well. Finally, starting a social media marketing agency with no money is not easy but is possible. You can build your brand of social media networks, nurture leads, and get them to pay you for your social media experience or to manage your social media accounts. How do I get clients for my social media marketing? Create blog content consistently and grow your organic traffic. Social media ads are also great for attracting leads.

What is Hootsuite? Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows users to schedule, create content, view social analytics, and perform social listening all in one place. So rather than creating or using and switching from multiple platforms, and tools, Hootsuite offers an all-in-one platform for social media marketing and management. Hootsuite was created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. This social media management tool is one of the first social media management and scheduling tools. Hootsuite helps organizations, businesses, and freelancers, to organize, plan, and deliver enhanced social media tasks to their audience, their customers, or even clients. Hootsuite is useful for managing all of your social media accounts. But that is not all. Hootsuite offers a solution for data-driven marketing teams looking to organize their whole sales, content, marketing, and customer data in one place. What Hootsuite does is it helps businesses save time and get real results on social media. What social media results should I expect? According to Hootsuite, there has been a 636% increase year in and year out in terms of ROI for users who have signed up or who use the huge platform. There has also been a 500% growth across all social media networks for Hootsuite users and a 250% increase in sourced revenue year in and year out. This shows how effective and powerful the Hootsuite platform is. This is why it is often referred to as the number one social media management platform on the internet today. As I said, the platform has been created for the past 15 years. Until today, Hootsuite has over 1000 employees in different cities and is still going strong on more platforms. How many users does Hootsuite currently have? At the moment, Hootsuite has over 200,000 users, over 4000 enterprise customers, and 15 years of experience in the game. Hootsuite Features, Pros and Cons. Hootsuite Features: Publish and schedule Social media analytics AI content creation Best times to post Social listening Engagement tools Inbox and messaging Employee advocacy Social advertising Industries supported by the Hootsuite platform: Small business Financial services Government Healthcare Education Real estate Professional services Legal Agencies Nonprofit Hootsuite Resources: Free tools Case studies Webinars Blog Tutorials and demos Social media trends Courses FAQ Hootsuite Pricing: Hootsuite offers three (3) pricing plans to users: Professional [$99] Team [$249] Enterprise [Custom pricing] Features included in the Professional Plan [$99]: 1 User 10 Social accounts Unlimited post scheduling Best time to post recommendations Canva integration Hashtag generator One inbox for all social accounts Custom analytics and reports Competitive benchmarking tool Unlimited post boosting Features included in the Team Plan [$249]: Everything in the Professional Plan Plus: 3 Users 20 Social accounts Link in bio tool Suspend scheduled posts Team roles and permissions Assign DMs to teammates One custom-branded URL Automatic link tracking Features included in the Enterprise Plan [Custom pricing]: Everything included in the Team Plan, plus: 5 users 50 social accounts Approval workflow and asset mgmt. Content Library Automated engagement tools Single sign-on (SSO) Unlimited ad spend Free Hootsuite Academy training Level up with these add-ons: Advanced social listening Advanced analytics Advanced inbox Employee advocacy Now, let's talk about Hootsuite Education Hootsuite Education When it comes to resources, Hootsuite has; Academy section, The Hootsuite blog section, Resource library, Webinars, Hootsuite FAQ, App Directory, Help center and, Product Update center section. Hootsuite Academy offers users the opportunity to build their skills to take the next step in their professional careers. There are several certification courses you can join and learn for free. There are over 1 million courses delivered on the Hootsuite education platform. We have over 500,000 learners enrolled and over 1000 universities enrolled as well. Some of the Hootsuite Education Academy certification courses are; Hootsuite platform certification, Social media certification course, Advanced social media strategy. Use my unique (and secured) link to try the certification courses on the Hootsuite education platform. Other free training includes the Hootsuite platform certification training where you get to learn how to use and advocate the Hootsuite platform. We have a social media certification course, a social selling certification course, an advanced social media strategy, and more. There is also an advanced social media advertising certification course which will help you showcase your ability to create great social media ad campaigns with the Hootsuite social media Advertising dashboard. The next is the Hootsuite blog. The Hootsuite Blog I have been following for the past 6, or 7 years now. On the Hootsuite blogs, I've learned a lot. Hootsuite creates a lot of really amazing content and basically as an SEO specialist for blog content creation, I believe Hootsuite has a powerful content strategy. If you're looking to learn digital marketing, social media marketing, social advertising, SEO, and lots more, the blog section will help you to learn all of that. Here are the Pros of Using the Hootsuite Platform: An All-in-One Platform - Hootsuite allows users to manage multiple social media management profiles. It is also referred to as social media tools in one. Users can schedule posts, analyze social media performance, and perform social listening all in one place. Hootsuite's Time-Saving Features - Hootsuite helps users, and businesses save time by enabling social media scheduling of posts and automating various social media tasks. Detailed Social Analytics - The Hootsuite platform provides users with detailed social media analytics and data helping businesses track performance metrics, and measure social ROI, and content effectiveness. Hootsuite Supports Multiple Social Media Networks - Hootsuite supports a range of social media networks, including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, WhatsApp, and Threads (beta). Hootsuite's Flexible Pricing Plans - With three pricing tiers (Professional, Team, and Enterprise), Hootsuite offers flexible options tailored to different business sizes and needs. Hootsuite's Educational Resources - Hootsuite Academy offers certification courses and extensive resources, helping users enhance their social media skills and stay updated with industry trends. What are Some Cons/Disadvantages of Hootsuite High Cost - Compared to other social media management tools, Hootsuite’s pricing can be prohibitive for small businesses and freelancers, with the Professional plan starting at $99 per month, which may be out of reach for some users. Complex Interface - The platform's extensive features can be overwhelming for those unfamiliar with social media management tools (or Hootsuite). No Forever Free Plan - Hootsuite no longer offers a free plan, which might send potential users away as they might be looking for a cost-free social media management tool. Want to try Hootsuite Out? Use my unique and secure link. Finally, what are some frequently asked questions about the Hootsuite platform? What are Some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Around Hootsuite? What exactly does Hootsuite do now? Hootsuite is simply a social media management software that allows users to manage or handle social media management tasks daily. With the Hootsuite platform, users can curate content, schedule your content, you can edit your posts, and you can also publish your social media posts. You can also manage your teams, you can also view your analytics to be able to measure ROI all on this very one platform called Hootsuite. Is Hootsuite free to use? The Hootsuite free plan is no longer available and it was discontinued early last year, in 2023. So at the moment, there is no free Hootsuite plan but Hootsuite does offer a 30-day free trial. After 30 days, you are encouraged to sign up for any of the premium plans. Does Hootsuite have a CRM? Yes, Hootsuite has a CRM too. A CRM tool is simply a tool or software that allows users to convert prospects into contacts. In this case, you convert social prospects into business contacts. And this helps businesses to close and make more sales on social media platforms. Hootsuite is a social CRM built for businesses, entrepreneurs, and brands looking to grow on social media as their primary marketing platform. What platforms work with Hootsuite? Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads? Hootsuite supports all the major social media networks that we have today. We have Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, WhatsApp, and threads (beta). There are more platforms and social media networks currently in the beta test. How do I use Hootsuite for social media marketing? To begin with, social media marketing is the art of promoting a business, product, service, or brand on various social media platforms. To use Hootsuite for social media marketing, sign up by choosing a plan. Sign in to your Hootsuite account and connect all your social media profiles. Now, on your Hootsuite dashboard, you can create, schedule, and publish social media content at your desired time using Hootsuite. You can also view and manage all of your scheduled posts in a calendar on the Hootsuite dashboard. You can also monitor and engage with social media leads using Hootsuite. Who owns/created Hootsuite? Hootsuite is a social media management platform created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. Can I pay Hootsuite monthly? Yes, Hootsuite offers both monthly and annual subscriptions. Depending on what you want, you can choose the monthly or the annual subscription. Though the annual subscription saves you more, Hootsuite also offers monthly subscriptions as well. How easy it is to use Hootsuite? Hootsuite is easy to use and not hard to learn. The Hootsuite Academy is a free course you can use to learn about using and navigating around the Hootsuite platform and dashboard. And at the end of this Hootsuite Academy course, users are given the Hootsuite certification. And unlike many other social media management platforms, the Hootsuite Academy training videos are simple and easy to follow. Does Hootsuite offer support? Yes, Hootsuite offers one of the best customer support. You can use Hootsuite on various channels, and social media networks. Does Hootsuite have an application for the mobile version of iPhone and Android? Yes, Hootsuite is available on the App Store and Google Play Store. You can download the Hootsuite platform on the App Store here or on Google Play Store. At the moment, does Hootsuite offer a free trial? Yes, at the moment Hootsuite offers a 30-day free trial to new users. Are there some free alternatives to Hootsuite? Yes, there are several free Hootsuite alternatives you can try. We have; Buffer Smarterqueue MeetEdgar Contentstudio Crowdfire But my one top recommendation and favorite Hootsuite free alternative is Buffer. It offers a free plan with cheaper paid plans Hootsuite even though it offers limited features compared to Hootsuite. If you ever need to try out other social media management tools, I'll be posting reviews. So subscribe to the blog and I'll see you in the forum. Best, Simon Taki Zaku, Owner: Simonzaku.com

How I Outrank G2, Capterra, Bloggingio for Google's #1 SPOT (SEO Case study) Normally, I should have no chance of competing with these guys, right? Hi everybody, this is Simon Zaku and this is how I was able to outrank (and compete) with bloggingio, Captera.com, G2.com, and wpcrafter.com for Google's page 1. Now note that this result may vary depending on your search location, and some other SERP factors. Let me break down the process I use to create this blog content and outrank huge authority sites (with my Low-Authority website, simonzaku.com). SEOs and website owners wonder if a small website can outrank more authoritative websites with High DA. The short answer? Yes, it is possible with the right strategy, keyword, and timing (updates). This website has a low domain authority (implementing core white-hat organic strategies to grow my website's DA. (With a pretty high spam score). I made a mistake in 2020 when I paid for backlinks from a service (App) but got SPAMMY backlinks. And when a Google update came, my site was punished. I narrated the full story in this blog post on purchasing SEO backlinks. As you can see, traditionally, my site should not be able to outrank a site like Capterra.com or G2.com as these are huge websites with high domain authority. Also investing $1000s (or more) in SEO, backlinks, and content. Read this article carefully to see how: How I Outrank G2, Capterra, for this SEO Keyword w/ a 17 DA Website The first thing I did was to design a plan. What was my plan? I planned to write a review article that is simple to read through. Create a simple-to-read review on Cartflows and aim for the top spot. I got my keywords from Google Keyword Planner. I don't use too many tools for my keyword research. I targeted “Cartflows and Cartflows Alternatives”. The post is currently ranking on page 1 for both keywords, How did I try to make my content better? Analyzing the Capterra Page So looking at the Capterra Cartflows content, we can see that they didn't include enough text. Most of the texts on that page are short bios about the alternatives. So I did something different. I went a little bit more detailed on each Cartflow alternative. My next approach? I did my research to mention catflows alternatives that offer similar Cartflows features. So I did that and I think it is a great thing. Analyzing the G2 Cartflows Page Looking at the G2 page on Cartflows alternatives, we can see that they started by introducing Cartflows in a short text. The page then listed 10 alternatives to Cartflows. Both sites gave generic alternatives to Cartflows. So I wrote something different and simple-to-read for search engine users. Rather than create generic lists that aren't Cartflow alternatives, I listed tools that share major features with Cartflows. Analyzing the Bloggingio Cartflows Page - the Best I Saw Looking at the Bloggingio content, they listed the six best Cartflow alternatives in 2024. And they did an excellent job on the post. They have a detailed article, which is key, includes closely related tools, and explains each with screenshots. Even though the screenshots look blurry. Another thing is the article pays attention to price, pricing, and just making the sale. Even though it's good for marketing and generating sales, I believe every article should focus on showing the ins and outs of the tools rather than "How Much". So that was one thing I put down. Now, Bloggingio listed 6 Cartflows alternatives, why not 7? So I created a simple, easy-to-read guide on 7 Cartflows alternatives. Tip #1 - Video Content I included a YouTube video within the blog post. I noticed most ranking pieces did not have any video content. There was no video embedded within their pages. So I recorded and embedded a video in the blog post. Tip #2 - Easy-to-Read The blog content wasn't simplified. I wrote the article in (my) simple Nigerian English, and conversational tone for most to understand. (I always have a translator for my site so that visitors from anywhere can access and read my blogs in their native languages), Tip #3 - Included Lots of Screenshots I included screenshots for each of these alternatives. I'll regularly update this post with more screenshots and videos. I plan to create individual videos for each Cartflow alternative to make this more competitive and rank better on Google. And rank for featured snippets too. These tips helped me to create blog content that outranks huge, authority brand websites like G2.com, Capterra.com, and even Bloggingio.com. Do you want to learn my specific blog writing strategy that has allowed me to rank dozens of blog pages for competitive SEO keywords? Join this free SEO course to learn and see exactly how (no sign-up required). I hope to see you inside. Purchase SEO blog posts, Contact me Pre-order articles.

What is the best SEO agency near me? SimonWrites SEO is near your business! If your website or business is not generating at least 10,000 clicks from search engines monthly, you leave money on the table. You can scale to 6 figures by leveraging pages you already have. Think millions as a business. My name is Simon Taki Zaku and I want to introduce you to my SEO agency, SimonWrites SEO, nearest to you - haha, we're remote! What is SimonWrites SEO Agency? On this page, I detail the story behind my SEO agency, SimonWrites SEO, how I got started, what sets this SEO Agency apart from others, and how you can apply to work with us (not open to all). The Story Behind My SEO Agency How did I get the idea to start the SimonWrites SEO Agency? Sometime back, I landed 3 blog writing and marketing clients from this very blog. All within a month. This immediately got me thinking about how important and relevant blogging and SEO writing are to online businesses, startups, and brands. Most people today are aware of the importance of blogs & content marketing to their brands. Blogging is still one of the strongest forms of content marketing today. I carefully thought about it and decided to START A UNIQUE BLOGGING AGENCY! And since you are part of my community, I decided to let you know first. What is SimonWrites SEO and What Do We Do for Our Clients? SimonWrites SEO is an SEO agency I started that offers specialized on-page SEO services, blog writing, management, and keyword research to small and medium-sized businesses, software startups, e-commerce websites, and organizations. Who do we work with? At SimonWrites SEO, I intend to work with entrepreneurs, small to medium-sized businesses, b2b startups, and other digital agencies to research, write, publish & promote top-notch, search-engine-optimized blog posts and pages to grow organic reach and clicks. Why is SimonWrites SEO the Number #1 SEO Agency? What is the number #1 SEO Agency to hire? In short terms, SimonWrites SEO is the best SEO company near you as we are a remote agency. And yes, I will be a little biased here but I'll prove why this SEO agency is different. You see, to ensure, SimonWrites SEO does not get mixed in the pool of SEOs, I decided to switch things up and give our SEO clients what no other SEO agency can offer. Here's what sets SimonWrites SEO apart from hundreds of other SEO agencies out there; For this SEO agency, I want it to be known for and built on integrity and professionalism. SimonWrites (or SimonSEO) is known for extensive research and conversational content that connects deeply with readers. SimonWrites SEO will be built strongly around great relationships with our SEO clients. I do care about my clients' business and (to an extent), personal life. My client's well-being in general is my top priority as an SEO consultant. SimonWrites is known for in-depth research, quick search rankings, (strictly) white-hat SEO strategies, and detailed blogs that align with the client’s overall business goals, objectives, and customer needs. At SimonWrites SEO, we not only handle your SEO, blog, or writing tasks but also do the necessary Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to grow your website, business, or startup site to at least 10,000 monthly organic visitors within 1 to 3 months. SEO and Content marketing are key to online success but there are loads of startups out there who either don't know how to go about it or are too busy handling other aspects of their businesses (product development, customers, etc). How to Work With SimonWrites SEO Agency? We are currently open to taking in 5 to 10 SEO clients before the year runs out. How do you apply SEO services from SimonWrites SEO? Before you apply, there are certain criteria we look for before working with our clients. Unlike other SEO agencies that take up clients in various niches, industries, or markets, we are different. Here are what you should consider before applying to work with SimonWrites SEO: We only take on SEO clients within the B2B, tech/SaaS, and E-commerce industries. Our expertise revolves around these markets hence limit our spots to these types of businesses. We offer one-off SEO projects and long-term or monthly retainer SEO projects as well. So if your business understands the longevity in SEO and wants the long-term monthly retainer SEO package, you can apply (below). On the other hand, if you have a website and want a one-off SEO package, we are open to working with you as well. Finally, budgets: To ensure we are a unique SEO agency and different, I designed our SEO packages differently and most value attached. Each business, website, or brand is different. So we tailor our services according to each client's unique SEO budget. But our SEO packages range between $800 to $4,500 monthly. Are you the right fit for our next SEO case study? Jump on a call to find out. How to Work with SimonWrites SEO Here is how to work with SimonWrites SEO Agency: Fill out the survey form on this page (embedded below) or click here to fill it out. This form includes questions to allow us to be sure you are a great fit to turn to our next SEO success. You will get an email with a copy of your form answers. Expect a call, text, or email from me within 24 hours to better understand your needs and how we can change your business through SEO. My SEO team and I look forward to helping you hit your business goals, and attract organic traffic, leads, and sales from our SEO efforts. Are you interested in our SEO services but have other questions or need clarifications? You can email me at simonzakucom@gmail.com or simonwritesagency@gmail.com. Is anyone looking for a result-focused SEO agency? Feel free to share this post with them :) It will mean a lot to me (and the growing team). Hoping to hear your thoughts, my SEO friends :) OUR BLOG: simonzaku.com/blog/ Contact Email: simonzakucom@gmail.com Have a productive day and talk to you soon, Best, Simon Taki Zaku Founder: SimonWrites SEO Agency. Website: simonzaku.com Email: simonzakucom@gmail.com, Simonwritesagency@gmail.com.

This guide will help you craft a winning strategy from the start - coming up with the best ideas for your roundup posts, getting social media influencers to participate, to spreading the word out to as much as possible to attract traffic to your brand website. Table of Content (click to navigate); STEP 1: How to pick a topic for your roundup post. STEP 2: How to find the right influencers for your roundup post. STEP 3: Reaching Out. The Last Step in Mastering Expert Roundup Blogging How to Create an Expert Round-up Post in 3 Steps Here is my 3-step process: Step 1: Pick a Topic for Your Expert Roundup Post: To hit the jackpot and get thousands of tweets and social media shares on your expert roundup blog post, you need to create something outstanding - something that will leave media influencers jaw-dropped. Approximately 5 years ago, I was sitting on my couch at home during the summer break from school extremely frustrated because I didn't know what to blog about. I went on Google searching for ways to find content ideas to blog about. I stumbled on Sue Anne’s successfulblogging.com and signed up for her “Your first $1,000 webinar”. I showed up for the webinar but was attracted to JUST ONE (1) THING… EXPERT ROUNDUPS! It immediately lit a bulb in my head and I'm like “Ooh, I'll do this”. I then immediately came up with my first headline (topic), X CEOs REVEAL THEIR NUMBER 1 TACTIC TO MANAGING THEIR TWITTER PROFILES WITHOUT WASTING MUCH TIME, within a few minutes. First Draft Topic: 60 CEOS REVEAL THEIR NUMBER ONE TACTIC TO MANAGING THEIR TWITTER PROFILES WITHOUT WASTING MUCH TIME. Here are things I considered when I came up with this title; - I wanted to help people manage their Twitter profiles - what topic would tie to this? “Twitter management”, "Twitter automation", "and Twitter tools". - I wasn't going to target everyone - I wanted to work with companies, businesses, and brands; targeting “CEOs”, "Managers", "Directors", etc, came up. - I needed to solve a specific problem; “managing Twitter without spending much time” came up. Get the idea now? Think about the products or services you sell. Brainstorm topic ideas directly related to it and are what your target audience will want to consume. In my case, it was "CEOs" and "Managers". Next, think of one unique problem that your product or service solves and pull out a topic around it. Don't worry about your title being Google or SEO friendly, just put some ideas down. With keyword research, I adjusted my title to; TWITTER AUTOMATION: 62 EXPERTS REVEAL THEIR AUTOMATION SECRETS AND TOOLS. The baseline? In my case, I switched my headline from the first to the latter after I got participation from about 10 to 15 influencers. Make use of Keyword tools like Google Keyword Planner to come up with ideas for an optimized title. Expert roundup posts generally climb up quickly on search engines. My first expert round-up ranked on page #2 on Google for the highly competitive keyword, "Twitter automation" within 3 weeks. Why? Influencers who participate are going to share your roundup post and 1000s are going to visit your website. Thus you need to be very careful and make sure you use this opportunity to get the targeted influencers! After getting a few topic ideas for your expert roundup, you can begin finding social media influencers to reach out to for the roundup. Step 2: How to Find the Right Influencers for Your Expert Roundup Post: How to Find Social Media Influencers that’ll Most Likely Participate in Your Expert Roundup? When I started finding influencers interested in participating in my expert roundup blog post AND also connecting with me, I didn’t do any research or plan out a strategy to find the perfect influencers. What I did was I used buzzsumo.com, to pull off every influencer that had certain keywords or had a certain number of following/influence. You may get connected with social media or niche influencers who are not interested in roundups. You might even piss them off with annoying reachouts or emails and follow-ups. Worst of all, it takes a lot of time and energy to do these email reachouts. Here's a simple hack; “Finding Influencers who have already participated in similar weekly roundups or expert roundups” Finding Influencers that have participated in similar roundup posts is the best way to pull off influencers that will most likely say YES to your requests. Why? Because they have already shown interest in roundups. Use Google and run “[your niche] + experts reveal their best secrets“. For example, if I’m to find travel experts to build relationships with for my expert roundup post, I’ll run the following: “travel experts reveal their best secrets”. "top 10 travel experts" "travel expert secrets" Get the idea? Now carefully go through some of these roundups (in your niche) and keep a list of experts that have participated; I use Excel for keeping all things LISTS. STEP 3: Reaching Out: Next, let's look at how to find the best ways to reach out to every social media influencer in your reachout list, what your reachout email should contain, and what to do after publishing your roundup. Are you ready? Good! How to Reach Out to Popular Bloggers and Make them Participate in Your Round-Up. When I was starting, I didn't have any strategy for reaching out to influencers. I didn't even have a list so I made a lot of mistakes which caused me a ton of wasted effort and time. I've broken down this entire process into 3 steps: 1) Finding their best contact details. 2) Crafting a reach-out template and then reaching out. 3) Post Publishing. 1. Finding their contact details: When I started, this caused me a ton of wasted hours and energy. I spent much time finding the best email addresses to reach social media influencers. Here's the thing: Influencers hate SPAMMY emails so most times, they keep their email addresses a little private. This makes it hard to find their email addresses but there's a solution… Contact Pages or Contact Forms! They hardly hide their Contact Me pages and that's where you get to reach out without having to spend so much time finding private email addresses, phone numbers, etc. Both messages sent [using their Contact Me pages OR personal email addresses] mostly land in the same inbox. Head over to their websites or blogs and find their Contact Me pages. Most times, it's either at the footer or the menu of their websites. That's how I got social media and blogging moguls like Jeff Bullas, Sam Hurley, Leonard Kim, Noah Kagan, Evan Carmichael, Keith Keller, Ryan Biddulph, Adam Connel, etc, to participate in my expert roundup. 2. Crafting a Reach out Template and then Reach out: After putting together your Excel list of names of experts, their websites, and contact-me page links, it's time to craft a winning reach-out template to use. Do not make the mistake of typing different emails for each influencer. That's a big waste of time. Just craft 1 or 2 email templates and edit them for each influencer. Here are the exact templates I used during my reach outs; __________ Hello, Madalyn. Simon here from simonzaku.com. I'm putting together this huge round-up guide that'll feature a lot of experts about Twitter marketing. Experts like Sam Hurley, Keith Keller, Katherine Sullivan, Samantha Kelly, Ryan Biddulph, Adam Connell, and a couple more have participated already. Mind sharing with us too? Just a few lines will do perfectly if you're out of time. Just let me know so I'll send over the round-up question. Btw, thanks for the follow on Twitter via @s_zakuu Best, Simon. ___________ Hi Sam! I'm Simon from simonzaku.com. I'm putting together a huge round-up guide about how to save time on Twitter. Experts like Sam Hurley, Noah Kagan, Evan Carmichael, Leonard Kim, Keith Keller, Mark Schaefer, Madalyn Sklar, Rebekah Radice, Katherine Sullivan, Samantha Kelly and exactly 40 more have participated already. Mind sharing with us too? Just a few lines will do perfectly. Here's the question: "What's your number 1 secret to growing and managing your Twitter brand w/o wasting much time?" Best, Simon. ___________ Hello, Rebekah. Simon here. I'm putting together this huge round-up guide of successful & expert entrepreneurs, bloggers, and marketers all over the globe for my website. A little different from the gazillion of expert roundups. Marketing gurus like Sam Hurley & Katherine Sullivan have participated. Mind sharing a few words with us too? Best, Simon (s_zakuu). __________ Follow Up Email _________ Hello, Sam! I reached out to you days back about a huge round-up I'm putting together on how to save time on Twitter. A lot of top experts like Sam Hurley, Leonard Kim, Noah Kagan, Evan Carmichael, Keith Keller, Mark Schaefer, Madalyn Sklar, Rebekah Radice, Katherine Sullivan, Samantha Kelly, Ryan Biddulph, Adam Connell and exactly 43 more have participated already. I’m just following up to see if you've gotten the email :) Here’s the question once more: "What's your number 1 secret to growing and managing your Twitter brand w/o wasting much time?" Deadline: 30th of Sept. 2023. Best, Simon (s_zakuu) ________ Follow-up emails are crucial for any cold email reach-out campaign. About 60% of the social media influencers I emailed replied after a follow-up. 3. Post Reach Out: How Do You Promote Your Expert Roundup Post: This is a chapter from my premium ebook but I decided to add it up here for free. Aside from hitting up the experts who participated and telling them it was life, I promoted the content to even more people. After publishing my first blog post which was my expert roundup article, what I did was I started reaching out to people who've shown similar interest. These are people who've shared similar content, commented on similar content, or even engaged with any similar tweeted content. For the sake of this blog article, I'll be showing you how to find and reach out to users who've tweeted or shared similar content to yours. One thing I love about this strategy is that you can use it for other regular articles on your blog too. The goal here is to find and reach out to at least 50 people interested in your type of content. As I said, these are people who have tweeted similar blog content to yours. You find them, pull out their email addresses, and reach out to them. The first thing to do is to find similar articles to your round-up and I recommend using Google searches here because it's the fastest; don't use tools. Head over to Google and search for the keyword(s) your blog article is targeting. If you're targeting “beauty for teenagers”, run the phrase on Google to find content that already ranks for it. So let's say the title of your post is “10 Ways to Make Money Online”, I'll Google “Make Money Online”. Pick the top 5 results and keep them in an Excel file. The next step is to find people who have tweeted out those 5 articles and when starting, I used buzzsumo to pull out these users FOR FREE! Buzzsumo offers a free trial period which I jumped on during that time. (I just confirmed they offer a 7-day free trial). Head over to buzzsumo.com and sign up for their free trial. After setting up your account, you'll be able to log in to your dashboard using the email and password you used. On your dashboard, navigate to the “Content Analyzer” tab and insert any of the 5 article links above then search. Click on the “Twitter sharers” tab and export the list to Excel (or CSV). Repeat these for all the 5 articles above and you should have a long list of 100-250 people that have tweeted similar content. Reaching out to 250 or even 100 people is a hell of work because you need to find their email addresses and websites. You can find good and super cheap freelancers on fiverr.com or freelancer.com for this. But here's the thing; If you're like me, you shouldn't outsource everything (including reaching out) to freelancers. They can find email addresses, websites, and social links... while you handle email. This is so because some freelancers don't have experience with cold email reachouts. To be sure you're not outsourcing this vital task to someone who might jeopardize everything, it's better to do it yourself. Reach out to 10-15 people every day. Reduce this number to 5-7 if you're out of time. The Last Step in Mastering Expert Roundup Blogging Now, here's the plain truth about reaching out to busy social media influencers… The majority of the bloggers you'll reach out to will not participate. Most times, 70-80% of influencers you email will not participate. It won't matter how good your reachout template or email is. It won't matter how enticing your round-up topic is. It also doesn't matter how you try to persuade them to participate OR how many times you follow up. The majority will still not participate! Want to know the simple reason? I wasn't building any genuine relationship with them. During my expert roundup project, the few influencers I had built relationships with, participated without hesitating. Why? Because they knew me… They've already gotten emails from me… Whenever the name, Simon Taki Zaku, pops in their inbox, they already know me. Purchase the Full Book I Wrote: How I Built Relationships with 100 Popular Social Media Influencers in a Year Most times, influencers don't even open any email from any name they don't recognize. Yes, a lot do that! “Building Relationships with Popular Influencers takes a lot of time, when will I publish my round-up” When you do a quick Google search on how to build relationships with popular bloggers, most of what pops up revolves around… Comment frequently on their blogs… Join their newsletter… Tweet out their blog posts… Follow them on Twitter… All of these are good and work great but the thing is, they take a lot of time to work out. I will introduce you to a simple strategy to get connected to as many influencers as you like. This simple strategy doesn't require you to be friends with popular bloggers before asking them to participate in your round-up. I missed out on this strategy when I started. It was when I was almost done with my round-up that I came up with this strategy. This isn't another strategy that will take days, weeks, or even months to work… You can start applying the strategy right after you learn it. Yes, it's that simple… In my book, How I Became Friends with 100+ Popular Bloggers in One Year, I walk you through this very strategy to help you get as many influencers to participate in your round-up post. Click here to grab a copy of the book for $9.97 right now and start making friends with super popular bloggers. This was something I wish I had offered when I was starting. The book is just $9.97 but I'll be raising the price this weekend because I've gotten feedback that the strategy is worth more than the price. Here's what Amy from NeededInTheHome.com has to say… "This eBook is a quick read and a great value for the price. Simon's creative thinking when it comes to networking just can't be beat. There are some ideas that most people do not think of. Yet after you learn the method, it makes perfect sense and you think, now why didn't I think of that, it's so simple, and yet I missed it! He applies this to bloggers, but I think this could be applied to other business situations as well. My favorite idea is saving the blogger time with the idea of the links. You will have to read that section to see what I mean. I would love to have someone save me time in that way and it would create a great impression in my mind." Here's what you'll learn in this ebook: How I easily get on any influencer’s radar [no matter how popular or busy he or she might be] Actionable strategies that I used to make popular bloggers notice my new blog [with one post] How I began exchanging emails back and forth with 15 popular bloggers all in less than a week [with just 1 secret strategy] How I got some of the most populous bloggers and marketers on the internet to participate in my roundup post [even when I was a total stranger] The strategy that led to over 1,000 social shares on my FIRST blog post [on this very blog] in less than a week of publishing Most of all, how to become friends with extremely popular bloggers in your niche. Click here to grab a copy of the book for $9.97 right now and start making friends with super popular bloggers.

How do you write an outreach email? Does cold email outreach still work today? The short answer is YES but not as it used to be! As a beginner SEO, I made so many mistakes reaching out to clients for my SEO services. At that point, I knew I needed to change my approach. I knew I needed a better strategy to reach out to influencers and potential clients. I started trying new cold outreach strategies and was able to collaborate (and get replies) with some of the most influential people in my space. Let me explain what a cold email reach-out is. What is a Cold Email Outreach? (cold call/text) What is a Cold Email Outreach? A cold email reach out in simple terms, is an e-mail, a text, or a call whereby a party is getting in touch with another party that is not necessarily familiar with them to start a connection with which might be beneficial in the long run. If you're reaching out or emailing a business owner, or anyone who does not know you, then that is called a cold email reach out, a cold, DM, or a call. What is a warm email in business or sales? What is a Warm Email Outreach? A warm outreach e-mail is any reach-out sent to someone you've already built a degree of acquaintance, friendship, or establishment with. And that is where the secret lies. It's easier to get replies from people who already know you than people who do not know you, so unlike cool reach out. Unlike a cold reach-out, this is you sending an e-mail, DM, or text to a lead or influencer who already knows you or is familiar with your brand. What is my cold reach-out strategy? My Cold Outreach Strategy - the VCR Outreach Strategy It's simple. My cold reach-out strategy involves a couple of tasks on social media like X, Instagram, LinkedIn, etcetera. Before emailing any lead or influencer, I hit the influencer either on LinkedIn, X, or Instagram. I also follow their brand on LinkedIn, reply to some of their tweets, repost Instagram posts, and tag them. 5-Step Hack to a Powerful Cold E-Mail Outreach Campaign that Gets Results Here are the 5 steps to sending powerful cold outreach emails that generate replies quickly: Step 1: Make Your Email Reach-out List. Step 2. Build Pre, Reach out Rapport. Step 3: Create & Find a Perfect Template Step 4: Start Reaching Out Using My Unique Strategy Step 5: Follow-up After 3 to 5 Days. Let’s go through; Step 1: Make Your Outreach List (step by step) Can cold emails get clients? At some point in my digital marketing and SEO career, I decided to reach out to 1000 businesses to pitch my social media marketing services. But even after reaching over 1000 businesses, not a single one converted. a client. For that campaign, I went on Fiverr and paid a freelancer to get me thousands of random leads (never do this) for me to reach out to. Not a single one converted! How to Find Lucrative Leads to Reach out to in 5 Minutes This is a Quora Strategy. I call it the Quora Hack. What I do is I head over to Quora.com and find keywords that my target SEO clients are searching for on the Q and A platform. Quora is a platform that allows people Internet users to ask any questions and get answers from experts on the platform for free now, for instance, since I'm looking for businesses in need of SEO, blog writing, and marketing services I search for. "Should I hire a content freelance writer or a freelance content writer for hire?" Or "What are the benefits of writing or hiring a content marketer?" I get to find real Internet users who are looking for my SEO services. I also get to find my clients' ideal pain points and I can easily reach out to them through social media platforms. Next step? The next thing is I get the names of the users asking these questions on Quora or other community forums and I try to find a little more information about them. This way I have an organic leads list that is that is most likely going to convert. Finally, I get freelancers for $5 to find their social media handles, working e-mail addresses, websites, Google profiles, etc. This way I can build rapport with leads even before I reach out. This leads us to the second step in the VCR Outreach Strategy. Step 2. Build Rapport with Leads (Pre-Reach-out). Building rapport is crucial because this will increase the chances of getting a reply from your cold email campaigns. You can almost always guarantee that you will get a reply. This may not convert to clients or sales all the time, but will most likely get a positive reply. With social media platforms like X, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc, you can easily build connections with anyone on your pre-reach-out list. How exactly do you do this? How exactly do I do this? Here is my cold reach-out strategy: Step 1: Follow the lead on Instagram and comment on their recent IG post or IG reel. Step 2: Follow their feed on LinkedIn and send a personal connection request (never pitch here). Step 3: If a connection request is accepted, send a warm introductory message letting them know who you are. And don't forget, do not sell to them yet. Step 4: Ask for their permission to email them your idea. The next step is to create a perfect template for your reach-out. Step 3: Create or Design 2 to 5 Email Templates that Work This is where it gets tricky. Getting the perfect template you can use can be challenging but if you understand the concept of reaching out. I mean, if you can keep your template short, concise, and straight to the point, you're definitely on the right track. Influencers barely have the time to check and read long emails. This is why long emails do not work. I do not advise anyone to use long emails. I mean they get dozens and dozens of emails every day. Yours has to stand out from the pool of emails. You see, the first thing to understand is the concept of titles, headlines, and subject lines. Keeping your emails short, concise, and straight to the point will increase your conversion rates. Step 4: Sending Video Outreach Emails - the Video Cold Reach-out Formula (VCR) What is the VCR technique for writing cold outreach emails? VCR in outreach marketing means the 'Video Cold Reach-out' hack. This strategy I coined involves creating unique and personal videos for each lead to watch. Why not record short selfie videos or short audio, upload them on a cloud storage, and email them links? This way, they would trust you faster. If you get this, it means you would create videos rather than write long emails that may end up in the spam folder. I got this strategy from Brian Harris of VideoFruit and this turned out to be one of the best email outreach strategies I have used over the years. Example of VCR Outreach Strategy in action: Let's say, I want to reach out to Brian Harris for my SEO and blog writing services. I shoot a 20 to 60-second video on how I can help his company or startup leverage content marketing to generate more traffic leads and hopefully convert them into customers. Do you get the idea? Rather than sending random texts in the form of e-mail, you show yourself and explain what you can do. This way people will easily trust you and reply to you. Even though it may not immediately turn to sales, you will most likely get replies which is very powerful because: You show yourself, You physically explain your work, You avoid long emails Get more opens. Step 5: The Final Step, the Follow-up Stage. I've made a good return on investment just by following up on potential leads that I have reached out to who may have not opened my emails or haven't replied. I use a free email tracking tool that tracks e-mail opens and e-mail clicks to find out who has opened my emails, who hasn't clicked my links, and all of that. What I do is I find a great title resend a great subject line and resend a follow-up e-mail after three to seven days per lead. To make this even more effective, I do this with another video. If you're not comfortable making videos, you can make audio recordings. I also use audio recordings and they work well. You need Google Drive and make a recording or even your iPhone and make a recording and send a link to the influencer to see how you can help them. I do this with another video saying something like; "Hey, I noticed you haven't opened my last e-mail. I know things can be overwhelming sometimes and you might be caught up with work and busy but I'd deeply appreciate it if you spared 30 to 60 seconds to check this video that I made for you. Thank you so much and I hope to hear back from" Don't forget to keep your emails brief. Have a productive day, my friend! Simon T. Zaku

What is SEO and how does it work? This blog page defines SEO in detail. Even as a complete beginner with no prior knowledge of SEO or Search Engine Optimization, this page defines it. TABLE OF CONTENT (Click to Navigate): What is Search Engine Optimization? What is Organic Traffic? What is Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) SEO Examples Importance of Search Engine Optimization The Types of SEO Frequently asked questions (FAQ) around the question, "What is SEO" or "What is search engine optimization". What is Search Engine Optimization? What is SEO? SEO stands for Search [S] Engine [E] Optimization [O]. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing or orienting a website, application, video, or online store to improve the quality and quantity of organic search traffic and visibility. What is Organic Traffic? What is Organic traffic? Organic traffic refers to website visitors that come from unpaid sources. Unlike paid adverts that send paid traffic, organic traffic is web visitors from unpaid sources like search engines or social media posting. What is Organic search traffic? Organic search traffic are website visitors that come from unpaid search engine results pages (SERPs). Unlike paid Google ads, organic search depends on pages that rank naturally for search keywords. What is Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) What are Google Search Result Pages or SERPs? A search engine result page (SERP) is an entire page in a search result. Search engine optimization involves taking a website, YouTube video, or social media profile to the top of search engine results pages. SEO Example: Search "how to lose weight" on Google. Personal trainers, gym specialists, and weight-loss businesses will optimize their websites to rank at the top of search engine results pages like these. This way, their target clients, (weight-loss clients) can visit their websites. SEO Examples: Let me use my website as an example: As an SEO specialist, I write content on "why you should hire a freelance SEO rather than an SEO agency" and then I optimize the page to rank on the first page when users search for that on search engines like Google. Get the idea? SEO Example: Let us check and see how many people search for "buy men's shoes" on Google. Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that allows you to do this. There are millions of people searching for keywords related to that each month. Why is SEO important now? Importance of Search Engine Optimization Google is the biggest search engine in the world. And with Google, there are billions of searches every single day. At the moment, there are 8.5 billion Google searches per day. That is a huge market businesses should tap into. Here is why Google or organic search traffic is the best traffic to attract to your website: Unlike social media advertising, where someone is on social media brands have to interrupt to pitch or sell a product or service. With SEO, a user already has a problem (want to lose weight) OR: how to find the best shoes to buy (need shoes), best Valentine's gifts to buy (presents are special). best hotels near me (traveling, need a hotel) SEO services near me (have a website, and need customers through organic traffic) Search engine users are more likely ready to purchase a product or service. They already have a problem that they are aware of and want to solution to. There are over 8 billion searches on Google every day. If you can harness and attract just a percent of search engine users to your website, then you can build your business off organic traffic. The Types of SEO What are the types of SEO? SEO has several specialties, but here are the major ones website should focus on: On page SEO, Off-page SEO, SEO writing, Technical SEO, Backlinks, Outreach, Guest blogging. FAQs on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Frequently asked questions (FAQ) around the question, "What is SEO" or "What is search engine optimization". How do you do SEO as a beginner? As a beginner, I do not advise to rush into SEO. SEO is a long-term game and as a beginner, the best advice I have for you is to keep learning, increase your knowledge, and focus on growing as a search engine optimization professional. For starters, you can pick a specialty in SEO - like SEO blogging, backlink building, Guest posting, or, technical SEO. How do I do SEO for my website? The first thing I tell my SEO clients is this; when you want to do SEO for a website, you need to be sure if you are skilled enough in SEO or not. If you're not skilled in SEO, focus on building your skills as an SEO by going through resources, learning materials, and going through certification courses. (and subscribe to this website/blog too :). Want to outsource SEO for your business, website, or company? Outsourcing SEO will save you a lot of time and you can SEO specialists that are experienced. (Looking for an SEO specialist, feel free to email me and I will get back to you. What is the main purpose of SEO? The main purpose of SEO is to rank for target keywords and increase your organic rankings on search engines which attracts qualified leads, traffic, and customers, and also brand awareness. According to research search engine traffic is more ready to purchase than other marketing platforms. How do you write SEO content or how do you write SEO blog content? As an SEO blog writing specialist, I would say the first thing you want to do is to get familiar with blogging, learn about blogging, learn about content creation, learn about writing copywriting, learn about writing content, learn about keyword research, and from there you can begin going into writing content that is perfect for SEO. Can I learn SEO for free? Yes, you can lend SEO for free. As there are various certifications and free courses online. I recommend the Hootsuite, and Semrush free course and certification education programs where you can learn SEO for free. And, read/subscribe to this blog! How long does it take to learn SEO? SEO, as I said, is a long-term game and several online courses cover the basics. Some cover the advanced learning or the technical learning aspects of SEO. If you can invest (which is worth it), you can pay for quality online courses and education to advance your knowledge in search engine optimization. But basically, it usually takes several weeks to a few months to get fluent in SEO. But if you want to become a professional and advanced SEO specialist or an SEO, then you need to invest at least six to twelve months of trial and error. Find companies and even do SEO as a volunteer to gain experience. What is an example of SEO? I wrote a blog page on the best Cartflows alternatives and optimized the page for search engines. The page is a few months old and is already on the first page of Google for "Cartflows", "Cartflows Alternatives", and Cartflows vs Clickfunnels. You can Google search any of these keywords and look for my website "simonzaku.com" on the first page. In the short term, what is search engine optimization? SEO or search engine optimization is the process of finding keywords your target customers or clients are using online and optimizing your website to rank for those keyword using effective on-page and off-page SEO strategies. How long does it take to rank on Google? SEO experts and gurus say it takes weeks, months, and years to rank on Google but this video I posted on my YouTube channel shows a blog post that started ranking within 7 days of publishing. You can also watch the video here:

Did you know that 43% of marketers surveyed reported that “blogging” is the most important content they produce? (SiegeMedia). Most business owners think blogging is only for authors, articles, and texts. A startup blog is an online community and content platform for companies or startups to post blogs or vlog content to educate, attract, and captivate a specific target audience and hopefully convert them into customers. Startups use blogs to engage their target audience. Either to attract traffic, convert leads, or educate them on a specific blog niche. How do startups use blogs today? Businesses and companies today are leveraging startup blogging to attract traffic, generate leads, boost sales, or increase reach. By creating blog content consistently in a particular market, you can establish your startup as a leader and attract high-converting traffic from search engines and social media platforms. Startups have been able to successfully harness blogging to attract millions of targeted traffic and convert those into sales. But to do this, startups do not just open or start a blog and post hoping to make sales. There is a system. You must plan, have a strategy, hire the right experience, and execute. Related Read: What is Business Blogging? Start a Blog for Your Business in 5 Steps How to Uncover Lucrative Blog Post Ideas for Your Startup - Step-by-Step SEO Freelancer vs. SEO Agency vs. In-House SEO – A Decision-Maker's Guide for 2024 How to Design a Startup Blogging Plan - 5 Steps How do you write an effective blog strategy? How do you create a defined content strategy for your business or startup? (Click to Navigate) Step 1: Have a Plan, an Objective and a Goal Step 2: Define Your Target Audience Step 3: Research Lucrative Blog Ideas & Write for Your Customers Step 4: Highlight 3 to 5 Content Distribution Channels for Your Blog Step 5: Use Tools (Google Search Console) to See What Works Final Step: (Hire Me for Your Startup's Blog) Step 1: Have a Plan, an Objective and a Goal What is a startup blogging (or content) strategy? A startup blog or content strategy is a document that contains the road map, activities, and tasks required to generate leads, increase sales, or generate traffic through startup blogging. What is included in a typical blogging plan for a startup? An effective startup blog content strategy aims at achieving all your content marketing goals, expectations, and overall business objectives as well. This may include in-depth or detailed goals for every content or digital marketing campaign. Also, an in-depth content calendar to stay on track and be consistent, the different variety of content you want to publish, content channels for promotion, writers, and automation/marketing tools. In some cases the necessary budget is needed to hire talent like content creators, SEOs, and writers, if need be. To be able to create a defined content strategy for your business blog or your startup, you must be able to lay down a plan that includes your business objectives and goals - And exactly how you plan to reach them. This could include the type of content you want to publish, the number of content you want to publish, content formats, content channels, etc. You must be able to outline specific goals and objectives that are realistic. You should be able to set traffic goals, and SEO goals as well. For example; ‘’We want our startup blog to hit 10,000 monthly organic visitors after eight weeks’’, Or; ‘’We should generate 10 leads or subscribers daily after four to six weeks of consistent startup blog pieces’’. This will help you have a clear road map on how your content efforts are going and be able to measure/focus on what is working and what is not. Having an effective plan for your startup blog is crucial. Step 2: Define Your Target Audience The next thing is to define your target audience. After you've laid down your plan, you must define a target audience. Most times, marketers start creating content for every type of audience out there, which is wrong and can attract the wrong traffic. For example, while working with a past content client, he insisted that we created content on specific topics that were not in alignment with the startup niche but were 'trendy' (to attract fast clicks) As a result, the content ranked very well on Google but never got clicks, converted leads, or generated any sales because it didn't relate to our target customers. This leads us to the third step, which is to research blog ideas and write for your customers and not for search engines. Step 3: Research Lucrative Startup Blog Ideas & Write for Your Customers How do you generate blog post ideas for your startup? Researching blog startup blog ideas is quite interesting because it can help your blog grow to thousands or even millions of impressions and clicks from search engines. I use 3 tools to get or find out what my audience is looking for on the Internet - which is my target customers. Some of these tools are; - Quora - Facebook Community Groups, and; - Google Search Console. Click here to join my FREE Community group for Marketers, Entrepreneurs, and Bloggers QUORA: With Quora, I go there and then I search in a few keywords around my niche to be able to see what my people, my target customers are searching for online. GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER: With Google Keyword Planner, I do the same thing. I insert certain niche keywords to get even more content ideas for my blogs. ONLINE COMMUNITY FORUMS: Finally, I go to Facebook groups, ask questions, and create polls to see what my audience is asking online. Here is an In-Depth Guide to Generating Dozens of Startup Blog Post Ideas for Your Business in Minutes: Read: How to Uncover Lucrative Blog Post Ideas for Your Startup - Step by Step Step 4: Highlight 3 to 5 Content Distribution Channels for Your Blog The next step is to highlight 3 to 5 content distribution channels that work for your business blog. This is crucial because even the best startup blog content will not generate leads, traffic, or customers if you do not do the content promotion right. You need to be on the right channels! This also includes social media channels. Luckily, I have a short but actionable blog post that explains the step-by-step process of selecting the perfect social media channels for your specific type of business. What Social Media Networks Should My Business Use? (+ 12 Best Social Media Platforms For Marketing) Other content content distribution channels I use include; Triberr Reddit Facebook Groups Quora.com LinkedIn Blog SlideShares TikTok Step 5: Use Tools (Google Search Console) to See What Works Finally, I use free tools like Google Search Console to see what works for my client’s startup content marketing plan to continually grow. You need to focus on what works especially if you're starting, you are going to make mistakes. Thus tools like Google Search Console help me see what works for our startup blogs. How? What I do is I head over to Google Search Console and then I log in with my Google account. And if you've not linked your Google Search console to your website, you can do that - it is very easy. Here is a guide to help you do that: What does Google Search Console do? Google Search Console shows you a breakdown of your Google performance or your website's performance on Google. It shows you the number of clicks, the number of impressions, your conversion rates, your highest-performing keywords, the highest-performing articles, the highest-performing links, and more stats. This will give you a good insight as to what content to focus on and what content to put less pay less attention to. We then frequently revisit your startup content marketing strategy. After the first 30-40 days, revisit the content marketing plan to check what has been implemented, what worked, what failed, and what needs improvement. I hope this post on startup blogging has enlightened you :( Before you go; Hire Me for Your Startup's Blog Are you an entrepreneur, agency, or startup seeking to elevate your brand using blogging? Look no further! Work with me to unlock the power of compelling content and strategic marketing with my specialized services. As an experienced and reliable content writer and marketer with over 10 years of experience, I bring a wealth of expertise to enhance your brand or website. I offer a unique blend of research, writing, and promotional strategies tailored to elevate your business through effective startup or business blogging. With years of work experience, I understand the intricacies of crafting content for startups and businesses that not only resonates with your target audience but also boosts sales. Whether you're a budding startup or an established enterprise, my SEO content and blogging services are designed to meet your specific objectives. Ready to take your startup blog to new heights? Send me an email (or use any of the contact forms on this website) and I will respond within 24 hours with a unique plan for your startup business :)

Hello, this is your favorite SEO Guy, Simon Taki Zaku. And today we are going to do a real Quuu Promote review (unlike what you see online). I tell you about my experience trying Quuu Promote; a content marketing and promotion platform where publishers pay to promote links (mostly blogs, articles, and videos) to a wide and engaging audience. Unlike countless content promotion platforms I have tried, Quuu has been the best platform for a targeted audience (and I'll share why in a bit). I've been a Quuu promote user for some time now. I have used Quuu for both my blogs and SEO clients too. I've been using Quuu for about 4 years now. But, with the rise in newer tools, AI software, more content directories, and the booming of social networks like TikTok, is Quuu Promote still a wise investment? Quuu upgraded its platform, sort of updated its features, and added more, to suit today's internet. Here are my First 20-Ish Days Promoting My Blogs with Quuu Promote: My First 20 Days Using Quuu Promote Here are some of the screenshots of when I started my recent Quuu campaigns. 1 Day After Using Quuu Promote Credits: I decided to use all 5 Quuu Credits to promote five (5) blog posts on this very website (simonzaku.com). DAY 2 Using Quuu Promote: What is Quuu Promote? Quuu Promote is a platform that helps you find, curate, and promote good content. If you are a content creator, it helps you get your content out to your target audience, shared by real human beings. Quuu is a great platform for content marketing and content promotion. I got this email from the Quuu promote team to claim my five (5) free credits that expire if unclaimed in 48 hours. (As a sharp Naija boy from Taraba, you know I had to jump on it - Haha) I claimed the offer which allowed me to promote five (5) links (5 blog posts in this case). Here is what I think about it. The Quuu Promote Dashboard - What Does it Look Like? The Quuu promote dashboard is easy to navigate. You have the Dashboard, Promote, My Account, View Active Promotions, Add a Team, and Settings Tab or sections. Dashboard, Promote, My Account, View Active Promotions, Add a Team, and Settings Tab. On the Settings tab, you can change your Promotion mode, Add your Team, Manage Subscription, and your Account details. When you click on the Promote Tab, you see your website content. Before this appears, you must have linked your website (or blog) to your Quuu Account. Here are my recent blog articles and they appear automatically: There are the Feed, Active, Rejected, and Expired sections. On the Active section we can view my active Quuu promote campaigns at the moment. As you can see the 'Why I hate Google paid ads', 'SEO, PPC, content marketing', 'How to increase blog Traffic', 'How to prepare an SEO Audit', and then 'My free SEO Course' blog posts are being promoted at the moment. The 5 blog posts I promoted on Quuu: Why I HATE Google Paid Ads, Google PPC - Thoughts from a 10-Year SEO SEO vs Content Marketing vs PPC - the Ultimate Guide for Businesses How to Increase Blog Traffic (Step by Step) Prepare an SEO Audit Report + Free Website SEO Analysis Checklist Rank in Days w/Simon: Best FREE SEO Course The Rejected section shows you all of the articles that has been rejected by Quuu Promote. Does the Quuu team review articles before approving them? Yes! The Quuu Promote team manually reviews every article (or link) users submit to ensure quality before approval. They go through each URL you submit to ensure its top content before approving it for promotions, even if you have the money or the Quuu credits to promote it. Expired campaigns are seen in the Expired tab. The Feed shows you your website or blog's feed. At the time of writing, the 'Why I hate Google paid ads' article had 241 shares and 24 clicks. The 'SEO versus PPC versus content marketing' blog post has 331 shares and 20 clicks. 'How to increase blog traffic' has done 227 shares, and 16 clicks. 'How to prepare an SEO analysis report' has done 275 shares and 42 clicks. And then the SEO course article has over 500 shares and 20 clicks. Each of the posts I promote is going to last for 90 days. And that is something I absolutely love as a PRO or advantage of Quuu. You don't just promote content or a piece of content for a week or two - Like most content promotion platforms out there. Quuu Promote gives you 90 days promotion. One Feature Improvement I Wish Quuu Promote Had What are some improvements I wish Quuu had? A detailed analytics about the Social Media Shares and Clicks as well. Quuu Analytics shows the number of shares and the number of clicks. I would love if there was a detailed analytics dashboard to view or see these social media shares. We could click the shares and see how many went on Twitter, how many went on on Facebook, how many went on on Google profile, Pinterest, Instagram, and all of that. This way we can track these shares. Know what platforms generate the most shares. What networks is my audience mostly engaging? Which shares are converting? What if someone clicks on the share button to share a post and cancels before posting? I'm guessing the system might still count it as a share because the user clicked a share button, but didn't share it. I should be able to track these on Quuu Promote as well. This way, I can not only interact with these shares, I can build a connection with my target audience. Get the idea? I hope the Quuu team sees this and considers a more detailed analytics dashboard if possible. This way users can connect with their audience. My final verdict on the Quuu Promote content promotion platform? Overall, I give Quuu Promote a 7.5/10 as a content promotion platform. Watch the detailed Quuu Promote detailed review here: This is my Quuu Promote review. If you'd like to try Quuu Promote for yourself, use my unique and secure link here Quuu Promote Pricing Update At the moment, Quuu Promote offers four (4) pricing plans. Individual Plan - $50.00 per month Company Plan - $ 83.33 per month Agency Plan - $416.67 per month Agency Plan (Automatic) - $625.00 per month With the Individual Plan, you get; Unlimited Sites 10 Promotions per month With the Company Plan, you get; Unlimited Sites 20 Promotions per month With the Agency Plan, you get; Unlimited Sites 100 Promotions per month With the Agency Plan (Automatic), you get; Unlimited Sites 100+ Promotions per month Your blog posts are automatically promoted upon publishing Be sure to go to my blog simonzaku.com/blog/ for more amazing reviews just like this. Thank you so much and have a great day. Simon Taki Zaku Owner, SimonWrites SEO, SimonZaku.com