by katetoon | Jul 10, 2017 | Business, SEO
Or, 11 ways to drive sales without actually selling “Eww.” That blog post headline makes my skin crawl. But it had to be done. Because it’s true — I really did sell out my SEO eCourse in just 12 hours. At around 8am I sent out my slightly ugly plain text email letting people know they could enrol. And by 8pm all the spots were gone, making it the biggest income day, week and month since I started my business. And this despite the fact: It was the highest price I’ve ever charged for my course It was the largest intake I’ve ever had I didn’t spend a cent on advertising* I know, right? Believe me, no-one was more surprised than I was. But while I’m surprised I’m also feeling validated. This big sell out is proof that my marketing approach works. So in this post I want to tell you how I did it. Or rather how I think I did it. Because if anyone knows how hard it is to make and sell an eCourse, it’s me. And if I can help you get a few more bums on your virtual seats, well, it will give me a warm tingle in my wiggly bits. Warning: if you’re reading this hoping for some get-rich-quick scheme, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. It’s more of a get-well-offish-fairly-slowly scheme. 11 ways to drive sales without actually selling #ecourses #selling Click To Tweet Factor 1: The sales page If I actually told you how long I’ve spent fiddling with my sales page, you’d laugh and I’d cry. It’s been a real...
by katetoon | Feb 24, 2017 | Business, SEO
Holy moly it’s been a tough month. I mean seriously. I moved my hosting to a new hosting company – who shall remain nameless because right now they suck. I’m publishing my new book and it’s taking EONS to get it through all the various stages. I’ve been sick as a giss. And it’s launch week for my SEO course, which no matter how much meditation, green tea and GIN I employ is still stressful as all hell. And then this happened. SEO Spammers can kiss my BUM CHEEKS! #SEO Click To Tweet One of my lovely followers Liz received an email from me. Nothing unusual there, I’ve sent heaps of emails in the last few months. But this one was a bit different. Yes, the spelling was worse than usual. Also I moved from referencing myself in the singular to the plural pretty quickly, but my multiple personalities do sometimes get the best of me. Also I used a ‘Z’ rather than an ‘S’ in optimisation. Bleurgh. But other than that – it’s fairly normal right? WRONG. If you’d rather not read from the image here’s what it said: Hello LIZ VAN VLIET, I found your web contact email. I would like to discuss a business. I am Kate, Online Marketing Consultant, We are a leading SEO Company offers dedicated search engine optimization (SEO) and Web design services to help you score over your competition. We have a team of 100+ highly qualified professionals who are certified in SEO & Google Ad words and standards providing a wide range of services in order to generate higher visitor traffic to...
by katetoon | Jul 16, 2016 | SEO
If you’re anything like me, you probably decided to start your own business so you could spend your time doing what you’re passionate about. But here’s the truth of soloism: while you may have set yourself up as a Dog Masseuse or Gourmet Quiche Maker, the time you can actually spend grooming dogs or whisking eggs is minimal. Running your own business requires you to be a bookkeeper, marketer, salesperson, web developer, creative and now – an SEO expert. In case you don’t know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and is the process of tweaking web content to gain high rankings in search engine results. You can outsource your SEO, but you may have to pay a costly monthly fee, which is tough for many small businesses to justify. And from my experience, many of these expert SEO companies are woefully poor at explaining both what their fee covers and what it means to your business. Do you really want to pay for something you don’t understand? Are you suffering from Search Engine Overwhelm? #business #seo Click To Tweet So the only other option is DIY SEO. And that’s where the overwhelm starts. “The only way a soloist can cope with the SEO onslaught is to break it down in to digestible chunks. How do you eat an SEO elephant? One bite a time.” I even have an awesome SEO course you can try. But here are four quick things I recommend. 1. Ensure your site is technically sound 2. Write engaging content and post it regularly 3. Build back-links in a non-dodgy way 4. Share content on...
by katetoon | Jun 13, 2016 | Business, Opinion, SEO
Or, what you REALLY learn at business conferences “I don’t like events, and I don’t do networking.” This was me a couple of years ago. A committed business hermit whose only concession to getting out there was a rampant Facebook addiction. But recently I’ve started to do a bit more humaning—shaving my back hair, getting out of my jim jams and heading into the real world of business. In fact, I just got back from the Big Digital Adelaide event. And it’s completely changed my view of events and networking. So while I could have done a round up of the excellent digital knowledge I gleaned from the conference, I thought I’d share some of the business lessons I learned instead. (But if you scroll to the bottom you’ll also find my downloadable notes from the event). My top 6 takeaways from Big Digital Adelaide #bigdigitalADL #business Click To Tweet Lesson 1: We all have imposter syndrome There were some big names and experienced speakers at Big Digital. But there were also a lot of first-timers and relative newbies—including me. While I’ve run countless training events for clients and my own workshops, I’ve only spoken at a few big events. I was nervous. Worried my content wasn’t pitched at the right level. Worried about overlap with other speakers. Worried I’d fluff my lines. Worried I didn’t look the part. But after talking to the other speakers, it quickly became apparent that everyone feels that way. Even the big guys get that twisty tummy feeling before they hit the stage. And although it does get easier, public speaking is never easy. I learned that...
by katetoon | Oct 2, 2015 | SEO
“Greetings of the day. I’ve looked through your website and it is much nicely. However I do be noticing that you are not ranking in the Google for your chosen keyword. At DodgeySEO inc we are guaranteeing the top ranking for all the keywords.” Okay, hands up if you’ve ever received an email like this? Hands up a bit further if you have no idea how to tell a good SEO company from a bad one. And hands to the roof if you think SEO means “Stupid, Exhausting and ‘Orrible”. Don’t worry. Today I’m going to tell you: “There are no guarantees with Search Engine Optimisation, so promising a page one ranking in two weeks is usually a big, fat case of overselling.” a. How to tell the legitimate SEO experts from the cowboys b. How do it yourself SEO is entirely doable for solopreneurs. (Oh, and sorry, you can all put your hands down now.) How to avoid dodgy SEOs and Do It Yourself #business #SEO Click To Tweet Okay, so let’s begin with how a legitimate SEO provider distinguishes themselves from the snake-oil-selling SEO ‘gurus’. 1. They won’t contact you Good SEOs earn their leads from referrals and their own SEO efforts. They don’t need to spam you with poorly worded mass emails. 2. They won’t offer you a results-based guarantee There are no guarantees with Search Engine Optimisation, so promising a page one ranking in two weeks is usually a big fat case of overselling. Ideally, your SEO will help you not only with your ranking, but also with turning prospects into customers. 3. They’ll start with an...
by katetoon | Oct 1, 2015 | Business, SEO
Or, the highs and lows of my free SEO opt-in challenge Let me start by saying I’ve never been a particularly considered creature. I’m a leap before I look, zero planning, seat of my pants kind of gal. So the following guide to running a 10-Day Challenge is less a polished plan and more a raw, honest tale of all the fluff ups I made along the way. Running a 10-Day Challenge: the Ultimate guide #opt-in #opt-inchallenge #SEOChallenge Click To Tweet What is an opt-in challenge? An opt-in is a marketing tactic, which encourages people to sign up to your email list. There are heaps of different ways to style your opt-in; you can: Give away a downloadable thing – like a checklist or an ebook (or this site I give away an SEO checklist) Offer a free, short phone call or Skype consultation Give access to a series of video tutorials Offer a free webinar on your chosen subject The idea is that people like the look of your opt-in offer enough to give you their email address – and you can then use the email address to build loyalty and send out offers. Another powerful opt-in tactic is to create a challenge. At Problogger this year, there was much talk of challenge and so, like many others, when Darren Rowse asked us to decide one thing we’d aim to action after the event, mine was a challenge. The planning After bit of consulting in various Facebook forums I decided: My challenge would focus on beginner level Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as a way of building my list...
