What is Affiliate Marketing?

Whenever you read something and question to yourself how someone can sustain a business without selling you anything, you’ve probably come across affiliate marketing. Essentially it boils down to a mutually beneficial relationship between a blogger and a business hoping to get more eyeballs on their brand. 

A company will look for an online personality, often a blog, that fits with their style. The company then pays the personality to bring attention to a product, service, or brand. This can occur in different ways depending on the degree of relationship that the blog has with what they’re promoting.

Unattached Affiliation

This level of affiliate marketing is the least connected to the employed personality. This means that the blog might not have much to do with the sort of product they’re promoting. This also puts less burden on the affiliate as they have more distance from the product and therefore aren’t an authority to endorse it, which absolves them of any necessity to recommend it outright.

Related Affiliation

The next degree of removal finds the affiliate closer to the brand than at the unattached level. This is the stage where you can discern a clear through line between the blog and the product, think a golf blog mentioning a new club. The relationship between the affiliate and their niche is employed more heavily at this level, and it’s this relationship that builds trust for the affiliate as an authority on the product they’re promoting. The audience that the blog has cultivated is more likely related to the brand being mentioned and therefore is more likely to flow traffic toward it. 

Involved Affiliation

As the name implies, this is the most connected an affiliate would find themselves to a product. This is more often than not a direct endorsement, which needs support from personal experience with the brand. This tethers the affiliate with the product, and any positive or negative attributes of each party will be related together. The personal connection to the brand will serve as a complete authority of, and support towards, the product. This is the most impactful form of affiliate marketing, but blogs could receive backlash from negative customer experiences with the promotion. 

How is it Monetizable?

In most cases, and especially for bloggers, the money isn’t simply a payment for mentions. Rather, companies will pay the affiliate based on actual delivered sales. This is often tracked through affiliate links. Affiliate links are specific hyperlinks located somewhere in the blog’s promotion, no matter the degree of relation. These links will take you to a landing page for the promoted brand, often directly to the products mentioned. Affiliates will then get a portion of profits from the company they’re promoting. Sometimes it’s based on the number of people who clicked the affiliate link to the landing page, but more often it’s based on the amount of sales made from people who navigated there from the link. 

The return on these can often be higher than you might think. How big the slice an affiliate receives will vary depending on your deal, but it will often be anywhere between 20-50% of the profits, with some reporting as high as 70% commission. It’s important to remember that only sales made directly from the links apply to these numbers.

This number can get so high because the value the affiliate brings to the company is directly trackable. The business will know how many people came to their landing page as a result of the blog. This also incentivizes bloggers to create better promotions for the company to receive more commission. It’s a win-win. 

One of the best details about deals like these is that the affiliate link will do most of the work for you after posting. This can turn into a lucrative a potentially lucrative source of passive income for any blog. However, in some cases, deals will have a date at which the cookies that track purchases made after clicking the affiliate will expire. This could make your link more time sensitive to maximize profits in the short term. This method is most often reserved for seasonal or limited-time promotion, but it’s important to check the fine print either way.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is a great source of revenue for any existing or future blog endeavors. Affiliate links offer a results-based, trackable way to determine the value of blog promotion. The potential to make money through blogs can be quite high depending on your audience and traffic, but in most cases, this is one of the most mutually beneficial ways to make money for both the blogger and the company that hires them.

The post How Bloggers are Making Money with Affiliate Links appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Drawing on Canva is a tool available for both free and pro versions. It is easy to find and does not have many restrictions. In fact, the only type of creation not able to use the drawing function is a document, which is restricted to mostly words and photo uploads due to the nature of most Word documents if you wanted to send it elsewhere, or on another device.

How to Get Started

1. Create a Canva profile, or log in if you already have one.
2. Select the “Draw” icon on the left-hand side. It is the 6th selection from the top and has a marker graphic on it.
3. Edit the color and thickness of your stroke. Plus, tell it if you want it coming from a pen, marker, or highlighter.
4. Tips and tricks for how to get creative with drawing tools

While it is entirely possible to draw on Canva without a touchscreen and drawing tool, those features make it a bit easier and more user-friendly. With a mouse, you lose a bit of creative control. When your hand is the one calling the shots with the stylus and touch screen, there is a far greater sense of control. A nice feature that Canva offers with the “Draw” function is that it will automatically fix any uneven or wonky lines with certain shapes. If you pause after creating a circle, square, heart, triangle, and many others, the shape will automatically even itself out and make the lines crisper. There will surely be more shapes added in the future. But, these are a great help for those of us with shaky hands and mouse movements.

If you do not love using your mouse, and you have the option to use a touchscreen, there are endless great options for stylus pens to draw with. Listed below includes some great places to find writing tools for iPads, tablets, and other touch-screen computers.

1. Amazon
2. Apple
3. Best Buy and other Tech Retail Stores

Other Canva Tools

1. Text

The classic type design feature gives you the ability to insert a text box, move the text around the design, and change to different fonts.

2. Upload

This tool allows you to upload any media from your computer or device library. This way you can then add those photos or videos directly to your design. You can even record yourself with any device that has a camera and it will automatically upload through the Canva application.

3. Brand Kit

For any brands that have specific color schemes and hex codes, Canva can create a Brand Kit consisting of up to 100 colors. It will automatically save and add those specific brand colors to each design underneath that profile if you choose to select that option. Along with colors, you can also add brand-specific fonts and logos to save under the brand profile. The catch to this tool is that it is only available with Canva Pro.

4. Elements

Similar to drawing, adding an element on the side toolbar gives you the ability to put in a pre-drawn shape to any design, as well as graphics, free app pictures, and stickers.

Conclusion

Using a stylus, Apple Pencil, or a traditional mouse on a laptop, desktop, iPad, or tablet will give you options to create a sense of personalized style in your creations on Canva. Whether you are working on a presentation, social media post, flyer, or countless others, you will now be able to put your own twist on it by using the drawing feature on Canva using these helpful tips.

The post Drawing on Canva – and 4 other Canva Tools appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Efficiency

Double-checking your facts, keeping your grammar on point, and making sure everything is always on the same page throughout your copy are important to build trust within your audience. So, if you typically say “7”, do not start saying “seven”. Keep things consistent across all forms of copy.

SEO-Optimization

Always stay on top of keyword trends to make your copy easy to find for your audience and an easy click away for new traffic across your site.

Know Your Audience

Just like research is needed to have the best keywords, researching your target audience, their trends and the best ways to reach them will be pivotal in your copy success.

Easy to Understand

Eliminate any jargon from your copy to keep it easy to understand for your audience. You will always want your copy to flow naturally, rather than be difficult to read.

Using the Correct Tools for your Goals

The list below will keep you on track for all of your copywriting goals.

With all of these key factors, you will be able to better use these 5 copywriting software options to add to your marketing tactics and copywriting team. While there are a plethora of copywriting software options out there, these 5 are all easy to use and have room for growth in your company.

1. Hubspot Topic Generator

Generating topics for blog posts can create an unwanted roadblock for creating copy under a deadline. So, by using a generator, that will never be an issue again. Hubspot has a free topic generator that does not need a login, or monthly fee to help. It has a clear, easy-to-use interface designed to simply be a helping hand, no more, no less. Due to its nature, there are no advanced features, such as analysis reporting and the like.

2. Grammarly

Grammarly has proven to be a great option for spelling, grammar, and punctuation needs. There is a free option to have as a browser extension that services specifically spelling, grammar and punctuation. For more advanced features there is a paid premium plan that includes the basics plus factoring in tone, word choice, and formality level. Moreover, it is hard for a potential customer to buy products, or trust a company with constant spelling and grammar mishaps. Having a browser extension to help with that will take part of the editorial weight off of you.

3. Coschedule 

Coschedule can give a full calendar with workflow management to keep track of marketing and copywriting teams. Businesses have the option of using just the marketing calendar or upgrading to use a full marketing suite to help with analyzing headlines, automation, email marketing, and more.

4. Canva

Using Canva to create content means being privy to thousands of templates and design ideas. With free and affordable paid plans, businesses can export media in several different formats including precut social media sizes. Canva also has an easy-to-use interface to make editing quick and easy. Using their premium plan, you can easily form a branded kit that can be used to automatically make any content fit your business practices and branding standards.

5. Ubersuggest

Neil Patel created Ubersuggest as a refined SEO and keyword search tool. There are loads of training materials provided to ensure a smooth learning curve. Also, there are several different pricing tiers, starting with a free 7-day trial. You can use it on the individual level for $12, small/medium business level for $20, or enterprise/agency level for $40 per month, respectively.

Conclusion

After finishing this blog, you can feel confident in adding copywriting software to your routine. While your software journey doesn’t have to end with this list, you now have a firm foundation to take your copywriting team to the next level.

The post 5 Copywriting Software You Need for Next-Level Copy appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Unfortunately, it is not as easy as blissfully writing your cares away if you make money off of your passion-filled blog. Because it does not always feel like a job, tax season for a blogger can feel a little hazy with knowing exactly what to do. Both full-time and part-time bloggers can have the income to support their lifestyles, but there have not always been clear-cut tips for filing blogging taxes. This blog is here to change that. But also to remind you that talking to a tax professional is always a great idea going into this season. especially if this is your first time filing taxes as a blogger.

Tax Forms

If you make any money at all from your blog, you legally need to pay taxes as a blogger. Whether blogging is your full-time or part-time job, you will need to find the right tax form for your income.

Bloggers, like any other profession, are taxed based on the amount of money made in the fiscal year, and the tax bracket they fall under. Additionally for part-time bloggers in particular, if you make more than $600 they tax you through a 1099 form. Anything below $600 would be a 1040 form.

As a blogger, you work for yourself. Like any self-employed individual, you will have to pay self-employment tax on top of your income tax and estimated taxes. Your self-employment tax is the equivalent of what wage workers get taken out of their pay for insurance and social security. Whether or not you pay sales tax depends on if you have any products sold within your business or not. Many bloggers make money solely off of sponsored posts, ad space, and paid partnerships.

Product reviews

If you reviewed a product that values at more than $100 on your blog, you need to pay taxes on that as well. This is extremely important for anyone that reviews luxury brands, which are often more than $100. The great thing about blogging is the ease at which you can catalog these items by filtering the dates and going back through your entries to find exactly how many items that total to be.

If strictly income-based, you only need to pay income tax. However, if you sell any products on your blog, you also need to pay sales tax on those sales.

Deductibles and Tax Write-Offs

One of the most important words of tax season is deductible. Throughout the year you should be keeping track of all of the necessary expenses that come with running a blog. If you have not done that, you need to collect an inventory of all the purchases made for your blog. These can potentially be deducted from your tax total, which brings down your total taxable income.

Potential business expenses: New laptop or desktop, domain hosting, business license, webcam, lighting equipment, editing software, marketing services, etc.

As most bloggers work from home, it’s important to note that in order to run your blogging business, your house utilities have to be paid. In some cases adding your monthly internet and utility expenses can be included in these write-offs! Just as they would be for brick-and-mortar businesses.

Conclusion

Tackling tax season as a blogger can of course feel overwhelming, just as it can for businesses across the country. After reading this, you have the tools to be successful and confident going into tax season as a blogger.

The post Taxes for Bloggers: A Quick Guide appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Freelancing gives you the flexibility to still be a mom and keep your child at the forefront of your attention, while still putting your creativity to work with paid projects. Sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Flexjobs are great resources for finding new projects, but first, let’s get into the fun stuff.

The benefits of freelancing as a stay-at-home mom seem to be never-ending, but here are a few to start off.

• Choose Your Own Hours

Each week, or month, you will be able to completely set your schedule yourself by determining how many projects you want to apply for and/or accept. Unlike the traditional 9-5 work hours, most freelance jobs are very flexible with their hours. You can grab a few hours on a project you are working on during nap time, at night, or throughout random times of the day because it is completely your schedule.

• Unlimited Vacation Time

Though freelance jobs and projects do not come with benefits, therefore vacation time, the concept stays the same for a stay at home mom while freelancing. Long gone will be the days of having to request PTO or plan vacations around your work schedule. If you need to take a week, or even a month, off at any given time, you can do so once you complete whatever projects you were currently working on. This also applies to any family emergencies or those timely sick days that kids always seem to have during the busiest times. The stress is off and you can simply be with your little ones.

• Change of Scenery

Searching for a change of scenery can involve two different things. For starters, you can want a change of scenery by definition. Do you want to go to the park? Great, you can use your hotspot to work offline! The ice cream shop? Amazing you can get your projects done there too! Wherever your life takes you as a mom, your remote freelancing job can follow.

Another change of scenery can be the types of projects you do. You can always find new companies and showcase your creative work with new visions and new professionals all the time. Maybe you found a company that you truly love, and you do a few projects for them each month and that is your happy place. If so, that’s wonderful, but with freelancing, there are never any strings attached to jobs like having a contract. No harm, no foul, if you ever want to leave after one project.

• Additional Income

This one seems like a given, because who doesn’t love additional streams of income?

Because it isn’t a salaried position, freelancing can fluctuate your cash take-home from month to month. While there are some freelancing projects that are on a contract basis, meaning you get a set amount of money for several months or even a year, there is still room for fluctuation based on hours worked per week, entries written, etc,. This can also mean you can base how much you work on the things in your life, and how much extra money you may need that month for a fun trip or an exciting event coming up, maybe even the holidays.

Specialties

Though writing is a huge area of freelancing, there are plenty of other freelance specialties as well. In fact, here are 5 popular freelance jobs on the market now.

1. Graphic Design
2. Writer/Editor
3. Accountant or Financial Specialist
4. Social Media Specialist/Marketing
5. Tutor/Teacher

Pro Tips 

Staying on top of your game throughout your freelancing journey can sometimes feel like an uphill battle, but these pro tips will help you keep steady.

• Create a LinkedIn and Post Frequently

Creating a LinkedIn profile is free and simple to do. It can easily connect you with other professionals around you, both working moms and not. By posting, you can always be sure to stay up to date on yourself and your accomplishments for your connections to see, as well as be able to interact with others.

• Build Your Credibility

Posting on LinkedIn will allow you to stay up to date on your accomplishments for your connections to see, as well as be able to interact with others.

• Showcase the fact that you are a mom

Do not hide your motherhood, but rather use it to your advantage. It truly is a superpower, and many companies will take the creative thinking of a mother as a secret weapon for their projects.

• Continue to learn and grow

Each project will be a stepping stone. Whether that project went exactly according to plan or not, you will be able to learn and grow your craft.

• Love what you do

With freelancing, you have the unique opportunity to wake up and choose it each day, so you might as well love it!

Conclusion

It’s okay to love your full-time job as a stay at home mom. But it’s also okay to want more as a part-time stream of income while doing that incredible job of motherhood. This list has given you the benefits of freelancing, some examples of remote work, and some pro tips to be the best remote freelancer possible.

The post The Stay at Home Mom’s Guide to Remote Work Freelance appeared first on The Blog Herald.