Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

In Episode #56 Neil and Eric highlight how they go about hiring the best freelancers no matter the industry. Listen as they share websites, tools, and creative strategies for finding freelancers that are truly masters of their given craft. Time Stamped Show Notes:  00:25 – Today’s topic: The Best Services for Finding Great Freelancers 00:40 – Talking designers 00:47 – Dribbble for designers 01:18 – 99designs.com a contest driven resource 01:39 – visual.ly – great for infographics 01:53 – upwork.com 02:05 – A lot of the freelancers suck, but a lot of the people offering jobs suck too 02:31 – You need to find people who’ve done EXACTLY what you’ve done 02:40 – Check out freelancer.com as well 02:50 – Toptal.com is great for engineers and developers 03:10 – The Code Pen is where Eric sourced his developer 03:14 – Don’t forget about word of mouth sourcing 04:32 – Consider searching LinkedIn—it’s not as unusual as it sounds 05:05 – angel.co Angel List means you’re plugged-in 05:52 – ProBlogger.net has really good writers 06:09 – More often than not though…this is all about YOUR hiring process—if your process isn’t good, you’ll run in circles 06:22 – When you’re hiring people, be explicit, nitpick PRE-hire so you don’t have to nitpick POST-hire 07:15 -- Remember that a friend will rarely if ever recommend a lousy freelancer because they don’t want to look bad…this of a personal recommendation as (generally) a sure thing 3 Key Points: Looking for a talented freelancer? Look word of mouth FIRST. Be extremely upfront and explicit in your expectations before hiring. Feel free to get creative—try plundering LinkedIn for talent in your industry. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #55 Neil and Eric discuss tried and true strategies for making the most of a website that is no longer in use. Listen as they talk 301 re-directs, domain name investments, scrappy partnerships, and more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:25 – Today’s topic: What Should You Do with a Website that Is No Longer in Use? 00:35 – Neil usually does a 301 redirect to another digital property, or sells the domain 00:50 – Check out flippa to sell 01:09 – Rent the website as well 01:29 – Empire Flippers and FEinternational.com 01:58 – Eric just acquired another gun blog 02:10 – Used a 301 to drive that blog to his site 02:38 – 301 redirect EACH page and renew the domain for a very long time 03:10 – Redirect no less than the Top 25 pages driving traffic 03:35 – See what competitors are doing to make money 04:00 – If you drive the same amount of traffic, why aren’t you making the same amount of money? 04:20 – Finding website brokers 04:35 – Owning a premium domain name is a GREAT way to make money 05:03 – Why aren’t you doing anything with your site? 05:39 – Don’t be afraid to partner with someone who’s scrappier and hungrier than you 3 Key Points: Take advantage of 301 redirects. If you’re thinking about terminating your website, ask yourself WHY before doing so and evaluate the alternative options. Always hold on to a premium domain—that’s a digital real estate investment. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #54 Neil and Eric share their secrets for measuring the success of SEO changes you make to your website. Listen as they talk Google Search Console versus Google Analytics, and highlight how you should approach each tool. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:25 – Today’s topic: How to Know if Your SEO Changes are ACTUALLY Working? 00:34 – Checkout Google Search Console 00:58 – As long as it says you’re going up—everything is typically all good 01:05 – Look at impressions 01:49 – When you make a technical SEO change, make a note of it and check back in 20 days via Google Search Console 03:23 – One framework to use, Brian Balfour experimentation framework 04:04 – All you need is a spreadsheet 04:14 – Neil lists the columns in his spreadsheet 04:30 – Tracking against 1 EID 05:15 – Set weekly growth meetings to review changes 05:40 – Take screen shots 2 or 3 times a month to track your data, because you will lose your history in Search Console 07:00 – GrowthBot.io can sync with Slack and preview key analytics 3 Key Points: You MUST use Google Search Console. When using GSC, be sure to take screen shots at least 2 or 3 times a month as history is not stored. Set weekly or monthly meetings to review SEO changes. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #53 Eric and Neil discuss their favorite marketing tools that save you time. Enjoy! Time Stamped Show Notes:  00:25 – Today’s topic: Marketing Tools That Will Save You Time 00:34 – Droplr—take screenshots and videos with ease 01:23 – Ahrefs—links to all your competitors 03:14 – Drip—a fresh, effective take on email marketing automation 03:24 – LeadPages—build landing pages with ease 04:49 – HelloBar—collect email address, push out marketing message, etc. with ease 05:15 – Google Tag Manager—Add snippets to whatever pages you want, add pages at-will, etc. 06:29 – Rescue Time—Identify where you’re inefficient 07:06 – Text Expander—Save snippets so you don’t have to re-type paragraphs 08:09 – Gmail Canned Responses—a great time saver for email marketing 09:03 – ScheduleOnce – Just a great time saver in terms of booking people Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #52 Neil and Eric discuss the all-too-common challenge of finding great ideas for blog topics. Listen as they share a number of their favorite tools, proven techniques, and secret sources for marquee content. Time Stamped Show Notes:  00:23 – Today’s topic: How to research new blog topics? 00:42 – Hold weekly meetings and crowdsource idea generation 01:00 – You can also tap into your email list 01:50 – Tap into feedly.com 02:05 – Neil only sources his audience for blog/podcast topics 02:31 – What type of problems are you hearing about again and again at conferences and industry events? 02:50 – BuzzSumo and Brian Dean's Skyscraper Technique 04:00 – TrackReddit 04:48 – Tap into article sub-headers and use those sub-headers to create individual posts 05:30 – What have people engaged with in the past? 06:56 – Digital Marketer – Headline Ideas 07:15 – Aaron Ageis Quick Sprout 3 Key Points: Tap into the hive mind (aka the crowd). Listen into your industry’s buzz. Try transforming sub-headers from older content into stand-alone pieces. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! Links affect two types of traffic sources: organic traffic and referral traffic. In Episode #51 Eric and Neil discuss how to drive a lot of traffic to your website without building links. Enjoy! Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #50 Eric and Neil discuss why they decided to do this podcast in the first place, what their hesitations were, and the benefits of doing it. Enjoy! Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #49 Eric and Neil discuss how often you should be tracking your keyword ranking. Enjoy! Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #48 Neil and Eric discuss their respective strategies for studying competitors. Listen as both hosts explain why examining the competition—while occasionally valuable—is not as helpful as examining customers, and why your big strategy shifts should be determined by YOU as opposed to the competition. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:10 – How much should you focus on your competitors? 00:15 – Neil doesn’t focus on competitors too much 00:29 – Remember that the market is HUGE 00:45 – There’s a LOT of room out there 01:03 – Making a shitload of money as #2 or #3 is awesome—you don’t need to be #1 01:47 – Just focus on building your OWN business 02:12 – SEMrush 02:15 – Use it to gain keen insight into what your competitors are doing 02:49 – AdBeat 02:54 – See what your competitors are doing with more granularity 03:13 – If you’re going to pay attention to competitors, may attention to new products and market shifts 03:55 – If you don’t, you’ll get left behind 04:10 – Don’t sweat the small stuff—look at their roadmap 04:46 – Talk to your customers BEFORE making a big shift 05:05 – As long as you’re talking with your customers, you’ll never miss a beat 05:50 – Don’t do legwork for free 06:35 – When all you do is monitor your competitors, you’re playing a constant game of catch-up 3 Key Points: When it comes to competitors, only pay attention to their new products and market shifts—the rest is small potatoes. You do NOT need be #1. Never forget the market is HUGE. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #47 Neil and Eric walk through their Top 10 Plugins for WordPress—they’re not only talk about the plugins and their features, but best practices for making the most of these WP add-ons.  Time Stamped Show Notes:  00:15 – Sharing the Top 5 Wordpress Plugins 00:35 – Yoast SEO plugin 01:03 – ThriveLeads is all about content upgrades 01:20 – Allows for opt-ins that are relevant to specific content topics 01:52 – Allows for the addition of an easy CTA for every post 02:02 – Pretty Link 02:09 – If you’re promoting someone else’s product as an affiliate, you can cloak the affiliate link 02:47 – Also great for Facebook ads 03:03 – PolyLang 03:13 – Requires more work, but it creates SERIOUS ROI 03:49 – Most people don’t speak English, yet most of the content available is in English 04:16 – Manual translate your content 05:05 – CoSchedule 05:19 – A wordpress plugin that organizes everything into an editorial calendar 06:56 – WPSmush 07:09 – Condenses images to make to help pages load faster 07:12 – WordPress Popular posts 07:47 – link every page to popular posts 08:20 – WP Checklist 08:26 – Creates a checklist for each and every piece of content 09:20 – HelloBar Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices