Lewis has been a busy little online bee since the ripe young age of 15 and because he has not given up but learned, now he has a successful blog providing advice, tips and resources for online marketing. Marketing Bees covers a wide array of topics such as email marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO), conversion rate optimisation, social media marketing and lots more. And… you even get to download a free guidebook The 25 Ultimate Traffic Sources For Subscribers.
How did you get into blogging and social marketing? What got you started? When I was 15, maybe 16 I read a short article in a magazine which acted as a catalyst to get me looking online into it further and how I could make money online. Yes, I started filling in surveys for $5 and started clicking ads for 10¢ to make a little extra money.
I then moved onto building amazon affiliate websites, review websites and so on… But nothing felt like it had real long term potential. And that’s when I began to focus on building an online brand and what felt like a real business. That’s where I feel a lot of people go wrong, they treat their online work like a hobby but it’s getting into the business mindset that’s key to online success.
How do you manage to stay up to date with so many changes going on so fast? Twitter! Following the right people will ensure you’re constantly in the know with regards to the latest trends, newest tools and probably most importantly the latest Google algorithm updates. A few people I’d recommend following on Twitter include:
@KISSmetrics – Run by Neil Patel, a complete guru in the online marketing world.
@Mattcutts – Head of web spam at Google, need I say more?
@Brianclark – Founder of Copyblogger and what he doesn’t know about Content Marketing and Blogging isn’t worth knowing.
And of course… @Marketing_Bees – I had to get a small self promo in there didn’t I? Of course, I am all for it!!
You are active on Warrior forum. Has it helped you in your online career? Perhaps a little… Although I wouldn’t say being active will ensure success online nor would I say not being a member will limit success. Personally I use the Warrior Forum to share my own experiences and knowledge predominately in the War Room.
The problem with the Warrior Forum is there’s both a lot of good information which can lead to ‘information overload’ as well as a lot of rubbish and hype especially in the WSO section. As a newbie, it can be hard deciding upon a direction to take your online career and where to get started with such a huge amount of information and misleading products.
What I will say is that the Warrior Forum is a great place to network and meet like-minded people and that is certainly the one area it has helped me greatly with my online career.
What are the 5 best tools a blogger/internet marketer should invest into? Pad of Paper – I love my gadgets. I’ve got every gadget going. But that doesn’t mean I like to take notes on a pad of paper. Sometimes, using a pad of paper makes it easier to come up with ideas, marketing strategies and even to-do lists. There’s rarely a pad missing from besides my laptop.
TweetBot – I manage a few Twitter accounts and logging in, logging out, logging in, logging out just wouldn’t be efficient. That’s why the use of a Twitter manager is essential for me as a marketer. I use the mac version of TweetBot which is enough for me. There are more complex ones such as HootSuite, and there are free ones.
RankWatch – Organic search traffic, especially from Google, is an area of huge acquisition for many marketers and keeping an eye on your rankings for main keywords is essential. If you’re ranking in the top spot for a keyword that generates 5% of your traffic then a small slip in the SERPs can see your traffic decline rapidly. You also need to keep an eye on those keywords you’re sitting on page 2 or 3 for so you can begin to work on an SEO traffic to get them on the front page gaining more traffic. That’s why I use RankWatch as a way to see where I’m ranking for those keywords that are essential to my online presence.
QuickSprout – From Neil Patel, QuickSprout is great for anyone who wants to push content marketing as a way of gaining traffic and building up a brand. QuickSprout helps you to improve all areas of your content marketing strategy including SEO, social media marketing and the actual content itself.
Topsy – Another social media tool that I highly recommend, Topsy, is a great way to keep tabs on what’s going on in the social media world and particularly within your niche.
Any advice for those who would like to ditch their jobs and earn big moolah on the internet :-)? Set small goals to reach your end target. Perhaps you’re earning $25,000 in a year in your current job now earning that in a year online is a scary number. $25,000 in a year from nothing with what will probably start of as a small investment of a few $100… But break that down into small targets and it can become far more realistic sounding. Set your first target as $500 a month, then go onto $1,000 when you’ve hit that consistently. You could then move onto $2,500 a month and hey presto, you’ve exceeded that dream of hitting $25,000 a year.
The other small piece of advice (sorry for rambling), is that anyone just getting started as an internet marketer needs to understand that it takes time. Chances are you won’t make money for weeks and months. Don’t give in to any products claiming they’re guaranteeing money in 30 days or promising to give you a money making website.
Thank you for taking time to answer my questions and providing good advice.
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