My website started as a side hustle, but by the time I sold it, it generated over half a million dollars in revenue. Just like most other hustles of this kind, it started as an idea. In beginning, it was just a review platform for various virtual assistants offered by other companies. The initial steps were ordinary, like domain registration, theme design and customization. In time, I utilized social media and also started posting original content. When I decided to sell the website, it was primarily due to a desire to try something else and the opportunity cost.

Key Takeaways:

• Over the course of 9 and a half years of running Virtual Assistant Assistant–including the proceeds from the sale–the site generated over $550,000 in revenue.
• What would I call this project? I searched for available domains with the keyword “virtual assistant” in the URL, and ultimately registered VirtualAssistantAssistant.com.
• With those foundations in place, I began creating content. That meant both informational articles on the benefits and how-tos of working with virtual assistants, and company profiles.

“This is the story of how I started, grew, and sold a very part-time online business.”

Read more: https://www.sidehustlenation.com/my-550k-side-hustle/

Google offers many marketing tools that can help you with content marketing strategy and management. Even experienced professionals in this business area cannot claim they utilize everything Google has to offer. For broad base, there are essential Google tools that everyone should be using. Analytics may be most popular for professionals looking at data analysis. It provides tools not only for data collection, but for analysis too. Search console is somewhat similar and time spent on this tool is time well spent.

Key Takeaways:

• When it comes to content marketing, the tools you use, and the strategies you employ will greatly impact the end result.
• While there are many to choose from, the Google Keyword Planner remains one of the best ways to conduct keyword research.
• No two people use Google Analytics in the same manner. But, there are several things to keep in mind if you’re a content marketing professional.

“Social media, just the right keyword tool, Google’s Keyword Planner, honing your search term — these things can all have a big impact on your volume and your success as a content marketing pro.”

Read more: https://neilpatel.com/blog/10-free-google-tools-all-content-marketers-should-use/

Marketplace on Facebook social media platform is fairly well-known, but Instagram’s counterpart is still underutilized by marketers. That is a shame, because the platform had over a billion active, registered users which provide many opportunities for businesses to promote and sell their products and services. Shopping through the platform is possible in direct transaction through the application. The process is quite simple, making the transaction easy for both sides, while enabling platform to retain visitors for longer time.

Key Takeaways:

• Lots of opportunities exist for marketing on the channel, so it can be a great place to build a follower base and get the word out about your products and brand.
• An Instagram shop exists like a mini e-commerce store, within Instagram, as an extension of your brand’s page.
• Instagram Shopping is a pretty simple process for Instagram users. The whole idea of this feature is to make things more enticing, so users spend more time on the app.

“Shops can choose to allow purchasing directly from the app, using Facebook Pay, or they use their Instagram shop to point to an off-site e-commerce store”

Read more: https://neilpatel.com/blog/instagram-shopping/

Even when you think you know enough, there’s always room for improvement in the realm of search engine optimization. This is especially true taking into account how dynamic it is resulting in new trends in the light of newly discovered knowledge. However, there are some basic tips that hold true for longer period time. For example, good practice is to eliminate everything that causes your website to run slow. Review the links to other pages regularly, to ensure they don’t become outdated. When creating content, understand that you are targeting human audience first and search engines second.

Key Takeaways:

• With so many SEO techniques, it’s become almost impossible to determine which ones to stick to and which you can safely ignore.
• Both B2B and B2C marketers want more search leads, because they result in 8.5X more clicks than paid search results.
• If you focus on these techniques alone, you’ll definitely drive more organic traffic to your blog and improve your search rankings without risking a Google penalty.

“For example, targeting keywords with the sole intent of improving organic rankings no longer works with search engines but choosing the right keywords is still an important piece to the puzzle.”

Read more: https://neilpatel.com/blog/10-most-important-seo-tips-you-need-to-know/

Having a FAQ page is good for answering all those questions people might have that you aren't available to answer. A Q and A page is even better because it gives you more information about personal experiences that people have had surrounding the questions that you have. The Q and A feature also helps for the site to show up in organic searches which will optimize your blog and your website if need be. A live Q and A session is also an option.

Key Takeaways:

• If you watched a video about building an affiliate site from scratch, you could come in armed with Q&A questions.
• From a content creator standpoint, this format can help you drive more traffic to your site and provide your audience with more of the information they want.
• Google makes it easy for us by telling us what other people are searching for related to the keyword you typed into the search box.

“As we know, FAQ sections and pages do a lot for our SEO”

Read more: https://neilpatel.com/blog/qa-format/

GaaS concept aims to be a barrier between user experience and engagement on one side and concerns about the cost on the other. It supplanted the method where players pay for certain game features and this change resulted in longer customer retention. Electronic Arts Games company managed to increase their market capitalization eight-fold by implementing the concept. One of the important benefits of it for the companies is revenue stream that is continuous, alleviating issues caused by discreet in-game spending.

Key Takeaways:

• Games as a Service (GaaS) was introduced as a barrier between consumer cost concerns and user engagement.
• Games as a Service refers to games that operate without initial purchasing costs and instead, make their profits on subscriptions or in-game purchases.
• Games as a Service has also been referred to as “cloud gaming,” “gaming on-demand,” “live service games,” or “game streaming.”

“Games as a Service acts as a continuous revenue service for developers, allowing them to break their reliance on the one-time purchase.”

Read more: https://neilpatel.com/blog/gaas/

Affiliate marketing is a great way for beginners to ramp up their revenue without a huge marketing investment. However, once you start climbing the ladder of success, you need to seriously consider optimizing and streamlining your process. The goal is to spend the bulk of your time on activities and tasks that generate the revenue for your business. There are many tools available that you should utilize for this purpose. Some of the most useful ones include grammar checker, headline analyzing tool and various manager of your social media content.

Key Takeaways:

• Good writing is the key ingredient to the success of your published content and landing pages. It’s a daunting task to perfect your copywriting skills. Grammarly can help!
• PLR allows you to brand content as if it were your own. Yes, you’re right, that does sound like something that would get you in a world of trouble.
• If you’re working with a content team, it’s a smart idea to first run the content through something like Dupli Checker – a tool that allows you to pop in your text and run it through their checker.

“When you’re spending valuable time navigating poorly-structured systems, and doing mundane tasks that are keeping you from revenue-generating tasks, you are bound to miss your mark.”

Read more: https://groovefunnels.com/blog/tools-for-affiliate-marketers/

Affiliate marketing is a good way to turn your blogging into revenue stream. Joining a network is the first step you need to take in order to secure this income. There are many networks out there, and marketers should carefully choose the one that is right for their platform. Consider the reasons why particular network is appealing to you, and don’t neglect to consider both pros and cons. In essence, network serves as a marketplace where businesses that offer to market products and services and businesses that need this kind of marketing meet.

Key Takeaways:

• Blog owners can help business owners promote their products and services with affiliate marketing.
• There are several different affiliate marketing sites where you can connect with many different products.
• If you are wanting to make some money on what you are writing then affiliate marketing is the easiest way.

“Are you looking to monetize your blog or earn a passive income? If so, you might be considering joining an affiliate network.”

Read more: https://neilpatel.com/blog/affiliate-marketing-networks/

Schema markup is the newest evolution in the area of search engine optimization. It is quite powerful, yet significantly underutilized. Primary reason for that is the learning curve, but once you master the concept, the rewards that you will reap will justify your investment. Proper implementation of the code yields results that are more informative for end-users. It will inform search engine what your data really means, so the return is not just the word, but also meaning that explains why that word appears in search results.

Key Takeaways:

• Scheme market is like programming code that looks a little bit like excel spreadsheets. You can add this to your SEO strategy.
• Using Schema markup allows you to tell Google specific information to crawl such as upcoming events.
• Google recommends using Schema Markup to boost your relationship with the search engine allowing both parties to benefit.

“My goal in this article is to show you exactly how to get started using schema markup for your website.”

Read more: https://neilpatel.com/blog/get-started-using-schema/

When we think about Facebook, the thoughts of the website that is primarily a social media platform come to mind. However, it also has a lively marketplace, and with such a large number of users, it would be a mistake not to consider it as a place where you can sell you products. Diversification is important in utilization of marketing channels, so this platform should be seriously considered in your marketing plan. Marketplace is free, and to sell on it you do not need a separate website. In fact, the listings can be created right from the app.

Key Takeaways:

• If you are selling physical products, then don't sell them all in one place, like using Facebook.
• There are several benefits to using Facebook marketplace and one of them is that it is free to use.
• Not only is it free to use, but it is also free to post items that you want to sell on there.

“You’ve heard about diversifying your income streams, but what about your e-commerce sales channels?”

Read more: https://neilpatel.com/blog/facebook-marketplace/