Success Unscrambled Podcast

So, you are thinking of changing your career for one of those online 6-figure salary jobs.

However, you are not sure how to get started.

As there continues to be so much uncertainty in the world many people like you are seriously considering their options.

In fact, the 'American Dream' of having a lovely 3-4 bedroom home with a white picket fence and 2.5 children is almost non-existent.

Everyone is scrambling to find their version of what can be called a new normal even if that means finding 6-figure salary jobs.

The only challenge is that the one thing that is constant is change. Therefore having a normal life seems totally unrealistic.

Is it possible to plan for you and your family's future in spite of the constant disruption?

Can you have a job that provides sufficient income for your basic needs as well as help you to save for retirement?

In this post, you will learn about the top jobs that will enable you to earn a 6-figure income even in a climate of uncertainty.

What is a Six-figure Salary Job?

Depending on your background you may think that answering this question may be unnecessary.

However, you need to trust me, there are some people who will need help understanding what is a 6-figure job.

For the purposes of this post, the currency of 6-figure salary jobs will be in US dollars since the majority of my audience are North American.

A six-figure job is define by the total income earned over a 12-month period that ranges between $100,000 and $999,999.

This works out at roughly $8,333.33 per month for someone who makes $100k per year before taxes.

To put this into perspective the average salary in the US is $49,764 per annum.

If this is broken down monthly it will work out as $4,147.00 before taxes and deductions.

Bearing in mind that the single biggest expense for any household every month is housing so do take that into consideration.

Why is Having a 6-Figure Job Important?

The next obvious question is why is everyone wanting to have 6-figure jobs.

Well, that need arises based on the cost of living index for your town, city, state or country.

For example, when looking for a place to live many people take a few things into consideration.

* Cost of accommodation* Proximity to facilities* Is it near to family or friends* Distance from work* Maintenance* Utilities* Transportation

Do you remember what it was like before you moved to the place where you are living now?

What were the factors that you considered before making that important decision?

If you are living alone then the decision making process is a lot easier compared to a situation with kids and a spouse.

Having a 6-figure job means that you have a bigger budget and therefore you are presented with a bigger list of options.

According to Expatistan, the cost of living in the US for a family of 4 is $4,599 per month while a single person can expect to pay $2,625.00 per month.

What Can You Afford With 6-Figure Salary Jobs?

Let's spend some time getting practical and look at what you will...

Are you at that stage of your business where you are wondering what you can outsource to an OBM?

So, you probably already have a team of virtual assistants helping you with several day to day tasks.

However, you heard from your peers that hiring an online business manager would help you free up even more time.

Now, it is possible that you haven't even hired your first virtual assistant just yet because you dislike the hiring process altogether.

Let me know if this sounds like bliss...

12 months from now you would like to be in a position where you have a team of people working for you.

These people are super efficient at getting your day to day tasks completed and are even helping you to grow your business.

In fact, your business is so profitable and efficient that you are able to step away from your business frequently as it runs on autopilot.

If only you can make this a reality in your business in the next 6-12 months.

In this post, you will learn how you can make this dream a reality as well as 10 tasks that you can outsource to an OBM to make it happen.

Virtual Assistant (VA) vs OBM or DBM

There is still some confusion in the online business world when it comes to hiring for business tasks.

So, let's spend some time looking at the differences between what a virtual assistant does when compared to an online business manager.

As you probably already know there are many different types of virtual assistants available to help with business tasks.

For example, the more popular virtual assistants help with admin work like inbox management, customer service and calendar management.

There are also graphic design VAs, tech VAs, content creation VAs and social media VAs.

What makes an OBM or DBM different is that they tend to manage at a more strategic level.

They also assist with planning and the general direction of the business.

Let's spend some time looking at a diagram showing the differences in the way a VA works in a business compared to a OBM or DBM.

VA vs OBM or DBM tasks

If you are a visual person like me then you would probably understand the differences between a VA and DBM by seeing a diagram.

In this diagram, you will see a list of things that a small business owner will normally outsource and how a VA interacts with it compared to a DBM.

As you can see the way a VA handles a task compared to an OBM or DBM is very different.

Think of the digital business manager (DBM) as someone who saves you a ton of time by keeping you focused on your business goals.

A DBM also set up specific high standards so that your business runs consistently at a level that makes you proud.

This person would save you a ton of time in the long run because they will ensure that each VA knows what to do and how to do it.

10 Tasks for a DBM

Now that you have a clearer picture of what a DBM does to strategically assist your business.

Let's take a look at 10 tasks that you can outsource to them.

* Hiring new team members* Setting up a VA onboarding system* Streamlining your client onboarding process* Communicate your business goals to team members* Take a goal from idea to execution* Set up and assign tasks in Trello,...

If you have been a blogger or the owner of an online business for a while you may have heard of the term online business manager (OBM).

In fact, in your mind, it may not be quite clear who this person is or how they help digital businesses.

You see, running an online business is hard work for any entrepreneur to do it alone.

Some of the many tasks involved in ensuring that your business is successful include creating a ton of content and list building.

Other tasks include promoting or marketing your business using social media marketing and getting free publicity via guest podcasting.

At some point, you will need to hire a number of virtual assistants to do smaller jobs for you.

If only there was a better way to manage all of these things seamlessly without the overwhelm.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to put a streamlined system or a few systems in place?

Systems that run on autopilot so you can free up your time to do what you love?

In this post, you will learn what is an online business manager and how this person can help you scale to a 6-7 figure business using automated systems.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

What is an Online Business Manager?

Interestingly enough the term online business manager is a fairly new word in the business world.

In fact, it dates back to the early 2000s.

Thanks to Tina Forsyth's book, Becoming an Online Business Manager (OBM). The term has been made even more popular in recent years.

Essentially, an online business manager is a right-hand person next to the CEO or the digital business owner.

They help a digital business owner with management and operations.

They are brought into a company to assist with strategy, project management, team management and systems management.

In many cases, a business owner will reach a point in their business when they can only do so much because they are limited by time.

Even when a business owner decides to hire on a team virtual assistants they still need an OBM.

Because they now have to spend their time managing the team which stunts their growth.

If you are an online business owner and you want to scale your business exponentially.

Chances are that you need an OBM or a Digital Business Manager (DBM).

If you want to understand the difference between the two roles let's look at them in more detail.

OBM vs DBM

If you have been in the online space for a while you probably heard of online business managers and digital business managers.

You are probably confused about the differences between the two professionals in terms of what they do.

The truth is that there really isn't a difference between the two at all.

Online Business Manager (OBM) is a term coined by Tina Forsyth back in the early 2000s.

Since then she has formed the International Association of Online Business Managers where she offers certification.

Tina offers

One of the quickest ways to turn your blog or business into an automatic sales machine is by using a sales funnel template.

If you never heard of sales funnel templates before don't worry I'll explain later.

You already know that reducing your workweek to 20 hours means your business needs to have some automation built-in to save you time.

However, you are not sure exactly how to go about getting this done without having to learn technical stuff.

Another caveat is that you may not want to outsource this task but the cost may be prohibitive.

Picture this...

Your business has a few sales funnels set up so that it generates a decent income on autopilot every day.

This means that you no longer have to worry about stepping away from your business to do the stuff that you love.

Creating and editing a sales funnel from scratch can be a source of overwhelm and frustration.

In this post, you will learn the quickest way to get your hands on a sales funnel template that will free you up to get back to your zone of genius.

You will also see the best way to implement a high converting sales funnel template so that you can put your business income on autopilot.

What is a Sales Funnel Template?

Are you new to sales funnels? Ever wondered why having one is important for you and your business?

In a recent post, I went into a lot of detail about what is a sales funnel here. You can take a look if you don't understand the term sales funnel.

If you already know what is a sales funnel then the template is just a prebuilt funnel that you can take and customise to suit your business.

Here is a diagram showing you a self-liquidating offer funnel.

As you can see there are a lot of moving parts including the page, the copy or text on the page and the images for each item on the page.

There is also the connections between each element of the funnel, payment processing and even the Ads campaigns on Facebook.

How long do you think it will take you to create one of these funnels?

Because I have experience it can take me a few hours or up to a day to create one depending on what is required.

Key Elements of a Sales Funnel Template

Before looking at a few sales funnel template examples it would make sense to understand what are the essential items needed for a successful funnel.

In case you missed it I spent a lot of time going through sales funnel stages here.

If you are more interested in webinar funnels, the automated webinar funnel resource will be useful for you.

I am assuming you are more or less familiar with sales funnels but here is a reminder of essential items for every funnel.

* A landing page* An irresistible offer* A signup form* An autoresponder* 1-4 follow up email sequences* An awesome delivery platform for the offer or lead magnet* A lead magnet* The product or service being delivered* A thank you page* The checkout cart* A payment processing engine

You may notice that I haven't included the traffic element because that is not something that comes with a sales funnel temp...

So, you have heard of sales funnel stages and you may have a foggy understanding of the impact it can have on your business.

All you know is that it has something to do with the buyer's journey.

For now, you are not really sure why paying closer attention to this is super important.

After all, why all the fuss anyway? Does it really make a difference in the long run to look at your buyer's journey under a magnifying glass?

Let me know if this sounds familiar.

You have a big dream to only work 20-hours a week or less doing what you love but you are not quite sure how to achieve this goal.

Wouldn't it be great to have leisurely mornings, spending more time with friends, joining a book club, paying off the mortgage or even buying your dream house?

Your big goal is to own a 6-figure business which will give you the financial independence that you need to do all those things.

What do you think it takes to run a business that generates $500,000 every year? The answer may surprise you.

Spoiler alert! It does require you to have a deep understanding of your buyer's journey.

The truth is understanding the sales funnel stages will give you a deeper appreciation for your audience so you can provide resources for them.

At the end of this post, you'll be able to create the right resources for your audience at the right time which results in more income.

You'll also be able to get the engagement and growth you need to bring your business forwards by leaps and bounds.

What are Sales Funnel Stages?

In case you are new to this blog and you missed the other articles in this series let me explain.

The sales funnel stages are closely linked to the buyer's journey because the funnel cannot perform without the buyer.

When I wrote the article explaining what is a sales funnel I gave this example of a sales funnel stage.

* Traffic* Deliver value or warm-up* Offer

While this is a simplistic way to explain it there are actually a lot more intricate details when it comes to a sales funnel.

Think of it as taking the scenic route on a journey from Los Angeles to New York.

If you have 10 families going on a road trip from San Francisco to New York will they all have the same experiences along the way?

Will they arrive at their destination at the same time? If not, why is that the case?

Everyone of us is on a journey to achieve goals, fulfil needs and meet obligations.

Each of us have the freedom to choose how this is accomplished.

This is the same with your potential customers.

Some are ready to get the product or service they need while others need to think about it.

Ideal Client Avatar

I know that I mentioned this in a few articles previously but it would not hurt to revisit it again.

One key secret of deeply understanding the sales funnel stages is first knowing who your ideal client is and what they are going through.

Here are those key details that you need to know about your potential client.

* Age* Gender* Where do they live? (country, city)* Do they live in a house or an apartment?* Their neighbourhood, what does it look like?

If you ever came across the automated webinar funnel and wondered how you can set up one then this resource is for you.

It is possible that you have attended several webinars over the years. Some were great and others were not so good.

You probably even thought to yourself that setting up one of these can take a lot of work.

I have to tell you that I set up an automated webinar recently and the most difficult aspect was the presentation.

While the technology may seem complicated at first, it is all about logistics.

For any small business, entrepreneur or solopreneur, setting up an automated webinar funnel is like cloning yourself.

By the end of this post, you should have a better understanding of webinar sales funnels in order to use them in your business.

It will help you reduce errors and get your own automated webinar funnel up and running in double-quick time.

So that you can skip the stress and heartache of starting from scratch.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

What is an Automated Webinar Funnel?

If you are brand new to sales funnels and webinar funnels don't worry I covered an entire post on this topic recently.

You can see what is a sales funnel here and all about the different types of sales funnels here.

Can you recall the last time you attended a webinar what the experience was like?

You probably clicked on a link or entered a special code and you selected your preferred option for the audio.

Most webinars last for at least an hour. So, you probably also saw slides and heard the person talking and in some cases, you saw them.

During the webinar you learned a few fascinating things and you were given the option at the end to join a program.

Well, an automated webinar is just like that except for the fact that it is recorded and the entire thing runs on autopilot.

Does that mean that it is all fake? Not at all, in fact, the benefits of automated webinars suits both parties and I will explain this later on.

Why Use an Automated Webinar Funnel?

At this point, you are probably thinking how on earth can this benefit your business.

Well, remember earlier I mentioned about the ability to clone yourself?

Let me put things into perspective for you.

Imagine for a few minutes you wanted to do a webinar to generate sales for your business and you decided to do it over a 5 day period.

You decide to do it twice a day for 5 days and at the end you were able to sign up 20 new clients.

This is excellent news!! You get 20 new clients and you are tired because doing a webinar 10 times in one week is not an easy task.

Wouldn't it be great if you can sign up 10-20 more clients every week of the year without the stress and exhaustion?

The good news is that you can do it using an automated webinar funnel.

One of the reasons why webinars work so well is that you a...

Your weeks and months of trying to work out the different types of sales funnels are proving fruitless.

I can feel your pain because I have been in your shoes, well not literally but you know what I mean. However, I am not there anymore.

Let me know if this resonates with you.

You know that there are several ways to generate an income from your blog but like me you just wish that you knew how to set it all up.

Despite putting affiliate links on several blog posts and running Adsense or Mediavine on your blog.

The return on investment so far can hardly fulfil your dream of spending lazy days in your favourite corner reading the next big novel.

The truth is that understanding the types of sales funnels will not only help you pick the perfect funnel type for your revenue goals.

In fact, it will also save you months of stress and heartache.

So you can significantly reduce your learning curve taking you from zero to success in double-quick time.

Why Do Funnels Need to be so Complicated?

When it comes to setting up a sales funnels getting a clear understanding of the goal and the user experience really helps.

This post is in a 5-part series where I help you my reader fully understand sales funnels and how to use them to create a full-time income.

It is important that you fully understand what is a sales funnel before learning the different types.

Two big factors that cause funnels to exist in different formats is the fact that the type of conversion process determines the funnel used.

The first factor is the type of traffic used on the front end helps you know which funnel to use.

For example, paid traffic versus free traffic converts differently when sent to a funnel.

Another factor is the price of the product being sold also determines the type of journey or experience for the customer to go through to convert.

Basically the higher the price the more complex the funnel will be.

If you are buying something for $37.00, in most cases there is no need for you to consult with someone else.

However, if the product price is over $500, I am sure that you will need to consult with your spouse or mom before forking out that amount of cash.

7 Types of Sales Funnels

Let's spend some time looking at the 7 types of sales funnels and why you need them to generate an income.

You will also be able to see what each funnel looks like if you want to take the next step of setting it up yourself.

1. Lead Generation Funnel

One of the most basic types of sales funnels that exist is called the lead generation funnel.

As the name suggest the sole purpose of this funnel type is to generate leads for your business.

It works beautifully with free traffic from Pinterest or Google Search engines.

Here is what you need to set up one of these funnels.

* a blog post* lead capture form or pop up* an irresistible lead magnet* autoresponder to deliver the lead magnet* knowledge of how to promote your lead magnet using Pinterest or SEO

This is a diagram showing how to set up a simple lead generation funnel.

So, you have heard of the One Funnel Away Challenge and you keep wondering what is a sales funnel?

In the last year, Julie Stoian and her business partner came up with feminine sales funnels in the form of Funnel Gorgeous.

If you ever worked with a business coach on any level one thing that is common for them to mention is using a sales funnel.

Let me know if this sounds familiar.

You started your business in the last 1-3 years or you decided to turn your blog into a business in that time period.

However, you feel stagnant because you know that you need to scale things up to take things to the next level but you are not sure how to do it.

Everyone and their cat talks about automating parts of your business to make it scalable but you have no idea what that means.

The truth is that it is very easy to get lost with all this terminology especially if you have no idea what it means.

In this post, you will learn what is a sales funnel and how you should be using it to scale your business.

This post is a 5-part series where you will learn what is a sales funnel, types of funnels, automated webinar funnels, sales funnel stages and sales funnel templates.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

The Sales Funnel Explained

Over the last few years I have been racking my brain to try and find another name for a sales funnel.

Believe it or not I still have not found a word that really incorporate the meaning of sales funnels except to say it is part of the sales process.

If you think of the sales funnel like developing a relationship with the person or company selling the product or service then it is easier to understand.

In simple terms a sales funnel is the mechanism that you go through as a buyer to build a relationship with the seller.

The three key elements of this relationship is the know, like and trust factors.

You can find sales funnels everywhere you shop.

A great example would be a blog post which is normally preceded by a post on social media or a Pinterest pin.

So, think of it as the steps you go through as a buyer before taking out your credit card to make a purchase.

The end goal of course for the seller is for you to make a purchase of their product or service.

As the buyer your end goal is for you to solve a problem or challenge in your life.

Sales Funnel Examples

To help you to really appreciate and understand what sales funnels are for any business let's look at a few examples.

Let's use the popular example of Amazon. Everyone and their children have Amazon Prime right?

Amazon example

You know that you need to buy a tripod stand since you will be doing more photoshoots this year.

So, you head over to your favourite photography blog.

If you have been using Instagram for a while you will know the importance of getting visibility of your Instagram hashtag analytics.

So many people focus on follower growth that they tend to forget that there are other statistics to track for success.

Let me know if this sounds familiar.

You have been posting consistently week after week being careful not to overuse those hashtags that you found.

So far your account seems to be in growth mode because you are getting likes, comments and even saves.

Posting a specific kind of content gets a lot of engagement which is great but you still wonder if you can improve your reach.

The truth is that knowing precisely which hashtags work 100 per cent of the time is difficult to ascertain using Instagram Insights.

In the post, you will learn about the applications that are available to significantly remove the guesswork when it comes to hashtags.

What Can Instagram Hashtag Analytics Do?

Before diving into the list of available applications let's spend some time understanding the benefits of using them.

I know for me using these Instagram analytics tools will help me to gain more visibility about what's happening on my account.

As you already know, Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags on an Instagram post in your feed and 10 hashtags per story.

What you don't know is which of those 30 hashtags are giving you the best results.

The reason for this is because Instagram Insights only shows an overall report of where your impressions came from.

So, what can be done to get this level of detail about each individual post?

This is one reason why we need analytics tools outside Instagram to help us get more visibility.

Which Instagram Analytics to Track?

Hashtags are not the only things to track when it comes to Instagram. There are a number of other metrics to keep an eye on.

These analytics include:

* Followers* Posts* Following* Likes* Comments* Reach* Impressions* Views* Shares* Saves

Of all the metrics listed above the hashtags will have a direct impact on reach and impressions.

If your content is good then when people see it they will take specific actions which include liking, saving, commenting, following and sharing.

There are some larger accounts that don't use hashtags at all but they still get the reach and impressions from their followers.

The key thing to remember is that hashtags help index your content in the right category so that it could be found.

Instagram Hashtag Analytics

Just before diving into this section on the applications that you can use I need to give you a stern warning.

Trusting every company or business with your Facebook/Instagram logins is not a great idea.

There have been reports of people's accounts getting hacked because they used 3rd party applications for analytics or bots so be careful.

Here are a number of applications that can help you with Instagram visibility.

* Analisa* RiteTag* AgoraPulse* Inssist* SmartHash

Let's spend some time looking at each one, in turn, to see what benefits are on offer.

1. Analisa

It is hard to believe that it can be easy to increase Instagram engagement in a short space of time.

Before getting great results on Instagram I always thought that getting any kind of love on Instagram was hard work.

Let me know if you can relate to these feelings with it comes to social media and Instagram.

I ditched social media years ago because it was such a time suck with very little payoff.

I don’t find it drives much traffic to my blog but I do make connections with brands on IG and have monetised it as well. All that said, IG is exhausting

I put a ton of effort into reaching 10K followers on IG. I finally got swipe up this month and... tada... I have a grand total of $0 affiliate sales and X sessions from IG Stories.

IG was the first to go for me, just like you, I find it totally exhausting, and it is almost impossible to stay on top of all of these consistently.

The truth is that Instagram seem to work for some accounts which would be strange seeing that it is just a platform.

Could it be that, like everything else, people have bad experiences depending on their actions on the platform?

In this post, you will learn a number of tips, tricks and tools that you can use to improve your engagement and results on Instagram.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

What is Engagement?

It would make sense to spend some time diving into what is classified as 'engagement' when it comes to Instagram.

A few weeks ago, I spent some time outlining necessary information that spoke to social media metrics and why it is important.

When it comes to Instagram, engagement is essential for boosting your visibility on the platform.

Engagement will consist of the following:

* Likes* Shares* Saves* Direct messages* Profile visits* Website clicks* Emails* Comments

Essentially, it involves getting your audience to take specific actions after viewing your post.

The most important thing to note is that if you are only getting likes then that engagement is not enough to alert the algorithm.

In fact, it would be best to get a combination of these activities on your posts in the Instagram feed.

Now that you have a great idea of what constitutes engagement let's spend some time finding out how to increase Instagram engagement for the long term.

The Anatomy of a Post

In order to improve your results on Instagram let's look at the Instagram post in a little bit of detail.

Compared to Pinterest you have to admit that creating a post on Instagram can be a lot easier.

Many months ago, I went into a lot of detail on the anatomy on a Pinterest pin which you can find here.

Basically, you have the image, the captions and the hashtags.

At this point, you are probably thinking if it is so simple then why is it so difficult to increase your engagement on Instagram.

Well,