Digital Marketer, AI Consultant, Published Author, ClickFunnels and Kit Specialist
In today’s digital landscape, visuals aren’t just important—they’re essential. Content creators across blogs, social media, marketing materials, and educational resources face the constant challenge of finding high-quality images that won’t break the bank.
#AskDennis: Online Instructor Patricia Martin Transcript for my reply to Instructor Patricia Martin: Welcome back for another edition of Ask Dennis and you can find previous episodes at https://dennisjsmith.com/askdennis using the hashtag Ask Dennis and today’s question comes from Tricia who is a Udemy instructor and she says thank you for offering this service for answering our course marketing questions and her question is “What’s the most effective marketing method to get exposure for her course”, she’s tried coupons she’s tried handing out fliers with a course link on those added some lessons on YouTube etc. But she’s still not making a lot of sells what should her next step be thank you and she goes on to give her website and her course link which i will add in the notes on YouTube because they’re just so long that it’s some difficult sometimes for people to understand when you’re giving them out a URL so Thank You Tricia for the question. I’ll make sure that I give you a shout out excuse me. So on one of the first things that I would say and I say this probably a lot is a blog definitely want to have a blog where everything that you do comes together including promoting your courses and then also connecting your social media networks such as Facebook or Instagram of course says that it is the “Street basic power guide to SEO”, so it sounds like they should already have some SEO knowledge I use WordPress for websites and use Yoast SEO as a plug-in to help out with the SEO because SEO is not my forte I know enough about it you know to make sure that I have the right keywords and what not but you definitely want to have a blog and promote your courses on your website and start writing about SEO and give out tips and things like that and become the expert in SEO so that those people who are coming to your website for SEO tips see that you have a course on SEO and hopefully more courses, I haven’t looked to see if you have more unique courses but I would imagine that you’re going to release more courses and you just you know you want to become an expert in that area so that your followers see that I’m just like myself with the stuff that I’ve done on you to me I constantly get questions from people through Facebook who have questions such as yours and that’s because I’ve been doing this kind of stuff for a while now I do WordPress and I do SEO and all of that but my interest is in helping others out with marketing so you said that you tried flyers and things like that that’s interesting because I’ve never done something like that but what about maybe teaching a course at a local community college I’ve done that here i’m in the Boise Idaho area. I’ve gone to community colleges before who have allowed me to use their facilities and I have people come and join me. I haven’t done this in a while and I’ve been wanting to do this again because you kind of want to do this to you know connect with students in real time or or real life or whatever so find some of those community colleges and maybe or find someplace where you can teach a course on SEO and go out to your businesses that are in your local community and let them know that you’re teaching that course and then you can upsell your online course to them so that they can go there for more information and maybe you can you know if SEO is what you do maybe that’s a way that you can find some clients. So I would definitely suggest something like that. Have you thought about writing an e-book a kindle book? It is really easy to write you could write a Kindle book and in front of the book you can put links to your courses i wrote my book Udemy Life and I put links in front of the book because I Amazon will show the first ten percent of the book so that people can decide if they want to buy the book but they can still see those links and possibly click on those and then I have links throughout the book because I interviewed other instructors so maybe you could do something like that to and use that as a way to get people to go to your course. So those are a few tips there that you might want to try out let me know how those work out and others use any of those tips certainly let me know if you’re looking at this video on YouTube comment below if you have a question contact me through DennisJSmith.com if you have a question yourself or if you see this on Facebook or YouTube please leave a comment and let me know if you have any questions or if you enjoyed the information that i gave you. So that’s it for this edition of Ask Dennis thank you very much and thanks again Tricia for your question.
What the heck is Tumblr? Tumbler is a rising star when it comes to social microblogging. The easy to use site allows users to post text, images, video, links and quotes to a short form blog. Nothing difficult here when it comes to setting up your first blog. Share anything! The numbers for this platform are too significant to ignore. 900% growth in the last 12 months 90 million users compared to only 10 million a year ago Addictive and highly engaged audience with 2% of its audience making up 43% of total visits The engagement on Tumblr is only second to Facebook at an average of over 141 minutes per month per user. Tumble on down through other statistics below and feel from to check out my Tumblr here: http://socialmediabook.tumblr.com/ Source: See infographic above for sources.
Are you at a loss when it comes to posting new content? I know that sometimes I draw a blank and need some inspiration. Number twenty-two on the list talks about recycling old content and making it fresh again. I hope this list gives you the inspiration to write something great. If you have some ideas of your own feel free to comment below.
The feature I like the most about WordPress is its ability to let you change the look and feel of your site. It can be done on the fly without any web development background. You can accomplish this by finding the perfect themes and plugins to suit your needs. WordPress has thousands of self-installs which means there are hundreds of options for free themes and a huge array of themes for sell. I always suggest to my clients that they find a theme that matches the subject matter of their WordPress blog. Here’s an example of a friends blog Tandem Revolution, which covers her and her husbands biking adventures. I like the use of the image across the top showing the spokes of a bike. It is a simple yet effective use of a theme that matches the topic of her blog. Free themes tend to have some limitations and affiliate links. Whereas paid for themes give you more flexibility with customization. I suggest starting out with something free if you are on a limited budget. But if it is in your budget I would take your time and find something that fits your needs. If your traffic grows you can change your theme at anytime. The theme I use for this site was free and fits in well with the look and feel of my book. Here are five sites to locate your perfect WordPress dream theme. #1| ThemeForest Themes for any budget and any industry ThemeForest has a wide variety of WordPress themes for the average blogger and those looking to sell product using WordPress. Themes are affordably priced for those on a budget or those looking for something unique. I have included a screenshot of the e-commerce theme WpShop below to show the power of WordPress. It is not just for blogging and can be used to sell a myriad of product, list homes and rentals, promote a restaurant or business. Theme Forest on Facebook #2 | Elegant Themes Offers lots of themes at a great price Elegant Themes has lots of great themes to pick from and at only $39 a year gives you access to 61 designs. Plus ET says they release 2-3 new themes each month so you are sure to find something. You also get 30-days to decide if it is worth it with their money-back guarantee. I like how they target themes towards specific industries such as restaurants, retail and a host of other themes to match your needs. Since I love food I included the MyCuisine theme as the screenshot below. #3 | Woo Themes Lots of free themes and a wide variety for any industry Woo Themes is another big player when it comes to WordPress themes. Woo offers any array of themes that are build for SEO and functionality. I have heard through the grapevine that Woo offers great support from tutorials, video tutorials and user support forum. The thing that I like most about the Woo Themes is you can sort themes on their website to find the perfect match. How about at least a dozen free themes to boot? There is bound to be something for everyone with Woo Themes. Woo Themes on Facebook #4 | StudioPress WordPress themes built on the Genesis Framework These themes are built with search engine optimization in mind. Wondering what the Genesis Framework is? Here’s more information on that and why you should go with StudioPress. I have to admit that these are some of the best WordPress themes I have seen. The layouts are nice, clean, modern and eye-catching designs that stand out. Plus you can get all themes for one great price and you get future themes at no extra charge. #5 | Legend Themes New player in the theme market offering clean designs Legend Themes is located right here in Boise and has just a few themes to pick from along with the free Emphasis Theme. The Snapshot theme is perfect for those who enjoy the art of photography. All themes have a nice clean look to them and offer various customization. The price on this theme and others are $70 which includes technical support. More Resources: 80+ Clean and Simple WordPress Themes 380 Premium WordPress Themes Free “Leather” Theme from Legend Themes MagPress Free WordPress Themes Article by Dennis J. Smith ““ Promote Your Business Or Cause Using Social Media ““ A Beginners Handbook
Google AdSense Plugins What is Google AdSense? Google AdSense is a program from Google that pays website and blog owners to display specific ads on their sites. It is free and you can track your earnings with online reports. The ads are usually targeted to match the relevant content on your site. How do I get started? Visit http://www.adsense.com and Newbie Central for new users to get started and for more information about AdSense. If you have an account with Google you are just a few steps away from Google AdSense. If not you just have to enter a little information to get started with creating ads. I highly recommend that you watch the videos provided by Google. There are several books available to learn more about AdSense and there is lots of information online. AdSense Ad Create Your AdSense Code Once you have an account set-up you can start creating the code that will generate your ad or ads. There are different sizes of ads you can generate and it is important think about ad placement in your blog. Placement of your ads is essential in the amount of revenue they generate. Review Newbie Central for more information on the placement of your ads. AdSense Plugins Several plugins are available to choose from when it comes to displaying ads on your WordPress blog. Search for “AdSense” from the Plugin menu of your WordPress dashboard to generate a list of available AdSense plugins. Click on “Details” for more details on each individual plugin and “Install Now” to install the plugin of your choice. There are also several WordPress themes that have settings to display AdSense ads along with other types of ads. Do a search on Google for “AdSense Ready WordPress Themes” for a list of themes ready for AdSense. I suggest you install a few plugins and see what works best for you. Take your code you created above and copy and paste it into your plugin. Each plugin will be different so read the instruction for the plugin you choose. List of some of the many plugins available for AdSense Things to keep in Mind AdSense policy allows for no more than three AdSense ads displaying per page. Encouraging others to click on ads is a violation of AdSense policies. Don’t risk losing what might be a lucrative stream of revenue. Read Newbie Central so you are aware of policies, best practices and have the knowledge of what works best. Have a favorite AdSense plugin you are using? Please feel free to comment below and share your AdSense experience. Need a WordPress Blog? Contact IgniteHost website and WordPress blog hosting and get started for less than $5 a month. More resources: Google AdSense ““ AdSense Website AdSense Official Channel on YouTube ““ AdSense Videos WordPress Themes ““ AdSense Ready WordPress Themes Newbie Central ““ Information for AdSense Newbies AdSense Blog ““ Inside AdSense Blog Content Provided By Dennis J. Smith
Promote Your Business Or Cause Using Social Media is finally available for sell in Amazon Kindle format. The Kindle version is priced at just $2.99 and you can download it within minutes. If you don’t have a Kindle that’s not a problem because it is available for PC, iPad, iPhone, Android and more by downloading the appropriate free software. See the links below. If you want the latest Kindle you’ll find them on Amazon.com and I’ve heard the older version is going to be on sale Black Friday morning. Learn how social media can help you promote your business or cause on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WordPress and other social media venues. Join the Facebook Fan Page to stay up-to-date on the latest social media news. Please feel free to leave reviews or comments below and share this with others. Buy a Kindle Reader ““ Amazon.com Kindle for PC ““ Download Kindle for Android ““ Download Kindle for iPad ““ Download Kindle for iPhone ““ Download Promote Your Business Or Cause Using Social Media – Download the Kindle Version Stay tuned for the iPad and Barnes and Noble Nook version of “Promote Your Business Or Cause Using Social Media” coming soon. Dennis J. Smith Promote Your Business Or Cause Using Social Media ““ A Beginner’s Handbook
Here are 3 tools that are free and will help you grow your business through social media. There are many other applications out there and they appear and disappear as social media changes and evolves. I like these 3 listed below for their ease of use and little set-up time. Please feel free to leave a comments about the tools you use or if you use these. RSS Graffiti for Facebook Simplify your social media marketing with this free application available on Facebook. RSS Graffiti will automatically publish your RSS feeds to any of your Facebook Fan Pages. Setup is easy and and takes less than 10 minutes to establish. You can schedule how often RSS Graffiti updates your wall, set publishing limits and can even publish to Twitter. I use it to publish articles from my WordPress blog to my Facebook Fan Page. Then Facebook automatically send out a Tweet to my Twitter followers that alerts them of a new post on my blogs. Payvment E-Commerce Storefront If you are looking to sell product online with little upfront cost Payvment is the answer. Payvment is a free shopping cart application for Facebook Fan Pages and uses PayPal to process payments. Set-up is easy and most can have a storefront up and running in 1-hour or less. Visit the Facebook Fan Page of Pioneer Soap Works to see what an actual storefront is like. All In One SEO Pack WordPress Plugin This is a must have tool for any business with a hosted WordPress blog. All In One SEO is a free plugin that optimizes your blog for better search engine results. This application gives you better control over the optimization of your post, pages and site home page. Therefore your chances of moving up in search engine results increase. Easy enough for beginners yet fully customizable for those with a little more SEO background. Content by Dennis J. Smith ““ Social Media Author
If you use Twitter to promote your business get ready for a a change this fall. Many people like Twitter because its minimalist design and easy of use. But as the site grows Twitter is looking for was to maintain its lead as a social media powerhouse. Do you visit the website or just post your Tweets? Here’s a video Twitter release to YouTube showing some of the upcoming changes: What do you think about the planned changes? Helpful? Here’s more information on the upcoming changes provided by the folks at Twitter. New design You will now find @mentions, retweets, searches, and lists just above your timeline ““ creating a single, streamlined view on the left of the screen. On the right, you can see the features you’re familiar with, including whom you recently followed and who recently followed you, favorites, and Trending Topics. View photos, videos, and other media content Now, it’s easy to see embedded photos and videos directly on Twitter, thanks to partnerships with DailyBooth, DeviantART, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube. Discover related content When you click a Tweet, the details pane shows additional information related to the author or subject. Depending on the Tweet’s content, you may see: @replies, other Tweets by that same user, a map of where a geotagged Tweet was sent from, and more. Mini profiles You can click a @username to see a mini profile without navigating from the page, which provides quick access to account information, including bio and recent Tweets. Follow @Twitter Rollout timing These changes will roll out as a preview over the next several weeks. During the preview, you’ll be able to switch back and forth so you have time to grow accustomed to the way things work. Eventually, everyone will have the updated version of Twitter.com. So what do you think? Think Twitter has something good coming down the pipeline or do you think that things should be left alone? Feel free to contribute and leave a comment below. Posted Dennis J. Smith with content by Twitter