Blogging Archives - 99signals

13 Best Content Marketing Podcasts to Listen to Now

Sandeep Mallya — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 04:42:17 +0000

With each passing year, content marketing is evolving and becoming more sophisticated. As a marketer, if you don’t keep up with the latest and hottest trends in content marketing, you may be left behind.

Podcasts are a great way to keep yourself informed about the most popular content marketing trends, tools, and tactics.

One of my favorite things about podcasts is that you can subscribe to them and listen to the episodes on your own time.

But here’s the catch: There are too many podcasts to choose from.

With so many marketing podcasts vying for your attention, you may be wondering which ones devote the most time to content marketing. Which podcasts are worth checking out? Which podcasts provide the most value in terms of deconstructing content marketing ideas?

If you have these questions, you’ve come to the right place.

This list featuring the best content marketing podcasts will help you streamline your content marketing efforts and motivate you to come up with creative ideas to take your business to the next level.

Here are the 13 best content marketing podcasts I’d recommend to seasoned as well as new content marketers.

13 Best Content Marketing Podcasts

1. This Old Marketing

Hosts: Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose

Content Marketing Institute (CMI) is the top online authority when it comes to content marketing. So it makes sense to feature CMI’s podcast, This Old Marketing, at #1 on our list.

Hosted by Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose, two of the leading experts in the content marketing space, the podcast covers the latest trends and headlines in the content marketing industry.

Each episode also features rants and raves from Pulizzi and Rose on some of the breaking news stories in the marketing and business world. Thus, one of their recent episodes featured the hosts sharing their views on the intriguing GameStop short squeeze situation.

This Old Marketing is as informative as it’s entertaining. It’s also a great podcast to stay up-to-date with the latest news in the digital marketing space.

Launched in 2013, the show went on a brief hiatus in late 2017 before returning in 2019. Since then, Pulizzi and Rose have worked actively to inform everyone that the podcast is back. Let’s make their job easier by placing their brilliant podcast firmly at the top of our list of best content marketing podcasts.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Recommended Episodes

2. Online Marketing Made Easy

Host: Amy Porterfield

Amy Porterfield has helped more than 250,000 online entrepreneurs with her best-selling marketing courses, thriving social media channels, and her top-rated business podcast, Online Marketing Made Easy.

The podcast covers everything from content marketing and social media marketing topics to conversion optimization and marketing automation.

Porterfield also invites successful entrepreneurs and industry experts to her show to share their process and strategy. Past guests on the podcast have included Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, online advertising expert Rick Mulready, John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneurs on Fire, and several others.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Recommend Episodes

3. Content Inc.

Host: Joe Pulizzi

In addition to co-hosting This Old Marketing with Robert Rose, Joe Pulizzi also hosts a weekly podcast called Content Inc.

Pulizzi is known as the “Godfather of Content Marketing” and rightly so. Having founded Content Marketing Institute in 2007, Pulizzi has long believed that businesses can achieve sustainable growth not by creating and selling more products, but by building an audience with remarkable content.

As such, Content Inc. is aimed at entrepreneurs who are seeking creative content marketing ideas to build an audience for their business. Each episode contains one inspirational idea that has the potential to change your business.

Unlike the long-form format his other podcast follows, Content Inc. features short-form podcast episodes, with most episodes lasting less than 5 minutes. But don’t let the short length of the episodes fool you. Pulizzi ensures you leave each episode with takeaways you can apply to your business.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Recommended Episodes

4. Everyone Hates Marketers

Host: Louis Grenier

Louis Grenier’s contrarian marketing podcast, Everyone Hates Marketers, is easily one of the most popular marketing podcasts on this list.

Case in point: It reached over a million downloads in less than 4 years.

With over ten years of experience in marketing, Grenier started his podcast to share actionable marketing tips for people who were tired of shady and in-your-face marketing tactics.

Grenier explores a variety of marketing topics on his podcast, including content marketing. In one of his recent episodes, he invited Benji Hyam, co-founder of Grow and Convert, to deconstruct how he creates high-quality content that converts.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Recommended Episodes

5. Social Pros Podcast

Hosts: Jay Baer and Adam Brown

Social media and content marketing should always work together to achieve greater results. SocialPros is the best podcast to tune in to for improving your content marketing performance through effective social media strategies.

Hosted by social media marketing stalwarts, Jay Baer (Convince & Convert) and Adam Brown (Salesforce), the podcast features interviews from leading social media strategists who share how their companies are using social media to engage with their audience. Recent guests have included Rick Wion from Kellogg’s, Zachary Lones from Walmart, and Anna Gonzalez from Google Developer Studio.

Baer and Brown also discuss, dissect, or debunk the latest trends and ideas in the social media industry. A must-listen podcast for anyone who wants to level up their social media marketing skills.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Recommended Episodes

6. Social Savvy Podcast

Host: Andrea Jones

The Savvy Social Podcast is yet another podcast on this list that illustrates the importance of aligning your content marketing and social media efforts.

Hosted by social media strategist Andrea Jones, the podcast features interviews with leading industry professionals who share their expertise and strategies to help listeners get better results from social media.

Tune in to this podcast to learn effective techniques to integrate social media with your content marketing strategy.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Recommended Episodes

7. Storytelling Secrets

Host: Jules Dan

Storytelling is an important component of your content marketing strategy. When done the right way, it makes you more relatable and helps you build deeper connections with your audience. Jules Dan’s podcast Storytelling Secrets deep dives into the storytelling aspect of content marketing.

In the podcast, Dan explains how you can use the power of storytelling to instantly connect with your audience. You’ll also hear from industry experts who are currently crafting compelling stories that persuade and influence others to take action.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Side note: I was thrilled to be a guest on his podcast back in April 2020 where we discussed the importance of storytelling in affiliate marketing. I also shared a few actionable tips for people who want to dabble with affiliate marketing and start a side hustle. Give it a listen here.

Recommended Episodes

8. The GaryVee Audio Experience

Host: Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk can rant and rave for 10 minutes on any marketing topic and turn it into an interesting podcast episode. And that’s exactly how some of the episodes feel.

All jokes aside, Gary Vaynerchuk’s podcast has consistently ranked among the best business podcasts ever since he started the show. It includes a mix of original content and clips from his #AskGaryVee show on YouTube, his keynote speeches, and fireside chats.

Although Gary Vee covers a wide range of marketing and entrepreneurial topics, he knows the importance of content marketing in the grand scheme of things. As such, many of his episodes revolve around the topics of storytelling, content creation, and content distribution. In one of his recent episodes, he shared tips on adding context to your story while building a brand and how to make content for multiple platforms at the same time.

He also occasionally interviews entrepreneurs, authors, and marketing experts on his podcast. Seth Godin, Pat Flynn, Tim Ferriss, and Tony Robbins have all been guests on his show in the past.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Recommended Episodes

9. Marketing School

Hosts: Neil Patel and Eric Siu

Neil Patel and Eric Siu combine their marketing expertise to host this highly popular podcast. As you may have guessed, the podcast covers a wide variety of online marketing topics, including content marketing.

Since launching the podcast in 2016, Patel and Siu have committed to releasing a new episode daily. At the time of writing this post, Marketing School has close to 1,700 episodes. The podcast has a dedicated website, where you can find time-stamped show notes for each episode.

Since most episodes are only 5-7 minutes long, you can binge-listen to them and emerge with some truly amazing insights on growing your online business.

Occasionally, the hosts digress from the short-form format of their podcast to invite guests and industry experts who reveal their key marketing hacks and strategies.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Top 3 Episodes

10. ProBlogger Podcast

Host: Darren Rowse

If there’s one thing Darren Rowse knows, it’s to churn out compelling content for bloggers on a consistent basis. Whether it’s through in-depth blog posts or insightful podcast episodes, Rowse always makes sure you leave with actionable tips to level up your blog.

Because of his commitment to helping other bloggers, his two blogs, ProBlogger and Digital Photography School, are massively popular and are read by over 5 million readers around the world.

Rowse’s podcast is designed to help you build a better blog and explore a variety of income streams to sustain your blogging efforts. His show features a mix of teaching, case studies, and challenges to help bloggers generate an audience and develop a deeper engagement with their readers.

Rowse also invites other bloggers from different industries to share their success stories and strategies.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Recommended Episodes

11. Content and Conversation

Host: Ross Hudgens

Content and Conversation is a podcast by Siege Media, an SEO-focused content marketing agency based in San Diego.

Hosted by Siege Media founder Ross Hudgens, Content and Conversation is a relatively new podcast and most of its episodes revolve around integrating content marketing with SEO. As such, one of their recent episodes featured an all-star guest list of SEO experts, including Rand Fishkin and Cyrus Shepherd, to share their SEO predictions for 2021.

If you’d like to learn techniques to combine SEO and content marketing effectively, this podcast is a must-listen.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts

Recommended Episodes

12. The Long Game

Hosts: Alex Birkett, Allie Decker, and David Khim

The Long Game podcast is a unique spin on content marketing.

Hosted by Alex Birkett, Allie Decker, and David Khim, the team conducts long-form interviews with practitioners in the content marketing field. The conversations range widely, from freelance writing to building content teams to conversion optimization and more.

At the heart of the interviews is the goal to learn about the underlying mental models, frameworks, and principles that drive the guest’s thinking. In this way, it goes slightly deeper than the tactics of today and tries to tease out “the long game” of the experts.

They also periodically do “kitchen side” episodes where the hosts debate among themselves different ideas in the content marketing world. A recent example is the question “what should a content marketer be goaled on.”

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Recommended Episodes

13. Marketing Mantra

Host: Sandeep Mallya

The final entry on our list is Marketing Mantra — a podcast I launched in mid-2018 with an aim to deconstruct marketing strategies and tactics that helped me grow my blog and marketing agency.

Like most podcasts on this list, I cover marketing topics in general, including content marketing. Since content marketing played a huge role in the growth of my blog as well as my digital marketing agency, many of the topics covered on this podcast revolve around content marketing hacks.

Occasionally, I invite experts and successful bloggers to share their lessons and strategies with my listeners, so they can put these insights into action. Matthew Woodward, Craig Campbell, Alexandra Tachalova, John Wall, Vlad Calus, and Daniel Daines-Hutt have all been guests on the show in the past.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Recommended Episodes

Final Thoughts on Content Marketing Podcasts

That wraps up my list of best content marketing podcasts. It’s time now for you to fire up your favorite podcast app, subscribe to these 13 podcasts, and listen to them whenever you find the time. It’ll be time well spent as these podcasts will help you craft a solid content marketing strategy that educates and inspires your audience.

Did I miss out on your favorite content marketing podcast? Please let me know in the comments section below. If you’d like more podcast recommendations, check out these lists as well:

If you found this article useful, please share it on Twitter using the link below:

13 Best Content Marketing Podcasts to Listen to Now Click to Tweet

Editor’s Note: This article was first published on March 16, 2021 and has been updated regularly since then for relevance and comprehensiveness.

Related Articles

The post 13 Best Content Marketing Podcasts to Listen to Now appeared first on 99signals.

33 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Marketers and Bloggers

Sandeep Mallya — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 21:50:21 +0000

If you’ve been wondering how to turn your marketing savvy or blogging passion into a neat income stream, you’re about to discover something pretty awesome.

Welcome to the world of affiliate marketing, where every click, every view, and every shared link can inch you closer to earning that sweet passive income.

But here’s the catch: With so many affiliate programs out there, figuring out where to start can feel like searching for a needle in a digital haystack.

But don’t worry, because we’ve done the heavy lifting for you.

We’ve sifted through the endless sea of options to bring you the crème de la crème — the 33 best affiliate marketing programs tailored for marketers and bloggers just like you.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro looking to expand your portfolio or a newbie blogger taking your first steps into monetizing your site, buckle up! You’re on your way to finding the perfect affiliate program that fits your niche.

Let’s dive in!

Top 3 Affiliate Marketing Networks

Before we cover individual brand affiliate programs, it’s important to understand the broader affiliate marketing ecosystem. While some of the programs featured in this article operate on their proprietary in-house platforms, the majority are accessible through the leading affiliate marketing networks highlighted below.

Setting up an account on these platforms is your first step towards unlocking these opportunities. Once registered, you can seamlessly apply to and join specific programs, setting the stage for you to promote their offerings and start generating revenue.

1. Impact Radius

Starting strong, Impact Radius takes the lead with its comprehensive suite of tools designed to automate and optimize affiliate programs. Known for its state-of-the-art technology, Impact provides a seamless interface for managing partnerships across affiliate, influencer, and strategic business relationships.

The platform is exceptional in tracking, reporting, and facilitating payments, making it a top choice for both brands and affiliates. With its ability to handle global payments and its detailed analytics dashboard, Impact helps you make data-driven decisions to level up your affiliate marketing strategies.

Some of the leading brands in Impact’s affiliate marketplace include Semrush, AppSumo, Liquid Web, and Hostinger.

Join Impact Radius

2. PartnerStack

PartnerStack is renowned for focusing on building partnerships that drive recurring revenue. It’s particularly favored by SaaS companies looking to expand their reach through referral, reseller, and affiliate channels.

PartnerStack is ideal for affiliates seeking to enhance their networks and increase earnings in a scalable way. The platform offers robust tracking and management features, focusing on transparency and efficiency, with tools specifically aimed at tracking your affiliate earnings to ensure a clear view of your performance and income.

PartnerStack hosts affiliate programs of some of the most popular SaaS products on the market, including Leadpages, Brevo, Moosend, and Castmagic.

Join PartnerStack

3. ShareASale

A veteran in the affiliate marketing world, ShareASale offers a vast marketplace filled with a diverse range of affiliate programs. Known for its user-friendly interface and extensive network of advertisers, ShareASale simplifies the process of finding and joining affiliate programs that align with your niche.

The platform provides reliable tracking technology, timely payments, and detailed reporting features, making it a solid choice for affiliates of all experience levels. Whether you’re new to affiliate marketing or a seasoned pro, ShareASale delivers the variety and support needed to drive successful campaigns.

Top brands in the ShareASale network include OptinMonster, WPForms, and Sitechecker.

Join ShareASale

These three are the most popular affiliate networks for marketers looking to partner with leading brands. Additionally, platforms such as Tapfiliate, LinkMink, among others, host affiliate programs from a diverse range of top-tier brands, offering more opportunities for collaborations.

In the next section, we’ll reveal the top 33 affiliate marketing programs, specifically curated for marketers, bloggers, and content creators.

33 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs

1. Semrush

Semrush is an all-in-one digital marketing platform for improving online visibility and performance. It offers an extensive range of SEO, PPC, content marketing, social media, and campaign management tools. With a longstanding presence in the SEO tools industry, it ranks among the top-reviewed SEO platforms available on the market.

The Semrush Affiliate Program unites a diverse community of digital marketing experts, bloggers, educators, influencers, and review sites worldwide. As a Semrush affiliate, you can arm your audience with the knowledge and tools to excel in SEO, content marketing, and online visibility, all while leveraging Semrush‘s comprehensive toolkit.

By joining Semrush‘s affiliate program, you can earn commissions of $200 for every new subscription sale, $10 for every new lead, and $0.01 for a new sign-up.

You have the chance to earn commissions across all its subscription tiers. This opens up avenues for you to guide customers towards any of Semrush‘s plans, including:

Semrush Pro – $129.95/mo
Semrush Guru – $249.95/mo
Semrush Business – $449.95/mo

In addition to the main plans, you can also earn commissions on add-on toolkits like Semrush .Trends, ContentShake AI, and all the other apps featured in the Semrush App Center.

You also get access to a wide range of promotional materials to amp up your affiliate marketing efforts.

Semrush Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: $200 for every new subscription sale, $10 for every new lead, and $0.01 for a new sign-up.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: Impact Radius
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer or PayPal
Cookie Duration: 120 days

Join the Semrush affiliate program

2. AppSumo

AppSumo is a platform that offers deals on digital tools and services, specifically aimed at entrepreneurs, freelancers, and startups, helping them access lifetime software deals, growth hacks, and resources to scale their businesses efficiently and cost-effectively.

AppSumo’s affiliate program is designed for content creators, publishers, and affiliates who want to earn commissions by promoting AppSumo’s deals. Affiliates get exclusive access to promotional materials and are rewarded with a percentage of sales made through their referral links.

AppSumo’s affiliate program is hosted on Impact Radius, where you can earn up to 100% of the sale amount (capped at $50) when you refer a first-time customer to AppSumo, along with a 5% commission for sales from returning customers.

Once you join the program, you can leverage AppSumo’s exclusive lifetime offers on cutting-edge and in-demand business and SaaS solutions to boost your earnings. By introducing these tools to your network, you’re not just earning extra income, but you’re also guiding them through the dynamic landscape of the SaaS world, highlighting the tools that are currently trending in the market.

AppSumo Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: Up to 100% of the sale amount when you refer a first-time user (capped at $50/order), and 5% commission for sales from returning customers.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: Impact Radius
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer or PayPal
Cookie Duration: 7 days

Join the AppSumo affiliate program

3. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is an email marketing platform that helps creators and small businesses connect with their audience through personalized emails and automation, making it easier to grow and engage their community.

ConvertKit’s affiliate program is tailored for content creators looking to earn income by promoting the platform. You receive a recurring commission for every creator you refer who signs up for a paid plan.

Hosted on LinkMink, ConvertKit offers a recurring 30% commission for 2 years for every person who signs up and becomes a paid ConvertKit customer through your affiliate link.

ConvertKit goes the extra mile for its affiliates by providing a wide range of helpful resources, including a training course with Pat Flynn (from Smart Passive Income), graphics and video assets to create your content, and evergreen webinars to use as a funnel.

ConvertKit Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: Recurring 30% commission for each payment ConvertKit receives from that customer in the first 24 months.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: LinkMink
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 90 days

Join the ConvertKit affiliate program

4. SE Ranking

SE Ranking is an SEO platform that provides tools for site audits, keyword research, and competitor analysis to boost online visibility and rankings.

SE Ranking’s affiliate program is designed for digital marketers, bloggers, and anyone interested in promoting a comprehensive suite of top SEO tools. As an affiliate, you have the opportunity to earn a generous commission for each new customer you refer.

By joining the affiliate program, you can earn a recurring 30% commission from every subscription sale. You receive commission payouts twice a month upon reaching a minimum threshold of $50.

You also get access to SE Ranking’s personal affiliate area where you can track your earnings, registrations, and unique visitors in real-time. Plus, you’ll be equipped with a variety of marketing materials, allowing you to promote SE Ranking on your website with maximum effectiveness.

SE Ranking Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 30% lifetime commission from every subscription sale.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: In-house
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 120 days

Join the SE Ranking Affiliate Program

5. Lasso

Lasso is an affiliate marketing tool designed to help website owners and content creators manage and optimize their affiliate links. It offers features such as link tracking, performance analytics, and the ability to create attractive link displays, aiming to increase conversion rates and revenue from your affiliate marketing efforts.

Lasso’s affiliate program is designed for content creators, bloggers, and digital marketers who are looking to enhance their income through affiliate marketing.

The program offers a 20% commission per sale for the first 12 months, with no cap on commissions. You’ll have the flexibility to promote any of Lasso’s offerings, including all products, packages across three pricing tiers, and the Performance affiliate marketing analytics tool.

Powered by the Tapfiliate network, Lasso hooks you up with all the promotional materials you need and a super detailed analytics dashboard to track your affiliate performance and commissions.

Lasso Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 20% commission per sale for the first 12 months.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: Tapfiliate
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Lasso affiliate program

6. Serpstat

Serpstat is a popular SEO tool that offers keyword research, competitor analysis, site audit, backlink analysis, and rank tracking features to help you optimize your website and improve its visibility in search engine results.

Serpstat’s affiliate program is a fantastic opportunity for digital marketers, SEO professionals, and bloggers to earn commissions by promoting a top-tier all-in-one SEO platform.

As a Serpstat affiliate, you can earn up to 30% recurring commission for every new customer you bring in, making it a lucrative way to monetize your audience or network.

The program is well-supported with detailed tracking tools, promotional materials, and personalized affiliate support to ensure your success.

Serpstat Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: Up to 30% commission from the first and subsequent payments.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: In-house
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 15 days

Join the Serpstat affiliate program

7. Brevo

Brevo is a digital marketing platform that combines email marketing services with SMS messages and automation tools to help businesses manage their email campaigns, engage with their audience, and grow their customer base effectively.

Brevo’s affiliate program is hosted on PartnerStack. By joining the program, you can earn €5 every time a referred user creates a free account on Brevo. If that user buys a recurring subscription, you’ll receive an additional €100.

You also benefit from dedicated support, ensuring you have all the resources and guidance needed to succeed in your promotional efforts and maximize your earnings.

Brevo Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: €5 for each registration and an additional €100 if the user signs up for a paid plan.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: PartnerStack
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal, or Stripe
Cookie Duration: 90 days

Join the Brevo affiliate program

8. Publer

Publer is a social media scheduling tool designed to help you streamline your social media presence. It lets you schedule posts, analyze performance, and manage multiple accounts across different platforms from a single dashboard.

Signing up for Publer’s affiliate program is straightforward, free, and open to everyone — whether you’re new to affiliate marketing or have a wealth of experience in the field.

Publer follows a unique commission structure — you get 50% commission on first payments and 20% commission on recurring payments. You also get a $0.25 sign up bonus for each use who joins Publer’s free plan.

Plus, Publer affiliates get an extensive collection of valuable marketing assets, tips, and quick links for sharing and earning purposes.

Publer Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 50% commission on first payments and 20% on recurring payments; $0.25 sign up bonus for free plan users.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: In-house
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Publer affiliate program

9. Hostinger

Hostinger is a web hosting platform that gives you affordable and easy-to-use tools to get your website online, supporting everything from personal blogs to more complex sites with WordPress and other features.

Hostinger’s affiliate program is tailored for bloggers, web developers, and digital marketers looking to monetize their platforms by promoting a reliable and affordable web hosting service.

Hosted on the Impact Radius platform, Hostinger offers its affiliates an impressive 60% commission on every sale. You’ll gain access to an extensive selection of marketing assets and resources to effectively showcase Hostinger’s wide range of hosting solutions and unique promotional offers.

Hostinger Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 60% commission from every sale.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: Impact Radius
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Hostinger affiliate program

10. Leadpages

Leadpages is a landing page builder that helps you create engaging, high-converting landing pages for your marketing campaigns and websites, without needing any coding skills.

Leadpages’ affiliate program is designed for digital marketers, content creators, and anyone with a platform that caters to entrepreneurs or small businesses looking to enhance their online presence.

Joining the program is free, and you can earn up to 50% recurring commissions on all sales you generate (including plan renewals, upgrades, and one-time purchases) for as long as your referrals continue using Leadpages. Since the program is hosted on PartnerStack, it includes a user-friendly dashboard that allows you to easily monitor your progress and view your earnings in real-time.

Leadpages supports its affiliates with a range of promotional materials, including banners, graphics, and copy examples, making it easier to share the benefits of Leadpages with your audience.

Leadpages Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 50% recurring commissions on all sales you generate (including plan renewals, upgrades, and one-time purchases).
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: PartnerStack
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal, or Stripe
Cookie Duration: 90 days

Join the Leadpages affiliate program

11. Moosend

Moosend is an email marketing platform that lets you design and send personalized email campaigns, automate workflows, and track your results, all aimed at growing your audience and boosting engagement.

By joining Moosend’s affiliate program through PartnerStack, you can earn up to 40% commissions per referral. Once you’ve joined the program, you can access Moosend’s affiliate resource center and use any of the promotional resources (banners, email swipes, social media posts, and images) to successfully promote Moosend on your website.

Moosend categorizes its affiliates across five distinct tiers, each offering progressively higher commission rates as you advance. To move into higher affiliate tiers, affiliates are required to meet specific referral thresholds. With each tier you progress to, you unlock more lucrative commission rates.

Moosend Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: Up to 40% commissions per referral.
Attribution Model: First-click
Affiliate Network: PartnerStack
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal, or Stripe
Cookie Duration: 90 days

Join the Moosend affiliate program

12. BlueHost

BlueHost is a leading web hosting provider known for its comprehensive range of services, including shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, and domain registration, catering to both beginners and experienced users.

BlueHost’s affiliate program presents a rewarding chance for content creators and tech enthusiasts to monetize their influence by recommending BlueHost’s hosting solutions.

With BlueHost, you can earn a 70% commission for each qualified sale, capped at $100 per sale. Free to join, the program offers a wide selection of marketing assets to streamline promotion, alongside an intuitive dashboard for monitoring performance, tracking earnings, and optimizing strategies for better results.

BlueHost Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 70% commission for each qualified sale, capped at $100 per sale.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: Impact
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal
Cookie Duration: 90 days

Join the BlueHost affiliate program

13. SocialBee

SocialBee is a leading social media management tool that streamlines content creation, scheduling, and analytics across multiple platforms, empowering businesses of all sizes to enhance their online presence and engage effectively with their audience.

Hosted on the PartnerStack network, SocialBee’s affiliate program offers a streamlined and transparent dashboard for affiliates to track their referrals, earnings, and access promotional materials easily.

By joining the program, you can earn a 20% recurring commission for every sale you generate. If your referrals also use SocialBee’s ConciergeBee services, you get an additional 10% commission.

SocialBee Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 20% recurring commission on each sale; 10% additional commission if the user signs up for SocialBee’s ConciergeBee services.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: PartnerStack
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal, or Stripe
Cookie Duration: 90 days

Join the SocialBee affiliate program

14. Link Whisper

Link Whisper is a WordPress plugin designed to streamline the process of internal linking. Powered by AI, the tool helps you improve your website’s SEO by suggesting relevant internal links for your articles right within the WordPress editor.

With Link Whisper, you can earn a 30% commission on the initial payment, plus a recurring 30% commission for every annual subscription renewal.

Link Whisper offers a broad selection of promotional assets to bolster your affiliate marketing efforts, alongside detailed reporting features to track your affiliate progress.

Link Whisper Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 30% commission on the initial payment, plus a recurring 30% commission for every annual subscription renewal.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: In-house
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Link Whisper affiliate program

15. Instapage

Instapage is a robust landing page platform that enables marketers to create, optimize, and personalize post-click experiences at scale. Recognized as one of the most popular landing page builders available today, Instapage is widely praised for its powerful features and intuitive interface, catering to businesses looking to maximize their online marketing efforts.

Instapage’s affiliate program offers a lucrative opportunity for those looking to promote a leading landing page builder while earning commissions.

Joining the Instapage affiliate program unlocks the potential to earn:

40% commission on the first year of a customer’s annual subscription
15% commission of a customer’s annual subscription after the first year
30% commission on the first year of a customer’s monthly subscription

Run on PartnerStack, this program is designed to be as user-friendly as the platform itself, providing you with easy access to tracking tools, promotional materials, and detailed performance analytics.

Instapage Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 40% commission on the first year of yearly plans, a 15% recurring commission for annual subscriptions, and a 15% commission on monthly plans.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: PartnerStack
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal, or Stripe
Cookie Duration: 120 days

Join the Instapage affiliate program

16. ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is an all-in-one sales funnel builder that simplifies the process of creating and optimizing marketing and sales funnels, helping you increase conversions and drive sales effectively.

The ClickFunnels affiliate program is a standout opportunity for marketers and content creators looking to monetize their website by promoting one of the leading sales funnel builders in the market.

With ClickFunnels, you can earn a 30% recurring commission on every active account across all pricing tiers that signs up through your referral link.

Once you join the program, you get access to ClickFunnels’ entire library of funnel and design templates to speed up your workflow and improve your conversions.

ClickFunnels Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 30% recurring commission across all pricing tiers.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: In-house
Payment Method: Stripe or PayPal
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the ClickFunnels affiliate program

17. Liquid Web

Liquid Web is a web hosting company known for its wide range of web hosting services, dedicated to providing reliable and high-performance hosting solutions for businesses and professionals.

Run on Impact Radius, Liquid Web has one of the highest paying affiliate programs — you get a 150% commission on sales, with a $150 minimum payout.

With no cap on commissions, you have the potential to earn significant income based on the volume and quality of your referrals.

Liquid Web Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 150% commission on sales with a $150 minimum payout.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: Impact Radius
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal, or Stripe
Cookie Duration: 90 days

Join the Liquid Web affiliate program

18. AccuRanker

AccuRanker is a cloud-based rank tracking software designed for SEO professionals and agencies to monitor keyword rankings in real-time across various search engines and countries.

AccuRanker’s affiliate program offers a unique opportunity for marketers, SEO professionals, and bloggers to monetize their networks and expertise by promoting AccuRanker’s keyword rank tracking services.

By joining the AccuRanker affiliate program, you can earn a 20% recurring commission on each sale you generate.

AccuRanker Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 40% commission on the first year of yearly plans, a 15% recurring commission for annual subscriptions, and a 15% commission on monthly plans.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: In-house
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 120 days

Join the AccuRanker affiliate program

19. Shopify

Shopify is a comprehensive eCommerce platform that provides individuals and businesses with all the tools and features needed to create and manage an online store. It simplifies the process of setting up an online store by offering customizable website templates, a secure shopping cart, product inventory management, and payment processing capabilities.

Shopify’s affiliate program offers a platform for bloggers, entrepreneurs, influencers, and content creators to partner with the leading eCommerce platform in the world. The program is free to join and notable for its focus on supporting the growth of eCommerce by empowering those who teach, guide, and inspire online entrepreneurs.

By joining the Shopify affiliate program, you gain access to a global creative library, lead magnets, and detailed performance insights through your personal dashboard.

You have the opportunity to earn commissions across all of Shopify’s Standard plans, with potential earnings up to $150 per referral.

Shopify Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: Up to $150 commission on all Standard plans.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: In-house
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer or PayPal
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Shopify affiliate program

20. Sitechecker

Sitechecker is a complete SEO platform that offers tools and insights to optimize your websites for search engines. It includes features such as website audit, rank tracking, backlink analysis, and on-page SEO recommendations to improve the search visibility of your website.

Sitechecker’s affiliate program is a good fit for bloggers, marketers, agencies, and influencers to monetize their traffic and expertise by promoting one of the leading SEO tools in the industry.

By joining the program, you can earn a 30% commission on each new subscription sale and $10 commission on every coupon used.

Sitechecker’s dedicated support team offers personalized assistance, providing you with tailored promotional materials and strategic guidance to help you effectively promote Sitechecker’s features to your audience.

Sitechecker Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 30% commission on each new subscription sale and $10 commission on every coupon used.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: ShareASale
Payment Method: PayPal, Bank/Wire Transfer, or Payoneer
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Sitechecker affiliate program

21. Unbounce

Unbounce is a landing page platform designed for marketers and businesses to create, publish, and test custom landing pages without the need for deep technical knowledge or coding. It features a drag-and-drop builder, a variety of templates, and A/B testing capabilities to optimize conversion rates and improve the performance of marketing campaigns.

Unbounce’s affiliate program is a great fit for influential marketers who are eager to leverage their expertise and reach to promote a leading landing page platform, earning generous commissions for each new customer they bring on board.

The program offers 25-35% recurring commissions for 12 months when a new customer uses your referral link to sign up and purchase their first Unbounce subscription.

An an Unbounce affiliate, you’ll also get access to exclusive partner templates, promotional assets, and great insights on conversion rate optimization to scale up your affiliate marketing efforts.

Unbounce Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 25-35% commission of every sale for 12 months.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: PartnerStack
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Unbounce affiliate program

22. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a premium caching plugin for WordPress that aims to improve website speed and performance. It offers a range of optimization features such as page caching, cache preloading, static files compression, and images on demand loading, along with several other tools designed to reduce loading times and enhance user experience on WordPress websites.

With the WP Rocket affiliate program, you can earn a 20% commission for every sale you refer by recommending the most popular WordPress caching plugin.

WP Rocket’s affiliate program is free and open to everyone, whether or not you use WP Rocket. Once you join the program, you get exclusive access to WP Rocket logos, special offers, screenshots, text links, and other promotional materials to help you generate more income.

WP Rocket Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 20% commission on each sale.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: ShareASale
Payment Method: Wire transfer, PayPal, or Payoneer
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the WP Rocket affiliate program

23. Landingi

Landingi is an easy-to-use landing page builder designed to streamline the creation and optimization of high-converting landing pages.

By joining Landingi’s affiliate program, you can get up to 20% commission from each sale in the first 12 months of the customer lifecycle. Powered by PartnerStack, the program offers ready-made promo materials and a dedicated Affiliate Program Coordinator to help you maximize your affiliate earnings.

Landingi Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 20% commission from every paid customer account in the first 12 months of the customer lifecycle.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: PartnerStack
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal, or Stripe
Cookie Duration: 90 days

Join the Landingi affiliate program

24. Fiverr

Fiverr is an online marketplace that connects freelancers with clients looking for services in various categories such as graphic design, digital marketing, writing, video editing, programming, and many more.

The Fiverr affiliate program offers the flexibility to promote an extensive range of Fiverr products, including marketplace gigs, Fiverr Pro services, and Fiverr’s Logo Maker.

Joining the Fiverr affiliate program opens up unlimited opportunities. You’ll start earning instantly with commissions ranging from 25% to 100% on the customer’s first marketplace order. Plus, you get a 10% revenue share for any purchases they make in the first year.

By promoting Fiverr Pro services (Fiverr’s top freelance talent), you have the chance to earn an impressive 70% commission on the customer’s initial order. Additionally, you can secure a flat $30 commission whenever a customer subscribes to any of Fiverr’s Logo Maker plans.

As a Fiverr affiliate, you’ll get an extensive library of creative assets and interactive web-widgets to level up your affiliate content plan and drive more conversions.

Fiverr Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: Depends on the purchased product type. Fiverr offers 25% to 100% commissions on marketplace gigs, 70% commissions on Fiverr Pro orders, and a $30 commission if the customer signs up for any of Fiverr’s Logo Maker plans.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: PartnerStack
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal, or Stripe
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Fiverr affiliate program

25. Elementor

Elementor is a powerful, user-friendly WordPress page builder plugin that allows users to create custom websites with a visual drag-and-drop interface, without needing to write code. It offers a wide range of templates and widgets to design unique website pages, including landing pages, homepages, and portfolios.

With the Elementor affiliate program, you can get up to 50% commission on every new sale you generate through your referral links. Elementor also offers custom rates for high volume affiliates.

Elementor Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: Get up to 50% commission on every new sale.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: Cellxpert
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 90 days

Join the Elementor affiliate program

26. Thirsty Affiliates

Thirsty Affiliates is an affiliate link management plugin for WordPress that lets you easily manage, shrink, cloak, and track your affiliate links. With over 400,000 downloads, it ranks among the most widely-used affiliate marketing plugins globally.

By joining the Thirsty Affiliates affiliate program, you can earn 30% commissions on the first sale of each referred customer. The platform provides access to conversion-optimized creative banners, emails, and text links to guide your affiliate marketing efforts.

Elementor Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 30% commissions on the first sale of each referred customer.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: In-house
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 60 days

Join the Thirsty Affiliates affiliate program

27. Systeme.io

Systeme.io is an all-in-one online business platform that empowers entrepreneurs to create, automate, and scale their digital ventures. It offers tools for sales funnels, email marketing, membership sites, and more, all within a single, user-friendly interface.

Joining the Systeme.io affiliate program is straightforward. Once you sign up for Systeme.io (even with a free account), you automatically become an affiliate. You can earn 60% lifetime commissions every time your affiliate link is used to purchase a Systeme.io subscription or course.

Systeme.io provides its affiliates with a range of marketing materials and resources. These can include banners, email templates, and landing pages designed to help you promote their services effectively.

Systeme.io Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 60% lifetime commissions for each sale.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: In-house
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Systeme.io affiliate program

28. HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing, sales, and service platform designed to help businesses attract, engage, and delight customers throughout their journey. It offers a suite of tools including a CRM, email marketing, content management, and analytics, all integrated to streamline operations and optimize customer experiences.

HubSpot’s affiliate program is a good fit for marketers and content creators who want to monetize their content and inform their audience about HubSpot’s diverse range of products.

By joining this program, you can earn a 30% recurring commission for up to one year. You can also move up the affiliate tier and unlock higher commissions by referring more customers to HubSpot.

As a HubSpot affiliate, you’ll have access to 400+ promotional assets, training guides, and helpful tips and tricks. You can also optimize your promotions by adding unique tracking parameters and monitor your performance with highly customizable reports.

HubSpot Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 30% recurring commission for up to one year.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: Impact Radius
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal
Cookie Duration: 180 days

Join the HubSpot affiliate program

29. InVideo

InVideo is an AI-powered online video editing platform designed to help you create professional-quality videos from a vast collection of templates, images, and music. With its user-friendly interface, InVideo lets you customize your videos to match your brand or message without needing advanced editing skills.

InVideo’s affiliate program offers a unique opportunity for content creators, digital marketers, and anyone passionate about video creation to earn by promoting one of the most user-friendly and innovative online video editing platforms.

As an affiliate, you can make 50% commissions on every monthly plan and 25% commissions on every annual plan that gets purchased via your referral link.

With dedicated support and promotional materials provided by InVideo, affiliates are well-equipped to succeed and grow alongside a brand that’s reshaping how we create video content online.

InVideo Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 50% commissions on every monthly plan and 25% commissions on every annual plan.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: Impact Radius
Payment Method: Electronic funds transfer, PayPal
Cookie Duration: 120 days

Join the InVideo affiliate program

30. Mangools

Mangools is a user-friendly SEO tool suite designed to enhance keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink tracking, SERP analysis, and website rank monitoring.

Mangools’ affiliate program is perfect for marketers and bloggers who want to recommend a set of reliable and user-friendly SEO solutions that can genuinely help users improve their online visibility and search rankings.

By joining this program, you can get 30% lifetime commissions for every referred user who registers and subscribes through your affiliate link. Mangools supports your promotional efforts by providing both static and dynamic affiliate banners.

Mangools Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 30% lifetime commissions for every referred user.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: In-house
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Mangools affiliate program

31. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a powerful lead generation software that enables users to create engaging opt-in forms and targeted campaigns to convert website visitors into subscribers and customers. It’s the world’s #1 lead generation software, used by over 1.2 million websites to grow their lists, leads, and revenue.

The OptinMonster affiliate program offers a 20% commission anytime someone purchases a subscription using your unique referral link.

Powered by ShareASale, OptinMonster offers a wide range of banners and coupon codes to support and amplify your affiliate marketing campaigns.

OptinMonster Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 20% commission on each sale.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: ShareASale
Payment Method: Wire transfer, PayPal, or Payoneer
Cookie Duration: 90 days

Join the OptinMonster affiliate program

32. Wordable

Wordable is a tool that streamlines the process of exporting Google Docs documents to WordPress, making it easier and faster for content creators to publish their work online. It dramatically reduces the time and effort required to format and upload articles, allowing WordPress users to focus more on quality content creation and less on the technical aspects of content management.

Hosted on Tapfiliate, Wordable’s affiliate program is best suited for bloggers, digital marketers, and content creators looking to monetize their content. It offers a recurring 30% commission for every Wordable sign-up.

By joining this program, you’ll get access to promotional graphics, video assets, content assets, and personalized recommendations for naturally promoting Wordable within your network.

Wordable Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 30% recurring commission for every signup.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: Tapfiliate
Payment Method: PayPal
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the Wordable affiliate program

33. WPForms

WPForms is a user-friendly WordPress plugin that allows you to create custom forms for your websites, including contact forms, surveys, payment forms, and more, without needing to write any code.

WPForms’ affiliate program offers a 20% commission on every sale you generate using your referral link. It provides a range of promotional assets and support to help you successfully promote the product to your audience.

WPForms Affiliate Program Details:

Commission Structure: 20% commission on every sale you generate.
Attribution Model: Last-click
Affiliate Network: ShareASale
Payment Method: Wire transfer, PayPal, or Payoneer
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Join the WPForms affiliate program

Final Thoughts on Affiliate Marketing Tools

So, these are my top picks for affiliate marketing programs for marketers, bloggers, and content creators. Each of these tools has played a pivotal role in my own success with affiliate marketing, and I highly recommend them as powerful starting points for anyone preparing to dive into their own affiliate marketing journey.

In conclusion, choosing the right affiliate marketing tools can be a game-changer in your journey towards building a successful online presence. With the right programs, you can diversify your content plan and unlock new revenue streams.

The key to affiliate marketing success lies in partnering with programs that not only align with your audience’s interests but also integrate seamlessly with your content strategy. This strategic alignment is essential for turning your affiliate marketing efforts into a win-win for you and your audience.

Related Articles

The post 33 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Marketers and Bloggers appeared first on 99signals.

How to Improve Your Content Using AI with SEO Writing Assistant

Sandeep Mallya — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 06:10:51 +0000

It would be an understatement to claim that AI tools are on the rise. Businesses are finally realizing the potential of AI-powered content creation tools in 2023.

Case in point: 83% of companies claim that AI is a top priority in their business plans.

A tool that has recently adopted AI into its vast array of features is Semrush.

Semrush’s SEO Writing Tool, SEO Writing Assistant (SWA), has been bolstered with new AI features that can help take your content to the next level.

While I’ve covered SEO Writing Assistant briefly in the past, it’s now time to write a complete guide to using SEO Writing Assistant to improve and optimize your content.

In this article, you’ll learn how to use AI to improve your content with SEO Writing Assistant.

What is SEO Writing Assistant?

If you’ve never used SEO Writing Assistant before, here’s a quick overview: Semrush‘s SEO Writing Assistant (SWA) gives bloggers the ability to check the SEO potential or originality of a piece of content in real-time.

Additionally, you can use SEO Writing Assistant to improve your content’s readability, select the right keywords, satisfy search intent, and repurpose your existing content on new platforms to reach a wider audience.

With SEO Writing Assistant, you can:

Maintain your brand’s tone of voice in each content piece you publish
Make sure your copy is optimized
Improve your article before publication
Optimize your existing blog posts
Improve the readability of your article
Quickly evaluate your article’s SEO quality

Ultimately, SEO Writing Assistant ensures that your piece of content has all the right ingredients to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs).

In the next section, we’ll explore all the exciting features that SWA has to offer for content creators.

Side note: To get the most out of this article, it’s important that you have an active Semrush subscription. If you don’t, I’d urge you to sign up for this free 1-month trial of Semrush Guru. This will give you access to all 50+ tools in the Semrush suite, including SEO Writing Assistant. The Guru plan also has the adequate amount of usage limits for bloggers, which we’ll explore later in this article.

How to Use SEO Writing Assistant (SWA)

While you can access SEO Writing Assistant from your Semrush dashboard, it’s more convenient if you integrate it with platforms where you create content.

For most bloggers, it’s either Google Docs or WordPress.

If you’re using Google Docs to write your content, you can install the SEO Writing Assistant Google Docs add-on. You can find SWA in Google Workspace Marketplace here.

Once the add-on is installed, you can locate it in the “Extensions” tab of your Google doc.

Hit “Show” to activate SWA as a sidebar to the right of your document.

On WordPress, you can find SEO Writing Assistant in the Plugins section. Once you install and activate the plugin, visit the page or post that you’d like to optimize and click on ‘Connect SEO Content Template’ by logging in to your Semrush account.

You can now start using SWA for any of your existing content pieces or use its assistance for any content you create from scratch.

Getting Content Recommendations

To generate new recommendations for your content, you need to enter your target keywords, location, and device — and hit the “Get recommendations” button.

Side note: You can also extract target keywords for your existing post by clicking on the “Extract from text” link above the keyword box.

Based on your target keywords, Semrush will generate an SEO Content Template for the article that will feature recommendations to optimize your copy.

Once Semrush fetches your recommendations, you’ll notice the overall score of your article on top. The closer the number is to 10, the more original and optimized your article is.

The overall score is a real-time metric which grades the quality of your content based on four different scales: Readability, SEO, Originality, and Tone of Voice.

This is an excellent place to start identifying weak points in your article. The next step is to click on any of the four different scales to see specific metrics that are influencing the score.

At any point, you can adjust your recommendations by changing your target keywords, location, or device by clicking on the pencil icon next to your keywords.

Improving Your Readability Score

Readability is the ease with which your reader can understand your content. Needless to say, you should work towards improving your readability score to ensure your readers don’t just skim through your content, but read the entire piece and absorb all the key points in your article.

You can click on the Readability scale in your SEO Content Template to see all the different metrics that are affecting your readability score.

These metrics include:

Readability
Words
Title Issues
Content Issues

Here’s a glimpse of the readability metrics for one of my recent posts:

Here’s a quick overview of what each metric in the Readability scale stands for:

Readability – The readability score is based on the Flesch reading ease score formula and an average of your top 10 organic competitors on Google for the target keywords. Keep your target audience in mind when you’re improving your readability score.
Words – This will show you the total word count of your article. The target (goal) you see here is the average word count of your competitors’ content ranking in the top 10 search results.
Title Issues – This metric will highlight whether your title character length and word count is within Google limits.
Content Issues – This will provide you feedback on any issues with the content of your article. It will highlight long paragraphs, hard-to-read sentences, and complex words. If these issues are highlighted in your content, you can use SWA to rewrite sentences to improve your overall score. (More on this later)

Improving Your SEO Score

Similar to readability, clicking on SEO in the SEO Content Template will expand to show the SEO metrics that have an impact on your SEO score.

The metrics that cover the SEO scale include:

Target keywords
Recommended keywords
Link issues
Alt attribute issues
Title issues

Here are the SEO metrics for the same article:

Here’s a breakdown of the five SEO metrics in the SEO scale:

Target keywords – The target keywords you select are the core of your text and all recommendations. You can change your target keywords at any time by clicking on the pencil icon next to the target keywords.
Recommended keywords – In the recommended keywords section, you’ll find keyword phrases that are semantically related to your target keywords. You can sprinkle some of these keywords in your content to get better SEO results. You can hover over any of the keywords to see their search volume and keyword difficulty score. Once you use these keywords in your content, they will be highlighted in green.

In addition to keyword recommendations, SWA also checks your text for keyword stuffing. If you use a specific keyword too frequently in your text, SWA will show a warning. The keyword that’s been used too frequently will be highlighted in orange in the “Recommended keywords” section.

Link issues – This section will highlight if there are broken links in your content. This feature is especially useful if you’re trying to optimize existing content.
Alt attribute issues – This metric will serve as a reminder to add alt attributes to your images. Alt text is still an important element in image SEO, so make sure you don’t skip this part.
Title issues – This will show you if you’re using your target keywords in the title.

Improving Your Tone of Voice

The next feature in SWA is to measure an article’s tone of voice. The tone of voice depends on the specific words used, the rhythm, the word order, and pace.

Your tone of voice can be considered very casual, somewhat casual, neutral, somewhat formal, and very formal.

SWA will show you where your text lies on this scale.

The consistency score evaluates how successful you were in maintaining the desired tone of voice throughout your text. If this score is too low, the mixed messages may cause confusion among your readers.

Furthermore, you can also see your article’s most formal and most casual sentences.

You can adjust the tone of voice by clicking the pencil icon in the top right corner.

Your preferred tone of voice will depend on the type of content you’re creating and the audience you’re targeting. For instance, if you’re writing for a medical journal, then you’d probably want your content to reflect a formal tone of voice. On the other hand, if you’re writing for an entertainment blog, you’d want your tone of voice to be a bit more casual.

Checking Your Content for Plagiarism

The Originality metric in SEO Writing Assistant will look for signs of plagiarism in your content. It shows the total percentage and the number of copied words in your article based on other content found on the internet.

This feature is especially useful if you work at an agency with a large team of writers or have a bunch of freelance writers working for your blog.

To use this feature, head to the “Originality” section in your SEO Content Template and click on the “Check for originality” button.

Within a few seconds, SWA will show you the originality percentage of your article, alongside text fragments that appear to be plagiarized.

Here’s the best part: SWA will also reflect the original sources of content from across the web for the plagiarized text.

Using AI to Write an SEO-Friendly Blog Post

If you have a high percentage of unoriginal text in your article or you’d simply like to improve the readability and SEO score of your article, you can use the “Rephraser” feature to optimize your copy. It can also be used to repurpose your original post and adapt it to different channels.

To do this, just select a portion of the text that you’d like to rewrite. According to Semrush, the Rephraser feature works best for short texts of 20-130 characters in length.

Click on the “Rephraser” option below the overall score in SEO Writing Assistant.

In the “Rephraser” window box, paste the portion of text that you selected earlier. From here, you can use AI to rephrase, simplify, expand, or summarize the piece of text.

The AI algorithm will paraphrase your text to enhance readability. But don’t completely rely on AI to create content for you. You still need to do the heavy lifting and keep your use of AI to the bare minimum.

Remember: It’s important that you add your own tone of voice and originality to the rewritten piece of text to ensure you provide real value to your readers. If your readers wanted answers from AI for their questions, they would have used ChatGPT.

So keep your relationship with the readers in mind while creating content and don’t insult their intelligence by depending on AI for your content needs.

I’m not a huge proponent of using AI to create content. While it’s safe to use AI for occasional paraphrasing and copywriting prompts for your content, you should never try to create content from scratch with an AI tool.

Note: While optimizing your existing content, it’s important that you exclude your own domain to prevent it from showing up in the originality checker.

SEO Writing Assistant Limits and Semrush Pricing Plans

SEO Writing Assistant is included in two of Semrush‘s pricing plans – Guru and Business. However, there are certain limits to the usage of SEO Writing Assistant. The keywords that you use to generate SEO Content Templates will be taken from the SEO Ideas units.

The SEO Ideas units are shared between three tools:

To get a deeper understanding, let’s examine the different pricing plans that Semrush currently offers and see how SEO Writing Assistant and SEO Ideas fit into the scheme of things.

Here are the three pricing plans that Semrush offers:

Semrush Pro – $129.95/mo
Semrush Guru – $249.95/mo
Semrush Business – $499.95/mo

Semrush’s basic plan — the Pro plan — doesn’t include SEO Writing Assistant in its features. To access SWA, you’ll need to upgrade to Guru or Business plan. Guru users have 800 SEO Ideas units/month, while Business users have 2,000 SEO Ideas units/month.

Each time you use Semrush to generate a template for one target keyword (in any of the above tools), one SEO Ideas unit is consumed. Similarly, if you generate a template for 2 keywords, two SEO Ideas united are charged.

The limits for the Plagiarism Checker feature are different from the limits on SEO Ideas units. Guru users have 5 check per month, while Business users have 10 checks per month.

Similarly, the limits for the Rephraser feature are different. The limits are as follows:

Semrush Pro – 100 words per month
Semrush Guru – 1000 words per month
Semrush Business – 2000 words per month

So keep these limits in mind while using SEO Writing Assistant.

For most bloggers and small business owners, the Guru plan should provide the adequate amount of usage limits to utilize SEO Writing Assistant to its full potential.

You can sign up for a 14-day free Semrush Guru trial here and try all the 50+ tools that Semrush has to offer.

To learn more about Semrush‘s pricing plans and to get answers to any questions you may have, visit the Semrush pricing page.

Final Thoughts on SEO Writing Assistant

I’ve attempted to demonstrate how you can use Semrush‘s SEO Writing Assistant to optimize your existing posts and guarantee that your new content doesn’t just meet all the necessary SEO requirements, but also resonates with your audience.

The new AI features added to SWA have made it a more compelling offering for content creators and SEOs. So give it a try by signing up for this 14-day free trial of Semrush Guru.

Trust me — you won’t be disappointed.

If you found this article useful, please share it on Twitter using the link below:

How to Improve Your Content Using AI with SEO Writing Assistant Click to Tweet

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on January 24, 2023 and has been updated frequently since then for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Related Articles

The post How to Improve Your Content Using AI with SEO Writing Assistant appeared first on 99signals.

Guest Posting: How to Scale to 50+ Guest Posts a Month

Nico Prins — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 11:33:39 +0000

We all want to arrive on the first page of the SERPs for terms that are important to our businesses. If we do that, we earn money. It’s that simple. Google is a multi-billion dollar company precisely because they offer companies the shortcut of paying for ad space to arrive on the front page.

Getting on the front page of Google is no easy task. There are just ten spots available. There are a lot of factors that go into making a piece of content rank. One of the most important is the number of backlinks.

In this guide, I’ll share the system I use to land my clients up to 50 guest posts a month. I’ve applied this exact strategy, which took me over 12 months to perfect, across various niches.

Why Backlinks Will Always Be Important

After a couple of years in SEO, my thoughts on SEO can be distilled down to a few sentences. Google is essentially the world’s best betting algorithm. Every day millions of websites are placing bets to get their content to rank. The things they do to get their content to rank varies.

Google can’t fit all of the pages competing for a term on the first page. It would get messy.

One of the most important things Google looks at to decide if content should appear on that first page is the number of referring domains. The more quality links a piece of content gets, the higher you get in the search results.

Ahrefs, an SEO tool, built this equation into their UI.

Once you’ve arrived on the front page of Google, the algorithm starts to focus on the User Experience (UX). That is, what do people do when they arrive on your page. Google can’t make this computation before you arrive on the front page because nobody sees your content. That’s why people in SEO joke that “the best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of the search results.”

Regardless of what the folk at Google say, backlinks will always play a part in getting your content to the front page. I don’t see an alternative.

Want proof? Here’s a snapshot of the SERP rankings from Ahrefs for the term “business development.” It’s a competitive term with 19,000 searches in the US every month.

You can see my site, Launch Space, is ranking in eighth place for this term. The article has links from 168 referring domains. The majority of these links were generated through guest posts.

I wouldn’t be on that first page without those links.

Now there’s a lot more to ranking in the first place than backlinks. But to get on the first page, that wouldn’t have happened without those referring domains.

If you wanted, I could give you endless examples of the link between the number of quality backlinks and where a content ranks in the SERPs. Really, we could be here all day. But to save my time and yours, let’s agree that backlinks are important.

With that in mind, let me share the meat of this article with you, which will help you on your quest to make money blogging. You’re going to get that juicy goodness that is one year of lessons learned the hard way, expensive mistakes, thousands of dollars in misadventures, and a few gold nuggets. Let’s dive right in.

What Type of Links Should You Target

Let’s start with the basics.

Getting your content to rank on Google requires links. However, not all links are created equal. You need to get high quality links. Here are the four most important factors you should review when assessing backlink quality:

Relevance: is the website in a niche that is relevant to yours. A quick check of the website will help you establish this
Authority: What is the sites Domain Rating (DR) or Domain Authority (DA). I never pitch to a site with a rating lower than DR 50
Traffic: How many visitors does the website get a month. The more visitors, the more valuable the link
Trust Flow: This is an SEO term for ranking the trustworthiness of the links. The lower the Trust Flow, the more paid or spammy links they have. I aim for a 20+ Trust Flow.

These are the four more important factors to review when assessing backlink quality. There are two secondary factors you might want to consider. They are:

Follow vs. Nofollow: Most SEO folk only want to collect follow links. In general, I don’t care so much, but I have a preference for a follow link over a nofollow link
How Many Outgoing Links: The more outgoing links, the less value the link will have.

That in a nutshell is how I assess backlink quality.

Always try to get the most powerful links from authority sites in your niche. The more powerful the link, the faster your content will rank. Case in point, here’s a site that leveraged a crazy amount of links from a DR 91 site to some core articles.

Now we’ve covered how to assess backlink quality. The next thing you should consider is how many links from unique domains you’ll need to get your piece of content ranking. If you know this figure, you can set a benchmark for your guest post campaign.

How Many Links Will You Need to Get Your Content Ranking

Setting benchmarks is essential. There’s nothing worse than running a race when you don’t have an idea of the finishing line.

As I showed you earlier, tools like Ahrefs can help you set benchmarks on how many links from different domains you need to get a piece of content ranking. However, to figure out what it takes to rank in a specific position will require a bit more research.

I always analyze the backlink profile of the ranking content on Google and use this formula:

Referring domains (DR 50+) 1/4 of referring domains (DR <50) = Number of guest posts to rank

Remember that this is not an exact science. Moreover, the number of high-authority referring domains is not the only factor influencing your Google search ranking.

Next up, you need to build a list of target sites.

How to Find Thousands of Guest Post Opportunities

There are a bunch of ways to find guest post opportunities. The way I do it is straightforward.

First, pick an authority website in your niche. I’ll choose Hotjar.

Enter the URL of the site in Ahrefs, and then select referring domains from the menu. Finally, export the list of referring domains to a Google sheet. Then, delete all of the sites with a DR of less than 50.

You can then either manually review these sites or use a tool like Majestic to separate the sites by niche, and subsequently remove sites with a low Trust Flow. Automation is faster, but you’ll end up at the same point if you manually review the domains.

Complete those steps I mentioned above, and you’ll end up with a list of hundreds of relevant domains that you can email for a guest post — next step.

Do Email Outreach to Content Editors

With your shortlist prepared, it’s time to start reaching out to editors. I use a combination of LinkedIn and email outreach to contact editors. I’ll start with LinkedIn, as it’s used less often.

Assuming you have a LinkedIn account, head over to your account. Enter the details of the site you want to write for, click on the People tab, and search for the position “editor” or “writer”. You can then add this person to your LinkedIn network. If they accept, ask them how to pitch a guest post.

LinkedIn is a great option for authority sites. For the mid-range sites, I use email outreach. If you can’t find the editor’s email address, use a tool like FindEmails or Voila Norbert to get their contact information.

Finally, send across that outreach email.

Writing a good outreach email template sounds easy. However, a lot of people get it wrong. Here’s one such example.

There’s no real connection. The person doesn’t explain why they’d be a good fit for the site or provide examples of content they’ve written in the past.

A good outreach email sidesteps these issues. Here’s an example of a template I’ve used.

I’ve tried to find that balance between friendly and professional. I establish why they should consider my request.

Importantly, you’ll notice that I didn’t pitch an idea. Editors are busy people, and they get flooded with emails. Most don’t respond to your inquiry. If you have to come up with a unique idea for each site that you email, you’ll waste a lot of time. Instead, send an inquiry, then pitch to whoever responds.

How to Come Up with Guest Post Ideas

Coming up with guest post ideas is one of the hardest things about guest post outreach. I find it pretty easy. However, I’ve been doing this for a couple of years. Most people struggle to come up with ideas quickly.

Below are a couple of strategies I use to come up with ideas for guest posts:

Discover Keywords That Haven’t Been Covered Yet

The first step is to do some keyword research for your target site. Using Google Keyword Planner, choose the “Start with a website” option and enter your target site. Keyword Planner will show you that site’s top keywords:

You can then use a free tool, like WMS Everywhere, which is a browser extension, to find relevant ideas related to these keywords. Here’s an example.

Finally, you can check if the site has written about the topic in the past. To do this, just enter the following formula on Google – site:website.com keyword

Let me give you an example.

You can see that the keyword “technical SEO tips” has basically been covered on 99signals. So, you go back to the drawing board and find another idea. Repeat this process until you have three guest post keyword ideas that haven’t been covered.

Check Out User-Curated Content

Curated content is a great source of inspiration for guest post ideas. In the blogging and marketing niche, I thoroughly recommend you check out the Zest App. They hand curate content, which is shared to their audience.

The nice thing about Zest is your ideas are double validated. First, you know the content you’re looking at is good as it’s been reviewed by a person. Secondly, you can see how many people found the article interesting and clicked on the content.

Try to find user curated content for the niche you’re operating in. There are probably a few tools out there that curate content like Zest.

Look at What’s Trending on Social Media

A good piece of content engages its readers and makes them feel compelled to share it with others. BuzzSumo is a useful tool that allows you to find relevant content with a high level of engagement, likes and shares on social media:

Check out the most popular content in your niche and see if your target site has anything similar. If not, go ahead and pitch them. As long as your copy is original, it’s fine to take inspiration from existing content. In fact, it’s the smart thing to do!

Recommended reading: How to Use BuzzSumo: 18 Actionable Ways to Use BuzzSumo

Get writing!

You might feel like celebrating when an editor accepts your pitch, but your work isn’t finished yet. You promised an awesome piece of content. Now you have to deliver on that promise. In this section, I’ll share my top tips for writing your article and making sure it gets published with minimal revisions.

Many websites have style guides. If your target site doesn’t have one, ask the editor for their guidelines. Follow the rules to the letter. Ignoring them is the fastest way to get your article rejected.

Your content needs to be written in the appropriate tone and tailored for the site’s audience. Read a few previously published pieces on the site and pay attention to tone, voice, and grammatical conventions. Then start writing.

Before you insert your backlinks, review the site’s link building rules. Some sites allow you to use several backlinks in the article, while others allow them only in the author byline. Wherever you insert them, your backlinks should be relevant and add value.

Finally, review your article using a grammar checker. You’ll be amazed at the number of mistakes you make. I use Grammarly to check my grammar, but there are plenty of good alternatives.

Scale your link building for maximum brand exposure

Link building remains a vital part of any SEO strategy, and guest posting is still the most effective way to do it. The earlier you scale your guest posting, the sooner you’ll see your website climb the search rankings.

Guest posting seems daunting, but if you follow this process, you’ll soon get the hang of it. Fortunately, there are many useful tools to help you evaluate the competition, find the right keywords, and come up with great topic ideas. And, as you scale up your efforts, you can hire people to take the time-consuming work off your hands.

Remember – guest posting is a marathon, not a sprint. You won’t see results overnight, but you will experience long-term growth. So strategize, execute, and refine your strategies to find a process that works for you.

Here’s to your first guest post!

If you liked this article, please share it on Twitter using the link below:

Guest Posting: How to Scale to 50+ Guest Posts a Month Click to Tweet

Editor’s Note: This article was first published on 20 July 2020 and has been updated regularly since then for relevance, freshness, and comprehensiveness.

Related Articles

The post Guest Posting: How to Scale to 50+ Guest Posts a Month appeared first on 99signals.

Content Upgrade Strategy: How to Optimize Old Blog Posts to Get More Traffic

Sandeep Mallya — Mon, 02 May 2022 16:46:43 +0000

A few years ago, I published an SEO case study on my blog where I revealed a relatively simple, yet often overlooked, technique to boost search traffic to your old posts.

Using this remarkably easy content upgrade strategy, I was able to significantly increase organic traffic to my blog. Not only did it improve the rankings of my top-performing posts, but it also helped me revive older posts which were barely getting any organic traction.

In this article, I’ll deconstruct the 6-step content upgrade strategy with examples so you can implement the same for your own blog.

Let’s get started.

What is the Content Upgrade Strategy?

The content upgrade strategy is inspired by HubSpot’s historical optimization strategy. After running a few SEO experiments, I was able to tweak and update a few steps along the way. But all credit goes to HubSpot’s Pamela Vaughan for writing this incredibly useful post for bloggers.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the post is titled “The Blogging Tactic No One Is Talking About: Optimizing the Past” and sadly, even after five years of its publication, very few bloggers adopt this strategy.

The main reason, in my opinion, is that they’d rather devote their time and efforts into writing new posts over updating old ones. But by not upgrading old blog posts, bloggers are missing out on a ton of organic traffic.

In the post, Pamela Vaughan defines historical optimization as follows:

Historical optimization means updating and optimizing your “old” blog content so it’s fresh, up-to-date, and has the ability to generate even more conversions and organic search traffic than it already does.

Using historical optimization, HubSpot was able to increase the number of monthly organic search views of old posts by an average of 106%.

Since then, historical optimization has become an integral part of HubSpot’s blogging strategy, and they have numerous blog posts, case studies, and even an eBook dedicated to the process.

Now let’s get back to the content upgrade strategy. Like I said, it’s inspired from HubSpot’s historical optimization strategy, but I’ve made some changes along the way.

The content upgrade strategy is a process of relaunching an old blog post with new and updated information in an effort to boost its search traffic and revive its rankings.

Using the content upgrade strategy to revive old blog posts, I was able to achieve the following results:

21 Movies Every Entrepreneur Should Watch for Inspiration saw an increase of 146.22% in organic traffic
How to Get High-Quality Backlinks with Infographics witnessed an increase in search traffic by 16.91%
10 Best TV Shows for Entrepreneurs saw an increase of 94.43% in organic traffic
30 Best Marketing Podcasts received a search traffic boost of 15.96%
10 Best YouTube Channels for Entrepreneurs saw an increase of 59.21% in search traffic
How to Track Facebook Ads in Google Analytics received an organic traffic boost of 693.44%.

But that’s not all — these are just six examples from my blog. Ever since I discovered this strategy, I’ve implemented it across the website, and in each case, I’ve been able to witness a dramatic increase in search traffic for the older posts.

The content upgrade strategy has already been explained in detail in this SEO case study I published in 2020, but in this article, I’ll try to offer a summary of all the steps involved in the content upgrade strategy, with examples and proof, so you can follow the same process for your own blog.

6 Steps to Achieve Higher Traffic with the Content Upgrade Strategy

1. Identify Articles with Declining Traffic

This step involves identifying articles on your website that are currently witnessing a declining trend in organic traffic.

To get started, pick an article that already gets decent search traffic, preferably ranking on page 1 of Google for your targeted keywords, but not ranking at #1 or #2.

Important note: This doesn’t mean you should ignore posts that are ranking outside of page 1. When it comes to content upgrade, you’ve got to prioritize your time and efforts. A post that currently ranks at #5 has a better chance of ranking at #1 than posts that are languishing on page 2 or beyond.

Once you’ve upgraded your top organic posts with losing traffic, you can move on to the rest.

So how do you identify your top posts that are losing organic traffic?

You can do this the easy way or the hard way.

The hard way involves using Google Analytics or Google Search Console to find posts that have witnessed a decline in organic traffic.

On Google Search Console, visit the Search results report and click on date. Then choose the “Compare last 6 months to previous period” filter.

Sort the results by “Clicks difference” from low to high. Pick a post that has seen the highest decline in value.

On Google Analytics, you can navigate to:

Acquisition > Overview > Organic Search

Select the date range on top and compare the last 3 months traffic data with the previous 3 months. Notice if there’s a drop in search traffic for any of your top 10 organic posts.

That covers the hard way.

The easy way is to use a free SEO tool called Animalz Revive which syncs up with your Google Analytics traffic data to provide a list of posts from your blog that need an upgrade.

You just need to enter your email address and in a few hours, you’ll receive an email containing a list of all the pages on your site with the biggest traffic drop.

Pick any one of these posts and move on to step 2.

2. Update Your Content with Fresh Information

This step involves updating your content with fresh information. A good practice would be to check the content of the sites ranking above you to determine what your content lacks.

Remember: Your article needs to be at least 2x better to stay on top of search engine result pages (SERPs) consistently.

Let me illustrate this step with an example from my own blog.

In my case, the article that was badly in need of an upgrade was this: 21 Best Movies for Entrepreneurs

This article was originally published on July 26, 2017. Back then, the list of movies included just 14 movies. The article was getting a decent amount of search traffic, but it was not ranking in the top 3 for the target keyword phrase “movies for entrepreneurs.”

It was fetching close to 2,500 monthly organic visitors, but I had noticed a downtrend in its search traffic in the last 3 months.

I knew it could drive more organic traffic and had the potential to rank at #1 with a few tweaks.

Being a movie buff, I knew I could add a few more business movies to the list and increase its possibilities of ranking in the first position on Google.

I also noticed that the articles that were outranking my post for the target keywords only had 10-15 movies featured on their lists. So it was clear to me that I had a good chance of outranking my competitors by adding a few more movie recommendations for entrepreneurs to my list.

To that end, I added 7 more movies to the list, rounding off the list to 21 movies.

At the same time, I optimized the internal link structure by adding a few relevant resources for entrepreneurs within the article.

Exactly one month later, the blog post was getting 146% more organic traffic (i.e., 5,956 visits vs. 2,419 visits.)

Furthermore, the article had climbed up the search rankings. It was now ranking at position #1 for high-volume keywords such as “movies for entrepreneurs” and “entrepreneur movies,” outranking authoritative competitors such as HubSpot, Entrepreneur, and Lifehack.

Now this example covers an article that was already ranking on page 1 of Google.

Let me now share an example of an article that was barely getting any organic traffic. My guide to tracking Facebook ads in Google Analytics was languishing on page 2 of Google.

You may think that’s not too bad, but when you consider the fact that I was targeting long tail keywords like “how to track facebook ads in google analytics,” it puts things in a different perspective.

I followed the same 6-step process outlined here to upgrade and relaunch my article.

And this was the result:

The search traffic increased by a whopping 693.44% in exactly one month after I republished the post.

This is just to show you that the content upgrade strategy is not restricted to your top-performing posts. It can also be used for articles that aren’t receiving much organic traction.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s now move to step 3 which involves keyword optimization.

3. Optimize Your Target Keywords

Let’s take the same example of my post on the best movies for entrepreneurs.

At the time of publishing the post, I was targeting two keyword phrases — “movies for entrepreneurs” and “entrepreneur movies,” both of which had a monthly global search volume of 7,300.

As mentioned before, I was ranking at #5 on Google for these keywords and I knew I could do better.

When it comes to optimizing your keywords, there are two things you need to take care of:

Keyword Frequency
Keyword Variations

Let’s take a deeper look at both of these.

Keyword Frequency

Keyword frequency is the number of times your target keywords appear in your content.

My recommendation to you would be to use your target keywords sparingly in your content. Don’t stuff keywords in your content. Repeat the main keywords two to three times in your content.

Instead, use different keyword variations of your seed keywords in strategic places. And use them only when you’re sure they’ll add more depth and nuance to your content.

Keyword Variations

Instead of repeating your target keywords numerous times, use different keyword variations of your seed keywords in strategic places. But make sure they appear in the natural flow of your content. Don’t force them into your content.

Keyword variations are also called Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords. LSI keywords are phrases that are closely related to your seed keywords.

The SEO community is split on whether Google uses LSI keywords to determine the relevance and quality of your content.

In my experience, I’ve noticed adding LSI keywords or keyword variations helps me rank for specific terms that I wasn’t ranking for before. This is especially the case with long-form articles where there is a lot of scope to add keyword variations.

Bottom line? Adding keyword variations of my main keywords in my content did indeed boost my organic traffic. As long as it adds depth and nuance to your content, using LSI keywords is harmless.

Now, how do you identify keyword variations for your target keywords?

It’s important that you research your keyword variations and examine different SEO metrics for these keywords before you add them to your content.

I’d recommend any of the following tools for this task:

Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool
GrowthBar
Google’s “Related Searches” column

With Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, you just need to plug your seed keywords in the search box and the resulting report will contain a long list of keyword variations, which you can then sort and filter to cherry-pick the best keyword variations.

You can do the same with GrowthBar, which is an excellent budget-friendly alternative to Semrush and other expensive keyword research tools on the market.

On GrowthBar, you just need to enter your seed keywords in the search bar and the tool will generate a list of keyword variations, alongside key metrics like monthly search volume and keyword difficulty score.

On Google, you just need to enter your search query and navigate directly to the “Related Searches Column” at the bottom of the page.

Select the keywords that you think will add more depth to your content.

When I was upgrading my list of best movies for entrepreneurs, I found it could use a few relevant keyword variations. Using the three tools listed above, I found close to 300 variations of my target keywords. But based on the context of the topic I was writing on, these were the keyword variations I used in my final draft:

“movies every entrepreneur should watch”
“best biography movies”
“best entrepreneur movies”
“inspiring movies for entrepreneurs”
“best startup movies”

Pretty soon, I found my article ranking on top for most of these long-tail variations of my target keywords.

Just to reiterate, don’t randomly add keyword variations to your content where it doesn’t make sense. It’s important that the variations add more context and depth to your post. So, just like my suggestion for your main keywords, use keyword variations sparingly and at strategic places.

4. Add New Visuals

When used properly, adding images, screenshots, explainer graphics, and videos can greatly enhance your content and help illustrate your points. More importantly, they provide a visual break from the text for readers.

The engagement metrics for my “Best Movies for Entrepreneurs” article were already quite good. I had already added the best scenes or trailers of the movies I was covering in the post. There was no scope for adding explainer graphics and screenshots in this post.

But there was one major change I could make concerning the main blog graphic or featured image. When the article was originally published in 2017, I was designing the blog graphics myself using free design tools like Canva.

Since then, my blog has gone through a major design overhaul and I now outsource most of my design work to my dedicated graphic designer at Design Pickle.

Like all other featured images on my blog, I entrusted my designer to redesign the featured image for this article.

This was the result:

As you can see, the graphic on the right has been clearly designed by a professional graphic designer.

With some of my other SEO and content marketing posts, there was a lot of scope to add explainer graphics and screenshots to elaborate on some of the points. And that’s exactly what I did, like in this article here:

A monthly subscription to Design Pickle costs $399/month, so I’m not suggesting that you hire a dedicated graphic designer for your site. What I’d suggest is that you add unique images, explainer graphics, screenshots, videos, infographics, or even memes to some of your posts.

Bottom line: Make sure your updated article has new and improved visuals to provide a better user experience to the visitors on your site.

5. Relaunch the Post with a New Date

Once you’ve updated the article to your liking, it’s time to relaunch it.

When you’re ready to republish the article, be sure to change the “published” date of your article to the date on which you updated the post. This is an important step that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Why?

Because this small change will not just bring your post to the top of your blog feed, but the “published” date will also be highlighted on Google.

Let’s face it: No one wants to read an outdated article. This is especially the case with SEO articles where there are bound to be frequent changes and updates.

Moreover, since you have fully upgraded your old article with fresh information, it’s only logical that you change the “published” date.

A few business blogs diligently follow this practice. Take a look at Ahrefs’ Tim Soulo’s tweet here:

I absolutely love how @ahrefs new Content Explorer tool exposes how much our team works on updating/republishing our old content VS publishing new stuff

Do you know any other blogs that are so committed to keeping their content fresh & awesome? pic.twitter.com/SIGbEQpWW9

— Tim Soulo (@timsoulo) March 27, 2019

An important thing to remember is to add a note at the end of your article so your readers are aware it’s an updated post.

To change your “published” date on WordPress, navigate to the “Publish” section of your post, click on edit, change the date to today, and click “Update.”

That’s it. You’re all set.

But wait… there’s a bonus step involved in the content upgrade strategy that helps in future-proofing your article.

6. Steal Your Competitors’ Backlinks

In less competitive industries, you can sometimes start ranking on top of Google without actively building backlinks. But in my case, where most of the articles are related to SEO, content marketing, and entrepreneurship, the competition is fierce.

In some cases, you can start ranking on page 1 of Google with zero backlinks. That was definitely the case with a few of my articles. Once you start ranking on page 1, your content will automatically attract natural backlinks.

But these are exceptions.

In most cases, you’ll need to invest some time in building authoritative backlinks for your posts in order to consistently rank on top of Google. A link building strategy that I’d recommend involves a mix of competitor research and blogger outreach.

Here’s how you should proceed:

Check out all the top-ranking pages for your target keywords. You can get this data by using an SEO tool like Semrush.
Publish content that’s better than your competition as explained in step #2. Add something unique as highlighted in step #4.
Perform a link building outreach campaign by sending personalized emails to each blogger/site owner who has linked to any of your competitors. Highlight a few things that are unique in your content and provide reasons as to why your post is more in-depth than that of your competition. You can use any of these outreach tools for this specific task.

Not everyone will respond to your outreach email, but that’s ok. If your content is informative and does justice to the topic being covered, and you’ve provided compelling reasons in your email as to why they should link to your post, you’ll soon see results in your link building efforts.

Here are some resources on my blog that can help you with competitor analysis and link building:

Once you’re done implementing the content upgrade strategy for one of your older posts, you can move back to step #1 and repeat the whole process again for other blog posts that are underperforming in SERPs.

Summary and Content Upgrade Strategy Infographic

So that wraps up the simple, yet highly effective, content upgrade strategy. Here’s a recap of all the steps involved:

Step 1: Identify Articles with Declining Traffic
Step 2: Update Your Content with Fresh Information
Step 3: Optimize Your Target Keywords
Step 4: Add New Visuals
Step 5: Relaunch the Post with a New Date
Step 6: Steal Your Competitors’ Backlinks

Now that you’re familiar with the 6-step process to increase your organic traffic, it’s time you gave the content upgrade strategy a shot.

But remember: Content upgrade should never be a substitute for publishing new content. Make sure you stick to a content calendar and publish new articles on a timely basis to keep your readers engaged.

If you have any questions about the content upgrade strategy or any of the steps outlined above, leave a comment below and I’ll be glad to answer all your questions.

Below is an infographic of content upgrade strategy that summarizes the key points discussed in this article.

If you found this article useful, please share it on Twitter using the link below:

Content Upgrade Strategy: How to Optimize Old Blog Posts to Get More Traffic Click to Tweet

Related Articles

The post Content Upgrade Strategy: How to Optimize Old Blog Posts to Get More Traffic appeared first on 99signals.

9 Best Content Generators You Should Use

99signals Editorial — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 21:55:14 +0000

With our world gone almost entirely digital, there is a lot of content on the web, especially when it comes to blog posts.

Instead of Googling to find answers, individuals are now more inclined to read a short blog post about their chosen topic. Whether this is an article detailing the “top 10” or “the ultimate guide,” it’s hard to ignore the positive influence of content.

It also presents a problem for content and blog writers when brainstorming creative, helpful content that will stand out among the rest.

Have no fear, and rest easy tonight; this article helps solve all those problems by detailing the best content generator tools available.

Editor’s Note and an Important Caveat: AI-powered content generators are still a long way away from matching the quality of work produced by human writers. While they can play a supportive role in the content creation process, you shouldn’t expect them to magically churn out original and engaging content that ranks high in Google.

What is a Content Generator?

A content generator produces content ideas for various platforms and mediums based on simple keywords.

Individuals in the business of content, blog, ad, and social media creation know all too well the pain that can result from attempting to create the perfect piece of content in a saturated market.

Content generator tools keep ideas fresh and can be an essential resource for creating regular content.

These content generators utilize AI technology to produce multiple content pieces. You’ll still need to do a fair amount of editing and add your own tone and voice to the content. But at the end of the day, content generators end up saving a lot of time and provide fresh ideas for content writers.

Those who are looking to stay ahead of the content game need to use a content generator.

Why Are Content Generators Useful?

Content generators are helpful for countless reasons. Not only do they save time for individuals and teams, but they are also great in terms of creating unique, different content that is out of the box.

Another significant benefit of using a content generator is beating the pesky writer’s block that all too many content creators face regularly.

Content generators come up with fresh ideas that provoke a new way of thinking about the content produced and fine-tune creative edits before publishing.

Individuals find content generators helpful because they can add their voice and flair to the content, ensuring that the voice and tone stay true to the business or company.

10 Best Web Hosting Plans for Bloggers (Tried and Tested)

Sandeep Mallya — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 19:00:05 +0000

For over 5 years, I’ve been running my blog that’s now attracting close to 100,000 monthly readers. When you reach such audiences, you can rightfully claim to be a professional blogger. And any blogger that’s only starting out likely wants to get into the pro ranks — to expand the readership, generate income, and deliver the message to the widest audience possible.

And from my first-hand experience, I can assure you — the most important decision you’ll have to make before you even think of your very first published piece is about the web hosting that will power up your blog.

So before you worry about the competition, content quality, ideation, outreach, and many more things to work on, you have to pick the most reliable and intuitive web hosting service. And this is where it gets challenging.

Knowing this and having a lot of incoming requests from my readers, I’ve decided to share my tested and proven top web hosting plans that should meet your entire blogging needs.

Now without any further ado, let’s uncover the most blogging-fit web hosting service providers. I’ll be listing them in the order of personal preference, but do make sure to read all the way through the end.

10 Best Web Hosting Plans for Bloggers (Tried and Tested) Click to Tweet

Top 10 Web Hosting Plans for Bloggers

Before I get into a more detailed review of each web hosting platform, I’ll share an easy-to-use table where you can see all the most important features of each provider.

This ‘in a nutshell’ view should help you cross-reference each web hosting service and decide on the most suitable solution for your particular needs.

[table id=33 /]

1. DreamHost: Review & Assessment

With 42% of all blogs being run on WordPress, chances are yours is as well. So you might want to consider a service that earned WordPress’ vote of confidence.

DreamHost is a WordPress-recommended web hosting service that’s been one of the longest-running hosting providers on the web.

DreamHost can be defined in three words: Fast. Reliable. Affordable. Essentially, it checks all the marks when it comes to defining the top web hosting services.

DreamHost: Performance and Uptime

DreamHost’s uptime is at 100% (they do compensate if you face an unlikely downtime) and it delivers a higher than average load time, making it one of the most reliable web hosting service providers out there.

The platform also comes with a free WordPress plugin that can boost your site’s load time, so its average speed time can always be enhanced whenever you feel like your user experience starts lagging behind.

DreamHost: Top Features

The most important thing is that DreamHost is very easy to set up. It’s designed to offer some of the most intuitive user experiences among other web hosting service providers so you won’t have to waste time and resources setting up your blog.

Moreover, you can customize the control panel the way you like — a feature often missing within most web hosting providers.

Here are some of the top DreamHost features you’ll surely benefit from:

Large storage and unlimited bandwidth

When just starting out, you might not want to think about storage and traffic.

But if and when your blog starts growing, you will find these features to be as important as speed and uptime. DreamHost is very generous with both, giving its users 50 GB storage and unlimited bandwidth — so you won’t have to spend extra cash adding up bandwidth to your expanding blog.

Money-back guarantee

DreamHost is pretty generous allowing you to ask for a return 97-day into web hosting usage. This shows confidence and a proven service quality check.

Pricing transparency

What I personally love the most about DreamHost is that it’s very honest in its pricing policy. While many other web hosting providers overload users with a plethora of plans and hidden costs (think of bandwidth limits, storage limits, etc.), DreamHost never charges for any extras.

Once you hit your basic plan’s limit, you can move on to a higher-priced package that comes with pretty much everything unlimited.

Top perks

Even the most basic DreamHost plan comes with a lot of goodness added up on top of the basic features. Just for $2.59/mo, you will have access to a WP website builder, free domain, free SSL certificate, and free automated WordPress migrations.

DreamHost: Customer Support

Considering its very intuitive and easy-to-use interface and pricing structure, you should not encounter any issues during the setup and usage.

But in case you do, DreamHost offers fast response time with a live chat feature available during business hours, and an option to send them an email that gets addressed within 24 hours. You can even leave a request to call you back in case you’re more of a phone person.

Top the tech support with a discussion forum and a very extensive knowledge base, you won’t have to wait for more than a day to get an answer to even the most challenging DreamHost questions.

DreamHost: Pricing Plans

Being a web hosting provider that’s officially endorsed by WordPress, even the cheapest DreamHost plan comes with some notable features. It includes a WP website builder and free automated WP migrations, making it the best-suited service for WordPress users.

Here’s the current pricing structure of DreamHost’s shared hosting plans:

Their most basic shared hosting plan, Shared Starter, includes features like:

1 website
Free domain included
Unlimited traffic
WP website builder
Free Automated WordPress Migrations
Fast SSD storage
Free SSL certificate
3 year, 1 year, and monthly plans

As your blog grows and you gain more readers and subscribers, you may want to upgrade to one of DreamHost’s VPN hosting plans:

DreamHost’s most basic VPS hosting plan, Basic VPS ($10/mo), includes:

1 GB RAM
30 GB SSD storage
Unlimited websites
Unlimited traffic
Free SSL certificate(s)
Unlimited email @ your domain

If you’re just starting out, I’d highly recommend you start with DreamHost’s Shared Starter plan ($2.59/mo).

The only feature currently lacking from DreamHost is that its starter plan doesn’t allow you to create an email account by default. But this option is available for a separate price ($1.67/mo). If you go for the unlimited plan ($3.59/mo), you will have an unlimited email account.

Visit DreamHost to learn more

2. BlueHost: Review & Assessment

Also WordPress-recommended, BlueHost is another strong contender on the blogger-specific web hosting market. Launched way back in 1996, BlueHost has cemented its place as one of the most reliable and affordable web hosting services on the market.

BlueHost: Performance and Uptime

BlueHost’s uptime is at 99.99%, which is close to DreamHost’s 100%. But the former doesn’t compensate you in case you face any issues with the downtime.

Also, BlueHost shows a somewhat less reliable loading speed — in some cases, it goes beyond all expectations loading the page under 0.05 seconds, in other cases the load time goes up to 3.4 seconds, which can be a big issue.

BlueHost: Top Features

BlueHost and DreamHost offer very close deals when it comes to both basic and more advanced plans. Just like its counterpart, BlueHost features:

50 GB storage and unlimited bandwidth.
Money-back guarantee (only it’s valid for 30 days vs. DreamHost’s 97 days).
Free domain and SSL certificate are also included within BlueHost’s basic plan, but you’ll have to pay extra for WP migrations.

BlueHost: Customer Support

Customer support is probably BlueHost’s strongest trait. BlueHost’s support teams don’t just offer BlueHost-specific help, they can also help you out in case you’re facing any issues with your WordPress setup.

With 24/7 support available through live chat, email, and phone, you can expect your issues to be resolved in no time.

BlueHost: Pricing Plans

Now when it comes to pricing, it may seem like DreamHost and BlueHost are very similar in this regard as well. But BlueHost is not as straightforward.

If you don’t want to make a three-year commitment to either service (this is where their pricing is pretty much identical), you will start to see the difference:

Unlike DreamHost, BlueHost doesn’t offer a monthly plan.
For an annual shared hosting plan, you’ll have to pay $4.95/mo (Basic plan), while at DreamHost, the cost will only go up to $2.95/mo.

Moreover, if you are ready to consider a pricier plan that also goes all-unlimited, at DreamHost you will only pay $3.95/mo, while BlueHost charges $13.95/mo.

Their best plan for beginners, the Basic plan ($4.95/mo), includes the following:

1 website
50 GB SSD storage
Custom themes
24/7 customer support
Free domain – 1 year
Free SSL certificate
Free CDN included
WordPress integration
Drag and drop functionality

BlueHost’s highest-tier shared hosing plan, the Pro plan (16.95/mo when billed annually), upgrades you to:

Unlimited websites
Unlimited SSD storage
Optimized CPU resources
Free domain privacy
Free automated backup
Free dedicated IP

If you’re just starting out, BlueHost’s budget-friendly basic plan should be right up your alley.

Visit BlueHost to learn more

3. GoDaddy: Review & Assessment

GoDaddy is very well-known outside of the blogging hemisphere. It’s probably one of the most popular web hosting providers worldwide with very strong brand localization. But let’s see if it’s all that suitable for up-and-coming bloggers.

GoDaddy: Performance and Uptime

With average load time ranging from 0.03 to 0.51 seconds and 99.97% uptime, GoDaddy is probably the strongest market layer when it comes to performance.

Built to operate sites of any size and complexity, GoDaddy’s teams have really mastered the art of web hosting reliability.

GoDaddy: Top Features

Being a web hosting for sites of all kinds, security is at the core of GoDaddy’s solution. So while many of the perks are indeed missing from this web hosting provider, it does offer some high-end security perks:

Automatic malware scans on a daily basis
Everyday backups with the option to restore in one click.

GoDaddy also comes with a free domain (and email if you’re subscribing to its annual plan), and amazingly has built-in sign-up forms you can leverage to build up your email base, collect leads, and run proper marketing campaigns.

Customer support-wise, GoDaddy doesn’t differentiate between plans – so even if you’re using the cheapest option in town, you can expect the same level of support – 24/7 via phone, email, and chat.

GoDaddy: Limitations

As GoDaddy was never intended as a blogger-specific platform, its lower pricing tier doesn’t offer as much freedom as the rest of the solutions we already mentioned.

If you want to stay under the cheapest plan, you will only have 25 GB of storage and be limited to 25,000 monthly visitors.

While this may be okay for the start, you will have to move up a package when your blog starts to gain some traction, and this is where GoDaddy will start to get more pricey and less competitive with other more blogger-friendly platforms.

Also, in regard to perks offered by other solutions, don’t expect a free SSL certificate or access to cPanel.

GoDaddy: Pricing Plans

Now at a first glance, GoDaddy’s pricing doesn’t seem so overwhelming. The introductory package starts at $5.99/mo, which is already twice the price of the previous solutions. But even if you’re okay with the higher price and a more limited feature set, one year into the usage, the price will go up to $8.99/mo.

GoDaddy’s lowest-tier shared hosing plan, the Economy plan ($5.99/mo), features:

1 website
25 GB storage
10 databases
Unmetered bandwidth
Free 1-click WordPress install
Free domain

GoDaddy’s highest-tier shared hosting plan, the Maximum plan ($19.99/mo), upgrades you to:

50 websites
100 GB storage
100 databases
Free SSL certificates for all your websites
Free Microsoft 365 email (1 year)
Increased processing power and speed

While GoDaddy is a very superior solution in regard to reliability and web security, I don’t think beginner bloggers should worry about these things to the point where they should pay triple the price for a solution that offers fewer perks than the rest.

Visit GoDaddy to learn more

4. Namecheap: Review & Assessment

Namecheap is widely known as the place you go to in the quest for domain name registration. But it also provides web hosting services.

Now let’s see if their web hosting solution is as top-level as their domain registration.

Namecheap: Performance and Uptime

Just like DreamHost, Namecheap promises 100% uptime and compensation in the form of account credits in case you encounter any issues there. But speed-wise, it is slightly inferior compared to the rest — the average load speed is at 0.83 seconds, which is slightly more than readers expect from a fast-running blog.

Namecheap: Top Features

Even the most basic Namecheap web hosting solution is power-packed with some amazing features (some of them not present across other providers):

20 GB of storage and unlimited bandwidth
30 email accounts
Basic control panel features
Free website builder (not limited to WordPress)
Free domain name, SSL certificate, and privacy protection (first year only)
Free site migration
Free CDN that includes a basic anti-DDoS system, and a traffic limit of up to 50 GB a month.

Namecheap also comes with superb customer support available with a 24/7 live chat and ticketing service via a help desk.

Namecheap: Pricing Plans

Namecheap does live up to its name and offers some of the cheapest rates for its web hosting service. For the first two years, you will only have to pay $1.44/mo, and the price will then go up to $2.88, making it comparable to DreamHost and BlueHost.

Namecheap’s most basic plan, the Stellar plan ($1.44/mo), includes features like:

Free domain
3 websites
20 GB SSD
Free CDN
Free SSL certificate (1 year)
Free website builder
Unmetered bandwidth
30-day money-back guarantee

Namecheap’s highest-tier shared web hosting plan, the Stellar Business plan ($4.44/mo), upgrades you to:

Unlimited websites
50 GB SSD
AutoBackup and cloud storage

While in terms of pricing and features, Namecheap seems like a solid solution for blogging, its reliability is somewhat under question as speed can really be the make-or-break factor of your blogging success.

Visit Namecheap to learn more

Alternative Web Hosting Plans for Bloggers

So far, I’ve covered some of the most prominent web hosting solutions — and those I’ve tried and tested myself and can recommend to any blogger out there.

But of course, there are plenty of other providers that also feature attractive web hosting offers for bloggers.

As I haven’t had a personal experience with these platforms, I will only highlight the ones with the top reputation within the blogosphere and list some of their most prominent features.

5. Hostinger: Quick Review & Assessment

Hostinger’s incredibly affordable price does imply that its cheapest $0.99/mo package doesn’t come with many of the perks we saw above — no free domain, unlimited bandwidth, and traffic limitations.

So Hostinger could be a good solution for bloggers that are just starting out — as you will have to throw in extra costs as soon as your blogging business starts growing. And even before you start (think of domain name and bandwidth costs).

Hostinger: Performance and Uptime

Hostinger is very reliable and comes with an impressive loading speed. You also shouldn’t expect much downtime, although its 99.91% uptime is slightly lower than the averages we see with other web hosting providers I’ve reviewed.

Hostinger: Top Features

30 GB of storage
10,000 monthly visits limit
One free email account
Free SSL certificate
Weekly backups

Hostinger: Pricing Plans

Of course, Hostinger’s most attractive feature is the pricing. But this $1.39/mo offer comes with a four-year commitment and the price goes up to $2.99/mo once you renew your deal.

And as mentioned, you will have to face some substantial extra costs as Hostinger doesn’t offer many of the free perks others provide.

Hostinger’s basic plan ($1.39/mo) includes the following features:

1 website
30 GB SSD storage
1 email account
Free SSL certificate
100 GB bandwidth
30-day money-back guarantee
24/7/365 support
99.9% uptime guarantee

Visit Hostinger to learn more

6. SiteGround: Quick Review & Assessment

This web hosting service provides a lot of free features for a slightly higher than average pricing. But you should think twice before paying a bit extra, asking yourself whether you really need all these perks.

SiteGround: Performance and Uptime

While SiteGround’s uptime is at 99.91% — not the top reliability you’d expect, speed-wise SiteGround looks very attractive with its 0.37-second-average.

SiteGround: Top Features

SiteGround has most of the features we mentioned across other solutions, but it comes with plenty of free perks:

WP install and migrator
CDN
SSL certificate
HTTPS certificate
One email account
Unmetered traffic
Daily backups

Siteground: Pricing Plans

If you’re only at the start of your blogging journey, this might not be the top solution to pick at that stage as you might not need all the amazing free features that come even with its cheapest plan that comes at $3.99/mo.

Once your one-year contract expires, you will have to start paying $12/99/mo.

Here’s what SiteGround’s lowest-tier plan, the StartUp plan, includes:

1 website
10 GB web space
Unmetered traffic
Free SSL certificate
Daily backup
Free CDN
Free email
Unlimited databases
30-day money-back guarantee

Visit SiteGround to learn more

7. InMotion: Quick Review & Assessment

InMotion is a really great solution for more established bloggers — features included within its cheapest plan are more suitable to blogging pros that are already managing multiple accounts and need a single point of entry to all of them.

InMotion: Performance and Uptime

With 99.97% uptime and a surprisingly low 0.8-second speed, InMotion doesn’t provide the reliability you’d expect from its pricing range.

InMotion: Top Features

2 websites
Free domain and SSL certificate
Unlimited disk space and bandwidth
10 email accounts
$150 ad credits
DDoS and hack protection

InMotion: Pricing Plans

The cheapest two-year plan comes at $5.99/mo, with the longest money-back guarantee (90 days) across the board. If you consider all the free perks that come with the Launch package, InMotion appears to offer a good value per dollar.

InMotion’s lowest-tier plan, the Launch plan ($5.99/mo), includes features like:

2 websites
50 GB SSD storage
Free domain and SSL
Unlimited bandwidth
10 email accounts
24/7/365 support

Visit InMotion to learn more

8. HostGator: Quick Review & Assessment

With its impressive uptime, low-average pricing, and especially unlimited storage and bandwidth, HostGator can be a great web hosting solution. But make sure to read through the bullets below as HostGator might have some underlying problems if you come from a certain location and breach their ambiguous terms & conditions.

HostGator: Performance and Uptime

On average, HostGator comes with an impressive 99.99% uptime and 0.7 to 8-second loading speed. But it’s known to have some downtime and speed issues depending on your location, so make sure to check this before you make your choice.

HostGator: Top Features

Free domain
Free SSL certificate
Free cPanel/WP website transfer

HostGator: Pricing Plans

While HostGator offers some attractive pricing ($2.75/mo), especially considering its lack of any storage and bandwidth limits, its T&C mentions that you will be asked to reduce your usage when you reach 25% of their system resources.

Here’s what their basic plan, Hatchling Plan, includes:

1 website
Unmetered bandwidth
Free SSL certificate
Free domain included
One-click WordPress installs
24/7/365 support

Visit HostGator to learn more

9. A2 Hosting: Quick Review & Assessment

If lightning-fast site speed is the most important thing to you as a blogger, A2 Hosting is the web hosting service to pick. While it has fewer free features (e.g. no free domain) than the rest, it does look pretty solid in all other areas, especially when it comes to reliability.

A2 Hosting: Performance and Uptime

A2 Hosting’s 99.95% uptime and mind-blowing 0.036-second average speed turn it into one of the strongest web hosting contenders in terms of reliability.

A2 Hosting: Top Features

100 GB of storage
Free SSL & HTTPS certificate
Free site migration
Hack and virus scanning + DDoS protection

A2 Hosting: Pricing Plans

With a three-year commitment, A2 Hosting’s cheapest plan comes at $2.99/mo. After that, they will charge you $10.99/mo if you decide to stay on the cheapest plan.

A2 Hosting’s Startup plan ($2.99/mo) includes features like:

1 website
100 GB SSD storage
Free and easy site migration
Unlimited email accounts
24/7/365 support
Free SSL certificate
Free website builder

Visit A2 Hosting to learn more

10. Cloudways: Quick Review & Assessment

To wrap up this list of reviews, I’ve picked a service that has a slightly different pricing model. Cloudways is a pay-as-you-go web hosting service provider that comes without any hidden charges.

Cloudways: Performance and Uptime

It’s nothing but top-notch – the uptime is at 99.99% and the average load time is 0.4 seconds.

Cloudways: Top Features

25 GB of storage
1TB of bandwidth
Free SSL certificate
A choice between various cloud service providers (Digital Ocean, Google Cloud, AWS, and others)
Easy-to-understand pricing structure

Cloudways: Pricing Plans

Simply $10/mo and no hidden costs or reasons to worry about the price going up once you’re past a certain annual/biannual commitment.

Cloudways’ lowest-tier plan ($10/mo) gets you:

1 website
25 GB storage
1 TB bandwidth
Free SSL certificate
24/7/365 support
Automated backups
CDN add-on
Dedicated firewalls

Visit Cloudways to learn more

Choosing the Best Web Hosting Solution: Top Criteria to Factor In

With hundreds of solutions that claim to be the “top choice” for bloggers, you have to choose the one that best meets the key criteria:

Affordability vs Features

With web hosting, a high price does not necessarily imply top service, as you may simply pay for features you don’t really need. So you have to make sure your web hosting plan does cover your needs but doesn’t entice you to pay extra for features you will never implement on your blog.

Reliability

Speed and uptime are two of the most important features of any web hosting. Low speed will negatively affect your SEO and lousy uptime can cost you your readership. As much as you can invest in building a loyal audience, no one will put up with a blog that goes down every now and then, or takes too long to load.

Customer Support

While the perfect web hosting service should be as intuitive as it gets, there will be times when you might need some expert help. And you want to pick a platform that has a prompt and on-point response team that will deal with your issue in no time.

Final Thoughts on Web Hosting Plans

Picked right, good hosting will add up reputation and authority to your blog, helping your Google ranks, bringing in more visitors, and, hence, allowing you to generate more income.

Now that you are armed with all the info about the top web hosting service providers, you can decide which factor prevails over the rest for your particular needs — and make a smart choice that will underlie the success of your blog.

If you found this article useful, please share it on Twitter using the link below:

10 Best Web Hosting Plans for Bloggers (Tried and Tested) Click to Tweet

Related Articles

The post 10 Best Web Hosting Plans for Bloggers (Tried and Tested) appeared first on 99signals.

5 Best VPN Services for WordPress Users (Reviewed for 2022)

99signals Editorial — Sun, 02 May 2021 10:27:31 +0000

With the increasing number of online security threats and cyberattacks, internet users are now more vulnerable than ever. As a result, more and more people have started using virtual private networks (VPNs) to keep their data private and secure.

If you’re a WordPress user who’s looking for a reliable VPN, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll reveal the 5 best VPN services for WordPress users.

But before we share the best VPN services, we’ll first explain the basics of a VPN service, why it’s important, and why WordPress users need to use a VPN service.

If you already know the benefits of VPNs, skip this section by clicking here.

Here’s what this guide will cover:

What is a VPN and Why is It Important?

VPN is short for Virtual Private Network which is an encrypted connection over the internet from a device to a network. The encrypted connection adds an extra layer of security and privacy to a less secure public network, like the internet. In other words, a VPN ensures your web browsing experience is more secure and private.

VPNs are especially useful when you’re using the internet from a public WiFi hotspot. The main problem with the WiFi hotspots provided in cafes, airports, and hotels is that they often have poor router configurations and passwords. This makes it easier for cybercriminals and hackers to steal data from WiFi users.

VPN is the best protection you can get to protect your data and privacy on public WiFi networks. A reliable VPN service can also help you bypass censorship laws and content restrictions from different countries.

Why WordPress Users Need a VPN Service

WordPress powers over 30% of all sites on the internet. As a result, the platform is vulnerable to malware and attacks from hackers. According to research by the website security platform Sucuri, WordPress is the world’s leading infected website CMS, with WordPress infections rising from 74% in 2016 Q3 to 83% in 2017.

So how do you secure your WordPress site and ensure your privacy is intact? Aside from installing an SSL certificate to your site from your web hosting provider, here are two proactive steps you can take:

Install a WordPress Security Plugin: The best way to secure your WordPress website is by installing a reliable WordPress security plugin. Here are 5 of the best WordPress security plugins you can opt for, but I’d personally recommend Sucuri.
Use a VPN Service: Once your SSL is installed and you’ve activated a security plugin, you can add an extra layer of security and privacy to your website by choosing any of the 5 VPN services featured in this article. This way, you can be certain your data is protected and your activities are hidden behind multiple layers of encryption.

Now that you have a basic understanding of how a VPN works and its importance, let’s look at some of the top VPN services you can go for.

Top 5 VPN Services

1. NordVPN

NordVPN is a popular virtual private network that shields your internet activity from hackers and malware, protects you on public WiFi networks, and even blocks annoying ads. It’s a trusted online security solution that is used by over 1 million internet users worldwide and is recognized by some of the most influential tech sites and IT security specialists.

With NordVPN, you can be assured your data is always private. NordVPN uses double encryption aka Double VPN, a technology solution that hides your online activity behind several servers via a VPN tunnel. Double VPN can be extremely useful when a high level of online security and privacy is required, especially for WordPress users who are living in countries with a high level of internet censorship.

NordVPN also comes with the CyberSec feature which automatically blocks suspicious websites, so no malware or other cyber threats can infect your device.

Best yet, with one NordVPN account, you can secure up to 6 devices at the same time. NordVPN provides user-friendly applications on all major platforms, including Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS (both iPhone & iPad), Linux, Android TV, and more.

Here are some of the key benefits you’ll gain by using NordVPN:

Data Security: You’ll stay 100% secure online under all circumstances with NordVPN’s military-grade encryption, CyberSec, and Double VPN.
Hide Your IP: You can keep your data private and protect it from malicious users or ISPs by hiding your IP address.
No Restrictions: You’ll be able to browse the web without restrictions, even when you’re traveling to a country with strict censorship or bandwidth limits.
Secure Up to 6 Devices: You can secure up to 6 devices with a single NordVPN account, and feel safe on any device whether at home, in the office, or on the go.

NordVPN Pricing

NordVPN lets you choose from four pricing options. The 3-year plan is the most popular and by far the most economical where you’re billed $107.55 every 3 years which means you’ll just have to pay $2.99/month.

Here are NordVPN’s four pricing options:

1-month plan – $11.95/mo (billed $11.95 every month)
1-year plan – $6.99/mo (billed $83.88 every year)
2-year plan – $5.99/mo (billed $95.75 billed every 2 years)
3-year plan – $2.99/mo (billed $107.55 every 3 years) — Most popular (Save 75%)

Get NordVPN

2. IPVanish

IPVanish is a popular VPN service that provides a secure environment to users for everyday web use. With IPVanish, you can stop ISPs from spying on you and slowing down your speed based on your usage. IPVanish also protects you from hackers while you’re accessing the internet over public Wi-Fi locations.

IPVanish’s VPN network spans over 40,000 IPs on 1100+ servers in 60+ countries, giving you the ability to browse the web anonymously and access websites and media without any restrictions.

Here are some of the key benefits of using IPVanish:

Stop Geo-targeting: Once you’re connected to IPVanish, your IP address is replaced with an IPVanish IP address. This means you’ll be able to prevent online marketers, search engines, and websites from analyzing and using your IP address or location.
Bypass Censorship: You can avoid regional censorships and restrictions by accessing media and interactive websites from anywhere on the planet, on any device, period.
Security on the go: Using IPVanish mobile apps, you can prevent your personal data (mobile banking, emails, social media, etc.) from being stolen by hackers.
Use Public WiFi: With IPVanish, you can stay safe and protected while using public Wi-Fi. IPVanish ensures that all your traffic remains private and secure no matter what kind of network you’re using.

IPVanish Pricing

IPVanish offers 3 pricing options and all of them come with a 7-day money-back guarantee:

1-month plan – $10/mo (billed $10 every month)
3-month plan – $8.99/mo (billed $26.99 every 3 months)
1-year plan – $6.49/mo (billed $77.99 every year) — Most popular (Save 46%)

Get IPVanish

3. ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is a high-speed, ultra-secure, and easy-to-use VPN service which has servers across 94 countries. With Express VPN, you can instantly unblock the sites and apps you love, and avoid being hacked or tracked, using powerful encryption.

Using ExpressVPN, you can stay anonymous online, keep everyone else out of your personal affairs, and prevent cybercrime and snooping.

Here are a few key benefits of using ExpressVPN:

Fast VPN Speeds: ExpressVPN’s huge network of 2,000+ global VPN servers are optimized for fast connections, so you can browse the web without worrying about bandwidth throttling from your ISP.
Easy Setup: ExpressVPN setup is fast and super easy. You can download, install, and connect to ExpressVPN with the push of a button.
No restrictions: You can stream or download anything, from any of ExpressVPN’s servers, anywhere on Earth, with your IP address hidden from prying eyes.
Serious Security: ExpressVPN will protect you from hacking and surveillance with 256-bit AES encryption, DNS/IPv6 leak protection, kill switch, and split tunneling.

ExpressVPN Pricing

All ExpressVPN plans are covered by a 100% money-back guarantee for your first 30 days of service. Here are the 3 pricing options:

1-month plan – $12.95/mo (billed $12.95 every month)
6-month plan – $9.99/mo (billed $59.95 every 6 months)
1-year plan – $8.32/mo (billed $99.95 every year) — Most popular (Save 35%)

Get ExpressVPN

4. StrongVPN

StrongVPN is yet another popular VPN service that lets you bypass restrictions and censorship from hundreds of locations around the globe, all while staying private and secure.

StrongVPN has 650+ servers in 20+ countries and apps for all the major platforms. You can also connect up to 5 devices simultaneously.

StrongVPN Pricing

StrongVPN offers two pricing plans. Both these plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Select a plan based on your budget and current needs:

1-month plan: $10/mo (billed every month)
1-year plan: $5.83/mo (billed $69.99 every 12 months) — Most popular (Save 42%)

Get StrongVPN

5. CyberGhost VPN

CyberGhost VPN is a Romanian-based VPN service that secures and anonymizes the online presence of over 20 million users across the globe.

CyberGhost VPN will automatically protect you every time you are connecting to a new WiFi or internet connection. With CyberGhost VPN’s 256-AES bit technology encryption, you’ll never be vulnerable in a hotel, airport, or any other public space. You can connect up to 7 devices simultaneously.

CyberGhost VPN is available on all major platforms, including Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, and more.

Here are the key benefits of using CyberGhost VPN:

Hide Your IP: Your original IP address will be replaced by an IP address from the CyberGhost network, making it impossible for websites to track your online activity.
WiFi Protection: Using top-class 256-bit encryption technology, CyberGhost VPN protects your privacy and secures you online, even on public WiFis.
Global Servers: CyberGhost has over 3000 VPN servers in over 60 countries and these numbers keep growing. This means you will be able to swap identity with one of those traffic servers and access otherwise geo-restricted content.
Access Restricted Content: By connecting to the secure CyberGhost servers, you can access content from all over the world, without any geo-restrictions or censorship.

CyberGhost VPN Pricing

CyberGhost VPN offers 3 pricing plans. All plans come with a 45-day money-back guarantee:

1-month plan: $12.99/mo (billed $12.99 every month)
1-year plan: $6.49/mo (billed $77.88 every year)
2-year plan: $3.5/mo (billed $84 every 2 years) — Most popular (Save 73%)

Get CyberGhost VPN

Final Thoughts

So these are the 5 best VPN services we’d recommend for WordPress users. If we have missed out on your favorite VPN service, please feel free to mention the service in the comments section.

If you found this article useful, please share it with your followers on Twitter using the link below or share it on other social channels using the social bar on the left.

5 Best VPN Services for WordPress Users Click to Tweet

Editor’s Note: This article was first published on 1 November 2018 and has been updated regularly since then for relevance and comprehensiveness.

Related Articles

The post 5 Best VPN Services for WordPress Users (Reviewed for 2022) appeared first on 99signals.

12 Clever Ways to Repurpose Content (and Get More Traffic)

Sandeep Mallya — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 10:30:56 +0000

Producing a fresh piece of content is not an easy task. It takes countless hours of research and editing before it’s finally published. Then you need to spend the same amount of time, if not more, promoting it — sharing it on your social channels, sending email updates to your subscribers, and optimizing it in such a way that it performs better in search results.

If you’ve done all these things right, then you’ll notice enough traction for that article which will result in a spike in traffic. You may spend time building authoritative backlinks for your new article so it outranks your organic competitors in search results, but we all know it’s an ongoing process and one that takes time and effort.

Download Now: The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit – 75+ Tools to Grow Your Blog [Free eBook]

If you’re like most bloggers, you move on to greener pastures and leave the published post behind.

But what if there’s a better way to deal with your older posts? What if you could breathe new life into your old content and help it reach a new audience?

Luckily, there is a solution — to repurpose your content. Repurposing content involves finding new ways to recycle your old posts to amplify their reach.

In this post, we’ll be specifically talking about repurposing your best performing blog posts. But you can follow the same practice for other types of content that you may have — your most-viewed videos, your most popular podcast episodes, your most popular presentations on SlideShare, and so forth.

To help you get started, here are 12 ways to repurpose content.

12 Ways to Repurpose Your Blog Posts

1. Turn Your Blog Posts Into Videos

Videos are not just popular on YouTube, but they are also the most engaging format on Facebook.

Recently, BuzzSumo analyzed 100 million videos on Facebook to learn that videos are the top performing content on the platform and get the highest levels of engagement.

With that in mind, you can turn your blog posts into videos to maximize the reach of your content. Take your best-performing articles and turn them into long-form videos. Upload these videos on your YouTube channel to gain a new set of followers for your content.

Ahrefs does a phenomenal job repurposing their blog posts into videos. Take this blog post, for instance, which explains broken link building strategies, and here’s a video on the same topic on YouTube:

That takes care of YouTube, but what about other social networks? Long-form videos are not yet popular on Facebook and Twitter.

Top brands like Buzzfeed, HubSpot, and Business Insider frequently post short videos with text overlay that get tons of engagement on Facebook and Twitter. Take this video by HubSpot for instance:

You can do the same for your most-visited blog posts. Pick a popular post and make a list of the key takeaways from the post.

Here are 3 tools that can help you convert your existing posts into videos:

These tools will also help you pick the right stock footage and royalty-free background for your videos.

The videos created via these tools may not perform well on YouTube, but they can certainly fetch loads of engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

2. Design Infographics

One of the easiest ways to boost your site’s traffic is by designing infographics for your popular posts.

According to HubSpot, infographics can increase web traffic by up to 12%.

Here’s the thing: You don’t need to be a design expert to create a share-worthy infographic. You can use any of the free do-it-yourself design tools like Canva, Venngage, and Visme, and design an engaging infographic within a few minutes.

My favorite among these is Venngage. The primary focus of this tool is to help you create visually-appealing infographics from hundreds of predesigned templates.

Create a free account by clicking here and choose from any of their pre-designed infographic templates to get a professionally-designed infographic.

If you don’t have the time or bandwidth to design your own infographic, you can outsource the work to Fiverr, or if you have a higher budget, Design Pickle.

Once your infographic is designed and published, submit it to these infographic submission sites to gain some link juice. And don’t forget to share the infographic on Pinterest, Tumblr, and Reddit (Infographics subreddit) to amplify its social reach.

3. Repost Your Articles on Quora

Ever since its launch in 2010, Quora has continued to slowly and steadily gain traction and currently has around 200 million monthly active users.

Type any question on Google and chances are that the first search result will almost always be a Quora page with answers to the same question.

There are two ways you can use Quora to repurpose your blog posts.

The first way is to create your own blog page on Quora and then start syndicating some of your popular blog posts there.

To create your own blog on Quora, visit this page.

The second way is to start answering relevant questions on Quora.

But here’s the catch: Answering questions in your niche without doing any research will likely lead to zero results. But, above all, it will leave with you a ton of wasted time.

Luckily, you can use a reliable SEO tool to find questions that have the potential to drive traffic back to your website.

Let me demonstrate how to do this using Ahrefs:

Navigate to Site Explorer and type “Quora.com” in the search box. Ahrefs will pull out traffic stats and other SEO metrics for the site.

From here, click on the “Top pages” report to see the pages that get the most organic traffic. Here, you can type in the keywords that are associated with your niche to see the amount of search traffic they get from Quora.

For instance, let’s say you want to drive traffic to an article on “ketogenic diet” on your wellness blog. You then need to type in the keyword “ketogenic” into the include search box and check out the estimated search traffic each page gets.

Now that you’ve identified the pages on Quora that get the most search traffic for your topic, it’s time to start answering these questions. Provide in-depth answers to the questions and always link back to your original post at the end to drive referral traffic back to your blog.

4. Turn Your Best Articles Into Podcast Episodes

Podcasting awareness has grown massively in the last few years.

Consider this: In 2006, only 22% of consumers knew what a podcast was, but by 2019 over 64% of consumers are aware of podcasting.

If you already have a podcast, then you can turn your most popular posts into new podcast episodes.

If you don’t have a podcast, then you can launch one within no time using a free app called Anchor (available on iOS, Android, and desktop web) with no extra equipment required. Click here to get started.

Anchor lets you record, host, and distribute your podcast on all the major podcast-playing platforms (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, etc.) at no extra cost.

Once your podcast is up and ready, start promoting it by following the steps outlined in this article by Buffer.

Pro Tip: Although Anchor allows you to record your podcast using only your smartphone, I’d urge you to invest in a good microphone. I use Audio-Technica ATR2100 USB Microphone for recording my podcast, but you can find a ton of good microphones on Amazon. Trust me, it’s worth investing in a microphone that sounds great if you’re serious about podcasting.

5. Create Interactive Content

Creating interactive content on your site is an effective way to stand out amidst the plethora of content online. According to Business2Community, 88% of marketers say interactive content differentiates them from their competitors.

With do-it-yourself content marketing tools like Outgrow and ion interactive, you can create interactive content such as quizzes and surveys in a matter of minutes.

Here are the most common types of interactive content you can find online:

Quizzes
Calculators
Polls
Chatbots
eCommerce Recommendations

These interactive pieces can then be added to existing blog posts on the same topic to increase its value.

You can create any of the above with Outgrow.

Here are some interactive content examples from my own blog. All of these were created via Outgrow:

If you’d like more examples of engaging interactive content, refer to this BuzzSumo article.

6. Turn Your Popular Posts Into eBooks

All your long-form blog posts have the potential to be eBooks which you can then use as lead magnets to grow your email list.

You can either take one single long-form post and turn it into an eBook or take a series of posts on a common topic and combine them together to create an in-depth guide.

On my own blog, I took the most popular posts on SEMrush and combined them together to create “The Ultimate SEMrush Playbook” – an in-depth guide on how to use SEMrush to its maximum potential.

I recommend using a service like Beacon to convert your existing long-form blog posts into eBooks. They have a free plan, but to unlock more features, you’ll need to upgrade to their Professional plan which is $49/month.

7. Convert Your Blog Posts Into Presentations

Another way to repurpose your blog post is to convert it into a presentation.

You can use PowerPoint, Keynote, Canva, or my personal favorite, Slidebean, to create a beautiful presentation that perfectly captures all the key actionable items in your blog post.

Once you’re done, upload your presentation to SlideShare and embed the presentation in one of the relevant posts.

Since SlideShare currently has 80 million users and gets a decent amount of traffic from search, your presentation has the potential to grab more eyeballs and possibly drive referral traffic to your site.

8. Host a Webinar

If your blog generates consistent organic traffic, then you are covering topics that your target audience is really interested in. If that’s the case, you should consider doing a webinar on a topic that’s already generated enough search traffic on your blog.

Better yet, you can probably have a poll setup on your blog to find out what topics resonate with your audience.

Doing a webinar will not just help you repurpose your content and reach a wider audience, it will also help you grow your list of email subscribers. Use a tool like EasyWebinar to host live and automated webinars (pre-created webinars).

The tool also allows you to interact with attendees during webinars and export overall stats and individual attendee engagement.

To learn more about how to host a webinar your audience will love, check out this article by Wordstream.

9. Leverage Live Videos

Live videos are here to stay, and the sooner you get on the live streaming bandwagon, the easier it is for you to reach a wider audience for your content. Thanks to the introduction of Facebook Live and Instagram Live, brands and influencers alike are creating interesting live videos to engage their followers.

According to Livestream, live video is more appealing to brand audiences: 80% would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog, and 82% prefer live video from a brand to social posts.

Here are some of the places where you can publish live videos:

Facebook Live
YouTube Stream Now
Periscope
LinkedIn Live

Use a service like Restream to stream your live videos to 30+ platforms simultaneously.

Not confident of going live on social media yet? Use a tool like OneStream Live to live stream pre-recorded videos on 40+ social channels.

If you have existing video content on your YouTube channel, you can choose to live stream them to your audience on Facebook and Instagram with OneStream Live.

Just make sure the videos are not too dated and the topic covered is relevant to your audience.

The best part? You can get started with OneStream Live for free. Click here to sign up for a free OneStream Live account.

To learn more about OneStream Live, check out my in-depth video review and tutorial below, or read the accompanying OneStream Live review.

10. Create an Email Series

Yet another way to repurpose your existing content is to create a series of automated emails that consist of your most popular posts. You may already have a robust list of email subscribers who’d like to receive your best content via email.

Select 10 of the most popular posts on your blog and create a set of automated emails that are triggered every time you get a new email subscriber.

If you don’t currently use an email marketing service provider (ESP) to manage your email campaigns, consider investing in one of these email services, and streamline the whole process.

11. Syndicate Your Content

Consider syndicating or republishing some of your best performing posts on other blogging platforms to reach out to a whole new audience. LinkedIn and Medium are two of the most popular platforms where you can republish your content.

If you’re indeed republishing your content on these platforms, consider making the following tweaks to your posts to ensure they get the best results:

Change the post title
Link back to the original article (either at the start of the article or at the end)
Change the tone and voice to suit the platform
Publish original blog posts from time to time to provide exclusive content to your Medium followers

The team at Buffer republished older, evergreen content from their blog archives on Medium which resulted in a 1,215% increase in views.

If you also have older, evergreen articles on your blog, breathe new life into them by republishing them on Medium or LinkedIn and gain a fresh wave of followers.

12. Create Micro Content and Share it on All Your Social Networks

A long-form blog post typically consists of a blizzard of facts, statistics, and observations. These snippets of content can then be distributed on different social channels to get more views and engagement.

To simplify this, let’s take a look at Gary Vaynerchuk’s content model:

Image Source: GaryVaynerchuk.com

Here’s what Gary Vaynerchuk does:

First, he selects one long-form piece of content — it could be one of his keynotes, videos, podcast episodes, interviews, or daily vlogs. Gary Vee calls this “pillar content.”
Next, he repurposes that into 30+ short-form pieces of content aka “micro content” — blog posts, images, quotes, mashups, GIFS, etc.
And finally, he successfully distributes all of that content on all the relevant platforms — Facebook, Instagram, IGTV, Medium, Quora, Twitter, and so on.

This simple practice has resulted in his content getting over 35 million total views.

We can follow the same model for each of our blog posts. In this case, our long-form blog post will be the “pillar content” and the “micro content” can be images, quotes, videos, vlogs, podcast episodes, and so forth. Once you’ve created your micro content, you can distribute the same on all the major social platforms.

Pro Tip: Here are 25+ places where you could be sharing your micro content.

Summary and Infographic

Here’s a quick recap of the things we discussed in this post:

Turn your blog posts into videos
Design infographics
Repost your articles on Quora
Turn your best articles into podcast episodes
Create interactive content
Turn your popular posts into eBooks
Convert your blog posts into presentations
Host a webinar
Leverage live videos
Create an email series
Syndicate your content
Create micro content

Now that you know how to repurpose your blog posts, it’s time to run a few experiments to see what works and what doesn’t. Do you have any favorite content repurposing ideas that were not included in this post? Let us know in the comments section.

Found this article useful? Please share it on Twitter using the link below:

12 Clever Ways to Repurpose Content (and Get More Traffic) Click to Tweet

Editor’s Note: This article was first published on August 1, 2019 and has been updated regularly since then for relevance and comprehensiveness.

Related Articles

The post 12 Clever Ways to Repurpose Content (and Get More Traffic) appeared first on 99signals.

15 Free HubSpot Tools and Resources Every Marketer Should Be Using

Sandeep Mallya — Sat, 28 Sep 2019 15:33:56 +0000

Founded by Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan in 2005, HubSpot is a marketing, sales, and customer service platform that helps companies grow better.

Over the last few years, HubSpot has developed a plethora of tools and resources to help marketers and entrepreneurs run successful inbound marketing campaigns. What most marketers don’t realize is that many of these tools and resources are free with no strings attached.

Download Now: The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit – 75+ Tools to Grow Your Blog [Free eBook]

In this article, we have listed down 15 free HubSpot tools and resources that will help you drive more traffic and get more conversions.

15 Best HubSpot Tools and Resources (That Are 100% Free)

1. Buyer Persona Tool by HubSpot

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.

Buyer personas provide structure and context for your business, making it easier to map out content, allocate your time and resources, and achieve alignment across your organization.

When creating your buyer persona, you need to consider factors like customer demographics, age, education, industry, goals, and so on.

HubSpot’s free “Make a Buyer Persona” tool simplifies the process by helping you create a buyer persona for your brand through a 7-step process. Just answer a set of questions about your target audience to arrive at a buyer persona you can use to market your products or services in an efficient way.

Once your buyer persona is generated, you can download a PDF version of the data to access it anytime you want.

Click here to create your Buyer Persona

2. HubSpot Website Grader

Website is a free SEO tool developed by HubSpot which grades your website on key SEO metrics — from site speed to mobile friendliness to security.

Website Grader also provides actionable tips on how to improve your website’s performance to help it rank better in search results.

Click here to grade your website

3. HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator

Blog Ideas Generator is a free content marketing tool created by HubSpot to help you with ideas for your next blog post.

You can enter up to five different topics in the search box and hit the “Give Me Blog Ideas” button to generate 250 blog ideas for the topics you’ve entered.

Once the tool has generated blog ideas, you can download the same as a spreadsheet and refer to it whenever you’re in need of new ideas.

Click here to generate blog ideas

4. HubSpot CRM

Having a CRM for your business can help you easily keep track of your contact data, segment your customers, and scale your sales process. According to Salesforce, the use of a CRM can increase sales by up to 29%.

If you’re looking for an efficient CRM system that costs nothing, then HubSpot CRM is the solution you should go for. It has everything you need to organize, track, and nurture your leads and customers.

With HubSpot CRM, you can get an up-to-the-minute view of your entire sales funnel on a visual dashboard, track customer interactions automatically, and see everything about a lead in one place. The best part is is that it’s 100% free.

Get started with HubSpot CRM

5. HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Course

If you’re looking to build a robust inbound marketing strategy for your company, then this free inbound marketing course by HubSpot is the perfect place to begin learning all things inbound marketing.

This certification course covers inbound marketing techniques that range from content creation to social promotion to converting and nurturing leads and beyond. Trust me: it’s totally worth your time.

Sign up for HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Course

6. SSL Checker by HubSpot

Since July 2018, Google’s Chrome browser has been marking all non-HTTPS sites as “Not Secure.” According to a recent HubSpot Research survey, 82% of respondents would leave a site if they saw this “Not Secure” warning. So having an SSL certificate installed on your website is an absolute must, not just for security, but also for bolstering your site’s visibility in Google search results.

HubSpot’s free SSL Checker lets you check the SSL security certificate status of your website. Just type your domain in the search box and hit the “Check SSL” button to check whether your website is safe and secure.

Click here to use SSL Checker by HubSpot

7. HubSpot Live Chat

High-quality customer service is a key factor in delivering a positive user experience. By adding a live chat feature to your website, you can help drastically improve your customer support quality and give your business a competitive advantage.

HubSpot’s free live chat software allows you to connect with your website visitors in real time to convert new leads, close more deals, and provide better support to your customers.

You can easily customize your chat widget to match the look and feel of your brand, and create targeted welcome messages for different webpages or segments of your audience.

Get started with HubSpot Live Chat for free

8. HubSpot’s Google SEO Tutorial

HubSpot is known for creating remarkable content on their blog. The company has used blogging as a long-term strategy to rank at #1 on Google for all the important keywords in marketing and sales. In fact, a significant portion of HubSpot customers first learn about the brand and their products through their blog. Most often, these visitors land on the HubSpot blog by searching for something on Google.

If you want to learn the secret behind HubSpot’s strategy to rank high in Google search results, then this free tutorial is for you.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn about the top 3 blog SEO tactics HubSpot uses to rank in search. You’ll learn all about building topical relevance, optimizing your blog content for Google’s featured snippet, and implementing a process called historical optimization to rank for target topics using blog posts you’ve already written and published.

Click here to sign up for HubSpot’s Google SEO Tutorial

9. HubSpot’s Chatbot Builder

Chatbots have completely changed the landscape of customer support in the last few years. Outgrow predicts 80% of businesses will have some sort of chatbot automation by 2020.

You can create your own chatbot by using HubSpot’s free Chatbot Builder. With HubSpot’s chatbot builder, you can build chatbots to book meetings, provide answers to common customer support questions, qualify leads, and more.

HubSpot’s Chatbot Builder is integrated with HubSpot’s free CRM tool, which means your bots can deliver more personalized messages based on information you already have about your contacts.

Click here to create your own chatbot with HubSpot’s free chatbot builder

Additional resource: 8 Best Chatbot Platform Tools to Build Chatbots for Your Business

10. HupSpot’s WordPress Plugin

HubSpot’s WordPress plugin brings the power of HubSpot’s Growth Platform to WordPress. This free plugin includes lead capture tools like forms, popups, live chat, and an integrated free contact database (CRM).

By adding this plugin to your WordPress site, you’ll get access to HubSpot’s free CRM, marketing, sales, and customer service tools, as well as free courses within the HubSpot Academy.

Download the free HubSpot WordPress plugin

10. HubSpot’s Link Building Tutorial For Beginners

Link building continues to be a critical factor in ranking high in Google search results.

HubSpot’s free link building tutorial will teach you the basics of link building. You’ll learn why link building is important for SEO, how to calculate the number of links your web page needs to rank on page one of Google, and how to build links at scale by building meaningful relationships with the right people that will lead to more links over time.

You’ll also learn how to implement a key link building tactic step-by-step.

Click here to sign up for HubSpot’s Link Building Tutorial

11. HubSpot’s Marketing Plan Template Generator

HubSpot’s marketing plan generator helps you outline your annual marketing strategy and identify your most important initiatives, and track the right metrics all year long.

All you need to do is answer a few questions about your marketing goals and you’ll receive a 12-month marketing plan within minutes.

Click here to generate your marketing plan

13. HubSpot’s Email Signature Generator

Conversion-optimized email signatures are an excellent way to generate more brand awareness, increase registrations for an upcoming event or webinar, and let customers know about your offerings and pricing plans.

HubSpot’s Email Signature Generator allows you to create a conversion-optimized email signature to help you meet your marketing goals.

The email signature created via this tool works with HubSpot, Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, Yahoo Mail, and more.

Create your free email signature

14. Free Business Templates by HubSpot

HubSpot’s collection of 45 free, designer-approved professional templates can help simplify your life and win more deals.

From startup business plan to organizational chart to marketing proposal, these business templates will help you save time and make you more productive.

Click here to access these free business templates

15. HubSpot Invoice Generator

Need help creating professional invoices for your customers? HubSpot’s free invoice generator can help.

All you need to do is fill in your business details in the invoice template to create a professional invoice for your customers.

Additionally, you can download 10 free invoice templates created by HubSpot to meet all of your invoicing needs. The templates are fully editable and can be downloaded as a PDF to send off to your customers.

Click here to use HubSpot’s Invoice Generator

Final Thoughts

Now that you are aware of all the free tools HubSpot has to offer, it’s time to start using them to see if they provide real value to your business.

If you found this article useful, please consider sharing it on Twitter using the link below:

15 Free HubSpot Tools and Resources Every Marketer Should Be Using Click to Tweet

Related Articles

The post 15 Free HubSpot Tools and Resources Every Marketer Should Be Using appeared first on 99signals.