What Freelance Work Is Available On The Internet?

If you have a particular skill or talent, then chances are that you will be able to find freelance work on the internet. There is almost always a demand for services, so if you know where to look you can easily pick up extra work.

There are numerous benefits to working as a freelancer, such as setting your own hours, picking and choosing which jobs or tasks you take and not having to get dressed up and commute to an office every day. Although it sounds very appealing, it is extremely important that the casual atmosphere of home does not translate into a casual attitude towards your work, as reputations are quickly gained and lost on the internet. So if you treat the jobs in a professional way and ensure that your work is of a high quality and make sure you are reliable, then there is no reason you should ever not have enough work.

Here is a brief look at just some of the freelance work available:

Freelance writer - journalists, bloggers and ebook writers are always in demand. There is also a demand for article writing for search engine optimization purposes.  If you want to learn more about freelance writing, then I would suggest reading the blog Writers In Charge by Bamidele Onibalusi.  It's great.  Here's an example post

How To Overcome Writer's Block buff.ly/16lClQD - A great, thorough post over at WritersInCharge. @youngprepro
— Linda Formichelli (@LFormichelli) May 29, 2013

Programmer - There are many opportunities available for programmers, and there are several websites where they can connect with those looking to hire them, such as Odesk, Elance and Freelance.com.  Brad Kelley wrote a nice ODesk review about how he used the site to find his favorite programmer, and I'd suggest you take a look.

Web designer - For those that are highly skilled at it there is a huge demand. The internet is made up of millions of websites, and not everyone has the skills or time to design those websites, so they often look to outsource that part of their business.

Artists/Illustrators/Photographers - We can group these three together because even though they are all different, they all aim to serve the same purpose - to improve the visual appearance of a website or page.

As you can see, there is a lot of freelance work available. Whatever your skillset or talent, the most important thing is to put yourself out there and start carving your own reputation as a quality freelancer.

Top 10 Non-Monetary Reasons to Start Blogging

Contrary to some of the false, negative information that has been going around lately, blogging is on the up and rising fast. The popular blogging and publishing platform Wordpress.com alone hosts almost 74 million blogs! Blogs hosted on Wordpress are read by 342 million people, and these blogs produce a combined total of 500,000 posts every day, while receiving 400,000 comments (on average) daily.

Blogging is therefore, an ever-expanding field. More and more people are joining the blogosphere.  There are thousands of blogs dedicated to every field and subject out there – movies, music, automobiles, web development, sports, food, fashion, technology and a lot more.

And while it is true that money is why most blogger take up this hobby (or profession) in the first place, most of the bloggers you’ll come across would tell you that money was a motivational factor when they decided to take up blogging, there are several factors, apart from the obvious monetary ones, that people blog.

So what are the other reasons, apart from the monetary of course, that would have you jump in on the action? Here are a few advantages of blogging which are not monetary in nature:

1. Platform for Expression: By far, the best reason for blogging is to express your opinions, express your thoughts, have your say, and put what’s on your mind on paper. If you have something to speak about, something to say, and you want your message to go across a large group of people, blogging is the perfect way to do it. Microblogging (think Twitter) also lets you achieve the same purpose, but in a much more concise format. With blogging however, you have the freedom to speak your mind in as many words as you want. You can support your argument using multimedia (images, videos, and infographics), statistics, references from and to other sources… the whole deal!

2. Networking: Blogging is a great way to network and connect with people. It can help you develop all kinds of relationships – including business and professional ones. It could even be a great way for you to make friends, and connect with people who could help you in your careers, for instance. In a similar way, when you comment on other blogs, you network with many different people. Blogging is a great platform to connect with like-minded people as well.

3. Authority Figure: When you blog, people eventually start looking at you as an authority figure in your niche, and you develop a following. You are seen as an expert of matter in your field, you build a good reputation as someone who know what he is talking about. For instance if you dabble in technology, or guitars, as blog would help establish you as an authority in the said fields.

4. Global Reach: You meet people and make friends with people from all across the world, you speak with them, learn about them and share and connect with them. You get your views across, and they get theirs across. There is discussion and debate. And you do this all from the comforts of your living room. Think of the impact you could have through your blog and your words!

5. Branding: When you take up blogging, you’re creating your own identity, you’re crafting a name for yourself, and you’re branding yourself. Having a strong online presence and a well-reputed image is vital. Blogging allows you to achieve just that. Combined with your social networking profiles, your blog is just another powerful tool in your arsenal that helps you brand yourself in a better way. For example, you build an online portfolio for yourself which could help you get freelance work – such as writing, web designing, photography, journalism, etc.

6. Accessibility: Blogging makes you much more accessible to the world, especially on the internet. From potential employers, headhunters, recruiters, even old classmates, you are making it easier for people to find and access you. There are a lot of people on the internet looking for valuable human resource, and these people will search blogs.

7. Bragging Rights: Blogging is ‘cool’; and gives you’re the ability to stand out among your peers. Above all, blogging allows you to showcase your personality and your knowledge, more than any résumé or cover letter would ever be able to. And you can brag about being a ‘blogger’ when you meet up with your friends, family member or colleagues the next time!

8. Raising Awareness: Given its global reach and ease of accessibility that blogging brings, it is a great platform to raise awareness about issues and bring help to people. For instance many NGOs operating around the world have informative blogs which help raise awareness on issues, natural disasters and other problems and how these can be tackled globally.

9. Helping People: In a similar way to point no. 7 above, blogs can also be a good source to provide help to people, in form of advice, tips, counseling, DIYs, assistance, or simply to help people who are going through tough situations that the blogger himself might’ve experienced at some point.

10. Staying Connected: Blogging is a great way to stay connected – be it with family, friends from other parts of the world, old high-school pals, or anyone else. You can easily share stories, photos, videos and more. People will feel connected with you no matter where they might be in the world.

A word of advice: if you still haven’t started blogging or are relatively new to the field, you might think it is easy to make money from blogs. However that is a huge misconception. Despite the fact that AdSense and other tools have made it easy to earn money off blogs, building a profitable blog takes time and dedication. Until you reach that level, it would be best to just enjoy blogging like mentioned in the article: by speaking your mind out, putting your thoughts on paper, helping people, building your brand and connecting with the world!

What to Do When You’re in a Blogging Rut

We’ve all been there, haven’t we?! It is frustrating to say the least, but every blogger has experienced times when the words just don’t flow. You don’t feel like writing, in fact, you loathe it! You feel exhausted, you keep ignoring you schedule, your calendar, and you cannot be bothered to think about and write on anything at all, let alone a new topic. Sitting in front of the computer feels like a chore, and your writer’s well has well and truly dried up. The words that you do manage to put together are programmed instead of coming to your naturally.

If it’s just a writer’s block or not is arguable, however it’s a frustrating time in any blogger’s life, truly a low-point. You’re stuck in a blogging rut.

The question is, if you’re boring yourself, how do you expect people to not be bored with what you’re writing? How do you expect them to share your content? If you’ve stopped writing regularly and people still expect a post from you every week, there is a good chance you will lose many of your regular visitors, and that doesn’t even begin to mention the potential PR-drop your blog(s) might face.

How do you pick yourself up and get out of this rut? How can you pick yourself up, and restart? From someone’s who been there, I’ve got good news: it’s doable! Here are 8 tips on how you can fight the blog burnout, and achieve writing nirvana once again:

1. Take a Break: Take a step back, and take a breather. Put your blog off your mind for a couple of days, maybe even a few weeks. Do something totally else, something that you haven’t don’t for a while. Maybe even take a vacation, or go on a road-trip. Log out of Wordpress, and forget about your blog, put it at the end of your priority list for at least some time. Try your hand at cooking, hit the gym maybe, hang out with friends. Try a change of scenery and environment. Maybe this change is just what will get those creative juices flowing again.

2. Change Your Routine: In continuation of the first point, simply changing your routine, such as when you write or changing how and where you write could do wonders. Sometimes, your best, most inspired work comes to you at the most unexpected of place. Change things around, break your habits and force yourself to expand your thinking and your horizons. Take a different route to work, watch reality TV instead of your usual sitcom, get a book to read (with actual pages!). Read a different blog tonight, instead of those usual ones.

3. Change Your Blogging Perspective: I remember when I was stuck in this bad blogging rut, I discovered it was because I was looking at it all wrong. I looked at blogging like it was a chore, like something that ‘I had to do’, regardless of whether I wanted to do it or not. It is important to remember that blogging is NOT a chore, and should never be one. Furthermore, expecting yourself to blog amazing or mind-blowing content daily is a steep ask, and an unreasonable expectation. It is important to understand that you’re not the second coming of J.K Rowling! At times, the words just won’t come, and other times, they will. For me, quality will always take precedence over quantity. Write less, but write well. When you’re having an ‘on-day’ write a couple of posts and put them on schedule. Or you could…

4. Invite Guest Bloggers: Inviting other bloggers to guest post on your blog is beneficial from multiple perspectives, and has many advantages: (a) your blog gets updated regularly, (b) Your blog gets updated with high-quality content, (c) The guest blogger bring in his own perspective to your blog, which might be different from yours – something that might interest your readers, (d) you’re building an invaluable network of backlinks, and above all (e) If you’re stuck in a rut, a guest blogger will keep bringing in quality posts while you take a break, or at least until you feel like writing again.

5. Give Your Blog a Design Overhaul: A design refresh could do wonders for your motivation. What happens when you buy a pair of new shoes? As lazy as you might be otherwise, buying a pair of new running shoes will most definitely have you go on a couple of runs. You will feel the need to run. In a similar way, putting on a new theme and changing things around your blog might just reignite the fire, and urge you to create new content that is as good and sophisticated as the new look of your blog.

6. Make a Running List of Blog Topics: It helps researching and making a list of topics related to the content material of your blog or in your niche, especially when (or if) you run out of things to write on. Write them down somewhere, make a list, and bookmark interesting blog posts from the internet that you could refer to later on. Look at news that might be affecting your niche market and see if there’s something newsworthy enough to write on.

7. Network with Other Bloggers: Sometimes, all you need to do is just talk it out with fellow bloggers and people in your niche that you network with. That’s the beauty of blogging, it lets you connect with the community, share ideas, and maybe even be a source of inspiration. Most bloggers in your niche would be more than willing to help you out, and get you out of your rut. Because they all are bloggers too, and they too know that being stuck in a rut every once in a while is part of the job. Connect, network, ask for advice, ask for ideas and seek inspiration.

8. Focus: One of the great things about blogging is that you can choose to be totally diverse about it, and write on and about anything. Unfortunately, that is the biggest pitfalls of blogging as well. Being focused provides you with a roadmap on what to write. You could cover the happenings of the sports world on your blog, but if you narrow your focus on a single sport, or the team you’re a fan of, for instance, narrowing your focus will help you determine what to write on, as well as provide your readers with an idea of what to expect.

Changing things around is the key to fighting blogging boredom. What do you do when you feel like being stuck in a blogging rut? Have you even been in one? Got a point of your own to add to this? Leave your comments in the comments section below. 

Make Money off a Small, Low-Traffic Blog

Making money off a low-traffic blog is a tough, tough ask. Trust me, I’ve been there and done that. Even though it might seem to be a daunting, nay, impossible task at first, I can assure you that it is indeed do-able.

And while there is quite literally tons of information, thousands of blogs on ‘making money online’, most of them assume that your blog is already doing well in terms of traffic and visitors. Run a Google search on the said phrase right now, and you’ll see what I mean. There’s a serious dearth of information for an average blog – one that is a relatively new blog and doesn’t really get a lot of visitors, in all probability being run by someone who is SEO-inexperienced.

Most of the material that you will come across online will recommend affiliate ads, using AdSense and Image Ads, but exactly how useful will these be on a blog that gets less than a hundred unique visitors a day?

Luckily, there are ways where one can earn off his or her low-traffic blog as well. However before we look at some of these ways, it is generally recommended that you work towards getting your traffic up to high levels. Traffic is good, if you ask me, it is the single-most important thing for a successful blog, and as a rule: the more the merrier. Traffic is the foundation on which a successful, money-making blog can be created. In order to get more traffic, try different link building techniques, and aim to rank well on the SERP.

If you’re not really up there yet, here are simple things you can do with your blog to make some money off it:

1. Google AdSense – AdSense is the most common, most widely-known solution for blog-owners and webmasters to make money off their websites. It’s a simple solution, and requires you to do nothing apart from displaying a couple of related ads on your website, link your blog to your bank account and start making money. AdSense can be used by anyone, provided your blog passes the eligibility criteria.  Traffic details are not part of the eligibility criteria, which means even small blogs can benefit from this.

2. PPC and CPM – PPC or Pay-Per-Click advertisement programs involve ads that are place on your blog, and you are paid whenever someone clicks on those ads. Very common, and hands down the most easiest way of monetizing your blog. As traffic increases, so does the money. Similarly, CPM or Cost-Per-Thousand advertising involves you getting paid based on how many times a particular ad shows up on your blog. Another very easy way to earn money online for small blogs, as it only requires page-views.

3. Loyal Base of Subscribers – The one thing that could potentially be significantly more important than traffic, is a loyal base of returning customers. Even if you don’t get a lot of traffic on your blog, advertisers will value the fact that you have a small base of loyal subscribers, who value what you have to say, are loyal to your blog, and follow and subscribe to your ideas. This means that if you endorse or recommend a product or service, your followers too would be inclined to try it out. This could be a good base for you to get some advertisements on your blog.

4. Image-based Third-Party Advertisements – If you are an authority figure in your niche (despite the fact that your blog does not get a lot of visitors), this will still be a valuable proposition to many advertisers out there, who will be interested in advertising on your blog. Because, as was the case in point no. 2, your visitors see you as an authority figure, and it is therefore loyal traffic. You could ask advertisers if they would be interested in putting up small ads on your website, those 125x125 ones which are quite popular nowadays as well.

5. Service Provision – Look around and see if you can offer some kind of a service to someone. Offering a service that someone might require is a sure-shot way of earning some money, however expect to put in a bit of effort while you’re at it. Think you’re good at something? Put it up as a service (remember Joker’s quote from The Dark Knight: ‘If you’re good at something, never do it for free!). Think you can write, write guest posts for other blogs. Good at development, web-designing, link-building or something else? Add a popup box on your website and advertise your service there.

6. Become an Affiliate – Similar to AdSense, affiliate marketing is another straightforward way of earning off your low-traffic blog. Affiliate marketing has the potential to be quite lucrative as well. Basically, you earn money by using your blog to recommend products and services to your readers. Every time someone purchases something off your blog, you are given a share of the sales. A LOT of bloggers are doing this, and affiliate marketing blogs can be found on the internet by the dozens. The best thing about being an affiliate is that you’re simply responsible for marketing a product, you won’t be manufacturing it, or selling it.

7. Reviews of Products and Services – Product and service reviews, a concept akin of service provision and affiliate marketing, will have you write reviews, focusing on products that you’re blogging on. This could be anything – from iPhone app reviews, to reviewing computer hardware, home furniture, etc. Reviews can be particularly profitable if you have some authority on the topic you blog about. In addition, once you build up a considerable amount of reputation and authority, you could even do paid reviews, or reviews for money. Being an authority figure in your field is vital here.

8. Ask for Donations: Don’t expect people to give you hand-outs. While adding a donation box or a ‘Donate’ button to your blog may be a good idea, apart from being the easiest way to rake some dough, expect little to no revenue through this avenue (ask yourself this, how many times have you donated on a blog?). If you’re offering a service for free (for instance writing reviews, offering a plugin, etc.), it makes much more sense to ask for donation and in that case, people might even be inclined to give you their money.

Google AdSense Eligibility Criteria and Tips for Quick Approval

Fact: Google earns close to one-fourth of its revenue (28%) through AdSense! Fact: Google made a massive 2.5 billion USD revenue from AdSense in Q1, 2011, which totaled up to almost 10 billion USD in the 2011 fiscal year! Fact: Google currently shares 68% of revenue generated by AdSense with content network partners, and 51% of revenue generated by AdSense with AdSense for Search partners. Fact: Bloggers are earning massive amounts of money (some in the thousand, monthly) from AdSense alone!

Google’s AdSense has to be one of the most popular online revenue-generation mechanisms out there, if not the most popular one. Thousands of bloggers out there are using AdSense to monetize their blogs and make money online, turning their online ventures into virtual cash machines within a short span of time.

AdSense is brilliant really. Do it right, and you could potentially earn a load of cash easily, while doing absolutely nothing! All you have to do is put up some ads, and the cash rolls in on autopilot.

Darren Rowse of Problogger fame, for instance, claims to have earned a monumental $400,000, ever since he started using AdSense!

And while it would be extremely unreasonable to expect someone to become a millionaire overnight by using AdSense, it is important to understand that it takes time – usually years – before one would be able to earn a significant amount of dough off AdSense.

AdSense Eligibility Criteria

The best thing about AdSense is that it can be used with both small and big websites and blogs. However there is certain criterion which needs to be met before you set off with your AdSense program and be able to display AdSense ads on your website:

1. You must have a working website/blog, and you must either be the owner, administrator or webmaster of that website or blog. The website should be fully functional, as under-construction websites are ineligible.

2. Depending on your geographical location, you can use any newly-created or old website/blog with AdSense – although your blog has to be at least six months old before you can apply for the AdSense program in India or China.

3. AdSense has strict content policies, all of which are aimed to protect the interests of its advertisers. In short, content (including text and pictures) needs to be original, and duplicate, copied, or spun content gives Google ground for disabling the account.

4. The same applies to website having illegal (file sharing) content or Adult material. Or any blasphemous or hate-content.

5. Another consideration as far as content is concerned, is that the website/blog should have a good amount of content. Sites with very less content are ineligible.

6. An important consideration is the quality of the traffic. Artificial traffic, generated through grey or blackhat channels is prohibited since these would unfairly raise advertiser costs.

7. Fraudulent accounts, such as those in which applicants click on their own ads are disabled.

8. Applicant websites are required to publish a privacy policy that meets AdSense terms and conditions.

9. Applicant’s minimum age should be 18 or older at the time of applying. However under-18 applicants can still ask their parents to apply on their behalf.

10. Another personal requirement includes applicants having their own bank accounts so that that are able to receive payments.

Tips to Get Quick AdSense Approval

Here are a few tips, ensure that your blog adheres to as many of these as possible, before you apply for AdSense, as it will save you a lot of hassle later on:

1. Ensure that you have a reasonable amount of content on your blog, my recommendation would be a minimum of 10-15 posts, before you apply.

2. You should have a reasonable amount of traffic on your blog. Blogs with less than 20 unique visitors per day would probably not be entertained.

3. Older domains are preferred by AdSense. It looks at the age of the domain, but bear in mind that age refers to the time a domain has been live, and has been in use. Domains which are more than an year old are recommended.

4. If you plan on using AdSense, avoid any alternatives, such as other click-based ad services.

5. Do not give Google the impression that your blog exists solely for the purpose of making money, rather than the provision of information and value.

6. Make sure your website or blog has quality content on it, which is unique and not taken off article resources or spun. The quality of the content is a big consideration for Google, before it approves or disapproves your application.

7. Authority blogs and websites, with a strong network of high-PR backlinks will most certainly impress Google enough to ensure that your application is approved as quickly as possible. Google likes the fact that your blog is getting traffic from highly-ranked sources.

8. If you’re a business owner, try adding related material to your blog before you apply for AdSense. Add relevant and high-quality content to your blog, and promote it enough to get a decent amount of traffic on it. Show Google that you are an authority in your niche.

9. Alternatively, you could stick with niches which Google particularly likes, such as Open Source, charity, technology, OS and app development, and Google just might like your work enough to grant you an AdSense account.

10. If your website is a traditional website and not a blog, make sure it has at least 10 pages, and above all, is well linked internally. Your home page should be linked to these 10 pages in a clear and concise way. Other must-have pages include the ‘About’ page, a ‘Privacy Policy’ page. Make sure to add information about yourself and your website on respective pages.

11. Your website/blog should be easy to navigate, legible, should have proper breadcrumb navigation setup, and should adhere to some of the best practices out there. It should not have broken links.

12. It is generally recommended to apply for an AdSense account with a Blogger.com account, as Blogger accounts have a higher chance of being approved by AdSense.

13. Register for AdSense through Google’s partner websites such as Youtube, it has generally been known that doing so gives you a better chance of approval.

Concluding Words

These are just a few of my own used, tried and tested tips that will ensure that your AdSense application does end up getting approved, and as quickly as possible.

If you have something to add to this, do leave us your comments in the comments section below.

Top Ways of Generating Targeted Traffic

Picture this: if someone types in ‘best place for premium Wordpress themes’ in Google, and is redirected to your blog which specializes in premium WP themes, that’s targeted traffic right there!

In the SEO, SEM and IM industry, the ability to be able to get a large amount of traffic and visitors might be a good thing, however to be able to get the right kind of traffic, or ‘targeted traffic’ to your website, is an invaluable asset.

This is especially true when you look at things from a monetary perspective. Targeted traffic is traffic that comes to you from your niche; people who are interested in buying your products and/or services, and are interested in what you might have to offer. Traffic that leads to sales. This means that these are people who are most likely to respond to your CTA, and give you their money – which in turn means that targeted traffic is the kind of traffic that is converted into dollars, and translates into a steady stream of revenue.

The ability to get targeted traffic is an art, a skill. It requires precise marketing tactics, since you want to be able to reach out to as many potential customers and people in your niche as possible.

Creating backlinks might aid you in ranking well on Google, and getting a lot of traffic and visitors, but simply being able to rank well is no guarantee that you will be able to get targeted traffic, traffic that converts into money. So what exactly should you be incorporating into your SEO strategy, in order to attain the ability to get targeted traffic? Here are 8 tips:

1. Choosing the right keywords – According to Google, 20-25% of all search queries are new, which means that every day, one in every four search query is new and something that hasn’t been looked up before. This means that instead of choosing keywords that might have a lot of competition, you can instead choose to target new keywords that have very little to no competition, and rank for these keywords.

2. Value Proposition – What is your value proposition? What is it that you’re providing your customers? If you create something that is mind-blowingly good, and gives great value, your content will get shared on the internet, over social mediums, and through word-of-mouth, and help you get targeted traffic from your niche. Provide people with something valuable, and you will understandably get a lot of targeted traffic.

3. Guest Blogging – One of the most important (and free!) ways of getting targeted traffic is guest blogging. How or why you might wonder is guest blogging beneficial in terms of getting targeted traffic. By inviting guest bloggers from your niche to post on your own blog, or doing guests posts on other blogs, you create a valuable network of backlinks, increase exposure to your blog, and direct targeted traffic back to it. Guest blogging is a highly ‘whitehat’ link-building strategy as far as Google is concerned, and gets you high-quality content as well, something that Google absolutely loves.

4. Press Releases – Press releases is a form of traffic that can spread the word about your blog all over the world. Google loves press releases, and if done right, press releases can get you a massive amount of targeted traffic. The idea is to write story or content that will potentially generate a lot of buzz and hype within your niche, and promotes your business at the same time. After doing so, submit it on a PR submission service that will distribute your story to the audience, for instance prweb.com, or any one of these from Mashable.

5. Email Marketing (Lists) – Lists are another invaluable way of getting targeted traffic to your blog. A good email list or subscription list will be filled with contact information of people who are already interested in hearing from you and knowing about what you have to offer (which is why they subscribed to your list in the first place). In other words, your list is already a goldmine of contact information of people within your niche. You can use this to your advantage and use these lists to reach out to these people. You can also buy targeted email lists for your own niche (category), such as the ones being provided by Emarketing Solutions.

6. Connect with People – Connecting with people such as social influencers, prominent bloggers, people with high social networking potential, media mavens, and other authority figures will allow you to develop relationships with them, and not only will this help you grow your business, but socializing is usually a lot of fun.

7. Submitting Blog on Content Directories and Aggregators – As a rule of thumb, submit your content to aggregators and syndication websites such as Alltop.com, Affbuzz.com and Affdialy.com, as well as directories like Digg, Reddit and StumpleUpon that find and recommend content to their users. These portals can help you get targeted traffic easily for days on end, on autopilot!

8. Newsletter Syndication – Why pay newsletters to put your ad, when you can do the same for free, by simply submitting an article. When others would pay money for advertisement, you cane easily get solo ads for free by submitting just one good article. This allows you to get instant exposure (especially if it’s a magazine a lot of people subscribe to), and a lot of traffic from within your niche. 

4 Kickass Call-To-Action Ideas

Loyalty is a rare commodity these days. So is standing out from the crowd. A good Call to Action allows you to stand up and above your competition, and get loyal followers, who not only read your content but subscribe to it, ‘like’ and ‘tweet’ it on social mediums, share it via email and so on. Having an effective CTA won’t turn you into a super-blogger instantly, but it’s a good way to start.

Trust and loyalty has to be earned. In order to be someone the people give their email address out to, you need to give them something that is valuable to them, in return. Doing so will allow you to connect and build a loyal base of subscribers and regular visitors who are eager to read what you say, purchase what you offer, subscribe and like your posts, share your content, and in general, do what you want them to do. Because that ultimately is the purpose of an effective CTA right?

So without further ado, here are 4 kickass Call-to-Action ideas that will allow you to achieve all this:

1. Be Clear and Present a Tangible Offer: It is a proven fact that when you provide a tangible benefit to your customers, they will be inclined to take the action you want them to. Creating a tangible offer is a 3-step process: (i) in the first step, you create an interesting and precise headline, for instance instead of a headline that says ‘get more Facbook likes’, go for one that says ‘Get 1000 Facebook likes in less than a month’. It’s a compelling headline that tells the audience exactly what benefits they get. (ii) Secondly, tell your readers the true value of your service, e.g. ‘get material for $100 for just $9.99. This tells your readers that you are offering them a bargain, increasing their interest. And finally, (iii) make use of visuals (such as pictures and images) to show what exactly it is that you’re offering, a webinar, manuals, eBooks, access to videos, etc.

2. Have Someone Endorse Your Products: Pick up any New York Times Best Seller, flip it around, what do you expect to see on the back? Snippets of reviews from at least a couple of well-renowned critics or experts on how good the book is. Similarly, many adverts on TV are endorsed by celebrities and athletes. Almost all successful CTA’s are endorsed by authority figures – not necessarily celebrities but it depends on your niche – for instance if you’re selling Wordpress themes and plugins, you could get a well-known developer to endorse the product and put it up along with the CTA. When users see that an authority figure endorses your products, it will make it more likely for them to subscribe to your list, like your page, buy your product, or whatever it was that you intended them to do.

3. Give Your Readers what they Really Want: Take a step back, and think what your readers really want. What is it that someone who would visit your website really want, what would he be looking for? How can you give your readers value? How can you speak with them, and truly connect with them? For starters you could give your subscribers free stuff, because everyone loves free stuff. Other ideas include discounts, special offers and giving your readers important tips. Solve their problems, provide them with solutions, and speak to their desires.

4. Be Relevant: Every good CTA is relevant to a post, and in coherence with the blog’s material. If you’ve finished writing a blog post about how the new iPhone will change the cellular phone industry again, why not include an optin which lets people subscribe to your blog which covers the cellphone industry? If you’re writing about how to use analytics to get conversions, wouldn’t it be a good idea to add a link at the bottom of the post, which offers an eBook or a video course on the same topic at a discounted price? Being relevant allows you to increase conversions, and offers people a way of receiving more information on a topic that they are clearly interested in.