Spot the difference?
Read on for some very exciting news
You know, there’s definitely a hint of Spring in the air… The nights are getting lighter… I’ve seen snowdrops and crocuses emerging from the earth… And best of all, today sees the birth of the all-new Digital Upstart!
As you’ll see from the banner above, this is the first ‘official’ email under the new name.
Yes, with Spring upon us, it does feel like a fresh start.
Don’t worry, everything you like about Internet Income Detective will stay the same… but with a new name… new layout… and exciting new content!
Let me give you a sneak peek…
The March issue of the Digital Upstart newsletter is out later this week – and, while I’m admittedly biased, I have to say that this is one that you really don’t want to miss.
This month I’m going to show you the most powerful strategy I know for attracting and retaining hot prospects who will buy from you, over and over again.
I’ve pretty much built my entire online business around this approach.
More importantly for you, it doesn’t require a marketing budget, risky advertising, head-spinning SEO tricks or fancy traffic building software.
This is all about sharing ‘content’.
By that I mean useful, relevant and interesting information that interests your customers.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a plumber, a B2B marketer, a landscape photographer or an affiliate seller, content marketing is essential.
However, I know the idea of it frightens a lot of first time online entrepreneurs. I’ve commonly heard excuses like these…
However, in this month’s Digital Upstart I’ll prove that these are no longer obstacles.
- I’ll introduce you to the 9 easy-to-use tools to help you find and publish great content, attract hot prospects and triggers sales.Anyone can now gather and share content in 15 minutes a day, even with zero writing skills, organisational abilities or technical know-how.Quite frankly, if you’re not doing this – or don’t plan to – you’re missing out on sales, and losing customers to the competition who ARE doing it.Like it or not, this is the way online business is moving.But don’t panic, the shortcuts I’ll show you mean this doesn’t have to be time-consuming or difficult.
And I’ve got plenty more packed into this month’s issue too:
- Revealed: The 5 Best ‘off-the-shelf’ eCommerce Platforms: which one is right for you? In the old days you’d need to pay a web developer thousands of pounds to build one for you. But I’ll show you how to get a reliable “off the shelf” e-commerce system up and running in as little as 3 hours.
- How this Overlooked Webpage Could be One of Your Most Important Marketing Tools. Too many people treat this part of their website as an afterthought and get it wrong. Get it right and it will deepen your customer relationship, get them signed up for your emails and social media networks, and convert them into sales.
- The Truth About Subject Lines: Quick Ways to Increase Your Email Open Rates, Clickthroughs and Sales. Most digital marketers will tell you that the subject line is the most important part of an email when it appears in someone’s inbox. And to a certain extent they’re right, but they are missing something very important…
In the meantime…
I thought I’d pass on something today that will interest you if you’ve not yet set up your online business or you’re just starting out.
7 Free and Low Cost Tools to Make
Your Online Business Look Slick,
Professional and Trustworthy
There’s really no excuse these days for your online business looking shoddy just because you’re a new start up and don’t have technical abilities.
Here are my pick of the newbie-friendly tools and platforms to make your business look instantly professional:
For Your Website
WordPress – ok, this is a bit obvious, but worth a reminder. You can now have a website that looks, and functions, just as well as any of the professionally built bespoke websites. You can pick a pre-made website off the shelf in any number of themes, then edit the design to personalise it. What’s more, there are all kinds of ‘plug-ins’ available to add all manner of bells and whistles.
For Your Webstore
WooCommerce Need to add a shop to your WordPress site? WooCommerce is the fastest growing shopping cart for WordPress. It is effectively a plugin developed by Woothemes, which allows you to turn your wordpress website into a shop, or to add a shop to your current website. (See our review of this and 8 other top ecommerce platforms in the March issue)
For more ecommerce info
For Your Sales Pages
ClickFunnels.com I love this tool! ClickFunnels lets you create incredibly professional looking and landing pages, sales funnels, webinars and even membership sites.
For Your Email Marketing
Mailchimp.com – Make your email marketing look great, with good deliverability and all the analytics you could need… without paying for it! Mailchimp allows you to broadcast to 3,000 people before you need to start paying for the service. It includes pre-designed templates and it’s easy to adapt the design without needing any skills.
Learn more about email marketing
For Your Images
Canva.com – This is a fantastic ‘drag and drop’ design tool that takes all the hassle away and makes you look like a pro graphic designer! It’s like a photoshop for newbies. Simply choose one of the free templates or build your own design. It’s just a case of dragging and dropping elements using your mouse. Perfect for creating ebook covers, Facebook ads, blog posts and just about any other image you might need for yoru online activities.
And make sure you check out Canva’s brilliant (and FREE) Design School
For All Your Royalty-Free Photography Needs
Shutterstock.com – increasingly, websites need to be visual. So when you post on your blog, or set up About Me pages and other elements, photos are important. Stock photos can be very obvious, over-used and poor quality. However, a service like Shutterstock gives you a global marketplace for royalty free images and stock photography. You can use it ‘on demand’ or get a subscription.
For your ‘get someone else to do it cheaply’ outsourcing solution!
Fiverr.com – I’ve seen a lot of people with no design skills attempt to create a logo for their business. Their logic is that this is something they can do later when they’ve the money to pay for one. However, a good professionally designed logo will make you instantly credible. So I’d recommend you use the many outsourcing services available. For instance, on Fiverr you can get a logo made for as little as $5.
I’ll be looking at some of these things in more detail over the coming months in the Digital Upstart.
As always, I’d love to hear your feedback.
And do let me know about any challenges or obstacles you’re facing in your online business or marketing endeavours.
Want a free critique of your website?
At least once a month I’m going to offer a FREE assessment of a reader’s website along with specific recommendations of how to improve it.
If you’re interested, just send me a link to your website with a brief overview. If you’re chosen, then all I ask in return is permission to publish my critique to Digital Upstart readers.
If you’d like to be considered for the free critique, have any comments or questions, please email me at this address: nick@digitalupstart.co.uk
PS: For exisiting business owners only: I’m looking for a handful of ‘dream clients’ as part of my new consulting service. I’ve had so many people ask me if I would work with them on a 1-2-1 basis recently, I’ve decided to do something about it.
So if you already have a solid business, a steady flow of leads, a list of prospects and customers, a good solid product AND repuation, then we need to talk.
I am only taking on a maximum of 10 people this year and I will be VERY selective about who I work with. So please, only email me about this if you meet the criteria above.
Email me directly on nick@digitalupstart.co.uk