Let me start this off with a disclaimer: I hated popups. I wasn’t a fan of scrolling down the page, minding my own business, when BOOM — I’d be stopped in my tracks by someone asking for my attention. It seemed like everyone in content marketing was asking for an email address so they could sign me up for one more email I wouldn’t read. But Continue Reading...

Content is still king. But methods and media have changed. When I first got into this industry back in 2012, larger sites were still gaming the system with high-volume content stuffed with keywords. Google was engaged in an ongoing war with link farms, which used backlinks at scale to inflate rankings. I always found it scummy; maybe that was Continue Reading...

I remember when affiliate marketing was THE big trend. The early blogosphere felt like boomtown-era San Francisco. “Get rich quick” language was everywhere as marketers scrambled for a chance at affiliate marketing gold. The shine of those early days has worn off. Does affiliate marketing still matter? Yes — but like many other aspects of Continue Reading...

You can’t log onto the Internet without running into a podcast. Podcasts have gone from niche channel to mainstream powerhouse. The Joe Rogan Experience is one of the most influential pieces of media in the world, and hundreds of other smaller podcasts still garner massive audiences every week. There are 464.7 million podcast listeners around Continue Reading...

Bad links have a bigger impact than you realize. I was trying to update the Rainmaker Platform Knowledge Base the other day and noticed broken links to resources from some companies that produce our platform add-ons. They had moved or changed links. In some of those cases, the resource didn’t exist anymore or I couldn’t find it, and they lost a Continue Reading...

I’ve written and edited literally thousands of item descriptions. Several years ago, I worked for a distributor. Part of my job was putting together item descriptions — either writing new ones or rewording what we got from the manufacturer. Just about every description I wrote was dry and boring. But they don’t have to be. Every brand has Continue Reading...

If you’ve been watching the news, you’ve probably seen the drama over Twitter’s new Twitter Blue and Verification for Organization services. Premium services for social media aren’t new. LinkedIn’s premium version has been around for a while. Meta is starting a paid program of its own. But Twitter Blue is a hot topic in the news, and more Continue Reading...

Just because you get views doesn’t mean your content is successful. Views are great. Engagement is great. But the point of marketing is to get people to take action. When you build a funnel, you start at the top, building awareness. Then you take your audience down to the middle of the funnel and help them evaluate the action they need to Continue Reading...

Are your emails getting read? It’s harder than ever to get noticed in your audience’s inbox. Open rates and click-through rates are down across the board. It’s more critical than ever to make sure your email is optimized, and that means giving your audience what they want. We have a formula that will help you do just that. Vary Your Email Continue Reading...

The best tools, location or product selection in the world don’t mean much if you don’t know what you’re doing. Your business is a success because of YOUR KNOWLEDGE — and that knowledge is a powerful marketing resource. One of the easiest ways to turn your knowledge into profit is to create an online course. Here’s how you can use an online Continue Reading...