Success Unscrambled Podcast

Ever wished that there was a simple SEO hack to increase your blog traffic? Does it seem like your organic blog traffic has plateaued?

You may not be aware of this but Google updates its algorithms 3,200 times every year.

So, it means that you can expect to see 8.7 minor updates every day of the year.

While it could make you want to throw in the towel and give up. I want to assure you that if you keep reading you will be able to gain a peek into how you can win.

You see many bloggers struggle to understand SEO and keep up with everything that is happening with Google.

The truth is that it is a lot better to focus on creating really good quality content. Also, ensuring that your content is optimised properly for indexing.

In this post, you will leave gaining a real insight into how to easily get a 33% increase in your blog traffic by implementing a simple trick.

A Focus on the End-User

Since 2017, Google's algorithm updates have been heavily focused on the end-user experience.

As you can imagine that is a very big job because there are so many different topics as well as a wide variety of users.

Let's spend some time in the shoes of the end-user to see how we can better understand them with a view to improving the search experience.

A user comes to Google looking for a great recipe to make an apple crumble. They type in 'best apple crumble recipe' in the search bar and this is what they get.

I think it is so interesting that only one of the three results have ratings. Also, the fact that it takes 55 minutes to make an apple crumble could be a turn-off.

Clicking into the first option this is what I see above the fold.

As you can see, it is very attractive in terms of its presentation. Which is probably why it gets a lot of great reviews.

Google Core Update

Recently Google had a major update where their change was to cater for phrases that focused on solving a problem.

When you think of any problem the most important phrases that surround problems are questions.

This means that Google's core update is heavily focused on answering questions as a way of solving problems.

Many years ago I would laugh at the fact that some people would ask Google a question as if it were Siri.

However, in recent years, Google's algorithm has become so complex that it is able to offer answers to questions.

What is Position Zero (0)?

Position zero refers to the area on the search engine results page that is normally inside a featured snippet.

The term position zero is becoming more and more popular in the vocabulary of marketers.

One major reason for this is that it has been discovered that the result in position zero gets the majority of clicks or traffic or visitors.

Let's look at a practical example. I did a search for 'digital marketing plan' and here are the results.

Ready to take your SEO understanding to another level? Check out this free video course here.

As you can see having a page ranking in position one in the Google search engine is not as valuable as it was in the past.

You are better off either appearing in position...

Have you ever wanted to get more out of your content marketing efforts but...

You're not quite sure what to do or where to go for the best advice on how to get more results in the long run?

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You've been creating content over the last 1-3 years. Every now and again (like twice a year), an image, post or video hits the jackpot.

However, you secretly wished that you can get a more consistent performance every month from your content.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a content marketing expert as part of your team? Someone who would give you pointers on how to tweak or repurpose old content?

Right now, it is probably way out of your budget.

If only there was some way of getting into the mind of the experts. So that you can reap some gold nuggets of valuable marketing information.

It would be great to have a fireside chat with those who have been there and done that just to help you get to that next step.

The good news is that I had a virtual fireside chat with not just one but 17 content marketing experts on future trends.

We also discussed how you, as a small business, can get more out of your efforts to create content that gets results.

Disclaimer: The voices used during the podcast recording for each contributor are voice actors. This is the case to keep the content interesting as well as to reduce the possibility of monotone and voice fatigue. The recording is one hour in length.

What Everybody Ought to Know About Content Marketing

As small business owners, we are always concerned about what to expect for the next year or two when it comes to content marketing.

Common questions we may have include where we should invest and which strategy will bring us the biggest ROI.

If you are new to content marketing, let me first outline it in detail. As simplistic as the term may sound, it incorporates a wide variety of practices.

Areas under the umbrella of content marketing include:

* Blogging* Podcasting* Search Engine Optimisation* Social media marketing* Paid Social (paying for ads on social platforms)* Paid Search (paying for Google Ads)* Content Curation* Pinterest marketing* Content syndication* Seeding

You need to realise that this list is not exhaustive but it gives you an idea of what the content marketing landscape looks like from a 10,000-foot view.

In the following paragraphs are summaries of trends combined with predictions from 17 content marketing experts.

Content Marketing Trends + Predictions

In order to understand the importance and practicality of the content marketing predictions from the 15+ experts, let's look at them together with some statistics.

Will Visual + Interactive Content Ever Die?

Fifty-one per cent (51%) of marketers say that they are prioritizing visual assets as part of their content marketing strategy.

As you can see here people prefer content that engages more than one of their senses. This will help them consume the message thoroughly.

Stephanie Calahan is a content marketing expert with Calahan Solutions. She gave her predictions for the next few years about this kind of content.

Is Your Content Easy to Digest?

"Creating content that is easy to digest and easy to take action on will beco...

Are you confused by on-page optimisation? Ever wondered if it has any effect on organic traffic growth?

If you have been blogging for a while you know that it is super important to spend a lot of time marketing your blog post.

You see blog traffic is something that 'grows' over time by using consistent and frequent effort.

Many bloggers continue to struggle with the reality that building visibility to their blog takes a lot of time and perseverance.

However, what many fail to realise is that there are certain things that you can leverage. These will help you get better results on your time investment.

One of these things is on-page optimisation which sounds more technical than it is in reality.

In this post, we will take a look at a company that did just that covering a very boring topic called synthetic oil.

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 On-Page Optimisation?

On-page optimisation is also known as on-page SEO.

It is the process where you as a blogger tweak the content in your blog post. It is done in such a way to help the search engines index your content really well.

The tweaking process involves three important components of your blog post or page. These are:

* Text* Visual* User-friendliness

So, as a blogger, you will include a number of technical and user-friendly elements in your content. It will help both the search engines as well as your readers.

An example of these elements include things like internal links, meta descriptions, meta tags. As well as alt tags for your images.

The reason you are doing this is that search engines use spiders or robots to crawl and index your content.

These robots are unable to understand the content like humans. So, you just need to place special codes around your content to help them understand and index accordingly.

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Have you ever spent any money on a blogging course? Do you plan to invest in an entrepreneur course anytime soon?

As someone who spent close to 6 figures on formal and informal education to get two degrees and several certificates, I wanted to look back.

At some point in life, it is important to look back on those investments and do a reality check.

Was it worth the time and effort going to college? At the time of doing my first degree, there was not much else available.

If you are reading this and you are in your 20s then I know how confusing it can be for you. Especially with pressure from your parents.

As an adult, you will probably find it easier to go travel the world to gain a better understanding of what you want to do.

There is this thing called peer pressure that is virtually impossible to ignore.

All your friends are going to college so maybe you should go as well. You just graduated high school so you have no skills (or so you believe).

In this post, you will get a simple view of the options available to you. So that you may be inspired to take the next step or to wait.

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, have experienced success or the provider is proven to be trustworthy.

Is an 1837 Education System Still Useful Today?

In case you were not aware of it the modern version of the education system was set up by Horace Mann in 1837.

At the time the world was going through the industrial era where factories required workers to fit into systems.

In fact, they needed a cookie-cutter system that mass-produced workers who had similar skill sets.

After 182 years it is clear to see that there is a different kind of need. A need where people with a diverse set of skills is preferred.

It is scary to think that they now have a cookie-cutter system to mass-produce robots to take those industrial jobs.

So, what will become of humans? Is there a new way to be educated?

Self-Directed Learning vs a $250,000 Education

Recently, I was reading a post from Seth Godin and he is so right when he talks about the fact that self-directed learning is a viable option.

Here is a brief synopsis of what he shared on his blog.

"Four years at MIT cost about $250,000 all in. Or, you could engage in more than 2,000 of their courses on their site, for free.What’s the difference?When you do education, you pay tuition, plus you pay with a focus on compliance. Traditional education requires that students trade in freedom of choice, coerced by tests and exams. And what do you get? You get an ‘A’ and you get a certificate.The power of that certificate is extraordinary. Students (and their families) will go a lifetime in debt to get that paper. They’ll make choices about time and focus and geography for that paper, ignoring what’s ostensibly possible in exchange for the certainty of acquiring it.Learning, on the other hand, is self-directed. It isn’t about changing our grade, it’s about changing the way we see the world. It is voluntary. Learning is always available,

Have you ever wanted to write blog posts faster but...

You thought that it is not possible because you are afraid the quality would not be good?

As a blogger, you only have so many hours in the day to get stuff done. In fact, if your blog is just a side hustle then the struggle will be to find time to write regularly.

Tell me if this process sounds familiar.

You think of a topic then do some research in terms of the competition and gathering the statistics.

Next up, you write the first 500 words but get distracted with other urgent or pressing matters in life or at work.

A few days later, you write another 500 words. It may seem like a chore as you thought that writing this topic would be fun.

Finally, you rush the last 500-1,000 words as the publish date is approaching and you need to get this post completed.

If you wish that there was a better, faster way to get your content created then keep reading as I might just have a solution for you.

Goals and Objectives

Creating content regularly is hard work for you as a blogger or small business owner. I am not going to pretend that it is easy at all.

In fact, it makes me sad when brands approach me via email asking me to link out to their content from an existing post with no benefit to my business.

What's worse is that they want to pay $20 for a sponsored post. That price is downright crazy considering the amount of work that goes into a single post.

Over the years I have learned that understanding the goal or objective of each piece of content helps me to create it faster.

In other words, decide on what the goal is for that specific piece of content. It will help you to write or create it quickly.

Your goal could be to grow your email list, increase sales to your entry-level offer or raise awareness of your products and/or services.

The good news is that you get to decide on a single goal for each blog post.

Topic Research

It is so easy to run off and start writing when you choose a topic for your blog post. However, doing some level of research will improve the quality of the post.

Depending on your chosen topic it will be a good idea to do a little bit of digging. Check out the topic on several platforms to get a feel of the user intent.

For example, while doing research for this blog post I made an interesting discovery. There are many searches for writing blog posts faster as well as creating content faster.

Some searchers were also very interested in creating good quality blog posts fast.

The moment that you believe that you know everything about a topic and you don't need to do any research is the moment you have deprived your readers of aha moments.

Use your research time to gather statistics, examples and even case studies to help bring home your point.

Write an Outline

It has been my experience that when I write an outline of a blog post that I speed up the chances of writing content quicker.

Writing an outline not only helps you ensure that you did not forget something from the content but it also gives it some structure.

I like the fact that when I write an outline that I can clearly spot any gaps. I can see stuff like missing paragraphs, in the content as well.

You'll never believe how easy it is to generate a list of catchy titles...

Until you understand how important these are in getting readers to your blog every single day of the week.

Tell me if this sounds familiar to you.

You spend a lot of time coming up with the perfect focus keyword or keyphrases for your next blog post.

After completing all the necessary research and spending a few hours writing the first draft of over 2,500 words you make a startling discovery...

There is a big need for a title that will grab the attention of your readers who are using Google to find your content.

Your first, second and third attempt leaves you feeling hopeless because you are not a copywriter by any stretch of the imagination and...

The resulting titles resemble autumn leaves on a damp day after a light rainfall. If only you can grab an extra-large hair dryer to restore their burnt orange glory.

You see many bloggers struggle with the 'lack-lustre blog title' disease, including me. Simply because we aren't naturally great copywriters.

If only there was a shortcut to getting a list of catchy blog titles.

In this post, you will learn what you can do to drastically improve your blog titles. To get your audience excited about your content like a puppy for a doggie biscuit.

Why Are Catchy Titles Important?

Before looking at a solution to that 'lack-lustre blog title' disease let's spend some time understanding why catchy titles are important.

There are 70 million blog posts published every single month.

It means that there is a good chance that there is a blog post with similar content to yours and you need to compete for your reader's attention.

Here is another shocking statistic. By the year 2020, there will be 31.7 million bloggers in the US alone.

So, you will need to only compete with only 31,699,999 other bloggers on various levels to grab your share of blog readers.

On the topic of blog readers, did you know that 61% of Americans spend 3 times more consuming blog content compared to reading their emails?

Email continues to have strong conversion ratios. It is important to remember that the first thing potential readers see is your content and not your email newsletter.

13 Types of Blog Headlines

Did you know that there are 13 types of blog titles? Without getting too scientific or even psychological on you let's spend some time looking at these headline types.

No need for me to have to reinvent the wheel here's is a list that was done by Hubspot that outlines the 13 blog headline types.

Hubspot Headlines Type

As you can see they can be very straight forward in terms of their short description but let's dissect them a little bit.

Most people know about the clickbait headline type so let's take that one first.

Clickbait

It is a very exciting headline type that is the same as dangling a carrot or even a fake rabbit in front of hyped-up hounds.

You may never be able to find the most popular blog topics because...

The technique you are using to find them is not resourceful or you are looking in all the wrong places.

Writing on the topics that your readers are interested in right now can prove to be an extremely difficult task.

One of the keys to getting readers to your blog consistently is by knowing what they want to read this month.

Yes, it does make sense to write on topics that are evergreen as well to keep your content fresh and relevant.

Many bloggers continue to struggle to find a way to find content that is popular because it is virtually impossible to climb into the brain of your readers.

In this post, you will learn how to find out what is popular in your niche right now and just which topics to choose and what to leave out.

What are Popular Blog Topics?

You may be wondering how to decide if a topic is popular or not for the readers in your niche. The simple answer is to look at the votes or engagement.

Who decides whether a piece of content goes viral or gets the most popular votes?

Unfortunately, it all depends on your audience or readers. In other words, there isn't a group of judges, a board or viral body in place.

It all comes down to engagement on a particular piece of content.

The more shares, likes, retweets and comments you get the more popular your content will be. For many years, experts have been trying to hack virality.

However, they have not managed to nail down all the elements that make content become viral.

Therefore it would make sense to see what is already popular in your niche then write on something similar.

Which Topic Should I Choose for My Blog?

The best topics to write about are the ones that are evergreen because you tend to get more mileage out of evergreen content.

Evergreen content is anything that is relevant today and will continue to be relevant in 3, 5 or even 10 years.

Choose a topic that can extend to over 1,000 words so that you can give your reader a good experience. As well as a complete answer to their question.

Ensure that you exclude absolute dates. For example, avoid giving a specific day like Monday, also avoid seasons like Easter or Christmas unless the post is deliberately seasonal.

If it is a seasonal post for Christmas avoid including a year like 'Christmas 2016'. Instead, just be very generic and say things like 'this Christmas'.

Avoid mentioning specific events and conferences that will date your post as well like Brexit, Gulf war, Black Friday Sale 2018, etc.

Always, ask the question, will this be still relevant 12-24 months from now? If not, then how can I make it evergreen?

How to Find Trending Blog Topics?

Before I dive into answering this question it is super important to clear up one thing. Current affairs and trending topics are not one and the same.

Just because a topic is trending does not mean it is not going to be evergreen. Every year the world depends on trends in order to predict human behaviour.

For example, during the summer people tend to do the same things like spend more time outdoors, go on picnics, go swimming and even go on vacation. This is a human trend.

The best way to find trending topics is to do a search on popular platfo...

Very few people know the list of must-have WordPress plugins because...

No two WordPress blogs are created equal. It really depends on the objective of the website owner at the end of the day.

You may argue that there should be at least 5-6 WordPress plugins that every person on the WordPress.org platform needs.

In many cases, the answer is yes. Until something terrible happens like your blog gets hacked or images become corrupted there could be a handful of needed plugins.

Many bloggers continue to struggle with many challenges when it comes to creating their website on WordPress.

The truth is to take a layered approach. Build the basic functionality and security measures into your blog it should be fine.

In this post, you will learn what those basic plugins are and why you need them. As well as another 5-6 plugins that add the cherry on the top.

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 a WordPress Plugin?

Let's spend some time looking at what a WordPress plugin is and why you will need to add them in the first place.

The best way to describe a WordPress plugin in layman terms is for you to see it as an add on feature (a piece of code packaged). It gives formatting and/or functionality to your website.

There are a lot of things that come as standard when you install your WordPress site. For example, the block or Gutenberg formatting is there as standard.

These WordPress add-ons help you to save time. In many cases, they also give you the ability to improve the reader experience.

A great example of this is the plugin that allows you to place a Table of Contents on each blog post. This can be really helpful for longer blog posts.

As you can imagine each plugin comes with advantages as well as disadvantages.

It is generally accepted that a website with a maximum of 8 plugins runs more efficiently compared to one that has 30 plugins.

How to Install a WordPress Plugin?

If you never had the opportunity to install a plugin before, the process is pretty straight-forward to get done.

Simply head over to plugins in the left side-bar and click on that link. You will then see the 'add new' button on the top left, click on that button.

You then have two options which are to search for one from the standard plugins directory. Or upload a new plugin that you might have saved to your hard drive.

When uploading from your hard drive, navigate to the folder where the plugin is stored, select it and click upload. After the upload process is complete then click activate.

However, if you are choosing one from the WordPress directory of plugins simply click install. Then select activate after the plugin has been installed.

Ensure that the plugin is compatible with your version of WordPress. Also, the total number of active installations plus the review rating gives you a good idea of its success.

Depending on the plugin that you are installing you may also need to configure the plugin settings to suit your specific needs.

The truth about DIY SEO tools is that...

They come with advantages as well as disadvantages. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? Let's find out...

If you have been publishing posts for a while but your blog posts are not ranking in Google fast enough. Or...

Maybe you are just running out of keywords that are easy to show up in Google and you now need a resource to find keywords that are low hanging fruit.

There are several schools of thought when it comes to doing a competitive analysis. These schools can be narrowed into two broad camps.

The first camp believes that there is no need to do any research using free or paid tools because you can rank based on the way people think.

On the other hand, the second camp are mostly those who use free and paid SEO tools as they believe it helps to give them guidance.

Many bloggers continue to struggle with getting readers to their blog from Google on autopilot. This is due to their limited understanding of SEO.

The reality is that both camps are right (I know that sounds crazy). It really depends on the objective or focus of your blog post.

In this post, you will be able to get a better understanding of the various tools available. The goal is that you will choose the best DIY SEO tools when the time is right.

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 the Anatomy of a Good SEO Tool?

A good SEO (search engine optimisation) tool is one that gives you the information needed to increase your chances of gaining readers to your blog.

Here is a list of things that most DIY SEO tools have as standard:

* Relevant topic detail* Search volume* Ranking factors* Social activity* Reliable statistics

As you can imagine there are a range of different types of results that SEO tools retrieve and display based on your query.

Therefore the items listed above are quite generic because there are several different types of SEO tools.

The reason for this is because Google has a very complex algorithm that no one knows for sure 100% of the time.

In fact, Google updates their algorithm 3,200 times every year which gives you an idea as to the complexity of Search.

Types of DIY SEO Tools

Now you know broadly what kind of requirements DIY SEO tools have as standard. Let's spend some time looking at the different types available.

* Keyword Research* Backlink Checker* Authority Checker* Top Social Engagement* Content Optimisation* Rank Check* Web Analytics

This may or may not surprise you but some SEO tools include all 7 types of searches. While others are limited to 2-3 areas.

Of course, if one tool incorporates all 7 types of tools then it is safe to assume that the monthly pricing is likely to be higher compared to others.

To get a better understanding of all these tool types I will spend time explaining each type as well as what you can expect to see in the results.

photo by Matthew Henry

Keyword Research

The most popular type of SEO tool is one that does keyword research because that is where m...

Do you want to sell handmade items online? Are you looking for a way to make money from home using your talents?

If you are like me you probably had the opportunity to make a lot of handmade items back in school.

However, it never crossed your mind to sell handmade products to start an online business from home.

In today's economy, it continues to surprise me the kind of things that you can make and sell online.

Many people struggle with the idea of having to go into the office 5 days a week from 9 to 5. They hope that they would stumble upon an opportunity.

Some even wonder where to sell handmade items or how to make money selling crafts.

What you need to know is that you don't need to have a degree or special skills to make 50% of things being sold online.

Actually, the number one thing you do need is a lot of patience as well as a good sprinkling of perseverance.

The key to your success will be for you to be creative which simply means that you need to think outside of the box.

In some cases, you can even hire out the talent if there is a requirement for design.

All that is left is for you to find marketplaces where you can sell those items that you made.

In this post, you are going to be blown away by the 20+ places where you can sell your precious creations online.

How to Get Started Selling Handmade Items Online?

The one thing you need to do before deciding to sell anything online is to do your research.

Spend some time learning what is currently in demand on these handmade sellers platforms.

In order to help you with your research here is a list of items that are bestsellers on Etsy at the time of writing this post.

* Gold plated brass cable chain* 10 pcs gold lobster claw clasp* Bridesmaid tote bags* Natural diamond heart ring* Clay varnish* Boho bracelets* T-shirts* Weekender tote bag* Body butter* Etsy online course* Honeycomb connector pendants* Infant beanie (hospital hat for baby)

As you can see there is a wide variety of things from items to help artists with their craft to ready-made products.

Also, head on over to Craft Count to see the top 10 Etsy sellers then click over to their profiles to get an understanding of their best selling products.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive but only a small representation to give you a flavour of what's possible.

After completing your research you need to make a shortlist of 5-6 items that you believe that you can make or supply on a consistent basis to customers.

The next best thing is finding the best low-cost supplier of the raw material or design services that you need.

If you are like me the one thing that you will find intimidating is coming up with a selling price for your finished product.

You can take a look at this amazing, free handmade pricing calculator from Deb the founder of Tizzit here.

Marketing Your Items

One of the fastest ways to get sales when you list your items is to promote your items on social media.

Before looking at marketing though one thing that you will need to keep in mind is the presentation and images of your products.

If you don't have great photography skills and you have a budget available t...