Looking for Stock Photos and Images? Check Out Dreamstime

As the idiom goes, a picture is worth a thousand words! If you are not currently using images on your site or blog, you are missing out. Apart from enriching your content and making your site more visually appealing to visitors, images can actually boost your search traffic, many people go on Google looking for images, and Google redirects that traffic to the respective websites that published the images.

With such benefits in play, why many bloggers and webmasters simply don’t bother using images? Probably because they don’t have an easy and affordable way to get the images themselves.

Simply going to Google, searching for an image and using it on your site doesn’t work. Those images have copyright, meaning that you could get introuble if you use them without permission from the copyright owner.

The best solution is to find royalty-free images, because you can use those without having to worry about legal issues. There are many royalty-free image sites around, but one that I used in the past and recommend is called Dreamstime.

I discovered them by chance when I was looking for an image that contained Brazilian Reais (the Brazilian currency). I couldn’t find it on rival sites, but managed to do it on Dreamstime, so I became a client after that.

In fact they have close to 40 million royalty-free images on their database. Some are available free of charge as you can see here. Others are available for purchase, starting at $0.2 per download, which is quite affordable if you compare with the competition.

If you are a WordPress user, life is going to be even easier. You can install the Dreamstime plugin and add images to your posts directly from the WordPress dashboard.

Check it out!

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

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This post is courtesy of: http://www.dailyblogtips.com

How to Use Content That Isn’t Yours

The Oatmeal’s creator Matthew Inman posted a comic comparing having a baby to having a cat. For those who eschewed procreation in favor of raising felines, the comic is a (hilarious) validation. It also rings true for parents who have gone the baby route. The web-based comic went viral, racking up over 300,000 shares on Facebook alone.

That massive traffic proved all too alluring, and a blogger at the Huffington Post reposted the entire comic in the body of an article. Understandably peeved that another corporate entity was profiting from his hard work, Inman switched the image connected to the link, with this message:

While there was a predictable amount of schadenfreude expressed by competing media outlets, the incident highlighted a complicated challenge that publishers – traditional media companies or brands engaged in content marketing – face when developing policies on how to use other people’s content.

While there’s no straightforward rule book to consult for those who want to engage in ethical content creation or to incorporate other people’s content into their own content marketing, here are a few approaches you might try.

Keep it 100% legal

In a nutshell, any original image, writing, or recording in a fixed medium (written down or saved as a file) is protected by copyright law. So if you take a photo with your digital camera, you have the rights to that photo immediately. Similarly, when you hit save on a Word doc, you have a copyright to that content. The only notable exceptions are when you create something for work (your employer would own it), or when you use something that already has copyright protection as the basis for your work. That means that your Harry Potter fan fiction, a company blog post, or a Beyonce mash-up you mix probably wouldn’t belong to you.

The same principle applies to brands: Any original content their employees create belongs to the brand.

If you want to use someone else’s content, you should ensure that you:

• Obtain written permission: Enter a formal agreement with the creator or through the terms of service on a user-generated content site. For example, you can embed YouTube videos wherever you like because all YouTube posters have agreed to its terms of service (including embedding videos by others).

• Engage in fair use: You’re allowed to copy work to criticize, comment, or parody. When you pull a block quote from Joe Pulizzi’s latest blog post to talk about how brilliant he is, there’s nothing he can do to stop you. But if you copy his entire post, you’re in trouble. Similarly, taking a screen-grab from a movie to create a meme is likely OK.

A good question to determine whether fair use applies: Would your use of the content in any way subtract from the value that would otherwise go to the content creator? If the answer is no, then you should be in the clear to use it.

If you want more detail, here’s a good copyright law overview.

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Get an informal OK

Getting written permission is ideal, but you’ll still be on ethical high ground if you ask the creator if you can use the content and you get a less formal “yes” – send a quick email, tweet, or LinkedIn ping.

See? In this tweet exchange, a local TV station asks a person who uploaded his photo of a plane fire. When you reach out, promise to include attribution and a link back to the person’s website to sweeten the deal (and give the much-deserved credit.)

Don’t ask, but do provide credit and links

Always try your best to track down the original host of the content and credit it by linking to it. Many consider links to be a form of currency that provide real value to the content creator in the form of SEO and exposure.

In fact, a lot of content creators are in it just for the exposure; they’ll probably be thrilled you used their image, video, or writing – as long as it’s clear that they’re the brilliant mind behind it. By giving good attribution alone you’re not necessarily in the right legally, but you’re probably still in the right.

Follow these two best practices:

• Find the original source: In this age of syndicated content, aggregation, and sharing, it can be pretty easy to give credit to the wrong person or build a link to the wrong site. To give credit where it’s due, follow the trail of attribution back to the hosting source. And if you want to be an ethical superstar, copy two sentences from a written piece into your Google search bar (or use a reverse image search for photos, infographics, etc.) to locate the true source. As an example, this phrase pops up several places, but credit should go to the CMI site:

• Use embed features. Many major social platforms offer codes that allow you to easily embed their content onto your own website. YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook all provide this function. Be sure to read each social platform’s embed policies and terms of service but, generally speaking, content embedded on social sites such as Twitter is often legal to publish as long as you use the platform’s embed code. If you download and republish the asset, you lose the legal authority to have it on your site and make it harder for people to find their way back to the original.

Subscribe to stock-image platforms

If you need an accompanying image for a blog post, in many cases a royalty-free image or illustration will suffice. It’s important to note though that royalty free does not mean that the image is free to use. Royalty-free images have a license fee but you are not required to pay a royalty each time you use the image.

Be sure to read the restrictions outlined in the image provider’s license, which may limit the frequency of an image’s use or preclude its use for commercial purposes. On Shutterstock, for example, you need to identify the expected reach of the image, which determines the fee or image package available.

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Use Creative Commons content

Millions of artists and content creators are uploading their work onto the web under a Creative Commons license, which is a more permissive form of copyright. (Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creative content and knowledge through free legal tools. It was popularized by artists who thought their work should be shared.)

You can search for Creative Commons photos on Flickr, for example. Remember – just because a work is listed as Creative Commons doesn’t mean credit isn’t required or restrictions don’t exist. (Most Creative Commons licenses require you to seek permission if you want to use the content for commercial reasons.)

Honor takedown requests

There may be a time when a content creator doesn’t want you to use his content. Take the example I shared at the beginning. Huffington Post credited The Oatmeal for the use of its comic and it used the image file from The Oatmeal site, but it resulted in so many server calls that The Oatmeal wanted it taken down. The Huffington Post eventually apologized for the error, removed the image from the post, and replaced it with a link to The Oatmeal’s website.

Bottom line: If you don’t have legal permission, don’t argue with the creator when he or she comes a-callin’. It creates bad blood and gives the creator ammunition that can be used in court. Apologize and offer to take down the content immediately. If you respond promptly, the owner of that content usually will be understanding and take no further action.

Protect your original content

Since you’re a content creator, too, you may be on the other side of these issues. Want to check on the use of your original content by others? Google and Google image search are the best place to start (though not really scalable if you want to keep tabs on a lot of content). There are a bunch of other tools, including Copyscape, which is a great plagiarism and stolen copy checker.

If you want to get someone to cease, desist, or just give you credit for your original content, here’s a good guide to responding to plagiarism.

Conclusion

Would it be much easier if you could view any content that floats across your screen as fair game for re-posting? Sure, but that approach hurts both content creator and replicator. If we accept the premise that quality content contains value, then we must recognize that value by being respectful to those who produced it.

Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

Want to stay updated on the latest in content creation, repurposing and more? Sign up for the daily or weekly CMI blog.

The post How to Use Content That Isn’t Yours appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

Liven Up Old-Hat Content: 4 Ways to Find a New Twist

Barbara’s small audience had heard it all before. Her message was the epitome of ho-hum. Bo-ring. I’m talking boy-do-my-cuticles-need-a-trim boring.

Except that it wasn’t. Coming from her, that same-old-same-old content, typically delivered as a mindless spiel, had us all looking straight at her.

Barbara is a flight attendant. She was talking to the group of us sitting in the emergency-exit row. She had just invited us to review the emergency-exit card. Sure. As soon as I finish messing with this hangnail.

“See that thing that looks like a tornado? That’s smoke.” (Wait. Smoke that looks like a tornado? I reached for the card.)

“What would you do if smoke were coming in through both of these doors?” (What would I do? What would you do?)

“Your brain would tell you to make for the same door you came in, up front.” (Ha! She’s right. What should my brain do instead?)

“Remember, there’s a door in the back of the plane, too.” (This plane has a back door! What a revelation!)

I mean, I knew about the back door. I had seen many a flight attendant mechanically indicate its location. But no one had ever warned me that my fight-or-flight brain would forget about that door’s existence.

By giving us, her fellow travelers, a fresh, thoughtful, human-to-human take on some obvious facts, Barbara had taken her topic from boring to interesting.

What wouldn’t a marketer give to pull off this trick day after day? Here are a few lessons that marketers can learn from Barbara. Well, not learn, exactly. You already know these things. That fact brings me to the first lesson …

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Revisit your core messages – with a twist

Information doesn’t have to be new to be interesting. We all need reminders of important messages – even (maybe especially) when we’ve heard them before. No worthwhile information is too familiar to revisit.

To liven up a bit of old-hat content, think of it as having two parts:

• The topic (X)
• What’s interesting about that topic (Y)

When Barbara talked about emergency-exit instructions (her X), she described the plane filling with smoke and noted that, in such a situation, our brains might forget about the back door (her Y).

In her book Out on the Wire, Jessica Abel says that a good story needs both X and Y. She calls this combination the XY story formula. Hat tip to Michele Linn for pointing out this passage:

The topic is just part of the story idea, it’s the first half of the XY story formula. ‘I’m doing a story about X.’ X can be a person, an event, or even an idea. But if you haven’t got a Y, a pretty engaging, surprising Y, you never leave topic-land and arrive at a story. Work out a good Y, and you’ll identify your hook and you’ll have your story.

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Liven up old-hat content by looking for a new twist. @MarciaRJohnston #contentmarketing
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Anyone can repeat an old X. The effective communicator brings out the Y.

What core Xes of yours are worth revisiting? What Ys might you bring out?

Explore your old content for inspiration

Sources of compelling new content may be hiding in plain sight in the form of old content. Barbara had apparently studied the emergency-exit instructions and considered ways to engage a disengaged audience.

What are your organization’s equivalents of emergency-exit cards – core, classic content that people tune out? What details could you bring back to fascinating life? What is the back door of your plane?

TIP: You can mine Google Analytics to answer questions such as these:

• What are people looking for on our site?
• Which of our blog posts are most engaging to visitors?

Barbara took enough interest herself in this boring content to figure out an approach that piqued our interest.

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To get attention, pay attention

Many flight attendants accept being ignored as part of the job. When they speak, they look at the walls of the plane and talk like robots.

Barbara looks into people’s faces. She knows who is paying attention and what prompts people to do what she wants them to do (reach for that card, look back at her). People reward her with attention because she pays attention to them.

On an effective scale of robot to Barbara,

• How much attention do you pay your audiences?

• How might you use analytics data to gain more useful insights into your website visitors?

• How could you listen more effectively to what people say about your organization on social media?

• How could you take fuller advantage of in-person events to look into the eyes of your customers?

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Ask questions

Barbara could have simply told us what to do if we saw smoke at both emergency doors. Instead, she asked us, “What would you do if smoke were coming in through both of these doors?” Her question nudged us to confront our uncertainty. It made us curious. It got us thinking, not to mention feeling.

An apt question transforms non-listeners into listeners who just might become remember-ers. Doers.

How might you use questions more effectively in your content? (You see what I did there.)

Conclusion

No content is inherently boring. If you have something useful to say, don’t be afraid to say it over and over, keeping in mind these ordinary truths demonstrated by an out-of-the-ordinary flight attendant:

• Revisit your core messages – with a twist.
• Explore your old content for inspiration.
• To get attention, pay attention.
• Ask questions.

As I was wrapping up this article, I came across a mock airline safety card that had been packaged with a set of DVDs of the award-winning TV series Lost. I could practically feel the universe tapping me on the shoulder. Boring? You call these cards boring?

How about it? Do you have an idea for how to rejuvenate some old familiar content of your own? Tap into your inner Barbara and share your idea as only you can – the X and the Y of it. I bet that we, your fellow passengers, will find it interesting.

Want to learn more about how to create the Ys for successful content marketing? Join thousands of your fellow professionals and hundreds of experts at Content Marketing World, Sept. 6-9. Register today.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Liven Up Old-Hat Content: 4 Ways to Find a New Twist appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

The Content Talent Crunch: Time to Change How We Train, Hire, Nurture

(Editor’s note: When we find something of such significant value to our audience from another source, we pull out our curation tools. This article appeared in Chief Content Officer magazine, which excerpted it from Jay’s great blog, Sorry for Marketing.)

I have these two friends. Let’s call them Brendan and Amanda (because those are their names). These two friends are very, VERY good content marketers. They’ve built audiences at the top of the funnel. They’ve converted audiences down the funnel. They’re great at managing content teams. They’re prolific content creators and leaders. They’re so good that they can generate thousands of MQLs, SQLs, RTs, and other KPIs with one hand and drink an IPA with the other. LOL OMG.

They are, in no uncertain terms, the proverbial content rock stars we all hear about. Almost every month, I annoy the crap out of them.

Let me explain: The start-ups in which NextView (the venture capital firm where I work) invests are all falling over themselves to hire the best content marketing talent. Even outside our portfolio, my colleagues in the tech start-up world also are encountering this talent arms race. Almost all of them desperately want what I call a unicorn hire – someone who can execute and lead, strategize, and create. Someone like Brendan. Someone like Amanda. And so I send them job after job, intro after intro.

And as much as I hate to admit it, their best move isn’t to take any of these jobs. Their best move is to wait for a corresponding unicorn job – that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them.

Yep. We’re experiencing a massive talent crunch for great content marketers – and it’s not just in the start-up space. It’s everywhere. And it’s time we did something about it.

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Where’s all the talent?

NextView has invested in 50-plus start-ups in its five-year history, and the talent crunch is what I hear about most. I get multiple emails every week with requests to share good candidates or make intros. NextView also runs a program called the Talent Exchange to surface candidates to our start-ups. The second-most requested intro through this program, just behind software engineers? You guessed it. Content talent.

Over the last 18 months, I’ve watched the problem worsen. In that same span, the language used by hiring managers also has evolved. “We’re hiring a writer” is now more common in my inbox than “we’re hiring a content marketer.” That one small change hints at a much larger reality: Companies aren’t finding enough creative, producer-type talent. Whenever I see a search for “writers,” I can practically hear the executive behind the ask throwing his or her hands up in exasperation … “Enough with the pretenders. We need actual creative talent in here already!”

But they’re not finding it. Whether start-up or enterprise, in my hometown of Boston or beyond, it’s just not consistently there.

Looking outside the bubble

In a survey I conducted with Boston Content (a local content marketing industry group) in 2014, I asked our members to think of their job in four parts: Planning (strategy, buying tech, crafting editorial calendars, etc.), production (creating and editing the content itself), distribution (marketing), and analysis (post-publishing evaluation). Then I asked them to identify where they receive the least amount of internal support and, no surprise, they unanimously said they lacked support in producing content. The marketing world is just not built to support and develop the creative talents of its people, generally speaking. Unfortunately, when it comes to the other possible solution – attracting better talent from elsewhere – we have a long way to go.

For starters, it’s hard to be both focused on your craft as a writer (or any creative) and be happy in content marketing. I often lament this fact and propose solutions to it in my blog, but looking across the industry, I’m one of a few people talking openly about why we need to honor good creative processes and cultivate genuinely great writers, designers, videographers, podcasters, et al. (Hat tip to some of the others doing so, like Ann Handley and Doug Kessler.)

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Starting the solution conversation

Nowhere is the problematic environment more evident than in the marketing world’s obsession with the quality-versus-quantity debate. Not only are those not opposing ideas, but it’s also not reality. Creatives sitting at the adult tables of the digital world (media outlets, for instance) don’t ever get to ask that question. They have to do both. I know some journalists who publish two to three articles per day, all while working on one or two in-depth, long-form pieces. They have to meet a quality bar set by their editors. Ask them, “Do you write to be high quality or high quantity?” and they would just laugh.

Content marketing creatives are still sitting at the little kids’ table. That has to end.

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#Contentmarketing creatives are still sitting at the little kids’ table. That has to end via @jay_zo #quality
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While I don’t have the answer, we need to start talking more openly about the problem and start working toward a sustainable solution. We need to figure it out and fast, or this wonderful, exciting, rewarding industry niche is going to come crashing down. Here are some ideas of what we can do to attack the problem:

1. Create a program to launch better creators.

Launch Academy is a great program here in Boston that trains engineering talent for start-ups. What if we had a studio where young marketers could learn the craft of producing media and how to connect it to a larger marketing strategy? (This could then scale to multiple offline locations. Online could work too, though I’d argue not as well.)

2. Change how we source, interview, and vet candidates.

We simply can’t take the same process used to hire good marketers and use it to hire prolific creators. The best writer I ever hired was a bartender for 10 years prior to my hiring him – and I almost completely messed that up by applying the traditional hiring process to him.

Whether we tweak our vetting process or interview differently to attract new and awesome types of talent, it takes a process and approach that matches.

3. Evolve how we talk and think about creative.

Companies must put aside their products and revise their agendas to first focus on creating amazing content. If there’s one reason media companies are so much better at producing media, it’s because they care about the story first. Then they retrofit the products they sell around a great film, show, book, and so on. The writers, designers, and animators who craft historically great stories and characters don’t wake up thinking, “What can I create today to sell more action figures?”

But marketers? Boy do we get this backwards. That’s unfortunate, given that better content would yield better results for us. But that’s playing the long game.

Right now we don’t talk about creative in a way that attracts top talent. We focus almost exclusively on the end result at the expense of (rather than in harmony with) the craft of creation. Sometimes a blog isn’t working because it sucks to read.

The question I get that makes me want to toss my laptop most is, “How many words should my blog posts be?” What a great way to turn off prolific, quality writers from joining your organization.

This desire to know some magical word count is a sign that (a) someone is interested in shortcuts above craft, (b) someone isn’t a born writer, as nobody who IS would ever ask that question, and (c) someone who doesn’t think about the audience first. Your audience members view a blog post as merely a container. The stuff inside is what they’re after. I believe people are multidimensional and complex. They’ll read any length and consume any medium, provided the stuff inside those containers is worthy.

We need to act now

It’s 8:43 a.m. on a foggy Boston morning as I write this. I’m sitting in my favorite coffee shop downtown. And, hand to God, as I finished typing the section above, one of our start-up CEOs plopped down in the chair across from me, totally unexpectedly: “Good to see you man. Here’s what I’m struggling with …”

The topic? Everything you just read. The solution? It’s time we found one.

This article originally appeared in the December issue of Chief Content Officer. Sign up to receive your free subscription to our bimonthly, print magazine.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post The Content Talent Crunch: Time to Change How We Train, Hire, Nurture appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

This Week in Content Marketing: The Coming Opportunity in Email (Yes, Email)

PNR: This Old Marketing with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose can be found on both iTunes and Stitcher.

In this week’s episode, Robert and I discuss the idea of “peak content” and the lesson that brand marketers can learn from it. Next, we ponder the future of email, which has turned out to be a surprisingly resilient communications medium – and a big opportunity for content marketers. Finally, we ponder how the role of chief content officer is evolving in media companies, and debate whether or not brands ought to treat it as a C-level position. Rants and raves include PewDiePie’s new opportunity with Disney, the nature of creativity (it’s not just for a specially anointed few), and a big challenge publishers are facing today. We wrap up the show with a #ThisOldMarketing example from Karo Syrup.

This week’s show

(Recorded live January 18, 2016; Length: 1:01:35)

Download this week’s PNR This Old Marketing podcast.

If you enjoy our PNR podcasts, we would love if you would rate it, or post a review, on iTunes.

1. Content marketing in the news

• Peak content: The collapse of the attention economy (7:27): For a long time, we’ve been creating too much content, so much so that Media Briefing writer Kevin Anderson thinks we’ve now reached “peak content” – the point where the glut of things to read, watch, and listen to has become completely unsustainable. There hasn’t been enough ad revenue to sustain it for years, which leads him to believe a shakeout is coming in 2016. I observe that many news websites are churning out increasing volumes of content produced by large editorial staffs, but without the traffic and advertising revenue needed to support it. Robert points out a lesson that brand marketers can learn from the struggles publishers are facing today.

• What comes after emails (20:32): Despite its shortcomings, email appears to be here to stay, according to this detailed analysis from The Atlantic. Like any existing technology, its role continues to evolve, even as web-based work management applications like Slack are starting to usurp some of its traditional roles. Robert and I are big believers in the power of email; we agree that there are still many opportunities for brands to create compelling email experiences that cut through the clutter and get noticed.

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• Changing roles of the chief content officer (30:22): Dramatic changes in the ways in which content is produced, distributed, and consumed at media companies have led to rising demand for strategic content leadership, says a new report from Spencer Stuart. Some companies have established a new C-level role: the chief content officer (CCO). This detailed analysis outlines the key characteristics of today’s CCO. Even though this article is very media-centric, Robert and I agree it’s a must-read for brand marketers. We close with a detailed discussion about whether or not content should be a C-level function in organizations.

2. Sponsor (39:00)

• Demandbase: Today’s B2B marketers face a wealth of challenges. Even with marketing technologies to help them reach prospects and track results, most marketers end up focusing on tactics for execution and not the strategies those tools support. Fortunately, there’s a better path forward; it’s called account-based marketing (ABM). In this new e-book from Demandbase, you’ll learn actionable insights on how account-based marketing can pull together disparate resources into something that makes everyone in your company say “Wow!” To learn more about ABM, visit http://demandbase.com/thisoldmarketing

3. Rants and raves (41:50)

• Robert’s rant: Robert doesn’t like the idea that this article from Quartz propagates – that the brains of creative people work differently than those of others. That’s BS, he declares. He prefers John Cleese’s view of creativity, which is that it’s a way of acting or operating – a “muscle” that can be developed. He believes the one thing that will differentiate us is our ability to envision innovative ideas and solutions. If we outsource creativity to agencies and freelancers, we risk becoming a commodity, he warns.

• Joe’s raves: I love this article from Talking New Media, which suggests that publishers either need to pursue gigantic audiences that are irresistible to advertisers or focus on building a highly engaged niche audience. For most of them, the latter approach is the only practical option. I was also excited to read this announcement that Disney’s Maker Studios has given Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, a network to run. It’s called Revelmode, and the plan is to develop “original shows, games, charitable programs, community events, merchandise, and more” with a focus on gaming and pop culture.

4. This Old Marketing example of the week (53:44)

• Karo Syrup: Corn syrup is used to thicken, sweeten, and preserve the freshness of food, and as a substitute for more expensive cane sugar. But in the early 20^th century, it wasn’t selling well. So its maker published cookbooks containing recipes that featured this convenient new consumer product, and supported it with a huge advertising budget. In 1930, the wife of a Karo executive discovered an addictive, new use for its dark syrup – as an ingredient in pecan pie. Her delicious recipe soon went viral. (In the early 20^th century, that meant people mailed the recipe to relatives and friends, the equivalent of Pinterest today.) Karo Syrup focused its marketing efforts on pecan pies around the holidays, promoting them in newspapers, magazines, and promotional mailers. To build upon its success, the company then started to publish cookbooks that incorporated its syrup into many other types of dessert recipes. Even today, its website is very focused on recipes. This is an excellent example of #ThisOldMarketing.

For a full list of PNR archives, go to the main This Old Marketing page.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute. Illustration by Andrew Seabart.

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The post This Week in Content Marketing: The Coming Opportunity in Email (Yes, Email) appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

How to Use Affiliate Marketing in an Effective Way

Affiliate marketing is a channel that poses low risks and high rewards for both merchants and marketers.

When done right, affiliate marketing, also known as outsourced marketing, provides merchants a host of benefits: low-cost advertising, fixed commission-based fees, and brand visibility.

For affiliate marketers, affiliate marketing means the freedom to choose the products to advertise, when and where to work, and a passive income source.

Best practices for affiliate marketers

Affiliate marketers face a substantial amount of competition today.

There are, however, a number of things you can do to effectively use affiliate marketing and paint the products and services of the businesses you promote in the right light.

Maintain a great first impression

First impressions are as important when someone visits your site as when you meet someone in person.

When a visitor comes to your site, how is their experience?

Look at your site from the eyes of a new site user:

-How long does it take for your page to load?

-Ensure your site is easy to understand and users navigate to the different areas of the site just as easily.

-Stay away from overly complex site design. Simpler is generally much better.

This doesn’t mean that the site can’t look great. Aesthetics is good, but the usability of the site needs to be the top priority.

Different tools can be used to test and improve website usability:

Five Second Test
ClickHeat
GTmetrix

Create great, descriptive content

The old saying “content is king” has never been truer. High-quality content is essential for affiliates who want to increase their, among other things, SEO page ranking.

To achieve this:

-Your content must be reader-friendly. Keywords are fine, but if you stuff too many or inject awkward phrases here and there, your content becomes a liability instead of an asset.

-The content must be engaging and informative. Create descriptive narratives of the products and services you offer so readers understand what they’re getting.

-Exude honesty in every post, or readers will lose confidence in your site.

In addition to written content, consider branching out into video. Videos have a number of benefits, but foremost of them is:

Sites with video keep visitors around longer than sites that only have text.

Create video content that:

-Introduces a product or service
-Reviews a product or service in detail
-Shows how a product works
-Compares one product or service to another

With videos, you have just as many options as with written content.

However:

Creating video content is more time and labor-intensive than written content. You may not have time for daily videos, but having several videos can boost the effectiveness of your affiliate marketing.

For the best possible results, remember to only create quality videos. Once done, post the videos on your site, social media, video sharing sites, and other places for better visibility and a wider reach.

Use analytics

How are visitors engaging with your site?

Analytics tools allow you to easily track what visitors are doing on your website:

-Determine which types of content resonate the most with them
-Understand whether banners work better than in-text links
-Track sales

All in all, analytics software provides actionable insights into how to improve your site and make it even more effective.

Some of the top analytics tools available include:

Google Analytics
Clicky
Mint
Kissmetrics
ClickTale

Only work with products you trust

Many affiliate marketers choose the products and services they promote by looking at the bottom line. It’s hard to blame them since they’re running a business and want to make money.

This leads to marketers promoting and writing about products they have never used or would not normally choose.

Doing so causes a number of problems, the most notable being:

You can’t create high-quality content based on items you have no experience using or you don’t actually like.

Marketers should only choose products they would recommend to a friend or family member.

As an affiliate marketer, keeping your visitors’ trust is paramount, as dishonesty has its way of shining through, causing you to lose visitors and your brand reputation in the long run.

Limit the number of products you promote

One cardinal sin many affiliate marketers commit is promoting a host of different products. Not surprising, as many products can equate to increased income.

However:

Bear in mind that you need to stay within your niche so you can keep and grow your audience.

You also don’t want too many competing products on your site. This diminishes the trustworthiness of your content. By limiting the number of competing products you promote, you afford each the full attention it deserves.

In general, never have more than two of the same type of product on your page from competing companies.

Create a resource page

Another great tip to make the most out of affiliate marketing is to create a resource page.

This page can include links to sites, services, tools, and products your audience will find useful. Because you’d rather only promote products or services you use yourself, the resource page can contain your affiliate links.

Final word

Affiliate marketing as an income source takes time and effort, but the results are well worth it. Use the tips enumerated above to improve your effectiveness as an affiliate marketer. When properly implemented, they can make a huge difference in how well you do.

About the Author: Red Akrim is the CMO of Cloudswave and is fervent about helping others use the power of Cloudswave.

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

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This post is courtesy of: http://www.dailyblogtips.com

Creating Preview Videos: Your BFF for Getting App Downloads

With more than 60% of downloads coming from users searching inside the app stores, a great preview video is necessary to tell a compelling story to convert shoppers from “just browsing” to “engaged users.”

An app preview video requires more work than simply recording the app in action. It is the first creative asset that users see. Everything from the call to action down to the colors and features highlighted in the first few seconds can be the difference between hundreds and thousands of conversions.

At least a quarter of all organizations surveyed in 2016 Content Marketing Institute research use mobile apps – 26% of North America’s nonprofits to 43% of North America’s B2C companies. And, given that each of the leading stores (Google Play and Apple’s App Store) sells more than 1.5 million apps, content marketers can get off to a better start when their app preview content stands out and engages potential customers.

Here are some things to consider when developing a great app preview video.

Start with the store’s preferences

One fact that will never change: If Apple or Google Play doesn’t bless the app, it doesn’t exist.

Before an app can begin its long life in the store, a member of the app store’s internal team will review your build, including the preview video, to determine if it meets technical requirements and creative standards.

On its site, Apple warns developers against publishing previews irrelevant to the app’s content and functionality, and encourages them to create previews that use video-screen captures, voice-overs, and textual and design overlays.

When working with apps, unspoken rules and regulations ultimately make the greatest difference. These Apple guidelines can help you lessen the risk of rejection for your preview video and make your app the bell of the in-store ball:

• Use QuickTime Player to capture the native resolution of the user interface.

• Use straightforward transitions like dissolves and fades so the preview doesn’t imply functionality the app doesn’t have.

• Show a higher ratio of video from the app to cut scenes (also known as event scenes) as cut scenes give a false impression of the actual user experience.

• Stay within the app; don’t show animated hands, fingers, or over-the-shoulder views.

Videos that misrepresent the user experience – intentionally or unintentionally – are not viewed as optimal by Apple and may be subject to build rejection. Apple wants preview videos to show a true representation of the gameplay itself rather than a promotional commercial.

Google Play makes it a little easier for developers. Google Play’s preview video guidelines don’t outline much, only stating that videos should be kept between 30 seconds and 2 minutes, giving developers the opportunity to be more creative with what they have.

For example, Peggle Blast’s App Store Preview Video only shows in-game use cases of the app as well as music from the app itself. Peggle Blast’s Google Play app preview takes a more creative spin on showing how the game works:

It’s important to keep in mind that Google Play’s preview video is in the form of a YouTube video, so no matter the orientation it will be constrained in the landscape format.

Pick the right orientation

Whatever users see displayed in the immediate app-store search results set their expectations for the app. Choosing the right video orientation could make all of the difference to your visual allure.

Portrait mode

A portrait-oriented app with a preview video in portrait mode has its poster frame and first screenshot consuming roughly 38% of a device’s screen space.

Having two separate images, each of which does not span half of the screen’s width, means text callouts need to be shorter, art needs to be smaller, and some minor details may get lost.

For example, Candy Crush Saga’s two portrait-oriented screenshots are minimized in the search results, making the finer details harder to discern and the text smaller and more difficult to read.

Apps with portrait-style gameplay typically keep the preview video orientation in portrait mode. The use of the same display format is in line with Apple’s guidelines to show a true representation of the app’s features and gameplay in the video and without too many cut scenes.

Landscape mode

Landscape mode poses a different hurdle for developers. Apple now allows for two landscape-oriented visuals to appear in a search result.

If both the preview video and first screenshot are in landscape mode, any graphics and text are difficult to read.

However, landscape-app previews lend themselves to giving developers more room to show off other features of the app, such as tools, or to use the empty space around the portrait frame for special designs, marketing text, or callouts.

For example, the Cake Story app is native in portrait mode, but its preview video is in landscape mode, allowing the developer to prominently feature characters from the game and gameplay.

Create engaging poster frame

The poster frame of an app preview video is its “paused” state – the first thing a user sees in search. It should be treated like a screenshot in and of itself.

Perhaps you worry that the poster frame of your app preview video lacks definition or clarity and that it isn’t compelling to end-users. In this case, the frame can be changed by selecting another poster frame image in iTunes Connect.

To keep your poster frame engaging and informative, consider selecting a frame of your video that most accurately portrays the app.

Bejeweled’s poster frame prominently features its matching game, as well as a caption letting readers know that it is a “match 3 puzzle game.” Keep in mind that users may be briefly glancing through search results – if they are looking for a match 3 game, including it in the poster frame allows them to see that they should try your app.

Use data to sell your app

App-preview videos are the gatekeepers of an app’s conversion funnel. After a searcher discovers an app, several factors come into play to make them a user of your app. Here are some tips:

• Every preview video should undergo serious testing to ensure that it is optimized for your target audience. With surveys, focus groups, and multi-variant testing platforms, marketers can collect quantitative and qualitative data on what makes users want to click “GET” in an app store.

• Make sure to carry through keywords from your application and highlight them in your screenshots and video for best conversion.

A great example is the Bejeweled app preview’s first text callout — “a sparkling match 3 puzzle game” – as it includes search terms, such as “match 3” and “puzzle game,” used by thousands to find games similar to the one being marketed by PopCap Games.

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU:
Data: The Missing Piece in Your Content Marketing Strategy

Final musings and takeaways

App previews play a huge role in engaging a user from the start to the moment of purchase. With a strong app preview that follows the stores’ guidelines and flaunts the app in a way that does it justice, a developer can create a visual app representation that will make waves in conversion rates.

Want to get expert insight, tips, and takeaways to better your content marketing? Sign up to receive CMI’s daily or weekly email.

Cover image by Viktor Hanacek via picjumbo.com

Please note:  All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team.  No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

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