If you asked people 5-10 years ago, they would have said that going online is a quick way of making money.
The problem was, this hype was mainly based on manipulating search engine rankings. That meant using spammy backlink tactics and very bad content, distributed on the web. Those websites soon got dropped from the rankings.
Now that we’re in 2018 many of us are beginning to realise that actually growing a website is a task that takes a lot of time and effort, as well as a solid strategy.
That’s not to say there are no quick wins online. But it’s important to know the difference between a short term online sales tactic vs a long term strategy.
So, in this post I’m going to list the most common ways of making money online and will explain whether they are a short term way of generating sales or a long-term strategy for growth.
Short Term Digital Marketing Techniques
Google Ads
Also known as PPC, which stands for Pay Per Click.
This is where you pay Google to rank at the top of the search engines for a specific key word or phrase. It’s a pretty quick way of generating traffic to your website. However, converting that traffic is another question.
If you know you have a high conversion rate for your site, then don’t be a fraid to put a bit of money into PPC.
There’s also many digital marketing agencies, who can help out with PPC campaigns. Whether you want it fully managed or simply setting up, there’s always someone who can help.
Paid Social Media Ads
Since the introduction of Facebook’s paid advertising features, we have seen a significant decrease in organic reach for Facebook posts, on business pages. That’s because Facebook simply wants to make more money from businesses advertising on their platform.
So, if you have a short message that’s compelling and you want to share with the world, then try Facebook advertising.
Why?
Because if your target market spends much of it’s time on Facebook, it can be a great way of generating traffic to your website, fast.
It’s not just about Facebook. Have a think about whether your products or services lend themselves better to images or text. Then you can decide which social media channel is best for you.
Short Term SEO
There’s no short term method of getting to the top of Google for highly competitive keywords. However, if you were to do some solid keyword research you could find longer term keywords that people are using and create content that’s targeted towards these searches.
This means you need a solid understanding of on-page SEO and the technical requirements for ranking in Google.
You could hire an SEO Company to help you grasp the basics. Or you can simply hire someone to do it all for you, so you don’t need to do anything. But that will depend on your budget.
Long Term Digital marketing Strategies
Blogger Outreach for SEO
This can actually be a quick way of generating direct traffic to your website.
However, if you want to use blogger outreach to grow your rankings in Google, you need to work at it on a regular basis.
In order to be successful at blogger outreach, you also need to create amazing content that your proud to show to others. Gone are the days of simply throwing out as much content as you can, just to get a backlink.
So the steps are:
1. Find the bloggers you want to outreach to
2. Create great content
3. Get in touch with the bloggers and ask if they will review your work
4. Liaise with the bloggers for a mutually beneficial relationship
Organic Social Media Posting
Have you heard of ‘churning’ ? This is where you follow other people on social media in the hope they follow you back.
This isn’t going to make you a millionaire overnight. But if you target your market correctly and share great info, you can build up a strong following of real people, who will start looking out for your tweets or facebook posts.
Don’t just follow people though, you need to be posting too. If you’re not posting on social media regularly, there’s no point in churning people to follow you.
When done consistently over a sustained period of time, you really can build up a great following, and from it generate even more traffic and sales. Have a read of this if you want to get noticed quickly by real influnecers on social media: How to get noticed immediately on Social Media.
Collecting Emails
Collecting emails is a hugely powerful way of future-proofing your business. If you can build a list and use it to generate more sales, you will most definitely be on your way to creating a hugely successful business.
Remember though, your email list won’t grow over night. It will take time and a lot of thought about how you entice people onto your list. For example, don’t just add a box at the bottom of your website saying ‘Join our Newsletter’ – No one wants newsletters in their inbox anymore.
The best way, is to offer something that people want, such as tips and techniques or free insights to your expert knowledge, or even a free goodie. Then you need to tell them what they get for signing up.
There’s lots of different strategies to growing your email list, so have a read of this if you need some inspiration: How To Get 1,000 New Email Subscribers In 30 Days
The importance of consistency
Hopefully, that gives you a good idea of the different options for growing your website. Some are quick but some certainly take longer.
If you maintain consistency and keep building on what works, I’m confident you can build a successful online business, over a sustained period of time.
