Marketing Network Blog

How to Write Absolutely Addictive Articles http://ift.tt/2yX1UIQ This is a longer article. If you’re feeling noncommittal at the moment, don’t read it. Save it. Bookmark this page for later, when you have more time. You’ll be glad you did, especially if your goal is to write articles of your own. Articles that lure readers in slowly, carefully, inching them down the page, sentence by sentence, until the words run out. Articles people can’t stop reading . Joe Sugarman wrote articles like this. In fact, he was behind some of the most addictive and profitable articles ever created. Except he called them “print ads.” Meet Joe. In 1986, Joe Sugarman, a direct response copywriter , wrote a print ad for BluBlocker Sunglasses. The ad helped an iconic brand take root. It also made him rich:     He distributed his ad the old-fashioned way, in the mail, asking readers to call in with their credit cards. The response was enormous. The glasses sold out in a day. And he did this again

Stop Doing Repetitive Tasks! Here’s How to Automate Them on Windows http://ift.tt/2yXGNYL One of the worst parts of using a computer is just how mindlessly repetitive it can be: searching hundreds of folders for that one file, or typing the same bit of text day after day, or cleaning up and organizing a thousand different files… We can end up wasting a LOT of hours this way. Fortunately, we aren’t alone! Others have suffered just as much as us, if not more, and some have even taken great lengths to create tools that ease these pains — then released them for free. By adding a few of these utilities to your arsenal, you’ll be able to reclaim time that would’ve otherwise been lost to manual repetition. 1. Search or Replace Text in Many Files Have you ever needed to find a particular text file or document containing a specific word or phrase, but just couldn’t locate it? You thought you knew where you put it, but it isn’t there, and you’re positive you didn’t delete it. That’s whe

15 Easy Ways to Make Extra Money at Home http://ift.tt/2xSMOBR Thanks to the internet, there are plenty of ways we can make extra money from home. In fact, making money online from the comfort of your home, no matter where you live, is far easier than most assume. You do have to navigate the so-called guru gauntlet. Sure. That is if you're looking to scoop up an offer from today's vast pallette of never-ending webinars , trial programs, and sales funnels that seem to pop up everywhere we turn. But that tends to complicate things. Making some extra side hustle cash doesn't actually have to be that complicated. As someone who's been immersed in the field of online income generation for nearly two decades now, I can tell you that it takes some work. However, there are several clear paths forward. At the end of the day, it all boils down to what your goals are and just how much you're looking to automate your income. Could you make an extra $200 per month? Sure

10 Companies That Are Getting Creative With Cryptocurrency http://ift.tt/2x9d0J7 A lot of buzz is circulating in the financial and technology space over cryptocurrencies . Whether or not you're bullish on investing in bitcoin and altcoins, it would still be wise to invest in learning more about the space. Particularly fascinating is the underlying technology of decentralized systems and blockchains (an ingenious platform that allows digital information to be distributed but not copied or modified). Related: 5 Trends In Cryptocurrency Entrepreneurs Need to Know If all goes to plan, this technology will fundamentally transform everything from financial markets, to social communication, to developer tools. Every part of society has the potential to be impacted by this new model for building products and for distributed ownership. And, as consumers in this digital age, we will have a front-row view of the disruption. The most pressing question is no longer whether this technolo

IBM launches cross-border blockchain payments to grease international commerce http://ift.tt/2gmlutj IBM is announcing today that it has created a new cross-border blockchain payments solution with KlickEx Group and Stellar.org . The move is designed to improve efficiency and reduce the cost of making global payments for businesses and consumers. For the first time, public blockchain technology — a kind of transparent ledger system that is distributed across the internet — is being used in a fully operational rollout to enable cross-border payments. Traditionally, cross-border payments have involved numerous intermediaries who initiate, clear, and finalize any transaction involving multiple currencies. IBM Blockchain enables direct payments between two parties in any currency participating on the network while maintaining security. It’s another step forward for blockchain technology, and IBM said that global banking leaders and financial institutions are also participating,

Free Tools for Improving Your Website's Performance http://ift.tt/2yc41rH Competing in the digital space is tough. There are a lot of websites out there, and rivalry for attention is fierce. Success in the digital landscape is reliant on a smorgasbord of factors, but being “found” ranks among the most critical. You may have great content or a unique interface, but if no one can find your site, you won’t gain much traction. Small businesses face budget limitations when it comes to competing for consumer’s attention and generating business from a website. Enterprises are spending millions of dollars a year to boost search rankings and purchase ads to increase user engagement. But luckily, search success is not reliant on money alone. Related: New Free Work Tools From Google Help You Think Like the Leader of a Billion-Dollar Company The websites that succeed in search are those that adhere to the search algorithms and use the tools available to their advantage. Google offers a

Crypto Debit Cards are Taking Bitcoin Mainstream. How Entrepreneurs Can Benefit. http://ift.tt/2xnhawc Bitcoin's got a spending problem, and entrepreneurs are reacting with crypto debit cards to solve it. Say you've got some crypto-currency -- maybe a Bitcoin or a little Ethereum -- and it just went up 10 percent, and you now want to splurge on a long-overdue vacation to Europe. Related: 11 Things You Need to Know About Bitcoin In the past, you had to go to an exchange, like Coinbase, and turn a set amount of your cryptocurrency into a set amount of national fiat currency ($U.S. ? U.K., etc.). After that, you moved your fiat currency into a bank account. And only then, finally, could you spend it. Enter crypto debit cards -- the old-meets-new innovation that's poised to light a fire under cryptocurrency adoption among regular consumers -- and is primed for entrepreneurial action. Crypto debit cards are like regular debit cards. They've got a Visa or MasterCard l

9 Ways Startups Fuel Great ROI From Their Existing Content Marketing Strategy http://ift.tt/2fKli6L Content marketing still remains one of the most cost effective marketing techniques that is widely adopted by most of the businesses worldwide. Nearly all -- 93 percent -- of B2B companies rely upon content marketing for demand generation and brand building. Startups already know the potential that content marketing holds for them. However, that power factor still remains missing that can bring in more customers and retain the existing ones. Here are nine effective ways to boost your existing content marketing strategy. 1. Create content based on user persona. Persona is a fictional representation of your ideal audience. You need to answer the basic question of who you are writing for? Before you start preparing content. If you have an idea of your target audience then it becomes easier for you to prepare content. Document your persona using elements like: -- Age group. -- G