To Drive Traffic Without Spending Money - 5 Ways

METHOD 1 - SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is free to use and more powerful than any of us imagined it could be.
The big five seem to be ...

1. Facebook
2. Instagram
3. Twitter
4. LinkedIn
5. Pinterest

Some will disagree with that list and that's okay. But Facebook is the 800 pound gorilla whether we like it or not.

No matter which platform you choose, you need something valuable to say.
This is the stopping point for most people.

Happily, you don't have to be a writer to have good things to say!

Here's why ... social media is about being social AND about doing business too.

One actionable idea is this - buy a Private Label Rights product that you can give away and create a Facebook page that gives the product free to people who "like" you.

This one method alone can unleash a viral avalanche and help you build your email mailing list at the same time.

After all, how many PLR reports and products do you have on your hard drive right now?
Let's put 'em to use!
A win-win!

METHOD 2 - ANSWER QUESTIONS

It has always been true that people have questions.
This is why Ask Me Anything (AMA) podcasts and Facebook Live events almost always draw a big crowd.
What is different now is that they ask "the cloud" instead of asking family and friends.
And so sites like Quora exist to fill the need.
The good news is that anyone (that means you too) can answer questions on sites like Quora.
The key is this - find ONE area where you can answer questions and become known as an expert.
Once you do that, you can easily convince people who read your answers to follow you on social, visit your blog, join your mailing list and buy the products you recommend.
Remember that process because it's important ...

Follow ... Visit ... Join ... Buy

Another benefit - you build trust with an audience that Quora pays to gather for you. They do the work of getting the traffic and you harvest the crop with your hard work.

Other sites like Reddit provide similar opportunities.

METHOD 3 - COMMENT ON BLOGS

Commenting on blogs in your niche is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to get links from high traffic sites. And it works!

The key here is a to make a comment that shows you have read the article and one that extends the conversation. That's the key - extending the conversation. 

While it's fine to say "I love this post", short comments like that (even if they are affirming) are often seen as spam and are deleted.

So make your comment a bit longer, and feel free to ask a question too.
Much like social media, commenting on blogs is all about the conversation.

One major mistake is trying to "automate" the process.

Don’t use software that sends out 9,000 comments to different blogs. You never read the posts. You’re just commenting on them. Those things don’t work.

Finding blogs in your niche is easy. In fact, even Google has a blog search feature.

METHOD 4 - SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE

While answering questions and making comments is good, sharing from your knowledge and experience is even better.

The good news is that you can start on a free platform like Medium if money is tight.

Medium is an incredible site that allows you to post your content free. They then show, and even promote, that content to their massive audience.

And massive it is. According to Alexa it is one of the top 250 sites in the WORLD!

This is very good news for you!

It means you have a chance to find an audience of your own, in almost any niche you can imagine, and develop a relationship with them without spending a dime!

Once you have been posting a while, and after you have a blog or sales funnel of your own, you can invite them to visit!

METHOD 5 - ESTABLISH A BLOG

Why is having your own blog important?

1. It gives you a "home base", somewhere to send all visitors so they can learn more. Having one site to which you send people matters, especially if you are an affiliate marketer who might promote a variety of products over time. Sending all traffic to your blog makes your advertising and promotion evergreen.
2. It empowers you to build a list of your own. Using tools like Aweber's list building widget or a pop up from PopUp Domination you can build a list from your blog visitors quickly.
3. Blogs create high-quality free traffic from the search engines. Search engines exist to do one thing - provide people who search for relevant content. When your articles are relevant to what people are searching for search engines will send you traffic-free.

Here is why this method works so well...

• It’s useful and they appreciate it. 
• They want to reciprocate.
• It’s incomplete and they want to learn more. 
• Now they’re clicking your link.
•  

An Amazingly Simple Way To Generate Free Traffic.
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How to build a sales funnel in 10 minutes!

Did you know that it costs McDonalds $1.91 in advertising to get you into the drive-through...?

And when they sell you a burger for $2.09... they ONLY make $0.18... :(

But... when they upsell you fries and a coke for $1.77 more... they make (and more importantly keep $1.32 profit)...  

Yes, 8 times the profit of the initial sale!

Pretty cool, don't you think? 

But... what does that have to do with you?

Well, If you're like most people who sell stuff online...

You set up a website, and you started selling your product...

But just like McDonald's... even if people are buying it...

After your advertising costs, you're probably not left with enough to even cover your hosting bills. :(

And that's when you realize... that if you want to make it online, you can't sell from a flat website...

You need to do what McDonald's did, and set up a sales funnel... 

But instead of having people go through a drive-in window...

Online they go through a "capture page" where you can gather their contact information and follow up with them through email...

Then instead of selling them a burger, you have a sales page created to sell your initial product...

And while you're probably not going to offer your customers fries and a coke...

You could upsell them on your other products and services.

This is what we call a "Sales Funnel"

Where website visitors can come in the top...

And cash comes out the bottom...

You have seen it work at McDonald's, you have seen it work on Amazon... and you KNOW it will work for you.

So, you decide to create your first sales funnel...

But after weeks of trial and error...

You ask yourself... WHY did it have to be so hard? 

All you wanted to do was to sell your stuff online.

But instead, you spent weeks (maybe months) playing with web builders, hiring designers and programmers BEFORE you ever made your first penny online. 

And to us... well, that seemed kinda backward. 

Shouldn't there be an easy way to create high converting marketing funnels, without having to hire an entire staff?

We thought so, and that's why we created ClickFunnels - a simple way to easily create sales funnels that convert!

Want to see a quick demo to see how it works?  

After you watch the video, you can get a FREE 2-week trial account here:

===>>> Click here

Boost Your Reach With Other Small Businesses - Instagram Engagement Groups

What are Instagram engagement groups?

 

They are private group conversations with a limited number of users (usually from 15-20, but can range to thousands) who are all aiming for Instagram growth and engagement.  Niche-specific engagement groups are the most popular ones and can range from fashion to photography and cars to health. 
All group members help one another by following engagement behavior defined by their groups (often referred to as “pods”). The three main kinds are:

• Like only: members only like each other’s posts
• Comment only: members only comment on each other’s posts
• Like and comment: members like and comment on each other’s posts

Unfortunately, it’s not easy to join an Instagram engagement pod – some require payment and have group rules you must follow. And not all pod group rules are the same, as some require you click a certain number of members’ links while others need you to engage with a certain number of posts in a day.

How to find Instagram engagement groups

Your Explore Page is the best place to start since it populates content from accounts similar to that of yours. A general rule of thumb is to look for related accounts with content that has high engagement. This can be a good indicator that these accounts may be related to engagement groups.
Off of Instagram is where most of the pods are though (we’ll explain why later). Explore the following communities to try your luck:

• Telegram has also been a growing online cloud community for finding niche-specific engagement pods
• Reddit has a thread dedicated to Instagram pods
• Facebook also has large groups you can search for
• WhatsApp is also a source for finding groups
• Search Twitter for related hashtags
• Just Google

How to join Instagram engagement groups

The thing with engagement groups is…they’re not easy to join since most are private or in secret. The the easiest way to try is to DM (direct message) a high-engaging account on Instagram that relates to your niche or product and sees if it is part of an engagement group that you can join. 
If you happen to be accepted, you’ll be part of what is known as an Instagram DM Group. These are the most common pods to join. On Facebook and other noted platforms, you have to either send an invite request or message to a group to see if you will be accepted.

List of Instagram engagement groups

Aside from the standard like-only, comment-only, or like and comment pods, some pods have specific requirements as touched on earlier.

• Dx groups: Usually designated with a number such as “Dx20” or “Dx10” mean you must comment and like the last (insert number) links posted in the group to join. So a “Dx20” group, for instance, would require you to like the last 20 links posted in the group.
• Time-limit groups: These pods are labeled with time constraints, most commonly “24HR” to designate the time length in which users can drop their links or profile handles. All members must engage with the pod’s members’ posts within that time frame.
• Post notification groups: A simpler and more traditional take on upping engagement, these type of groups are generally a DM chat group and require members to turn on notifications for all members. So, once a member posts something, everyone in the chat will be notified so they can go like or comment.

Free engagement groups on Instagram

Want to cut the search and find the right groups for your Instagram marketing? Start with the pods below:

From Facebook:

• Instagram Marketing Mastermind PODS
• Fitness Instagram POD!
• Instagram Growers – For Mommy Bloggers Only
• Comment Pods of Instagram: Dogs Edition
• Instagram Pod: Health, Outdoor Life, Fitness, Natural Living & Nutrition
• Instagram Follow/Like/Comment Pod

From Telegram

• 24H LIKES ONLY
• BOOSTUP Powerlikes
• Engagement Groups
• BLOGGERS | Dx5 | L&C
• Creative Instagram Hub

It’s a good idea to join multiple pods to see what may work best for you (ex. One niche pod and one more general like/follow one).

Paid Instagram engagement groups

Whether a group is paid or not completely varies. You could stumble across a group on Facebook or DM an an account on Instagram to find out you have to hand over money to join that pod. However, you can have greater peace of mind and a higher return on investment if you pay for a well-known engagement service. Two well-known ones are:

1. Wolf
2. AiGrow

Something to keep in mind: with paid services, you are essentially guaranteed engagement since pod members are required to follow and like your content (some of this is even automated with certain services). Members will be penalized if they don’t engage. With some free pods, you have to rely on other group members to manually do their part of the deal. There is no guarantee that members will like your stuff (some just earn engagement from other members and leave the groups — this is known as “leeching”).

Are Instagram engagement groups worth it?

So one thing is clear — finding the right pods is not easy. There’s a laundry list of things to consider:

1. You have to network and search platforms and apps
2. The groups have to be quality and reliable
3. Many have requirements to acceptance, or you have to pay to ensure quality service
4. Even if you are accepted, you have to abide by the group rules and spend time liking, commenting and engaging with other member accounts.
5. Some groups have time limits (ex. 24 hours only to comment on all users’ posts; you only have 30 minutes to join)
6. Depending on the pod you are in (if it isn’t niche related), you could be interacting with accounts, not at all related to your brand. This in turn can make your engagement look questionable to users who stumble across your comments.

With all these barriers, you might start asking: are these pods and groups even worth the trouble?
The answer is mixed. A few years ago, outlets such as Buzzfeed reported Facebook (the parent company of Instagram) cracking down on engagement groups. The reason was that the activity in engagement pods was viewed by Facebook to be manipulative of Instagram’s algorithm make your account seem high-engaging (when in fact, it really wasn’t). Due to this, people started fearing that if detected by Facebook for engaging in engagement groups, their accounts could be shadowbanned or deleted. That is why many users steer clear of Instagram DM groups and Facebook groups and gravitate towards external resources such as Telegram and WhatsApp to avoid Facebook’s monitoring eye.
However, that doesn’t mean that joining Instagram pods is a waste. There’s always a chance that you can hit it off with the right niche and building good relationships with other pod members. It’s a strategy that can help boost your engagement such as likes and comments if done with the right people.

 

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How to Find a Niche Product For Your Drop Shipping Store - 3 Great Ways

As you know, we use AliExpress as the main source of items and suppliers for our dropshipping store. Still, when it comes to choosing suitable products, it can actually be challenging to scan through this platform and go through all the hundreds of thousands of items.
This is why we actively use additional sources of information. Even though we don’t import any items from these alternative sources, we look at them really carefully to understand how we can enhance our product strategy.
Here is the list of the ways we use to find highly popular niche products that see a huge demand.

1. How to Find Niche Products on Pinterest: analyzing buyable pins

Pinterest is, as its’ founders state, a “catalog of ideas” where people get inspiration and a good mood. But besides that, Pinterest is a great marketing tool for companies because it helps advertise and promote various trends. You can make good use of it too, searching for the most buyable products:

• Log in or create your account
• Turn it into a business account
• To make sure you got all the settings right, go to your profile settings

Now you are ready to do magic and find the most buyable pins!
A pin is a little post with an image. People save the pins they like to their virtual ‘boards’.

• Go to the home page and type your keyword into the search box
• Click on the ‘Buyable Pins’ tab

• Analyze the goods shown. Even though you can’t rank them by popularity, you can see how many people saved certain goods to their boards (the more the better), and what are the names and image styles of the most popular products. Use this information wisely, and your dropshipping store will contain only the best goods.

• In addition, you can use search results shown in ‘All Pins’ tab – the same information is available here too. Please note: these are NOT buyable pins, so, it doesn’t mean that people save these pins to their boards because they want to buy it.

2. Finding Niche Products on Ebay: exploring the most watched products

We use a special service provided by watchcount.com that shows the most-watched eBay items/auctions.

• Go on http://www.watchcount.com/mw2.php
• Type the keyword into the search box (you can also use categories to filter search results)
• View how many people watched the product you are searching for on Ebay and what goods are the most popular. It’s simple!

3. Use Amazon to Find Niche Products to Dropship: figuring out the best selling products

Actually, the Amazon website is a great place to monitor top goods. Just enter a keyword into the amazon.com search box and filter the results.



There are 2 ways to do that:

1. Filter by customer reviews

Your search results are ranked now by-products’ rating according to customer reviews.

2. Filter by relevance

Voila! You are shown the best-selling niche products on Amazon! It’s really worth analyzing popular items representation and placing similar products in your store.
Using these websites to look for the most popular products, we achieve many goals:

• We always stay updated about the preferences of our potential buyers
• We study the newest trends and learn more about new products to dropship appearing in this niche
• We create just the perfect store where every customer can find something to their liking
• We gather data about the top selling items so that we can make good-looking and informative product pages

 

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10 Tips To Boost Your Instagram

 

What’s the reason to boost your Instagram engagement?

To date, the most visited websites worldwide are social networks. Tons of people use them every day for chatting, sharing photos, and so on. Moreover, they are extremely popular not only among teenagers but among the users of all ages. What does it mean for you as an eCommerce business owner? In fact, it gives you an opportunity to use social networks to promote your business.

How you boost your Instagram and use it for the benefit of your business?

#1 Create a brand

A strong brand is extremely important for any type of business. And, especially, if you deal with eCommerce. 
Building a memorable brand image, you enjoy a whole range of long-term benefits. For example, you get the opportunity to establish an emotional connection with your followers. After gaining a loyal audience, you will find it much easier to introduce and promote new product offerings and raise awareness about your business through word of mouth.

#2 Optimize your Instagram bio

An Instagram bio that is written in a proper way is a vital element of your Instagram monetizing strategy. For you, as the account owner, it means the chance to tell your potential clients all about your business while keeping it short and to the point. You have only 150 words to do this. That’s why we are eager to give you several tips on how to optimize your Instagram bio!
First of all, specify the niche where you conduct your eCommerce activities. It will help the Instagram users find your account faster and easier. 

#3 Think of how to boost your Instagram followers

The number of followers of your Instagram business account is also extremely important. Take one step at a time and start small: first of all, try to get 1,000 subscribers.
Achieving this milestone, you’ll be able to proudly write that you’re a micro influencer in your Instagram bio 
There are multiple ways of how to boost your Instagram likes and the number of followers. For example, you can launch a giveaway, pay more attention to your posts’ content, and even use awesome semi-automated software to enhance your Instagram activity.

#4 Use social proof and user-generated content

Social proof plays a huge role in your brand image creation and support. The posts containing authentic reviews from your clients can also contribute greatly to your Instagram monetizing strategy. In fact, they can improve your conversions significantly and influence the number of both immediate and long-term purchases. 
 Social proof helps them make their purchasing decisions quicker and influences their loyalty to your brand.

#5 Use hashtags to boost your Instagram likes

The right hashtags let Instagram users find your posts more quickly. The reason is simple: hashtags contain a clickable link that makes it extremely easy for people to navigate through billions of posts. 
When running an account on Instagram, you should know that it’s allowed to use up to 30 hashtags in one post.
By the way, if you want to interest as many potential clients as possible, you should use more broad hashtags.

#6 Make entertaining posts

One of the main purposes of your business Instagram account is to inform its visitors and followers about your products and services. Still, it’s a great idea to mix these product-oriented posts with educational, entertaining, and fun entries to keep your audience interested, engaged, and curious to follow you.
 Instagram’s primary idea is to share photos. It means that when people check their Instagram feed, they just want to have fun and see something interesting and catchy. So, give them what they want, and they will be more likely to subscribe!

#7 Post videos

If you’re wondering how to boost your Instagram with ease, think about shooting different types of videos! Demonstrating your products in use, educating your followers and sharing something valuable with your audience, you interest your potential clients and give them the unique content they’re here for. Using this marketing strategy, you have an opportunity to increase the level of loyalty to your company.

#8 Use Instagram shoutouts

One of the most common, convenient, and profitable ways of promoting your business on Instagram is making Instagram shoutouts. 
Why do choose shoutouts, but not official ads?  People are tired of intrusive advertising. Instagram shoutouts, in their turn, don’t really look annoying, and in some cases they are not perceived as ads at all 
What is an Instagram shoutout?

An Instagram shoutout is a way of advertising your products or services by means of posts in a popular blogger’s account.

In fact, there is nothing difficult about it. You need to find a blogger who’s popular enough in the same niche you deal with. This blogger will promote your business in his or her account. Please pay attention to the fact that there is no need to chase the bloggers with several million subscribers! They often ask to pay quite a lot for the promotion, and your ad campaign risks to become unprofitable. 

#9 Run contests

If you want to drive more potential customers to your Instagram account, you can try running contests and giveaways. Remember that they lead to a short-term boost in sales and traffic, and the effect doesn’t always last for a long time.
However, it’s a great tool if you want to attract the audience’s attention in the run-up to some special event, holiday, etc.

#10 Offer discounts and bonuses

Giving discounts and bonuses is still a great way to draw attention to your business. However, we don’t recommend you give them for doing nothing
For example, you can make them available only for those who follow your account. 

 

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4 reasons to think about changing your business niche

When starting a business, your very first concern is finding a niche that will attract enough clients to make your store profitable.

A specific niche is a key to success, and it usually has a number of advantages over general stores. When you know exactly what kind of product or service you’re going to offer, it’s much easier to define your target audience, promote the business and select products to sell.

However, it doesn’t mean that just any random niche will guarantee success. Entrepreneurs all over the globe come up with thousands of business ideas, but not all of them get worldwide attention. To find a good niche, one needs a proper market analysis, and a bit of luck won’t hurt either.

Furthermore, even after thorough research, you may find that things aren’t going smoothly.

Nevertheless, there are ways to change your business niche even after you’ve launched an online store. But first, let’s find out when you really need to change it.

#1 Sales drop

If you start losing money, it’s an obvious sign that something’s wrong. However, one must be careful here because sales drop can be the result of different factors. The problem may lie in other fields such as promotion mistakes, wrong marketing strategy or seasonal demand fluctuations. That’s why if your sales drop, you’d better not jump to conclusions.

#2 Same efforts bring worse results

If what used to work a year ago is now working poorer, it clearly indicates that the market has changed. To keep doing the same thing and expect different results is madness. Nevertheless, many companies hold on to the methods that became traditional. ‘We always did it like this, and we’ll keep doing it like this!’

That’ll lead you to nowhere.

#3 You see opportunities

If you see something with a potential for growth, which you didn’t see when you started the business, it could be your chance for improvement. However, before doing something, conduct a proper analysis to make sure it wasn’t your imagination. 

#4 You don’t feel satisfied

Also, don’t ignore your personal feelings. In an online business like dropshipping, a lot depends on passion. If you don’t feel inspired anymore, maybe it’s time to make changes?

Again, it doesn’t necessarily mean you definitely need to change your niche. Maybe, you’re just tired and need a vacation. Or you’re going through a hard period of your life. But giving it a thought won’t hurt.

 

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Worst things to dropship through your dropshipping store

Worst things to dropship through your dropshipping store

  Time to talk about serious things: limitations and restrictions. The possible issues connected to a wrong product choice might be:

• A super angry customer who wants to return the product, make a refund, and ruin your reputation on social media
• Legal consequences

Commonly, these 2 issues are connected to each other; they arise because of the same reasons, and it’s wise to never let any of them happen.
In order not to get into trouble, please avoid the products that are:

– Copyrighted

Take a look at this item.


Do you remember that we’ve mentioned something about AliExpress's own ban on branded items…? Technically, the platform forbids selling such items, but here it is, shining bright.
We don’t recommend adding something of this kind to your store. If it’s a replica of unsatisfactory quality, the buyers will most likely get disappointed because of unmet expectations and their negative feedback won’t do you any good.
Plus, most likely, you will have difficulties while promoting these items on social media (Facebook ads, Instagram shoutouts, etc.). If they get wide coverage, they will certainly get the attention of the original brand owners, authorities, or just concerned individuals. Your social media account might get blocked, and your whole business will get compromised. That’s not what you want, right? And you cannot avoid using this kind of promotion, as other sources – email marketing or something else – cannot provide such great coverage of your target audience.

– Potentially dangerous

The item below is a good illustration of a product with a provocative nature. A customs officer would be likely to ban it from entering the country.







Every country has its own understanding of the legal items for import. These regulations even apply to online orders of private individuals. There might be some restrictions on importing defense articles, hunting tools, military-related items, smoking devices, etc. If you are not sure that it is safe and legal to ship this or that product to your buyers’ country of residence, please check it twice, and if you’re still doubting, just leave it out.

– Fragile

The item on the picture below is super cute but somewhat tricky.



Product delivery takes a lot of time; during the shipment process, the package will certainly see some external impact.
No one likes receiving deformed or broken items! This is why the products of glass, ceramics, or other similar materials are sometimes a questionable choice.
If you still want to have them in your store, talk to the relevant AliExpress seller first. Ask about the used type of the packaging materials, and read the previous buyers’ reviews. This is how you will find out whether the seller can actually provide the items with a secure and damage-proof package.

– Heavy

According to the seller’s description, the weight of the package containing this animal-head piece of home decor is 4 kg.



Even for domestic shipping, such items are usually a bit tricky.
International delivery, most likely, will demand some extra shipping fees, which is not good news for your buyers. Plus, the heavier items are inconvenient to manage. Any unpleasant incident that happens during the loading activities may result in product damage.

– Technically complex

The picture below shows an example of a drone offered on AliExpress.



Even though the gadget industry shows a rapid favorable growth, it might be a better strategy to focus on the relevant accessories and spare parts instead.
The reason for this precaution is simple: neither you nor your buyer can physically examine this complicated piece of technology. So, none of you can be 100% sure in its perfect working order.
If something goes wrong, you will have to deal with the standard return and refund routine. Generally, it is a simple and quick procedure, but if you’re dealing with costly items (and gadgets are quite expensive, as you can guess), the whole process might get a bit longer and trickier.

– Tight-fitting clothes and shoes

Typically, we don’t even recommend working with shoes (except for home slippers) and ‘demanding’ clothes. Here’s what we’re talking about:



This dress is exquisite and looks fancy, but, as you guess, it requires a specific body type, plus it needs to be tried on before purchase.
You have certainly seen some funny ‘AliExpress: Expectations vs Reality’ posts on social media, and this is exactly what might happen to your buyer. When a store visitor has no way to try on a piece of clothing before purchase, there are two possible scenarios for this customer. The client will either leave the store without completing the order, or buy an unsuitable and disappointing piece of clothing, and return it later. None of the options is really great, right?

The same is true for shoes; here’s an illustrative picture from a seller’s page.



Even the modeling person clearly has some inconveniences with wearing these high heels; can you expect that a random customer’s feet will definitely fit into this pair of shoes?

This is why we recommend picking oversize clothes and items with a loose cut. Since they don’t have to fit you tightly, buyers with any body type can pick and wear them with no stress and discomfort.
That’s all for our dropshipping items recommendations!

 

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