Alright, we are in the home stretch here. I have a couple more tips before I set you free to go take on society with your soon to be an impressive social media marketing strategy.

While Pinterest marketing will drive traffic to your website, blog, or online store, another resource to add to your toolbox is email marketing.

Remember, when I mentioned how I use an automation scheduler to post new content to my social media accounts and new blog posts on my website?

Email Marketing

Email marketing is another tool to help promote your business with email and social media. You have to be careful with automated tools.

I like MailChimp because it is free up to 2K contacts. What do you get with the free plan?

One-click automation, basic templates to create a landing page on your site to signup new users, and email notifications to subscribers when a new blog post shows up on your website.

After 2K subscribers, there is a monthly fee starting at $9.99.

Another reason I went with MailChimp over another competitor is I tend to go with companies who give back to the community.

When doing research, the first thing I do is visit the ‘About’ page.

MailChimp’s focus on corporate citizenship, working to tackle intergenerational poverty and promote creative expression through the arts was the make-or-break moment.

Another popular email marketing application that is popular among bloggers is ConvertKit.

I will talk about ConvertKit in a little bit here as I need to go over plug-in and compatibility issues in a bit more depth.

If you haven’t noticed, many of these platforms promote content on multiple social media platforms. You don’t want to get spammy and lose customers.

I recommend starting small, so you can learn how these platforms complement and sometimes cause problems with one another due to coding.

One thing I didn’t mention is WordPress has stunning templates you can choose from to create your website. It saves on learning how to code.

Learn a little code to make minor changes to your website that doesn’t come with your theme. While a lot of the themes are free, pursuing customized options is something to consider.

I decided to go with a customized theme through Theme Forest. It wasn’t that expensive and came with 12 months of technical assistance from the developer for a couple of bucks more instead of the standard six to help me in case I have issues with my site.

Sure enough, two months after my website went live, I started experiencing technical issues.

ConvertKit

Ok, let’s talk about ConvertKit. First off, I love their marketing package but ran into a compatibility issue with my WordPress site.

As you search for more ideas to create a rock star website, a lot of plug-ins will get recommended.

While the plug-ins do a lot of cool things to save you time, compatibility issues can cause your site not to work correctly.

Maybe the compatibility issue is because I went with a different theme. I don’t know.

I love how my website works, so if I have to choose between changing my theme or disabling a plug-in, I am going to get rid of the plug-in and apply some code.

Even though a site marketing a plug-in says it is compatible with WordPress, for the reasons I mentioned earlier, I still recommend learning a little bit of code.

You can easily add a simple string of code to the backend of a page in place of a plug-in.

These types of problems, just like at your place of work, seem to occur when a security update occurs, and something ends up breaking. In my case, the images and logo on my site looked larger than life and were misaligned.

As I was adding plug-ins, I experienced compatibility issues with ConvertKit.

After turning on and off plug-ins to find the problem and conversing with my developer, I had enough. After the 30-day trial; I decided a trial run with MailChimp.

MailChimp

For up to 2K subscribers, it’s free through MailChimp. After the 30-day trial, ConvertKit pricing for 0-1K subscribers is $29/month. Start with the free option for now.

As your business grows and you make money, invest the profits in upgrading to another flexible plan for more bells and whistles. Setting up the email portion is smooth.

This tutorial I found on YouTube is all I needed to get my email campaign set up and add a free e-book of 10 recipes I created as a free thank you gift for my subscribers.

Even with all the best online marketing, the best way to get the word out when attending in-person workshops and networking sessions is to have a business card on you.

For less than $20, you can design and get 100 business cards shipped to you for free from Vista Print, Moo, or print your own using Avery template 27883 and a ream of cardstock. You never know who you will meet on that next plane ride!

Deciding When To Register A Business

Creating multiple streams to make money through ads and affiliate marketing doesn’t stop there.

Creating an e-course, e-book, or a product or service can be a game-changer. If you plan on selling something on your site, you will need an EIN.

LLC and EIN can be accomplished separately. Legal Zoom has an excellent package that includes both for a good price.

I see registering a business the start as getting it out of the way, so you don’t have to do it later and is one less thing to remember.

When the time is right for you to register your business name, it is a good idea to look into separating your finances from your business and the tax advantages of doing so.

Stock Photography

The last money-saving tip I will recommend is instead of paying for images or risking legal action of copyright infringement by taking a screenshot, using a snipping tool to gather an image on the internet without the owner’s permission, go with free to use images for online marketing called ‘stock photography’.

Here are some examples of companies offering free stock photos:

• Canva
• Pixaby
• PXhere
• Flickr
• Freepik
• Unsplash
• Pexels

Protecting Your Privacy Online

In part 1 of this article, I mentioned the importance of picking a hosting site that provides 24/7 customer service and a constant scanning of vulnerabilities and protection from hackers.

My favorite place to go to when writing a blog post is a coffee shop. While it is free, accessing public Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or a hotel puts you at risk for hackers gaining access to your information through malicious means.

A layered security approach for your devices (smartphone, laptops, desktop) that includes Windows, Android, macOS, iOS, Linux, Blackberry, and Windows Phone combined with a virtual private network (VPN) reduces the threat from online threats of cyberattacks.

Hackers take advantage of an unsecured connection to obtain sensitive data such as your personally identifiable information, usernames, and passwords to gain access to your bank accounts.

Adversaries can trick you into using a rogue Wi-Fi network, intercept your data from a man-in-the-middle attack, and distribute malware on your computer.

If you travel to some of the developing countries, you will notice that the internet connection is slow and the same people visit that location every day. The owner has likely not changed the password so anyone can get online.

I hope this four-part blog post has given you the confidence to take the steps to ditch the 9-5 cubicle farm and become your boss!

Just think how much you will save in time and stress from not having to make the daily commute. Winning!

Curious about what motivates a person to want to become an entrepreneur? Click here to learn about these ten factors and see if your reasons are the same.