A six-year study on video marketing found:

• 87% of video marketers say it increased website traffic
• 80% say videos directly increased sales
• 95% said it helped users understand their product or service

Mobile video consumption increases every year, and consumers rely on video experts. Seventy-eight percent of consumers watch online videos weekly on one device or another, and 55% view them every day.

As traffic increases, so does noise and competition in the landscape. I’m here to help you cut through the clutter and identify the best video format for you. I’ll break down vlogs and livestreams, highlighting the strengths of each setup.

What Is a Vlog?

Vlogs are prerecorded videos, usually edited with some effort toward looking good. The primary goal is to communicate on a personal level with an audience. They are easy to digest and provide insights into the vlogger’s life, interests, and opinions.

A vlog usually:

• Focuses on the vlogger who talks to the camera like a friend
• Provides insights into the vlogger’s thoughts and experiences
• Aims to build a personal connection with the audience

Vlogs are perfect for a quick scoop on the latest news or product. They can invite viewers to an upcoming event, promote a book, or provide a helpful solution. One of the great things about vlogs is how specialized they can be. Whether the topic is cooking, cryptocurrency, politics, gaming, parenting, or yachts, vlogs connect you with a tapped-in audience.

What makes vlogs stand out is the personal touch. A vlogger can become the face of a company and feel like a friend to frequent viewers. This relationship creates an opportunity to promote products or services with minimal sales.

What Is Livestreaming?

Livestreaming puts you in front of an active audience and records the session for later sharing. Several social media platforms offer livestreaming, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. They are less produced and more interactive than vlogs because you are with a live audience.

Most social posts reach a limited audience of your friends or contacts. Livestreams overstep that on some platforms. Facebook, for example, places a livestream notification at the top of the list. They also have a small pop-out screen that appears when a livestream begins. Since livestreams are recorded and saved by topic, new and interested people can find you.

When done consistently, both vlogs and livestreams generate leads and can be monetized. The larger your audience, the more options you have to drive business and create revenue.

Choosing Between Vlogging and Livestreaming

Like vlogs, livestreams build a relationship with your viewers. Here are the key differences and similarities.

Differences

Audience Interaction

One primary difference is in audience interaction. Livestreams can give the audience a chance to ask questions, respond to polls, or provide feedback. Vlogs are recorded in advance, but there can be audience interaction through comments on a post.

Production Values

A second difference is production values. Although personal, vlogs tend to be edited and produced, while livestreaming airs as it is happening. Livestreaming audiences accept and even enjoy this natural presentation.

Similarities

Specialize to Compete

With both vlogs and livestreams, you need to specialize to stand out from the competition. You want to offer the market something of value in an entertaining and engaging manner.

If you start in a highly competitive category, you may want to refine your target market to get a larger share of the available audience. In that case, reflect on what makes your business stand out. Investigate how you can specialize your content and face less competition.

Be Consistent

With vlogs and livestreams, building a loyal audience means producing new content on a steady schedule week in and week out. Regularity is essential.

Livestreams are prescheduled and commit you to show up at a specific time. You can record a vlog anytime but then will spend some time editing.

Why Not Both?

Up to 80% of consumers would rather watch a live video than read a blog. Using existing social media platforms, livestreaming comes with a built-in audience. It commits you to a schedule, so your audience knows when to show up and expect you, and it builds a relationship through live interaction.

Recordings of your livestreams can serve as the base material for your vlog. By editing and adding content, you maximize your output from that time and effort. In addition to building your livestream audience, you can populate a YouTube channel and reach people there. With a substantial time commitment or a small staff, you can repurpose your livestreams into podcasts as well.

Extra equipment and professional editors can enhance production if your budget allows for them, but anyone with a video-capable camera and a stable internet connection can posts videos online. Livestreaming relies on specialized software that reformats your video for output on social channels. Your vlogs will require editing software or help from a pro.

Does Your Marketing Strategy Include Video?

Consumers like to watch videos. YouTube has more than 2 billion users, which means almost one-third of internet users worldwide watch their videos. Livestreaming and vlogs give a face and personality to your brand.

When you make the regular output a priority, online videos help you build and maintain an audience. It is not enough to post a vlog here or there or livestream when you feel inspired. Building a relationship with your customers through video marketing means demonstrating your reliability and enthusiasm for what you do.

Both livestreams and vlogs are an excellent opportunity to develop and refine your message. Show off who you are and what you know so customers can like and trust you before engaging with your brand.

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Think of how many Facebook Live videos your clients and prospective clients watched during the 2020 pandemic. Even if you don’t watch livestreams, that’s ok, we have to acknowledge that a whole lot of people do.  I honestly didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to livestreams until the beginning of the quarantine period, which is when it hit me that I should be getting involved too. Every time someone who I was friends with, or whose fan page I followed started a livestream, my phone gave me an instant notification.  No matter what I was doing, the social networks wanted me to pay attention so badly, that they have a “push notification” turned on for these things. The push of the social networks to continue to grow their livestreaming audience is to your benefit, because you can get in on the action too!  I will admit I wasn’t quite sure where to begin, which is why I, when I figured it out, I published a blog on the types of livestreams and podcasts that are most commonly used. The key is that I was committed to providing quality content that enables my audience to do one of the three things I always try to help people get better at: earning, learning, and serving.

I have to say, now that I’ve done more than a dozen livestreams, my only wish is that I wish I started sooner. And, if you haven’t “gone live” yet, now is the perfect time to start streaming live on Facebook!

While live TV broadcasts have been around for almost 60 years, livestreaming over the Internet is still a fairly new concept. Livestreaming was technically invented in the early ‘90s but didn’t become a phenomenon until YouTube Live launched in 2008.

As livestreaming gained popularity online, more and more streaming platforms joined the market, and Facebook announced the introduction of its streaming platform along with Instagram in 2016.

Since then, Facebook has reported that one in five videos on the platform is a live video, and daily watch time for Facebook Live broadcasts grew an astonishing four hundred percent over the course of 2017.

It’s time to take advantage of live videos on Facebook (and the ability to practice real-time storytelling) and get your business, message, ideas, etc. in front of a highly engaged audience. The best part about it, is that when you are finished with the livestream, the video is archived for anyone to go back and watch later.  (And don’t worry, if you feel like you made a huge mistake, you can always delete it yourself!) But first, there are a few things you need to know before you go live.

In this guide, I’ll show you:

•     Five steps for setting up your Facebook Livestream
•     How to promote your event and grow an audience
•     What to do once you go live

Five Steps For Setting Up a Facebook Livestream

Going live on Facebook is akin to hosting a party.

You wouldn’t throw a party without cleaning up, organizing tables and chairs, or buying snacks and drinks. Setting up a Facebook Livestream is like being a good party host—it’s all about the details.

But, before you get to the details, you have to choose the party’s theme. Or, in this case, the topic you plan to livestream about.

Common Facebook Live topics include:

•     Q&A sessions
•     Interview series
•     Industry news
•     Behind-the-scenes looks
•     Topics requested by your audience
•     Whatever you want to talk about

Once you’ve decided on a topic, you can begin to plan out all the details like the livestream date and time and what equipment you’ll need.

Follow these instructions to go live immediately or schedule a livestream for a future date.

1.   Get Started. If using a mobile device, open the Facebook App and select the camera icon on the left side of your search bar. From here, switch to “Live” located at the bottom of your camera screen. If using a desktop, head to your Business Page or personal page, click to write a post, and select the “Start a Live Video” option. You’ll be asked to give Facebook access to your camera and microphone on both devices.
2.   Write a Description. In your written description, you need to give people a reason to click on your live video. Explain what you’ll be discussing, and encourage users to join in. You can also you keywords and hashtags here to gain more visibility.
3.   Add Video Details. Take advantage of as many Facebook Live features as possible. Tag friends you think would be interested and use the location option to capture the attention of people nearby.
4.   Set Up Last-Minute Details. Just before you go live, take a moment to ensure that all the details are in place. Make sure your camera orientation is right (landscape is the best option!), get distracting posters or images out of the background, and adjust any light that may be drowning you out of the video. A huge mistake many people make is putting their back to a window, this makes your camera have to fight sunlight, and you end up looking like a shadow. What most pros do is flip that around 180 degrees and let the sun light you through the window. Natural light is often the best light!
5.   Start Your Live Video. When everything is ready to go, take a deep breath and push that blue “Start Live Video” button. You’ve got this!

If you’re not planning to go live immediately, you can schedule a Facebook Livestream for the future. To do so, go to Facebook’s Live Producer and select “Schedule a Live Video.” Enter the time and date, and set up the rest of the live video as you would normally. You can also publish an announcement post. Once everything is scheduled, your stream will go live at the scheduled time.

So that you’re not talking to crickets, schedule your livestream during a day and time when the majority of your audience is engaged with Facebook. Use the data from your page’s analytics dashboard to determine the best timing.

How to Promote Your Event and Grow an Excited Audience

Unless you’re the spontaneous type and plan to go live right away, you’ll need to promote your livestream ahead of time. Advertising your upcoming livestream ensures that you’ll have an audience ready to interact with you the moment you go live.

My three tips can help you grow viewership long before you’re live on Facebook:

1. Tag Friends, Family, Partners, and Other Brands

Generate excitement about your upcoming livestream by tagging people you think would enjoy the content. Tag friends and family and ask them to share the post with their network. Or tag your business partners and brands you’ve done business with too.  Just make sure you are providing value to that audience and you aren’t “that guy” on Facebook who “keeps tagging me in really irrelevant posts that I have no interest in.” Yes, don’t be that guy.  As always, use tact!

The more people who know about your livestream, the larger the audience that’ll tune in!

2. Share the Livestream Link on Other Platforms

Let the world know you’re planning to go live by cross-posting about it on other social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

I personally use Facebook and Instagram the most, so those are the platforms I tend to promote my livestreams on most often.

However, the more people who know about your scheduled livestream, the greater the chance that people will join in!

3. Send the Link To Your Email Subscribers

Remember to inform your email subscribers about your livestream, too. Send them a message about the upcoming Facebook Live event along with the livestream link and a calendar invite. Recipients who accept the calendar invite will be notified right when it’s time to log onto Facebook for the event.

You’re Live: Now What?

Streaming live for the first time can seem nerve-wracking! But with the proper preparation and my tricks up your sleeve, you’ll have a fun time. Plus, practice makes perfect. I wasn’t as confident on camera at first as I am now, so the most important step is to stop second guessing yourself and just have fun with it. I always tell my clients, “when the message is more important than your ego, you’ll get out of the way and start sharing the message.”

Before you go live, test your video and microphone by using the “Only Me” option on Facebook, and make adjustments as needed. Turn off all outside notifications, and eliminate environmental distractions such as music or noise.

Once it’s go time, keep these tips in mind:

Introduce Yourself Multiple Times

It may not seem natural to introduce yourself and the topic several times, but your audience isn’t logging in all at once. Some viewers may hop in five seconds after you go live, and others will join five minutes into the stream. Think about when you tune into a radio station or a tv show, they recap what is happening every few minutes so that new viewers aren’t lost. If you don’t do this, you are going to lose those new viewers because they are going to be confused and feel left out of the party!

A few minutes into your livestream, introduce yourself again and give a quick update of what’s happened so far in the stream. Do this a few times throughout the first 10 minutes of your live stream if you notice your viewer count steadily rising. After that, 5 to 10 minutes, you’ll get a rhythm for it eventually.

Always Interact with Viewers

No one likes talking to a wall. If you don’t interact with your viewers, that’s exactly what the Facebook Livestreaming experience will feel like.

Instead, scroll through the comments and shout out viewers by name, answer their questions, or elaborate on their comments. This makes the experience fun for both the viewers and yourself.

You can also enhance the livestream experience for everyone by assigning a friend or colleague to moderate the comments and interact with viewers throughout the stream—at The Success Network our producers help moderate the comments for you so you’re not trying to multitask too much. For instance, as you’re talking about a particular topic, your moderator is scrolling through comments and responding to viewers or queueing up questions for you to answer.

Have a Call-to-Action (CTA)

Throughout the Facebook live video, remember to shout out your call-to-action (CTA). Typical Facebook Live CTAs include:

•     Liking the business page
•     Subscribing to a video channel or email newsletter
•     Sharing the video
•     Commenting on the livestream
•     Clicking the link in the video description

Remind viewers to do this multiple times throughout the video. But be careful—you don’t want to overdo it and come across as spammy. Again, try it a few different ways, you’ll find the one that’s right for you. It always seems scary to start, because we often try to be perfect.  But I always tell my clients this to help ease their nerves on this point, “if your first podcast was the best one you were ever going to do, wouldn’t that be even more frustrating!” Think about it! This also applies to many other things in life. Of course your first try isn’t going to be the best thing you’ve ever done, but without your first try you’ll never get to your hundredth!

Continue Promoting the Live Stream

Generate more demand for future livestreams by continuing to promote your video well after the original livestream. And, as you promote the previous livestream, it’ll keep garnering engagement, which leads new fans to your page and other content. It’s a win-win!

Get Started with Your First Facebook Livestream

Now that you know everything about streaming live on Facebook, what are you waiting for? Hit that big blue live button and start growing a loyal live stream audience!

Need help honing your message or organizing your Facebook Live strategy or production? Reach out to me today! My team and I can help with any aspect of your Facebook production from creating a show outline to having a producer on with you live to moderate your show. But if you never go live, none of this will help you. So, get out there and start streaming, and let me know how it goes!

A six-year study on video marketing found:

• 87% of video marketers say it increased website traffic
• 80% say videos directly increased sales
• 95% said it helped users understand their product or service

Mobile video consumption increases every year, and consumers rely on video experts. Seventy-eight percent of consumers watch online videos weekly on one device or another, and 55% view them every day.

As traffic increases, so does noise and competition in the landscape. I’m here to help you cut through the clutter and identify the best video format for you. I’ll break down vlogs and livestreams, highlighting the strengths of each setup.

What Is a Vlog?

Vlogs are prerecorded videos, usually edited with some effort toward looking good. The primary goal is to communicate on a personal level with an audience. They are easy to digest and provide insights into the vlogger’s life, interests, and opinions.

A vlog usually:

• Focuses on the vlogger who talks to the camera like a friend
• Provides insights into the vlogger’s thoughts and experiences
• Aims to build a personal connection with the audience

Vlogs are perfect for a quick scoop on the latest news or product. They can invite viewers to an upcoming event, promote a book, or provide a helpful solution. One of the great things about vlogs is how specialized they can be. Whether the topic is cooking, cryptocurrency, politics, gaming, parenting, or yachts, vlogs connect you with a tapped-in audience.

What makes vlogs stand out is the personal touch. A vlogger can become the face of a company and feel like a friend to frequent viewers. This relationship creates an opportunity to promote products or services with minimal sales.

What Is Livestreaming?

Livestreaming puts you in front of an active audience and records the session for later sharing. Several social media platforms offer livestreaming, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. They are less produced and more interactive than vlogs because you are with a live audience.

Most social posts reach a limited audience of your friends or contacts. Livestreams overstep that on some platforms. Facebook, for example, places a livestream notification at the top of the list. They also have a small pop-out screen that appears when a livestream begins. Since livestreams are recorded and saved by topic, new and interested people can find you.

When done consistently, both vlogs and livestreams generate leads and can be monetized. The larger your audience, the more options you have to drive business and create revenue.

Choosing Between Vlogging and Livestreaming

Like vlogs, livestreams build a relationship with your viewers. Here are the key differences and similarities.

Differences

Audience Interaction

One primary difference is in audience interaction. Livestreams can give the audience a chance to ask questions, respond to polls, or provide feedback. Vlogs are recorded in advance, but there can be audience interaction through comments on a post.

Production Values

A second difference is production values. Although personal, vlogs tend to be edited and produced, while livestreaming airs as it is happening. Livestreaming audiences accept and even enjoy this natural presentation.

Similarities

Specialize to Compete

With both vlogs and livestreams, you need to specialize to stand out from the competition. You want to offer the market something of value in an entertaining and engaging manner.

If you start in a highly competitive category, you may want to refine your target market to get a larger share of the available audience. In that case, reflect on what makes your business stand out. Investigate how you can specialize your content and face less competition.

Be Consistent

With vlogs and livestreams, building a loyal audience means producing new content on a steady schedule week in and week out. Regularity is essential.

Livestreams are prescheduled and commit you to show up at a specific time. You can record a vlog anytime but then will spend some time editing.

Why Not Both?

Up to 80% of consumers would rather watch a live video than read a blog. Using existing social media platforms, livestreaming comes with a built-in audience. It commits you to a schedule, so your audience knows when to show up and expect you, and it builds a relationship through live interaction.

Recordings of your livestreams can serve as the base material for your vlog. By editing and adding content, you maximize your output from that time and effort. In addition to building your livestream audience, you can populate a YouTube channel and reach people there. With a substantial time commitment or a small staff, you can repurpose your livestreams into podcasts as well.

Extra equipment and professional editors can enhance production if your budget allows for them, but anyone with a video-capable camera and a stable internet connection can posts videos online. Livestreaming relies on specialized software that reformats your video for output on social channels. Your vlogs will require editing software or help from a pro.

Does Your Marketing Strategy Include Video?

Consumers like to watch videos. YouTube has more than 2 billion users, which means almost one-third of internet users worldwide watch their videos. Livestreaming and vlogs give a face and personality to your brand.

When you make the regular output a priority, online videos help you build and maintain an audience. It is not enough to post a vlog here or there or livestream when you feel inspired. Building a relationship with your customers through video marketing means demonstrating your reliability and enthusiasm for what you do.

Both livestreams and vlogs are an excellent opportunity to develop and refine your message. Show off who you are and what you know so customers can like and trust you before engaging with your brand.

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Launching a visually appealing and mobile-friendly blog keeps getting easier. There are free and low-cost platforms that allow even a novice to start a simple website or blog within a few hours.

Not every platform is the same. Some systems limit your ability to transfer the website later without rebuilding it on another platform. Some are easy to monetize and can expand infinitely with your business, while others are primarily for content.

Here are five excellent platforms to get started with your blog quickly at low or no cost, with details to help you choose the right one.

WordPress.org

There are two WordPress platforms. I will introduce WordPress.org first and WordPress.com second.

WordPress.org currently powers more than 35% of all websites on the web. It is an open-source platform whose creators have kept it 100% free to use.

You can build any blog or website, including ecommerce, portfolio, forum, paid membership, and all types of business sites.

With WordPress.org, you purchase your unique domain name, like yourbusiness.com, and that is the address for your website. There are no ads, and you own everything you create.

WordPress.org is self-hosted. This means it is free to use, but only if you subscribe to a dedicated host. Shared hosting plans start as low as three dollars a month.

For a standard blog or website, WordPress.org provides several free themes that get you up and running in a few clicks.

Advantages

• A solid foundation to build SEO
• Highly customizable
• Ownership of your content and full control over your blog’s future
• Can expand your website and add features as your business grows

Disadvantages

• Need to subscribe to a hosting company, purchase a domain name, and choose a template
• Easy to do, but a steeper learning curve than some other options

WordPress.org gives you control over every component of your website and is one of the best platforms for bloggers whose goal is to make money.

WordPress.com

Created by one of the WordPress.org founders, WordPress.com offers a hosted version of the open-source platform. It lets you seamlessly transfer your blog from WP.com to WP.org at no charge.

With WordPress.com, you do not have to subscribe to a separate host. You can either select the free blog option or subscribe to a paid option.

If you are looking to test out a blog without a big commitment, WordPress.com is an excellent place to start. It is free to start. If your blog takes off, you can expand its functionality later by upgrading to a paid plan or transferring to WP.org.

The free version of WordPress.com includes Jetpack essential features, 3G of storage, and free themes.

Advantages

• Free version available
• Easy to set up and maintenance-free
• Transfers to WordPress.org for seamless expansion as your business or project grows

Disadvantages

• The free version does not allow a custom domain name. Your domain address will be yourblog.wordpress.com
• Ads display on the free version. You do not choose the ads or make money from them
• Limited monetization

Blogger

Blogger was one of the first easy-to-use platforms on the scene. Launched in 1999, Google acquired it in 2003.

Blogger is free and easy to use. You gain the advantage of Google’s secure and reliable platform. If you have an existing Google account, you have a Blogger account. You can get started quickly with no technical expertise.

Blogger is a good place to start a free hobby blog. Unlike many free platforms, you can monetize your blog with AdSense as your audience grows.

Advantages

• Free to use
• Selection of customizable templates
• No technical skills required
• Automatic integration with Google’s other services like Analytics and Ads
• Some monetization available as traffic to your blog grows

Disadvantages

• Limited growth potential. It’s easy to outgrow the Blogger platform
• Difficult to transition to other platforms as you expand
• Blogger does not receive continuous updates or new features
• No unique domain name — your name will include blogger.com
• Google retains the right to suspend your blog at any time, or even cancel the Blogger service

Wix

Wix is a hosted platform with an included web builder. It offers several paid plans, but also provides a free option for bloggers.

Wix arrived on the scene in 2006 when creating a blog or website required technical skills or a big budget. It currently boasts 100 million users around the world.

With the free version, you get up to 500MG storage and up to 500MB bandwidth. You can expand your blog inside Wix as your audience and business grow, but some of the plans with more functionality are expensive compared to a self-hosted option like WordPress.org.

Advantages

• Free option
• Responsive and easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder
• Get started quickly and build an attractive blog

Disadvantages

• Can’t change templates or platforms without redoing your whole site
• Free sites include wix.com in the address
• Limited blogging functions and limited customization of the free blog
• Little to no monetization options with the free version

Medium

Medium offers a different blogging opportunity than the other platforms presented here. Medium is not a website builder. It is a community of writers and a publishing platform.

When you open an account as a writer on Medium, you tap into an existing audience. Similar to when you post in a Facebook group or on your Instagram account, Medium is an online space with a dedicated audience.

Medium is free for bloggers, and there are opportunities to earn money on it.

You can build an audience directly on Medium, or start your blog on another platform and then share your material through your Medium account to drive traffic back to your blog.

Medium is an excellent option for bloggers who just want to write. It offers exposure and a built-in community component. On Medium, you can contribute regularly or occasionally, without the steady commitment required to build your audience with a blog.

Advantages

• Easy to use and publish
• Completely free to use
• Built-in audience
• You can focus on writing, instead of designing and SEO

Disadvantages

• Limited customization
• Limited monetization
• You cannot use your own domain name
• While it may help you build your audience on Medium, your blog on Medium is independent of any websites you might create
• Medium owns your audience

Getting Your Message on the Web Is Easy

There are many excellent platforms to get you started blogging, and getting your message on the web is only getting easier.

If you intend to build on your blog or want a website to promote your business, it is challenging to match WordPress.org’s expansive capabilities. WordPress.com offers a pathway to grow later if you are not sure how big you might grow but want to start free and keep your options open.

If you are most interested in an attractive website and want the ability to do it yourself with little or no technical challenge, Wix is a handy way to get started.

If blogging is your true and final focus, then Blogger or Medium are easy ways to get started quickly. On Blogger, your content is yours. On Medium, you have a built-in audience.

You don’t have to spend a penny or understand a line of code to launch a great blog. You just have to do it! But, in case you still have any hesitations, please feel free to contact us—we’d love to help you get started.

Launching a visually appealing and mobile-friendly blog keeps getting easier. There are free and low-cost platforms that allow even a novice to start a simple website or blog within a few hours.

Not every platform is the same. Some systems limit your ability to transfer the website later without rebuilding it on another platform. Some are easy to monetize and can expand infinitely with your business, while others are primarily for content.

Here are five excellent platforms to get started with your blog quickly at low or no cost, with details to help you choose the right one.

WordPress.org

There are two WordPress platforms. I will introduce WordPress.org first and WordPress.com second.

WordPress.org currently powers more than 35% of all websites on the web. It is an open-source platform whose creators have kept it 100% free to use.

You can build any blog or website, including ecommerce, portfolio, forum, paid membership, and all types of business sites.

With WordPress.org, you purchase your unique domain name, like yourbusiness.com, and that is the address for your website. There are no ads, and you own everything you create.

WordPress.org is self-hosted. This means it is free to use, but only if you subscribe to a dedicated host. Shared hosting plans start as low as three dollars a month.

For a standard blog or website, WordPress.org provides several free themes that get you up and running in a few clicks.

Advantages

• A solid foundation to build SEO
• Highly customizable
• Ownership of your content and full control over your blog’s future
• Can expand your website and add features as your business grows

Disadvantages

• Need to subscribe to a hosting company, purchase a domain name, and choose a template
• Easy to do, but a steeper learning curve than some other options

WordPress.org gives you control over every component of your website and is one of the best platforms for bloggers whose goal is to make money.

WordPress.com

Created by one of the WordPress.org founders, WordPress.com offers a hosted version of the open-source platform. It lets you seamlessly transfer your blog from WP.com to WP.org at no charge.

With WordPress.com, you do not have to subscribe to a separate host. You can either select the free blog option or subscribe to a paid option.

If you are looking to test out a blog without a big commitment, WordPress.com is an excellent place to start. It is free to start. If your blog takes off, you can expand its functionality later by upgrading to a paid plan or transferring to WP.org.

The free version of WordPress.com includes Jetpack essential features, 3G of storage, and free themes.

Advantages

• Free version available
• Easy to set up and maintenance-free
• Transfers to WordPress.org for seamless expansion as your business or project grows

Disadvantages

• The free version does not allow a custom domain name. Your domain address will be yourblog.wordpress.com
• Ads display on the free version. You do not choose the ads or make money from them
• Limited monetization

Blogger

Blogger was one of the first easy-to-use platforms on the scene. Launched in 1999, Google acquired it in 2003.

Blogger is free and easy to use. You gain the advantage of Google’s secure and reliable platform. If you have an existing Google account, you have a Blogger account. You can get started quickly with no technical expertise.

Blogger is a good place to start a free hobby blog. Unlike many free platforms, you can monetize your blog with AdSense as your audience grows.

Advantages

• Free to use
• Selection of customizable templates
• No technical skills required
• Automatic integration with Google’s other services like Analytics and Ads
• Some monetization available as traffic to your blog grows

Disadvantages

• Limited growth potential. It’s easy to outgrow the Blogger platform
• Difficult to transition to other platforms as you expand
• Blogger does not receive continuous updates or new features
• No unique domain name — your name will include blogger.com
• Google retains the right to suspend your blog at any time, or even cancel the Blogger service

Wix

Wix is a hosted platform with an included web builder. It offers several paid plans, but also provides a free option for bloggers.

Wix arrived on the scene in 2006 when creating a blog or website required technical skills or a big budget. It currently boasts 100 million users around the world.

With the free version, you get up to 500MG storage and up to 500MB bandwidth. You can expand your blog inside Wix as your audience and business grow, but some of the plans with more functionality are expensive compared to a self-hosted option like WordPress.org.

Advantages

• Free option
• Responsive and easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder
• Get started quickly and build an attractive blog

Disadvantages

• Can’t change templates or platforms without redoing your whole site
• Free sites include wix.com in the address
• Limited blogging functions and limited customization of the free blog
• Little to no monetization options with the free version

Medium

Medium offers a different blogging opportunity than the other platforms presented here. Medium is not a website builder. It is a community of writers and a publishing platform.

When you open an account as a writer on Medium, you tap into an existing audience. Similar to when you post in a Facebook group or on your Instagram account, Medium is an online space with a dedicated audience.

Medium is free for bloggers, and there are opportunities to earn money on it.

You can build an audience directly on Medium, or start your blog on another platform and then share your material through your Medium account to drive traffic back to your blog.

Medium is an excellent option for bloggers who just want to write. It offers exposure and a built-in community component. On Medium, you can contribute regularly or occasionally, without the steady commitment required to build your audience with a blog.

Advantages

• Easy to use and publish
• Completely free to use
• Built-in audience
• You can focus on writing, instead of designing and SEO

Disadvantages

• Limited customization
• Limited monetization
• You cannot use your own domain name
• While it may help you build your audience on Medium, your blog on Medium is independent of any websites you might create
• Medium owns your audience

Getting Your Message on the Web Is Easy

There are many excellent platforms to get you started blogging, and getting your message on the web is only getting easier.

If you intend to build on your blog or want a website to promote your business, it is challenging to match WordPress.org’s expansive capabilities. WordPress.com offers a pathway to grow later if you are not sure how big you might grow but want to start free and keep your options open.

If you are most interested in an attractive website and want the ability to do it yourself with little or no technical challenge, Wix is a handy way to get started.

If blogging is your true and final focus, then Blogger or Medium are easy ways to get started quickly. On Blogger, your content is yours. On Medium, you have a built-in audience.

You don’t have to spend a penny or understand a line of code to launch a great blog. You just have to do it! But, in case you still have any hesitations, please feel free to contact us—we’d love to help you get started.

1) Being the expert allows you to charge higher rates. Think about it… you’re willing to pay a premium price to work with an expert when it comes to your health, right? Or your finances, or your car, and the list goes on. Expertise is valuable, and when you’re the expert, you can charge higher rates and still win the business.

2) Being the expert attracts new business. When your market perceives you as the expert, you can expect customers and clients to actively seek you out. This makes marketing a much easier process and results in dramatic growth.

3) Being the expert leads to more referrals. If referrals from other professionals are an important part of your business model, creating a CelebrityExpert® brand is invaluable. Professionals are very careful about whom they refer clients to, as their name and reputation is also on the line. If you’re the trusted expert in your market, you can expect a flood of referrals to come your way.

4) Being the expert makes it easier to retain clients. It’s much easier, and more cost effective, to retain current clients rather than find new ones. Your expert status makes your clients more likely to continue doing business with you – as long as your service and the results you provide are consistent with the brand you’ve created.

Personal branding isn’t just a trendy subject – it can make a big difference in your bottom line. If you’d like to discuss this subject further, or if you’re ready to get started creating your CelebrityExpert® brand, please get in touch with us today!

1) Being the expert allows you to charge higher rates. Think about it… you’re willing to pay a premium price to work with an expert when it comes to your health, right? Or your finances, or your car, and the list goes on. Expertise is valuable, and when you’re the expert, you can charge higher rates and still win the business.

2) Being the expert attracts new business. When your market perceives you as the expert, you can expect customers and clients to actively seek you out. This makes marketing a much easier process and results in dramatic growth.

3) Being the expert leads to more referrals. If referrals from other professionals are an important part of your business model, creating a CelebrityExpert® brand is invaluable. Professionals are very careful about whom they refer clients to, as their name and reputation is also on the line. If you’re the trusted expert in your market, you can expect a flood of referrals to come your way.

4) Being the expert makes it easier to retain clients. It’s much easier, and more cost effective, to retain current clients rather than find new ones. Your expert status makes your clients more likely to continue doing business with you – as long as your service and the results you provide are consistent with the brand you’ve created.

Personal branding isn’t just a trendy subject – it can make a big difference in your bottom line. If you’d like to discuss this subject further, or if you’re ready to get started creating your CelebrityExpert® brand, please get in touch with us today!

How do you go about creating such a powerful brand? It takes time, and it takes a strategic approach. Below are five steps you can take to build an effective personal brand.

1) Create a business card that sets you apart from the crowd. Your business goes a long way towards creating the first impression that people have of you – particularly in a setting that doesn’t allow for an extended conversation. It’s worth investing into the design and creation of a business card that stands out from the crowd. A great business card makes you memorable and often “hooks” your audience into wanting to know more about you.

2) Demonstrate your expertise by publishing a book. Our society holds authors in high esteem – we simply assume that they must know what they are talking about if they published a book. So take advantage – publish a book on your industry and watch your credibility soar. Writing and publishing a book may sound like an impossibly difficult task, but it’s not. Contact us today to learn more!

3) Get involved in community service. Another great way to raise your profile and do good at the same time is by getting involved in community service. Whether it’s supporting a local charity, assisting in a clean-up day in your town, or pursuing a larger scale cause like cancer research, getting involved in a cause is a great way to build relationships and to let people see what you’re passionate about.

4) Look for opportunities to speak. Speaking in public provides instant credibility. Most people are terrified by the idea of public speaking, and doing so earns instant credibility and respect. Look for opportunities to speak to networking groups, organizations, seminars, or anywhere else your target market gathers. Focus your speeches on providing valuable tips and information to your market.

5) Dress the part. Finally, it’s important to understand that your visual appearance plays an important role in defining your personal brand. Take some time to think about your appearance. For instance, if your brand is “Mr. High Powered Lawyer”, you may want to wear a well-tailored suit every day of the week. On the other hand, if you’re a laid-back, relaxed retirement planner, your wardrobe should be very different. Whatever your “look” may be, it’s important that you consistently dress the part. Over time, what you wear goes a long way towards shaping your perception, so take it seriously.

An effective personal brand is a powerful asset for any business. These five tips will help you get started in the right direction, but please contact us today if you’d like to learn more, or if you’d like some help along the way!

How do you go about creating such a powerful brand? It takes time, and it takes a strategic approach. Below are five steps you can take to build an effective personal brand.

1) Create a business card that sets you apart from the crowd. Your business goes a long way towards creating the first impression that people have of you – particularly in a setting that doesn’t allow for an extended conversation. It’s worth investing into the design and creation of a business card that stands out from the crowd. A great business card makes you memorable and often “hooks” your audience into wanting to know more about you.

2) Demonstrate your expertise by publishing a book. Our society holds authors in high esteem – we simply assume that they must know what they are talking about if they published a book. So take advantage – publish a book on your industry and watch your credibility soar. Writing and publishing a book may sound like an impossibly difficult task, but it’s not. Contact us today to learn more!

3) Get involved in community service. Another great way to raise your profile and do good at the same time is by getting involved in community service. Whether it’s supporting a local charity, assisting in a clean-up day in your town, or pursuing a larger scale cause like cancer research, getting involved in a cause is a great way to build relationships and to let people see what you’re passionate about.

4) Look for opportunities to speak. Speaking in public provides instant credibility. Most people are terrified by the idea of public speaking, and doing so earns instant credibility and respect. Look for opportunities to speak to networking groups, organizations, seminars, or anywhere else your target market gathers. Focus your speeches on providing valuable tips and information to your market.

5) Dress the part. Finally, it’s important to understand that your visual appearance plays an important role in defining your personal brand. Take some time to think about your appearance. For instance, if your brand is “Mr. High Powered Lawyer”, you may want to wear a well-tailored suit every day of the week. On the other hand, if you’re a laid-back, relaxed retirement planner, your wardrobe should be very different. Whatever your “look” may be, it’s important that you consistently dress the part. Over time, what you wear goes a long way towards shaping your perception, so take it seriously.

An effective personal brand is a powerful asset for any business. These five tips will help you get started in the right direction, but please contact us today if you’d like to learn more, or if you’d like some help along the way!

If you’re convinced that your business needs a social media presence but aren’t sure how to begin, here are four keys steps in the process. If you’d like some help along the way, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

1) Select the right platforms for your business. The “Big Three” social networks are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Nearly as popular are networks like YouTube, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest. Every business should have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you regularly produce video, YouTube is a must. And if you use images to promote your business, Instagram and Pinterest are invaluable. Finally, while Google+ doesn’t have the same level of popularity as some of the other networks, it’s affiliation with Google’s search engine means that it’s a good idea for most businesses to have a presence.

2) Brand your profile. Once you’ve identified your social networks, it’s important to properly brand your profile. Use your company colors whenever possible, and make sure your logo and tagline are clearly visible. Your social media profiles are often the first exposure a prospect has to your business, so it’s important to make the right first impression.

3) Link to your social media profiles from your website, email marketing campaigns, and so forth. Once your social profiles are up and running, make sure they’re seen! An important way to do this is by linking to them from your website, your email marketing campaigns, and wherever else you can. Some businesses will even include a link to their social media profiles on their business cards!

4) Stay active and engage with your audience. Finally, don’t create your profiles and then forget about them. This is a common scenario – but it’s almost better to have no social media presence at all than one which sits dormant. Post links to your blogs and articles, share links to breaking news, share funny or inspirational quotes, answer questions from your audience… be active!

Questions or comments? Contact us today if you’d like to learn more.

So it’s no surprise that businesses all across the country have turned to social media in order to bolster their marketing efforts. But as with most things in life, there is a learning curve, and many small businesses are forced to learn the hard way by making costly mistakes on social media. Today we’re going to identify four of these common mistakes to avoid:

1) Not branding your profiles. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are very user-friendly. It’s not difficult to upload your business logo and additional collateral. Yet many business owners skip this step, and as a result end up with a generic social media presence which doesn’t enhance their brand or highlight their celebrity status.

2) Not staying consistently active. Creating a social media presence is only the beginning. Once you’re set up with a well-branded profile, it’s important to use it regularly! Many business owners are excited about social media in the beginning, but quickly get distracted by the day-to-day operations of their business. If you want to get results, you need to stay active.

3) Using your profiles purely for self-promotion. Social media is a place for engagement, not one way promotion. Interact with your audience. Answer questions. Provide advice. Post content that provides value to your followers. If all you’re doing is promoting yourself, your audience is quickly going to tune you out.

4) Going “out of character”. Finally, remember that everything you do online reflects your brand. Don’t go out of character –stay true to your CelebrityExpert® brand. Before you post anything, ask yourself, “is this appropriate for my audience and for the brand I am working to build?”

Social media is an incredible tool for business marketing – but it’s easy to make mistakes. Avoid these common errors, and contact us today if you’d like to learn more!