This one is for all my people who are hustling online to make a living 🙂
Whether you own a brick and mortar business, you run an online business, or you have a blog…
Your online presence is HUGE!!! The first thing potential customers look for is a website.
These are the tools that I use the most to grow my website and my online presence, and they all have crazy good Black Friday deals going on RIGHT NOW!
Website Hosting
My recommendation: SiteGround
You can do it all through SiteGround…purchase your domain, hosting, and set up WordPress all in a few easy steps. The customer service at SiteGround is the best. I have been using them for two years now, and I have never had any issues.
If all of this lingo is confusing the crap out of you, check out my blog post on setting up a website HERE
Like it or not, Instagram is huge right now for getting in front of your target business. If you are looking to start or grow your business, you have to be on Instagram.
Helene Sula of Helene In Between has a few courses out on Instagram. She used to work in social media marketing, and her most recent course is formed around research based strategy. She cuts through the BS and tells you what works. Her course is normally $99, but it is on sale right now for $29. Can you afford to NOT invest in yourself?
Cut the BS. Cut the stress. Save yourself time and headache.
Learn how to leverage Instagram for your business.
Photos
We are living in a highly visual world.
It’s no secret that posts with photos perform better across all social media platforms, but what is the secret to making your photos stand out from the crowd?
LIGHTROOM
Lightroom Mobile is free to download and use. You’ll need to create a free adobe account. The best way to get started using Lightroom is with Lightroom Presets.
Presets are basically just the series of edits to a photo that have been saved. With one click, you can apply all of the edits to your photo. You’ll still need to make some slight adjustments because every photo is going to have its own unique exposure and colors, but these presets are a great way to get started using the software.
There is also a video tutorial to make it even more simple and easy!
The second piece to your photo strategy should be…
Stock Photos
You need beautiful photos for your website and social media. While taking your own photos is great, it can be time consuming. Sometimes you just need a beautiful photo in a pinch.
I use PixiStock for all of my stock photo needs. An annual membership also includes Canva templates, Instagram quotes, Lightroom Presets, and so much more!
Annual Memberships are on sale right now for $139 (roughly $12/month)
Email Marketing: ConvertKit
Social media platforms are great for reaching your ideal audience, but guess what? You don’t actually own that content and those followers. Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest…they could all disappear tomorrow. Then how would you reach your audience?
It is super important to start cultivating an email list from the get go. No algorithms or other BS can get in the way of you directly contacting your readers. AND the best part is, they signed up for your email list! You know they are primed and ready to hear from you!
I have tried free email marketing platforms, but the one I prefer (and the one that helped me go from 0 to over 600 subscribers) is ConvertKit.
Now, there’s a whole science behind building an email list. I have so much to say about it, that it really warrants its own post.
Basically, the magic behind ConvertKit is that you can offer what we call “Content Upgrades.” In exchange for an email address, you offer your readers a freebie. My most popular freebies (that “upgrade” the content in my posts) have been my goal setting sheets and my smoothie recipes.
I Did the Medical Medium 28 Day Cleanse
Drive Traffic To Your Site Through Pinterest & Tailwind
98% of my website traffic comes from Pinterest (roughly 4k views/month). There is a whole science or method to leveraging Pinterest for your business as well.
Pinterest is different from other social media because it actually functions as a search engine. The shelf life of a single pin can be up to 6 months whereas an Instagram post or Facebook post gets buried in a feed almost instantly.
Another big difference between Pinterest and other social media platforms is that the audience on Pinterest has come to SHOP. They are looking for ideas or solutions, and they are ready to BUY!
Like all social media platforms though, Pinterest favors those who are active every day. Do you have time to dedicate to finding pins and pinning EVERY DAY?
Nope…didn’t think so. This is where Tailwind comes in. Tailwind is an official Pinterest partner. With Tailwind, you can quickly and easily schedule pins to post at optimal times. You can constantly keep pushing your pins out to your target audience.
I schedule mine for a month at a time.
Get started with your FREE trial today!
If you found this helpful, please take a second to Pin it 🙂
Thanks as always for the love and support
xoxo
Alyssa
[Some of the links mentioned above may be affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission. It won’t cost you anything extra, and you’d be supporting my blog in the process – so thank you!]
As always, if you like it then please take one hot second to pin it! 🙂
