Brittany

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Make it rain!

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No matter what kind of thing you are into – there’s a lot of it out there. If you’re into electronic music, I have good news for you! There are at least 37289 genres for you to explore.

Not a music person? More of a video person? Great! There are almost 10,000 options for you to watch on Netflix. YouTube gets 300 hours of video uploaded to it every single day.

Not into media at all? You’re only fun is hustling and cross fit? Praise The Lamb! In America, there are more cross fit gyms than Starbucks.

There’s too much of everything. Nobody has time to sift through all the answers.

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This problem is especially difficult for creators. No matter what they are making, it’s hard to get noticed.

This why people need guidance. They don’t have time to listen to sort through everything on Netflix. They need that one cool friend who is somehow ahead of everything to say “Why are you watching The Office, Netflix just came out with Stranger Things and it’s awesome.”

That’s why influencers and affiliates are so valuable. It’s much more than a way to make money online. It’s a service that guides people toward things of real value. So, if you are looking to add value to people’s lives and make some money for yourself in the process, here’s your

411 on affiliate marketing for beginners.

Pro Tip #1: Follow the rules

You want to make money, not lose it. So make sure and let your audience know that you are getting a kickback from this. Don’t be shy about it. The FTC has some pretty serious rules and you don’t want to take any chances. Being upfront about your affiliates will build much more trust with your audience than being shady about it. Don’t be shady and don’t be shy.

Pro Tip #2: Be honest

There are a lot of things out there you can be affiliates for. Don’t waste your time on things that you don’t think your audience will appreciate. Spend some time thinking about your audience. What problems do they need to be solved? Where are their pain points? Try to find affiliates that will solve your audience’s problems. People care less about what a thing is and much more about how it helps them.

Pro Tip #3: Be Genuine

Take the time to really use the product that you are going to recommend. Know how it works, inside and out. Review it and be honest. Talk about how amazing it is, talk about the drawbacks. Remember you are also building trust with your audience. You want them to come back to you over and over. When you say “this thing is amazing and you need it” You want them to believe you.

Affiliate Marketing For Beyond Beginners

Pro Tip: Make a video of your review.

Think about these stats… YouTube is the second most popular website after Google. By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic (See our source) Social media posts with video have 48% more views. Video gives you more opportunities as an affiliate than a normal blog would. It allows you to really show off the product and make it more personal. It allows you to build better rapport with your audience, address the objections and then close the deal.

If that’s not enough for you, then we suggest you learn from the pros. At Weeknight Website, we actively invest in ourselves by purchasing appropriate courses from people we trust. It helps us immensely. Maybe it’s time for you to do the same. One video we suggest you watch before you pay anyone is THIS video by Project Life Mastery.

How to Make Time For your Online Side Hustle

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Sometimes life can feel a little too much like math. Which is not cool, because math is annoying. If you are a busy person, you know what I’m talking about. Figuring out your online side hustle schedule can feel a just like those dumb word problems from algebra. Except in this situation, you aren’t trying to find when two passing trains will meet. You’re simply trying to find when you will finally run into some free time.

The formula is pretty simple. You add up all the things you have to do every day. Showering, commuting to work, your day job, cooking dinner, sleeping, your Instagram hour. All of those things are equal to X.

Then you subtract that from the 24 hours in a day. In short, it looks like this….

24hrs – X = WHHHYYYY??

Odds are that you’ve done some version of this and you know that you have to decrease the junk that fills your day so that you can have more time to do what you want. We don’t want you to cut out sleeping or showering so we’ve put together a few tips to help give you more time and keep you fresh.

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Wake Up Earlier

Yeah. This is almost as bad as math, but hear me out. There are two main reasons why waking up early is so great.

In the morning, your brain is not exhausted.
When you try to work your side hustle at the end of the day, it’s hard to get started. By the time nine o’clock comes around, you’ve already been to a few meetings. You’ve spent too long sitting in traffic. You’ve cooked and cleaned. The last thing you want to do is sit down and do brand research. You want to have a glass of wine, watch Netflix, and browse #contentmarketing on Instagram. That’s not research. But when you are tired, it feels close enough. It’s not.

In the morning, you won’t have distractions.

Think about it. Everyone is asleep. That means the emails haven’t started coming in. Nobody is expecting anything from you, yet. It’s just you, your coffee and your freshly recharged brain.

Waking up early gives you time without distraction and a fresh brain. Double win!

Take Charge of Your Technology

We’ve all seen those banal articles where supposedly smart people commiserate about how distracted we are and how terrible it is. We don’t have that mentality. Technology is great as long as you are in charge, not your phone. So, TAKE CHARGE.

Make your technology work FOR you, not prevent you from working.

Turn off your push notifications. All of them. Dedicate some time to turning off your technology completely. Get it out of your site and don’t let it tempt you. Don’t let it tell you what to do.

If you’ve taken our first piece of advice seriously, then combine your early morning online side hustle routine with your technology free time to get even more focussed! Triple win!

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Learn to say “NO”

Being an adult is all about learning to say no. First, you have to learn how to say no to yourself. That’s called self-discipline – and it’s important to your health. You’ll need that when you want to sleep late or check your Instafeed while your working. But, saying no to others is also important.

So much of our social lives can feel like they are being propelled by unreasonable expectations and obligations.

Don’t let yourself fall victim to this. You don’t have to go to every party that your friends have for their kids. Those parties are lame anyway. It’s just a bunch of parents pretending they are on diets and kids with sticky fingers. Gross.

Some of us need to realize that the only way we’ll have the time to pursue our own goals is to say no to some things. THAT’S OKAY. You aren’t ghosting on anyone. You aren’t letting anyone down. Your friends will still be there. Just let them know you are focusing on getting your online side hustle up and running. They’ll understand and if they don’t understand then they aren’t friends. They are just using you to bring their kid’s presents.

Plan for your online side hustle

The other day, I thought it would be fun to act like an adult and cook food at home. I cut up all the veggies before realizing I was missing an ingredient. So, I go to the store. I grab my jalapeno and got stuck in traffic on the way home. What was supposed to take 30 minutes to cook turned into a two-hour affair. My plans for that night were shot. If I had thought ahead, I would have either grabbed jalapenos much earlier or just ordered tacos from the truck down the street.

The point is that disorganization steals our free time. Spend one hour a week to plan out what your week should look like. Plan your meals, plan your work time, plan your social activities, plan your “white space”, plan everything. I know it doesn’t sound very romantic, but you won’t care about that when you are finally able to quit your day job.

Have any awesome tips for making time for your side hustle? Leave em’ below and share with the class! ????

How to Create a Professional Website in a Few Hours

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Websites. Websites. Websites.
Sometimes I feel like all we ever talk about is websites. I know you came here to figure out how to create a professional website in a few hours. But, humor me for 30 seconds because I want to talk about pizza. ????????????‍♀️

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One of the best things about pizza is that there are a million different kinds and they are all amazing.

I love the authentic Italian pizza that comes out of that oven that looks like a cave. It makes me feel more fancy than I actually am.

I even love Totinos Party Pizzas. Yeah, they’re gross but in the best way. I mean, it says right on the package “PARTY PIZZA.” Who am I to argue? ????

I love New York style pizza. It’s so thin that you can fold it like a taco. It’s perfectly mobile so you can eat it while you speed walk your way to sit next to 738,910,937 people on the L.

I love how chicago pizza is super thick so that it doesn’t blow away in the frigid gale force wind. So practical! ????????

Not everyone is as open minded about their pizza as I am.

If my Brooklyn-born-and-raised friend comes to Texas to visit and she wants pizza, I know better than to buy her Papa Johns. (Sorry, PJ! ????????‍♀️) I’m going to have to make her a seriously delicious thin crust pizza. The kind that you can fold. And that’s a problem because I’m no professional pizza maker.

Which brings me back to the reason you’re here. I also love all types of websites. I love the ones that look like they came from the future. Also, I recently discovered neocities.org which is a community of people who make websites that look like they belong on geocites. They are terrible. I love them. ????

But, if you’re out to create a professional website, the odds are that your less open minded friends are going to see. I get it. Let me give you some tips on how to impress them.

Simple Tips for How to Create a Professional Website

Keep it simple.

First off, if you’re looking to make something quickly, you’ll need to keep it simple. That’s not a bad thing. Whether we are talking about cooking, art or design, over complicating things is always the mark of an amateur.

So take some time to plan your page out before you start to try and create a professional website. Be deliberate about where you put everything and don’t add anything you don’t need. If you need extra help on planning your site, we have a guide on how to design your homepage right here. ????

 

 

The best designers know that when it comes to the aesthetics, the most important parts are the font pairings and the photos. For help finding a font pairing that has already been put together by professionals, we recommend you check out this Canva article. Aslo, you can use their font combinations tool to help you get your font secret sauce.

For photos that will make your site looks great, head over to Unsplash or Pexels and grab some photos for FREE! (????drop)

Drag and Drop it like it’s hot ????

Want to get things done fast and have it look great? You’ll need a builder. Not all Drag and Drop builders are the same, but they are all easier than coding. Our favorite drag and drop builder is Beaver Builder. We’ve found that it’s easy to use and the most flexible. If you are a Weeknight Website member then you have Beaver Builder at your disposal along with tutorial videos that walk you through how you can build your entire site in a weeknight. So, get on that.

Create a Professional Website that is Mobile Ready ????

About half of your web traffic is going to come from mobile traffic. Nothing looks more unprofessional than a site that doesn’t respond well on mobile. So make sure that it looks great. Make your adjustments, and then check your site on your phone. Also, don’t forget the quiet middle child of technology – the iPad.

If you’ve selected a decent drag and drop builder this should be pretty easy for you. Beaver Builder makes it especially easy. All of their themes respond to devise sizes, break points and spacing. If you are a Weeknight Website member, we have a special tutorial on making your site look amazing on all your devices. ????

5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Design Your Website

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Have you ever had one of those days where you were so focused on getting a project done that you forgot to worry about your basic needs? I had one of those a days once. I spent the day designing a website and totally forgot that I might want to eat that evening.

There was nothing in my fridge. There were just condiments and three bowls of leftovers. One of those bowls was yesterday’s Mac and Cheese. The other two had been there so long, I no longer knew what they were and I was afraid to look.

The pantry wasn’t much better. A bag of tortilla chips leaned against a stack of coffee filters. That’s when inspiration struck. I had beef in the freezer!

I could combine the beef and chips and make nachos! I didn’t have any cheese, but I did have leftover Mac and Cheese. I could use that! How could combining two amazing foods not make something even better.

I remember dumping the Mac on top of my nachos and saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” It was as if Gordon Ramsey was interviewing me about my resourcefulness.

My optimism didn’t last long. It was awful.
I should have eaten the coffee filters.

Gordon Ramsey Idiot GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

Sometimes this is how we approach design. We think that if we just combine our favorite elements together, the outcome will have to be amazing! I’m here to warn you, that’s not the case.

Before you design anything, you’ll need a plan and you’ll need the right ingredients. So, here are 5 questions to ask yourself before you design anything.

1. Who is your audience?

We’ve talked about this before, in previous blogs, and we will talk about it again. When it comes to designing, marketing or doing ANYTHING online, you’ll need to know who you are targeting. Once you’ve figured that out, it will help guide all of your decisions. If you are having problems narrowing down exactly who you are targeting, you can get a FREE GUIDE HERE that will help you sort that out.

2. What are your goals?

Different goals require different design. Figure out your top two or three goals and then design in a such way that guides your audience toward the goal you want to accomplish. This will help you stay focused on the overall vision instead of getting bogged down in the minutiae. Remember that people need to be lead, but they are easily distracted; so keep it short and simple.

3. What makes you different?

It’s funny how for most of our lives we try to suppress what makes us different. There is no doubt that there IS something different about you, the only question is whether you are working to suppress it or embrace it.

Let’s be real. There are a million’s of podcasts out there. There are an incredible number of blogs out there. There are an uncountable number of bands out there. The best way to separate yourself from the pack is to be less like them and be more like you. This will help you stand out from the crowd and will give your audience an opportunity to connect with you.

For example, if kids used to call you “panda” because you had dark circles under your eyes, and somehow that followed you across the country and into adulthood, you might as well embrace it. People love pandas, just saying.

4. What does your audience want from you?

As we’ve discussed before. Your relationship with your audience is… a relationship. You want something from them. They want something from you. It’s pretty rare that you both want the same things from each other but if this is handled properly, you can both be happy.

For example, you’ll probably want them to sign up for your email list, but that might not be what they want from you. If you are clever, then you can structure your design in a way that offers them what they want in exchange for something you want.

5. What should I delegate? Should you even be doing this?

The way something looks is very important. Long before anyone reads what you have to say, they’ve already seen your photos, your font choices and they’ve begun to decide whether they connect with you or not. Making a good first impression is worth investing in. Once you have your vision established, it’s important to ask yourself honestly whether or not you can pass some of the responsibilities onto someone else.

When you are first starting out, it’s tempting to want to handle everything yourself. We don’t like other people having any input on our precious little project. We tell ourselves that we don’t know where to find good help or that we can’t afford it.

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The truth is, you can’t afford to not get help. We don’t realize just how much money we lose when our designs are second rate or our branding is confusing. It might hurt a little to invest in these things in the beginning, but it is definitely worth it.

Love this post? Stick around and see more of what we go going on… OR Save it for later on Pinterest! ????

Attracting The Right Customers: A Love Story

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A few months ago, an article written in the 50’s made it’s way into social media and caused a stir.

It was called simply, “How to Get A Husband”, and listed 129 ideas which would help you find a man who would be willing to marry you. Here’s some of the advice given:

20. Don’t take a job in a company run largely by women.
23. Go to all reunions of your high school or college class. There may be widowers there.
40. Stand in a corner and cry softly. Chances are good that he’ll come over to see what’s wrong.

When I started reading the list, I laughed. It was hilarious to me. By the time I got half way through the list, I felt sad. But, when I finished the list, I was filled with gratitude that the world is a different place now.

It was a wild ride. 10/10: would read again!

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When it comes to attracting the right customers, sometimes it can feel like looking for suitors that may be interested in you. I don’t know a single entrepreneur, artist, or creator that doesn’t spend time wondering how to find the right people for what they have to offer. And the goal for finding the right audience is to have their attention, their loyalty and engagement. The parallels between finding a partner and finding an audience can be very similar.


That’s why we put together some things for you to remember when looking to find your audience. We promise the advice will be better than, “If he’s a fisherman, learn to scale and clean fish.”

FIND YOUR AUDIENCE

Before we can talk about attracting the right audience, you have to know who you want to attract. The most helpful way to do this is to close your eyes and envision your audience. Who can you best serve? The ideal audience for you is the audience you are most happy to serve and who really “gets” what you are doing? If you don’t care about your audience, everything else is going to be pretty difficult for you.

Now, boil their common attributes down into a single person. Give that person a name. Everything that you do should be done with this person in mind. Don’t worry about appealing to everyone. That is exactly how you alienate everyone.

If you want to go deeper into finding your ideal audience, we have put together a free guide for you that will help you realize exactly who you are targeting, and what you should know about them. You can find that HERE. Okay. Now that you know exactly who you are pursuing…

Where does your audience hang out online?

If you are selling combat boots and orange hair dye, you won’t want to set up a booth in a senior citizen home (Maybe that’ll work in 40 years, though).  The same idea applies online.


Different demographics tend to gravitate towards different online platforms. You’ll need to figure out where your audience would be hanging out, and start engaging people there. Get to know those platforms and leave the other ones behind. This will increase your odds of organic growth and will keep you from overspending on your ads. Don’t try to handle all the platforms. Simply find the one or two that your audience is most likely to be on and do that well.

Be mindful of the types of media which your demographic is most likely to consume. Some of you will find that you’ll need to become masters of writing blogs. Some of you will find out that you’ll need to work on looking natural in front of a camera. It all depends on your demographic.

DATE YOUR AUDIENCE

Create content that talks about THEM.

Imagine going on a blind date. You sit down at a nice restaurant. Your date shows up, introduces himself/herself, and spends the rest of the day talking about great he/she is.

“I went to Harvard. I climbed a mountain. I can eat pho without making a mess. I’m a published author. Cesar Millan, asked me to train his dog.”

Blah, blah, blah, etc., etc. NOBODY CARES.

Your date spent the entire time trying to impress you but only left you feeling alienated. Brands fall for this all the time. We really believe in what we are doing. We are passionate about what we have to say, and so we end up talking about ourselves so much that people stop listening.

The truth is that people like people who care about them. They all want to talk about themselves too and if they don’t feel like they are being heard, then they will stop listening to you as well.

When creating content, your immediate goal should be connection and conversation.

Conversations help you climb the algorithms. The more your posts are interacted with, the higher up you rise in the algorithms. Conversations create organic growth. Organic growth is like having a mutual friend introduce you to someone else. You want that because organic growth is FREE and it’s effective.

Connection builds trust. There are only so many hours in the day and a lot of people are competing for attention. It’s easy for anyone to get cynical and dismissive, but when trust is built, that cynicism melts away. They begin to recognize you, to trust you and people buy from those they trust. Just remember, trust doesn’t happen overnight.

Be consistent.

Post consistently but not constantly. Only posting once a week is the online equivalent to having a great date, and then not texting them for three weeks. Posting constantly is the equivalent to having a great date and then texting them until their phone self destructs. Try to have one quality post every day.

Be consistent with your “brand personality.” Make sure your language, your tone, and your presentation are uniform on each platform. No one wants to date someone who seems to be unsure of who they are.

Be generous.

A gift shows that you have been paying attention to their needs and that you have a solution to their problems. “Freemiums” are a great way to ease some of your audience’s initial hesitations. It can show off your expertise and help give them a chance to connect with your voice. It shows effort on your part without asking much from them. An additional benefit to this is that it allows you to start an email list so that you can consistently connect with people who have already shown interest in you.

GET ENGAGED

As your audience begins to grow, you will find a core set of loyal followers. Don’t forget about these people. It’s tempting to want to see your number of followers rise. It’s tempting to think that a larger audience will lead to a larger impact, but that’s not always true. A loyal audience is more powerful than a large audience. A loyal audience will tell others about you. A loyal audience will purchase from you again and again. So, make sure to not forget about engaging with them.

Analytics.

Keep your eye on your analytics. Figure out what’s working and what’s falling flat. Figure out everything you can about your audience. Don’t stop learning about them. Remember that every healthy relationship grows and changes. This will be the case between you and your audience.

RECAP.

– Your ideal audience is a group of people whom you want to serve.
– Go where they are.
– Make your content about them.
– Learn everything you can about them.
– Remember the “Three C’s”: Conversations, Connections & Consistency.
– Be loyal to those who are loyal to you.

Need more help finding your most dreamy and eligible customers online? Download our free worksheet!

 

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Music Cover Art Made Easy

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You finished your record! There is only one problem. Now, you have to worry about your music cover art. If you DO have your album art, then I am going to show you how to make sure that it is the right size for iTunes, Spotify, and all major music streaming platforms. On the other hand, if you DO NOT have album art, and cannot pay a professional, I am going to show you how to create music cover art that looks great!

Your music cover art can be one of the most intimidating and challenging parts of getting your music out into the world. It needs to reflect your individual style, and also create interest for listeners so that they are curious enough to listen.  The great thing about the blog post for today is that we are professional designers and marketers, here to give you some of our best tips and tricks for free to help you absolutely ROCK your CD sales!

 

 

RESIZING YOUR PHOTOS WITH CANVA.

  1. Sign into Canva.
  2. Click custom dimensions in the right hand corner.
  3. Make your dimensions 3000 x 3000. (Note: These are the proper dimensions for all streaming platforms EXCEPT “Amazon on Demand”)
  4. Upload your image.
  5. Download as .png

Wow… That was easy!

Now you need to resize it for Amazon On Demand.

  1. Click resize.
  2. Make your dimensions 1600 x 1600
  3. Download as .png

What To Do If you Don’t Have Your Music Cover Art Already

  1. Find a template.
  2. If you have your own photo – upload it.
  3. Edit text to match your branding. (Need branding help? Get our free download!)
  4. For more details see the Canva article here.

**Watch the video above to get some design tips and inspirations!**

WARNING! Creating Music Cover Art Can Be Tricky!

All the streaming platforms have their own standards for artwork that they will approve. They aren’t trying to squash your creativity, they are just trying to keep you from cheating the system. So, make sure you DO NOT do these things…

  1. Any text that is more than the artist name and album title.
  2. Do not put any email addresses or URLs on your album art.
  3. If you are scanning your image from a physical copy, make sure there are no stickers on it.
  4. Anything that references a digital store name.

Ready to build your own awesome musician website? Get a 14-day Free Trial of Weeknight Website!