3 keys to make more and work less

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online-business-3-keys-good-living-without-working-too-hardThere are 3 keys to make more while working less

1. Automation
2. Leverage
3. Focus

Too many entrepreneurs get burned out doing everything themselves and doing it the long, drawn-out way. They either don’t get enough done to make a good living or they end up quitting because they’re overwhelmed.

It doesn’t have to be that way, but you do need to do some preparation and practice some discipline.

I’ll explain each key in detail below.

1) Automation

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by Ellen Finkelstein

3 tools to improve your conversions

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online-business-increase-conversions-1During my 16+ years online, I’ve been lax in tracking and testing conversions, I admit. But it’s SO important to know your conversion on your opt-in and sales pages as well as your emails. And especially to test variations to see which one works best.

Why? When you have knowledge, you can make changes that improve your conversion. And believe me, all of the highly successful marketers test. Why not you?

So let’s talk about tracking and testing for conversion.

Imagine…

Testing 2 versions of an opt-in page for your free offer and discovering that one of them gives you more subscribers!

Testing 2 versions of a sales page and finding out that one results in more sales!

Testing emails — the subject or the content — and finding that one gets more opens and more clicks!

What would that knowledge mean to you?

There’s a tool for that…

I’ve tested some tools over the years but found them either too complicated or expensive. I think I’ve finally found a set of 4 tools that will give me the information I need to improve my conversions, so I want to share them with you and how I’m using them.

online-business-increase-conversions-2Google Analytics

Google Analytics gives you so much information you might be overwhelmed, but here are some of the possibilities:

  • Where your visitors come from and how they find you
  • Which pages/posts get the most traffic
  • What search terms people use to find your website
  • The conversion of an opt-in or sales page — to get this, you set Goals

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by Ellen Finkelstein

34 essential software, tools, and plug-ins I use for my online business

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online-marketing-tools-plugins-1

When you have an online business, you collect software, tools, and plug-ins that make your business run more smoothly. Over the years, I’ve tried out a LOT of tools. I’m always trying something new and dropping something else.

When you first start out, the options can be overwhelming. In fact, even after you’ve been in business a while, that doesn’t change. It can be a BIG help to get recommendations from others.

In fact, I recommend that you don’t jump for each new “bright, shiny object” that comes out, even under the threat (and sometimes it seems like that)  that the price will go up. I’ve certainly bought products that I didn’t use. It’s better to wait and see what other people think of the software. Let them test for you–especially if it’s expensive!

If you have a question about specific software, ask in the Comments below. If I don’t know the answer, maybe someone else will read your question and be able to answer it!

Here’s my list. Read More

by Ellen Finkelstein

Create product autoresponders to sell more

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online-business-product-autoresponders-1You probably know what autoresponders are — emails that you set up in advance to be sent out automatically. Most marketers set up autoresponders after a person subscribes to their email list. You can create any number of emails. You might set up a series of 5-10 or even more. I’ve written about autoresponders in my blog post, “How to automate an Internet business: Part I-Autoresponders.

You set up autoresponders in your email service.

Another type of autoresponder

But another type of autoresponder is sent out automatically when a person buys one of your products.You set up this type of autoresponder in your shopping cart or membership site. Some email services integrate with shopping carts to let you set up a product autoresponder in your email service.

This type of autoresponder is different because the topics are different. Here are some examples: Read More

by Ellen Finkelstein

Who are you? What do you need to be successful?

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As my list grows, I periodically do a survey to find out who you are and what you need. Here are the results of the 2014 survey.

online-business-survey-success-obstacles-2Who you are

80% of you are beginner/intermediate
20% of you are intermediate/advanced

75% of you have a job and do online marketing part time
25% of you have online marketing as your full-time business

What’s important to you

The figures below show how many of you said that each item was very or somewhat important to you. Read More

by Ellen Finkelstein