Tag: marketing

Blogging · Finance

Should You Start To Get Serious About This Blogging Thing?

jacquelineobyikocha17 Comments
Branding, Blogging, Apple Computer, Studio, Work Station
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As you first start out on your blogging journey, you don’t always know where it’s going to take you. First of all, it’s often going to be something you start as a hobby. Maybe you love a certain topic and you want to share your thoughts on it? Maybe you want to write, and so you start to write about anything and everything that you love. Maybe you’re a big blog reader and you just wanted to create your own little corner of the internet? When that’s the case, you can often fall in love with all things blogging. So much so, that you start to want to do it as a job. Or maybe you’re even getting a lot of hits and you really believe that you can turn it into a business. Either way, when you think that you’re ready to get serious about blogging, here’s what you need to do.

Defining Your Brand

The first thing you need to think about doing is defining your brand. And this is crucial. If you want to turn your blogging hobby into a legitimate business, branding is the key. You need to figure out who you are and what you stand for, the build up a brand identity around that. Visually speaking, this will mean that your logo, your colours, and your fonts all need to fit in with the idea of who your brand is. Then you can start to brand everything you do and really establish yourself in a business sense.

Cup, Drink, Book, Desk, Writing, Reading
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Marketing More

From here, you then need to think about your marketing. Right now, it’s highly likely that you’ll have social media platforms that you share your content on. But now, you need to get serious. You need to market as much as possible and have a plan of what you want to achieve too. Think about why you’re marketing on each platform, who you’re reaching, and what you can do to add more value to the content that you’re putting out.

Setting Up An Office

If you just tend to write from your bed or the couch, you need to change that. It’s time to cut out distractions and get focused on building your business. So clear out your spare room or attic space, put everything into storage like www.mybekins.com, and work on creating an office. Think about setting everything up so that you feel motivated to work and that you have everything you need around you to do a better job.

Flatlay, Drink, Tea, Magazines, Relaxing, Blogging, Cup, Wrist-watch

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Monetizing Your Content

Then, you need to think about how you’re going to monetize. And take your time. Look into options like www.neilpatel.com and find out what will work best for you. Start off slow and then you should find that you start to earn real money by doing something you love.

Creating A Game Plan

Finally, you then need to think about where you want to take things. Work out what your overall goals are and then pull a business plan together. This is going to be that one step that helps you to get serious about your blog and turning it into a profitable career path.

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Personal

When I call Your Name…

jacquelineobyikocha10 Comments

Support, Love, Community, Together, Encouragement

As I write this post, the song from ‘Like A Prayer’ by Madonna hums in my head, except that I change it from ‘when you call my name,’ to ‘when I call your name.’

Indeed, it’s a prayer when we beseech others and they attend to us through the kindness of their hearts. Last week, I sent out an SOS post requesting for support from all of you to help me with pushing my new book ‘Unbridled’ and indeed I heard your voices.

Many of you responded with advice, tips, offers, reblogs, featuring and I am working slowly through the list of things to do. I am so thankful for the outpouring of support. I am down on my knees and bless God for being in the midst of the blessings of this community.

Indeed, your voice takes me higher. I am grateful and think of an African proverb that says ‘when relatives help each other, the community grows stronger.’ You are my relatives.

Below is a snippet of review from Aspen Book Tree Reviews

First, I do want to say that some of the poems may be triggering for those recovering from abuse.

Second, I want to say, this is beautiful poetry.

The free verse is strong, descriptive, haunting, lovely.  Jacqueline paints with her words. like an artist.

This is no Monet, this is a Helen Frankenthaler with her bold marks and colors.  There is a section which is written in relation to abuse and some of it is very dark.   Darkness is gut wrenching at times, but the light of hope that shines through is blinding.

My heart agonizes for the girl who has lived through excruciating torment.  But the woman she has become?  She is an Amazon; a warrior of her own heart.

I am very moved by Jacqueline’s words.  I already have my favorites and it’s amazing how Jacqueline reaches in and I feel the warmth.  The last 20 poems are exquisite and delightful.

I give this book a high recommendation, for yourself, for a friend… maybe for an Amazon you know.

Thank you, Jacqueline.  You are amazing.

To Purchase ‘Unbridled.’

Product Details

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Kindle

 

Everyday People

Trying to make a sale – Every day beautiful people

jacquelineobyikocha6 Comments

Trades_woman[1]

My conversation with the tradeswomen below:

“We take small items from the wholesaler on credit to sell. We only earn commissions and maybe extras from the profit of the original amount. Some days sales are poor, but it’s better than doing nothing.”

“It’s difficult to make savings from this, but I hope one day to save enough to have my own small kiosk.”

I ended up buying a whistle 🙂

I have found that once you approach people decently and engage in a conversation, within split seconds, you learn not only a bit more about them, but these little conversations make me pause and be thankful. They make me smile, laugh or sober.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

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Midnight motivation and musings

Midnight Motivations and Musings // 48…

jacquelineobyikocha23 Comments

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Opportunity is taking the situation that you are in and turning it around on its head to make some sense out of it. Opportunity is not going to traipse lazily and knock on your door begging you to pick it up.

Opportunity is not going to traipse lazily and knock on your door begging you to pick it up and it’s not everyone that will have a Cinderella story to tell. Some will have to work their way out of the grate of cinders with all the smoke and never a pair of dainty slippers to lose or Prince galloping to the rescue.

Some will have to work their way out of the grate of cinders with all the smoke and never a pair of dainty slippers to lose or Prince galloping to the rescue.

Adapting to the situation that life presents us is the first key to getting ahead.

Finding the positives that such a situation has to offer and tailoring it to serve some worthwhile purpose in your life is turning an ordinary occasion into a great and well-optimized opportunity.

Your story is an opportunity. Your life is an opportunity. Your art is an opportunity. Your photos are opportunities. Your speaking strength could be an opportunity. Your baking is an opportunity. Your cooking is an opportunity. Your parenting is an opportunity.

Opportunity abounds. Use them as well as you can.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

 

Inspiration - Motivation · Self Help

Midnight Motivations and Musings #28

jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

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When we go into a new venture even our writing, we must always remember that we are not writing just for ourselves.

Yes, indeed it’s true that there are some personal things that we might share to ease our minds and for a myriad of other reasons, but half of the time, your story could serve as a beacon of light for someone going through their own journey.

This equally applies to so many other aspects of our lives, business, work, relationships etc.

What value are you adding where you are?

What hand of fellowship do you extend to others or are you the constantly expectant type?

It’s a proven truth, tested and tried over time, that people will stay closer to those who make them feel welcome and more at ease.

Think back on the busted friendships and broken alliances. What went wrong? Could it be traced to attitude problems? A lot of people find it difficult to look at their shortcomings fully in the face and accept their faults.

Always recollect that attitude makes a lot of difference and leaves a lot of impressions especially in real-time.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Inspiration - Motivation · Social critic

Tips to avoid the pitfalls of Multilevel marketing business…

jacquelineobyikocha1 Comment

make money

Different marketing schemes sprout up everyday with their endless promises of bogus unverified gains to its prospective recruits.

Undisputed, some reputed multilevel marketing business models have been successful in sustaining their business as well as delivering on a percentage of promised gains to its recruits, but in a lot of instances, other marketing schemes adopting this method as well have turned out to be scams.

One major challenge is the fact that a pyramid scheme which is illegal and fraudulent can easily camouflage as a multilevel marketing business.chasing-money

Pyramid schemes are defined as: An illegal investment scam based on a hierarchical setup. New recruits make up the base of the pyramid and provide the funding, or so-called returns, given to the earlier investors/recruits above.

  • A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment … Wikipedia
In quick pursuance of the ever elusive money, a lot of people fall prey to the scams of those who have perfected a system of depriving them of their hard earned funds.
No doubt, some people have made money through these schemes, but based on inquiries made, those who have walked away empty handed, out-number those who have made gains.
There are four main difference between a multilevel marketing company and a pyramid scheme:
  • Members at any level of a multilevel marketing model should theoretically be able to make income through the company’s products and/or services without having to sign up any new members.
  • Another difference is that members of any level in a multilevel can earn more than the people who signed them up depending on how much work they put in, which comes from sales of products or services.
  • You are not obligated to pay out a certain amount of money every month in order to keep your account with the company live, but in some cases, you are required to buy certain amount of inventory within the year.
  • There is little or no joining fee, and sometimes the fees represent the products that you purchase.
Before taking your decision, consider these tips:more money
  • Ask yourself if you are cut out for that particular type of business? Are you an extrovert/people person, willing to go and talk to people about the business if need be?
  • Are you prepared to work for that income? Like every other business, your income is dependent on your ability to sell or achieve results. Any smooth sales pitch promises made to you about making money for doing nothing is too good to be true.
  • Delve as much as possible into the history of the marketing scheme you are interested in. Check out the fine print/get as much information as you can. If your recruiter is unable to provide such vital factual information as maybe required, be skeptical. Do not rely only on the slippery talk of the representative; he is doing his job; do yours.
  • Always do a cost/benefit analysis. Take into cognizance all possible costs associated with signing up against all the potential benefits to you. If the benefits outweigh the costs, you may want to sign-up and try to make some money from the company, but if your potential loss outweighs the gain, then you might consider backing out.
  • Do you have the required funds to keep servicing the business even when you are not making money?
  • What is your exit strategy when you are no longer interested in pursuing that business?
  • How much have would you have lost in the venture if it fails to achieve your set objectives; can you afford to let go of said funds?
  • Pay particular attention over insistence for your immediate commitment with the concept that the rate you are offered is at a discounted/best rate and would change by the following day or week.
  • By applying these guidelines, you should be able to tell to differentiate between the two types of schemes. Some pyramid schemes are very cleverly modeled to cause misconception. If you discover that you cannot seem to make a conclusive decision as to what the company is all about, it is always best to exercise caution and avoid being a victim of scam.

In exercising your desire to own your own business or to be an independent consultant, remember the Caveat Emptor ”buyer beware”.

I hope this helps somebody. Thank you for reading and do pass it forward. Some information are meant to be shared.dough

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha