Leonard Smith: February 2015

Saturday, February 28, 2015

The Benefits of Solar Energy

The use of solar energy or energy from sunlight has many advantages. Let’s take a closer look at each of them. • Solar energy saves money. In 2006, we saw the highest jump in residential electricity rates. In some regions, increased to 60% was observed. Many experts agree that the trend will continue in the ...

Friday, February 27, 2015

The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Killer Explainer Video

Have you ever thought about putting an explainer video on your site? It could be an easy way to convert more visitors into customers. When we added one to Crazy Egg, it helped us make an additional $21,000 in monthly income. So, how do you create an explainer video that will increase your conversion rate? [click to continue...]

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Three Misconceptions About Modern SEO That Confuse Content Marketers

What’s the reality of search engine optimization after the Google Hummingbird update? Can someone destroy your business with negative SEO? Did Google kill the concept of AuthorRank when it eliminated the Authorship initiative? For these types of questions, there’s no better person to ask than Danny Sullivan, founder of Search Engine Land and Marketing Land,

A Brief Guide to Fixing Your Old, Neglected, and Broken Content

One of the first steps to creating adaptive content is becoming aware of the content you already have. This is why we encourage you to audit your site. But before you dive into a full-blown comprehensive content audit, it might be possible to make your job a little easier by first dealing with all of

How to Create a Deep Connection with Your Readers

Why do you keep coming back to Quick Sprout? Maybe it’s because you are learning a lot from me, or maybe it’s because I’ve helped you grow your business. Although those are contributing factors, they aren’t the main reason you come back. So, what makes you keep coming back? Over the years, I’ve built a [click to continue...]

Solar Energy Systems for Pools

If you have a pool, you know how much warming can mount your electricity bill. Solar systems for swimming pools offer an alternative method that does not devastate your bank account. Solar energy systems for swimming pools When most people think of solar energy systems, they think of large crystalline structures that are intended to ...

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Here’s How to Answer the Most Important Question in Life (and Make a Living from It)

Why bother? Each and every morning you and I both wake up and ask ourselves that question. Some mornings we don’t even think about the question, but answer it deliberately by jumping out of bed and bolting for the office. In these cases, we bother because we care deeply about what we do. We feel

Monday, February 23, 2015

How I Increased My Search Traffic by 47% from Translating My Blog into 82 Languages

When you write your blog posts, what language do you write them in? Chances are that you write them in English. What if I told you that you would get more traffic if you wrote your blog posts in Mandarin and Spanish as they are the two most popular languages in the world? I thought it would [click to continue...]

Are You Overlooking Any (or All) of These 7 Ways to Build Online Authority with LinkedIn?

Flash mobs. People are attracted to these spectacles. We drop what we’re doing and gather around to watch, but then we leave. We go back to what we were doing before we were interrupted. No one really knows who orchestrated the performance. The entire experience is short-lived and doesn’t make any profound impact. Now, imagine

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Solar Energy Risks To Health

Solar energy is a potential free electricity and water heating source. It has the power to take advantage of electricity in remote areas of the world. It seems to offer health and safety with power, but is it? Rarely health risks of solar energy are mentioned. This may be partly due to the limited use ...

Friday, February 20, 2015

The Ultimate Guide to Hashtags

You see them everywhere around the web… From Twitter to Instagram, hashtags are an essential part of social media. So, why should you care about hashtags? Well, hashtags are a great way to increase your overall social media traffic. For example, tweets with hashtags generate two times more engagement than tweets without them. In order [click to continue...]

Solar Energy Tips Everyone Needs To Know

Solar energy can seem quite complicated if you are not familiar with the technology and products used. You just need the right information so you can take the opportunity by the horns. Read this article to learn of the many benefits that solar energy can provide homes and businesses. You need to understand how you ...

Thursday, February 19, 2015

How an Email Newsletter Publisher Built an Audience of 223,991 Subscribers

Brian and I have been talking about his new curation-based email newsletter lately, and I thought it’d be interesting to have a similar conversation with someone in a completely different topical market. It’s about one person writing and curating a topic he knows and cares about, building a massive email audience over a period of

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Solar Energy Tips You Can Start Trying Today

Are you familiar with solar energy? Is there anything else you want to know about solar energy? If this is the case, you should learn everything you can and have a good plan for moving forward. Read on to discover how to take advantage of solar energy market. The number of solar panels to purchase, ...

10 Most Costly Marketing Blunders I’ve Ever Made

When you think of my name, Neil Patel, what comes to mind? You probably see me as a marketing guru or as an expert who is good at driving traffic to websites. Although that’s true these days, I’ve made a lot of marketing blunders over the years. Luckily, most of these blunders affected my own [click to continue...]

13 Simple Questions to Help You Draft a Winning Content Strategy [Free Worksheet]

Welcome to the year of adaptive content. The choose-your-own-adventure era of content marketing. The age of the customized customer experience. We’ve already tipped our hand by publishing two podcasts on the topic: Adaptive Content: A Trend to Pay Attention to in 2015 and Behind the Scenes: 2014 in Review and the Road Ahead. And 16

You Will Never See Us Coming

I was talking with the ever smart Jeff Brown who does the Read to Lead Podcast (one of my favorites), and we were talking about how podcasting is just booming. Jeff runs a Podcaster Academy. I co-founded PodCamp, etc. It’s a big topic these days. Jeff said that once at his former job in radio, […]

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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Sally Hogshead on How You Can Unlock Your Natural Ability to Fascinate

You have a natural ability to fascinate others that you may or may not be taking full advantage of. And getting in touch with this “fascination advantage” can pay big dividends, both in business and in your personal relationships. Sally Hogshead is a copywriter-turned-Catalyst who teaches you how to tap into your natural ability to

Monday, February 16, 2015

How I Generated 518,399 Visitors and 16,394 Leads from 77 Webinars

At KISSmetrics, we’ve held 77 webinars to date, with great results so far. You can safely assume that we would have stopped holding webinars long ago if the results had been less than desirable since we are a company that measures everything. So, what have the webinars yielded? The 77 webinars have brought us an additional 518,399 visitors, [click to continue...]

The New Authenticity and Authority: What it Looks Like, How to Use It

Jon Stewart’s retirement from The Daily Show this week, accompanied by many tears and some cheers, is getting a lot of coverage around the web. First, because the show is insanely popular. But more than that, because the show demonstrates a real shift in what authority and authenticity look like in the 21st century. In

Friday, February 13, 2015

How to Get the Most Value out of Your LinkedIn Posts

Whether you are trying to appeal to other businesses or position yourself for finding a high-paying job, LinkedIn is a social network you can’t ignore. Posting on this social network, which has over 250 million active members, is a great way to grow your brand and generate income. If you are still not convinced that [click to continue...]

The Excitement of a Rock Concert. The Education of a Graduate Course.

Check out the entire Authority Rainmaker experience here, and take advantage of Early Bird registration. We’ll see you in sunny Denver in May! (If you like this video by The Draw Shop, you’re going to love meeting them at the live event — they’ll be creating Genius Maps of our sessions and providing avatar-ready

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Remember When I Said I Quit Facebook?

A few years back, I quit Facebook. I tried deleting my old profile, but in Facebook, that’s pretty much an act of congress, so I just abandoned it. A year ago-ish, I snuck back on, but decided not to do much in the way of “business” via my Facebook. Along the way, I discovered what […]

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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Why I Won’t Stop Blogging

I started blogging in 1998, back when they called it journaling. My first site wasn’t really blogging software. It didn’t exist yet. A bunch of my sites have been lost to software companies folding. Then eventually, I landed on blogger.com, ported some of those posts to WordPress, made a lot of mistakes, and finally settled […]

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Rainmaker.FM: Has Social Media Killed Consumer Trust?

This week, Robert and I put on our commentary caps to take on subjects that have been in the news. Plus, we reveal what’s in the very near future for Rainmaker.FM (think big). The main story this week is all too familiar … short-cut marketers are the reason we can’t have nice things. Now, apparently,

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No One Is Going to Read Your Corporate Blog (Unless You Read This)

So you’re interested in starting a corporate blog. Now what? You already know how it generates sales, but the real questions is…where do you start? And how do you ensure that people are actually going to read your blog (because company blogs are inherently boring, right?) Don’t worry, I’m going to answer all of those questions and more. As [click to continue...]

The Smart Way to Use Surveys to Engage and Grow Your Audience

Last month, you may have seen Copyblogger’s 2015 Cost of Online Business Report that analyzed the results of a survey we conducted on the blog. The report explores the cost of doing business online, so you can accurately evaluate your current strategies and tactics — and their associated costs — to help you see if

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

How to Learn from Your Successes

We all know about the importance of learning from mistakes. “Fail forward,” as they say. But we shouldn’t just look at our successes as magical moments when everything went right and think these experiences do not hold significant lessons of their own. In the last episode of The Lede, Demian and I discussed mistakes that

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New Book: Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars

In 2005, the Internet had already begun to profoundly change the world of business, yet for many online entrepreneurs the roadmap to success was unclear. In response, I compiled the first edition of Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, a book that celebrated the ways in which the most successful marketers on the web

Monday, February 9, 2015

Solar Energy Advice That Can Work For You

Solar power is becoming very popular. Anyone who owns a building can benefit from this energy source. If you aren’t sure how it works or what benefits await you, read on! In this article, we will discuss the latest and greatest in solar energy. Start small if you are just starting out with solar energy. ...

Hitting a Plateau with Your Organic Traffic? Here Is How You Keep Growing

Google is constantly evolving. Not only is its algorithm changing, but the type of data shown within its search results is changing too. For that reason, it’s important that you understand all the changes that have been happening over the years. Why? Because it will help ensure that your site stays relevant so that you [click to continue...]

How to Create a Deep Connection with Your Prospects and Customers

When my son was about two and a half, he developed a funny habit of walking around the house from time to time, chiming out, “I’m here.” Although this little boy was strongly connected to his family and his small class of school friends, he still had that need to express it. I’m here. I

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Hanging out on MSNBC Your Business

I was on MSNBC’s Your Business with JJ Ramberg, with my co-panelist Larry Broughton. We discussed underpants, second locations, and virtual assistants. If any of that is your thing or if you just want to see me chatting in a tie, here you are: Continue Reading

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Friday, February 6, 2015

How to Build a Loyal Audience on the Web

Have you ever wondered how I’ve built a loyal audience with my sites? From Quick Sprout to KISSmetrics and now NeilPatel.com, I’ve been able to create a loyal following. How? you may ask. Well, to explain how I’ve been able to do so and, more importantly, how you can achieve similar results, I’ve created an infographic [click to continue...]

Get ‘Significantly Better Hosting Performance and Pay Less’ (Their Words, Not Ours)

On Monday, I explained — in my own words — how Synthesis Managed WordPress Hosting can dramatically improve your website’s speed, stability, and SEO. I also let you know that we are giving you a free migration if you sign up for Synthesis here before the clock strikes 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time today (Friday, February

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Solar Energy: An Environmentally Friendly Energy Source

Regardless of your setting, choosing solar energy will help you lower your energy costs. It has been proven that energy costs double approximately every ten years. This should help you realize that you should do something about your energy costs. You’ll learn some of the ins and outs of solar energy by reading this article. ...

Here’s How Master Brand Storyteller Bernadette Jiwa Writes

Not many people can claim they single-handedly created the new marketing model for the 21st century. And did it simply with a five-column graph called The Difference Map. Well, Bernadette Jiwa can. Which is one reason why we are so excited that she will be a featured speaker at Authority Rainmaker. But her list of

I’m not a social media expert

I’m a business advisor and educator. My job in one way or another over the last several years has been to help businesses figure out how to market and sell better using digital tools. That makes my job basically business advisor and consultant. I’m not a social media expert. I don’t care about the tools. […]

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Split-Testing 101: How to Know Which Words Work

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~ Mark Twain That Twain guy was pretty smart. But he had to rely on the intuition that comes from years of writing to choose the right word, and even then it was still a

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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Solar Energy Tips That Can Save You A Fortune!

Do you know much about solar energy? Solar power systems draw energy from the sun and provide electricity to homes and businesses. It is also safe for the environment. This article contains the information you need to add solar energy to your life. Regular maintenance ensures that your solar-powered additions function properly. Inspect your solar ...

How Does Content Marketing Actually Get You More Sales?

There is a big misconception that content marketing doesn’t drive sales. But if it didn’t work well, none of my companies would exist. From KISSmetrics to Crazy Egg, I’ve grown each of my businesses through content marketing. To prove to you that content marketing drives sales, I’m going to share with you stats and data [click to continue...]

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

7 Steps That Will Hook Readers On Your Content through the Magnetic Force of Fascination

Throughout your journey to overcome online obscurity, you produce a lot of content. Content marketing is about making a connection with your audience and building relationships. Since you invest time and effort into your writing, you want to see tangible results. But what if your posts aren’t getting the engagement you need to take your

Can You Grow Your Organic Traffic Without Generating Content?

Did you know that the average web page that ranks on page 1 of Google has at least 2,000 words of text? That means if you want more organic traffic, you have to create tons of content, right? What if you don’t have a content bone in your body—does that mean that you’re out of [click to continue...]

Monday, February 2, 2015

Slash Your Energy Costs By Using Solar

Lately, solar energy has become extremely popular for homeowners and businesses alike. If you’re not this source of energy, ask yourself why. If it’s because you aren’t sure how to utilize it right, then this article can definitely help. Continue reading this article to gain a better understanding of solar energy utilization. Avoid technology which ...

Dramatically Improve Your Site’s Speed, Stability, and SEO Without the Pain (or Cost) of Migrating

At this point, it’s common knowledge. But it’s so essential to your online success that it bears repeating one more time. You need a seriously fast website. And you know why: The likelihood of losing a visitor due to impatience or frustration increases with each extra millisecond of load time, and fewer happier visitors means

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Learn How Solar Energy Can Benefit You

There is no question that installing solar panels in your home is a great way to help the environment. However, it is important to remember that this is an investment. You have to understand if it will fit into your budget. In this article, we will cover the basics of financial considerations when going solar. ...