Internet Marketing Muscle Blog

I'll be honest. I didn't do much today, business-wise. Heck, I haven't really done much since last Wednesday! And I won't do much until January 4, 2021. I admit it: During the end-of-year holidays, I never do much, if anything, business-wise. But I did take my two littlest kids and my wife to Mt. Rainier National Park today. We played in the snow. Actually, it wasn't so much snow as it was ice. We drove all the way to the “end” of Highway 410. Every year, they close it down due to ice and snow and this year is no different. It's only about an hour and a half from our house, so, all told, we were only gone about 5 hours. Three to get there and back and two to play. When we got home, I promptly dosed in and out of sleep while we sat in front of the TV. Yes, a fairly boring day! But sometimes, that's what the body, mind, and spirit need. I've got a whiteboard full of notes about what I'll be doing the next few weeks. I've go

I finally broke down and bought a new laptop. It's another HP. Last time, I got a 17 inch Envy non touchscreen. It is an Intel i7 with a badass 4GB Nvidia graphics card. But it was a beast to lug around. And the fan ran all.the.time. One of my kids is always borrowing it to play video games on, so I thought I should just get another one. This time, I opted for a “convertible.” It's an Envy x360 with an AMD processor and graphics chip, 16GB of RAM, and comes with only a 256GB SSD. It's also a 15.6 inch that weighs about 4 pounds with a solid 4-cell battery. It's a custom build, so I won't get it until the end of January. I guess they have to assemble them on Mars. Oh well. I'm looking forward to being able to easily carry around a laptop again. I should be more productive now, as I won't have either excuse (“Kid's got it” or “It's too damned heavy”). For Christmas, I got a Fitbit Charge 4. I really never wanted one of these, and funny

Today, I'm looking inward and forward to 2021 and all the challenges and opportunities it may bring. Google Analytics is a beast Sure, it brings in a ton of data about your website, visits, where they came from, most popular pages, etc. but man, is it unwieldy. So I've started investigating some training on it. Google does offer some free training, which is always a good starter (using the vendor's own training – I mean, it makes sense). Here it is, if you're interested. There's also a promising Udemy course that I'm looking at if I want to take a deeper dive, and I fear I must End of Year Musings Christmas is almost here and I'm looking forward to taking a little time off. I won't go completely dark, but I will turn down the volume considerably. I'm not a big “goals guy” but I do like to reflect back on the year almost completed and briefly look ahead to determine “where I want to go in 2021.” I'll be glad when the pan

Today, I'm looking inward and forward to 2021 and all the challenges and opportunities it may bring. Google Analytics is a beast Sure, it brings in a ton of data about your website, visits, where they came from, most popular pages, etc. but man, is it unwieldy. So I've started investigating some training on it. Google does offer some free training, which is always a good starter (using the vendor's own training – I mean, it makes sense). Here it is, if you're interested. There's also a promising Udemy course that I'm looking at if I want to take a deeper dive, and I fear I must End of Year Musings Christmas is almost here and I'm looking forward to taking a little time off. I won't go completely dark, but I will turn down the volume considerably. I'm not a big “goals guy” but I do like to reflect back on the year almost completed and briefly look ahead to determine “where I want to go in 2021.” I'll be glad when the pan

Whelp! I missed writing yesterday. *They say* that in order to make a thing a habit, you must do it 21 times consistently. I don't know if 21 is the right number. Why not 20? 23? 37? 3? What I do know is two isn't the magic number for creating a sustainable habit. So this is my third daily writing out of four (I don't write on weekends). Time to refocus, keep my eye on the prize, and keep pushing. On Starting a Podcast A thing I'd like to do in 2021 is a podcast. I wrote about this last time. I'm still pondering it. What would people like to see? I've listened to dozens, maybe hundreds of podcasts, and many are just dandy. They've found their product. I've yet to find mine. What about you? How's the weather? It snowed last night. We got about a 1/1000th of an inch. But the kids were giddy. And that's good enough for now. I've always wanted to get one of those “ weather machines .” They fascinate me. In fa

Whelp! I missed writing yesterday. *They say* that in order to make a thing a habit, you must do it 21 times consistently. I don't know if 21 is the right number. Why not 20? 23? 37? 3? What I do know is two isn't the magic number for creating a sustainable habit. So this is my third daily writing out of four (I don't write on weekends). Time to refocus, keep my eye on the prize, and keep pushing. On Starting a Podcast A thing I'd like to do in 2021 is a podcast. I wrote about this last time. I'm still pondering it. What would people like to see? I've listened to dozens, maybe hundreds of podcasts, and many are just dandy. They've found their product. I've yet to find mine. What about you? How's the weather? It snowed last night. We got about a 1/1000th of an inch. But the kids were giddy. And that's good enough for now. I've always wanted to get one of those “ weather machines .” They fascinate me. In fa

I'm not, nor have I ever been, a big Apple fan. In fact, I dislike the company and its products so much that I lovingly call them Crapple. Oh, make no mistake, some of their stuff over the years has been good. I bought an iPod back in 2004, and then another one for my wife a year or two later. Mine lasted well over 10 years (I did have to replace the battery once but it was a DIY thing so not a big deal)…solid. But when I was in customer support and also a network administrator, I just hated working on and with them. They just weren't intuitive like a PC (to me–I know, YMMV). My recent brush with Apple's customer services wasn't stellar. Their support actually sucks. It took WEEKS to get them to make good on a product that was under warranty. Computing speed has a lot to do with DISTANCE But this new M1 chip ? Good god, that thing is amazing! In short, it houses the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other stuff too techy for me to try to explain into ONE SINGLE bo

I'm not, nor have I ever been, a big Apple fan. In fact, I dislike the company and its products so much that I lovingly call them Crapple. Oh, make no mistake, some of their stuff over the years has been good. I bought an iPod back in 2004, and then another one for my wife a year or two later. Mine lasted well over 10 years (I did have to replace the battery once but it was a DIY thing so not a big deal)…solid. But when I was in customer support and also a network administrator, I just hated working on and with them. They just weren't intuitive like a PC (to me–I know, YMMV). My recent brush with Apple's customer services wasn't stellar. Their support actually sucks. It took WEEKS to get them to make good on a product that was under warranty. Computing speed has a lot to do with DISTANCE But this new M1 chip ? Good god, that thing is amazing! In short, it houses the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other stuff too techy for me to try to explain into ONE SINGLE bo

I've been practicing writing small classified-type ads. It's fun. It also sharpens the blade. I am testing them on a subscriber list to see if they get any traction. If you want to see a few, let me know. RankMath vs. Yoast SEO I used to use the Yoast SEO plugin on my WordPress sites. Now, I'm slowly moving to RankMath Pro . I used the free version on a few sites and really liked it. So I ponied up and bought the pro version. So far, so good. But I did run into a problem with it. WordPress was reporting it needed updating, and when I tried to update it, it failed, giving me the message, “ Update package not available. “ Well, after 5 seconds of Google searching, I found the solution. If you're using RankMath, you may want to watch this video: Getting this message? Update package not available. Watch this to the end. That solved it. Instead of clicking “update,” just re-upload the files. WordPress will ask if you want to overwrite what's t

I've been practicing writing small classified-type ads. It's fun. It also sharpens the blade. I am testing them on a subscriber list to see if they get any traction. If you want to see a few, let me know. RankMath vs. Yoast SEO I used to use the Yoast SEO plugin on my WordPress sites. Now, I'm slowly moving to RankMath Pro . I used the free version on a few sites and really liked it. So I ponied up and bought the pro version. So far, so good. But I did run into a problem with it. WordPress was reporting it needed updating, and when I tried to update it, it failed, giving me the message, “ Update package not available. “ Well, after 5 seconds of Google searching, I found the solution. If you're using RankMath, you may want to watch this video: Getting this message? Update package not available. Watch this to the end. That solved it. Instead of clicking “update,” just re-upload the files. WordPress will ask if you want to overwrite what's t

How long does SEO take? It depends. Well, that's a loaded question! How long does it take…to what? What exactly do you want it to do? Most people, not in “the know,” ask that question, expecting the answer to be a finite, “3 weeks,” but again, to do what? Let's break this down a bit, then build it back up with an actual answer. What is SEO? SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” Well, what does that mean? First off, a search engine like Google is a website (or app on a mobile device) that you use to search for information. You may ask, “How long does SEO take?” Google will return about a zillion answers, most of which are completely inane answers to the question. Or, you may ask, “Which Rocky movie is the best?” If the answer is Rocky IV, they're wrong. Go ask Bing . What we, as website owners want, is to optimize our website so that it shows up at the top of Google's search results for the term the user just entered.

OWN is your Once-a-Week Newsletter containing marketing & tech information Welcome to Issue #2 of the OWN newsletter. Glad to have you here. If you like it and think it would be of benefit to your colleagues, friends, family, mail carrier, etc., simply send them the link! Here's what's happening this week in Mar-Tech: 8 Insider SEO Tips for Content Marketers SEO is ever evolving. Whereas once upon a time keyword stuffing would get you results, search engines have got a lot smarter and are now looking for an excellent user experience alongside real audience-pleasing content. SEO for content marketers involves writing in-depth content for niche audiences – NOT pleasing search engines with keywords. Here’s how to win at SEO. Essential Guide To Making Digital Products People Will Pay For Whatever digital product/service you plan to create, this guide shows you how to increase the odds that people buy it. You have endless opportunities online. 

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the “Once a Week Newsletter (OWN)”! Glad you're here. Just a little background: The concept for OWN is a weekly newsletter that's a quick read, gives you actionable information, and is super-easy to digest. In short, this newsletter brings you bite-size info bits that I *think* you'll enjoy and learn from. If you want to be added to the subscriber list for OWN, let me know in the comments. Here we go: GREAT Recommendations for specific security software and techniques to keep your computer, and yourself, safe. https://askleo.com/security-software-recommend/ A simple bookmark manager that lets you easily save and organize all of your favorite webpages on a customizable dashboard. Use this! You'll spend less time digging for links and more time browsing them. https://start.me/en/what-is-startme Podcasting 101: Grow a Small Podcast (Without Buying Ads). It's really hard. But here are some tips on getting

How to download a Wistia video, explained In this short video tutorial, I will show you how to download a Wistia video. I have tried this on a number of videos, both ON Wistia and off, including on some Click Funnel sites. I'm not telling you this so that you can do anything nefarious. The reason I sought to learn how to download a Wistia video is because I got an email from a person I bought an infoproduct from – it was a webinar replay that he was taking down in the next 24 hours and I knew I would not have time to watch it. So downloading the video became a prime objective. Here's how I did it. Now, this example is using a video right off Wistia. It is NOT the video I wanted to download. Rest assured though, that I got the video I was looking for. Now, I can watch it at my leisure. Step 1: Right-click Wistia video and copy the link. Step 2: Paste that code into a notepad (text) editor like so: <p><a href=”https://wistia.com/serie

Email is an indispensable communication tool for our business. This is because it is a free, fast and reliable form of communication that is accessible to everyone with an internet connection. It allows users to foster and build lasting relations irrespective of distances with both prospects and customers. E-mail is most widely used as a prospect conversion and customer retention. E-mail can particularly be an effective push for your online communications outreach. It comes in handy for customer retention as it can help in targeted email campaigns where your message can be pushed out to customers to inform and remind. As a two-way form of communication, it is valuable to gather feedback and prompt actions from your audience. Source: Email Marketing Guide for Beginners – Small Business Trends The post Email Marketing Guide for Beginners appeared first on Internet Marketing Muscle . The article was originally published here!

Give your subscribers the freedom to choose what content they want by letting them “mute” your emails. Not every subscriber will be as excited as you are about your new product, promotion, event ⏤ or whatever cool new thing you’re ready to share. Until now, they’ve only had two choices: ignore your emails or unsubscribe. But there’s a third option:  Let them “mute” your promotional emails.   Instead of unsubscribing from ALL of your emails, subscribers can choose to mute those particular emails, and still continue to receive other emails from you.  This allows you to send to subscribers who actually  want  to receive those particular emails. You’ll likely see higher open and click rates, increased conversion rates, and more revenue generated from this targeted audience.  Simply include a “mute” button or link in your emails. Then, using AWeber’s broadcast automations, apply a tag to any subscriber that clicks the “mute” link or button. You can then exclu

These unique on-page SEO techniques elevate your SEO tactics to full-blown strategy. Source: 3 Surprising On-Page SEO Techniques You May Not Know About The post 3 Surprising On-Page SEO Techniques You May Not Know About appeared first on Internet Marketing Muscle . The article was originally published here!