If content is king, it deserves to be written by a true thought leader?

Long-form content, distributed via your corporate blog, email marketing, and social media, helps marketers demonstrate that their organization has the finger on the pulse of their industry and showcase their thought-leadership in a given topic. It will help persuade potential clients that your organization is the go-to problem solver (and all business is about solving problems) and help your web presence as your website climbs the search engine rankings (solving numerous marketing problems for you).

Despite this, many marketing organizations fail to commit to a program of producing long-form content and instead invest in more expensive, less convincing marketing strategies to promote their business. …

Most wannabe authors cannot handle the truth

A student on a Writing, Publishing, Marketing, and Selling Your First Book course I teach online recently asked me how quickly they could expect to earn $5,000 on the various eBook and Print on Demand publishing platforms I recommend working with.

Wow, there are so many unknown variables here, this was a question that was almost impossible to answer.

It was time for a “tough love” response because I doubted the motivation my student had for becoming an author was coming from the right place and I didn’t want my student to waste their time and money chasing false hopes.

Writing a book is difficult and despite countless online publishing gurus telling you otherwise, it’s not a quick route to fame and fortune and the dream of giving up the nine-to-five. …

Too many wantrepreneurs give up when their side hustle fails to make the kind of big-dollar returns promised by those social media business mavens who have apparently bottled the wealth-generating capabilities of the Internet. The fact is, there is gold in them there hills, but the guy standing in front of a private jet on Instagram is highly unlikely to show you where it is.

Success rarely comes in an instant. You’ve got to work at it and take your time to understand what it actually looks like.

Multiple Streams of Income

As an entrepreneur, I like to have multiple streams of income. I believe there is nothing worse than relying on a single big client to pay my bills. This is because, especially when you work in the tech sector, there is no such thing as certainty. Start-ups go bust every day and even when they skyrocket, acquisitions don’t always provide security. …

How many great books, songs, works of art, and other creative endeavors are going to be made during this period of isolation?

I’ve been incredibly lucky in my career as a writer. I’ve not only managed to earn a living from my craft for well over a decade, but I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed myself while doing it. How many of us can truly say that?

I believe great writing doesn’t happen in isolation. Writers need to get out there, meet people and experience life in their writing is going to have a pulse. You might think that writing is the perfect job for an introvert. That may be true for some writers but were Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemmingway or Charles Bukowski introverts? …

A Guide for Shopify eCommerce Store Owners

In the world of Shopify eCommerce, it can be really difficult to differentiate your online store from the competition. …

The perfect gift to accompany your Shopify eCommerce store

It might seem a little too early to be writing about Christmas in September but as busy entrepreneurs; this really is your last chance to get your eCommerce store and marketing strategies in place for the holiday season.

I like to think of the month of September as the calm before the storm. It’s the perfect time to make sure all of your marketing technology is in place and ready for the onslaught that is about to hit the world of eCommerce.

Remember, the holiday marketing season starts in October with Halloween. If you are still testing, optimizing, and training your employees to engage with new tech by fright night, you’ve already dropped the ball and lost a significant amount of momentum in the Christmas push. …

A Guide for Shopify eCommerce Store Owners

I get it, running your online business isn’t easy. Those cool products on your virtual shelves don’t get there by themselves, then there’s all the picking and packing, customer service emails, problems with software vendors, couriers, and packaging suppliers. With all this going on, it’s a little wonder your marketing always costs more than you budgeted for and you’ve never got the time to optimize your campaign strategies.

OK, stop what you are doing. It’s time to take 10-minutes to evaluate how you can drive more sales and increase profits without dramatically adding to your workload and costs. You haven’t got 10-minutes? …

This email marketing app could be the closest thing to that “Magic Marketing Button” you’ve been searching for all these years

For as long as I’ve been speaking to online retailers (and that’s longer than I care to remember), I’ve been passionately trying to persuade them to invest in email marketing. To be honest, most retailers don’t need too much convincing. Email marketing remains the most cost-effective and profitable marketing channel available to online retailers today. Despite this, many marketers fail to engage their email marketing strategy to the level such an important marketing channel deserves.

This lack of engagement often comes down to unrealistic expectations. When evaluating software, too many online retailers are looking for that “magic marketing button” that does everything for them. …