To become successful with online marketing, one must develop the necessary skills and knowledge to produce the best results.
This will take hard work and patience, but the good news is that you do not need to attend a college or university to get these skills.
In this guide, you’ll discover some methods you can use to learn online marketing at home. In fact, you could become an expert yourself!
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM is a major part of online marketing and is split into two defined areas: search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC):
- With SEO, you’ll learn how to optimize a website so that it ranks higher in the search engines’ organic results, therefore helping to drive targeted traffic to your website (learn more about searching engine ranking here).
- An important item to understand about SEO is that this is a discipline that changes continuously. Because of this aspect, you’ll want to monitor the major players in SEO to keep up with search engine algorithm changes, so you can adjust your own methods accordingly.
- There are many SEO courses online, including one that we’re working on here, at Steady Radiance Design. Research these courses, pick one, and get started!
- PPC, or Pay-Per-Click marketing, will enable you to send traffic to websites with targeted advertisements.
- Google Ads is still one of the most popular PPC networks, which will show your ads on Google properties and websites that have the AdSense code included.
- You can learn PPC easily online and relatively quickly. There are numerous courses you can take, including ones that will allow you to gain a Google Certification for PPC ads.
- Once you’ve gained this accreditation, create some PPV (Pay Per View) campaigns of your own to gain the necessary experience you’ll need to get your own clients.
Social Media Marketing
It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without social media. Millions of people visit social media websites each day, which is why learning how to market on these platforms is so important.
Social media marketing has many advantages, such as:
- Marketing your website for free by engaging your social media audience.
- Buying effective advertising campaigns for as little as $5/day.
- A highly targeted audience that you want to show your ads to.
Luckily, there are online courses available on these platforms themselves that will help teach you how to market to the millions of users that use these platforms daily. From paid campaigns to getting your content to go viral, if you want to learn about something, there will be a course available that can help.
Email Marketing
Despite what you may have heard, email marketing is still one of the best ways to market online.
The first step is to build an email list. Offer something valuable, such as a free report or discount coupon, that is related to your products or services in exchange for their email address. In this way, you can build a list of people that opted in to receive your emails.
To run a successful email marketing campaign, it’s important to understand your audience and what they want. Once you understand what they want, you can craft an offer that will be attractive to them and then make your offer in an email to your list.
In order to build your email list and send emails to them, you’ll need to use an autoresponder. There are many autoresponder platforms on the web, and many of them are free to get started.
With an autoresponder, you can also track your ads and their effectiveness.
To learn more about email marketing and how to effectively use an autoresponder:
- Pick one and start using it. All the major autoresponder platforms have numerous guides and articles about how to use them to run successful marketing campaigns.
- You can also find videos on YouTube that teach how to run email marketing campaigns with your chosen autoresponder.
- Or you can do an online search for a course that teaches you the information you need.
Do Your Research and Take Action
You can research online marketing tips at home and find out what techniques are working for others.
You can then take these ideas and use them yourself. Many techniques you learn may not be successful, but you will soon learn what works best for you and what does not.
You’ll learn your own way of working and which area of online marketing you prefer to focus on. Not everyone can be an expert at everything, which is why many successful online marketers have a team of experts who each specialize in their own area.
You can become one of these experts yourself and do your own online marketing for your own company or offer your services to others. You could make a nice extra income this way!
Do you have more questions or need some addition guidance for how to improve your online marketing game?
Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.
11 Quick Tips to Add Hours to Your Day and Be More Productive
/in Business OwnersAs business owners, we’re all stretched for time. You can’t wave a magic wand and make the day longer. But there are things you can do to save time. And there are things you can do to maximize what you accomplish with your time. In essence, you can add hours to your day.
This will require a change in your habits, but many of these strategies are self-rewarding. Once you see the benefits to be gained, you’ll be motivated to continue.
Follow these tips to add hours to your day and accomplish more:
The length of a day is fixed. After sleeping, there are a finite number of hours left. You can’t make the day longer, but you can get more out of each day. Get as much out of each day as you can. The more effective you are at using your time, the more success and free time you’ll enjoy.
3 Proven Strategies for Small Business Owners to Increase Cash Flow
/in Advertising, MarketingIs your small business struggling to make enough profit to pay the bills? Low cash flow and living paycheck to paycheck can be quite frustrating. Perhaps you started a small business so you could pursue your dream while earning money at the same time. If so, then you know that it isn’t always easy to get a small business to bring in the profits you’d like.
However, if you’re willing to work hard and have a good plan, there’s no limit to how far you can take your small business. Luckily, there are many ways to increase your current cash flow and free you from the threat of financial disaster.
Consider these strategies to increase your cash flow:
By using these strategies you can boost sales and increase the revenue of your business. Once these strategies have been implemented, there will be no need to worry about how you’re going to pay the next bill. You’ll finally have the money to live the life that you’ve dreamed of.
It just requires determination, persistence, creativity, and an open mind to make your business successful. Test different strategies and stick to the ones that work best for you. Your efforts will be worth it once you see those increased profits.
How to Learn Online Marketing at Home
/in MarketingTo become successful with online marketing, one must develop the necessary skills and knowledge to produce the best results.
This will take hard work and patience, but the good news is that you do not need to attend a college or university to get these skills.
In this guide, you’ll discover some methods you can use to learn online marketing at home. In fact, you could become an expert yourself!
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM is a major part of online marketing and is split into two defined areas: search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC):
Social Media Marketing
It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without social media. Millions of people visit social media websites each day, which is why learning how to market on these platforms is so important.
Social media marketing has many advantages, such as:
Luckily, there are online courses available on these platforms themselves that will help teach you how to market to the millions of users that use these platforms daily. From paid campaigns to getting your content to go viral, if you want to learn about something, there will be a course available that can help.
Email Marketing
Despite what you may have heard, email marketing is still one of the best ways to market online.
The first step is to build an email list. Offer something valuable, such as a free report or discount coupon, that is related to your products or services in exchange for their email address. In this way, you can build a list of people that opted in to receive your emails.
To run a successful email marketing campaign, it’s important to understand your audience and what they want. Once you understand what they want, you can craft an offer that will be attractive to them and then make your offer in an email to your list.
In order to build your email list and send emails to them, you’ll need to use an autoresponder. There are many autoresponder platforms on the web, and many of them are free to get started.
With an autoresponder, you can also track your ads and their effectiveness.
To learn more about email marketing and how to effectively use an autoresponder:
Do Your Research and Take Action
You can research online marketing tips at home and find out what techniques are working for others.
You can then take these ideas and use them yourself. Many techniques you learn may not be successful, but you will soon learn what works best for you and what does not.
You’ll learn your own way of working and which area of online marketing you prefer to focus on. Not everyone can be an expert at everything, which is why many successful online marketers have a team of experts who each specialize in their own area.
You can become one of these experts yourself and do your own online marketing for your own company or offer your services to others. You could make a nice extra income this way!
Instagram Account Lock – Why it Happens and What to Do
/in Marketing, SRD Social Post(Updated February 18, 2022)
In recent weeks, Instagram has cracked down on users who have violated their Community Guidelines. As a part of this process, Instagram casts a wide net around certain areas, so many users who have not actually violated anything are also getting an Instagram Account Lock notification. Here’s how to know if you have actually violated Instagram’s Community Guidelines and what to do if your account has been locked.
Read more
How to Start a Conversation in (almost) Any Situation (Infographic)
/in Communication, InfographicsA big part of being a business owner is in-person communication. Actually, that’s a big part of just being human – it’s something we all face. If you’re anything like some of us here at Steady Radiance Design, the thought of the conversations at networking events or conferences might make you shudder. First you have the awkward small talk about everything and nothing. Then you have extended periods of silence that go on for ages. It’s all enough to make even the biggest social butterfly uncomfortable.
Enter, this list of easy-to-remember conversations starters (what we consider to be the “best of” the options we’ve found). Having an arsenal of good, thought-provoking conversation starters can turn any event into an interesting and even entertaining experience. Keep this infographic handy on your phone or tablet for a quick idea at your next social event! (click here to go straight to the infographic)
Start a Conversation at a Conference
Conferences are generally a fairly easy place to start a conversation because of the multiple sessions and speakers. Above all, we’ve found that the most memorable conversations happen when the conversation is a bit unique. Therefore, we suggest a little variation on the standard conference conversation theme.
Start a Conversation at a Social Event
Social events can be a challenge with conversations. A social event could be anything from a retirement party for a coworker to a birthday party for your niece. So not only is the event itself obscure, the people who attend will be equally so. Because of the varied nature of these events, having some tricks up your “conversationalist sleeve” can be just what you need. Here are some conversation starters that can get you going in this environment.
Start a Conversation at an Industry Event
Industry events are generally more specific and thus provide a good idea of what you might be able to talk about. However, like conferences, that conversation can tend to get a bit tedious. To help prevent that, here are some suggestions for more interesting conversation starters at an industry event.
Start a Conversation at a Happy Hour Networking Event
Happy hour networking events are more casual than many other professional events, which broadens the topics available to you. They also tend to be filled with other locals so you can talk about the city/state you’re in, local venues, and other similar topics. In addition to that, you can talk about topics that are a bit more casual.
Check out the conversation starter infographic below. We welcome you to use this infographic on your website or other marketing materials, provided you include a link back to our website (www.steadyradiancedesign.com).

Health-Related Facebook Pages Could See Downgraded Posts for Sensationalist Health Claims
/in Advertising, MarketingLast Tuesday, July 2, 2019, Facebook announced that they implemented two new post ranking updates to their most recent algorithm which was released last month. These updates target Pages that post “exaggerated or sensational health claims [or are] attempting to sell products or services based on health-related claims.” According to Travis Yeh, Facebook Product Manager, the reason behind this change to the algorithm is to “improve the quality of information in News Feed.”
Examples of the types of posts that would be downgraded were provided by Facebook. However, they leave a lot of room for interpretation. In our opinion, that means that there will be a lot of misidentified posts. The only good news is that Facebook won’t block the identified posts. Instead, they will be shown lower in the News Feeds of your followers.
Here’s what Facebook says about how they are evaluating posts through this new lens:
“We consider if a post about health exaggerates or misleads — for example, making a sensational claim about a miracle cure [and] we consider if a post promotes a product or service based on a health-related claim — for example, promoting a medication or pill claiming to help you lose weight.”
As you can see, their definitions are fairly broad, though they anticipate that a majority of Pages won’t see a significant change to their post distribution in News Feeds. They suggest that Pages should avoid sensationalist health claims and solicitation using health-related claims. In addition, any pages that do see a decrease in distribution can simply stop posting that sort of content.
These newest changes to the ranking algorithm come on the heels of another major change involving health-related posts. In March, Facebook announced that it would take strong action against Pages and Groups that “spread misinformation about vaccinations on Facebook.” Those types of posts will see harsher consequences than those discussed above. Spreading misinformation about vaccinations can completely exclude your Page or Group from recommendations on Facebook. Also, Facebook will reduce the distribution of posts made by offending Pages and Groups as well as rejecting ads with the offending content.
So how do you avoid this type of content if you’re in a health-related field?
As with most issues related to Facebook’s algorithms, this all comes down to word usage. The algorithm will indetify posts by searching for phrases commonly found in spammy health-related posts. Facebook has not said what phrases the algorithm will look for. We believe terms to avoid are things like “guaranteed results”, “lose weight fast”, and “risk-free”.
The Importance of a Mobile-Friendly Website (Infographic)
/in Infographics, WebsitesEnsuring that your website is responsive (mobile-friendly) should be the top thing on your marketing to-do list. Check out the statistics and the mobile-friendly website infographic below to learn why! (click here to go straight to the infographic)
64% of small businesses currently have a website. Of those websites, 81% mobile-friendly. (Clutch)
As the number of mobile-friendly sites increases, the demand for your small business site to be mobile-friendly also increases.
Mobile online traffic is increasing; since 2013, online traffic has increased by 36%. (Statista)
With such a drastic increase in traffic, ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is no longer optional. If you have a website that’s not responsive (mobile-friendly), you could be missing out on more than half of online traffic (52.2%).
80% of internet users are also smartphone users. (TDA)
Only 20% of people who use the internet do not own a smartphone. That means that your industry and target market are most likely already smartphone users, so making your website responsive would only improve the experience of your current and potential customers.
Response time plays a big role in abandoned visits, with 53% of mobile website visits being abandoned if the site doesn’t load within 3 seconds. (TDA)
Making your website responsive and optimized for mobile-devices means faster load times and better user experiences on your website when it’s viewed on a mobile device.
Check out the mobile-friendly website infographic below. We welcome you to use this infographic on your website or other marketing materials, provided you include a link back to our website (www.steadyradiancedesign.com).

Power Up Your Social Media Marketing
/in MarketingOne of the least expensive ways to improve your marketing is to ensure that your social media game is on point. In fact, according to a recent study from Clutch, Social Media is the second-highest priority for Small Businesses (second to a business website) and three out of five small businesses use basic social media outreach to market their brand. As an added benefit, using social media marketing can also cultivate brand loyalty!
We can hear you all now, saying “I don’t have time for social media marketing” or “I don’t know how to do it”…well we’re here to help! If you don’t have time, reach out to us and we can manage your social media for you; if you don’t know how (or just want some great tips), here are some easy ways to use social media marketing for your business.
Content creation 101
The most important part of any social media marketing plan is content creation. You need to have something to post and you’ll need to have a lot of it! Here are some of the best places to find content relevant to your business:
Share content from other sources
You don’t have to write everything you share on social media. Instead, you can share posts that include links to other information or articles that you find interesting, or that you think your target audience would find interesting. Make sure to add some text to the post, discussing why you like the resource you’re sharing, and don’t forget to include a link! Also, be sure that you don’t imply that you’re the author of the content.
Make it nice to look at
Whenever you’re doing a social media post – especially for Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest – it’s essential that you include an image (it’s actually a requirement on Instagram). The only exception to this would be if you’re doing a live video on Facebook. Coming up with images for every post you do might seem like a daunting challenge, but we’re here to tell you that it can actually be relatively easy!
Unless you have a graphic designer on staff, we recommend that you use Canva. It’s a service that lets you create high-quality graphics and ads with an easy drag-and-drop interface. It includes access to stock images, text, icons, graphics, and more! There’s even a free option that works wonderfully for basic designs.
Automate, automate, automate
When coming up with any kind of new strategy (marketing or otherwise), scalability is essential. We recommend that you post at least once a day to your business social media platforms, but to do that, you’ll need some serious automation. Automation is one of the best ways to ensure that your social media presence is consistently active. Basically all we’re talking about when we say “automation” is a service that will allow you to schedule posts in advance. There are multiple options available to schedule posts in advance, but we recommend Buffer as the best all-around option. All you do is set it and forget it!
There is obviously a lot more that we could go into for setting up a stellar social media marketing plan, but this is enough to get you started on your marketing journey!
Drop us a line if you have any questions or would like us to help you set up a marketing plan!
Facebook Released 2019 Q1 Numbers on Automated Standards Enforcement
/in Advertising, MarketingIf you’ve been on Facebook for any amount of time (for business or personal use), it’s likely that you’ve had a post flagged for some sort of violation of Facebook’s community standards. As Facebook comes under more scrutiny for the content posted on their platform, they have increased the automated detection of said content. For the most part, this is a good thing, but there is a dark side to this increase in automated standards enforcement: misidentification.
In a recent report, Facebook gave an overview of how their automated detection is working. For the purposes of our post, we’re only going to focus on the spam numbers in the report. The report covers the first quarter of 2019 along with a broader view of the past year. Specifically, it shows the amount of content that Facebook has “taken action on” during that time period (meaning they removed the content, applied a warning screen to the content, or they disabled the account). According to the report, the amount of spam content that has had an action taken on it has more than doubled in the past year, going from 836 million in Q1 of 2018 to 1.76 billion in Q1 of 2019.
For the first quarter of 2019, they’ve added a new metric – they are now showing how much of the content that had action taken against it was restored, either by their own accord or because a user requested an appeal. They don’t have that information for any other time periods, so everyone is just going to have to wait and see how that metric increases or decreases in relation to the amount of spam identified.
To give Facebook some credit where credit is due, the report shows that in Q1 of 2019 only about 3% of the posts Facebook took action on were misidentified. That low of a percentage is great, but it still equals out to 44.2 million posts that were restored after being misidentified as spam. If one (or more) of your posts was part of that 3%, I’m sure you’d agree that it’s frustrating and troubling, to say the least, to have your content misidentified as spam. According to some users, having a post identified as spam can also cause problems in other areas, such as having your comments on other content flagged and locking you out of your account.
Overall, it appears that Facebook’s automated standards enforcement is doing its job, but because of the incredible amount of content shared on the platform every day, we feel like they might be struggling with getting it right. Regardless of our opinions though, one thing is certain, as Facebook continues to increase their automated standards enforcement, it’s likely that you will see an increase of spam notifications for content that you post on the platform.
How to Increase Your Website Traffic Right Now for Free
/in MarketingYou’ve just built a website (or had one built), so now you have a brand new, shiny website. It looks great, it has good SEO, and it has all the information anyone could ask for…but no one is visiting your site. Why not? Getting new website traffic is not just a matter of building a site. And while good SEO is very important, and can help increase traffic over the long term, it won’t be a fast solution to gain your site new traffic at the start. But don’t fret – there are ways to jump start your site’s traffic right now, and better yet, a lot of them are free!
Here are 5 ways to drive traffic to your site for free
1. Get Some Backlinks
Backlinks are links on other sites that go to your site. There are two reasons why this works: first, it gets your website in front of a larger audience through the backlink itself. Second, it can increase Google’s trust in your site, which also increases your search engine rankings. When Google sees your link on other trusted sites, it increases the trust of your site, hence increasing your Google ranking and then your website traffic. Here are some of our favorite ways to build backlinks to your site.
2. Get Involved Online
Join social media groups, discussion boards, and websites that are relevant to your industry, then get involved. Comment on posts, answer questions, and join in on the conversations that people are having about your industry – and don’t forget to include a link back to your website! The more you post and interact, the more backlinks you get and the more you are seen as an expert in your field. As an added bonus, you get to help people in your industry!
3. Start Blogging
We know, we know, this is the recommendation everyone gives for increasing website traffic. Do you know why that is? Because it works. Blogging not only helps to improve your status as an expert in your industry, but it also gives search engines new content to review. The more new content you have, the more search engines like your site. Once you’ve written some blogs, use some of the ideas under the Backlinks section above to provide other sites more options for where to backlink.
4. Post to Social Media
If you don’t already have profiles on at least Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, go sign up for them now. Go on…we’ll wait. Once you have social media profiles, start scheduling posts that are interesting to your target audience. You don’t have to create all the content you post, instead, you can post articles from other websites in your industry. The goal here is to be the place where your target audience turns when they’re looking for information. Check out our article on powering up your social media for more ways to improve your social media game.
5. Add your business to online directories
Online directories are a great resource for people looking for products or services online. Some examples of online directories are Google My Business, Yelp, Angie’s List, and Foursquare. When you add your business to these directories, you not only increase your chances of being found by potential customers who are looking for your services, but you’re also adding backlinks to your site!