This was Jeremy’s 50th time speaking and according to him it would be the last. I was in Jeremy’s first keynote that he gave at Izeafest in 2008. This presentation was very insightful and I definitely learned few very important lessons. Some of them are already implemented in my business modal which I am glad for.

Lesson #1: If you want to be successful, you have to do what others (your competitors) are not willing to.

Often people are afraid of adapting new things. They don’t know whether it will be good for their business. Whether this be a new social media technology or a new business strategy. It is the one who takes the risk that gets the maximum reward. Sure there is a risk of some damage or loss, but you can calculate that. As some say: If you are not first, then you are last.

Lesson #2: Don’t underestimate anyone!

Jeremy used to be pretty fat close to 400 pounds. He liked a girl in high school who rejected him after she manipulated Jeremy into giving her presents and such. Well years later, now Jeremy is not as fat and super rich. She sent him an email asking him for tips and ideas to make money online. What reason is there for Jeremy to help her? I don’t think I would! Bottom line: Don’t judge the book by their cover. Never underestimate anyone. So what if someone is new in the industry. They can very well end up being at the top. Always respect them.

Lesson #3: Payback is a B**ch

The girlfriend of his ended up being broke and a single mother. Now she wants Jeremy to help her when she screwed him out of money in High School. Well think again. The bottom line is treat others the way you want to be treated.

These three lessons can really shift your business model if you do them right. I was lucky to be invited by the good people at @Po_st to a dinner with Jeremy Schoemaker, and John Chow. I got to learn a lot more from him about the depth of these three lessons.

Successful Bloggers Do What Others are Not Willing To (Affiliate Summit West Keynote) is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

What is Retargeting

Retargeting, also known as remarketing, keeps your brand in front of your online audience after they leave your website. In other words, act of putting your message in front of lost prospects.

Sounds Cool, Give me the numbers

More than 90% of visitors who browse a retailers site do not complete a transaction in their visit.

Retargeted consumers are nearly 70% more likely to complete a purchase as compared to a non-retargeted consumers.

Retargeted customers spend, on average 50% more than those served with non-targeted banner ads.

Top 10 Retargeting Tactics

• Go after the 90% – Optimize for the person not the action!
• Embrace what is unique – Capitalize visually on what makes your brand memorable. The user should almost have the effect like “It’s so pretty and fancy and bling, bling, bling”.
• Test Sequence Retargeting – The the story. You can show what the user sees 1st, then what they see 2nd etc. You can say after 30 days the user should see this. Then after 60 days, they should see this. You can build a very loyal audience like this using trusting figures.
• Expecting More from the Data – Know what to expect, micro manage your way there. Impressions, CTR, CPC & CPM, Conversions. 15 – 20 impressions per user is a good number to shoot for. CTR a good number to shoot for B2B .15% – .20%. For B2C .30% – 1.0%
• Raising the Bar for Conversion – Choose your triggers wisely (& sequence them). Normally promotions are considered agressive, but in retargeting you know your audience. You can be as agressive and personalized because you can evaluate/predict the results.
• Use Retargeting as a Cheap Testing Vehicle – Test any and every truth you operate under
• Get Social – Engaging with strangers is nice. Engaging with qualified leads is better. (Pro Tip: Use Social Icons in Ads)
• Combo Brand Plays – Subliminal messaging FTW. Test each element by using split testing options.
• Drop that cookie like it’s hot. Go beyond the on-site retargeting… You work with partners so you can cross-pollinate the ads (i.e cross promotion). Where else can you build a relevant audience? Emails, blogs, and such.
• Think outside the box! If you want to be really good, then be creative. What is unique about you? What is the coolest part about you? What are your engagement calls? How can you relate to your audience? How do users remember you? This is about fine-tuning to your most loyal audience.

Where to Start?

Start building out your first audience. Drop pixels on your sites, so you can collect the data. Make sure you cover your A** with TOS and Privacy Policy.

Summary

- The way we consume information has changed, so should our marketing efforts.
- Retargeting enables us to go after pre-qualified leads with a more tailored message.
- Get Creative, embrace what is quirky, and throw the rule book out for creatives.
- Customization is key. Customize every piece of the Retargeting Pie.

Companies to Use

Retargeter, Adroll, and FetchBack are her recommendations.

Retargeting – What the Hell is it & How can I make Money with it? is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

There was another session at the same time that I was interested in called “25 Ways You Can Improve Your Website” which would’ve been a great article for our other blog List25, but I figured that WPBeginner audience is more interested in the future of content monetization.

John shared an interesting way that he makes money from his blog. He runs a pre-designed funnel that he tested a lot. Every email subscriber goes through a series of funnels where they get auto-responders that don’t do a hard pitch sale. Rather he makes strong recommendation. According to John, overtime all email subscribers that go through his list are worth at least $10. He is getting roughly 200 subscribers every day. That’s a lot of money if you think about it.

The key point that was mentioned was never go for a hard sale. Something that my friend and NY Times Best Seller Gary Vaynerchuk talks a lot about in his book Thank You Economy. The way business is done online is changing very fast. You cannot try to close a deal on your first interaction. Trust, Credibility, and Authority is now playing a much larger role than it used to.

The future of content monetization is going toward slightly sponsored content. Where you would normally write a related yet informative post and then do a soft-promotion for the sponsor. This is happening a lot on popular sites like Mashable. Ofcourse they follow FTC guideline by stating the sponsor, so the users know that the post is sponsored. One thing that I must stress is that you should never take branded content. If you are doing a sponsored review, do it yourself. Don’t let the company send it to you. It looks like a Press Release that way. You would lose a lot of trust if you just starting publishing pitches. You should publish your personal experiences rather than putting out a fake persona.

A lot of experts are discrediting email lists, but along with these panelists, I think that Email Lists are here to stay. You can build a very personal interaction using email lists if you do it right. Second, it will be the most profitable source of income for you if you do it right. Check out our article on What, Why, and How-To’s of Email Newsletters. If you don’t have an email list for your blog, then you should get it right now!

The biggest source of content for the panelists are questions and answers from their users. You need to make yourself open to your audience on social media outlets, so they can ask questions if they have it. We do this all the time. Majority of our content is based on user content that people ask us via email or social networks. The future of content publishing is going towards this route. Your articles are mainly written for your users. You want to write what they want to know. The best way of doing that is by getting them to tell you.

The Future of Content Monetization and Publishing (Affiliate Summit West 2012) is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

In January, we will be attending Affiliate Summit West and Consumer Electronic Show (CES). Both of these are held back to back in Las Vegas. If you are planning on attending either one of these, then please let us know. Its always great to meet our readers.

February is the month of WordCamps for us. We will be in Atlanta for WordCamp Atlanta 2012. Syed is speaking at the event about “Monetizing Your Blog”. Will have new case studies from List25 as well. This event is held on Feb 3rd – 4th. If you can make it, then would love to see you there.

The second WordCamp is very very close to home. It is in Miami. Yup, if you need an excuse for a vacation and want your business to pay for it. Just head on over to WordCamp Miami 2012. We will be volunteering at the event for sure because it is a local event. Not sure if Syed is speaking there, but we will update you guys once we receive the decision. We have been to WordCamp Miami for the past 2 years. Both years were amazing, and they were both SOLD OUT events. Miami not only has a great WordPress community, but it has great beaches. The first day of the event is dedicated totally to BEGINNERS!!! It is going to be amazing. Mark the dates in your calendar. February 17th – 18th. They might have a 3rd day for developers ONLY with BBQ. Its in the works.

In March, we will be crashing in Austin for SXSW most likely. Although we haven’t bought our tickets yet, but it is very likely that we will be at SXSW for the interactive section of the event.

Are you planning on attending any of these? Would love to see you there. Leave a comment if you are (or just tweet @wpbeginner)

First Quarter of 2012: Affiliate Summit, WordCamps, CES, Oh My! is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Every pattern in nature is designed according to the proportions of the golden ratio from the spirals of galaxies to our very own DNA. We are designed to find this ratio artistically appealing and artists throughout history have used it as a guideline for their work. For those of you that don’t know, the ratio is a constant equal to about 1.6. So what does this mean for web design? It means that almost every aspect of design can be modelled according to its proportions.

According to Chris, however, its greatest implications are in the world of typography. This is because typography is the vehicle by which you deliver your content to your readers. The line-height and font-size are critical components of your design and will play and important role in determining the readability of your content. For these reasons it is important to know which tools are available to help you determine these values, the greatest being given to us by nature itself.

If you would like to see Chris’s full session or any of the other sessions you can do so at Blog World Expo

How to Improve Your Typography with the Golden Ratio is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

The question on the floor this morning was “where do blogs fit into the world of media and how can they maximize their influence?” Over the past few years the media world has become much more fragmented and although media empires do still exist, the tide is shifting. The panelists all agreed that the blogosphere has the ability to influence advertisers and brands that up until now may have steered clear of it. Each of them brought a unique perspective to the table, however.

Lisa made the point that when bloggers come together and build relationships within a network, like Blogher, they gain incredible power to influence advertisers and larger media outlets. Michael, having established a presence in the world of new media with his magazine, also added that although large media empires are on the way out there will be an influx of smaller media companies serving their niches. He went on to explain that advertising is not the only way to monetize a blog. In fact, the Social Media Examiner does not have ads on their site. Instead they make their revenue from the events they throw. The biggest takeaway from this keynote, however, was that blogging is really just a form of publishing, and if you call yourself a blogger then you should also consider yourself a publisher. As Deanne noted, this is huge because it redefines and legitimizes what bloggers do, allowing them to move beyond the walls of just “blogging”.

If you would like to watch this session or any other session you may do so at Blog World Expo

Making the Most of Your Influence – Keynote with Mitch Joel is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

This year Technorati introduced a new category of blogger, the entrepreneur. It seems that more people are using blogs to promote their own businesses. Most bloggers, according to Sani, come from North American, Europe, and Oceania. They are generally educated individuals many of which blog as a hobby or to supplement their income.

The primary drivers of blog traffic are obviously facebook and Twitter with Google plus and Stumbleupon coming close behind. Tumblr and Foursquare are becoming more prevalent while Digg is starting to fall out of favor.

The primary source of influence for most bloggers this year is other bloggers along with conversations they have with friends. The topics they write about are as varied as ever and as their voice grows it has become even more important for brands to take this into account because the blogging community could do a lot of damage to a brands image. According to Shani, one of the important things for bloggers to consider this year is the transparency of their relationships with brands especially if they are promoting their products.

Overall, there are a lot of interesting and exciting trends taking place in the industry. In the future social media will the primary driver of marketing campaigns and companies will have to spend a lot more time and resources figuring out which social media platforms their customers are using.

If you would like to watch this keynote speech or any other session you may do so at Blog World Expo

State of the Blogosphere Address – Keynote with Shani Higgins is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Before getting to the hard stats, though, Jason spoke to the myth that you can’t use social media to promote your business or product. He pointed out that although there are instances where it wouldn’t make sense, there are numerous good examples of times you would want to use social media as a part of your promotional campaign. The problem is that there is a lot of advice out there telling you what you should do. While there are times that is worthwhile listening to the advice and the statistics it is based on, as a blogger you have to be aware that statistics do lie. So does this mean that you should just ignore them?

The answer is no. You have to keep the statistics in mind but consider them within the context of your own business or product. Like Jason Falls said, as long as you are aware of what your readers and customers want, you will know which statistics are relevant and which ones aren’t.

If you would like to see Jason’s full session or any of the other sessions you can do so at Blog World Expo

When Social Media Statistics Lie and What to Do About It is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Jay started by pointing out that in order to keep your readers you have to deliver genuine content. Many times this means exposing a bit of your personel life so that people can see your human side. The issue arises, however, when trying figure out how much of your personel life to put out there. As a blogger you have to figure out where the boundaries are and commit to keeping them. You don’t have to share everything about yourself in order to be genuine. You are allowed to take on a “persona”. We all do it. Social media has enabled us. All you have to do is ensure that your persona is genuine. As Jay pointed out, letting people know you struggle with depression would be very real and genuine, but if you are not comfortable with doing that then you don’t have to. Your online persona can be just as genuine if you just put a little thought and creativity into it.

If you want to watch Jay Dolan’s full session or watch any of the other sessions you can do so at Blog World Expo

Fake is the New Authentic is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

From selling shirts on the streets of Manhattan to creating dating sites for frequent flyers it was full of jokes and laughs but it had its serious side as well. Peter listed several critical things that everyone should keep in mind regardless of what industry they work in. First, rather than having backup plans for when you fail you should have a backup plan for when you succeed. Many times people are not ready to capitalize on their success and end up losing potential market share. Second, you always have to listen to your customer. As cool as twitter is, if they are not on Twitter then you should not be focusing all of your attention there.

Staying transparent, relevant, and brief are several other points Peter discussed. If you keep these in mind as you begin to grow your business then you will find your marketing efforts to be much more efficient and successful. Moreover, if you want something you’ve never had before you need to do something you’ve never done before. Stepping out of your comfort zone is critical.

The most important lesson of all though, is to have fun. If you don’t have fun while you are doing it there is no point. Life is short and it will go by really quickly without you noticing unless you deliberately try to enjoy it. Overall it was a very inspirational speech that challenged people to step out and pursue their dreams all while keeping things in perspective.

If you would like to see Peter’s full session or any of the other sessions you can do so at Blog World Expo

Peter also asked us to share this discount coupon with all of you:
2moadv56737 – gives two free months of premium version of Haro

Life Lessons in Social Media – Keynote Speech with Peter Shankman is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.