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  • Website Design Proposal: Your ULTIMATE Guide To Close More Sales

    Website Design Proposal: Your ULTIMATE Guide To Close More Sales

    How do you create (if that’s the right team) a great website design proposal?

    As an entrepreneur, I’m always finding for quick ways to make money online, on the side and without leaving my day job.

    Managing a website design company on the side is definitely one of the easiest ways to achieve such. It is also one of the highly recommended tips especially if you are looking for small business ideas under $50 and something that you can start this weekend.

    Without further adieu, let’s dive right into creating a website design proposal.

    What is a website design proposal?

    There are many versions to this and for me, the definition of a website design proposal is simple.

    A web design proposal is your opportunity to sell yourself as well as your work.

    This is the only platform you need to convince your potential client on your skills, expertise and knowledge in this field.

    And your website design proposal will determine whether you make it (or you don’t).

    How to create a website design proposal?

    website design proposal

    These are the steps you need to do before, during and after creating a website design proposal.

    Step 1: Creating a website design proposal template

    Template creation allows you to churn out web design proposals fast and without needing to spend hours creating one from scratch.

    The template should includes information such as:

    • Introduction of yourself (and your team)
    • Advantages/Benefits working with you
    • What you can offer
    • check-circle-oSamples of your work (or mock ups)
    • check-circle-oContacting you for quote

    Step 2: Getting started with the website design proposal

    professional photo

    You should start by introducing yourself. A professional photo of yourself and your team is critical to create the great first impression.

    In this part, avoid selling yourself or the services. Instead, focus to be as human as possible and being real is important.

    Give a short and interesting summary to avoid your potential clients getting bored.

    Step 3: What are the benefits working with you?

    Website development projects are always similar and what makes them different is the experience before, during and after the project.

    If you want to be a successful freelance website developer, you need to wear many hats including being a sales person.

    Always remember that having the best skills is not effective if you are unable to produce sales.

    Here are some of the benefits you can consider:

    • Fast turnover
    • Affordable prices
    • Addons and perks which are free of charge
    • checkMultiple website design revisions without charge
    • checkInclusive of web hosting and domain name
    • checkSSL certificate and other security features
    • checkInstallation of plugins

    Step 4: What are you offer (more than your competitors)?

    You are not the only one in the market and you should know your competitors.

    In this case, your website design proposal should include offers and benefits which are not offered by your competitors.

    unique selling point

    These are your unique selling points (or known as “USP”) which can possibly make your clients say “Yes!”

    Include these USP in your website design proposal to ensure that you stay a higher chance of closing the deal.

    Step 5: Samples of your previous web designing work or provide web design mock ups

    The next step is to show your clients on your previous works. If you are brand new in this industry and struggling to get your first web design client, consider using web design mock ups to portray your skills.

    How to create your web design portfolio?

    • 1Purchase a domain from Namecheap
    • 2Get a web hosting service from BlueHost
    • 3Install WordPress as your website content management system (CMS)
    • 4Install a professional website theme (I recommend Thrive Themes)
    • 5Create a landing page that serves as your portfolio

    Important note: I recommend Thrive Themes because it is easy to use and comes with 9 Thrive plugins that allows you to market your website and help you increase your sales. Read my 2018 Thrive Themes review or click here to see the Thrive Themes demo page.

    Step 6: Make it easy for your clients to contact you

    This is one of the biggest mistakes done by web developers when they are sending their website design proposal. They did not provide a point of contact for the clients!

    I’m a huge believer in making it easy for your clients to contact you. You need to provide these in all your website design proposal:

    • 1-click email (use mailto:email@yourwebsite.com)
    • Direct number
    • WhatsApp or WeChat phone number
    • check-square-oPhysical address (if applicable) for clients to find you

    There are clients who are less ‘techie’ and therefore, you need to make it really easy for them to reach you.

    Take a look at my digital marketing agency website, Marketing Lancers. There’s an automated chat box for them to contact me or my team at any time!

    The whole idea is simple. You need to reduce any barriers or reasons for them NOT to contact you for further discussion.

    Are you ready to send your first website design proposal?

    I hope you find this guide useful especially in creating your own freelance website design business.

    Need help in starting a web design business? Click here to read the guide!

  • How To Build An Email List Without A Website

    How To Build An Email List Without A Website

    An email list is important because it keeps you one step closer to your readers. An email list is regarded as a high value resource that allows you to earn high ROI and sales revenue.

    You can easily built an email list by installing email list building plugins on your website. Here’s one question most beginners and business owners ask.

    How to build an email list without a website?

    I mean, is it even possible to do so? The answer is “yes” and in this post, you will discover effective ways to build an email list without a website.

    Let’s dive in, shall we?

    1. Social Media Platforms To Build An Email List Without A Website

    Who doesn’t have a social media account? As a matter of fact, everyone has a social media account on some platforms.

    How to build an email list without a website and using social media?

    Most email marketing solutions allow you to connect lead in forms with your social media platforms.

    For example, you can use AWeber sign up form and integrate it with your Facebook Page. This allows you to collect emails without having a website.

    2. Collect Emails By Offering A Freebie

    Do you know that you can easily collect emails by offering a freebie?

    Using AWeber for example, you can create a lead generation form which is hosted by AWeber itself.

    This means that you don’t need to have a website to have a landing page — as the landing page can be built and hosted on AWeber itself.

    Here’s one sample of AWeber’s form that you can build and use.

    aweber forms

    It looks pretty cool, isn’t it?

    Data collected from this opt in form will then be added into your mailing list, which you can send out emails and create engagement with your subscribers.

    3. Buying Email Lists From Reputable Sources

    This is controversial but it is really effective.

    Buying email lists from reputable sources is a great way to build a community without a website. On average, these email lists costs around $1 to $5 per email and it worth all the money if you have the right autoresponder and strategy.

    Buying email lists is only effective if you are using an email marketing solution that provides autoresponder system.

    The best thing with email autoresponders?

    They never get tired and they are always working around the clock.

    Important tip: Buying an email list is not an easy way out to building an email list without a website. To make your investment worth, you need to constantly provide quality information and updates to make sure they don’t unsubscribe!

    Are you ready to build an email list without a website?

    I hope you find the three tips above useful and have any thoughts or reservations on this topic?

    Leave a comment below and let’s discuss further!

  • 3 Ways In Getting Traffic To Blog 2018

    3 Ways In Getting Traffic To Blog 2018

    Getting traffic to blog is not an easy task. Most bloggers (and business owners) face this daunting task on a day to day basis.

    According to Internet Live Stats, there are 1,871,364,591 websites which are active right now. That’s 1.8 billion websites!

    The number of websites that grow each year also increases year over year and the figures are not stopping anytime soon.

    website stats 2018

    As a blogger, I’m constantly finding more ways to get more traffic to blog.

    This task isn’t entirely a walk in the park, but if you have the right strategy, you are going to make it big. Here are the top 3 ways to getting traffic to blog.

    1. Getting traffic to blog using SEO

    Search engine optimization or SEO is one of the best way to get traffic to blogs. This strategy involves focusing on keywords that will increase traffic to your blogs.

    SEO involves:

    • Keyword research
    • Niche selection
    • Keyword density
    • check-square-oCompetitor analysis
    • check-square-oAnalyzing and monitoring

    There is no fast way to do SEO especially when you want to do SEO correctly. The right SEO strategy takes time, effort and patience.

    More importantly, you need to understand that SEO is a long term business. On average, you will see improvement in Google ranking within the first few months into doing SEO.

    When it comes to SEO, it is all about producing the right content and focusing on the LSI keywords.

    If you are interested to learn more about SEO, take a look a this step by step guide in increasing ranking on Google.

    2. Getting traffic through email marketing

    You should invest your time into email marketing. No matter how small or big your blog is, you should start email marketing like right now!

    Email marketing helps you get more traffic to blog by keeping your subscribers informed on new posts and updates.

    Email marketing works using this simple mechanism:

    3. Getting traffic to blog using social media

    When was the last time you share your content on social media?

    Sharing content on social media will drive clicks and traffic to your blog.

    By default, you should share new posts and updates on main social media platforms to ensure that your audience is kept updated.

    When it comes to social media, I recommend using Agorapulse for social media scheduling. It allows me to share the right content at the right time and to the right audience — without needing to pull my hair and waking up 3am in the morning!

    Plus, the metric is a killer!

    Agorapulse social media tool

    Summary: Getting Traffic To Blog

    Are you ready to get more traffic to blog?

    What is your top ways in getting more traffic? Leave a comment below and tell me all about it!

  • Top 5 Content Restriction Plugins for Your WordPress

    Top 5 Content Restriction Plugins for Your WordPress

    A high-quality content plays a crucial role in the success of any website. It not only brings a large number of visitors to your website but also helps your site to get high ranking on search engines.

    There is no doubt that a web design is important in making a good first impression on your audience, but the high-quality content is what will keep users coming back to your site.

    However, it is essential to figure out how much access your users should have on your content because the content is the most important of your site. There are a number of content restriction plugins available that allow users to access the certain parts of the content available on your site.

    By using these plugins, you can organize your users and restrict content differently for every user.

    Let’s have a look at 5 popular content restriction plugins for WordPress Site.

     

    1. PrivateContent

    PrivateContent is a popular and high-rated WordPress plugin that offers various user management features all in one place.

    The plugin is built by Aldo Latino having more than 9,000 active installations at present. It uses a shortcode to showcase a portion of a post content only to users of a certain roles. For instance, you get an option to display the hidden text to editors and authors only. However, an administrator can read editor’s private content.

    The best part is, the plugin is quite user-friendly, you don’t need to be proficient in scripting knowledge to use this.

    Speaking of its features, it comes with various advanced features like you can lock down your site entirely with a single click including the menus. Let’s check out its other features.

    Features

    -It is a complete solution to restrict any site content.

    -It comes with an advanced user management system along with complete tracking.

    -The plugin also supports a custom skin builder. If you want to know how you can use custom post types in WordPress, read out the complete guide on 000webhost.com.

    -It supports developer friendly API and hooks.

     

    2. Restrict Content

    Developed by Pippin Williamson, Restrict Content is a well-known content restriction plugin for WordPress that lets you restrict access to your content to logged-in users. The plugin is highly rated, which is specially designed for web developers and more advanced users. From free to $ 499, the plugin comes with a variety of pricing options. Moreover, the plugin comes with an extensive documentation and numerous add-ons.

    Plugin Features

    -It allows you limit access to content with a simple shortcode. For instance, [restrict] This.

    -You can limit access to full content through a simple interface.

    -You can display a registration form on any page of your site for new accounts.

    -For existing users, you can display a login form on any page of your site.

     

    3. MemberPress

    MemberPress is all in one WordPress plugin which lets you build a professional WP membership site and accept credit cards without any fear.

    With this plugin, you can charge your users for accessing your content and digital products like e-books and software.

    Using this plugin, you can confidently manage and examine all your digital content and membership subscriptions. Besides this, MemberPress lets you grant and reverse access to pages, posts, feeds, digital files, tags, and communities on the basis of what services your users have purchased.

    Features

    -It is quite user-friendly, you can immediately start charging your audience for accessing your digital content.

    -It leverages various great features of WordPress and other 3rd party services such as forums, social communities, content management, etc.

    -It supports easy integration for running affiliate programs, processing payments, etc.


    4. WP Customer Area

    It is another renowned all-in-one WordPress plugin that helps you manage private content on WordPress. Using this plugin, you can share private content such as pages, tasks, conversations, and files with one or multiple users.

    WP Customer Area plugin was developed by MarvinLabs and at present, it has more than 10,000 active installations.

    The plugin ensures that your member-only area is accessible to authorized users only. With this plugin, you need not worry about the security of the shared content. All the content which is shared in the space is fully secured. Even search engines don’t index this content.

    Its basic version allows you to share pages and files privately for absolutely free.

    Features

    -It helps you secure customer area.

    -You can easily assign private pages and files to a particular user.

    -You can customize the appearance of the plugin by using your own templates and themes.

     

    5. User Access Manager

    If you are looking for a solution to manage the access to your posts, pages or file, User Access Manager should be an ideal option for you.

    The plugin lets you create a user group, add registered users to this group and set up the rights for them. User Access Manager plugin is going to be quite useful for you if you want to add a member area or a private section on your blog. You may use this plugin to allow users to write on your blog as well.

    Features
    -You can build user groups.

    -You can set individual access for editors and readers.

    -It lets you add time-based access.

    -You can set default user groups.

    -You can hide elements in the navigation

    -It supports multilingual.

    -It protects your RSS feeds.

    -It gives access by IP-address

     

    Wrapping Up-

    Have you ever used any of these WordPress plugins to restrict your content? If yes, do share your experience with us. If we have missed any of your favorites let us know in the following comment section, we will be glad to add that to this list.

  • MailChimp vs Drip: Which is the best email marketing tools?

    MailChimp vs Drip: Which is the best email marketing tools?

    MailChimp vs Drip — These are two of the best email marketing solutions but which is the better option?

    I love writing about email marketing solutions. Email marketing is a powerful digital marketing strategy that provides super high return of investment (ROI) for many companies and industries.

    Even if you are a blogger, you should start building an email list because it will come in handy when you are promoting a product, services or even keeping your subscribers engaged with the latest posts.

    In this article, I will give you some quick insights on what MailChimp and Drip does and how they compare to each other.

    Ultimately, I’ll also share my reviews on both the email marketing solutions with the hopes that it will help you in your decision making.

    MailChimp

    • checkFree for life (up to 2,000 email subscribers)
    • checkSend up to 12,000 emails a month for free
    • checkMost intuitive drag and drop visual builder (when creating emails)
    • checkHeavily based on HTML and images
    • checkLow learning curve
    • checkFree account comes with automation and workflow
    • Automation and workflow are limited
    • Advantaged tagging is not user friendly
    • Coding skill is needed to maximize MailChimp features
    • closeIs the worst email marketing solutions for affiliate marketers
    • closeVery basic landing pages
    • closeUgly form to collect emails
    • closeBasic reporting dashboard

    Try MailChimp today!

    Drip

    • checkBeautiful analytic dashboard and reporting
    • checkFree for first 100 email subscribers
    • checkAdvantaged tagging and workflow
    • checkAbility to segment subscribers based on their activities (clicks, open etc.)
    • checkLess dependent on HTML
    • checkLow to medium learning curve
    • checkOne of the best automation and workflow in the industry
    • checkMultiple widgets and plugins to help you collect emails
    • checkAdvanced ‘smart’ forms to collect leads at the right time
    • checkBest for eCommerce and website owners who are serious in email marketing
    • The lowest pricing is $49 per month and is often considered heavy for many beginners
    • Some users find the Drip’s feature overwhelming (because there are a lot of things you can do with Drip)

    Get started with Drip for free!

    MailChimp vs Drip — Detailed Comparison

    As a disclaimer, I use both MailChimp and Drip, alongside with ConvertKit for that matter.

    MailChimp is my favorite email marketing solution for my personal blog while Drip is used for my creative agency.

    Without further adieu, let’s dive into the MailChimp vs Drip comparison.

    MailChimp

    For me, MailChimp is an affordable email marketing solution for bloggers. It is easy to use and doesn’t cost a dime (for the first 2,000 email subscribers).

    Low learning curve and good delivery rates make MailChimp a no-brainer choice for many (including myself).

    What I love most about MailChimp is the newsletter template builder. MailChimp is heavily based on HTML and the visual builder is one of the best you can find in the market.

    BONUS: The Beginner’s Guide Using MailChimp

    MailChimp’s free account also comes with the ability to use the marketing automation which is pretty awesome.

    This is what it looks like.

    what is mailchimp automation

    Everything on MailChimp is very much into drag and drop — therefore, you can easily start email marketing almost to instantly.

    MailChimp also comes with a ever growing list of ready-made templates to help you get started on the right foot.

    templates on MailChimp

    As you can see, MailChimp is very much into beautiful designs and low learning curve.

    If you are a beginner, you are going to love MailChimp. Try MailChimp now!

    MailChimp is not for you if …

    There is no love from MailChimp if you are an affiliate marketer.

    MailChimp doesn’t allows you to use it for affiliate marketing purposes.

    The only way to solve this is through sharing a link to your blog post (and having great call-to-actions to drive website visitors to your affiliate products — which is of course the biggest hassle.

    Drip

    I first came across Drip because I wanted to better manage my email subscribers and sending emails to a highly targeted audience.

    On the surface, Drip beats MailChimp in every aspect except for the price.

    Drip comes with free account but only for 100 email subscribers.

    Using Drip, you can easily monitor the progress of your email marketing campaign in a beautiful dashboard.

    Plus, Drip comes with super detailed reports even for the free account as you can see below.

    drip dashboard for reporting

    Drip’s automated workflow does wonders and it is one of the best I have seen and experience in the market.

    When I first use Drip workflow, I was blown away … big time!

    This is what I mean.

    drip advanced workflow

    Drip email marketing solution is the best option if you are selling a product/service or serious in understanding how your subscribers react to your email.

    Drip allows you to tag your email subscribers based on the actions they take and therefore, you are able to send super targeted emails to them for a higher conversion.

    Last not least, Drip comes with form widget which is really awesome. If you are not using lead generation plugins such as Thrive Leads or OptinMonster,

    drip form widget

    Drip form widget is easy to configure and can easily integrate to major CMS including WordPress.

    Drip is not right for you if …

    You are concern about money. Drip comes with a forever free account which is applicable up to 100 email subscribers. After that, the pricing starts at $49 per month which can be pretty hefty for beginners.

    MailChimp vs Drip — Summary

    There is no denial that both MailChimp and Drip are two awesome email marketing tools.

    On one hand, MailChimp is a super cost efficient email marketing tool but offers limited features compared to Drip with a slightly higher cost.

    If you are just starting out, I recommend you to go with MailChimp and once you are ready to make email marketing work harder for you, Drip is the best email marketing tool!